Pics are from today. Kind of hard to see but the course has taken shape nicely. Compacted gravel on course. Preparation for paving the course soon! For those unfamiliar, heres their link. www.ridgemotorsportspark.com Cant wait for this to be built!

 

Epic, track should be Epic. It was designed with the help of the designer of Thunderhill. Supposedly it should be ready to go by next year.

 

Nice, next time lose the camera and bring a shovel to get that place done!!

 

Ive been excited about this for the past year and a half. It took a LOT of local support to get this going.

 

WOW.....i might have to move back to PNW if yall keep getting new tracks!!!

 

I'm so excited fo this track! Going to be a blast!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u5xmS6nL8I

Scott, who sees the future in these laps...

 

Paving is already done, test laps have already been run.

run-off, paddock and "other" facilities and items need to be done yet but at least the track itself has been paved already!

Damn, scott beat me to it by like 30 seconds.. nice ninja post!

 

and its only 30 mins. from my house

 

Another awesome track here in the pacific northwest, now if we could get NASA up here

 

My understanding is that The Ridge has all or most of its weekends booked for 2012.

Conference (www.icscc.com) should have at least a couple of track days there along with a race weekend. You can see me and Rice_Classic (Colin) do battle in our CRXes. :D

Plus, ChumpCar and Lemons will be racing there next year, too.

I'm hoping that the marque clubs (e.g., BMW CCA, Alfa Club, PCA, etc.) put on weekend track days there as well.

 

But why? We already have SCCA and ICSCC. There's already more racing events than most racers have time/money for.

I would race with NASA if they were up here but not if their event conflicted with ICSCC event. The ICSCC is pretty terrific organization and the racing, competitors and sanctioning body is second to none.

 

I'm not really interested in more racing events. But more HPDE. It seems like every track day I have done is run differently by the different organizations and it gets a little frustating. I'm not ready yet to start racing, but I will look into ICSCC.

 

More track days on WEEKENDS!

We have plenty of racing here in the PNW. I'd like to see a track day group like Speedventures from southern California just offer track days. With 4 tracks within 3 hours of driving time and 2 more tracks within 5 hours, I'd expect that there's enough capacity for this.

 

^^^Ive been saying that for a while now. I imagine the main reason why there arent any Time Attack style events or more lapping days like the Socal folks put on is because they almost exclusively are sanctioned by NASA.

I intend on trying to make some contacts and see if perhaps we can get more events up here if sanctioning through ICSCC and/or SCCA can be arranged.

I have plenty of contacts on the SCCA side, I could use some help from you Mike or Colin with getting in touch with the proper folks from Conference if either of you are up for it.

 

The answer to 9 out of 10 questions is... $$

If it was profitable I'm sure it would already be happening but the ICSCC is unique in that the entire organization is volunteers. Workers, instructors, executive board, officials... all volunteers. Consider all the schools, TnT's and racing events put on by ICSCC I don't know see how it's logistically possible at this current juncture. The volunteers are already stretched thin and I think the tracks might (I am only speculating) charge more to clubs for weekend days possibly making it cost prohibitive.

:billy mays: BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! :billy mays:

There's also PGP (Pacific Gran Prix: The large karting track by Pacific Raceways) which is one hell of a deal. You can lap your REGULAR sized car for pennies on the dollar vs. the big track and never make it past 3rd gear (means less wear and tear). It's an absolute blast and trust me, by the end of the day you your arms will be tired.

With SCCA, Pro-formance, ICSCC TnT's and schools, Alfa club, porsche club, bmw club (and you don't need to be a member to run with them) and I think Audi club all hosting track days, PLUS the el-cheapo days at Bremerton... If you feel there's not enough lapping out there you might be doing it wrong, or you have way too much free time and I envy you.


I also left out Speedware track days (I think just has 1).

 

As Rice Classic stated, the Volunteers are thin.

I am one of those volunteers for ICSCC. I'm willing to travel to some extent, but not able to. Either time wise or money wise.

I try to get more people involved, but it doesn't seem like anybody is really wanting to volunteer. I have the additude that "If I'm not racing, I want to be at the track watching people racing". Heck, ChumpCar paid me $15/hr to flag their races. At that rate, it's worth taking the days off from work to go to Portland, and flag their race.

Volunteering is the best option for that. Plus I earn credits towards being able to take the BMW CCA HPDE for free ($450 value). Also the people who are volunteers tend to be the better students at the HPDE's.

We have quite a few "track days" at SCR put on by Scott Adare (Adare Motorsports; http://www.adaremotorsports.com), and it's worth the money for as much track time you get (not counting moneys for wear items like tires and brakes). The only problem I have is they are all on Fridays.

Rice Classic said it best...
But if you want, maybe get a hold of Adare Motorsports and see if they are willing to travel. They have a semi/trailer setup that would allow them to travel.

 

BTW, here's the latest pic....

 

Pretty close to the lay out plan that was released in August...

 

I'd like to see the the center paved for the option of two short courses too.

There's a total of four course layouts.
-Long Course with long straight into sweeper
-Long Course with chicane before sweeper
-West Short Course
-East Short Course

With the four enter/exits on pit road, there's a possibility to run races on both short courses at the same time.

 

Hi Colin!

PGP while fun, is nothing like a real track day. It's more like an autocross only you get to keep going for a while.

What I have been and am still looking to do is get more "timed" events, hence the time attack style reference. Right now the only thing going is the NWR SCCA Time Trials events.

I agree there are more than enough lapping day opportunities, and I would venture to say I am just as stretched on time as any of you, if not more so.

I would like to see some Redline Time Attack, Super Lap Battles, Global Time Attack, FF Battles, and the like at some of our tracks. I believe there is a lot of untapped potential for these events at our home tracks.

Will it work with our existing sanctioning bodies and staffing levels in the northwest? Maybe not, but I am going to try and build some steam and see where it leads. We are one of the few areas in the country that do not host any of these types of events, and its not due to lack of venues.

The factor that is preventing this has to be somewhere else, I am trying to find where and see if I can get past it.

For the record, I am a board member for NWR SCCA so I am not completely ignorant on these matters........I am not as well versed as I need to be though to attempt to go at this alone.

Sorry for diverting this thread away from what I am sure will be an awesome track that I am very excited to run on.

 

Good discussion.

I lived in SoCal for a while before moving to Seattle and did HPDE/track days with NASA, Speedventures, Redline, SpeedTrial, and others at the tracks down there. My understanding is that most or all of these organizations paid their courseworkers.

I believe the model of relying on volunteer courseworkers is dated and unsustainable. The ICSCC and NWR/OR SCCA have a dedicated cadre of courseworkers from which to rely on. These people are top notch and we can't thank them enough. However, in talking to some of them, they tell me that getting new blood in their ranks has proven to be difficult.

The fact that ChumpCar makes it work by paying their courseworkers is "proof in the pudding" for me. As a driver, I don't mind paying a little more in my entry fee to pay courseworkers.

Hmmm...pudding. Anyway, just my $0.02.

One last thing: All the SoCal groups that I mentioned are "for-profit", unlike teh ICSCC and SCCA which are volunteer (maybe with some exceptions in the SCCA). They are businesses and run as such by enthusiasts. As a consumer, it worked for me. I got a good product at a reasonable price. Again, it's a model that doesn't seem to be used around here. I see no reason why a HPDE/Time Trial-only organization couldn't be successful in the PNW.

 

I will say this, all the races I've been to have not been paid, except ChumpCar. But I get to see the race for free, and meals are provided. Chumpcar makes it worth while so I can take a weekend trip, and make enough money to make up for lost time at work.

That's something I can't do volunteering for ICSCC/SOVREN races outside of Spokane. I know SOVREN repays $150 for travel expense, but that hardly cover's fuel across the state, let alone a cheap hotel room (doesn't really apply to me, because I usually tent it in the Paddock). That's what some of the volunteers from Seattle area were complaining about.

But even with the ChumpCar paying course workers (and only having 6 at a time during the race in Spokane), we still have a problem finding volunteers.

 

Speaking of ChumpCar, they are putting on a race at The Ridge in mid-September. Actually, it's a tentative date and is on their schedule for Sep 15.

Also, 24 Hours of Lemons is putting on a race at The Ridge on July 21-22.

If anyone's interested, I wouldn't mind being a driver at one of these races.

 

There's a guy from Spokane that's looking for drivers... I'll get contact info to you. It'll be tomorrow though.