2023 USA7s HPDE at NJMP Lightning - CHANGED TO October 14 and 15

[CBuff]

Here here. @Croc. @yellowss7 thank you for the efforts. 

[Vovchandr]

Even though no awards are handed out this year I'd like to take a minute to reiterate how grateful we all are to Croc and Tom for putting in the monumental volunteer efforts to put this together year after year. 

 

The sadness we show when missing these events highlights how much we all love and value them when they do happen. It's honestly the biggest non family/holiday event I look forward to each year. The 7 community, comradery and the dedicated run group make this event one of a kind and we feel blessed to have it every year that we do. 

 

I know you guys say next year is not guaranteed but I think I speak for all of us that if you ever need something to help putting these things on you'll have no shortage of volunteers to help. I heard that last year numbers were good and this year it might have been a fluke between scheduling and weather and people waiting for last minute. I know personally I wasn't going to register until I was sure that car was running and that was less than a week ago. 

[yellowss7]

Thanks guys.  We have been extremely lucky to have them allow us to have our own run group.  I don’t think they have ever even considered doing one for any other marque.  
 

In the past NJMP would never cancel a drivers club event for weather.  It was supposedly a “learning Experience “.  Our open and often slick shod cars don’t need that kind of experience 🤪. 
 

This year they started monitoring the sign up numbers and if they didn’t feel the numbers made economic sense, they would cancel the event.  Most of our members realize that nothing good ever happens on track in the rain. 

So with so few signed up ahead of time, they made the decision to cancel. 
 

In the 12 or so years we have been doing this, we only had one wet morning, that left a few puddles on a furn or two. Which made for some good spins and great pictures 😜

Hopefully we will have better luck next year.   And hope to see all those who had conflicts and car issues back with us next year.  Maybe even Seb will find a way to take a couple of days off. 🙄

Stay Safe

Tom
 

[Boxologist]

Disappointing I won't see any of you gents this weekend. Stay dry, have fun. Hopefully the witch doctors and shamans will be on our side weather-wise.

[FasterThanVov]

On 10/11/2023 at 12:53 PM, yellowss7 said:

I hate to say it, but I think Vlad jinxed us by finally fixing his car. 😜

We will try to get next year’s date out as early as we can, once we get next year’s schedule, so you can all try to block it on your calendars.  So those of you with mechanical issues or new builds or cars on order will have no excuse.  
 

Tom
 

Well Tom... I am not sure Vlad jinxed it  

 

This morning Vlad went to do a shake down run before a drive with @wemtd which went swimmingly! I received a call within 20 minutes asking me to unhook the battery out of the Miata because he was indeed broken down... Again! So needless to say, the car is still not fixed. 

 

Lucky for Vlad instead of the support sedan, his friend notices him on the side of the road and towed him safely 2 miles to home. 

 

-Paige, the supportive wife

[Croc]

@FasterThanVov    Hopefully you extracted some useful compensation from Vlad in exchange for rescuing him?

[wemtd]

Croc. He claims to have been up all night with [important business]; which is worth something.

Yours truly bundled up with 2 sets of thermals & jackets & ridiculous hat. Headed west to Litchfield & Berkshire counties. Ducking over the border into NY past Bash Bish falls rd. Cloudy but a good drive.

 

As for Vlad. I’ll be in the area in Tuesday after next if you want to try again?

Edited October 14, 2023 by wemtd

[yellowss7]

Well it’s still raining here and never really let up all day so, I guess we have to consider ourselves fortunate that we didn’t waste the entry fee today as I don’t think anyone would have taken their car on track.   Except maybe Kitcat @Kitcat

Never got much above 50 today either.   We missed it by two days. Thursday and Friday were spectacular days 70s and not a cloud in the sky.  Oh well.   Tom

Edited October 15, 2023 by yellowss7

[Vovchandr]

20 hours ago, wemtd said:

Croc. He claims to have been up all night with [important business]; which is worth something.

Yours truly bundled up with 2 sets of thermals & jackets & ridiculous hat. Headed west to Litchfield & Berkshire counties. Ducking over the border into NY past Bash Bish falls rd. Cloudy but a good drive.

 

As for Vlad. I’ll be in the area in Tuesday after next if you want to try again?

 

Looks like a great time. I'm not sure if Tuesday is in the cards for me as that's a typical work day. Might get the car sorted with Alternator by then. 

 

Your view looked a bit different than mine

 

 

@Croc she was emotional support on the phone until a good Samaritan truck pulled up that just so happened to be my friend. He lives 30 miles away but by a stroke of luck happened to be driving by on the main highway in the area and saw me within 10 minutes of breakdown. It was very interesting getting out of the fast lane and onto the shoulder from ~75mph with no power and no indicators in traffic other than waving my hands as indicators that I'm desperately trying to get over to shoulder/exit. 

 

 

 

I wouldn't usually flat tow but I was so close to home that we just winged it. It was 1/4 mile to home. 

 

Car was behaving more or less back to it's usual self with exception of even more misfires on partial throttle or off throttle after full throttle. Can't decide whether I'm still enjoying this cat and mouse game this far into the ownership of finding the issues of it's time to commit to a drastic platform change, maybe next winter?

 

@FasterThanVov Always supportive both on and off the track and very supportive in busting my balls with the rest of the community. 

 

It looked good before I left though!

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by Vovchandr