September 1, 2008

My wife and I spent this past Saturday & Sunday at the new Thunderbolt track at NJ Motorsports Park and let me tell you, it started out poorly and didn't get a whole lot better throughout the weekend.

I was at the SVRA Historics a few weeks ago and when I spoke to the track official, he told me that for the Grand-Am weekend, I would be able to drive into the track and park wherever the designated areas are just like the SVRA weekend. But - "just get here early to claim your sport as there will be more people here.". OK - No problem. So I show up Saturday morning around 8:45 AM with a loaded down RAV4. Me, wife, my photography gear, 2 folding chairs, 2 coolers, monopod, step ladder for shooting over fence, etc. As we pull in the track, the guards would NOT let us in the track. They made us park in this side "parking lot". NO, I'm sorry, it was not really a parking lot. It was a giant sand box full of dirty sand!! It was horrific. As people drove in all you saw was the dust flying through the air and parking lot to the point where you had to turn around and cover your eyes and you couldn't even see 3 feet in front of you. When we left it was like one of those volcano movies where there was a good quarter inch of dust covering our entire vehicle. I was convinced the track owned a portable car wash system and was going to be charging to wash cars at the exit! ;)

So here we are in the parking lot trying to figure out what we can take and carry and determine what we can't. I grab my photography bag, a cooler after swapping stuff from and into the other, and my wife grabbed the two folding chairs. The parking lot is a very far distance from the track itself. They had 2 trolleys that only took you to right before the pedestrian bridge which is still a good ways away from the inside of the track. Not a good situation for the poor people who are disabled and/or handicapped. You could not go more than 5 minutes without hearing angry people talking about the dust and the trolleys and not being able to enter the track. So we get to the bridge and realize this just isn't going to work well and see that there is a place that rents golf carts. $100.00 a day, $175.00 for two days. So I turn the "I'M A SUCKER" light on my forehead on and pay the $175.00, go back to the vehicle while swallowing dust and load up the golf cart with the rest of our gear. The golf cart worked out fantastic even if it was a ripoff. There weren't suppose to be any bleachers or grand stands, but they had two small, temporary ones set up in two different spots that were ok, but full most of the time so we never sat in them.

It was somewhat windy and you'd have mini dust storms every once in a while but it was horrible any time a car put a wheel off anywhere. The picture to the above left pretty much demonstrates what you experienced any time a vehicle touched anywhere off the track. When a car put wheels off at the bend on the back stretch, the cars behind it literally pulled over and almost stopped because they couldn't see. I was so surprised there wasn't a huge wreck on that back stretch due to that. There were, however, a few accidents and spins back there and I got photos of a Ferrari Challenge car spinning and nailing the guardrail hard right in front of us. After that wreck a flat bed truck came out with tires and they added like 10 - 15 feet of additional tire barriers in that area. Unfortunately, it didn't help that Ferrari out much at that point.

They tried watering down sections of the track to keep the dust down, but it didn't seem to help the situation a whole lot. It seemed like the Koni Challenge drivers were the ones getting off track the most out of all of the series that raced.

I don't have press access privileges so I'm just another 'spectator' at the events. However, the good part about that was we met alot of very nice and friendly people. No matter where we went on the track, we were able to strike up conversations and talk and have a great time with people, even if it were nothing more than listening to the shortcomings of the preparations for this event. I met another individual who was a huge historic fan like myself and we talked historic racing, Can-Am, Trans-Am, etc for quite awhile.

At the hotel, there was a guy with a beautiful silver Ferrari 599 GTB and he did NOT look happy about his car being filled and covered with dust. I asked him if he was going back to the 'Dust Bowl' and his response would not be something I should quote here. ;) The clerk at the front desk said everyone who was at the track was complaining about the same things. Unfortunately for the track and it's owners, they did not make a very good first impression on us, or the people who we conversed with. It was pretty much universal no matter where we went. I know I won't make a huge effort to return to any event there until I've read and confirmed they have made huge upgrades to the facility.

Although the above is 95% complaining, we did have a good time outside getting fried in the sun. Although to be completely honest, I'm not sure if it's sunburn or wind burn from being sand blasted - literally. We met alot of great people and got to see some cool cars and racing on the track. There are two sounds that stand out from the weekend though. The Ferrari's "burping" when they let off the throttle and the sound of the Mazda Rotary engines in the RX8s as they wind them up. Nothing on the track sounds like those Rotary engines at high RPM!

The good news for NJ Motorsports Park is that they have the 'potential' to have one beautiful facility there and the track layout seems pretty interesting, if not a little narrow. If they can improve on the amenities for the fans and spectators, it could prove to be a great place to visit for some good racing and a good time.

You can view all the images from this event by Clicking Here

August 13, 2008

Hello and thank you for visiting my site, The Racing Historian! The site is very much a work in progress but I hope to have the bulk of my images up within the next week or so, and then work on getting all the keywords, descriptions, and other details updated as well.

Last weekend I attended the SVRA Historic Races as the new NJ Motorsports Park in Millville, NJ. Had a great time and took alot of pictures. I was walking alot of track trying to find good places to shoot as I'll be going back there for the Grand-Am weekend at the end of August. No Grand Stands of any kind to speak of, so you better know your spots and take claim of them. ;)

Thanks again for visiting and please feel free to leave comments and sign my guest book!