Who races in socal?
well I have racked up hundreds of slips over the last 10+years
and manage to pick up several autocross trophies as well
I wont be ready for a two or three months with J5
I have to finish a customers car then take J5 apart
for coatings on my TriYs and new trans install b4 I run again
but I have my 9c1 that has never been to the track
Roger aka BallSS - runs every now and then
Shawn aka Deathmobile - has been going alot car used to belong to KLRSS
Joe aka JMalibuSS - usually goes once a year
Nick aka Fearthedear - goes
Aaron aka Socalhotrodder - does the Irwindale thing
Noel aka got bearrings - T56 install ended his domination of the 1/4
Fontana is no big loss.
RANT MODE ON
-Track sucks! REAL TALK track is placed up hill into the wind. 1200 physical altitude at the starting line 1212 at 1320 mark. google earth it~!
-crowd sucks lots people new to the sport leaving trash everywhere
just plain rude walking / meandering thru traffic on their cell phones when they put out the class calls and all the racers are in a rush
-return road is not safe, I had a 2 foot child sprint out in front of me on the return road once as the RV park on the edge return road and thier is ZERO barrier, good thing I have and autocross car and had 255 not loose drag shocks and slicks and skinnies cause I stopped 3" short of man slaughter with 255s in full ABS
-stands suck no backing or seats, heck they just got timing boards
-vendors suck, $8 for a puke burger made of cardboard $3 for a water
-facility sucks, no NOS truck or fuel truck, no drinking fountains, or place to wash your hands, no real restrooms, no place to put air in your tires or top off a radiator the kicker the speedway is super styled out, but the street legal participants are not allowed to use it
security got all bent at me cause I drove to the speedway office and purchased bottled water from the vending machine at $1.25 a bottle to top my radiator instead
-area sucks, local fast food suck, no sit down restaraunts outside the complex, no local hotels, no target no walmart no sears no parts stores
breaking something at Fontana is a major bummer local pepboys is a 50 minute adventure round trip, breakage means a hustle of buble gum and bailing wire to not have tow truck involved
-sometimes the drags are empty, on empty days they close early
-sometimes their is a line down Cherry Ave at 5AM and they turn people away
pissed off racers turned way then get picked off by the local police on the way back to the freeway
In cali entanglements with the the police in a street driven race car gan get hairy and go beyond the pain of a simple ticket
heck you get the wrong officer on the wrong day and he could make your life difficult over fully LEGAL CARB certified parts
-line to get into the complex, line to purchase a tech card, line to tech, 2-4 hour wait for a class call, 45min in the staging lanes
this is a given like death and taxes
forget trying to get into a groove driving the car, working on your launch
it's going to be 4 hours between runs and a min. 1000ft DA swing
recently power is easer to come by
-broken half shaft 03/04 cobras, broken ring gear 4th gens, LSx platform cars in the wall, nitrous import scatters at the 60', seen turbo 5.0 on its lid at half track, hondas with turbos and spray poppin half shafts at the 0.1' mark, CTSV stattered diff case ect..
12 hours at the track means sitting for a min 2 hours of cleanup of the course of the day
I have literally simmered in the sun for half the day as the first round of class calls weeds out all the weak drive lines.
Did I mention there is no shade?
if all goes stellar
-you get up at 4.30AM get in 4 runs with crap 60s, choke down a double western from down the street in the staging lanes, and put your street tires back n in the dark / buddy holding a maglight cause the staff shuts the lights off on you
But heck
One can NOT say the track prep sucks though...
... cause you would have to have track prep b4 it can suck!
So in a nut shell Fontana is great.
If your idea of a good time is paying someone to poke you in the eye with a sharp hot stick.
RANT MODE OFF
Ok Fontana has two good points,
-its fun to race with freinds, have a cold blue monster in the sun and give each other a hard time
-and the announcer dude is the funniest thing ever I love that guy
Hon Hon Honnnn Dah in the Winston cup lane~!
Ever wonder why I have a freakish Autocross car and crappy drag times on the ET page...????
Palm Springs Corvette club autocross is the 2nd week in March
and the last week in October every year.
I always make that event!!
That event has vendors, trophies, nice cheap hotels, an autozone in walking distance, the corvette people are saints, sometimes it is 105F out
some times is 65 and perfect
Basically you can run till your sick of seeing that tach pinned
Thats the event we should all go to!!