Summit Point Shenandoah recap

[Bubba1]

Just spent 3 awesome days on the Shenandoah circuit at Summit Point Raceway. Summit Point was a busy place this past weekend. With NASA races and an HPDE (watched a session from the carousel turn, more later),and the Audi Club on Shenandoah and Jefferson.

Shendandoah is a twisty tornado of a circuit. Very technical. Very challenging, fun to learn. I was part of a small lucky group that got a track walk tour with Miriam Schottland, who certifies instructors for the BMW club. Learned a lot. Besides a bunch of elevation changes, and a lot of on and off camber turns, the track has a re-creation of the famous banked carousel turn at Nurburgring. 30 degree' banking on a never ending turn. (Talledega has about the same banking) Wicked fun.

Got some good seat time in some great student cars this event too.1. 2003 Mercedes Benz SL55 AMG. Yep, 500hp, $120K base price, Besides the heated/air conditioning located IN the seat, I resisted the urge to put it in massage mode. Big heavy boat, but torque is such wonderful thing, and this car had tons of it. It had an automatic, and it understeered quite a bit, but was a still a hoot on the track.

2. 1999 Porsche Carrera, lightly modded with R compounds, Great driver, fast car. Very forgiving car. hard not to grin while in a porsche on a race track

3. 2004 Audi S4 6 speed with the V-8. Very fun. Did I mention I love torque? Also loved the subdued throaty exhaust sound

4. Yellow Nissan 350Z with lotsa mods. Nice custom roll bar, sweet sounding car (though a bit loud above 4K rpm). It was the only other Nissan there besides mine. The driver was very good too. nissan was well represented.

Some very interesting cars there. I'll post some pics as soon as I unpack my camera.

the most interesting vehicle was a Baby Grand racer.(SPU class SCCA). About 2 /3 the size of a miata. looks like a mini Nextel cup car. Engine is a 4 stroke air cooled yamaha producing about 120hp. Car weighs maybe 1200lbs with driver. They're popular on the west coast as road race machines. But in the NASCAR obsessed southeast, they are more used for short track ovals. This one was set for road racing. I only got to sit in it. I was surprised I fit, but it felt as if my toes were touching the inside of the headlight.

there was a bone stock Alfa Milano. Typical Alfa, not particularly fast, but boy does that car lean in the corners. The owner looked like he was having a blast.

There was also a gorgeous E30 M3 racer, but this one had a 6 cyl M motor transplanted in it. Very fast car. He passed me a few times.

Among the japanese cars representing:Tons o' Miatas, stock, and some spec miata's1 indecently fast eclipse (1st generation)a few WRX's (including a stock wagon )a few Sti's, and evo's of course2 quick civics1 lightly modded RSX

I stopped over and watched a partial NASA race from the carousel. I know there were some NICOnauts there. The run group I watched had 2 240sx's #91 and #117, and a real sweet looking 240z with an extended spoiler on the back. The Z was reeling in a lot of cars.

I had a friend who alternated between the Audi event and NASA race in his black A4. He had gotten 3rd in his heat.

Overall a great event. I'll post up some pics tomorrow. Next month, VIR.

[Bubba1]

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Some paddock pics. The SL55 AMG with an Elise

[Bubba1]

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The Porsche Carrera...

[Bubba1]

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the modded 350z....

[Bubba1]

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The nice M3 racer

[Bubba1]

The transplanted M3 motor....

[Bubba1]

The Baby Grand racer beside a very fast BMW 323

[Bubba1]

[Another view of the Baby Grand

[Bubba1]

A new RS4 beside a new S4. After all, this was an Audi event. There was also an Rs6 there.

[Bubba1]

My car beside my friends modded A4 and a very quick RSX.

[Bubba1]

action shot of the yellow Z...

My car beside my friends modded A3 and a very quick RSX.

[Bubba1]

brand new M coupe. about 1,200 miles on the odometer.

[Bubba1]

random action shot to give you an idea how twisty and condensed the track is. the shot has a train of cars passing the Milano. The Baby Grand is the last car. He eventually passed all of the cars in front of him...

[Bubba1]

A distant shot of the Carousel turn....

[Bubba1]

The Baby Grand in action...

[Bubba1]

The Elise reeling in a 944 turbo

[Joe]

i want to have sex with the E30 + e46m3 swap car.

[Bubba1]

i want to have sex with the E30 + e46m3 swap car.

Here's an in-car video of a lap of Shenandoah. This was from a Mazda event. I have some 8mm footage from my car but not as nice as this.

http://video.google.com/videop...94636

[nismofly]

i just saw another vid of the carousel today, i had no idea they had it until today

is it like the 2 real ones at the ring, where the tail has a strong tendency to step out? or is that more based on the surface

awesome stuff, as always

[Bubba1]

i just saw another vid of the carousel today, i had no idea they had it until today

is it like the 2 real ones at the ring, where the tail has a strong tendency to step out? or is that more based on the surface

awesome stuff, as always

With Shenandoah's version, the grip actually improves the faster you go thru it. Your suspension really compresses. The risk for stepping out is at the entrance and exit. If you go in or out of that turn off-line too hot, it'll becomes much more challenging.

[nismofly]

i watched the video you posted, the transition looks like it could catch you off guard

overall looks like a really cool track, im definately getting down there to run one summit in one form or another next summer, i mean heck i just drove to VIR last week just to watch other people

[sr20goofus]

good to hear you had fun Bubba, i met a few Fresh Alloy guys. And had a freakin blast this weekend with my instructor. I cordedd 2 of my hoosiers, thank goodness i brought spares. And i learned alot more about my cars capabilities wiht lower power, being only 10psi reletively stock power setup.

I will be doing VIR in february with HPDE2 again to work on only things i need to practice before moving up to Group 3, touch ups instead of fast laps.

I will have some pics in a week or so from teh photoshoot company that was there, hopefully they are good shots, cause this weekend was a roll-a-thon for me. and i think video showed me pulling about a 1:32 in traffic, decent but deff alot of room for improvement.

I have been to shanendoah before, only as a passenger tho, and i am excited to try it out becaus eits supposed to be the most technical course on the east coast.

[Bubba1]

good to hear you had fun Bubba, i met a few Fresh Alloy guys. And had a freakin blast this weekend with my instructor. I cordedd 2 of my hoosiers, thank goodness i brought spares. And i learned alot more about my cars capabilities wiht lower power, being only 10psi reletively stock power setup.

I will be doing VIR in february with HPDE2 again to work on only things i need to practice before moving up to Group 3, touch ups instead of fast laps.

I will have some pics in a week or so from teh photoshoot company that was there, hopefully they are good shots, cause this weekend was a roll-a-thon for me. and i think video showed me pulling about a 1:32 in traffic, decent but deff alot of room for improvement.

I have been to shanendoah before, only as a passenger tho, and i am excited to try it out becaus eits supposed to be the most technical course on the east coast.

I'm glad to hear you had fun too. Can you post the pics when you get 'em? I had snuck over to the Summit's main circuit and watched a partial session from the grandstands at the carousel turn in the afternoon. But I'm not sure if that was your run group. Real interesting mix of cars in that group.

You're so right about it being a very technical track, which is what I really liked about it. The only downside I saw to Shenandoah is that there isn;t a whole lot of room if you get into trouble and go off on an "agricultural expedition".

[sr20goofus]

ok first i have some old pics that haev surfaced from a track buddy from Hyperfest back in July.











and now onto the Summit pics from last weekend.













enjoy....

[Bubba1]

ok first i have some old pics that haev surfaced from a track buddy from Hyperfest back in July.











and now onto the Summit pics from last weekend.













enjoy....

I'm seeing only X's...

[sr20goofus]

sorry abotu the X's i modified my photcobucket account, and i havnt fixed the pics yet, il get on it tonight prolly.