Thunderhill Super Tour/US Majors

I would have to assume that the operating steward made the decision to throw the checkered flag early since the cleanup from the blown motor would've taken longer than 9 minutes. Just my guess

And yes, there was a revised schedule that shortened up the warm up sessions on Sunday morning, to accommodate the separation of Group 2 into 2 races. There were almost 60 cars entered for wings and things.
 
Per the Supps, the Saturday races were 30 minutes while the Sunday races were 16 laps or 40 minutes, whichever came first. All the Sunday races went the full 16 laps and the last checker fell at 5:02 on Sunday afternoon.

Had we known there would be almost 300 entries when planning the event five months ago I would have lobbied heavily that it be three days instead of two. There were a lot of challenges presented by having the largest event ever at THill and I'm confident things will go smoother next time.
 
dhrmx5":1bgik7mc said:
Was anyone else caught out by the fact that the Sun race was only 31 minutes long? My understanding of the whole Majors thing was a 30 minute race on Sat and 40 min race on Sun.

A 20 min qualifying with no practice session, and 2 30 minute races does not equate to a "Major" experience that I am willing to pay extra for.


We were doing the math after Saturday's race, to figure out how much extra fuel we would need for the 16 lap main, and quickly realized it would take no where near the full 40min. If you want more time on track you can always switch to B-Spec. :lol:

I was surprised by the lack of a victory lap on Sunday. :|
 
Here's why it's such a crock. If the oil mess hadn't been laid down the race would have likely been less than 30 minutes long. Even with the yellow flags the group made 16 laps. That means 80 minutes maxwould have been the amount of track time we could have acheived. Regionals do better than that.

No practice time and a 20 min qualifier. Yeah, let's create a situation where people have to travel and then have a schedule that allows no practice. It's difficult to learn a track and stay out of the way of cars trying to qualify.

Running B spec won't get you more laps, you'll get less.

Seattle is extremely time limited but they have a far better schedule than TH. Even then, most classes will end up with less than 60 minutes of racing for the 2 races. T4 can expect a 25 minute race followed by an approx 32 minute race the second day. GT will see a total of 55 minutes of racing with the lap time they turn.
 
Keep in mind, that Seattle is over 3 days, where TH was only 2. I think that Butch hit the nail on the head. They didn't expect 300 cars for the first SCCA Major @ TH.
 
The number of competitors who showed had no affect on a schedule that was decided on in advance. There is a choice on a 2 or 3 day format but once it's done it's done

For an event that is billed as a cut above, how do you justify so little practice/qualifying AND short races. Is standing on the podium really worth it?
 
No dog in this "fight" but what's the overall cost to go racing at the Majors level for less than 2 hours of track time...? TH (understand the "never had this many"... just went through it in our Feb Regional) didn't sound like a good bang for the buck. You'd think at the level you folks are racing you'd at least get a chance to do some racing for your large amount of dollars you are spending. Sort of like going to the grocery store for beer rather than the week's food supply.... No bang on the Thunder Hill folks... never got my car out of the trailer for the Sebring Feb regional because I'm one of the three paddock marshals and we had over 300 drivers show up for our short course event and couldn't get away from "herding" race cars, haulers, etc. It's tough out there!

Bob
 
That Miata driver was all over the place. After hitting Jason, he managed to get in my way.
It's clear the Jason has done a great job on that Yaris. 4 years back he was only able to turn 2:14's now he turns 2:07's.
 
Gordon Jones":1p4w8mii said:
That Miata driver was all over the place. After hitting Jason, he managed to get in my way.
It's clear the Jason has done a great job on that Yaris. 4 years back he was only able to turn 2:14's now he turns 2:07's.

I would love to blame the Miata driver, but I made the anticipatory move (assuming like anyone else he would throttle down and/or track out), and it did not work out. I possibly could have hit the brakes or turned for pit road, but I was not about to let you off easy. ;)

The Yaris was basically a B-Spec car the previous time I ran there, so it was no surprise to me it was a bit quicker. Carl Young was running a B-Specish Honda Fit in HP on Sunday, and had similar results as I did in 2010. I think they are running without all the silly ballast and BS restrictor plate. Could be a good car if they get to work on it.
 
Jason@SportsCar":10z195w1 said:
The Yaris was basically a B-Spec car the previous time I ran there, so it was no surprise to me it was a bit quicker. Carl Young was running a B-Specish Honda Fit in HP on Sunday, and had similar results as I did in 2010. I think they are running without all the silly ballast and BS restrictor plate. Could be a good car if they get to work on it.

That's "The Brave Little Toaster" it's a rescue. It was going to be a Spoon car, but didn't make the cut for SEMA and got save from a RHD conversion because all Spoon cars are RHD. They don't think it can make Yaris power, he drove it on Saturday at Buttonwillow too.
 
Z3_GoCar":aqvvanwe said:
They don't think it can make Yaris power, he drove it on Saturday at Buttonwillow too.

I don't buy that for a second, the Honda makes a good bit more power to begin with, and there is always aftermarket support for Honda products. I know they have a lot more gearing choices as well. Honda and Mazda products always seem to be better than the sum of their parts.
 
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