<VV> Thunderhill Raceway - Corvair at the track

[Sethracer at aol.com]

3000 miles away from the Mitty, another race track experience took place  
this weekend. Not as hectic and not as impressive. Several young engineers at 
 Northrop Grumman in Sunnyvale, CA, decided they wanted to "track-day" 
their  cars. They connected with "Hooked-on-Driving" an organization that hosts 
and  plans those track days around the country. Friday was their (our) day 
at  Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA, about 80 miles north of Sacramento. 
Since  Classic Corvairs of River City  was hosting their "Spring Fling" on  
the Saturday, I decided to combine the trip and "race" on Friday/"show" on  
Saturday. My wife and I hauled the race car up to Willows on Thursday night 
and  out to the track, early on Friday morning. The forecast rain had  
disappeared and Sunny and breezy ruled. (Note: Thunderhill becomes  hotter than 
Hades in mid-summer.) Several 20-minute sessions spread over the day  helped 
me familiarize myself with both the car,as currently configured, and  
Thunderhill. It was my first time at the track. This was  not car-to-car racing, 
just fast driving on a great track. I last drove  this car on a race track at 
Willow Springs in Southern California back in 2008,  in conjunction with the 
Ventura Convention. There were lots of different cars on  the track in the 
separate groups. My car ran great, with oil temps never  exceeding 200. A 
real race motor would have produced faster straightaway  speeds. Once I 
scrubbed the harder outer coating off the Hoosiers DOT  Rs, they stuck like glue 
and I could put the car almost anywhere  on the track. Driving a 
well-balanced late model Corvair on the track  is a joy. I actually had Zero engine 
problems all day long, I never  even threw a belt. I did have a shimmy in the 
front end early on, but it  went away later in the day. I think it may be the 
old idler arm on the car  - everything else is pretty new. I will be pulling 
a new one off the shelf  and installing it. Late Friday afternoon, I 
swapped tires again, packed up and  hauled down through Sacramento (rush hour) 
traffic, dropped the race car at the  hotel and joined the Spring Fling, 
already in progress! The food was great,  we staggered back to the hotel and the 
next morning, for the second  day in a row I pried my wife out of bed too 
early, to get the car and stuff  to the Car show/swap meet. A great event. In 
the car show, the racecar  ended up with a Second place trophy in Specialty 
class (of 2, as I recall,  but who's counting) Doug Hargrove an old racing 
buddy took the first  place with a beautifully engineered V8 car. I have no 
complaints.  Also, while checking out my engine compartment, Doug pointed out  
a bolt on my engine which was backing out and ready to fly off. It would 
have  been painful, engine-wise, had it come off. Thanks, Doug!
   Tonight, I am making two lists: "to-do" and  "wish-to-do". The "to-do" 
list is really a "have-to-do" list! Hooked  on Driving - indeed!
 
Seth Emerson  
Photo for Virtual  Vairs           
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