Warning - this is boring if you don't go to Pacific:
That explains why I didn't see anyone with your camera brand. From the photos, we were in different locations Saturday and you were not there Sunday. Did I go Saturday? Don't remember.
I shot turns 2 and 3 from the top of the hill in the morning and 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 the rest of the day. I stood on the outside of turn 9, on the drag strip with the 75 f/1.8 and from the drag strip straight in the stands with the 300 f/4 and the 2X telephoto. I shot some of the open-wheel cars from the flag station inside turn 8.
Pacific is a dangerous track. There are a lot of spins in the 5-6 section because you come into that area with a good head of steam as you saw. Everybody wants to get a good run up the hill to 8 but 5-6-7 are tight turns. Aggressive drivers try to get through there too fast to have a good exit speed for the runup to 8.
You can see there is no runoff in this area so if you can't make it through there you end up where Edelstein was or worse. On your roof or wrapped around a tree. If you want to photograph spins that's the place to be.
Ward was lucky in turn two. You can hit very high speeds down the hill to the entry and the exit of turn 1 is fast. Quite a feat to drop two wheels off there and not end up running up the berm or spinning at over 100MPH. If you lose your brakes there or they can't pull the speed down enough you have to take the exit road. I've seen cars run up the hill there far enough to run over photographers if they are shooting down at the turn 2 entry. Nobody was shooting photos at the time. It's a place where you need situational awareness.
Driving that back part from turn 3B exit is one of the most fun parts of the track but you really get cooking by the time you get to 4. Turn 4 is not difficult. The trouble starts in 5 and 6 where drivers try to go through too fast. They are decreasing radius turn in a place where drivers want to accelerate for the fun of it. It's a strategic mistake because they are not fast turns for this track. If you are slow through there you don't lose that much time like you do in the fast sweepers like 1 which is the most important turn on the track. If you are slow in turn 1, you are slow. You can't make up the time.
A thinking driver will take 4-5-6 easy but it's so much fun I'm guessing this is the reason some don't. Tracks like Sears Point where you can accelerate through a series of S-Turns are usually wide and have a lot of runoff in those places. At Sears, they have increasing radius and good camber. You can blast through there safely. You just have to be careful not to carry too much speed into turn ten or you climb the fence. The problem with Pacific is the S-turn area in the back is narrow and fast with no runoff and a steep hill and trees that can kill you. Momentum cars can get through there reasonably safely because they can't build lethal speed. Fast cars are not safe though there. I tip-toe through there in my Cobra on track days. I'm not getting paid to risk my life so I focus on going fast in safer areas. If other drivers put up better lap times - I don't care.
Some of the local drivers I know won't bring their faster, heavier cars out to Pacific because of this section of the track. They feel like it's too dangerous. It's the same reason why major pro events can never be run there. Imagine the carnage if they tried to run WEC races there with GT3 and 4 cars and prototypes. It will never happen. It could happen at
The Ridge if the owners keep building out the facility. It's wider and much safer. That will take another 5-10 years. But the local infrastructure can't support it. Imagine an FIA race or an Indy car race in Shelton with 50,000 people attending. It won't happen in my lifetime.
It's a shame because there is so much money, such great car collections here. We had an FIA team, an Indy car team based here. We have some of the world's great vintage race collections here. One of the major shareholders of Aston Martin is here and has a great collection of vintage race cars. Aston is succeeding in the FIA and competing in F1. We have everything but a world-class racing facility with the infrastructure to support it.
Do you know about AVANTS? GOOGLE them if no. If you join they have a tour of one of the best private garages planned for December 8. I'll be there:
* Nuvolari's P-3 Alfa - won 1936 German GP with, humiliating the ****-financed German cars that had 100 more horsepower. The Alfa looked and was primitive in comparison. One of the great historic drives.
* 1938 2900B Alfa Coupe that won the first race at Watkins Glen - later restored and won best of show at Pebble and Villa D'Este on Lake Como
* 166 Ferrari Chinetti won LeMans for the third time in 1949. He drove 22.5 hours
* Ferrari GTO Graham Hill drove to second place in the Tourist Trophy in 1962
* A Ferrari race car carrier
* Three total Best of Show cars at Pebble
* Roberto Rossellini's Ferrari road car
* The first GT40 (2000s car) sold to the public
He drives them. The GTO has been on the Colorado Grand, never washed since, as of 2018. I like the early models with the original bodywork like this one. He vintage raced the 166 and the P3.
An Alfa/Ferrari collection that has to be one of the world's best is the core of the collection but not the only great cars in the garage. Not the biggest garage but one of the best ones. Private garage, not open to the public. Might be the only time you will be able to get in there.
Jon Shirley Car Collection - Photo Gallery (sportscardigest.com)
