Cascade Sports Car Club Track Day Summary

Paul, Ed and I headed out to PIR Saturday the 18th for a day of fun on the track with the Cascade Sports Car Club. They run a very good event and this was no exception. The only mixup of the day was from the event director, who sends emails, but doesn’t read responses and thus put Paul and I into the same run group — sharing the same car! But that was quickly sorted and I got to run with last year’s Cascade Rookie of the Year, a guy name Jake. He runs in Club Rabbit, which Paul and I were originally interested in years ago for our own Rabbit. A great guy that I learned alot from. Good luck this year, Jake!

Paul and I drove the Jetta and Rabbit up from Corvallis Friday afternoon to get a jump on Portland’s Friday rush hour. It was my first time driving the Rabbit long distance, and I have to say, it’s not as bad as I thought. Sure, there’s zero creature comforts in the car, the wipers barely work, and the harnesses make it tough to check out your blind spots… BUT, it’s so light an nimble, it’s hard to be upset while you drive it. Still rev’s like a top and changes lanes with just a hint of input.

The next day at the track was another troublefree, wide-smile kind of day for the Rabbit. Again taking pretty major abuse from us both, it happily continued on all day. And while it was cold as hell outside, we got a few sunbreaks and the track was just warm enough that our Falken’s stuck great the entire day. And with the Chicane closed for this event, we were really hauling ass down the front straight.

But likely not faster than Ed, who’s Revo’d GTi was reporting 135-140mph down the front straight. While I hear the speedo is a bit off, that’s close enough to know that little car was traveling at a frightening pace. I wish I had been in his run group to witness the power.

My personal favorite passes of the day were on the one of the Club Rabbit’s and a massaged 16v Scirocco. But this wasn’t very reminiscent of last year’s Audi Track Day where we could pass just about anyone at will. Not so at the Cascade event where clearly there were far more talented individuals on track. I can only assume they were there for the same reason we were — for a properly ran and safe event. Great day and setup for the following Friday’s BMW track day where the M3 would make her first PIR appearance.

Many many thanks to Ed for putting us up for the weekend with close accommodations, plenty of beer and some great food! And to Paul again, for building a bulletproof fun machine!

Here’s some linked pics from a professional photographer at The Digital Perspective:

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