The last week of every year High Plains Raceway has a free day for anybody who bought open lapping days that year. I only bought a half day so I felt like I didn’t deserve it. I couldn’t pass it up, though. It has been weeks since I’ve driven the Lotus, probably the longest it has sat idle since I bought it. The weather wonks all agreed it would be a beautiful day so I took the day off, blew off a family get-together and headed to the track.

I got there at about 12:30. There was no activity on the track. Turns out somebody blew an engine and they were cleaning up the oil. The tow truck had a work out. I didn’t see the car that blew up, but there were at least two other cars on the hook in the afternoon.

I started in the slow group. I ran two sessions with them, but the second session was quite short. I had one nice traffic-free lap in those two sessions. I switched to the fast group for the last two sessions. By then, most people had had their fill (having probably run three morning sessions) and the field was thinning out.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Sunny and mild, probably sixty degrees. I was quite comfortable with just my windbreaker.

It was the busiest track day I’ve attended. I don’t know how many cars were running, but the line to get on to the track with the slow group spilled into every road in the paddock. Cars gridding up were blocking the routes of the group coming off the track. A bit of a cluster job. If this had been a club event, somebody would have lined the grid up properly.

There were five Lotuses there, all Elises. Jason was there with his BRG car. His shirt matched my shoes. Bob was there with his titanium car. Also present were a silver one and a black one. I only was ever on track with the black one. The others were in the fast group but were done by the time I switched.

The slow group was an odd sort of traffic jam. It was pretty much a steady steam of cars moving at something like highway speed. Nobody ever had open road in front of them. There was passing, but sometimes it seemed painfully slow. I had one open lap but all the rest were about ten seconds a lap slower. It was much like being on the highway. A huge proportion of the cars were sedans – BMWs, Audis, a Corrola, a Maxima, a big Jag. A guy in a Boxter ran with his ski racks on. A classic Porsche driver had his right turn signal on. There were Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs. Porsches, Minis, Subarus, Miatas, a Gremlin running with a Jeep engine and the glittery green steering wheel from a dune buggy.

In looking at my lap times, I’m struck by how much I have improved. When I first tracked the car, it was on Riken Raptors, some very cheap tires. My best lap with those tires was 2:22. The first time I ran slicks, I managed a 2:14. I had big improvements each session. I felt I was overcoming a lifetime’s habit of knowing how fast I could drive around a corner and that with slicks it was a night and day difference. At the end of the day I felt I could get another four seconds quicker.

So now I’m on the Dunlop DZ101s. The rears are new but the fronts are done and need to be replaced. I managed a 2:14.5 this time. That’s as fast as I managed to run on slicks two years ago. I think I’ve gotten better at placing the car where I want it on the track. Whether that’s the proper place is another matter. I’m not missing as many apexes as I used to.

But I suspect another good chunk of time improvement is down to the new brake pads. Yesterday I certainly braked more aggressively than I normally do. Once I was too late and ended up four wheels off. I normally don’t brake hard enough to engage the ABS more than once or twice. But yesterday I gave the ABS quite a work out when I had no traffic.

The slicks are toast, and I’ll not likely buy another set. This spring I intend to get a set of track tires that I’m comfortable driving to and from the track on. I’d hate to be on slicks and get stuck in an afternoon thunder shower on the way home from the track.

With a new set of track tires, how much faster will I be? Is it too much to think I will be three seconds a lap faster? Is it out of line to hope that between more practice and a good set of tires I might shoot for a 2:10? Gotta have goals.