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Seattle Area SCCA-Like Tesla Events

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Back in the day, SCCA road rally and solo event options were aplenty in the Puget Sound region. Not only are there not solo and road rally options like yesteryear, local Tesla owners have not seemingly sponsored/developed sporting events. Even when I had my BMW i3, I was able to join the local BMW group for sponsored driving events at Pacific Raceways.

Is anybody interested in putting their heads together with me to start developing Seattle/Bellevue/Everett sporting events for local Tesla owners? A reasonable event to start planning for spring/summer would be an SCCA road rally. If you haven't driven an SCCA road rally, check this page out: SCCA Road Rallying Road rallying is not a speed event, but it's great for getting folks together and provides a fun way to engage with your vehicle.
 
Back in the day, SCCA road rally and solo event options were aplenty in the Puget Sound region. Not only are there not solo and road rally options like yesteryear, local Tesla owners have not seemingly sponsored/developed sporting events. Even when I had my BMW i3, I was able to join the local BMW group for sponsored driving events at Pacific Raceways.

Is anybody interested in putting their heads together with me to start developing Seattle/Bellevue/Everett sporting events for local Tesla owners? A reasonable event to start planning for spring/summer would be an SCCA road rally. If you haven't driven an SCCA road rally, check this page out: SCCA Road Rallying Road rallying is not a speed event, but it's great for getting folks together and provides a fun way to engage with your vehicle.
I'm a local autoX-er / occasional HPDE participant in the Seattle area. You're absolutely right that there are very little involvement from Teslas when it comes to autoX and HPDEs, unlike CA where there's a lot of Tesla involvement. I think the main reason why The Ridge and Pacific Raceways aren't good for Teslas is due to the lack of nearby superchargers. Down in CA there are tracks that have SC's in very close proximity to them. The Auburn SC is nearly a 20 minute drive from Pacific which doesn't allow for enough time to charge w/o missing a session. They have L2 and 220 in the pit area but it's not enough to recover enough between sessions. Lacey and Tumwater are even further from The Ridge (which no longer has the Tesla chargers). Packwood is sadly no more, but when it was used was too far to travel to, do 5 runs and travel back to a supercharger w/o having to hit an L2 along the way, for most Teslas. As for Shelton and BMP, those are easy enough to get to and auto-X at. I'm not sure why they're not attended by more Teslas. I haven't done an auto-X event at Evergreen yet but I heard once that there was a M3P that was at an event and dominated the AWD class. I don't know who that was or how many Teslas go there. I'm a member of BEAC and when we held practice days this past summer we had as many as 3 Teslas out on two occasions I can recall. Not a lot but still more than the 1 that ran in WWSCC last season.

If you do have any ideas on a casual arrive and drive event, I'd be interested in hearing the idea.
 
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Does BEAC host autocross events at the Everett plant? I used to auto-x my Saturn SC at events off of the perimeter road back in the day. I'll need to check out Evergreen Speedway; I didn't realize there was autocross events there until I read your post.

As far as drives, two straightforward drives that are parade-like and focus on interesting sights and roads that I enjoy: The "3 Pass Blast" (Stevens-->Blewett-->Snoqualmie) is a nice drive. So is Hwy9 north of Arlington, past Big Lake, over to Chuckanut Dr. I enjoy spirited drives, too, but won't share those locations as openly on a public forum. 😉 My most epic drive was to participate in the "BC2BC All Electric Rally" back in 2013. I was in a Nissan LEAF, drove from the Blaine Peace Arch to the border with Mexico, and back. 17 days!

In looking into developing road rallying drives, it's my goal to provide us EV owners the common-interest fun that could be had yesteryear with drivers of internal combustion vehicles.

If folks are interested in starting small, like a Chuckanut Dr drive, for example, I'm interested in getting a couple or few drivers together to get the ball rolling. Sharing the event(s) on social media will get more interested. Eventually, as more events occur, we'd have a critical mass to develop more sophisticated events.
 
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Does BEAC host autocross events at the Everett plant? I used to auto-x my Saturn SC at events off of the perimeter road back in the day. I'll need to check out Evergreen Speedway; I didn't realize there was autocross events there until I read your post.

As far as drives, two straightforward drives that are parade-like and focus on interesting sights and roads that I enjoy: The "3 Pass Blast" (Stevens-->Blewett-->Snoqualmie) is a nice drive. So is Hwy9 north of Arlington, past Big Lake, over to Chuckanut Dr. I enjoy spirited drives, too, but won't share those locations as openly on a public forum. 😉 My most epic drive was to participate in the "BC2BC All Electric Rally" back in 2013. I was in a Nissan LEAF, drove from the Blaine Peace Arch to the border with Mexico, and back. 17 days!

In looking into developing road rallying drives, it's my goal to provide us EV owners the common-interest fun that could be had yesteryear with drivers of internal combustion vehicles.

If folks are interested in starting small, like a Chuckanut Dr drive, for example, I'm interested in getting a couple or few drivers together to get the ball rolling. Sharing the event(s) on social media will get more interested. Eventually, as more events occur, we'd have a critical mass to develop more sophisticated events.
The days of autoX events at Boeing Everett are long gone. We lost access about 11 years ago, if I recall correctly. BEAC uses Sanderson Field exclusively now as do a lot of car clubs in the area. It probably brings in more income to the port of Shelton during the warm months than the planes that use the active runway. They've reconfigured the Everett west lots w/ parking logs and permanent bollards so it's unusable for autoX events anymore. The north lot still is viable but we're probably never get access to it again.

Yeah, Evergreen has been doing autoX events for a few years now (Autocross – Evergreen Speedway) it has a popular group following of casual drivers. No work assignments and they even do events at night under the track lights around this time of year which makes the experience all the more interesting. It is however not as accommodating for going 10/10th as multiple cars have hit the wall and concrete barriers during their autoX events.

LOL... I had a Leaf for 9 years. We replaced it w/ my wife's TM3 (2018). That is amazing that you did a west coast boarder-to-boarder drive in one! Props to you for that! 👏 I absolutely hated it as a car but loved it as an appliance. I'm sure a west coast border-to-border run like that can probably be done today in under 24 hours in a LR TM3 and even faster in a CMY Model S.

Does the WA Tesla Owners club have any drives lined for this year yet? I sorta recall Theresa mentioning that some of the members were working on putting a rally together.
 
I'm a local autoX-er / occasional HPDE participant in the Seattle area. You're absolutely right that there are very little involvement from Teslas when it comes to autoX and HPDEs, unlike CA where there's a lot of Tesla involvement. I think the main reason why The Ridge and Pacific Raceways aren't good for Teslas is due to the lack of nearby superchargers. Down in CA there are tracks that have SC's in very close proximity to them. The Auburn SC is nearly a 20 minute drive from Pacific which doesn't allow for enough time to charge w/o missing a session. They have L2 and 220 in the pit area but it's not enough to recover enough between sessions. Lacey and Tumwater are even further from The Ridge (which no longer has the Tesla chargers). Packwood is sadly no more, but when it was used was too far to travel to, do 5 runs and travel back to a supercharger w/o having to hit an L2 along the way, for most Teslas. As for Shelton and BMP, those are easy enough to get to and auto-X at. I'm not sure why they're not attended by more Teslas. I haven't done an auto-X event at Evergreen yet but I heard once that there was a M3P that was at an event and dominated the AWD class. I don't know who that was or how many Teslas go there. I'm a member of BEAC and when we held practice days this past summer we had as many as 3 Teslas out on two occasions I can recall. Not a lot but still more than the 1 that ran in WWSCC last season.

If you do have any ideas on a casual arrive and drive event, I'd be interested in hearing the idea.
'21 M3P HPDE'er here.

I was talking with Donna at ProFormance last year and she mentioned Pacific Raceways is seeking funding (state grants?) to put superchargers at the track. Timeline unknown. Been trying to find out more about how Tesla owners can help move this along. Interested in getting more Tesla/EV owners to track day events, etc.
 
'21 M3P HPDE'er here.

I was talking with Donna at ProFormance last year and she mentioned Pacific Raceways is seeking funding (state grants?) to put superchargers at the track. Timeline unknown. Been trying to find out more about how Tesla owners can help move this along. Interested in getting more Tesla/EV owners to track day events, etc.
There's that big expansion of the Pacific Innovation Center and Motorsports Park project happening right now at PR. Maybe that's where new SCs would go? A SC right there at PR would be HUGE! It would make PR just as capable for Teslas as some of the tracks in Cali are. Now all we need is for Tesla to put a SC at the Fred Meyer in Shelton and then the Ridge will be usable as well.
 
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Got a follow up response from Shaye Kane at The Ridge:

1) The only charging option today is inside the garages (120V/20A) which requires a garage rental ($100/day). No fee for charging right now, but indicated that could change in the future.

2) Charging stations are definitely on their radar, and they hope to have something online in the next 2-5 years.
 
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Got a follow up response from Shaye Kane at The Ridge:

1) The only charging option today is inside the garages (120V/20A) which requires a garage rental ($100/day). No fee for charging right now, but indicated that could change in the future.

2) Charging stations are definitely on their radar, and they hope to have something online in the next 2-5 years.
Thanks for checking and sharing that info.

Well.... looks like Tesla Corsa XX - Ridge Motorsport Park is still a few years away.
 
Does BEAC host autocross events at the Everett plant? I used to auto-x my Saturn SC at events off of the perimeter road back in the day. I'll need to check out Evergreen Speedway; I didn't realize there was autocross events there until I read your post.

As far as drives, two straightforward drives that are parade-like and focus on interesting sights and roads that I enjoy: The "3 Pass Blast" (Stevens-->Blewett-->Snoqualmie) is a nice drive. So is Hwy9 north of Arlington, past Big Lake, over to Chuckanut Dr. I enjoy spirited drives, too, but won't share those locations as openly on a public forum. 😉 My most epic drive was to participate in the "BC2BC All Electric Rally" back in 2013. I was in a Nissan LEAF, drove from the Blaine Peace Arch to the border with Mexico, and back. 17 days!

In looking into developing road rallying drives, it's my goal to provide us EV owners the common-interest fun that could be had yesteryear with drivers of internal combustion vehicles.

If folks are interested in starting small, like a Chuckanut Dr drive, for example, I'm interested in getting a couple or few drivers together to get the ball rolling. Sharing the event(s) on social media will get more interested. Eventually, as more events occur, we'd have a critical mass to develop more sophisticated events.
I am definitely interested in some fun road rally events. Participated in some PCA events in CA back when I had my Boxster and they were a great way to spend the day and explore new areas. Been looking for some similar events up here for Tesla owners.
 
Just ran into this, but if you are into AutoX, the evergreen events are awesome. Tons of runs, no cone shagging. Quite a few Teslas, and I might just know that person who is always at the top of the fastest times of the day in the red Tesla ;)

Come out and join us! Happy to give some instruction or rides to anyone that is new.
Alright.... I'm down to give this a shot. I can't make it on the 15th but it looks like the next one after that is on the 30th (on the AutoX schedule but not the track schedule). But I'm only going if there'll be other Teslas there.

I too have heard the stories of this red Model 3 at Evergreen kicking ICE ass and taking names. I'd like to meet this driver and see if the stories live up to the hype. ;)

Seems like the rules are fairly loose. Just 3 classes, anything goes as long as it can be driven in. So an SCCA A-Mod car can run in the same class as a H-Stock car. Interesting....
 
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@Drivesolo - 95% Chance I will be there on Memorial Day (May 30th). This weekend is already sold out anyway. The best place to keep track of the events and when you can register is the AutoX facebook page (Evergreen AutoX). You can also scroll back there and see the top results for a lot of the events or go to RaceMonitor. Once the event is posted on Facebook, there will be a link to their main site to register, with a date/time the registration goes live. As a warning, these events sell out (80+ cars) in the summer, and the record is selling out in 5 minutes, so don't delay once it is live. Events do run year round, and the winter runs in the wet with only 30 people are just as fun (and the Tesla is amazing in the wet).

This is really just a "for fun" group which is what works well for me. Yep, just FWD, RWD, AWD categories. People bring all sorts of weird stuff. Tires are open- I'm generally competing with a trailered, full stripped race car on hoosiers with an excellent driver, while I show up in my daily driver on 200TW DOT tires that I drove there. It's good fun, even if it isn't "fair," and it's actually amazing how close all sorts of different cars actually run to one another when driven well. Tracks are different enough each time that you never quite know who is going to be quickest that day. It's really up to you to look at the other cars and see what is similar to you and "race" that car/driver. All the times are posted instantly via transponder on a web site/app, so you can see how everyone is doing in real time. You don't need any numbers or anything on your car to run.

If you're going in order to get a bunch of runs in, meet with people, ride in fun cars, and have a good time, you'll love it. If you're hyper competitive and want to race a rule book, it's not for you. You'll sometimes get a run with messed up cones too, that's just life. They have been super successful with this loose method- they can punch out 1,200 60 second runs in a day on the track, and they get to bring a super diverse set of people since there is nobody complaining about how any given car is classed. The people that run it have a great attitude too, complain about it being "unfair" or "unprofessional" and they'll point to the sold out list and happily suggest that next time you go run with SCCA and get your 4 runs in and work the course ;)

Hope to see you out there soon!
 
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