In May, the NNJR track crew was at Thunderbolt for our advanced driver days. This was an excellent event with four hours of driving a day. The weather was superb! The track has undergone many changes for the better in the off season. There is now grass where all of the sand was when we were there last year. This holds all of the sand in place so that when someone drops a wheel there is no longer a great dust cloud. The paddock now has grass as well, which prevents the sand from blowing around. The track has been changed by adding FIA style curbs to many of the corners. Unlike the previous flat curbs, you don’t really want to get on the new ones. There is now a curb at the “hump” at Turn 14. Additionally, the track has reduced the price of the on-site accommodations as well as the garages. Terri and I had dinner at the track restaurant and I have to report that it is excellent! When you are there, you should try it. We will be back to Thunderbolt on July 10-12. I hope you have signed up! If not registration might still be open and there may be room for a few late comers.

“The secret to a good egg crème,” Rob Ida lectured, pausing mid-sentence to dip an onion ring into some ketchup, “is a special chocolate syrup called ‘U-Bet.’ You can’t find it just anywhere.” Coincidentally, I have been hearing about this magical elixir since I was a kid from my mom, who also grew up in New York City. Apparently back in the day, every soda and malt shop worth their juke box would only serve up U-Bet with their seltzer and milk. This is one thing I wasn’t going to argue with Ida…I also had an egg crème with lunch, and it was awesome.

We opened the driving season at Pocono with our annual spring event on the North Course. Because of the early April date the weather can be iffy at this event. This year was no exception. Instructor day on Friday was wet and cold with intermittent fog. Those that braved the conditions got as much track time as they wanted when they could see, as we ran an open track format. We managed to complete our instructor training with six new instructors appointed. Congratulations to Jeff Bruce, Michael Dix, Manish Gupta, Drew Karpinski, Astrid Tisseront and Thomas Goeckel, NNJR's new instructors. On Saturday the weather improved. It was still cold, but at least it was dry for most of the day. Sunday had beautiful warm weather. With the help of many volunteer instructors, we were able to accept 57 students into the event. Many were first time drivers and many had attended the Mid Winter track event. From the smiles on their faces, I know they all had a great time. Thanks to all of the instructors that volunteered to come out and just instruct.