OHPOC hosts NE Ohio track event/weekend

[preludeman92]

Hey guys,
it's that time of year. All the spring and early summer meets are starting to show their faces. My prelude group is hosting National Prelude Meet 2008 (we did last year too) and decided to open the invite to everyone. Don't get me wrong, you will not see only preludes. Last year we had 2 STi's, a 350Z, a G35, an Elise, and 3 S2K's tag along with us. The turn out has been small in recent years... about 35 cars show up, 12-15 track, and they all show in our show.

Here is the official link to info, but I'll sumarize here.

June 19th - meet and greet at Americas Best Value Inn
June 20th - track day at Nelson Ledges Road Course
June 21st - show at Mid Ohio, tuner challenge, and grand am races
June 22nd - watch race and departure

This is a Thursday evening thru Sunday event.
Thursday night we get together and say our "Hi's" at the hotel near the track. Last minute wrenching is permitted.
Then Friday we get up early to head to the track for the fun day. We get a special rate of $100/car on the track, spectators/pit crew is free. The track is open for basically 8 hours, and if you run every session at 1 skill level you will be on the track for roughly 2 hours/120 miles. You are allowed to participate in any skill level you want, and as many as you want. The owners don't really care much. The track is fun, and about the only place most of us will ever see 110+mph legally. It's a fast-ish track that's simple, but challenging at the same time.
After the track day we travel about 90 minutes south to Mid-Ohio Raceway for the Tripple Crown Tuner Challenge /Emco Gears Classic weekend. We will be camping Friday and Saturday night.
Saturday during the day there are several NASA races that happen, and you can choose to participate in the Tripple Crown Tuner Challenge where you actually get to be on the track for a few minutes. It's fun and there are awards afterwards. Also, we park in the infield for our own carshow (Mid Ohio hosts their own, with other awards). We give away trophies/awards for this.
Saturday night we head to a restraunt to eat/drink and hand out awards. Then we head to Wal-Mart for alcohol before heading back to the track to camp and party. It's a big party.
Sunday afternoon people wake up to the roar of the ALMS cars going by at 150+MPH a couple hundred yards away. You can leave whenever, but the race is great fun to watch.

I'm the official Liaison for CB7tuner, so any questions can be fielded here or on the offical site.

I look forward to having some of you show up!

[HondaFan81]

Sounds great. I will keep this in mind. Let you know later on an answer.

[preludeman92]

The official site is up and running now.
Guess we had to threaten the life of the person hosting it

http://www.npm08.com/index.html

Anyways, looking forward to seeing some of you there

[kc8enb07]

looks like alot of fun, i was only 8miles from mid-ohio thursday... but had no time to stop . is there alot of tech inspection to run?

[preludeman92]

There is absolutely no tech inspection at Nelson Ledges, other than they will pull the car off the track if it looks dangerous.
Mid-Ohio checks for helmets. That's about it.

[HondaFan81]

From your group's experience, how do you guys check and prepare your daily driver cars for road course racing at both of these places? Be detailed please.

[NAiL05]

So I take it they have helmet rental. So as long as your car is in good running order you can run. I thought they would at least make sure brakes and all that were in checek and no leaking fluids. Interesting. Hmm its about an 8hr drive for me gonna have to see how gas prices are.

[preludeman92]

We go over our cars very well. Change appropiate fluids, bleed brakes, check for pad life, check to make sure all of the calipers slide correctly and the car stops straight. Then we go over the suspension on any car that will see the road course, check for loose bolts or busted bushings. In side we make sure the seats are bolted down securely, check for rips/tears in the seat belts/harnesses, and make sure all loose things are either bolted down or removed. If all that checks out then we give the car the green light to track.
Once at the track we fill the tires to at least 4psi over what we street drive them at, check the lug nuts with a torque wrench (I over torque them to 105ft/lbs) and over fill the oil by 1/2 a quart. After each session we check fluid levels and most of us check lug nuts and tire pressure. After any off track excursion we typically check for the obvious broken/bent stuff.

Nelson Ledges has helmet rental, but the Mid-Ohio doesn't. Either bring your own or borrow from someone that isn't running. The last couple years the Tuner Challenge isn't been real hard on cars... it's 2 quick corners then 2 attempts at a stop box. A stock 350z won overall last year.

Both places say they have tech inspection, but I've never seen any... it'd take too long to do that.

[HondaFan81]

Thx preludeman. Any dummy low oil psi lights come on while hard cornering on road courses? Any mods done on these cars to prevent that?

[preludeman92]

Never seen any dummy lights or mechanical failures occur... just a busted radiator in the 3rd heat that we suspected was near the end of it's life anyways. We just couldn't get it replaced in time.

Brakes and tires have been the only casualities I've seen... even when you have an off-track excursion.

These cars are essentially stock preludes with just bolt-ons and suspension upgrades. You should bring the white accord out for just a session or two.

[NAiL05]

Nice. That sounds good. I would think thats what the extra 1/2 quart of oil is for since oil is going to sludging around. Thats what my friend does with his s2k when we go auto xing. He always puts a lil more in just in case. That sounds like a fun event though. Always wanted to check out the mid ohio track to see what it was like.

[preludeman92]

The extra oil is to prevent any idiot lights or starving the engine of oil. FYI, I went through 5 quarts of oil in 97 miles last year, but then again, my motor is/was seriouisly burning oil. My f22 prelude more than kept up with h22 preludes and stomped a modded 03 accord sedan. The other cars in the group used about a quart, so plan accordingly.

1 other thing, plan on eating a tank of fuel if you run 1 level for every set of heats. H22's get about 9-11 MPGs, my f22 got 16mpg, and the k24 powered 03 accord got 18mpg. The subie STi that joined us got 6mpgs.

Remember, Mid-Ohio is primarily to watch others race though. We'll be on that track for about 30 minutes. You do get to do a parade lap though (at least years past have had that). 3 years ago, the first 20 hondas to sign up for show to the tuner challenge got a free trip to the Acura High Performance Driving school. That was fun. Too bad I was number 21 and wasn't 18 yet. I still went with the rest of my prelude group and got to watch.

[NAiL05]

Oh man that sounds badass. Driving school would be fun. Just to go to one is already expensive as hell!

[preludeman92]

Come on peole! I want to see some CB7's out on the track!

[preludeman92]

Just an FYI for those curious about the track, some of us are going to the first fun day of the season on April 18th.