The wannabe ST

[WannabeST]

@DaleFredriks spotted here at gridlife thunderhill. It’s always fun to see another fiesta on track. Especially since this is maybe the third I’ve seen ever on track in person lol.

I came by the car a few times trying to talk but I feel like I keep coming when you’re gone lol.

this track is extremely fun. If this track is local to anyone, I am so jealous. Buttonwillow is currently my favorite track, but I think this might top it. I need to come back for the 5 mile layout to put it up to the full test.
my car did so well on the 8.5hr drive here. I only had to stop once for fuel and I still got here with a little over half a tank. The remaining fuel lasted me all day on track Saturday and some driving in town too. So basically 4 tanks worth of gas should get me 2 days of driving at thunderhill and the drive home of 17 hours total counting coming up and back down. I’m really impressed.

 

[WannabeST]

Gridlife Thunderhill recap:

this track and facility is awesome. It honestly tops buttonwillow and Laguna for me. The hills are so much fun and there’s very low risk with all the run off but still plenty of technique and skill needed to go around the hills and the higher speed sections.
It was my first time here ever. Not even a single sim lap. My tires coming into the weekend were already 7 track days old. So Saturday was track day #8 and they started cording on me. I kept rotating every session to try to even out the wear but it was progressively getting worse.
Sunday morning I did my best lap of a 2.18 with my tires at basically their worst condition:

I kept trying to find more time after the 2.18 but the tire was feeling extremely sketchy. I felt like I could feel it peeling and the carcass shaking at this point.
we had a total of 7 drivers signed up for the weekend. I was holding P2 for most of the event but a fit came and beat me by 0.03 of a second, putting me at P3. Had I had new tires I probably would have even gave P1 a run for the position. But oh well, that is my fault for being in between moving and focusing on that instead of the track lol.


my collection of podiums is looking better. I have nasa at chuckwalla next weekend to hopefully add some more hardware for 2024.
drove the car 8.5 hours up and 8.5 hours back down home and the car did not skip a beat at all. Even camped on the track in the pits. It’s good to know that my car can drive so far on low fuel consumption. The car only uses about 1.3-1.4 tanks worth of fuel to drive for that long. I filled up at my house and filled up a little passed halfway and still made the second tank of fuel last me all day on track on Saturday. Plus some around town driving.

I will definitely need to come back to this facility next year hopefully gridlife comes back if not, I will probably be looking for a 5 mile layout day

TLDR;
Successful weekend
2.18 Thunderhill East with bypass
P3 in class
Drove the car up, tracked for 2 days and back with zero issues