I ran with SCDA at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Monday and Tuesday. Great event--chance to do both Lightning and Thunderbolt in one trip.
SCDA, as usual, is a great group to run with. Nice guys, great mix of cars. Ian and Elivan, who run SCDA, have SCCA championships and various track records between them. I recommend them for anyone looking for Northeast US track events.
Weather was good, if a bit hot on Tuesday at Thunderbolt. I managed to break into the 1:16s at Lightning and 1:36s at Thunderbolt, both bests for me. I'm sure others may be faster, but I was happy with myself.
Once again, the E90/2 M3 proves to be a very solid, credible car for HPDE events. In the advanced group, the well-driven street cars that I know will be consistently faster than me are Z06s, 911 GT3s and GTRs. Otherwise, the M3 holds its own very very well. (And it takes me to work every day, including in the winter, hauls the kids around to activities, hauls groceries, and makes runs to Home Depot.
)
A couple of laps from Lightning:
A couple from Thunderbolt (the first couple of laps I followed a friend in his M Coupe so I could video his lines for him):
Nice oversteery/tankslapper moment from an E36 on Lightning:
Surprise on Lightning--that car is awfully tall...it's an X5M! Complete with roof rack! He gave me a point-by and I saw three kids and two dogs in the truck, all with helmets.