[dknv]

On Tuesday I along with Jim Gandy and Eric Gangloff of Reno SCCA had the lucky pleasure of running Jim's RX-7 at the Fernley track's road course for an afternoon of test & tune.

The track is a little over a mile, so it's very learnable in an afternoon. And while it's one thing to watch Gary Sheehan's video in the August race, it's another thing altogether when it's you controlling your line and getting the feel for the pavement, braking and acceleration zones and elevation changes.

Coming onto the course, there's an S+ turn that has a rhythm in driving it when you're on the right line. At the end of those is a braking zone, 90degree left-hander, short accel/brake, 100degree left hander and set up to go up the hill. Coming up the other side is an elevation gain, with a blind rise and somewhat blind turns. Once you've learned the course you'll be able to drive the right line despite not being able to see up the hill, however, with other cars on the course I'm sure it'd be a challenge!

I was talking to Bob Pyle (fellow scca driver, and he's helping build out the course), and he indicates they are hoping to start the 2nd phase soon, to be done by spring. This will add another 1/2 mile at the lower end of the course. Then by end of next year, they'd like to finish phase 3, which is another mile and is supposed to be the most challenging part of the track. After phases 4 & 5, Bob said the straightaway past Start/Finish will be 1 mile, and there will be vehicles reaching 100-140mph speeds. That'll be awesome to watch.

Some NASA instructors are coming out in December for a road course school. (Dec. 13/14). Let me know if you'd like to see the flyer for it.