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Yet another New Guy


Bignose10

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Hi,

 

Well wanted to start out by saying Hi. Long time lurker that has always been into racing or wanting to get my foot in the door and I think I will finally have my chance to compete with you guys in northern Cali CMC. As far as my back round goes not that you guys care, but I have been a long time drag racer probably some of the only times I have been to Inline. Incredibly repetitive and the thrill is way to short.

 

Couple issues I know I will have.

1. Getting licensed: I have read through the CCR and CMC rules a couple of times and for some reason the only info I was able to extract involved getting a Provisional license and having your first 8 events as a rookie under high scrutiny, also the big orange square on the back of the car signifying that I have no idea what I am doing. I would assume I would have to progress through all of the HPDE levels before I can even be considered to get my provisional? If so how long am I looking at (hope I will be eligible for the 08 season.) Only other way I can see getting my license is to go to an accredited racing school. I hope I am wrong but you never know.

 

Well I think I went overboard with my first question so I will stop there.

 

Thanks in advance and hope to meet some of you guys soon.

 

Eric S.

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Eric...Where are you located in Nor-Cal? You might want to consider coming out to Thunderhill this weekend for the 25 hrs. of T'Hill. Some of the CMCers that race in Nor-Cal will be there and it might be a good time to see what racing is all about. As far as getting your provisional...You will have to go through the HPDE progression but how long that takes is kind of up to you. You can progress very quickly if you have some experience and impress your instructors. My son passed from HPDE 1 to 2 in 1/2 a day. That does not always happen but it can. The person to talk to about all this is Tony Guaglione. You can get his E-mail off the driver's profiles link on the web site. Getting your provisional sounds like a long drawn out process but it really isn't but it is somewhat time consuming by design. Everyone wants you to be READY to be on the track. Safe, in control and predictable. If I can do it at age 54 you certainly can do it as well. Good luck and hope to see you out there next season. By the way even if you are doing an HPDE and CMC is there, come by and hang out. Guaranteed you will have a great time. Gary

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Redding:

I am located in San Mateo about 20 miles south of San Francisco. I raelly wish I could make this race weekend but I have to work saturday to be able to close out one of my projects.

 

I have to be honest, it seems you guys have a great family of people. Just by reading written responces, and ethics of the members, (excluding the texas CMC guys...J/K)I am very impressed with your group of friends and cant wait to meet you guys and gals if you are out there.

 

Tony:

Hope to be able to talk with you tonight.

 

Once again thanks for the advice and hope to meet/talk to you all soon.

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Welcome Eric! There are several good options to get you ready for CMC, one is the NASA HPDEs, another is one of the track clubs that frequent beginner friendly Thunderhill. That would be the Northern California Racing Club, see http://www.ncracing.org for more info. I instruct for them and most of the instructors are racers or advanced open trackers. We do train folks for what they would like to do, in your case racing. We even have casual races with our in house American Racing Club (ARC) when you reach that point.

 

Feel free to contact me for more info.

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Welcome and your comment on the Texas crew is right on! All joking aside, I've spent the last two Nats with those guys and as expected, a GREAT group of racers! Got to have a rivalry I guess so why not pick on Texas, although I am rooting for Dallas this Thur night.

 

So, to the point, Driving Concepts http://www.drivingconcepts.com/ has a High Performance Driving School where they put an instructor in your car with you and critic your driving and give pointers. Very simular to the HPDE 1-2 but more class room time and more 1 on 1 time with an instructor. If you do this course, you can then take their Racing School in which they don't put instructors in your car but do a LOT of lead follow with the instructors in exercises from leap frog after every turn to doing an entire lap side by side to simulated rolling and standing starts. Completing the Racing school will get you in the door for a provisional. HPDE's will also get you in the door for the Racing school with enough experience or a provisional with a director lead follow. You have some options.

 

I was very comfortable in my first race after taking the DC Racing Class so if this course is an option, I highly recommend it. Some of the students in my class were already racers and took the class again for more education. Lots of class room time and lots of track time.

 

I did a few HPDE's, DC HiPo Driving School and then their Racing Class. Went out with Tony or Al following me for a few laps and got my provisional.

During your 8 race provisional is the time to you will learn the most, IMO.

 

Good luck and hope to see ya on the track soon.

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  • Members

Probably

 

Dont stress Eric. How long it takes to get your provisional is mostly a function of how comfortable you are behind the wheel, at 120, through a corner, with someone two inches off your door and someone else two inches off your bumper I've seen people get a provisional is as little as four HPDE days (I think that's very quick)

 

Welcome aboard

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Welcome aboard, Eric!

Here's a pic of a few of our Texas CMC racers.

Don't mind them...they're just a couple of regular guys.

 

209361.jpg

 

PS- Come and get the championship trophy guys....it's in Texas!

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I'd like to second the Driving Concepts race class. The instructors were great, knowledgeable, and it seemed to have really grown from guys that know exactly what new people need to feel comfortable on the track and with other cars on the track. The exercises were suited perfectly for how it really goes. It's fresh in my mind, since I just went through this all this season, and I can't recommend them enough.

 

Get with Tony and talk your plans over with him, and he'll set you straight on what you need to get done.

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Once again thank you everyone for the responses and the encouragement.

 

Tony:

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you. You will definitely hear from me tonight.

 

GT 4.6:

I will definitely look into it and thanks for the link. Looks like I will have to take one of there HPD courses before I can take the racing course. Wish they had something at Sears point but Oo well. I will definitely look into it.

 

Ms Nomex:

Sweet, I never knew there were so many organizations. I have always been familiar with SCCA and NASA and thought that was the extent but I am glad I am wrong.

 

Al F.:

Thanks for the encouragement!! Hope to get out to Nat's and meet some of you guys. To be honest I am not sure where the Nat's are or when but I am going to make it happen.

 

Todd:

Wow, I can’t wait for my turn to start collecting novelty checks! I almost like them better then the trophy sitting at there feet. Picture that bad boy on the wall of the living room. From what I understand Texas is the heart/roots of CMC? I am glad that you guys have done a great job repping the class so it would come all the way out to Cali and the rest of the nation. Now I will have something to do on the weekends!

 

Thanks Again

Eric S.

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From what I understand Texas is the heart/roots of CMC? I am glad that you guys have done a great job repping the class so it would come all the way out to Cali and the rest of the nation. Now I will have something to do on the weekends!

 

Thanks Again

Eric S.

 

wow, thats gonna leave a mark. Eric, you may wanna give it a couple days before you call Big Tony. I'd hate to see you get whacked so soon.

i'll try and set this right.....

you guys remember those "BASF" commercials? we dont make the products you buy, we make them better..bla, bla, bla - right????

well....

"Texas didnt invent CMC, we made it faster!"

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Eric...you might want to consider the SCCA San Francisco Region annual licensing school...it's Feb 28-March 2 at Thunderhill in 2008...not that far off. SCCA puts on a superior school..3 intense days of ground school, track time and racing...with a 4:1 student to instructor ratio...after the school you'll get an SCCA novice permit and should also be eligible for a NASA comp license. In my opinion NASA is sadly lacking in driver training programs and consistency...SCCA has it down to a science...we're going with 3 Camaro drivers to the school...who will then be racing CMC...see you there?...RP

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Glenn,

Well that was a good one, but I'll set Eric straight here and tell him what everyone already knows.. CMC started in California way before any Texas boys got knocked off their horses and their 10 gallon hats were filled with a bunch of shI&*%.

Really though, I think its awesome that Texas and the East Coast guys have what was really only in California.

It takes great leaders like Todd and Kent to start what they started in these regions.

Tony Guaglione

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It takes great leaders like Todd and Kent to start what they started in these regions.

 

Great leaders like Todd to start what they started??? Man......

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All Adam has to do is run once with us in the Mid-Atlantic he will convert from the "Dark Side" and start running here full time. He will store the car at VIR and just commute like many others already do.

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All Adam has to do is run once with us in the Mid-Atlantic he will convert from the "Dark Side" and start running here full time. He will store the car at VIR and just commute like many others already do.

 

Is there a PayPal account where we can contribute to that fund?

 

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All Adam has to do is run once with us in the Mid-Atlantic he will convert from the "Dark Side" and start running here full time. He will store the car at VIR and just commute like many others already do.

 

Is there a PayPal account where we can contribute to that fund?

 

 

That is so wrong....funny....but wrong.

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