02-19-2004, 09:59 PM
So here I am, after about 4-5 years of anticipation I was finally going to do my race licensing school.
Quick Background on Licenses:
To race with SCCA or NASA you need a competition license. An SCCA license is good with NASA and SCCA both but the NASA license is only good for NASA events.
To get an SCCA license you have to complete two SCCA race schools or equivalent driving schools (as authorized by SCCA). Typically this means two separate weekend schools but some regions offer a double school that lasts three or four days where you can get your license done in one weekend. The school I did was one of these "double" schools.
Day One
The school started on Thursday (Feb 12). They started out with a 4 hour classroom session. After a 9 hour drive down I almost fell asleep a few times :? . There wasn't much in that session that I did not already know about flags or procedures except for some little stuff that SCCA does differently. What kind of surprised though was that they talked very little about driving/controlling the car. I guess the assumption was that you already knew what you were doing but obviously some people there did not. The most frightening part of classroom session was that they said typically around 13 cars wreck at this school every year
hock:
For the school I knew that I wasn't going to have my GS-R ready so I rented a Spec Miata from a guy who had an ad on SpecMiata.com. He towed the car to the track and handled everything with the car.
Day Two
On day two we did a track walk and ride around with our instructors. My instructor ended up being a Southeast division champion and had finished pretty well at the National Runoffs in T2. After our ride around we started our open track practice sessions.
The Miata's cornering ability was pretty damned impressive. Driving a rear wheel drive car on R-tires took some getting used to though. With the Integra I could cheat a bit more on the braking and turning but I ended up having a spin with the Miata when I got a little overzealous with that. Still, at the end of the day my times put me at about 11-13th in the group out of about 32 cars Spec Miatas. I know I left a lot of time on the table but I was renting the car and I was not trying to stuff it (or get stuffed), especially on the first day.
Day Three
Day three saw rain all day. In my first session I spun twice coming out of a turn on the power. What was throwing me off with the Miata is that I was able to countersteer to stop the initial slide but when the car snapped back I ended up doing tank slappers. This happened again in another turn but by the end of the day I had a pretty good feel for how much to correct and I didn't spin again for the rest of the weekend. Still, it was pretty damned stressful driving in the wet with slicks. Even more so when I was coming to the braking zone in 5th gear and couldn't see what was going on ahead of me because there was so much water spray coming up from the cars aheadhock:
Absolute Terror
On our last practice session before our practice race I asked the car owner if I could try rain tires on the car. The reason I asked him this is that I had assumed he was going to put some Toyos (RA-1) with some tread on them (as opposed to the Toyo slicks that were on the car). Well, Alan (the car owner) put some street tires with tread on the car. They were pretty much Pep Boys specials and let me tell you...I have NEVER been more terrified on track. In the rain giving the car even more than an inch of throttle while turning was getting the back end out and I had to brake over 120 feet sooner than I did with the slicks. 20 seconds a lap slower those tires were. Suffice it to say, I had Alan switch back to the slicks for my practice race.
For the practice race we did 2 practice starts then a real start. I qualified 29th overall (out of 46) because of those horrible street tires. Between the two mock starts I jumped up about 4 or 5 positions. For the real start I really started working my way through traffic until I spun and ended up losing about 15 positions. I was kinda pissed but oh well.
Day Four
For the final day there was still light rain in the morning but it wasn't so bad. After our first session my instructor told us to kick it up a notch and be more aggressive/decisive with our passes and to start tightening up our lines.
The Accident
I was going along at a pretty good clip and dicing it up for a while when...coming into a turn for a pass I braked, started turning, nothing happened, and I hit another Miata (maybe .5 seconds between realizing something was wrong and the impact). It was sort of a broadside glance but I pulled off anyway. After pulling off I decided to drive into the pits. As I was making the turn into the pits I realized my steering wheel was lose (turning but the car wasnt turning). When I got to the grid guy I told him what happened and started to turn to go to the paddock and the car wouldn't turn at all. At first I thought I had broken the steering arm or something but it turns out the actually steering wheel had come loose.
The Cause
It was a quick release steering wheel and apparently it had not been installed properly by the previous owner of the car. So Alan commenced with trying to fit a pin through the wheel so it could turn and I could finish the school. After the incident I had gone to talk to the chief steward and my instructor and apparently while I was gone the other driver came up with his girlfriend and she was cursing and yelling at Alan thinking he was the driver :lol: ! When I did catch up with the guy he was really cool about things though. His car didn't get banged up too bad, just some dented sheet metal.
The Conclusion
So with my makeshift steering wheel hub device I went out for another session but after two turns I noticed it had a bit too much play and I came back in. Alan made another attempt at the ghetto fab wheel and that felt better so I was able to make it out for the last practice and the practice race. I qualified in 26th this time, which was kinda disappointing but at the same time I was really taking it easy because I wasn't trying to have the steering wheel come loose again and end up on my lid.
I think I finished the race 18th. I was fairly aggressive but a couple of times I let someone buy when I very well could have defended my position. I was really just happy to finish the race after the whole steering wheel thing.
After the day was finished I got my logbook signed and said my goodbyes. I was pretty exhausted at the end of the weekend but I was happy I made it. Racing wheel to wheel was one of the most awesome feelings I've ever had. Everything I had done up to this point was like gateway drugs, racing is the real deal crack cocaine. As I told OG Wing, Chan, and RJ, I've tasted blood and I think I like it :twisted:
Anyway I'll be making a highlights post. Please feel free to add questions/comments.
Quick Background on Licenses:
To race with SCCA or NASA you need a competition license. An SCCA license is good with NASA and SCCA both but the NASA license is only good for NASA events.
To get an SCCA license you have to complete two SCCA race schools or equivalent driving schools (as authorized by SCCA). Typically this means two separate weekend schools but some regions offer a double school that lasts three or four days where you can get your license done in one weekend. The school I did was one of these "double" schools.
Day One
The school started on Thursday (Feb 12). They started out with a 4 hour classroom session. After a 9 hour drive down I almost fell asleep a few times :? . There wasn't much in that session that I did not already know about flags or procedures except for some little stuff that SCCA does differently. What kind of surprised though was that they talked very little about driving/controlling the car. I guess the assumption was that you already knew what you were doing but obviously some people there did not. The most frightening part of classroom session was that they said typically around 13 cars wreck at this school every year
hock: For the school I knew that I wasn't going to have my GS-R ready so I rented a Spec Miata from a guy who had an ad on SpecMiata.com. He towed the car to the track and handled everything with the car.
Day Two
On day two we did a track walk and ride around with our instructors. My instructor ended up being a Southeast division champion and had finished pretty well at the National Runoffs in T2. After our ride around we started our open track practice sessions.
The Miata's cornering ability was pretty damned impressive. Driving a rear wheel drive car on R-tires took some getting used to though. With the Integra I could cheat a bit more on the braking and turning but I ended up having a spin with the Miata when I got a little overzealous with that. Still, at the end of the day my times put me at about 11-13th in the group out of about 32 cars Spec Miatas. I know I left a lot of time on the table but I was renting the car and I was not trying to stuff it (or get stuffed), especially on the first day.
Day Three
Day three saw rain all day. In my first session I spun twice coming out of a turn on the power. What was throwing me off with the Miata is that I was able to countersteer to stop the initial slide but when the car snapped back I ended up doing tank slappers. This happened again in another turn but by the end of the day I had a pretty good feel for how much to correct and I didn't spin again for the rest of the weekend. Still, it was pretty damned stressful driving in the wet with slicks. Even more so when I was coming to the braking zone in 5th gear and couldn't see what was going on ahead of me because there was so much water spray coming up from the cars ahead
hock: Absolute Terror
On our last practice session before our practice race I asked the car owner if I could try rain tires on the car. The reason I asked him this is that I had assumed he was going to put some Toyos (RA-1) with some tread on them (as opposed to the Toyo slicks that were on the car). Well, Alan (the car owner) put some street tires with tread on the car. They were pretty much Pep Boys specials and let me tell you...I have NEVER been more terrified on track. In the rain giving the car even more than an inch of throttle while turning was getting the back end out and I had to brake over 120 feet sooner than I did with the slicks. 20 seconds a lap slower those tires were. Suffice it to say, I had Alan switch back to the slicks for my practice race.
For the practice race we did 2 practice starts then a real start. I qualified 29th overall (out of 46) because of those horrible street tires. Between the two mock starts I jumped up about 4 or 5 positions. For the real start I really started working my way through traffic until I spun and ended up losing about 15 positions. I was kinda pissed but oh well.
Day Four
For the final day there was still light rain in the morning but it wasn't so bad. After our first session my instructor told us to kick it up a notch and be more aggressive/decisive with our passes and to start tightening up our lines.
The Accident
I was going along at a pretty good clip and dicing it up for a while when...coming into a turn for a pass I braked, started turning, nothing happened, and I hit another Miata (maybe .5 seconds between realizing something was wrong and the impact). It was sort of a broadside glance but I pulled off anyway. After pulling off I decided to drive into the pits. As I was making the turn into the pits I realized my steering wheel was lose (turning but the car wasnt turning). When I got to the grid guy I told him what happened and started to turn to go to the paddock and the car wouldn't turn at all. At first I thought I had broken the steering arm or something but it turns out the actually steering wheel had come loose.
The Cause
It was a quick release steering wheel and apparently it had not been installed properly by the previous owner of the car. So Alan commenced with trying to fit a pin through the wheel so it could turn and I could finish the school. After the incident I had gone to talk to the chief steward and my instructor and apparently while I was gone the other driver came up with his girlfriend and she was cursing and yelling at Alan thinking he was the driver :lol: ! When I did catch up with the guy he was really cool about things though. His car didn't get banged up too bad, just some dented sheet metal.
The Conclusion
So with my makeshift steering wheel hub device I went out for another session but after two turns I noticed it had a bit too much play and I came back in. Alan made another attempt at the ghetto fab wheel and that felt better so I was able to make it out for the last practice and the practice race. I qualified in 26th this time, which was kinda disappointing but at the same time I was really taking it easy because I wasn't trying to have the steering wheel come loose again and end up on my lid.
I think I finished the race 18th. I was fairly aggressive but a couple of times I let someone buy when I very well could have defended my position. I was really just happy to finish the race after the whole steering wheel thing.
After the day was finished I got my logbook signed and said my goodbyes. I was pretty exhausted at the end of the weekend but I was happy I made it. Racing wheel to wheel was one of the most awesome feelings I've ever had. Everything I had done up to this point was like gateway drugs, racing is the real deal crack cocaine. As I told OG Wing, Chan, and RJ, I've tasted blood and I think I like it :twisted:
Anyway I'll be making a highlights post. Please feel free to add questions/comments.
. Now the real challenge begins. Unfortunately because of my job I don't know when I'll be able to do my first race but I am definitely anxiously awaiting that day.