ITS NOT RAINING!!!!
This was the general buzz around the line of RV's, trailers loaded with race cars and drive up HPDE'ers that formed a long winding trail of participants waiting for FATT to get done so we could swarm the paddock and set up for the weekends event. It's time to go in at last. I looked like a wagon train from the days of the old westerns. We all drove in and made our way to our favorite spots and set up our areas. We as a team always make our way to the overflow to set up as we tend to take up a fair amount of land with our various vehicles, trailers, tents and the new addition of the RV. Friday Techistration for the Miata went smooth and was uneventful. The rest of the night the group spent relaxing over a Steak and Potato dinner on the grill and some fun times with friends.
Saturday morning arrives and the favorite sounds of engines being started, Chris singing on the intercom system and giving general announcements of the morning. As all of us made our way up to the All Hands Meeting, we knew it was going to be a hot one today. After a brief All Hands, I headed off to the Instructor meeting for the days briefing of what we should keep our eyes on. I ended up with one student, an E30 318 in group 2 and back up for group 1. Things were looking good. I make my way back to the compound and remember my new number. 29 was where I was going to start my tire test pressure at that Phils Tire Service was going to help me out with over the weekend. On the track for the first session and the car felt terrible. Very unresponsive and the tires were squishy. I just felt so not in control and as the rest of the incredibly fast field was passing me over and over again I was getting very frustrated. But I knew it was just a test run. After I came in and got a tire pressure check and some questions from Phil about how the session went, new pressure levels to start with were given to me. Add a lb to each except for this one...put two lbs in this one. Take the right side tires and put them on the left. Run them backwards. The next run was a LOT different. Felt like I was more in control of the car and noticed a few things. The first thing I noticed, other then having more responsiveness was the tires were not kicking up as much noise. Still had some under steer, but I was noticing that I was able to keep my foot in the throttle a lot more with the new setup over last year. The session comes to an end and I am feeling a lot better with myself. By this time is was hot out and I was nice and cool with the new cool shirt I had finished installation on a few days before the event. Ice water flowing over my upper body was incredible and kept me fresh and alert. Definitely money well spent. As I came in and headed over to Phil for another pressure check...41,41,41,43. Another round of questions and a new suggestion. Stiffen up the rear sway and try it. Ten minutes and it was switched one notch. Final session of the day and I head out for another test session. Finally, the car felt good and would steer when I told it to. For the first time since I had R Compound on...the car would turn. I pushed a little harder and had a fun session. 1:39.2 I ended up with I believe and even though still slow in my class in TT, if felt good. I came off for another pressure test and came up with the same numbers. Phil said leave it like it is and make your goal for tomorrow to run a 1:38. "You can't leave here without making a 1:38" Feeling good about the day, I park the miata for the night and head over to the OG Racing sponsored awards party. Great food and interesting beer and fun times. I had a chance to talk to a couple of other miata drivers that I call friends and tell them how the day went and the times I am running. A 1:39 on a stock suspension turns out to be a decent time for the car. As Joe tells me, most of the SSM times are in the 1:36 to 1:37 times so I am not that far off pace at all with what I am working with. Actually he and his daughter were very encouraging telling me those are good times for my car. I spent the rest of the evening talking over the fun of the day with friends, family and students. Yes, I said students. My E30 student had done very well and just needed some seat time to build up his confidence and such. I was a back up for group 1 and the second session jumped into an M3 without an instructor so that he would not loose any track time. After the session he told me he didn't want his other instructor back and wanted me in the car with him. Hey, the customer is always right and it was a fun ride. I am a talker in the passenger seat and he liked that I talked him through the course and guided him as he learned the track. We spend a fair amount of time exploring just how well the brakes would work and finding the turn in points on the turns. My personal favorite again was to get him to coast through T4 so that he would realize you really could go through the turn faster. I was pretty impressed with this first time on a track student. He was so eager to learn and listened to what I was telling him.
Sunday morning. Same routine. Time to get out and go after my goal. After Saturday's track time I come up with a little bit of a plan for this first session. I want a 1:38. I go out with an added lb in the rears and run as hard as I could....or at least as hard as my brain would let me. Each lap building experience and realizing that the car is still sticking no problem. Now the problem comes in. I get eager to grab my goal and start running harder...which puts me wanting to turn in a little too early or not tracking out enough or not setting up the next turn just right. I ended up driving as hard as I thought I could, which by the way...still is not hard enough for the car and ended up with a 1:37.5 for the best lap. I had no idea I even turned that time until later in the day. That time was only .4 seconds slower then a King Ratt driver in Qualifying for the weekend. I was pumped to say the least and knew that I could have been better with some help. My next two sessions I opted out of TT to give a couple of rides. The first was the Pit Out Guy, which was a long time friend and a fellow indoor karting bud. He has been working events to start doing HPDE's with his brother that was also flagging this weekend and working to get into HPDE events as well. I took Jake out for a session and showed him just what he was getting into. I think he had a blast. I think about lap 4 he gave is brother a love gesture as we exited T6. The very next lap is brother returned the love gesture. Was a fun time for sure and I just had to laugh. After that I took my group 1 student out for a ride. I told him point blank...do not try to do what I am about to do. I often wonder if that makes a student nervous riding along. The warm up lap went fine and we take the green. As we come to T1 I notice him gripping the door handle with a death grip, bracing himself with his feet and notice his head against the seat. We work our self though the track and after a couple of laps I start to notice he is relaxing a little and enjoying the ride. When we come off track I ask him what he thought. LOL. That was awesome he said. Another satisfied customer that I hope will come back and play with NASA. Thats what its all about....this is why I do what I do. A weekend of friends and happy students that go home with big grins and tall tales of what they just did...that's what makes my track time incredible and rewarding.
This was the general buzz around the line of RV's, trailers loaded with race cars and drive up HPDE'ers that formed a long winding trail of participants waiting for FATT to get done so we could swarm the paddock and set up for the weekends event. It's time to go in at last. I looked like a wagon train from the days of the old westerns. We all drove in and made our way to our favorite spots and set up our areas. We as a team always make our way to the overflow to set up as we tend to take up a fair amount of land with our various vehicles, trailers, tents and the new addition of the RV. Friday Techistration for the Miata went smooth and was uneventful. The rest of the night the group spent relaxing over a Steak and Potato dinner on the grill and some fun times with friends.
Saturday morning arrives and the favorite sounds of engines being started, Chris singing on the intercom system and giving general announcements of the morning. As all of us made our way up to the All Hands Meeting, we knew it was going to be a hot one today. After a brief All Hands, I headed off to the Instructor meeting for the days briefing of what we should keep our eyes on. I ended up with one student, an E30 318 in group 2 and back up for group 1. Things were looking good. I make my way back to the compound and remember my new number. 29 was where I was going to start my tire test pressure at that Phils Tire Service was going to help me out with over the weekend. On the track for the first session and the car felt terrible. Very unresponsive and the tires were squishy. I just felt so not in control and as the rest of the incredibly fast field was passing me over and over again I was getting very frustrated. But I knew it was just a test run. After I came in and got a tire pressure check and some questions from Phil about how the session went, new pressure levels to start with were given to me. Add a lb to each except for this one...put two lbs in this one. Take the right side tires and put them on the left. Run them backwards. The next run was a LOT different. Felt like I was more in control of the car and noticed a few things. The first thing I noticed, other then having more responsiveness was the tires were not kicking up as much noise. Still had some under steer, but I was noticing that I was able to keep my foot in the throttle a lot more with the new setup over last year. The session comes to an end and I am feeling a lot better with myself. By this time is was hot out and I was nice and cool with the new cool shirt I had finished installation on a few days before the event. Ice water flowing over my upper body was incredible and kept me fresh and alert. Definitely money well spent. As I came in and headed over to Phil for another pressure check...41,41,41,43. Another round of questions and a new suggestion. Stiffen up the rear sway and try it. Ten minutes and it was switched one notch. Final session of the day and I head out for another test session. Finally, the car felt good and would steer when I told it to. For the first time since I had R Compound on...the car would turn. I pushed a little harder and had a fun session. 1:39.2 I ended up with I believe and even though still slow in my class in TT, if felt good. I came off for another pressure test and came up with the same numbers. Phil said leave it like it is and make your goal for tomorrow to run a 1:38. "You can't leave here without making a 1:38" Feeling good about the day, I park the miata for the night and head over to the OG Racing sponsored awards party. Great food and interesting beer and fun times. I had a chance to talk to a couple of other miata drivers that I call friends and tell them how the day went and the times I am running. A 1:39 on a stock suspension turns out to be a decent time for the car. As Joe tells me, most of the SSM times are in the 1:36 to 1:37 times so I am not that far off pace at all with what I am working with. Actually he and his daughter were very encouraging telling me those are good times for my car. I spent the rest of the evening talking over the fun of the day with friends, family and students. Yes, I said students. My E30 student had done very well and just needed some seat time to build up his confidence and such. I was a back up for group 1 and the second session jumped into an M3 without an instructor so that he would not loose any track time. After the session he told me he didn't want his other instructor back and wanted me in the car with him. Hey, the customer is always right and it was a fun ride. I am a talker in the passenger seat and he liked that I talked him through the course and guided him as he learned the track. We spend a fair amount of time exploring just how well the brakes would work and finding the turn in points on the turns. My personal favorite again was to get him to coast through T4 so that he would realize you really could go through the turn faster. I was pretty impressed with this first time on a track student. He was so eager to learn and listened to what I was telling him.
Sunday morning. Same routine. Time to get out and go after my goal. After Saturday's track time I come up with a little bit of a plan for this first session. I want a 1:38. I go out with an added lb in the rears and run as hard as I could....or at least as hard as my brain would let me. Each lap building experience and realizing that the car is still sticking no problem. Now the problem comes in. I get eager to grab my goal and start running harder...which puts me wanting to turn in a little too early or not tracking out enough or not setting up the next turn just right. I ended up driving as hard as I thought I could, which by the way...still is not hard enough for the car and ended up with a 1:37.5 for the best lap. I had no idea I even turned that time until later in the day. That time was only .4 seconds slower then a King Ratt driver in Qualifying for the weekend. I was pumped to say the least and knew that I could have been better with some help. My next two sessions I opted out of TT to give a couple of rides. The first was the Pit Out Guy, which was a long time friend and a fellow indoor karting bud. He has been working events to start doing HPDE's with his brother that was also flagging this weekend and working to get into HPDE events as well. I took Jake out for a session and showed him just what he was getting into. I think he had a blast. I think about lap 4 he gave is brother a love gesture as we exited T6. The very next lap is brother returned the love gesture. Was a fun time for sure and I just had to laugh. After that I took my group 1 student out for a ride. I told him point blank...do not try to do what I am about to do. I often wonder if that makes a student nervous riding along. The warm up lap went fine and we take the green. As we come to T1 I notice him gripping the door handle with a death grip, bracing himself with his feet and notice his head against the seat. We work our self though the track and after a couple of laps I start to notice he is relaxing a little and enjoying the ride. When we come off track I ask him what he thought. LOL. That was awesome he said. Another satisfied customer that I hope will come back and play with NASA. Thats what its all about....this is why I do what I do. A weekend of friends and happy students that go home with big grins and tall tales of what they just did...that's what makes my track time incredible and rewarding.
