Grab the Dragon by Its' Tail

TT classes are a weird mix of SOLO, club racing and TT classes. If you're confused by the lawyer-speak and rules, don't feel bad... even those of us that have been around SCCA for 25 years are confused sometimes! The rules are tough to read.

For a SOLO car you build the car to the SOLO rules AND add the safety equipment needed for TT.

I think we have some Rally America cars / drivers entered. I'm not sure about the licensing requirements, but I'd bet they carry over.

friedgreencorrado wrote:

e30racer wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Yep. You will be able to do Hill Climbs

As long as he's got a real rollover structure and a real harness (plus suit & helmet of course), right? I thought the "solo" classes at hillclimbs reffered to their engine/suspension prep, not the safety requirements. I guess my impression of those cars has always been a Solo2 car with an Improved Touring level cage/fire system..

Already have harness, rollover structure will be installed this coming winter. Have a helmet, will buy a suit.

I'm bringing this one back because I went. Photos in reverse order of how they were taken..

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v300/friedgreencorrado/CTD/

So, anyone else? I saw some GRM stickers..including a green CSP Miata who ran some very smooth & fast lines. Didn't get a pic of him (I was working, don't like to take pix unless there's someone else to tell me there's incoming carnage). Here's the Dragonslayer, tho. Cory Friedman of Charleston SC, driving a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car!

EDIT: 1:55:something. Course was 2.2mi., roughly 1000ft. from the bottom to the top.

I don't think JK has ever missed a hillclimb.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

I know, right?!? Chris was pretty quick, too. And there was a great moment when we were leaving the event site for the campground Sat eve..we were driving through the paddock, and JK was working on the engine..with his pipe in his mouth. Great Britcar moment, and I didn't get a pic because the Berkeleying (capitalized because they're British!) camera was in my track bag. Grr.

EDIT: Results: http://www.ccrscca.com/results/20110611_dragon_raw.htm
Cory's run was actually 1:54(!):704. Only guy under 2min. Course was seriously bumpy, tho, and the road was like "tarmac". Gravelly all weekend because after the small displacement cars "swept" it, the high HP stuff would come through and just turn more of the road into gravel.

EDIT #2: Looks like Chris was actually the Lady Dragonslayer! I'd forgotten that she's been doing this for awhile as well..

WHAT!!!

Taiden wrote: WHAT!!!

Taiden, tell me what pinged your interest, and maybe I can tell ya about it! After all, I was there..

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Already have harness, rollover structure will be installed this coming winter. Have a helmet, will buy a suit.

One guy ran his CSP autoX Miata with just a reinforced roll hoop (he had a proper harness, tho). Gotta admit, the hoop was pretty beefy.

The locals love us for the moment, we're working to hold another one. "Come play with us, Danny.."

And no, I was not a crack dealer in a previous life..

I wish I had known you were going. I may have given up my Le Mans weekend to go see that event. Would have been a smashing good time!

the fact that tail of the dragon is now a sanctioned hill climb event totally made my year

Taiden, we didn't acually run at Deal's Gap. That's why the organizers changed the name of the event from "Tail of The Dragon Hillclimb" to "Chase the Dragon" (yes, we know what "chasing the dragon" means on the streets, and used that term to pump up some interest in it).

One of the problems we've (the SEDIV SCCA "we") had while trying to find a new hillclimb site here is that so many of the great mountain roads are open to 2-way traffic. Actually running on US 129 would have been a nightmare. No way on Earth that the "powers that be" would ever shut it down for two days.

We found a site further south of Deal's Gap, but close enough to the highway that the locals would actually support us, rather than get organized enough to throw us out. Robbinsville, NC is a little town on 129 ("The Dragon" ain't just the tail!) that lives on the biker/gearhead traffic, and the locals I talked to were seriously stoked that we were there (when I got lost trying to find the place, some teen girl working in a quik store had actually heard about the event, and gave me directions to get there).

I can't recall why that road was built, but the locals call it the "Road to Nowhere". IIRC, they said that it was supposed to be a scenic drive through a US Forest Service reserve, but that it was never finished for some sort of legal reason. They stopped paving it at the top, and didn't go back down the other side of the mountain. Evidenly, the poor thing hadn't been really used for years. The Forest Service did build a great overlook there, tho. Pic from it..

Here's a link to the road we actually used.

http://tinyurl.com/3muzq9z

Sooo...we found it, we used it, and we love it. Hillclimbers in SEDIV have been looking for a permanent home ever since we got kicked out of Chimney Rock. It's too early to tell yet, but since the locals actually make their living by "being nice" to gearheads running on US 129, we've got a better chance there than we've had elsewhere.

Caption contest?

Nice pics, looks like a lovely spot.

The only hillclimbs I know of down here, are purpose-built on private courses. Running one on a stretch of public road like that is a brilliant idea, if only for the blend of amazing scenery and loud sportscars.

Maroon92 wrote: I wish I had known you were going. I may have given up my Le Mans weekend to go see that event. Would have been a smashing good time!

Oh, dude..it was seriously cool. Crazy thing about the weekend..greatest campsite drunk-ass "bench racing" conversation ever! Participants were m'self, three other workers (three of us ex-road racers, the other a damn good autocrosser), and even one of the drivers! (he didn't get drunk, and actually gave us the rest of the beer in his cooler because he wanted to be sharp to make his Sunday runs). We all had a very long conversation about the difference between autoX and road racing, our discovery that hillclimbs brings our (the SCCA "us") closer together, and why doing the best you can with the POS you have makes our sport so rewarding, even if you never stand on the podium. We sounded like Greek philosophers while enjoying the moonlight, and the gentle rush of sound from the little creek running by the campsite (for folks familiar with the area, we stayed at Rattler Ford..that's where our participants' party was as well).

The driver was a actually I guy I'd met a couple of years ago at a Atl. Reg. autocross. Remember the gold Corvette C4 that ran with us from 2008-9 or so? That guy. He's put a full rollcage in the damn thing, and ran it in SPO, just to have a place to run.

I'll be there next year... i've finally figured out all the rules and licensing stuff.

I'll want to see pics of the Skeezy Escorts LLC 93 Escort GT on the board after the event next year.

Sorry to keep resurrecting an old thread guys, but I found an in-car of Cory's run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZGkhzEwLuw

Turn up your speakers! Gad, that GT3 Cup car sounds fantastic!

friedgreencorrado wrote: Sorry to keep resurrecting an old thread guys, but I found an in-car of Cory's run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZGkhzEwLuw Turn up your speakers! Gad, that GT3 Cup car sounds fantastic!

OMFing Awesome! I am all about that business!

Maroon92 wrote: OMFing Awesome! I am all about that business!

Yeah! Later, in the paddock, I told him that since I couldn't go to Le Mans, I should thank him for bringing a lil' touch of Le Mans to the hill.

And that run was absolutely astounding. When he came past my station, he was the only guy that tried to "straighten out" the next section, instead of taking a "geometricallly correct" line (about 1:55 or so in the vid, he also missed a big dip on drivers' right where everyone else was bottoming out). Everyone was so astonished at the time he'd cut that it was actually broadcast on the worker net.

Luke wrote: Caption contest?

Oh, why not? Personally, I was just worshiping at the temple of Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman..