Sunday was High Plains Raceway’s customer appreciation day for 2014. A free track day and no Broncos on television made it an easy decision. Sign me up!
Normally a track day involves getting up early enough to drive for a bit over an hour and still show up for the drivers meeting at 8am. The free days are a bit more relaxed – the track didn’t even open until 9 with the drivers meeting scheduled for 9:40. I was almost a bit too leisurely and barely made it – I got out of the car in time to hear an announcement that the drivers meeting would start in two minutes.
On the way there, though, I had pretty much decided not to participate. Over the holidays, I picked up a new intake from a fellow LoCo member. Michael and I struggled quite a bit to get it installed. I always say “I’m software, not hardware!” when it comes to things mechanical, so when I say “Michael and I installed it” I really mean Michael did the work and I watched supervised.
It sounds really good. I had little expectations that it would provide any performance improvement, but did I mention it sounds really good? The trip Saturday to the Eiskhana was the shakedown cruise, so to speak. Everything seemed to be working well.
On the way to HPR, however, my check engine light came on. Being not very mechanical, I have no idea why it came on, and I wasn’t inclined to push the car too hard. So I attended the meeting but didn’t register. I figured I’d chat with the guys, watch, and beg a ride or three. After talking to a few of the guys, they assured me there wasn’t any reason for the new intake to throw the CEL. It must be something else.
Jeremy said he had an OBDC reader and could check the code and clear it. So we plugged his device in and he fired up his iPhone app. I forget what the code was, but he said it wasn’t anything serious. So we cleared it. If it came back on, I would stop. That done, I went and registered for the slow group.
Before I signed up, they said they had 113 cars registered. Just prior to the meeting, they said about half hadn’t shown up yet, but I found myself at the end of a still lengthy line. We may not have topped 100 cars, but it was the most cars I’ve seen for a track day yet. We ran two groups – fast and slow, slow group at the top of the hour, fast at 30 after. I sat out the first slow session and watched. For that first hour, there was always at least one string of eight or more cars. Obviously, nobody would be getting much of a chance for an unobstructed lap.
We had a nice turnout of Lotuses. Jeremy and Zach in their Exiges, and Mark and Greg in Elises. Greg was there just to spectate – didn’t even bring a helmet to get a ride. At first, I was the only Lotus in the slow group. Jeremy and Zach dropped down to the slow group after a couple sessions. There were quite a few very fast cars running. And I have to say, it was a bit disheartening watching an old Honda Civic passing the Exiges.
When we were all running in the same group, we decided to try to run together and compare each others lines. I volunteered to lead, expecting to be the slowest of the three. They could watch me for a couple laps, then I’d let them by and see if I could get them on camera. Unfortunately, there were so many cars out this just didn’t work. I’d catch traffic and make a pass, but they couldn’t get around until a few turns later. I’d wait, but by the time they caught up, I’d have caught another slower car. After a couple laps of this, I started pushing through traffic.
Open lapping days are different than club days. On club days, there are only two or three places we’re allowed to pass – the two straights and the short chute between turns 6 and 7. And you need a point-by. On open lapping days, it’s open season. The idea is, the slower car sticks to his line and the faster car figures out where it’s safe to pass. This was the case for the most part, but a few of the really slow guys were always getting off the line. That can make things a bit dicey.
I ran two sessions in the morning, then took an hour off. The food truck wasn’t open, so I ate the fruit I brought and wandered around looking at the cars. Then I ran one session in the afternoon. I didn’t bring any extra fuel, and the pumps at the track weren’t operational. I’ve already run out of gas twice there and didn’t want to do it again, so I only ran three.
The track was dry all morning but by my third session, some of the snow close to the track was melting and water ran across the track in a couple places – a small river that crossed the track just after turn 8 and a puddle on the outside of 10. These made for an entertaining time. I found I couldn’t push very hard in that sector. There’s a slight right turn after the first one, and clearly my tires were still wet as the car would slide a bit. The second wet spot wasn’t as bad, as I could generally avoid most of the water. But to take that turn at speed, I’d hit the puddle and the car would go sideways.
About half way through that session, one of the many race cars was coming up behind me on the pit straight. I was paying more attention to my entry to turn 1 than to my mirror at that point, but I did see a silver flash in my mirrors as he went sideways off the track. He got stuck in the mud – they had to get the tow truck out to get him moving again. He wasn’t the only one who had an off – several cars had mud splattered all over them. I got sideways a few times, but managed to keep it on the track.
It was a very nice day, sunny and warm, in the low 60’s. I met some new friends, got to run a few sessions, and all it cost me was a tank of gas. Tough to beat a day like that.
I’ll post a video soon.
