Photo Thread - 2021 USA7s Event at NJMP

[S1Steve]

Happy to see all the photos, and the weather is perfect for this kind of fun. Enjoy and don’t forget those latches…

Edited September 20, 2021 by S1Steve

[Croc]

Morning on Day 2

 

[Croc]

[yellowss7]

Well the event has wrapped up and most have packed up and headed back home.   The hardcore award goes to Justin @DatsunRBZAnd Paul @wemtd who hung in there and were the last two on track as the day ended.  
thanks to all who made the effort to drive significant distances to be part of this fun event and persevere to overcome some mechanical issues just before the event.   
 

Hopefully some video and more pictures will be posted once everyone gets some rest.   And a special thanks to the spouses who came and cheered us on. And to the ones that didn’t but still allowed us to come out and play.  
 

Croc is still on the road but I assume he will chime in once he gets home and opens a good bottle of wine.  

Edited September 20, 2021 by yellowss7

[FasterThanVov]

Day 2: half of the cars remaining for an afternoon session

Day 1: full garage

[John B]

What a wonderful event that was!

I made it by the skin of my teeth. I just got the car home late Saturday evening and didn’t have a chance to test it. I knew I really wasn’t ready, but set out early Sunday morning anyways, figuring I’d test it on the track. I spent the first two sessions with one eye on the oil pressure gauge and the other on the track. Thankfully, it was fine and ran great both days. The weather couldn’t have been better, and It was great seeing old friends again, and making a few new ones as well. 
 

Many thanks to @Croc and @yellowss7 for putting this all together.

Edited September 21, 2021 by John B

[wemtd]

Many thanks to Mike & Tom (as well as everyone who came to make it an amazing sevens gathering)

just arriving home now I’ll post this end of the weekend shot of the die hards 

 

- Not pictured is the groundhog sunbathing in the driving line at turn 2. Luckily for the little critter we both managed to avoid it.

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by wemtd

[Croc]

8 hours ago, FasterThanVov said:

Day 2: half of the cars remaining for an afternoon session

Day 1: full garage

 

@FasterThanVov  Paige (Vlad's better half), I love your humor in choice of profile name for this forum.    (why isn't there a crying with tears emoticon?)

 

I need to explain this backstory so everyone gets the joke.  Sorry Vlad.......sort of.....anyway.... in Vlad's first year at the event on track he did well and completed safely.  Back then, before NJ State Police banned instructors taking out passengers, I took Paige out for a session in my car.  Needless to say "we" found an opportunity to overtake Vlad.  At the end of the session I said she consistently lapped the circuit faster than Vlad.  She has never let him forget it!  

 

 

[Croc]

 

Now I have had sleep and slightly recovered, I can write this.  I covered over 20,000 steps on each of the two days.

 

It was a great event.  Perfect weather.  Sensational track conditions on the Thunderbolt circuit.  With only 15 of us on track at any one time, there was plenty of room to play, experiment and learn our cars in the environment for which they were originally designed.   It was a a good group of fun people having a great social time over 2 days - the dinners are always a highlight to chat, tell stories and laugh, a lot. 

 

Some of us are going home with things they want to fix, change, or upgrades to make.  Some are going home with items they have to fix from breakages or oops moments.  Time on track always sorts out our mechanical preparation and there is always a level of surprise as to what issues surface. 

 

- Me with an overflowing oil catch tank - shares in Scott Towels went up two days ago

- Vlad's accusump blow up - shares in Scott Towels went up yesterday

- Justin with a fuel pump gasket leak - Blue Hylomar to the rescue

- John concerned about his new engine and was always monitoring oil pressure - as long as he did not let his son drive I felt the engine would stay in one piece

- Jeff with some light high temps - judicious throttle application and a couple of holes drilled in a thermostat this coming week will fix this

- Me with a new gearbox and shifter mechanism not playing nice - gentle application of burly mechanic and brute force improved the situation...except for 5th....

- Tom with a yellow car that would not start despite being charged up the day before - solution was just hop in the orange car

- Simon - misfiring car from ECU/harness issue - send son out on track to spin it

- Kitcat with failed rear shocks - continue driving but lets have the rear end pogo around to test his driving mettle.

- Steve with the world's shiniest car - solution is for all other drivers and flag workers to wear their sunglasses

- Kevin - the huge smile for his car being great on track cracked his helmet - nothing to fix there!

 

I want to thank everyone for attending.  Its the social element that makes this a step above a regular track day and its the people attending that make it social.  

 

Lets see what 2022 brings! 

 

 

[Croc]

At some point I will get the pro photos from Mike and will post here plus email a group photo around.  Patience as he is a busy guy.  

[fastg]

Sorry I was not there looks like you had fun, I was at Mid-Ohio with a group of friends from Chicago, so I was having my share of fun. 

 

Graham 

[Kitcat]

Some of my random shots. The top 2 are the lovely  rear ends of Vlad’s and CarlB’s cars. Carl’s pays homage to Folis Jones, the most prolific Birkin enthusiast of all, until the day of his death, a few years back.

 

Next up Vlad receiving his award for? I forget. I am sure he was hoping Croc was going to hand him the mustard bottle next the the other awards.

 

For the record, I also got an award, which I tossed almost immediately. I will only say that when I got home 24 hours later, I had glitter on my face. 
 

Below that, a detail of a beautifully prepared Lowcost.

 

Then Jeff’s blue BDA engine.

After that Tom’s “deplorable”  Orange SuperDuper Se7en.

 

And some crowd shots.

 

It was a memorable event:)!

Edited September 21, 2021 by Kitcat

[Vovchandr]

28 minutes ago, Kitcat said:

Next up Vlad receiving his award for? I forget. I am sure he was hoping Croc was going to hand him the mustard bottle next the the other awards.

 

 

 

I got the bomb. Or was it that I am the bomb?

 

The "uh oh" award (not TSA friendly)

 

Given presumably for the many times I've said that phrase leading up and during the event. 

 

Or maybe because my over pressurized accusump grenading was reminiscent of a bomb going off? 

[Croc]

The Award Winners from this year's events

 

"Uh Oh" Award

Shaped as an old grenade from Grenadier fighting days - round with a rope wick.  Intended to award the person and their car most likely to blow up or otherwise maim a driver.  Vlad's @Vovchandrepic monumental saga of woe, coolant bubbles, Exxon Valdez sized oil leaks, corrosion in coolant pipes, etc., fully documented in his own thread towards 'how not to improve resale value of a Caterham', proved the only winner.  I mean, how the hell does anyone blow the threads off a accusump cap in a pressure vessel designed to retain pressure up to many many atmospheres?  

 

 

 

Best Motions in a Moving Vehicle

The Oscar statue went to Justin @DatsunRBZ for being new 1) to the event 2) to the track 3) in a new to him car and not just staying on the track but dealing with dive bombs from John and Simon, debris from Jim and others, smoke screens, etc., and still managing to drive fast and have a great time.

 

 

 

Debris Rock

A real authentic rock from Tom's @yellowss7 garden with red and yellow stripes painted on to resemble a debris flag.  A worthy winner was Jim @FE07 who, just to keep us on our toes, left his bonnet on the back straight, just over the top of the blind crest in the middle of the track. It was exciting to pop over the crest to see it right where I would normally place my car.  We all missed it fortunately so we did not add to its damage.  The rock is also a reminder of the debris flag that the track never showed along with no yellow - presumably because the closest flag station was asleep or stoned?

 

 

Top Banana Award

A banana on a plinth.  Intended to reflect either fastest, best driving or just indicative of a banana peel incident, Blake @BlakeJwas a worthy winner.  He returned faster than last year and never put a foot wrong all weekend in a very nice looking white Caterham.  

 

 

Golden Skidmarks Award

This is a recurring award of a golden commode on a plinth intended to commemorate the person with the most spins, most lurid spin or just fantastically epic off track excursion.  There were some good contenders.  Jay managed a good demonstration.  Someone else did well to go off on the cool down lap - maybe Carl?  Simon's son had a lovely rotation at turn 5 where he saw the appreciative waves from all the drivers of the cars following.  But the worthy winner was John @John B with a lurid death defying save after the limits of rear tires were reached.  It was so good that 3 flag stations radio'ed in their appreciation of the driver skill to bring it back from loss of control.  Thats a good win!

 

 

Gold Rock Award

Mike @Kitcat has been at this event from the beginning 11 years ago.  He is a multiple winner of Golden Skidmarks and Debris Rock Awards.  His feats of off-track excursion are legendary - for example, the one memorable year where at roughly 2pm on the first day, he told the track founder, Don Fauerbach, that he had spun his Birkin something like 8 times already that day!   Because this may be his last year as he contemplates selling his Caterham and migrate to opening a hairdressing salon by buying a Miata, Tom and I thought we needed to jump the start and get in early with an award.   So instead of a gold watch, he gets the Gold Rock Award.  A rock, carefully selected from Tom's garden, gold painted and then gold glittered.  It came prepared in a plastic tray as I did not want that gold glitter in my car when I transported it.  Tom supplied extra glitter just in case.  He then handled that rock at the awards and patted Mike on the back to congratulate him, sadly dooming him to years of finding glitter in his laundry, his car, on his face.....that stuff gets everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

[John B]

Yeah, ragged tires aren't fast, but they sure can be entertaining 

Thanks for the award. It will take it's place proudly and prominently among its more pedestrian brethren. 

 

 

 

 

[CarlB]

16 hours ago, John B said:

thanks to @Croc and @yellowss7

I can only second what John B has already said. What a great event! I was thrilled to finally get on track. I would encourage anyone on the forum who might not want to drive on track to come. This is a really fun event and you will meet some great people. I apologize to Kitcat for holding you up. However if the result is you keep your car, you will make all of us happy you can come out and play.  

[Croc]

Thanks for coming Carl.  I love what you are doing to show the love to MichaelD's former car.  Its been a big project for you but it is showing!

[SK400]

Really good to see that the gang had fun as usual.  Missed you guys this year....   will try next year! 

 

[BlueBDA]

Thank you Mike and Tom for once again organizing "the largest annual gathering of Sevens in the US". Perfect weather, and much fun on and off the track. I shot a bunch of pictures, but have to sort through them. In the meantime, here's one as a tease.

[Kitcat]

Jeff’s picture above shows the red Caterham’s owners/drivers, Simon and son,  plus Croc-supplied mechanics, TJ and Ian. Apparently  working on a rare se7en mechanical problem:).

 

This photo illustrates the effort Croc and Tom put into making these events so terrific. When have you been to a track event that supplied, free of charge, skilled mechanical staff to help troubleshoot any issues you may develop there?

Edited September 22, 2021 by Kitcat