Fun track days at NHMS Loudon NH

[Bubba1]

While many of you were in Omaha, I just spent a few days at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon NH with COR and the Audi Club. Yep, the NASCAR track , with 110,000 grandstand seats. I was expecting a boring, flat infield road course, but was pleasantly surprised. It was a very twisty, technical course with real elevation changes. It weaved in parts of the oval and pit road, so it was kinda fun seeing the big grandstands fly by at speed.
I arrived Tuesday and took a few rides with some COR folks to learn the line so I could instruct Wed/Thu. Most of the laps I had were in Spec Miatas. With so many tight turns, Miatas/ Elises do quite well there. Instead of my Z, I loaded up my good friend’s beautiful 1995.5 modded Audi S6 (twin turbo goodness) onto the car carrier and we rode up together. I had two fun students, one in a mostly stock S13, and the other a nicely set up Audi S4. Both good drivers. I drove the S13 for a few laps, and got a rush of fond memories of my old S13. Tuesday and Wednesday were ideal weather days. Thursday had some big showers in the early afternoon, but it stopped and dried out nicely.
interesting mix of cars, which is the norm at Audi events. Among the interesting cars:

A beautiful 240Z race car. I had a nice chat with the owner.
A stock, clean early 90’s Ford Escort ZX 2. Yes, a modest car, but you just don’t see many of them anymore, much less at a race track!
Nicely restored 65 Mustang convertible race car, but It had mechanical problems
A stock Jaguar Xtype – (small AWD sedan) was in the garage beside me. Good driver, and pretty quick.
Stock circa 1990 Celica (faded paint but ran well pretty nice)
a caged 3rd gen MR2
A nice Mercedes SLK
A new but freshly abused Chevy Caprice rental
An old BMW 2002tii
A modified Scion TC
Plus the usual Porsche’s (GT3,GT2,Carrera, Cayman,911’s etc),, Vettes, RX8’s, WRX/STI’s, lotsa Miatas, a few Elises, and a few Audis. Really nice folks.
My friend and I made a small side trip on the way home. We stopped at an Audi recycler in Manchester NH and picked up 2 hoods. One for his S6 (his old one had flaws), and the other for another friend’s S6 (which had a recent front end fenderbender). We swapped hoods on his car while it was on the truck, and strapped the second hood to my tire rack. Funny thing is that big hood acted as a air foil, as it boosted my truck gas mileage by 1-2 mpg for the trip home. I probably should have kept the hood.
I did get some paddock/action shots. As soon as I unpack my camera I’ll post them up. I also let a photographer use my truck bed to get high enough to clear the fences, in exchange for his emailing some action shots of my friend driving his S6. I’ll post them too.

Overall a sinfully fun event.

[PyR0NiAk]

Looking forward to the pics.

[Bubba1]

Looking forward to the pics.

Here's the first group, courtesy of Jim Moulton, nice guy who used my truck for a platform. This shot is my friend coming out of turn 10 which empties out onto the oval's pit road. in front of a GTi and BMW E30. Behind the concrete wall is turn 4 (a 180 degree uphill turn).



One lap later, getting some good leaning...



Coming into turn one off the ovals main straight. It's essentially a chicane to the inside of the main track's first turn. Pretty fast. Being followed by an old S4...



setting up for turn 2...



leaning hard into turn two...



very quick Elise in turn two...

[Bubba1]

A pair of Porsches coming thru turn two...



entering turn three. very fast turn that empties out onto the oval's backstraight. You drift all the way out to the wall.



the Xtype Jag coming thru turn two...



I still have to unpack my camera. It has more paddock shots...

[Jesda]

Well I'll be damned. An X-type somewhere that isn't a Macy's parking lot. Great pics

[snwbrdr435]

That's my local track! Hope you had a good time up there! Very rarely do i get a chance to get a car on there but bikes are another story.

[Bubba1]

That's my local track! Hope you had a good time up there! Very rarely do i get a chance to get a car on there but bikes are another story.

I had a great time. Nice facility, friendly people. I could envision this being an extremely fun track for bikes. Though I'm sure some of those bumps (like at the entrance to turn 4) make it even more challenging.

[sentrastace]

oh man that looks fantastic. sorry you couldnt make it to Omaha, I cant wait till the pic threads go up for that.
did you post a thread in the regional sections about this event? I wouldve come if i wasnt going to omaha. gonna start bringing my car a lot more places now for fun

[Bubba1]

oh man that looks fantastic. sorry you couldnt make it to Omaha, I cant wait till the pic threads go up for that.
did you post a thread in the regional sections about this event? I wouldve come if i wasnt going to omaha. gonna start bringing my car a lot more places now for fun

I didn't make a thread on this event as it was pretty much sold out. My friend and I got in because they needed instructors.

It would be great to have you come to track events in your car. New hampshire was a pretty long drive. (My friend is from your area), but I do have an HPDE this fall at Summit Point Raceway (maybe 90 minutes from you) if you're interested. I'll create a thread about that one as it gets closer.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about the Omaha event.

[numbnuts240]

next time you come through ct, don't forget that we have a lively little crew here that's always ready to throw out some hospitality for our peeps.

[93coupe]

Do you have any pictures of the MR2? I have never seen one with a cage.

[Bubba1]

Do you have any pictures of the MR2? I have never seen one with a cage.

I do, but not from NHMS. Here's that car at VIR a couple months ago...

[Bubba1]

next time you come through ct, don't forget that we have a lively little crew here that's always ready to throw out some hospitality for our peeps.

I will, thanks.

[93coupe]

Damn, I want one in a bad way.

[Bubba1]

Damn, I want one in a bad way.

I have a good friend with a 92 MR2 Turbo that he tracks. Gorgeous and indecently quick. I'll have to find pics of it.

But here are my pics....

My friends S6 before it went on track. the red stuff behind the windshield are my gloves. Very stealthy car. Very fast.



The Z race car, nice owner.

[Bubba1]

Ah,, I did have a shot of the MR2 at NHMS...here it is...



The Celica, with a GT2 in the background...



the Jag X type cooling off in the garage...



My ol truck during the heavy rain on Thursday (north paddock in front of the grandstands)

[Bubba1]

RX8 riding the curb on turn 2...



Same RX8 entering turn 4 (climbing 180 degree right hander), behind it is turn 10, and beyond that is turn 3 of the oval (which doesn;t get used)'

[Bubba1]

A couple more. leaning hard



BMW racecar