After spending the first part of the year mostly just randomly driving around to get my driving fix, it felt great to finally be at the track again with S2K Takeover. This time we were at NJ Motorsports Park's Thunderbolt track. I've been to NJMP several times before on the Lightning track but after seeing videos of Thunderbolt, I was definitely excited to give this a go. This was a joint event between S2K Takeover and the NEDC.
Parked for the evening - NJMP Thunderbolt - 6-24-2020
I arrived Wednesday evening just before sunset, got my tech inspection out of the way then settled into my room in the suites right by the front straight.
Enjoying the sunset - 6-24-2020
I was pretty excited to get on track so I got up nice and early at sunrise and started getting ready for the first session. I have to admit, after having done no real performance driving since September 2019, 9 months ago, it took me about two sessions just to get comfortable again. Unfortunately, due to the heat, I was starting to run into some issues with the car. Nothing was mechanically wrong it but when I got the car tuned a few years ago, engine protection was put in when oil reaches 248F limiting me to just 7000 rpms, a whole 1600 rpms shy of my true redline. Of course, the oil I use would've easily handled higher temps but I left my laptop at home so I couldn't change the tune to raise the limit. I normally don't do track days during the summer so I never ran into this issue before.
Lunch time photoshoot - 6-25-2020
Photo by: David Phimsipason
After lunch, all (ok, most) of the car went on track for a big video/photoshoot. Normally I'd probably say this was a waste of time but we had more than enough track time scheduled so having a little break to digest while taking a photo op wasn't such a terrible idea.
NJMP Thunderbolt - 6-25-2020
Overall, it was a pretty fun day. I'm excited to go back without the engine protection capping my power. I also see plenty of time I left on the table after reviewing my video so I really want to get my lap time to a more respectable level. For now, I'm just glad to be back on track, have a giant smile on my face, and get the car home in the same shape it left.
