From our friends at CART:

IT’S TIME KIDDIES…NJMP....LIGHTNING COURSE

FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2009

Come, Play, Challenge your spirit and your abilities at this brand new, premier racing facility. One WILD race course. One and nine tenths miles (1.9) of smooth, wide asphalt waiting to challenge everything you can bring. Ten corners, two major elevation changes, hidden apex turns, a high speed light bulb and one of the longest straights around. This circuit is a must do. Must do. No other words to describe it.

A NEW STIMULUS INCENTIVE FROM C.A.R.T. – THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN REDUCED IN PRICE TO $235. WE JUST PAID FOR YOUR FUEL!!!

Time to DO IT! If you responded to the flyer it’s time to put up the funds, book the hotel rooms and come down to play! If you didn’t respond to the flyer – here is your chance to redeem yourself and take on the Ligtning!

This is CART's first new venue event in years. Brand new venue, brand new race track, superb pavement, challenging race course, fantastic facility. This is a very “forgiving” track – LOTS of runoff room if you make a mistake, no ruts or rocks – smooth runoff. Come and play. Be challenged. Be a racer. NJMP Lightning Raceway. To see a map of the track: http://www.njmotorsportspark.com/tracks.html

For video: http http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfyeqK2AeOo

Time to pony up, make your reservations!! At $235 you can’t pass this up! We will be sharing the track with the Aston Martin Owners Association – the schedule of track time will be:

8:30 – 9:30 AMOC
9:30 – 10:30 CART
10:30 – 11:30 AMOC
11:30 – 12:30 CART
12:30 – 1:30 LUNCH – TRACK CLOSED
1:30 – 2:30 AMOC
2:30 – 3:30 CART
3:30 – 4:30 AMOC
4:30 – 6:30 CART

TO REGISTER: Go to CARTCT.COM, click on TRACK DAYS FORMS / REGISTRATION FORMS. You can either follow the snail mail instructions on the form or cut and paste it into an email (or word document), fill it out and email to joerg.bode@snet.net (our registrar). You can the pay online via PayPal or send Jay a check.

HOTEL INFO:
Country Inn by Carlson, Millville , NJ (856) 825-3100. I have stayed in this one and it is a very nice hotel, about 6 miles (10 minutes) from the track. It has a nice restaurant and bar right in the hotel, plenty of room for trailers, very nice accommodations. Our rate is $99 a night for each night – King or two doubles. Ask for the CART rate. http://www.countryinns.com/reservation/ ... eSearch.do

Another option in the area is the Wingate, by Windham in Vineland , NJ (856) 690-9900. This is a very nice chain hotel at a discount rate of $85 per night. Again – ask for the CART rate. The track is about 11 miles from this hotel. It features a Bennigan's on the property for food & drink.

http://www.wingatehotels.com/Wingate/co ... tyId=12254

As a final option there is also a Days Inn in Vineland , NJ , but I cannot vouch for it one way or another. This one is 12 miles from the track. Online rates are $58.65 Thursday, $76.75 Friday. Best rates are available online only at daysinn.com.

If you want to see CART continue to branch out to new venues we need to make this event a success!

Register online, or email me for additional info at dana.robbins@att.net

See you in New Jersey !

Dana Robbins
Secretary, Cart

_________________
Keith Hultmark
2009 370Z Touring - Sold (5 years owned)
1993 300ZX - Sold (5 years owned)
1976 Porsche 912E. #163 of 2200 - SOLD (3 years owned)
2018 BMW 330i GT xdrive daily driver
2004 BMW Z4 3.0i ….it is a Z

I'm there, whether #2807 is finished by then or not! No way I'm missing a chance to watch and help CART host a bunch of screaming Z cars and Aston Martins. I'd pay that much for a Pit Pass!

Making my reservations and sending my CART Dollars this week. Hope I zee somebody I know down there. If not, I'm going anyway.

Frank T

Wish my car was together! I am going to Watkins Glen that same weekend and plan to do the bigger track down in NJ on fathers day weekend. Frank, be sure to take some pics for us!

_________________
Clive Bogle President - New York Z Car Club - NYZCC.COM
1971 240Z - LS1/T56
1974 260Z-L30
1976 Fairlady Z

Shall try ~ but hopefully I'll have my hands too full of stick and wheel to do that!

*(Wow ~ that top-of-the-hill 90* right hander at the end of the front straight looks challenging ~ bet it collects me at least once!)

The conspiring with CART on these events is a great thing, when the 240 racer is done I shall surely partake. Come on Fall 2009!

Got my motel reserved. Will take my video camera and hope to bring back some good shotz.

*(I just KNOW Liam will bring his NISMO down there and lunch on some Aston Martins).

Frank

Leaving today ~ Z you CARTies down there. My #02807 isn't ready so I won't be driving, but I'll help however you let me and am really looking fwd to Z-ing you guys in action.

Weather is sketchy but that should add some excitement to the action!

Any of you CTZCC members heading down there, look me up at the Country Inn.

After the Track Day I will continue south into MD to retrieve the L28 which came with my car when I bought it back last year. There was no room for it on the trailer with the Z, so I left it until a more convenient opportunity arose ~ which is now.

Frank T
MbrshpDir/CTZCC

Well Zeeple, I am very proud to announce I have attended my first Track Day with the CT Autocross and Rallye Team (CART-CT) and it was a BLAST! These guys are as much fun as safe, professional drivers are allowed to be and I wouldn't have missed this for the world.

My 240Z was not ready for this event so I went without it, so CART took me in for free! That actually worked out well, since it gave me time to help out a small bit and meet all the drivers at a relaxed pace. We were on the track from 7AM until well past 10PM, with 5 hours of driving time allotted to the 33 CART cars and 5 hours allotted for the 5 Aston Martins which showed up. Wisely, they decided to swap the action with an hour for CART, then an hour for AMOC, all day long. That gave the drivers an hour to rest and work on their cars between heats.

I stayed at the Country Inn, about 8 miles from the track. CART got us some really good rates so that saved me some money. I knew I was in the right place as soon as I arrived ~ the parkinglot was full of hot cars, some on trailers but many which got driven to the event. After checking in the clerk told me how to find the guys at the track, where they intended to eat dinner. I was greeted at the main gate by the friendliest (and prettiest!) racetrack staff I have ever met. I was registered and given a wristband which allowed me total access to the Lightning Course and all facilities on the racetrack. I found the guys eating dinner at the Driver's Club restaurant and we pigged out on some really good food and chatted about the next day's event.

Overnight it rained heavily but had stopped when I left the motel at 0630. The track was wet but nobody cared. CART had the entire paddock to themselves until the AMs began arriving (in big transporters, of course:roll:), but the weather had scared most of them away and only 4 Aston cars, one Z-06 Corvette and one Ferrari showed up.

The track team coordinated with the CART management about track rules and issued radios to ensure communication thru the day, then they stepped back and let CART run the show. CART set up the timing equipment and conducted rigorous Safety and Tech Inspections on drivers and cars. They held two driver meetings in the clubhouse and I was impressed by how straightforward they were about serious stuff ~ this was going to be a SAFE event first, THEN we were also gonna have fun!

We let the AMOC have the wet track first (hoping they would dry it!). They brought out their Works factory racer, their 1954 DB2, a street-legal DBS (with Automatic Transmission!), a "street" Ferrari and a gorgeous 1961 DB4GT (these are my favorite cars in the world), which was worth $2.5 MILLION dollars five years ago:shock: It had been the Spaceship of its day, placing 2nd in the 1962 Targa Florio with Innes Ireland and Phil Hill at the helm. Someone also brought a modified Corvette Z-06 with 505 RWHP which repeatedly reached 171mph at the end of the front straight.

The Ferrari fell off the track at the viscious Turn One, an uphill right hander at the end of the front straightaway; the Apex is blind as you enter the turn, braking hard from more than 120 mph. The Astons all did better work. (They also dried the track a lot!:wink:)

Our 33 cars got the second hour and had a BLAST! Altho a few tires dipped off the pavement here and there, there was no damage to any car. As the track dried out and the sun rose higher, speeds increased.

Because control had been passed to the CART mngt, the flag tower on the front straight was open. I felt it was a great place to shoot photos from, and spent much of the day feeling the cars blast past me, 10ft below, at over 120mph. Better than sex!

In the afternoon I got a ride in CTZCC/CART member Liam Dwyer's hot 350Z NISMO, with CTZCC/CART member NickyFngrs at the helm. Bob Sharp had autographed the NISMO's injectors and Liam SWEARS that shaved 5 seconds off the car's lap times .

Nicky is an aggressive but smooth driver and after warming the tires for two laps he was shaving the apexes of each turn and drifting out into the front straight in a perfect line. We saw a consistent 127mph at the end of the straight, then screamed into that dreaded uphill Turn One at over 90mph each lap. At the opposite end of the course was "The Lightbulb", a very fast constant-radius sweeping right-hander which was built to duplicate the famous NurburgRing Carousel in the German Grand Prix (but reversed; the Carousel is a left-hander). You can actually accelerate around this wide sweeper to the limit of your lateral adhesion, like a skidpad. We overtook one of my favorite CART cars there, a thunderous 1965 Mustang V8, and in my enthusiasm I waved out the window to the driver (Marc) ~ NOT a smart thing to do at 110 mph! (Keep your arms inside the racecar, please). My shoulder's still sore.

At the end of the day we all gathered back at the Driver's Club for another great dinner, much laughter and razzing about each memory of the day. The walls there are covered with wonderful oil paintings of the Golden Age of Racing, when Grands Prix were raced thru the streets of European cities in open-wheel Bugattis, Maseratis, Ferraris and sleek Mercedes Benz monsters, and studying the detail of each painting you could identify the racers themselves ~ Phil Hill, Lorenzo Bandini, Hermann Stuck, Rudi Caracciola, Tazio Novolari, Richie Ginther, and the Great One, Juan Manuel Fangio. The atmosphere was electric and somehow 'holy'. We lifted a toast to "Internal Combustion and Wind in the Face!", then one to Brian Moran, CART's VP who was still with us in spirit, and it was time to go.

I wish I could have had every one of you with me. CART's Dana Robbins and I have pledged across our mashed potatoes to intermesh CTZCC and CART in the future to the best of our ability. It will certainly be a reward for each of us!

I'll try to Post a few of my pictures here later.
Z ya!
Frank T
MbrshpDir/CTZCC

Thanks for the report Frank. Nicky took me around the Autocross course.... he is a great driver.

I hope some of our interested Members will take the opportunity to join in some of these CART Events.

_________________
Keith Hultmark
2009 370Z Touring - Sold (5 years owned)
1993 300ZX - Sold (5 years owned)
1976 Porsche 912E. #163 of 2200 - SOLD (3 years owned)
2018 BMW 330i GT xdrive daily driver
2004 BMW Z4 3.0i ….it is a Z

Wow! Great report Frank. Sounds like an awesome day and something we will want to see greater participation in down the road. Thanks for the update. Ross

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

Frank thanks for coming down, it was great to have you there. Glad you enjoyed the ride. Post the pics up, we'll put them on our site and make sure you get the recognition you deserve.
The day was great, as it turns out, I did beat that Evo, the corrected results are on our webpage. Now all Nick and I have to do is clean up our laps and we're sure to drop 2 or 3 seconds off those times

_________________
CART Activites Director
2007 Nismo 350z

Thanks Liam ~ I came away with a whole new appreciation for your magnificent NISMO. It's a total G-Force machine. Even Nicky openly admitted your car is set up better than any others. Glad you had just changed the brakes and had good rubber on the car for my spin!

I remember wondering if the doors were locked!

I also want to know who had that black New Jersey 350Z, with the incredible exhaust note? I have him on video, blasting thru Turn One, with his trumpets echoing thru the countryside. I gave him a CTZCC Z-Spotter Card, but he hasn't answered us yet.

I'm working on making a 15 minute CD of my video from the front straight flag tower to share with all our CART buddies.

And one more thing I have to mention ~ altho I was a 'New Guy' and few of the drivers knew me, I had offers to drive several of the cars there! I found that remarkably generous and was very impressed by the general CART fraternity. Thank you, one and all. You guyz are great.

I just wish you all drove Zs!

Frank