Just mailed out my SCCA membership application and "Novice Driver's Permit" application after taking a driver's physical.

http://www.scca.com/home.aspx

Heading up to Blackhawk Farms Raceway on the Illinois/Wisconsin border (not too far from Road America) in two weeks for my official driver's school.

http://www.blackhawkfarms.com/

Half an afternoon in a classroom to learn the rules, flags, and stuff, and then two full days on track. First sessions are with an instructor, then it's flying solo for half hour to hour stints for the rest of the day. Same for that Saturday but finished up with a few practice race starts and a short race if everyone does okay with the starts. There's an actual race on that Sunday but I'm not sure we'll be running that...we'll need to get back home, plus it's getting expensive...lol.

By completing the school I'll get a regional licesne good for two years. I believe I only have to complete 4 or 6 track days and I could get a pro license but I'll just be happy with the regional.

Wow, that's great Weasel. Hope it all goes well, good luck.

Got me wondering - Is there an rFactor or GTR2 version of the track?

In the first post of THIS THREAD , see the second link - a FileFront download for an rFactor version of Blackhawk Farms.

In that same thread, a few posts down, in a post by "Jack", is a link to a sky fix that would go into the main /Locations/Blackhawk folder.

Ohhhh, cool! Installed it and gonna try it now.

So far Nelson Ledges (where I'm supposed to run the enduro in August) is still a WIP, and the creator has a new baby keeping him busy.

Very basic track mod, but from the maps it looks pretty accurate. Ran a Mini there since my car will be a race modded Dodge Neon with front wheel drive. Kind of fun!

I tried it too... looking at a replay from the static camera positions showed some real weirdness - but not bad at all from the cockpit view when driving.

I grew up like 5 minutes from this track and still live close, might stop out and take some photos for Weasle to show off

Sounds cool! My buddy is actually thinking if I do well enough Friday on track I could apply for a waiver and not have to do Saturday's school...which would save about $250 which I could apply for the actual race on Sunday (with the SCCA pros). He owns two race Neons and we're taking both up there. 1.) In case I damage one during school I'll have a backup car, 2.) If we stay for Sunday he'd like to race too.

He brought one of his cars in to work last week and let me drive it to lunch. We found a closed shopping center and played around in the parking lot so I could get a feel for the shifting and car handling. Very fun car to drive! While heading back to work I went behind a Super Walmart we have and found a very cool twisty road behind it...so I had to drive it! I think I impressed my friend...so we'll have to see how I do on a real track.

Also looking at some nearby AutoCross events to maybe do.

What a great opportunity, Weasel!

Sounds like so much fun, pics will be cool to see.

Can't wait!

Great!

heh, real life merging with sim life.

I'd love to know your thoughts on how auto simming applies to real life driving. BillZilla has posted about this, IIRC, he thought it was limited to knowing the track, if it's in the sim and otherwise doesn't translate very well.

Anyway, good luck.