i'm screwed as far as watching the race. i'll probably get there late saturday night now. i have to work. hopefully i can leave a little early and be there by 8 or 9pm.

If my house was not so far from the track, about a 1.5 hour drive one-way at reasonable speeds (~2 hours pulling the trailer) I would host a Bathurst party myself. Hell we could make it a sleepover :ughug: and save on the hotel rooms. That is why I am staying in San Marcos Saturday night.

Can we stream it on laptops?

Tivo win. Maybe there's a truck-stop we can hang out at. I've heard that Jake knows all the good ones.

Only if they have showers!

I hear they show gay porn in the truck stop showers so I am not sure that will work. I could score some quick cash though.

Yep we can try streaming it on laptops. It will work as long as the hotel has a good connection. I googled streaming bathurst (sounds gay) to see if this would be an option but I do not know which streaming sites are reliable and which are not. What would be cool is if some of the teams were streaming in-car video and we had multiple laptops going.

I talked to Phillip at H2R. He does not know San Marcos so cannot suggest a place to watch it in town. He suggested driving up to Austin which I was hoping to avoid if possible.

i'll be golden streaming all night if anyone would like in on that. bring your own saran wrap though.

I'll bring a "lap" top

H2R should let us "slumber party" overnight.

That would be nice but I doubt they would go for that. The DVR is set so worst case I watch it Sunday evening.

MotherFREAKER I hate it when I am writing a long post and my login times out for some reason and I lose my post...

Short H2R timing system intel. Talked to Phillip on Sunday.
- GOOD New system has been tested, is working well, and agrees with AMB within a couple of thousandths of a second.
- BAD (?) New system (TAG Heuer) requires transponders (not RFID)
- GOOD Transponders for the TAG system are much cheaper than AMB's $400 butt rape price. According to Phil the TAG transponders are about $45. They run a looong time on simple watch batteries, like months or years.

The system is still being worked on but it sounds good so far. No idea yet if they will have transponders for everyone this weekend. Worst case we use gps lap timers as usual.

And while I am thinking of it, BEWARE. THERE IS A BIG FREAKING BUMP at the apex of Turn 9 that you will nail if you are too close to the inside curb going through there. I hit it ONCE, then started apexing with my inside tire about 1-2 feet away from the curb. It sucks, at least in my stiff-spring car.

I don't get it. Every race track on earth uses AMB, why not HHR?

Because it's not a "race" track? It's a country club for cars. Pretty sure no nasa or scca races have ever been held there. Lack of corner stations/bunkers, narrow track here and there, etc..

I thought they started with some kind of Tag system? Either way, race track or CC, they should suck it up and install AMB. Lots of members (and prospective ones) likely already have transponders, and they could recoup some costs on rentals from those that don't.

My G2X should be here soon so I'll have that and won't have to jack with Tag Heueueueueueur

I cannot speak for HHR. But I am glad they are trying something else because AMB transponders are so freaking EXPENSIVE. They are almost certainly much more expensive then they need to be for what they are, and probably because they are practically the only option. Someone needs to break the AMB monopoly and get some competing technology into the system, preferably with cheap transponders, or ultra cheap (free) RFID tags.

Try losing one sometime (like I did). It sucks. Also cheap transponders makes it easier for someone to get into the sport. Even with rentals for casual users, the rental fee has to be high ($40-$50) to recoup up front costs in a reasonable amount of time.

Is it shipping "tomorrow"?

I heard that Bernie Stewart and the NASA SM Dir. who works at the Bilstein suspension shop are going to fly out to California and ship it for Racepak as a personal favor to another MiataTurbo member. I expect it to be here yesterday.

I have a G2X in my hands, it looks like Stewart Development could not make it to Santa Margarita in time to provide their special handling procedure. If you guys want to experience my "special handling procedure" at TXMC, let me know.

Good to go guys, I will be there! Anyone know the schedule? I'll be leaving Fort Sam around 730ish.

Gates open at 9 am and close at 6 pm. No formal schedule. It is essentially an open track day. Find me or John Z at the track and we will get you signed in and paid.