Date : Aug 18st 2018

Location: Summit Point , WV

Track: Shenandoah circuit.

 

1. Preparation. 

I didn't have enough time to add more to the car. I changed post office and summer is the busy season for my wife. so I check the fluids and kept driving my car to go to work.  Also, I could only participate in 1 day out of the 2 day weekend.  The best advice I was given was to keep the car the way it was. Steve, my last instructor , commented on how the car felt good while braking so I took it as a compliment of choosing the right product. Tires are all season , 500tw. They still look brand new, which shows that I am the bottleneck of performance as of right now.

 

Track Day

Still running on the novice group, I was less stressed than my first day but still very excited. Steve was there but I got assigned Tim as an instructor. We ran the circuit low speed and I told him I was monitoring my speed before breaking at the end of the straight and that I wanted to reach 115mph by the end of the day. He agreed on the target and off we go on our first session. The weather was cooler than last event ( low to mid 70's) and I immediately felt the rear was too loose seriously limiting my exit speed out of corners. So I decided to work on entry speed instead. It was a great session, I remember the flow of the circuit very well and passed a few cars as I was already faster than half of the novice group.

Before the beginning of the second session, I took upon myself to decrease the rebound on the rear dampers. Since my tire temps were good, I've soften the rear to gain more mechanical traction. I explained what I did to my instructor and we were at the back of the novice group in the pit waiting for the session to begin. There was a WRX in front of us. I asked how 4 wheel drive would help on this track, he said they should be superior to a RWD due to the mid corner grip required. Well, the first 2 laps where there for me and the WRX to pass most of the group and I chased the guy for 3 laps before he decided to push it further and I got stuck in slow traffic. he had more power than me exiting the corners but I could catch up in with faster entry speed and better flow in some succession of turns. Driving wise we were at the same level and it was a great experience. The car felt great reducing the damper setting in the rear. I still suffer from understeer but I was getting more and more confident of the brakes. At the end of the second session, I almost reached 120mph at the end of the back straight.

While we exited the car, I joke around that his job was done since I reached my goal of the day. It was the best session I've ever done. I was starting using the understeer and weight transfer even more now and felt like the speed is starting to come.

Before the third session, I went to meet my instructor that mentioned that he will send me solo. WHAT ! He mentioned that I was running at an intermediate level pace and that I should go on my own.Yes, I was passing everyone, Yes I was getting better but I didn't think I would reach that level that early. I do have racing experience in the virtual world but I didn't think I would be making so much progress in 2.5 days or 10 sessions.

Well, I went by myself. But I was all the way back. So I took it as a session for passing by myself. The track is a busy track and passing takes a lot of focus off the driving.  I maybe had 2 good laps out of it but I was consistently hitting 110 to 115 mph at the end of the back straight. It was very fun but I felt like slow traffic would do the train to often and prevent faster traffic to pass in the passing zones.  There was a Porsche Boxter that tried to follow me during the session. I clearly was faster in the turns but he would consistently catch me back during the straight, I pushed 2 good laps and he was off my mirrors. It felt good to be able to go faster than a car with more horsepower.

Finally, the last session of the day arrives. I decided to be in the front, this time for a clear track. We don't have a caution lap in the 3rd and 4th session, so I push the car right away. I did about 7 laps before I started to lap cars. during that stint , I hit between 120 and 122 mph at the end of the back straight. I felt like I was "flowing" the track. My focus was on my driving exclusively. This was the best session ever! I now started to feel in unison with the car. knowing what it will do after each input. I started to feel like my tires and a street alignment was the reason for not being able to push it further.

It took me a full week to stop talking about that session.

 

Category: Track events

Date : October 13th to 14th 2018

Location: Summit Point , WV

Track: Jefferson Circuit.

 

1. Preparation. 

Well, this time , I convinced my wife to join me for that weekend. So much of the preparation was telling my wife this is a fun thing to do and that women are into it as much as men but are too shy to participate.

Since I am the main driver of the car, this means that she needs to get use to driving the Z. we went on a couple of day trip where I explained to her the advantages and risk of a RWD versus a Front wheel drive.

Since I now moved to intermediate, we can use the same car. I was hoping for novice and intermediate to have a break between session but nop. the car will have to be on the track consecutively for 40 minutes. So again, fluids are checked , brakes pads, etc... I went thru a full inspection to make sure everything was tight and tidy.

We did watched a lot of track videos to see what line to take and get a good feel of the track flow. This track is more power friendly than Shenandoah since it has a lot less turns. We are running the extension version of the track.

 

 

 

In order to track my progress , I bought a cellphone windshield holder so that I can run the TrackAddict App.

 

Track Day 1

Since this is the last event of the year, I've decided to bring breakfast to all the staff and instructors as a thank you since most of them are there on a volunteer basis. I ordered Dunkin-Donuts the night before and went to pick it up at 6:30 that morning.  We arrived to the track and I unloaded all the coffee and donuts for them to enjoy!

We checked in, I got the car in tech inspection and we went to our respective classes. She went with an instructor for the track orientation and I went myself with an instructor. Since it was my first time on this circuit, I requested a instructor for a least the first session so I can get pointer on the track and the line. Today's schedule have the intermediate group immediately following the novice group. So I backed off the car and my wife is on her way to her first track session. Weather is wet from early overnight rain but the track is drying fast, it is cold and fortunately for me , I have a driver warming up my tires for me! ;-)

Since I was new to this track, I didn't setup the Trackaddict app for the first day of the event. I wanted to concentrate on my driving.

It took me the whole 4 sessions to get comfortable with the track. I unfortunately have to shorten my session because it takes quite some time for my wife and her instructor to get out of the car after their session. So I ended up chasing everybody in the intermediate group. But to my surprise, I was able to catch up by the end of each session.  This is promising. 

 

 

Track Day 2

Now that I feel more comfortable , I decided to start keeping track of my time. So I installed the windshield mount and plugged my phone.

1st session: around 1:30 for best lap

2nd session: down to 1:29 for best lap

3rd session was wet and my best lap was a slow 1.35

4th session was dry again and I finished with a consistent lap time between 1.27 to 1.28. I remember how much faster I felt on the Shenandoah after a session in the rain. It looks like I need rain to go faster.

Category: Track events