Entries were limited to forty cars. I don’t think the day was fully subscribed, but there might have been thirty or thirty five cars there – three Elises, two red 911s, three or four Miatas, a Mini, a Subaru WRX, the old Mustang that’s on all the CECA flyers, a blue AMX, a handful of Corvettes, a few BMWs, a Sunbeam Tiger, several recent Mustangs (including a 660 hp Cobra) and a supercharged Chrysler 300 (580 hp?), a first gen Viper, and a few others.

As is usual with CECA, we were broken into three groups – Green (novice), Blue (experienced, but new to this track) and Red (experienced). This was my first time here, so I was in the Blue group. According to the schedule, I’d get two morning sessions and an afternoon session. In addition, two open sessions were scheduled for the end of the day. Also as usual, each driver had to volunteer to work a corner, thus missing a session. I signed up for the second session.

The track is 1.4 miles long and shaped a bit like a wire coat hanger – roughly triangular with the access road as the part that hangs on the rod. The long side, though, isn’t straight – it has a chicane to the inside of the track. The facility isn’t really a race track, it’s there for training. The road surface is more like a regular two lane road with a painted center line and is slightly crowned. There are a lot of nasty rocks hidden in the weeds that could cause serious damage if you hit them. Although there aren’t really any elevation changes, there are a few rather extreme humps.

There were four police cars parked near the “tower” where we stood for the drivers meeting. These cars had big steel bumpers attached both front and rear, obviously so the troopers could learn how to do the “PIT maneuver”. The universal feeling was it would be fun to take those cars out and practice that ourselves.

Michael rode with me on my first session. I took the first lap fairly slowly, but even so the humps made me say “Oh shit!” when I went over them. Like bunny hops on a roller coaster, you stomach let you know you were going up and down. In fact, before the session was over Michael said “Dad, I’m not feeling too good” and I had me stop to let him out.

For working the corners, there are no corner stations like at a real track. You just stand by the turn with a couple flags, a fire extinguisher, and a radio. I was at “corner 3” which isn’t really the third turn. It’s a double apex left hander where the access road meets the track. We were positioned at the outside of the turn, which initially made me a bit nervous. I moved us a few feet farther from the track. I was stationed there with Jake, the driver of the yellow Viper. We took turns – one of us held the yellow flag while the other worked the radio.

It was instructive to watch the cars go through this turn. I couldn’t tell where they were braking, as they were coming toward us, but I could tell where they were back on the gas. There is a line painted across the track here, and I noted where each car accelerated in relation to this line. The earliest on the gas every time in this session was the Chrysler. When I went back out, I found I could get on the gas even before he did. I may have been fastest through this turn by the end of the day.

We were stationed there for each group – Red, Blue, Green. During the green session, the blue Elise spun in the middle of the turn. I was working the radio at the time. I told Jake to wave the flag while I called it in – “Control, corner three. The blue Elise spun. Lots of gravel on the track.” It took us a while to decide to suspend the session. I probably should have been quicker about it, but it took me a bit to realize both how big the “gravel” was and how much of it was on the track.

It wasn’t so much gravel as stones, and the stones were those gray angular ones common beside roads. And they were big, maybe as much as a half inch on a side. It was probably three more laps before we had everybody stop. I started sweeping the track while Jake called for more manpower. It took quite a while to clear it all up, even with three other helpers. By lunch time, I had blisters on each hand. Oops.

While I was working the corner, I saw Jerry arrive at the track. If he’d gotten there a minute earlier, he’d have been allowed in but another group of cars was on the track. There was still another group due when he got through. As he passed, I told him to find Michael and that I’d be in after the next session.

In the afternoon, Jerry got to ride twice and Michael had another go. This was the afternoon Blue session and the first open session. The second open session was cancelled, but everybody seemed to get all the time they wanted. As usual, we tended to hang out with the Miata guys. I don’t plan it that way, that’s just how it works out. Also in our little group where the Porsche guys, including Scott whom I met back in December at HPR.

I chatted briefly with the guy in the Chrysler, but he wasn’t too friendly. I should probably say “busy” rather than unfriendly. During one session I ran close to a Mustang. When we got back to the paddock I tracked him down. We nearly said “That was fun!” in unison.

To my pleasant surprise, I was one of the faster cars on the track. The guy in the red Elise was faster, and a white Corvette and the 660 hp Mustang. Somebody else may have passed me, but that was about it. Of course, there were cars I wasn’t on the track with, but still.

Soon I hope to put together a short video of the cars I passed, along with some shots that show cars going over the humps and how their suspensions are working. It won’t be in great detail, but you should get an idea of the suspension movement. I was going over one bump at full throttle in fourth gear. The car was light enough that the revs would go up noticably at the crest. As the day went on, I decided to let off the throttle there, as I sometimes went into the next turn too hot.

All in all, I had a great time and will gladly drive there again next year if it’s on the schedule. I think both Jerry and Michael enjoyed the day.