Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Northeast MEET: Fords at Englishtown, Oct 18 - 20

Anything below Holmdell is South NJ!

Well, I did some advance scouting of Raceway Park. No sense in making thier big Ford weekend the first time I go to that track.

First off: Their directions suck for those coming North on the NJ Turnpike. Everything is fine until you get on 527 North (not 527 A North which hits Rt. 33 first). 527 hits a T intersection before it goes through E'town. Turns out that you have to make a left at this intersection. After that, the directions are A-OK.

Next: Why do the NJ strips make me wear a helmet in a 15 second car? Atco (and E'town as I found out) make you bring a helmet or rent one for $3. Not that I'm against it, but the person to first tell me that should not be the official in the staging lanes. Maybe Tech or even the gate people? Their helmets were actually not bad or gross or anything.

So, the track is well laid out and the racing is run in an organized manner. Lots of room for cars waiting in the lanes. Very easy to avoid the water - they put out cones to mark off where the water is and how to go around. They actually forbid treaded tires from burning out in the water. The starting area is very sticky - I didn't get any wheel hop and I was launching slightly higher than usual. All in all, it's a pretty good place to race. Might even be better than Cecil due to the good race management IMO.

On the tech card, there is a space for 3 time runs before eliminations, and they mark it each time you make a pass. They ran 5 sets of runs, but anyone that came late or sat out a set for a bite to eat did not have any disadvantage. You get 3 time runs at the most. Quite a fair way to set it up. I made sure I got my last run as close to elims as possible.

The weather was warm and very humid - not elements of a fast day. I was running about 2 tenths slower than my best time. I did bust out a 0.510 light (during a time run), my new best R/T. I also put down a 2.201 60' time, ever so close to attaining a 2.1x sixty foot on street tires. (I told you the track was sticky!)

I dialed in at 15.25 after running two consecutive 15.28x runs. I had scouted one set of time runs for my class and knew the guy I was racing was good, because I watched him set a .5xx light. So, fresh off my .510 light I decided to go for it at the start. Oops, .455 R/T and I was the slower car so I lose. I ran a 15.26 on a 15.25 dial as well - wasted an awesome bracket run with that bonehead move.

I'm all fired up for Ford weekend now! I have to make up for my bad mistake tonight.

Jason, you were there on Saturday or Friday?

I had friends from another board there Friday night in various cars. They had a great time.

And I agree about the directions. I had someone else give me directions to go home from there and I saved like 15 minutes.

I was there tonight (Saturday). Friday was test n tune only I thought; I wanted to compete. There is something better about competing than just running for time, even if your competition ends 0.455 seconds after the first race starts. Only $20 as well (same cost for time only tonight).

Got buried, so I'm bumping it up again. I don't want to be the only Contour at the Saturday Morning bracket.

I posted to Focaljet and a few of those guys were interested as well.

John, wanna make sure Terry sees this thread?

Sure. I don't know what our plans are yet. I'll let you know.
Doing MidMaryland this weekend, though.

I'm going to try to make it. I'll request off for it this week when I get to my part time job.

I won't be racing beceause my car is bonse stock except for the K&N drop in filter. I think they add like 50Hp according to their ads.

Jason, look for Terri, she said she'd be there. I'm working (IMAGINE THAT!! ) so I'd have to take some more days off or switch to be able to do it...
So basically I don't know what's up with me.

I am going on Saturday. Maybe we can run each other????

Aww, c'mon Tommy - it's a "Real Street" bracket, a stock car (besides the filter) is about as real street as you can get! Besides, bracket racing isn't about being fastest, just most consistent.

I figured Terri would want to let her SHO pals know about it, John.

godzilla, should be pretty easy to line up so one of our (3) time trials would be head to head. Once they do elims, I don't want to race any CEGers. No sense in knocking out (or getting knocked out by) people that I am rooting for. We made that mistake at AIS and half of us were watching after the first round.