AudiWorld Forums - NEQ Limerock 2007 event report. (Long, no pics)

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NEQ Limerock 2007 event report. (Long, no pics)

Back home and totally exhausted. Here's my report:

This was a tough event for me. My experience started with the Suburban losing oil pressure on the way to tech on Thursday night. I was fortunate to get off the road into a safe area and, after considering my plight for about 45 seconds, I decided to unload the Miata and continue out to tech in Salisbury. Tech was efficient and quick, so after socializing for a few minutes I took off to deal with the mess I left in Burlington. My brother-law-in and AAA met me at the "scene of the crime", and within 10 minutes the trailer was attached to Bill's pickup and the 'burbantor/doorstop/paperweight/storage shed was loaded on the wrecker. Back at home, I packed the bare essentials into the Miata for the next day at the track. The only thing I could not fit was the track tires, which GBW generously offered to transport for me.

It was great to get back to the track Friday morning, but there were some hard core regulars conspicuously absent in favor of F1(you know who you are). I felt a little naked without all my stuff there and a few of my cronies MIA, but the generosity and camaraderie of other club members more than made up for my missing well stocked support vehicle and fair weather friends (take that, Marc and Kevin! - lol). It was also GBW's first time at the track as a student, so I had my hands full working to educate him on the essentials of tracking at Limerock Park (where to park, when to tech, what to eat for breakfast (blueberry pancakes), when to eat breakfast, where the bathrooms are, which arm the bracelet goes on, etc - all the important stuff).

The large number of students meant that there were four run groups instead of three - green, yellow, white (pink?) and red. This meant a full schedule, 24ish students per group and 3 runs per day. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, Carson was demoted from his usual red to the white (pink?) group since this was his first time at LRP. This was a minor bummer since I spend a good part of most events peeking in my mirror waiting for the Red GTI to come creeping up behind me and working hard to stay ahead of it. I try to be generous with point bys with everyone else, but Carson has to really earn his. :-)

Greg Haymann from Autofirme was my instructor and he ran the first session with me. With five minutes to go in the run, the Miata hiccupped a couple of times so we pitted. Greg gave me a few useful tips to work on during the day and signed me off. Ordinarily I would have taken at least one more run with him, but instructors were scarce and most carried three students, so we agreed that I would grab him later in the event if I wanted more coaching and we parted ways for the time being.

The day was hot and humid, and during the second run the Miata intake temps climbed above 100c despite my air/water intercooler and the car went into limp mode, forcing me to finish the session sitting on the lawn by the back straight. Not comfortable with the possibility of this happening again and lacking my laptop and Link ECU manual, I sat out the final session of the day.

The banquet was at the Wake Robin, and followed the usual NEQ format: food and a few speeches. The biggest announcement was that after 7 years, Glenn Lawton will be stepping down as event master for the LRP event. He claims he will still be involved, and I hope his duties include MC, since his off-the-wall sense of humor makes the PA announcements "extra special". Whoever volunteers to take over has some big shoes to fill.

Day two started with rain in the morning, but the showers quickly passed. There were a few more sprinkles during the day, but not enough to force anyone onto rain tires. Humidity was still high, but temps dropped a bit and the Miata had a better day. A highlight of my day was taking Alan Bellavance out for a spin and picking up a few pointers from him.

This was a good event for me, but fell short of "great" for mechanical reasons. The best part for me was meeting some new people and hanging out with fellow driving enthusiasts from both NEQ and NAAC as well as other ACNA chapters. Reading some of the comments in dojo's AW thread of last week was a harsh reminder of the tension that still exists between some of the members of NEQ and NAAC, so it was really nice to see good strong NAAC participation in this event at both the student and instructor levels. Kudos to you folks for setting a good example. Like most folks in the greater New England area, I want to be welcome at both NEQ and NAAC events. I want to make friends and enjoy cars. With the new chapter, I now have at least twice as many opportunities to do this. <climbs down from soapbox>

Thanks to Glenn and Jackie for eventmaster duties, event sponsors, other volunteers for all their hard work, Glen Powell's company for track control duties, the instructors for all their extra hard work, GBW for hauling my tires and stuff, and the guy at the LRP snackbar who always does a great job on my blueberry pancakes. Hope to see everyone in Calabogie if the `burbanator rebounds by then.

Tom

I want an Elise. Period.

:-) 105 at track out of the downhill on lap three (a full 10mph faster than the GT) tells me I'm due for more horses....

Carter

That Elise got a lot of play...

...and a lot of great reviews.

The Elise, the Z06 'vette, the Miata, and the M3 seem to be preferred track cars. Have you driven any of the others for comparison?

All of them. All at speed. The Elise is leaps and bounds ahead of anything else, stock.

Like, HUGE leaps and bounds.

I took a ride in it with Jay after you drove it.

He kept raving how well you drove and how he's got a lot to learn. I definitely want one too.

Hope one of these times I'm lucky enough to have you as my instructor, I keep hearing you're a fantastic driver and instructor.

Sorry you didn't make the final session

it was a whole lot of fun with a few drops but by in large everyone still running at full speed. That's a great group of people in our group. I had a blast and learned a lot.

Greg

If people can tell me which cars they drive, I can see if I have pics. Here are Greg and myself

and a couple of others.

<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp1.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp2.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp3.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp4.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp5.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp6.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp7.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - cy.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - cy2.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - greg.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - greg2.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - greg3.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - greg4.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - greg5.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - uphill1.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - uphill2.jpg">
<img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/silver%20s4/lrp%20-%2006.08.07/lrp - uphill3.jpg">

Definitely a good group.

Nice meeting you. See you at the Glen.

Blue (not black) Miata number 0.

Still not sure if I should be insulted or not by my assigned number - lol.

Out of the pics you posted:
RX-8 John M.
Porsche - one of the Palumbos, Gary I think.
Mini - Noah or Rachel; I don't recognize the passenger
Funny lookin' Mitsubitchie - Cy (very fast)