Hi guys,
On behalf of the Pantera Club of Northern California, I am part of a two-man committee staging a two-day track event at the Reno-Fernley Raceway in the town on Fernley, NV, about 30 miles east of Reno. The event will be held on Thursday and Friday, 11-12 June, in conjunction with the five-day Pantera Owners Club of American Fun Rally. Thanks to extensive sponsorship, this will be one of the least expensive track events you'll ever find, and we're hoping to encourage GT40 owners to come and join us!
All the information on the track event can be found on the PCNC website. This is a link to the general event intro page:
Reno-Fernley Speed Trials
Links to specific information (including registration, tech rules, schedule etc.) are under the "Quick Links" banner on the right side of the page.
A couple of weeks ago, we drove up there and actually put boots on the ground, in order to select the optimal configuration from the dozen or more options available. Fellow GT40 forum dude Julian Kift and local Pantera racer Larry Stock rode along with us to give his inputs as well.
I was surprised at the sheer size of the place--this track is *big*. It also has considerably more elevation than I realized--and elevation is a great thing in a track.
We spent a few minutes looking at the paper track maps, considering the different possible configurations (seemingly dozens of them), and then loaded up in and went out for a few laps.
We drove six or eight different configurations (at least), checking each of them for a variety of conditions. These are the considerations we were considering consideringly:
1) We want the track to be safe for first-time drivers. That means no tricky corners that pitch you into a retaining wall or a ditch, or anything like that.
2) We want the track to be as fast and flowing as possible, which favors relatively big, heavy, powerful cars like the Pantera and the GT40. Broad sweeping corners and long straights are preferred over tight, technical, twisty go-kart corners.
3) We want the track to be visible to the spectators to as great a degree as possible. Although we wouldn't choose a less-suitable stretch of pavement just to make it more visible from the paddock, we would tend to choose the more visible of two nominally equal pieces of pavement, i.e. visibility was a tie-breaker.
4) We want the track to be somewhat reasonable to learn. If we ran the entire configuration, drivers would have to memorize 23 different corners, a virtually impossible task in just two short days. Track length is not the be-all and end-all; a shorter, faster track with fewer corners that you take twice as often is definitely superior to a longer track that is frustrating to drive, difficult to learn, and bogged down with one 2nd gear corner after another.
After about an hour of consideration of the various layouts, including driving several stretches of pavement literally forwards and backwards, we all agreed that this was the most Pantera- and GT40-friendly layout:
It's difficult to get a grasp of the size of this track just by looking at a one-dimensional map, so let me talk you through it.
The front stretch is entered from a left-hand corner that is fast enough to be taken in the top of 2nd gear or bottom of 3rd gear (I suppose it depends on how much torque you have). You will quickly get up into 4th and then 5th gear if you're really speedy. (Larry says he gets up to about 140 mph at the braking zone for turn 1, and the track manager said that superbikes are getting up to about 190 mph there!)
Turn one is just a little flick to the left, with a pronounced bump in it; this leads into a series of esses that will help shed speed, culminating in a very hard braking zone.
This leads into turns 2 and 3, which is really a long, decreasing radius double-apex left hairpin. You have to hug the inside of the corner at the exit to set up properly for turn 4, which is just a righthand kink that you drive straight through, aiming for turn 5.
The track forks at this point; we'll be taking the right fork, which leads to a very tight, very steep uphill right-hand corner, turn 5. You are all the way on the left edge of the track as you enter this 2nd gear corner, point uphill to the apex on the right side and roll into the throttle. Now you are climbing a fairly steep hill, negotiating esses and modulating power to maintain a more or less constant speed through turns 6 and 7.
The track crests as you approach turn 8. The pavement isn't visible, and there's no indication as to which direction the track goes, so drivers will have to approach this section with caution until they've committed it to memory. There is a corner worker station at the top of the hill, and it will be crucial to consult it as you approach. Speeds are relatively low still, probably still in 2nd gear, and then you're faced with a very tight, off-camber left-hand corner (8A) that crests the hill and starts gently downhill. It's tighter than you think it is, and it sends you into turn 9A, which is similarly tighter than you think, decreasing radius. (The track map shows it as an increasing radius corner, but it seemed to tighten up on me and catch me by surprise).
This leads into another tight, 2nd gear left-hand corner (9B leads into turn 18, as part of the track is bypassed). It's initially banked in a favorable way, but at the apex it suddenly goes slightly off-camber even as the track falls away into a steep downhill (called 'the slide'). Although the entry is slow, gravity combined with very favorable banking and a dip effect at the bottom of the hill means that you will be flat on the gas through the right-hand Turn 19 onto the back straight.
This straight is VERY wide, although the surface isn't the same from one side to the other. Parts of it are very smooth, while others have undulations, which won't be noticeable to the Group C drivers. Larry reports that at the speeds he's going, with his fairly stiff suspension, it blurs his vision if he's not on the favorable line. At our velocities, we couldn't notice anything.
In any case, you'll be through 3rd gear and into 4th as you pass through a slight right-hand kink into a braking zone for turn 20. This was the only section of the track that looked as though it could be dangerous, as there is a tire wall on the outside of the corner (with a fair bit of runoff room first). The track manager said that in the history of the track, nobody has ever hit that wall, but we are taking no chances, so we are going to establish the end of the passing zone well in advance of the corner (probably at the kink), so as to preclude anybody from getting dive-bombed by a passing car, breaking concentration and then leaving the track.
Snick down into 3rd gear and turn in hard on the gas, through a slight flick and approach Turn 21, a fairly sharp hairpin left.
On paper, this looks like a very slow corner. It most assuredly is not. It is heavily, heavily banked, almost like a NASCAR track, and this affords the opportunity for considerably more speed than you might imagine. Then turn-in point is literally halfway through the corner, at the very top, opposite the "2" in the diagram. You stay to the very outside of the track until reaching that point, then suddenly turn hard left and dive downhill towards the apex which is directly to the left of the "C" in the diagram.
Reportedly, people typically don't spin here; instead, they run wide at the exit, and fortunately there is plenty of smooth-ish runoff there.
Larry demonstrated his corner technique for us several times, as the rest of us stood at the corner station and watched. He approached the hairpin high in 2nd gear, and was going about 60 mph (!) at the top of the track at the turn-in point. He'd shift into 3rd at the exit of the corner.
A gentle right flick prevents insane speeds from building as you approach the final corner. The corner is banked which allows greater speed, and the track crests at the exit so you can't actually see the edge of the track from the apex of the corner. The pit entry is here, and so there is considerably more pavement than you would initially expect, which will allow people to go quite a bit faster through this corner than they might otherwise believe at first.
Like I said, this is probably a high 2nd or low 3rd gear corner, leading back onto the front straight.
This lap has a good combination of flat-out straight sections, high-speed esses, steep uphill esses, low-speed off-camber blind crests, a steep downhill corner with a G-out at the bottom, and a banked hairpin. There is literally something for everybody on this track.
From a spectator standpoint, the whole track is visible from the paddock except for the tight, slow section between turns 5 and 18. Additionally, the paddock features shaded areas with picnic tables and several viewing areas along various parts of the front straight.
Dry camping will be available, and there is 24 hour security there, so you can park your RV in the paddock, drive into Reno for the dinners etc., then return to the track at any time.
The drive from the track to Reno is under 30 minutes; I figure with traffic, it will probably be right at 30 minutes from the hotel parking lot to the track parking lot.
I am really excited about this upcoming event. We have run three different tracks in Las Vegas in past years, and I'm convinced that this one is profoundly better than any we've seen before. Although parts of it will be hard work, much of it will be WFO, fun for the driver and spectators alike.
A guy named Gregg Esakoff has already confirmed that he will be bringing his awesome 750 hp Pantera race car out of retirement to run this event, and we are working on convincing Dennis Quella of Pantera Performance Center to bring his tube-frame Pantera race car as well, so there should be plenty to see in the race group. It would be great to see some GT40 race cars in the mix as well.
The track will be relatively easy to learn, and will afford C-group drivers a good mix of different types of corners, along with long straights for some big speed fun. I hope we can convince some western states GT40s to come join the fun.
I think everybody is going to have a GREAT time here!!!! :thumbsup:
On behalf of the Pantera Club of Northern California, I am part of a two-man committee staging a two-day track event at the Reno-Fernley Raceway in the town on Fernley, NV, about 30 miles east of Reno. The event will be held on Thursday and Friday, 11-12 June, in conjunction with the five-day Pantera Owners Club of American Fun Rally. Thanks to extensive sponsorship, this will be one of the least expensive track events you'll ever find, and we're hoping to encourage GT40 owners to come and join us!
All the information on the track event can be found on the PCNC website. This is a link to the general event intro page:
Reno-Fernley Speed Trials
Links to specific information (including registration, tech rules, schedule etc.) are under the "Quick Links" banner on the right side of the page.
A couple of weeks ago, we drove up there and actually put boots on the ground, in order to select the optimal configuration from the dozen or more options available. Fellow GT40 forum dude Julian Kift and local Pantera racer Larry Stock rode along with us to give his inputs as well.
I was surprised at the sheer size of the place--this track is *big*. It also has considerably more elevation than I realized--and elevation is a great thing in a track.
We spent a few minutes looking at the paper track maps, considering the different possible configurations (seemingly dozens of them), and then loaded up in and went out for a few laps.
We drove six or eight different configurations (at least), checking each of them for a variety of conditions. These are the considerations we were considering consideringly:
1) We want the track to be safe for first-time drivers. That means no tricky corners that pitch you into a retaining wall or a ditch, or anything like that.
2) We want the track to be as fast and flowing as possible, which favors relatively big, heavy, powerful cars like the Pantera and the GT40. Broad sweeping corners and long straights are preferred over tight, technical, twisty go-kart corners.
3) We want the track to be visible to the spectators to as great a degree as possible. Although we wouldn't choose a less-suitable stretch of pavement just to make it more visible from the paddock, we would tend to choose the more visible of two nominally equal pieces of pavement, i.e. visibility was a tie-breaker.
4) We want the track to be somewhat reasonable to learn. If we ran the entire configuration, drivers would have to memorize 23 different corners, a virtually impossible task in just two short days. Track length is not the be-all and end-all; a shorter, faster track with fewer corners that you take twice as often is definitely superior to a longer track that is frustrating to drive, difficult to learn, and bogged down with one 2nd gear corner after another.
After about an hour of consideration of the various layouts, including driving several stretches of pavement literally forwards and backwards, we all agreed that this was the most Pantera- and GT40-friendly layout:
It's difficult to get a grasp of the size of this track just by looking at a one-dimensional map, so let me talk you through it.
The front stretch is entered from a left-hand corner that is fast enough to be taken in the top of 2nd gear or bottom of 3rd gear (I suppose it depends on how much torque you have). You will quickly get up into 4th and then 5th gear if you're really speedy. (Larry says he gets up to about 140 mph at the braking zone for turn 1, and the track manager said that superbikes are getting up to about 190 mph there!)
Turn one is just a little flick to the left, with a pronounced bump in it; this leads into a series of esses that will help shed speed, culminating in a very hard braking zone.
This leads into turns 2 and 3, which is really a long, decreasing radius double-apex left hairpin. You have to hug the inside of the corner at the exit to set up properly for turn 4, which is just a righthand kink that you drive straight through, aiming for turn 5.
The track forks at this point; we'll be taking the right fork, which leads to a very tight, very steep uphill right-hand corner, turn 5. You are all the way on the left edge of the track as you enter this 2nd gear corner, point uphill to the apex on the right side and roll into the throttle. Now you are climbing a fairly steep hill, negotiating esses and modulating power to maintain a more or less constant speed through turns 6 and 7.
The track crests as you approach turn 8. The pavement isn't visible, and there's no indication as to which direction the track goes, so drivers will have to approach this section with caution until they've committed it to memory. There is a corner worker station at the top of the hill, and it will be crucial to consult it as you approach. Speeds are relatively low still, probably still in 2nd gear, and then you're faced with a very tight, off-camber left-hand corner (8A) that crests the hill and starts gently downhill. It's tighter than you think it is, and it sends you into turn 9A, which is similarly tighter than you think, decreasing radius. (The track map shows it as an increasing radius corner, but it seemed to tighten up on me and catch me by surprise).
This leads into another tight, 2nd gear left-hand corner (9B leads into turn 18, as part of the track is bypassed). It's initially banked in a favorable way, but at the apex it suddenly goes slightly off-camber even as the track falls away into a steep downhill (called 'the slide'). Although the entry is slow, gravity combined with very favorable banking and a dip effect at the bottom of the hill means that you will be flat on the gas through the right-hand Turn 19 onto the back straight.
This straight is VERY wide, although the surface isn't the same from one side to the other. Parts of it are very smooth, while others have undulations, which won't be noticeable to the Group C drivers. Larry reports that at the speeds he's going, with his fairly stiff suspension, it blurs his vision if he's not on the favorable line. At our velocities, we couldn't notice anything.
In any case, you'll be through 3rd gear and into 4th as you pass through a slight right-hand kink into a braking zone for turn 20. This was the only section of the track that looked as though it could be dangerous, as there is a tire wall on the outside of the corner (with a fair bit of runoff room first). The track manager said that in the history of the track, nobody has ever hit that wall, but we are taking no chances, so we are going to establish the end of the passing zone well in advance of the corner (probably at the kink), so as to preclude anybody from getting dive-bombed by a passing car, breaking concentration and then leaving the track.
Snick down into 3rd gear and turn in hard on the gas, through a slight flick and approach Turn 21, a fairly sharp hairpin left.
On paper, this looks like a very slow corner. It most assuredly is not. It is heavily, heavily banked, almost like a NASCAR track, and this affords the opportunity for considerably more speed than you might imagine. Then turn-in point is literally halfway through the corner, at the very top, opposite the "2" in the diagram. You stay to the very outside of the track until reaching that point, then suddenly turn hard left and dive downhill towards the apex which is directly to the left of the "C" in the diagram.
Reportedly, people typically don't spin here; instead, they run wide at the exit, and fortunately there is plenty of smooth-ish runoff there.
Larry demonstrated his corner technique for us several times, as the rest of us stood at the corner station and watched. He approached the hairpin high in 2nd gear, and was going about 60 mph (!) at the top of the track at the turn-in point. He'd shift into 3rd at the exit of the corner.
A gentle right flick prevents insane speeds from building as you approach the final corner. The corner is banked which allows greater speed, and the track crests at the exit so you can't actually see the edge of the track from the apex of the corner. The pit entry is here, and so there is considerably more pavement than you would initially expect, which will allow people to go quite a bit faster through this corner than they might otherwise believe at first.
Like I said, this is probably a high 2nd or low 3rd gear corner, leading back onto the front straight.
This lap has a good combination of flat-out straight sections, high-speed esses, steep uphill esses, low-speed off-camber blind crests, a steep downhill corner with a G-out at the bottom, and a banked hairpin. There is literally something for everybody on this track.
From a spectator standpoint, the whole track is visible from the paddock except for the tight, slow section between turns 5 and 18. Additionally, the paddock features shaded areas with picnic tables and several viewing areas along various parts of the front straight.
Dry camping will be available, and there is 24 hour security there, so you can park your RV in the paddock, drive into Reno for the dinners etc., then return to the track at any time.
The drive from the track to Reno is under 30 minutes; I figure with traffic, it will probably be right at 30 minutes from the hotel parking lot to the track parking lot.
I am really excited about this upcoming event. We have run three different tracks in Las Vegas in past years, and I'm convinced that this one is profoundly better than any we've seen before. Although parts of it will be hard work, much of it will be WFO, fun for the driver and spectators alike.
A guy named Gregg Esakoff has already confirmed that he will be bringing his awesome 750 hp Pantera race car out of retirement to run this event, and we are working on convincing Dennis Quella of Pantera Performance Center to bring his tube-frame Pantera race car as well, so there should be plenty to see in the race group. It would be great to see some GT40 race cars in the mix as well.
The track will be relatively easy to learn, and will afford C-group drivers a good mix of different types of corners, along with long straights for some big speed fun. I hope we can convince some western states GT40s to come join the fun.
I think everybody is going to have a GREAT time here!!!! :thumbsup:
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