They said its becoming the best small road course in the Northeast. With its fast and closely placed corners, elevation changes and easy-to-digest layout, its no wonder why Northeast Track Days chose Lightning as its inaugural event for starting the new track club. When I first heard about a Northeast, with its long and standard format events catering to Intermediate and Advance drivers I was immediately intrigued.

I've run in all sorts of HPDEs since the mid 70's but this was the most seat time and best learning track day of them all. I have always felt like a number among the jungle of weekend track warriors. A bit overwhelmed by the rush of it all and then its over, $300 poorer and not much but worn pads and dusty wheels to show for it. It always seemed that the intermediate group always had a couple of slow pokes that that wasted the lap. Or, fastball hot-rodders with something to prove.

Well, NTD at Lightning last Monday has changed all that for me now. First of all the organizers Dave and Dave, are the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet. Very professional while always looking out for your enjoyment, driving improvement, and most of all safety. For some reason, many of the other DE's either are too lax, don't care or too over bearing with enforcement. I was looking for a new club that catered to me like a private club, and man did I luck out!

Perhaps due to the newness of the club, this being NTD's first event made us pioneers feel like we owned the track. There were a little over a dozen cars plus about 5 instructors plus a full complement of NJMS track workers and safety team make it feel more like a private test day than a HPDE. The morning opened with the standard registration followed by drivers meeting and then at paddock, come-to-your car tech. What service! The clubs long format had promised 3 1/2 hours track time on their website but, I was not prepared for the enduro track day that was in store. And even better NTD was running an April half price special! The absolute bargain of the century!

Steve