Watkins Glen 2012

[Tireman]

Who's going ?

Viz

[GregS]

Originally Posted by Tireman

Who's going ?

Viz

me
you
brian cook
few others

[mdwheelz]

I am going, it's my first skip barber race. I look forward to meeting all of you, and trying out the MX5!!

[mdwheelz]

All,

I wondered if I could ask the group a few questions as I enter my first skip barber race weekend.

1.) Does anyone know if we will be running the "Short" or "Long" course at WGI next weekend?

2.) My wife and daughter are thinking about joining me at the track for at least one day, are there many other family members at the track, or mostly just other racers

3.) What is the typical start/end times for the events on Saturday and Sunday?

Thanks in advance for the info and I look forward to meeting all of you next weekend.

Frank

[dalyduo]

Welcome Frank,

You'll have a blast at Watkins Glen. If you haven't been to the Glen before you're in for a special treat. If you have... well you know! :-) Not many tracks on the planet have the history and challenge of the Glen. Always a special drivers experience. Be sure and find out when and where everyone is meeting for dinner each night. There are several must see places you will enjoy.

Originally Posted by mdwheelz

I am going, it's my first skip barber race. I look forward to meeting all of you, and trying out the MX5!!

[dalyduo]

1.) You should be running the full long course which is the original F1 course. The elevation change and variety of turns is outstanding.

2.) Family members are welcome but I don't think they allow minors. Watkins Glen is owned by NASCAR and they are very restrictive about who they admit. You need to contact Skip Barber and let them know who will be coming to visit you at the track and on which days they will be visiting so Skip Barber can leave their names with security. If their names aren't on the list at the gate they won't be permitted in. Double check on the minor issue but I'm pretty sure they aren't allowed in. Watkins Glen is unlike most. They don't even allow drivers under the age of 18 which is why most of the masters guys love going to the Glen. The really fast young kids aren't old enough to race there.

Typically the only spectators at race weekends are friends and family so the more the merrier but at the Glen they don't like extra folk wandering around so they do all they can to discourage it.

One other heads up is they are extremely vigilant in the paddock. They enforce a low speed limit and full observance of stop signs. Almost every year people think because there isn't anyone around they can hot dog it around the paddock and almost every year people get pulled over by security forces who have authority to write points earning infractions or worse the power to shut down the racing program because they think we're disrespecting their in house rules. We've been threatened with expulsion a couple of times.

3.) You should get an E-mail from Skip Barber with the schedule for the weekend. On track time is something like 9a or 9:30a until 4:30p but drivers meetings are typically 7:45 or 8a so check the schedule.

Originally Posted by mdwheelz

All,

I wondered if I could ask the group a few questions as I enter my first skip barber race weekend.

1.) Does anyone know if we will be running the "Short" or "Long" course at WGI next weekend?

2.) My wife and daughter are thinking about joining me at the track for at least one day, are there many other family members at the track, or mostly just other racers

3.) What is the typical start/end times for the events on Saturday and Sunday?

Thanks in advance for the info and I look forward to meeting all of you next weekend.

Frank

[mdwheelz]

Thanks for all of the info, I will be sure and check into whether my daughter is allowed in. I told the SBRS rep that we were planning on bringing her; but I will double check to make sure we don't have any issues.

[cdh]

For viewing other groups some good locations are;

• entry to the Bus Stop
• outside of T1 (ask how to get there)
• outside T11
• top of the camera tower T9
• explore, get to know the roads within the circuit, cool place

Have fun, it's a magic track

[dalyduo]

Tip of the cap to CDH who reminded me the "long" course was not the original F1 course. That section was added in 1971.
Thanks Doug.

From Wikipedia:

Before the 1971 race, the course underwent its most significant changes of the Grand Prix era, as it was extended from 2.35 miles (3.78 km) to 3.377 miles (5.435 km) by the addition of four corners in a new section called the 'Boot' or 'Anvil'. The new layout departed from the old course near the south end into a curling downhill left-hand turn through the woods. The track followed the edge of the hillside to two consecutive right-handers, over an exciting blind crest to a left-hander and back onto the old track. In addition, the circuit was widened and resurfaced, and both the pits and start/finish line were moved back before the northwest right-angle corner known as "The 90."

[Drice]

Originally Posted by dalyduo

2.) Family members are welcome but I don't think they allow minors. Watkins Glen is owned by NASCAR and they are very restrictive about who they admit. You need to contact Skip Barber and let them know who will be coming to visit you at the track and on which days they will be visiting so Skip Barber can leave their names with security. If their names aren't on the list at the gate they won't be permitted in. Double check on the minor issue but I'm pretty sure they aren't allowed in. Watkins Glen is unlike most. They don't even allow drivers under the age of 18 which is why most of the masters guys love going to the Glen. The really fast young kids aren't old enough to race there.

I doubled checked on this and the only minors they don't allow are participants. All other are allowed to come but can not be in the hot areas such as the pits or paddock areas where cars will be or on dangerous corners (but no one should be there, ha ha ha!)

Please let me know if you have any more questions regarding this or any issue.
Thanks guys and see you soon!

Oh and that email will be out around 3:00 p.m. full of all your race weekend needs

[dalyduo]

Thanks for the clarification Diana,

One reason I thought they didn't allow minors was that I couldn't remember ever seeing any at The Glen. But since I'm always in the hot pits or out on corners I wouldn't be seeing any that were there anyway. Glad kids of any age can come and see dad racing at the Glen

In past years we did have to submit names of any friends or family coming to the track as they wouldn't be allowed in if they weren't on the list but I'm sure that will all be explained in your race weekend E-mail from Diana.

[GT-Subject]

Hey Everyone, Have a great time at the Glen this weekend - I will be thinking of you!!!!

[cdh]

Indeed GT, and the weather looks perfecto for them. Kills me not to be there. Remember Sid, give to the Mechanics Fund!
Go fast, have fun all

[GregS]

Originally Posted by cdh

Indeed GT, and the weather looks perfecto for them. Kills me not to be there. Remember Sid, give to the Mechanics Fund!
Go fast, have fun all

it is not to late - there are seats available and the weather is flawless

would love to have a few more of my racing brothers here!

[dalyduo]

How 'bout a report boys? How was the attendance and who did what to whom?

Looking forward to Diana's link to the MyLaps results.

[mdwheelz]

It was a great weekend, weather was near perfect. It got pretty hot on saturday afternoon and gave us a slick racetrack but most everyone managed it ok. I was told that attendance was down, since this was my first weekent I dont have a baseline to judge, there were about 10 cars in each group and four goups. Some folks doubled up, a few even doubled in the RT and MX-5. All in all everyone had a great time.

[Drice]

Originally Posted by dalyduo

How 'bout a report boys? How was the attendance and who did what to whom?

Looking forward to Diana's link to the MyLaps results.

I like that little "hint hint" there Pat

Here is the link to Mylaps.com: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=0

They are, however, having some server issues today. I can barely stay on there myself. So if you can hold off until tomorrow, I would to prevent aggravation but if you can't may the force be with you...

[dalyduo]

Thanks Diana
See what you mean about the MyLaps server... Doesn't look like the force is anywhere near them today.
They need ZeroLag as their server! Perhaps Greg is already talking to them.

Originally Posted by Drice

I like that little "hint hint" there Pat

Here is the link to Mylaps.com: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=0

They are, however, having some server issues today. I can barely stay on there myself. So if you can hold off until tomorrow, I would to prevent aggravation but if you can't may the force be with you...

[Tireman]

Diana, can you check on that link ? The "id=0" doesn't look right, it should have a non zero number. The main website is fine, and the VIR results come right up so perhaps the Watkins Glen link address isn't right, causing the "delay" ?

Viz

[Drice]

It's a very strange thing that happening right now with Mylaps. When I upload it gives me that link however when I click on it, it says "gateway timed out" and when I do a search for the results they don't show.

Do they usually take awhile to appear on the website or is something funky going on?

[Slowhands]

You're right, Viz, it should be a 6 digit number. The event doesn't show up under "Skip Barber" events (if you use that or "SBRS" as a search term, the latest one is VIR, as you say), and I also scrolled through all their car racing events back to May 15, and its not there either. So either there has been an error in uploading the data or in assigning it the right identifier. No skippy hits for "Watkins glen". As far as the server is concerned, the event doesn't exist. I also occasionally got the time-out message but it wasn't a problem, easy to work around.

[Drice]

Woo hoo! Guess what got fixed? Mylaps.com!

Here is the link to results from Watkins Glen: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=781324

Also, here is a link to pictures from that event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skipbar...7629851897968/

Everything else is coming soon...

[sydude]

Thanks. But you don't really have to sweat looking for newly posted results - I spent a long time setting up a thread generator that automatically pulls in the results within a few minutes of it being posted online. I'll try to do the same for photos.

[Drice]

Originally Posted by sydude

Thanks. But you don't really have to sweat looking for newly posted results - I spent a long time setting up a thread generator that automatically pulls in the results within a few minutes of it being posted online. I'll try to do the same for photos.

Awesome! Thank you so much for letting me know
I don't mind posting the picture link if you don't want to go through the trouble of creating another generator.

[sydude]

Originally Posted by Drice

I don't mind posting the picture link if you don't want to go through the trouble of creating another generator.

If you can keep posting the links to the pictures, it would be great. I just tried putting a feed through, and it looks like Flickr only provides a feed for each new picture posted, not for new sets (albums) etc. That would result in a new thread for every new picture posted, and that wouldn't be ideal.

[Drice]

Originally Posted by sydude

If you can keep posting the links to the pictures, it would be great. I just tried putting a feed through, and it looks like Flickr only provides a feed for each new picture posted, not for new sets (albums) etc. That would result in a new thread for every new picture posted, and that wouldn't be ideal.

Sounds like a plan. I'll post the link in the results threads so I'm not hijacking others
Thanks sy!