September – 2020

UPCOMING EVENTS

SECOND RACE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR

Saturday September 19th, Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, Unlimited dB

Sunday September 20th, Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, Unlimited dB

Tuesday September 29th, Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, 92 dB

Friday October 16th, Thunderhill Raceway 5-Mile

THIRD RACE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR

Saturday October 31st, Buttonwillow Raceway

Sunday November 1st, Buttonwill Raceway

Hi NCRCers,

Welcome to another edition of the NCRC newsletter! We hope to find you healthy and safe. Lots to share this month, so we’ll get right into it!

We saw lots more racers for the August 22-23 weekend at Thunderhill. If you weren’t there, the usual summer heat was allayed a bit by a serious amount of smoke from nearby wildfires. But the NCRC team and our community of enthusiasts soldiered on while remaining safe, so all were able to enjoy a slight less sweaty, considerably more smoky day at Thunderhill. And it certainly made for an interesting story for all. We sincerely thank everyone who made it out for the weekend!

Looking forward, we have our seriously exciting Unlimited Sound Weekend at Laguna Seca coming up on September 19-20. These dates will include the following run groups, slightly different from what we normally run simply because the unlimited sound dates bring out some seriously fast (and loud) cars.

Race
Open-Fast
Open-Slow
Point-By
Solo

Please note that a valid racing license from IMSA, SCCA, NASA, INEX, VARA, or ARC is required for the Race group. Furthermore, you’ll need a logged-book vehicle with all required safety equipment. The Race group is more than 50 percent full at this point, so we hope you’ll join us for some wheel-to-wheel fun!

For everyone else, Saturday is sold out (except for the Race group) and Sunday is almost full, so please visit the www.ncracing.org website to sign up as soon as you can. As a reminder, camping will be allowed in the paddock! It should be another great weekend at Laguna, with no possibility of getting kicked off track for sound violations!

And if you can’t make it for the Unlimited Sound Weekend on September 19-20, we have a 92 dB day at Laguna Seca coming up on Tuesday, September 29 (for those who like their track days midweek and a bit quieter. 😉

Thanks to all of you for your continued support of NCRC and thanks to our track partners. We’ll continue bringing you the best track days possible and hope to continue seeing you there (from a minimum six-foot distance).

The Most Fun & Affordable

Race Cars

Rent one for a trackday or a race

We offer the thrill of racing to all!!

All Inclusive Arrive & Drive! R1 Class eligible for ARC races.

650-350-0432

Paddock Profiles are brief profiles of NCRC drivers and their vehicles. At events we will be going around and asking if people are interested in being profiled, and if you are, you may find yourself here!

On the last two NCRC dates at Thunderhill, Bill Moore brought out a car rarely seen at track days, but which received quite a bit of attention – a Jaguar E-Type (XKE in the American market). Many consider the E-Type to be one of the most beautiful cars ever designed and built, and Bill’s Jag has been modified to the point that those curves now exude more menace than anything else. And with a 302 Cleveland motor, a widened body draped over huge tires, and a completely custom suspension and brakes, this E-Type has every right to spend more time at the track than the countryside.

Bill’s E-Type has been in his family since the mid-70s, first with his older brother, who sought to build a fast, capable autocrosser. The 302-swap occurred under his watch and with support from another brother, but they took a road less traveled with the Cleveland motor, which required extensive work to the car’s framerails and custom headers. That was just the first of many mods that allowed the E-Type to evolve from a street-driven autocrosser to a dedicated Solo 1 car throughout the 80s, including widened fenders, a roll cage, and suspension and brake mods that were fairly extensive but apparently pretty standard for E-Types in that period.

Bill took over as caretaker of the car in 2013 and somehow got in deeper with the suspension and brake work, including Corvette C6 brakes and an amazing suspension he designed in CAD that incorporates custom A-arms, coilover mounts, a redesigned Jaguar XJ rear suspension, and much, much more. His goal is an open track car, so cooling, safety, and more were also upgraded. It’s been a long road for Bill in building this car, and he suffered a setback at the last NCRC day even as he finally felt like the incremental improvements to the suspension were bearing fruit. However, he plans to get back on the track soon and keep improving the car. We look forward to seeing him back very soon. We’ll let Bill close this out in his own words:

“On a sad note, in those last few years after he gave me the car, my older brother was extremely sick with Alzheimer’s and he died in March of last year. So unfortunately, he never got to see his car run again. This car remains as a tribute to him. I think he would have been satisfied with what I’ve done to it.”

NCRC’s Social Distancing Policy

The Mentor Program is suspended until the end of the year.
Private in-car instruction is temporarily suspended.
The meetings that will still need to be held in person will be outside as much as possible. Any meeting held indoors, including driving school, will have strict physical social distancing.
Masks are required until further notice. You will not need to wear a mask while driving. If you do not have a mask or face covering you will be required to leave and no refund will be given.
If you are sick, stay home. If you are sick on site, you will be asked to leave and no-refund will be given.
If you are considered at high risk for coronavirus, due to underlying conditions or for any other reason, we strongly recommend staying away from events for the time being.
While overall our sport is solitary in nature, please understand that we cannot guarantee no exposure and we encourage you to practice heightened social distancing and to be mindful of vulnerable individuals after you leave an event.

As a reminder here are the Covid-19 special requirements from Laguna Seca:

No pets.
HPDE groups allow only one extra guest per registered vehicle into the paddock.
Name, cell phone number, address, and vehicle license plate will be given to the track before the event.
No on-track passengers.
Here is a PDF link for all Laguna Seca requirements.