ECR Toy Run - Saturday, December 6, 2014

[sammm]

Had a great time today! Beautiful day for early December was a plus!

Couldn't help but notice a lot of the track-junkies were MIA.

It was a great turn-out (148 IIRC). One of the coolest cars there was an old Volvo...see pic.

The white GT3 wasn't bad either!

[OZMDD]

It was a beautiful day. Too bad there were a bunch of douchebags in the am red group. Worst track experience I've ever had, and it wasn't because of the mini being slow. I was fully prepared to get a left arm workout with all the point-bys, but apparently a bunch of folks decided it was open track free passing today. Idiot in the GTR was one of two driverswho passed me without a point by WHILE I was already in the middle of passing another car, and another tried to dive bomb me in a corner. Saw a shitload of the same stuff occurring all over the track. The mod car ran both Henry Lin and Bob Neff off the track. This will be my last Toy Run unless major changes occur to the format. I know they emphasized that this stuff was unacceptable during a special meeting after the second session, but I wasn't willing to stick around and see if it got better. Not going to get my car or self damaged just for some cheap track time.

Meanwhile, ECR and SCCA did a great job of running the tech shed, snack table and raffle for The Eaddy charities. Impressive organization and effort.

oh, I managed a 2:17 on my least-disrupted lap in the second session. Forgot to turn on data logger in the first session, but it was mostly warmup anyway.

[miataspeedracer]

You got a p car? Cool. Congrats. Which one? Pics....

Check out the previous post from Samm with the white GT3 pic!

(That's not mine...)

[cone-cerned]

I had a great time today, despite the fact that the 150 drivers were divided into only three run groups. Every session was brimming with cars. A few of the drivers made it imperative that you stayed on your toes for the entire session. Still, fun times.

[cone-cerned]

OZMDD, it did get better in the afternoon, from my perspective. My left arm got quite a workout today, as you said. It was not unusual for me to be passed at the end of the back straight, just before turn 7, and then stay on the bumper of that car until the climb out of turn 10.

The only problem I had with my car today was a loose camera mount. I fixed it during the lunch break. I'll have video later.

[SixAce]

Couldn't help but notice a lot of the track-junkies were MIA.

It was a great turn-out (148 IIRC).

Perhaps some of the track junkies were missing because of..

It was a beautiful day. Too bad there were a bunch of douchebags in the am red group. Worst track experience I've ever had, and it wasn't because of the mini being slow. I was fully prepared to get a left arm workout with all the point-bys, but apparently a bunch of folks decided it was open track free passing today. Idiot in the GTR was one of two driverswho passed me without a point by WHILE I was already in the middle of passing another car, and another tried to dive bomb me in a corner. Saw a shitload of the same stuff occurring all over the track. The mod car ran both Henry Lin and Bob Neff off the track. This will be my last Toy Run unless major changes occur to the format. I know they emphasized that this stuff was unacceptable during a special meeting after the second session, but I wasn't willing to stick around and see if it got better. Not going to get my car or self damaged just for some cheap track time.

This. Has been developing for a few years now. Back in the beginning it was a low key event where you could get some quality track time for donation. Heck we even alternated with bikes, which were cool to watch. The only real downsides were usually crappy weather and somewhat inconsistent vetting and operations (wasting a session on lead/follow in intermediate for example).

I stopped attending a couple of years ago. It seemed to evolve into a place for the once a year (because cheap) track time car guys to go and romp. Hold everyone up in the twisty bits and rocket away/drag race on the straights. Rinse and repeat. Whee. It's cool that Maggie and ECR do this for charity and nice to see the local clubs supporting it, but if you think it's going to be a proper track day, expect to be disappointed.

Of course, YMMV and all that.

[jrj512]

I had great time. My fastest was 2:15 or 2:16 based on video. Video soon.

[motorollow]

Had a great time today! Beautiful day for early December was a plus!

Couldn't help but notice a lot of the track-junkies were MIA.

It was a great turn-out (148 IIRC). One of the coolest cars there was an old Volvo...see pic.

The white GT3 wasn't bad either!

I did not go because my engine has not completed the "break in" period yet. I know Gabkwong had to work.

[jrj512]

[CosmosMpower]

Second what Mike said, too many people with not enough common sense. Lots of slow cars that did not belong in the red group doing dumb stuff. I don't mind passing or getting passed all day long as long as it's predictable. In the afternoon the train of 350Z's got stacked up so bad there were about 6 cars at one time in T11 causing everyone to almost come to a dead stop.

Also had a bunch of people point then drag race me to the corner (mostly Corvettes and 911's). Then there was an old red mini that was driving on the complete wrong side of the track the entire lap and holding up a train of people with no point by.

I did have fun chasing ken o around in the morning through traffic in the early sessions. And as a bonus I got to find out the new M3 is pretty fast. Managed a 2:02.8 and it's bone stock.



Jessica also had a good time bullying some Corvettes.

[johnwag]

Sixace pretty much nailed it. Haven't been to a Toy Run since 2009 or 2010. (whatever year it was that I had Miatamoto's old black NA) Too many idiots, too many cars, dog shit surface. There's always plenty of opportunities to get out there with various track day groups on any other weekend in the year. Glad you guys got out mostly incident free, as I saw that some miatas got towed home.

[cone-cerned]

I need to work on my tech skills, I managed to get Harry's Lap Timer to work in only the third session.

[revs]

Glad I stayed in blue group. Heard to many guys were trying to treat like a track day. I had fun though. Manage to run a 2:08.2 which is 1.7 secs faster than last year.