Tag Archives: HPR

HPR Customer Appreciation Day

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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.

Race Against Kids Cancer

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Saturday was day one of Rocky Mountain Vintage Racers big weekend at High Plains Raceway. One of the objects of the event was to raise a bunch of money for the Morgan Adams Foundation “Race Against Kids Cancer” to buy a flow cytometer, whatever that is.

One of the many ways of generating cash was to sell rides in cars during the lunch hour. Rides were available at the $200, $100, and $40 level. For $200 you get to ride in a race car. Those were fairly limited as not many of the race cars have passenger seats. The forty dollar ride was in a “guest car”. I figured that would include me. Rides were an out lap, fast lap, and in lap.

I’ve done lunch laps a couple times before. There are two basic types – fast laps with corner workers or parade laps behind a pace car. This was more of a mix – helmets were required, but other passenger attire rules (long sleeves, long pants, no open toed shoes) were waived. Also, kids under 18 were allowed. Grid girls got a free ride in a $100 car, and corner workers also got free rides. I had six passengers – four who made contributions, a grid girl, and a corner worker.

I got there a bit before 11 thinking I’d need to get an inspection after checking in, and I wanted enough time to grab a bite to eat as well. I found the booth where they were selling the rides and they pointed me to one of the carports where I signed in and got my wrist band. Turns out I didn’t need an inspection. After I ate I stuck fairly close to the pavilion. Schomp BMW had several cars there, which turned out to be lunch lap cars too.

The races were running a bit late so we didn’t grid up until about 12:30. This was in the pit lane rather than where we grid up for club days. One of the grid workers said a few words to each driver. He told me I was a $100 car and was lined up in the proper place. That was a pleasant surprise. I was sure I was a $40 car – most of the cars gridded up were faster and much more expensive. Chalk another one up to the Elise’s drop-dead good looks!

Photo by William Taylor, Coterie Press

Photo by William Taylor, Coterie Press

I asked each rider if they wanted to go fast. They all said “yes”. Of course they did, that’s pretty much the object of the game. But I don’t know that they really have the same idea of fast as I do. I’m guessing most of them had never been on a track before. I’m going to enter corners twice as fast as many of them have ever experienced. Most of them obviously enjoyed it. But I wonder if I freaked out the kid a bit. He was too short to brace himself with his feet. I’m belted in with a CG lock, but I don’t have one for the passenger. He got tossed around a fair amount, and I’m not sure how well he could see.

On track days cars get released from the grid several seconds apart. Here you made your way out whenever you got somebody strapped in. With my first passenger we were in a line of cars fairly close together. A Porsche GT-2 and a BMW flew past us half way down the highway straight. I didn’t wave the second BMW through, but he passed me at the last moment. I admit I took more than a little pleasure knowing he shouldn’t have done it. His acceleration and top speed weren’t much better than mine, but he missed apexes and had to brake much earlier than me. He let me by less than a lap later, in turn 2.

Due to the lax attire rules, the grid girls all got rides. Luckily, I had the top off. They were leggy and wore high heels and form fitting outfits that barely covered their bottoms. My rider managed to ingress and egress without major loss of dignity. I chatted with her briefly afterwards. She made two observations. First, she couldn’t help but notice that while she was wearing what she was wearing, I was dressed head to toe in a fire resistant suit. And second, when we were going down the highway straight I pointed out a truck carrying a wind turbine blade. She felt I should have been keeping my eyes on the track. That’s about the only place on the track I can relax!

2014-08-02 14.13.16sWhen I was hanging around the pavilion before getting on the track, there was a giant pickup truck nearby. At one point there was another truck of the same model and year parked next to it. Quite a size difference. So on the way out I had to get next to it for a picture. It’s just a few inches too low for me to drive under.

This video is a bit longer than I usually post – just short of 11 minutes, and it only includes one lap. A good time was had by all. I got to run 17 laps (6 out, 6 in, 5 flying) for free and got a bit of a “warm fuzzy” for helping out a charity.

Epilog

Today I received an email reporting that RMVR raised $137,000. I think their goal was $87,000, so it’s great they exceeded it by a good margin.

SAAC/CECA Track Day, HPR

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High Plains Raceway had club days on both Saturday (Z Car Club) and Sunday (SAAC/CECA). Being a cheapskate, I’d have rather run with ZCCC because they were forty bucks cheaper but we had a garage sale Saturday so CECA it was. Plus, it was the LoCo track day as well, an added bonus.

The day started on a bit of a down note. On my way to the track, on I-70 near East Colfax, my right turn signal assembly popped out. It has happened three or four times before, but this time the wire failed to tether it and it was gone. I spent a few minutes looking for it, hoping it made it to the grass and might be intact. But no luck on the search.

Arriving at the track, I spotted the LoCo contingent and joined them. I bummed some tape from Pete and secured the left side turn signal and covered the gaping hole on the right. I had invited Bill and he surprised me by getting there before me. I grabbed a breakfast burrito the size of my head. Took me the entire drivers meeting to eat it.

It looked to be the usual CECA contingent – Corvettes, Vipers, Porsches, a classic Ferrari, Mustangs, old and new, Minis, Miatas, and Subarus, a couple BMWs, a couple NSXs. In the Lotus paddock we had an Evora, two Exiges, and a handful of Elises. Perhaps the highlight of the day was the brand spanking new McLaren 650S.

I ran in the red group, which I think was the smallest group. Of this group, only a few cars were slower than me. Today we were short handed on corner workers, so the only legal passing zones were the straights – couldn’t pass in the short chute between 6 and 7. Bill decided to sit through the green group classroom session, so I was without passenger the first session. I had the soft top on for the first session, then took it off for the rest of the day.

In the second session, the McLaren came up behind me pretty quickly and I was able to wave him by without slowing him down too much. Lucky for me, he caught up to traffic right away and I was able to run close behind him for a short spell.

At lunch they did some parade laps and a ladies only session. Anybody could do the parade laps, so we sent Bill out. When he came back a short while later I thought he was done, but he had time for one more lap so I got a ride in his almost new Taurus SHO. I wasn’t aware they were making them again.

Most folks left after three sessions. They ran green and blue together for the fourth session. So few cars were out, the let the reds back on track. I ran 15 timed laps that session (as opposed to 10 or 11 in the others) and even came in before the checkered flag.

On the way home I stopped again to try to find my turn signal. I walked maybe a mile of that highway, between morning and afternoon. I got back in the car after seeing the same crumpled license plate on the shoulder and was about to shift to second gear when I saw it. Unfortunately, it hit concrete instead of grass. The lens and bulb were gone, and it was missing pieces and badly cracked, but surprisingly still had the grommet.

These things are on back order from Lotus, so no idea how long I’ll have to do without it. I wonder if you can get green or yellow painters tape…

HPR Customer Appreciation Day 2013

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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.

Two days, two tracks

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It has been a busy week, so I’m a bit late posting this.

Saturday, June 22

I went to High Plains Raceway on Saturday with the Z Car Club of Colorado. This was my first day with the ZCCC. When running a CECA day, they prefer drivers to have their cars run through tech inspection before getting to the track. For that, they arranged for Peak Eurosport to do the inspections. If you don’t do that, they’ll still inspect you at the track before the drivers’ meeting. ZCCC has a couple tech sessions in the week prior to the event. If you miss those and want an inspection at the track, it’s an extra ten bucks.

In addition to getting the car teched before the event, I also did a little additional preparation. I’ve run out of gas at HPR twice. Well, not at HPR but between HPR and the nearest gas station (17 miles away). So I bought a 5 gallon gas can. I had to snicker a bit when I realized that this can holds half a tank of gas. Properly prepared, I should never run out of gas at the track again.

I also finally bought a lawn chair that fits in the car. All our lawn chairs are the old-fashioned kind, mesh on an aluminum frame. The sort they used to sell back in the sixties. The newer type when folded aren’t much bigger than the car’s soft top and easily fit in the boot. So, in addition to not worrying about running out of gas I could also relax in a comfy chair. Let the fun begin!

ZCCC splits drivers into four groups: A, B, C, and D. A is Expert and D is Novice. I elected to run in the B group. I can’t imagine calling myself expert at this any time soon. They had 46 cars turn out, including 21 Datsun/Nissan/Infiniti, 7 Miatas, 6 Corvetttes, 5 Porsches and a variety of others. Part of that variety was two Elises. There were a few familiar faces from CECA days and everybody made me feel right at home. A good group and I’m sure I’ll join them for another track day sometime.

The weather was fairly warm. Mostly sunny, until the end of the day when a thunder storm passed west of the track, moving south to north. On the news that night I learned that that storm dumped golf ball sized hail on the prairie. I’m glad it missed the track!

I had an unbroken string of days at HPR where I improved my best time each day. “Had”, as Saturday was the first time I wasn’t faster than my previous outing. My best lap was in the first session, two laps under 2:20. I keep working on finding a faster way around the track. I’m blaming my slower times on the hotter conditions until I learn the real reason. I’ve decided I can go quicker by taking later apexes on several of the turns. I dedicated my last session to trying this. I think I’m headed in the right direction, in spite of the hard data indicating otherwise. Next time I’ll remember to take my pyrometer so I can learn just how hot my tires are getting and collect some additional data.

I made a video of the day, this time a “Frankenlap”. I ran five sessions and mounted the camera in a different place for each. One was mounted inside the car, directed at me. I used that as the “master” shot (primarily to get the best sound) and spliced in bits from each of the other views.

Sunday, June 23

Michael and I went to Speed Raceway down in Centennial. It’s an indoor go-kart track that runs electric carts. We went with LOCO and had 15 folks turn out for the event.

They time each lap for each kart. Results are purely based on lap times, not who gets the checkered flag first. They tell drivers that if a faster driver catches up, let him pass. That may be counter to lots of peoples’ natural inclination.

We got to run three races, the first two which they characterize as “practice” and “qualifying”. They put a maximum of six cars in each group, so to get times for everybody we had three groups. Michael and I ran together the first two times. I was third, he was second each time. We both managed to improve our times each session. Michael ended up fourth overall while I was sixth.

It was a lot of fun, but I got pretty beat up by the kart. I was still hurting a bit from my day at HPR. I need to get a knee pad for my left leg. Even though I’m securely belted into my seat, my left leg takes a beating, leaving me bruised and abraded. And from experience I know I get thrown around pretty badly by the karts. The seats aren’t exactly made for me and the restraints aren’t the best racing harnesses. I ended up with a giant bruise on my back, about the size of my hand with fingers extended. As they say, “no pain, no gain!”

2013-06-23 16.57.40s

We even got a little podium ceremony. No champagne to spray, not even airline sized bottles as befitting such a colossal event!

Finally, it was good it was an indoor track, as it rained fairly hard while we were racing. It was hot out, so when we got out of the car I told Michael to leave the window cracked a bit. When we got back out, his seat was dry but mine was fairly soaked. So it goes.

HPR

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I went to the track Friday afternoon. I generally only go to the track with one of the clubs but do manage to get to HPR occasionally on my own. One of the reasons is that it makes me eligible to do the customer appreciation days.

Club days are different in a few key ways from open lapping days. With the clubs, it’s an all-day event where I generally get three or four sessions. Passing is restricted to two or three places. On club days, drivers often have to work corners. On open lapping days I can get three or four sessions in an afternoon, passing is unlimited, and drivers don’t have to work corners. Sure, for club days, you do a lot more waiting around, but that’s okay. It’s good to visit with other participants. And getting out on the corners is a good way to see how other drivers take the turns.

Passing is the big difference. We drivers of the slower cars have to be much more careful to watch our mirrors. Sometimes the speed differences can be immense. Friday, they divided us in two groups – street cars and race cars. There were three kinds of sessions – street cars only, race cars only, and open sessions. In the open sessions, the formula cars catch me quite quickly. They’re sometimes difficult to see. A lot of folks I talk to express some discomfort at being passed anywhere and everywhere on track. I have the feeling, sometimes, when I catch slower traffic that they don’t see me. I just don’t take chances passing people.

Most track days, there are quite a few Corvettes, Miatas, and Minis. Friday there were none of the above, at least running in the street car group. I think there were more BMWs than anything else. Three or four M models. They all sort of look alike to me unless I pay particular attention, so I don’t know the mix of 5 series versus 3 series. Scott was there with his Porsche and his friend driving a turbo Saab. There was a guy there with his Laser Blue Elise and his friends, one of whom was driving a Mercedes CL 65 AMG V-12 twin turbo.

I keep meaning to get a lap timer working on my phone, but I never seem to think of it before I get to the track. So I’m left figuring my lap times based on the video tape. Not the most accurate method, but close enough for my purposes. I haven’t broken down the tape yet, but I did manage to put together a little highlight reel. I understand YouTube is “short attention span theater” and try to keep my videos under three minutes or so. This one is more like five and a half.

I chatted quite a bit with the other Elise driver. He’s owned the car three and a half years. When he bought it, it had something like 3,700 miles on it. He has about 5,000 on it now. I don’t understand folks who buy these cars and don’t drive them. This was his first time at HPR. He was quite a bit slower than me. When he first came over to chat, he was wanting to know what kind of tires I was running. I was on my street tires, which are not well suited to the track. He was running decent tires but complaining about lack of grip. Those tires shouldn’t be exposed to cold temps and asked if it got cold in his garage. I suggested this might be the problem with his tires.

I gave him a ride for a few laps so he could learn the line. Then he got back in his car and promptly spun out. I was surprised to find out that the spin tripped the inertia switch that shuts off the fuel pump. He had to be towed back to the paddock to reset the switch. I was afraid he’d had a more serious mishap but was glad to see he was right back out on track.

Next Saturday is a day with CECA down in Pueblo. I’m really looking forward to it.

Video from Sunday

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I just posted the video from Sunday’s track day. Rather than posting my fastest lap of the day, this time I made a montage of all the times I passed somebody or was passed. Well, almost every pass – I left out a couple of duplicates and one or two where you didn’t get much of a view of the other car. I’m guessing this is about two thirds of the cars that were there that day. I didn’t run in the fast group until the last session and a number of the faster cars left before then. And it’s a long track, so if somebody is running lap times comparable to mine, we may not encounter each other.

HPR Free Day

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Happy New Year.

High Plains Raceway held their annual Customer Appreciation Day for 2012 yesterday. It was originally scheduled for last week, but was postponed due to the weather.

Scott and I met at the park and ride and drove out together. I think we first met at last year’s free day. The video I posted from that day has him waving me by at the end of the lap. He was quicker on the straights, but I had him in the turns. Since then he’s replaced worn brake parts and is now turning lap times a couple of seconds faster than me when I’m on my street tires.

Yesterday was a later start than usual – track opened at nine with a drivers meeting at 9:40 and hot track at ten. Two sessions were run each hour with the “slow” group for the first half hour and the “fast” group for the second half hour. I always run in the slow group on these open lapping days as there are quite a few race prepared cars. Yesterday I ran in four sessions, with the last session in the fast group. There were quite a few more cars in the slow group than the fast group, so I switched groups hoping to get a little more open space. I haven’t put a video together yet. Perhaps I’ll do a montage of all the times I got passed in that last session.

The weather was fairly nice for the first week of January. Sunny and in the low 40’s, but with a bit of a breeze that made things uncomfortable. Most folks were sitting in their cars to stay warm when they weren’t on the track. In the noon hour I took my picnic to the lunch area but retreated back to the car after a few bites of my sandwich. Too blustery for me.

There was quite a good turnout. I didn’t even try to count the cars. There might have been as many as 80. A fairly good variety with only a few familiar cars and faces. I was the only Elise but two Exiges showed up after a while so I wasn’t the only Lotus. There were several BMW’s, Porsches, and Corvettes. I don’t normally see any Honda S-2000’s but there were two yesterday – a black one with a giant wing on the back and one with a matte purple paint job and red wheels. A Ferrari showed up, but I don’t think he ever went on the track.

There was snow on the ground but the track was clear. There were quite a few places where the snow was right next to the track and occasionally somebody would cut a corner a bit and pull snow onto the racing surface. I had to modify my line all day through turn 1 as some snow kept melting on the inside of the turn. Hitting that little bit of water at speed in the turn was a real thrill; got a big wiggle there once, so I steered clear of it after that. Snow or water was in a few other places as well, so each time out started with a slow lap to make sure I knew where the danger spots were.

Everybody I talked to seemed to have a good time. But I guess that’s to be expected – every track rat will smile if you give him free lapping.

I hope to put a short video together in the next day or three and will post it here.

High Plains Raceway

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Had another track day with CECA at HPR. The first CECA event at HPR this year was the “official” LOCO track day but we had a good turnout of Lotuses today as well – if I didn’t miscount, it was seven Elises (BRG, LRG, blue, black, Storm Titanium, red, orange), an Exige (orange), an Elan, and two Caterhams. I was mildly surprised and happy to see three Ferraris out as well. Plus the usual CECA participants – a couple of Corvettes, a handful of Mustangs, some Porsches, a Viper, and so on.

I invited Scott out for a ride and he brought Nicole. They both had a ride with me and managed to get rides in other cars as well. I think they had a good time – they stayed a bit longer than their original plan. I assume that’s a good sign.

Michael was kind enough to be my support crew. We loaded the gear into his truck last night and hit the road by 6:15 this morning so I could get the slicks mounted up in time for tech inspection. On the drive to the track, we drove into a pretty sunrise, with the sun right over the highway. Once we got the slicks on, I headed to the tech inspection line and Michael crawled into the truck for a nap.

Scott rode with me for the first session. I cut it a couple of laps short because I started hearing a noise in right-hand turns. I couldn’t see anything amiss, so went back out for the second session with Nicole as a passenger. She had arranged a ride in a Viper, so I dropped her off after a few laps. The noise was still there, but not as bad, and I shortly decided I was just getting a bit of rubbing.

Third session was after lunch. Michael rode with me for that one, and about six laps in he was wanting out. This is twice now he’s been getting queasy on the track. I blamed the last time on the big bumps at the CSP track. No such excuse this time.

Michael had to leave the track early to make is evening plans, so after three sessions we put the street wheels back on. For the fourth session, I had Jason (LRG Elise) ride with me. He was driving in the blue group, so I then rode with him. It was quite interesting noting the differences in how we get around the track. For the most part, we get on the brakes and throttle at about the same spots and for most turns we follow the same line. But I’m a gear higher in almost every turn than he is. And with our fairly comparable street tires, we’re running pretty much the same lap times. My biggest take away is that I need to learn turns 4 and 10 better. He carries much more speed through both.

In the three sessions with slicks, my fast time was 2:12.64 according to the video tape. I also managed two laps in the 2:13’s and two in the 2:15’s. On street tires, I ran eight laps, six of which were less than 2:21.

Over all, it was perhaps my most enjoyable day at the track.

Here’s my fast lap: