me and 50 cobras at Summit Point Raceway

[tigerstalon]

A friend of mine has an '03 Mustang Cobra, and he invited me to this year's SVTOA event at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia, which was May 14-15. It was basically 50 Cobras, 30 Lightnings, various other Ford-powered cars, and me (ok, there was an old BMW and a Porsche, too).

Long-story short, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Fast cars are fun at the drag strip, but road courses are so much more of a complete driving experience. Plus, we got to drive the new Shenandoah circuit at Summit Point. This sucker has a ridiculous amount of turns, so much so that the straightaways are simply short breaks before you get setup for the next gauntlet of twisties.

What was even better is that they setup the event so that all novice drivers had an instructor with them for every driving session--and we had 7 sessions in 2 days! By the end, I was driving my car so hard that my EGT warning light started blinking and I blew the 7cm manifold-to-turbo gasket.

I highly recommend everyone doing a road course at least once. You'll learn a lot about your car, about high speed driving in general, and it's a freakin' blast. Summit Point has Fridays at the Track, which sound similar to what we did, only for one day instead of two.

 

[CanadianTSi]

I love our local road course...I feel bad for the car afterward though.

This is after 1 lap...

 

[Defiant]

Oh my god, what is that eerie glow in the background? Someone call George Noory!!

 

[terefic181]

COOL!!!

Any Cobra/Stang kills or just one a hellova good time?

Tom

 

[tigerstalon]

Oh my god, what is that eerie glow in the background? Someone call George Noory!!

Yeah, every time I passed one of those gazebos, I had to look down and check the coolant temperature to make sure that I wasn't overheating!

Actually, those gazebos are where the flagmen reside, in case some of you were wondering. Kinda fancy for a place for course workers to sit. It makes it look like you're racing inside Colonial Gardens, or some guy's back yard! In fact, I think they should charge spectators gobs of money to view the race from there.

 

[tigerstalon]

COOL!!!

Any Cobra/Stang kills or just one a hellova good time?

Tom

I passed one Cobra, but it's kinda hard to count that one because she was driving so freakin' slow. Yes, it was a she, trust me. She became notorious rather quickly that weekend for holding up traffic.

I passed two Lightnings and a Focus SVT, too. One of those Lightnings re-passed me, though, when my EGT warning light started blinking and I had to back off a little.

I got passed by probably a dozen Cobras, though. Both the Cobras and Lightnings are VERY fast. I would enter a straightaway with no one behind me, and at the end, there would be a Cobra coming up on my tail. I would put a little distance on them in the turns, but they more than made up for it in the straights.

 

[Defiant]

Actually, those gazebos are where the flagmen reside, in case some of you were wondering. Kinda fancy for a place for course workers to sit. It makes it look like you're racing inside Colonial Gardens, or some guy's back yard!

I remember the Balitmore sunshine. Those gazebos are a good idea.

In fact, I think they should charge spectators gobs of money to view the race from there.

Pff, volunteer to flag and they'll make you stay in one for the whole meet, for free.