• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Gainesville Road Course July 19th

K

KingpinSVT

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
2,634
Location
Ocala, FL
I'm copying this post from another forum (8th gen civic). I registered myself already. You'll need to bring a helmet as I don't know that loaners are available.

From reading around a bit, I don't believe that the price is firm. I think it goes up if there are no shows as the cost of the track rental is firm. Please don't register if you aren't going to show.

Also, if you want to meet me in Ocala before heading up that is fine. Just let me know.

So the next road course meet here at Gainesville is July 19th. They limit the slots to only 20 cars and there are usually a few who don't show up. You can get more runs than your car can handle. You just run continuously. I usually go 4-5 laps at a time before pulling into the pit area to let the brakes and turbo cool down a bit.
Oh also some of the local guys came out last time and I raced their cars around too. The cost covers the driver. They don't care what or how many cars you drive.
Cost is usually about $85, which as some of you may know is hella cheap for a road course with this limited amount of cars on the track.
It's real easy to get there. In fact it's right near my house so we can meet up near my place before rolling out to the track.

WHAT: Race meet
WHEN: July 19th, 09, 9am-1pm
WHERE: Gainesville Raceway
11211 N County Road 225
Gainesville, FL 32609-4407
(352) 377-0046
COST: $85
GROUP: http://www.gvilleroadrace.com/
Go to the website and click "Register for an Event" and sign up using your first and last name and email address. You'll then get a paypal request for the funds afterwards.
WHAT TO BRING: Helmet. Cooler with drinks and food would be nice too.

You get up to some high speeds on the straights. Come see what the car and you are capable of. I've been out there without any brake work at all and it's not really an issue. I'd just go 4 laps then do one cool down lap then pull off and let the car cool for a few minutes.

As of right now there are only 8 out of 20 slots available! Don't miss out! This isn't auto-x!
Click to expand...
 
I don't think I'm going to make it now. I just bought another car. I should probably add it to my sig.
 
So the event ended up being today (there was a typo on the website) but I did not bump this since there was no interest. . .

Anyway, I better see some CEGers show up to the next one. You can see on the website they are monthly, I think I'm going again in September. This group rules! $80 for an all you can run day is great. It works like this:

Capped at 20 cars
5 cars on the track at once
You wait in line to get on (usually no more than 2 people are waiting to get on)
You can enter and leave the pit area as you please
No limit on how long you stay on, or how many trips out you take
Once one car pits, another is allowed on the track
Wait time to get on was about 3-5 minutes.

We would usually go 4-5 laps with 1 or 2 cool down and pull off. The guys with actual race cars were staying out for maybe 8-10. I ran probably 25 (give or take) laps and I spent plenty of time in the pits checking out cars, BSing, and letting the car cool off. If you really wanted to, it would be easy to get 40+ laps in 3.5 hours we had the track rented if you really wanted.

So much fun, highly recommended.

Cars included:
Civics (our group of 3)
A few full race Nissan 240's (one with an LS1 swap :drool: )
Exige
S2000s
3 series
Full race SRT4
Mustang
Corvette
Miata
. . . . .

Great variety, lots of fun! Nice people too. All in all a well run group and well worth the $$.

I'll post pics and vids later when I get them off of my dads camera.
 
If I didn't spend this months disposable income on the merkur, I would have been there. I can't spend any more money right now. I wanted to be there. I should defintely be there next time.
 
Yeah I can understand that. I would like you to come sometime so you can give pointers. We'll go out in different groups so you can watch.:cool:

The guy that started the group is serious in SCCA (actually competes on the circuit) and as I was chatting with him he gave me some tips on the race line and it made a world of difference. I went from almost redlining 3rd gear (would start braking at ~7000 RPM, RL is 8200) on the front straight to touching 4th. We didn't talk about the full course, but on the few corners we talked about it was like night and day.

On a good and bad note, I wasted my stock all seasons. Front tires are down to the wear bars on the sides. I have 8000 miles on this car. I don't care cause they SUCK! They are the WORST tire I've driven on. I'll be happy when I can get rid of them.
 
Hard tires will wear out faster when driven fast because they slide a lot. If you plan on going a few times a year, some good summer street tires is the way to go. Or you can do what I did and get spare wheels and tires and change them at the event. If you show up to a lot of autocross and track days this is actually a cheaper option if you make your street tires last a long time.
 
Right now I am on Michelin MXM4's which are craptastic and expensive. I slid all over the place. Damn things were screaming. The good news is that I was running 100% DD weight (full spare, jack, etc.) with a full tank of gas and was running very consistent lap times. I was also matching the times of some of the more modded and lightened SIs; i.e. 2 door, no spare, no jack, no trunk liner on coil overs, lighter wheels, summer tires, more performance mods, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top