Eastern Tenn advice?

My wife has decided to go back to school and finish getting her degree, after jumping through all the hoops to get things going again, she's got less than 1.5 yrs left to her AA, she's found a school in TN she's interested in. So it looks like next fall we may be heading for Johnson City area in Eastern TN. Any advice about the area, anything I should know? Racing? Autox's in the area? from what I can tell looking at a map it's not far at all to Deals Gap, but from what I understand the police presence sp? is getting pretty heavy there.

Thanks

Knoxville (etrscca.com) has a very strong autocross program and some good drivers, too. Chattanooga has a smaller program but we still have fun. The Nashville guys are awesome, too. TN does not lack for autocrossing opportunities.

Johnson City is right next to Bristol Tenn. and along with the Nascar track there is a drag race facility.
http://www.bristoldragway.com/

jrw1621 wrote: Johnson City is right next to Bristol Tenn. and along with the Nascar track there is a drag race facility. http://www.bristoldragway.com/

Knew about the Nascar track, didn't know of the drag strip, I'm not a big fan of pro roundy round, but the guys that are paying outta pocket are great to watch, that and and the rolling roll cages with HUGE wings, and bigger motors.... those are great. LOL

You will be pretty close to the Dragon.....

Deal's Gap.

EDIT: BAH! Beaten by seconds by JFX.

Nascar at Bristol is less typical of nascar. It is really more of a high speed demo-derby. Getting around the short track there seems to require leaning on your neighboring car. The track is so short it looks more like cars drving around a highschool field and track type track. The structure itself looks more like a football stadium than it does motorsports. The multi-level seats truely circle the entire track.

Nascar is not really my thing either, but if you are in the area and fall into some tickets it really is a spectacle.

Last year was the first year for ever that I recall you could actually buy tickets to Bristol. Before that it was always sold out. It is a bit different from most NASCAR races. A show all in itself. Like demolition derby in a football stadium.

BTW there are other roads in the area that are as good or better than the dragon. And don't have all the po po.

Is Bristol the one they call the paperclip? Always interesting to watch. Hard on brakes, cars, and drivers

I wondered about the PoPo and The Dragon. Everyone's always talking about how fast they went on The Tail of the Dragon and there's TV shows showing modern art sculptures of wrecked crotch rocket pieces. I wondered what the PoPo were doing during all this. Seems like a good excuse to go raise some tax money on out of towners "for public safety" or "for the children." And TN has long had a reputation as being an entire state of speed traps, although I did once cross it North to South in a Europa at around double the national speed limit.

You just have to know when to run the Dragon. Weekends are not a good plan. If you drive the length at reasonable speeds you should be able to see if there is any presence or not. My favorite times were early Sunday morning and after dark on a cool summer evening.

One thing...DO NOT cross the center line. It's dangerous to the motorcyclists, and it's far more challenging to just use the lane you're given.

Strizzo wrote: Is Bristol the one they call the paperclip? Always interesting to watch. Hard on brakes, cars, and drivers

Martinsville is the paperclip. It, like Bristol, is a 1/2 mile track (also like Eldora, but that's dirt, which is another totally different, and much more exciting beast).

ddavidv wrote: You just have to know when to run the Dragon. Weekends are not a good plan. If you drive the length at reasonable speeds you should be able to see if there is any presence or not. My favorite times were early Sunday morning and after dark on a cool summer evening. One thing...DO NOT cross the center line. It's dangerous to the motorcyclists, and it's far more challenging to just use the lane you're given.

I'm gonna quote that last part. Don't cross the berkeleying centerline.

Also, alot of fun can be had on that road well below the speed limit. Seriously. I've been there myself six times, and while you can build some serious speed on some sections, most of the fun stuff is very low speed, slower than many autocrosses.

Joey

Dr. Hess wrote: I wondered about the PoPo and The Dragon. Everyone's always talking about how fast they went on The Tail of the Dragon and there's TV shows showing modern art sculptures of wrecked crotch rocket pieces. I wondered what the PoPo were doing during all this. Seems like a good excuse to go raise some tax money on out of towners "for public safety" or "for the children." And TN has long had a reputation as being an entire state of speed traps, although I did once cross it North to South in a Europa at around double the national speed limit.

You really want to watch out for black Dodge Chargers... and a few bike cops too.

I've never had any problems with the cops down there, probably because fast on the Dragon isn't really that fast. Also everybody lets you know when there is a speed trap ahead. On the weekends it's hard to get a clean run anyway.

Actually, I DID have one problem with the cops last time... we came across an accident on the Parkway leaving the Dragon and there is no cell service to be able to get ahold of them. We had to send somebody back to get them. Some guy with a BMW (and its version of On-Star) couldn't even get a response!

Dr. Hess wrote: although I did once cross it North to South in a Europa at around double the national speed limit.

They probably didn't think it would run that long.

It grenaded the next day, Wally.

As already mentioned most of the autocross or scca stuff comes from Knoxville way...maybe an hour from Johnson City. As a town though JC is cool...small enough to be safe, big enough to have some amenities. ETSU is a great school too.

East TN is gorgeous country. No commentary on motorsports in the area, as I grew up a ways westward from there and have been gone for a number of years, but I can tell you that if you are into the great outdoors at all, that's a fine part of the country to live in.

I don't want to spoil this thread by turning into a "comment on the dragon and its police enforcement thread."

Eastern TN has some great roads for driving and from what I've seen the locals all seem to be very friendly. There is a particularly beautiful range of mountains in the southeast corner of the state, culminating in "look out mountain" I believe its called, down by the tennessee-georgia border.

And I went to school in extreme southern WV, on the VA-WV border. So many exciting outdoor things to do. Skiing, rafting, mountain biking, hiking, climbing, are all within arms reach. Eastern Tennessee was about an hour away.

Definitely part of the "old south" in spirit. I found it to be somewhat lacking in what I call "culture," however, it was awash in what many people call "culture."

I'll pretty much just echo what everyone else is saying:

Knoxville is cool.

The dragon is cool, but DON'T CROSS THE CENTER LINE . And yes, I've made my wife physically ill on that road without hearing much more than a peep from the tires.

While you're hitting the dragon, travel a ways up the road and check out the Nantahala Gorge. Be-a-utiful. Kayaking, etc. is awesome.

Bristol is the only NASCAR track I long to return to.

Road Atlanta is a doable drive.

ATL Region auto-xes are doable as well.

Chatt. is a fun town...especially if you're into dive-y bars.

Pretty sure there's a decent rally-x group in chatt.

I spent a month in Gatlinburg one weekend.

Sorry, that's all I've got.

(The ride from/to the airport in Knoxville was pretty, but I was driving a rental PT Cruiser - so I was in a sour mood.)