[Jason Oldfield]

Damien,

You really SHOULD try to get there Wednesday if at all possible. They don't park overnight, and if I remember correctly don't start parking until around 8am. Even though there won't be a lot of people waiting to get parked Thursday morning, I think it's safe to say that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get parked, go through credentials, and get teched, all in time to make the first time shot for S/St on Thursday morning. The only time I was in Chicago I missed the first session because I didn't pull on to the track property until about 4 am Thursday morning.

Now that said, I think I did still end up with 2 time shots, but you know how that goes. A little rain and you could be the unlucky guy that missed the first session and is now running first round Friday with NO time trials.

They might not have this problem this year since car counts are generally down, but again, by the time I got parked Thursday morning, I had to park on the opposite side of the track (at the very end obviously) than the rest of the sportsman racers. There was a place to cross over at the end of the track (I just had to wait in between pairs of racing cars coming down the shutdown area), but this created a bit of an inconvenience because the ET shack was again located on the opposite side. Thus, when I ran, I actually had to turn off to the wrong side of the track, get my time ticket, and then turn around and drive back to my pit area on the opposite side of the track. I ended up relocating my pit area after first round, but it was an inconvenience that I would have rather avoided altogether.

So again, my recommendation is to get there Wednesday to get yourself a decent pit spot, and to give yourself plenty of time to get through credentials and tech. This way you'll be ready to go when they call S/St to the lanes first thing Thursday morning.

Good luck, and have fun!