Mt Tam I am's Driving Journal

Mt Tam I am

On Monday I was at Thunderhill, TH, and the new five mile track. This is the three mile track, 15 turns, plus two new miles and 13 new turns. I've done the 3 mile 3 times before twice in the wet. Today it was to rain again. I hear rain is very rare and when I mention rain at TH, everyone looks at me and says:

"The last time I was at TH, it was 108 degrees, and I've never heard of rain there." Just lucky I guess.

We did 3 recon laps at low speed then had at it. The Z06 ahead of me gave me fits at Sonoma last month so I hope he will let me bye eventually. He does so in an unorthodox manner.

I had to make up my own driving line as nobody knew the track. The learning curve was a little slow due to the 5 mile distance. instead of being back to the same turn in 2 minutes, is now 4 minutes, so up to 6 laps, before they haul us off the track. A bunch of cars went off track and brought dirt and debris back onto the road with them, with a bit of rain you had mud.

I too had a moment of excitement. I hunted down an Audi R8 then realized two things, 1) I'm not passing him and 2) it is raining too much so back off with these R888's. 10 seconds later at a left kink I must have give a touch of gas as the cars rear stepped out right a tiny bit, I corrected and the car now slid as if on ice back left towards an embankment. As I left the track I was thinking I guess I won't be driving home after all. The car put two wheels off grabbed enough to go straight and a tiny bit of right input put me right back on track. I only lost a few feet over the Audi! My thinking changed quickly from destruction to concern over being black flagged for an off. I did this right in front of a flagger. At the next flag station they were waving the checker to tell you the main checker has been thrown and get off the track before you make another 5 mile cool down lap and have another group come up on you. No penalty.

My best time was 4:00.075.

I have run out of time to write.

First session:
First time Thunderhill 5 mile in a Nissan 370Z with bonus rain - YouTube

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Nissan Motorsports 34R Oil Cooler. Stillen CBE. Hotchkis Sport Sway Bars. KW Variant 3 Coilover System. Stillen Gen3 CAI. Michelin Pilot Super Sport. Stillen Brake Ducts. Carbotech™ XP10/XP8 Pads. Z1 Front Rotors. Z1 Stainless Brake Lines. Two degrees of camber