cyberx Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) Hey guys, Below is an exerpt from my track day experience last Sunday. I wish i'd read something like this before i went there. Hope you enjoy ... Six months have passed. Living in NorCal now, i had access to (at least) 3 race tracks within 150 mile radius. Being somewhat of a car enthusiast by now and having watched years of Top Gear and a couple of seasons of Formula 1, i decided to experience a track day for myself. I joined NASA (National Auto Sport Association) and signed up for HPDE (High Performance Driving Event) at Thunderhill Raceway. HPDE has four groups, the first being for people that never drove on a race track before and has an instructor riding with you at all times. There is supposed to be little overtaking and only on straights. Group 2 is the same except you drive without an instructor. I naturally chose group 1. Cost is $250 per day. ... 10:50am. I'm in my car sitting on pre-grid. There's about 25 cars waiting to get on the track. I'm nervous. The instructor joins me. 5 minutes remaining. 3 minutes. 1. Helmets on, windows down. We go in behind the pace car flashing its roof mounted blue lights for the first two laps. These laps are for you to familiarize yourself with the track, the corners, the racing line and to make eye contact with and wave at the flag stations. The instructor has to tell me 3 times to wave to the first flag station before i actually do it. He has his left hand in front of him mimicking what he's saying. Left, right, hard brake, hard throttle. He keeps talking for the duration of the entire two laps telling me a lot of things including what's coming up, corner number, correct speed and track position for it, if i need to break, which direction to turn and how hard, the next correct gear, passing rules, and just general tips and tricks. I pay attention to none of this as I'm overwhelmed by the number of things happening around me. It's the same overwhelming feeling you get when you first start learning to drive except now you're going really fast. I'm also surprised and a bit scared by the sheer strain this track driving business is putting on my car. It's trying to rip it apart, my poor little car. My two new friends - "tunnel vision" and "death grip" were going to accompany me for the entire duration of this session. When the pace car goes in (or is it out?) the teacher starts speaking less, probably so i can focus more, only telling me what's coming ahead, just like a co-pilot in those rally cars. "Ahead you will break hard, turn left, keep it wide". When it's time to actually do it, he mimics it with his hand as well as speaking it out loud. "Ahead, corner 2, hard break, switch to 3rd, turn-in, keep wide, constant throttle, slowly bring it in, reach the apex, accelerate, track out". I do exactly as he tells me but found myself struggling with being in the correct gear. Stupidly i had put my car in S, which is still automatic mode, so after selecting a gear with the paddle shifters, if the next corner was far enough, it would go back into automatic and hide the gear number so i did not know which way to shift next - up or down. I felt very out of place thinking "i don't belong on a track with this automatic gearbox". I also remember thinking to myself that this track is way too crowded because a few times some 4 or 5 cars kept passing me all at once. How could that be if i was going a million miles an hour?! As it turns out later from watching a video of myself - i wasn't. I was in fact going embarrassingly slow, even on the straits. In all this frustration, the checkered flag could not come soon enough. After i see it, i do one more lap - the cool off lap when, my instructor tells me, you let your engine and breaks do just that - cool off. Again waving to all the flag stations as we go around then out to the pit lane and into the paddock. First session is over, no incidents! Both me and my car are in one piece. I'm glad i had my helmet on to mask the look of terror on my face. ... 5:30pm. Pre-grid. There's significantly less cars this time around, i guess everybody went home after their long 2 or even 3 days here. There's maybe a dozen of us. We go out for one final time. After the first few laps i lost them all both in front and behind. It was almost as if my complaints from the first sessions have been addressed. The sun was much milder now, the wind - breezier and the track i had almost all to myself. I was driving relatively confident, doing almost all the things i was supposed to be doing. The first big mistake i did was when i forgot to break for corner 3. This messed up my line for corner 4 and needlessly increased the lateral forces on me, the car and the tires while as i was struggling to keep it all together. Right away the teacher told me in a firm voice "you break before corner 3". I guess that was a bad enough screw up that he felt he needed to mention it right away. After that I really enjoyed a few clean laps before an even bigger mistake came. I went carrying way too much speed through the last right hand corners 14 and 15 (both of them forming a hairpin turn) and almost flew off the track because of it, struggling with under-steer than over-steer that resulted in a pretty cool (in retrospect) drift in the end. My left wheels reached the outer edge of the rumble strip with the barrier only a few meters away. When i finally hit the finish strait, the teacher, given that we didn't crash, exclaimed "oh i liked that!" with a big grin on his face that you could see even through his helmet. I was i no mood to celebrate however as "death grip" payed me a visit throughout the duration of this whole shenanigans plus a few more corners after that. The only thing that saved me from going into the barriers, i reckon, was constant acceleration throughout that corner. Well that and a little thing called ESP. The car stayed stable and manageable for this entire ordeal. Next time i entered the same corner i was way too slow. Still, i was racing on the track by myself now, making my own decisions, choosing the racing line, doing my breaking and everything in between. What a long way i had come since that morning. It was amazing! On the final racing lap, i passed a new Mustang GT (the one with a 5 litre V8), the driver of which politely waved me by. And even tho I'd overtaken a few other cars toward the end, this one was the cherry on my cake. And as the sun was hanging a few feet above the horizon, i entered the pit-lane and after a right turn into the paddocks, i was done. As soon as the helmets came off, the instructor asked me if i had the ESP on. I nodded. "Yeah, i thought so" he said smiling. ... At the end of the day, i felt humbled of my skills and my car. I was glad i put my car in stock mode as that most certainly prevented my leaving of the track unintentionally on more that a few occasions. On the other hand i did see where the extra boost could have come in handy, mainly after tricky corners before straight lines and when trying to overtake. My brakes were probably not good enough to handle the extra horses anyway so i still stand by my decision. I also understood that a road car does not even compare to a track car and that horsepower is by far not the most important thing here. Your suspension, breaks and tires are. The cars we drive on the road are jacks of all trades. In the case of my GTI, it's too hard for the road and too soft for the track. You simply cannot have the best of both worlds. Period. My day ended with no incidents, a lot less width on my break pads and a few less millimetres of thread on my tires. But the most important thing i left with was the understanding of what racing is all about. A road car does not belong on the track but I'm still very proud of how mine did. I still enjoy tremendously my tuned GTI on the road. And it's still a car you can take occasionally to the track w/o basically doing anything to it. That's something in my book. All in all, this track day felt like i was just dropped in the middle of it all with not much intro or hand-holding. That only added to the satisfaction i felt at the end of the day. I was basically able to drive the whole track correctly at speeds of 65mph in some corners and 100mph on straights. The end. If anyone is interested in the full story you can find it here: http://k2ba.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-first-track-day-experience.html Edited August 29, 2012 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renntag Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Welcome to NASA. It is an awesome experience. Nice write up. Keep up the hard work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z06cool Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Welcome to the addiction....my condolences.... I've driven a chipped turbo GTI with all stock suspension and tires on track many times. Fun car, lots of understeer -- JUST DRIVE IT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t500hps Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Funny story and one I'm familiar with (I ran my first HPDE1 a year ago)...but if you think your car is "ill" suited for the track, I'm driving an SRT8 Charger!!! I'm now running HPDE3, several cooling and braking mods on the car and just got a set of slicks. A father/daughter I run with have GTI's with some mods and those little cars are FAST, especially in the turns (but now I kill them in the straights ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n80 Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I've been doing this for a year now too. Five events, all at the same track. Nissan 350Z, 6 spd, stock. I really enjoy it and intend to keep doing it when time and money allow, 4-5 times a year. I can completely sympathize with how you felt at first. After my first day ( ) I was so disappointed with how bad I was, how slow I was, how many times the instructor had to tell me things, how long it took before I was aware of corner workers/flag stations. It was still exciting and still generally fun but my lack of any natural ability and apparent lack of learning skills I was pretty sure I'd finish up the next day and chalk it up to worthwhile life experience but not come back. Fortunately, things started to gel the next day. Situational awareness improved dramatically, the things my instructor was telling me started to make sense and I began to be able to do what he said to do. Each session the next day was more and more fun. By the end of the second day I was tired and ready to go home and even though I felt like I'd want to do it again that it would need to be a good while later. Two days later I wanted to go back right away. I did 4 more events in the next 5 months and will go whenever I can without going broke or getting divorced. It is still clear that I have no natural talent for this and that I don't have the aggressive nature of a racer. But, I am learning and I'm getting better every time. I also seem to have more fun every time I go. I generally have a good idea of what to do and what I did wrong when I don't do it right. On the couple of occasions when I've been on track with few cars I can get in a 'zone' and can be pretty consistent. When I get in traffic or screw something up it takes me a long time to shake it off. One mistake often leads to a series of mistakes (I'm not talking about spins or anything I'm just talking about not hitting an apex or braking too early, etc). That's one of the main things I want to work on: if I blow a turn I need to be able to shake it off, refocus and get the next turn right. I still get unpleasantly nervous before each session. But as soon as I hit the track it all goes away. I think that is part of what makes it so addictive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madspeed Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Looking to be in this same situation very soon! Thanks for sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberx Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Thanks for the encouragement guys. I definitelly wanna go back some time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieranlavin Posted September 14, 2012 Share Posted September 14, 2012 Since my "track car" is on jackstands for a while, I occasionally take my FX45 on the track. It holds its own. Most will laugh until they see how well a proper driver can move a 4200lb SUV around the track. The brakes do need to be bled though but at least I'm conscious of that when I take it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08Bullitt0572 Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 You'll get better with more seat time, and getting different instructors will teach you something new each time. My very first DE was solo at Barber Motorsports Park - talk about nerve wracking! My second DE was with an instructor at Carolina Motorsports Park and I didn't have that much fun since we just didn't click. The third time was a charm at CMP with a great instructor, and I have been improving by leaps and bounds ever since. I know what you mean about how hard HPDE is on the car. More seat time = more wear and tear = more $$$$$. Money is the only reason that I am not on track every month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n80 Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 I had wanted to do VIR on Oct. 13-14. I've never been on any track except CMP. But, money, time and logistics got in the way so I'm going to do CMP with THSCC that same weekend. CMP is so close by for me it makes it cheaper and easier than traveling to a track. I'm still a little nervous about driving a long way to a track in the car that has to bring me home. I know a lot of people do it all the time...but I'd like to get a trailer one day. I'll be back at CMP with NASA in November. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TowDawg Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 It's definitely addicting. I went for the first time earlier this year and have been back about once a month since then. I don't have any more track days until Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm wondering how I'm going to make it that long! lol The comment about getting faster equaling more wear and tear equaling more money, is dead on! Brake pads every other weekend. Oil change every weekend. Extra set of wheels and a set of Hoosiers. Trailer. Not to mention adding safety gear and if you make a mistake or break anything. I went into 5 too hot at Road Atlanta my first time on the Hoosiers and spun across the track into the tire wall (luckily just body damage and was able to run the rest of the weekend). After fixing the body damage, my transmission gave out on the back straight my next trip. It's getting expensive, but am I done? HELL NO! Bought a fully built transmission from Rockland Gear and I'm ready to go again! It has truly become an addiction!!! Get your butt to the track! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supraman95 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 It's definitely addicting. I went for the first time earlier this year and have been back about once a month since then. I don't have any more track days until Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm wondering how I'm going to make it that long! lol The comment about getting faster equaling more wear and tear equaling more money, is dead on! Brake pads every other weekend. Oil change every weekend. Extra set of wheels and a set of Hoosiers. Trailer. Not to mention adding safety gear and if you make a mistake or break anything. I went into 5 too hot at Road Atlanta my first time on the Hoosiers and spun across the track into the tire wall (luckily just body damage and was able to run the rest of the weekend). After fixing the body damage, my transmission gave out on the back straight my next trip. It's getting expensive, but am I done? HELL NO! Bought a fully built transmission from Rockland Gear and I'm ready to go again! It has truly become an addiction!!! Get your butt to the track! When did you go off in 5 at RA??????? I am guessing this was not a NASA event? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gotmark73 Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Thank you for letting me know what to expect. My wife and I are going to start HPDE1 in spring with a 91 Miata. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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