02-24-2004, 02:07 AM
quick synopsis of my weekend.
Arrived Friday along with Maeng, Scotty, Feersty, Ryan T, and Boobies. I must say, it was really nice to be able to unload the car at the track and reserve a place for MM to keep thier cars and shit close to the grid and classrooms. After this, the hilarity ensued (If you buy those cookies, I'll punch you in the dick).
Monday morning brought a lot of excitement with it, but I was surprisingly calm, something I attribute to having done a lot of traveling with the guys and knowing the basic routine. Classrooms were good, Unkefer is a very good teacher, but I was surprised how he didn't really go into techniques until much later. My instructor gave me some good advice about checking tire pressures, brake fluid, and lug torque every time before going out on track. First session was very good, learning how the track was shaped and braking zones, passing zones, etc. The second session I continued to work on form and going a little bit faster. Third session brought more aggressiveness, but I found that I bit off more than I could chew. I came in way too hot on turn 3 and early apexed, crossed over the track and tried to force it back into line, continued to pull out onto the grass but my steering brought me back onto the pavement. Unfortuneately, as soon as the rear tires came back on pavement, they grabbed and rocketed me across the road onto the other side, in front of turn 4. I did 2 spins and luckily stopped, just a little over a foot shy of the guardrail. Good learning experience but my nuts sucked way up into my body and it took a while to get them back down. However, I got right back on track and kept on going. The fourth session brought me faster and eager to get back on track the next day. Over the course of the day, I found that I have a slow leak in my passenger rear brake line, but this never served to be any major concern (will be remedied very soon). It was also determined that the 3 MM cars (Chad, Kaan, and I) were possibly the fastest/most skilled in our group. I personally rolled a couple STis, a corvette, and an SL500 to name a few. I went into Saturday loving the uphill esses but have also come to be very fond of the roller coaster as well; in fact I love the whole track from the flat esses to the front straight (the other is fun, but also served to be where I had the most trouble).
Sunday I woke up ready to roll, possibly a bit to eager. Although I had been told not to go out and drive like I had Sat afternoon, I believe I pushed it harder than I needed to. I had the joy of waiting for 5 minutes on grid for an instructor to show up (mine from Saturday was nowhere to be found) and so I wanted to make the most of my session. Unfortuneately, turn 2 got the better of me and I spun (stayed on track) due to overcorrection. Still got right back out there and kept on going. In fact in this session I had my best run through the uphille esses (went in at ~100, exited at ~97) and I was very happy, even though I lost a quarter of my track time. My second session again found me instructorless and again losing a large chunk of track time. Jeff Curtis (chief of instructors) was my instructor, and I quickly found that the line I had been following all of saturday and my 1st session of sunday had a lot of large flaws in it (due entirely to lack of criticism), and that I had not been shown some markers that I should have been aiming for. Jeff reeled me in bigtime from where I had been on Saturday and I don't think I got over 90 in the esses again that day. I did learn a lot and took them to heart, but at this point I was very frustrated and pissed that none of this information had been shared with me previously. My third session was quite uneventful again, except for getting passed by numerous cars which couldn't touch me all day on Saturday (another blow to my ego :? ). I'm not saying that I new it all, but it is quite irritating to do something all day on Saturday, and it is obviously is working (regardless of it being right), only to find out the next day with one session left to practice the new information that has been made available and is the proper way to drive the line.
Looking back, I still had a good time. Sunday was a major sour note due to the dissappearance of my instructor and finding out that everything I had been doing had major flaws in it. Saturday was a blast and I enjoyed every second of it. The drive home was quite long, and I found that I kept hearing things and thinking something was wrong with the car, although nothing seems to be wrong with it. The new brakes and suspension were incredible on the track; this car absolutely LOVES the twisty roads and it will be very hard for me to drive anything else on track. I've found a few things I want to fix before Summit in May, and then we'll see how well my car really can do. Thanks to all of you for the help preparing before and at the track, and for all of the encouragement. I'm already excited for next time.
One thing I will make sure of next time, I will have an instructor ready to go for both days so that I don't get the shaft again and sit on grid instead of being out on track.
Arrived Friday along with Maeng, Scotty, Feersty, Ryan T, and Boobies. I must say, it was really nice to be able to unload the car at the track and reserve a place for MM to keep thier cars and shit close to the grid and classrooms. After this, the hilarity ensued (If you buy those cookies, I'll punch you in the dick).
Monday morning brought a lot of excitement with it, but I was surprisingly calm, something I attribute to having done a lot of traveling with the guys and knowing the basic routine. Classrooms were good, Unkefer is a very good teacher, but I was surprised how he didn't really go into techniques until much later. My instructor gave me some good advice about checking tire pressures, brake fluid, and lug torque every time before going out on track. First session was very good, learning how the track was shaped and braking zones, passing zones, etc. The second session I continued to work on form and going a little bit faster. Third session brought more aggressiveness, but I found that I bit off more than I could chew. I came in way too hot on turn 3 and early apexed, crossed over the track and tried to force it back into line, continued to pull out onto the grass but my steering brought me back onto the pavement. Unfortuneately, as soon as the rear tires came back on pavement, they grabbed and rocketed me across the road onto the other side, in front of turn 4. I did 2 spins and luckily stopped, just a little over a foot shy of the guardrail. Good learning experience but my nuts sucked way up into my body and it took a while to get them back down. However, I got right back on track and kept on going. The fourth session brought me faster and eager to get back on track the next day. Over the course of the day, I found that I have a slow leak in my passenger rear brake line, but this never served to be any major concern (will be remedied very soon). It was also determined that the 3 MM cars (Chad, Kaan, and I) were possibly the fastest/most skilled in our group. I personally rolled a couple STis, a corvette, and an SL500 to name a few. I went into Saturday loving the uphill esses but have also come to be very fond of the roller coaster as well; in fact I love the whole track from the flat esses to the front straight (the other is fun, but also served to be where I had the most trouble).
Sunday I woke up ready to roll, possibly a bit to eager. Although I had been told not to go out and drive like I had Sat afternoon, I believe I pushed it harder than I needed to. I had the joy of waiting for 5 minutes on grid for an instructor to show up (mine from Saturday was nowhere to be found) and so I wanted to make the most of my session. Unfortuneately, turn 2 got the better of me and I spun (stayed on track) due to overcorrection. Still got right back out there and kept on going. In fact in this session I had my best run through the uphille esses (went in at ~100, exited at ~97) and I was very happy, even though I lost a quarter of my track time. My second session again found me instructorless and again losing a large chunk of track time. Jeff Curtis (chief of instructors) was my instructor, and I quickly found that the line I had been following all of saturday and my 1st session of sunday had a lot of large flaws in it (due entirely to lack of criticism), and that I had not been shown some markers that I should have been aiming for. Jeff reeled me in bigtime from where I had been on Saturday and I don't think I got over 90 in the esses again that day. I did learn a lot and took them to heart, but at this point I was very frustrated and pissed that none of this information had been shared with me previously. My third session was quite uneventful again, except for getting passed by numerous cars which couldn't touch me all day on Saturday (another blow to my ego :? ). I'm not saying that I new it all, but it is quite irritating to do something all day on Saturday, and it is obviously is working (regardless of it being right), only to find out the next day with one session left to practice the new information that has been made available and is the proper way to drive the line.
Looking back, I still had a good time. Sunday was a major sour note due to the dissappearance of my instructor and finding out that everything I had been doing had major flaws in it. Saturday was a blast and I enjoyed every second of it. The drive home was quite long, and I found that I kept hearing things and thinking something was wrong with the car, although nothing seems to be wrong with it. The new brakes and suspension were incredible on the track; this car absolutely LOVES the twisty roads and it will be very hard for me to drive anything else on track. I've found a few things I want to fix before Summit in May, and then we'll see how well my car really can do. Thanks to all of you for the help preparing before and at the track, and for all of the encouragement. I'm already excited for next time.
One thing I will make sure of next time, I will have an instructor ready to go for both days so that I don't get the shaft again and sit on grid instead of being out on track.