So i originally was planning for Laguna Seca this weekend, but it was to late to sign up. Im over at Dando's talking to Andy about a week ago, and he says NASA (no, not the space people) also does a bunch of driving schools and instruction race classes. I figure what the hell, sounds fun.. god knows i should learn how to drive. :)
I search the web for NASA using the automotive section at Yahoo, and find their web site. They are having a Driving school at Sears Point the same day as the Laguna Seca event, kick ass! I call them up and get some info, then go back to their website and send in NASA membership ($25 per year) and event ($150) app online (double bonus!).
I was hoping the Comptech spring/shock package would be complete by now, but looks like they are having trouble getting ahold of the shocks. I also start watching the weather channel more durring the week prior to the event. They say rain likely in northern california friday, and throughout the weekend. Last time they said this, not a drop fell. Hopefully ill get lucky and it will be dry.. im not looking forward to my first expierence on a race car track in the rain.
11pm friday night, get home from work and check the mail. Folks at NASA said my card and tech form for the event may arrive today, i can fill out the stuff at the track, but doing them at home would be faster. Woo hoo they are here.. along with a book about the instruction procedures for Saturday.
Its about 1:30 am friday night, finished glancing through the important chapters of the instruction book. (it has a clever section, telling you what to read if you are reading it for the first time the night before an event.. how cool!) Next i have to find directions to sears point, and estimate what time i should leave to be there in time to get teched. Gates open at 7am. I figure ill leave around 5:30, give me an hour and a half; since i need to top off the gas tank, ive never been there, and it could be raining. 2am go to sleep.
Wake up 4:30am.. damn did i even sleep? O well.. im excited cause its time to go see if i cant keep the nsx on all four wheels. Jump outa the shower, grab my helmet, and check the weather outside. Dark as hell, but it isnt raining.. see a few stars so its not totally clouded (think to myself, kick ass.. those weather people suck). Take off to Sears Point, going over the Richmond bridge i get a few sprinkles on the window... could it be getting ready to pour? No way.. still see some stars... must be ocean spray. Pull up to the gates, and its lightly sprinkling. I try to convince myself it isnt rain.. ('wow this place must be close to the ocean')
Park over by the registration tower, so far all i see are car trailers.. i park a few spots down from one and ask if this is trailer parking only. Nope he says, thats fine.(cool, i finally did something rite) As i walk over to the car and grab the entry form, it starts raining.. just a little. I look up.. no more stars. Oh shit.
7:30am move car to inspection area (lose my kick ass parking spot since now its packed). The tech inspector asks if this is my first event, and i say yah. (do i look like that much of a spoad?) He finishes checking out the car and signs my tech sheet.
8am registration done and on the way to drivers meeting. (while getting my car inspected i miss the early ride around to check out the track.. damn it.) The chief instructor mentions a few things about flags and hand signals etc, everything covered in the important sections of the instruction book. Next he mentions that under no circumstances should we driving on the right hand side of the start/finish/dragstrip when exiting turn 12. He then repeats it a few times, DO NOT DRIVE ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE STRIP. Next he sets up 2 students per instructor, each student in a different run group. Go meet the instructor.
8:30am meet my instructor Steve Muclvey. He goes over a few things such as body positioning and steering technique. We move all the cars (instructors race car, my nsx, and other students quatro) closers together, so we get faster instructor changes between runs. Check the schedule and it looks like im going out in the monsoon first. Go take a look at the track..
Track doesnt look to bad from the side.. altho no one is driving on it yet, so the few inches of standing water are hard to see. Steve and I get ready to go out, jump in the nsx and head for pitlane.
Talk to one of the course workers, and he says normally they want the windows down incase of a rollover, but if i want i can leave them up for the rain. Steve tells him we are going to keep them up today.. and the course workers says they will have to break them to get us out in the event of a rollover. (if we flip, the last thing ill be worried about are busted windows :))
Single file staging, i pull up behind a black 911 4S, the last car staged. Steves says to take it *very* easy for awhile.. untill the drivers settle down. This group is mostly first timers. Green flag drops and we start.. following single file.. different lines then the cars in front of us. In some corners you could actually see the oil that had risen with the water. Wide line through turn 1 to avoid the lake forming at the apex. Wide through the dogleg leading to turn 2 (can see the oil on the race line). Other cars are driving rite through it.. we figure cool, maybe after a few laps it will be gone. Wide through 3 as well, due to oil. Dont see much oil on the rest of the corners so we are in single file again. Down through turn 6 (downhill and offcamber carousel .. damn it doesnt look like this on tv!) Im following the 911 at about 35mph (dont laugh, that thing was *slick*), front end pushing all the way through. Next through the ess's.. no drama since we are going pretty slow following everyone.. about 35mph. Steve notes that in this car, if it was dry we would be at redline with no lifting... i get nervous. :) Continue single file all the way to turn 11, which is on some *wickedly* slick concrete 180 degree turn. Take the inside and early apex to avoid lake on the outside, about 2 feet away from the inside corner markers to avoid the paint (can you say spin at 15mph into concrete wall). Cruise out and hydro plane around turn 12 and back onto start/finish/dragtrip (staying well away from the yellow line marking the 'right side of the strip')
First lap wasnt so bad.. now that i know were the turns are, and were to watch out for oil we start to pick it up a little. Let the cars ahead get away in the straights and catch them in the corners (cause we dont want to start passing yet). This is working well, i decently get through 2-6 on the correct line. Into 6 (evil carousel) Steve says to keep steady throttle all the way through.. wow does that work better. We were only going about 40 but there was NO front end push.. just drove rite around. I take the exit wide since i noticed a lake on the inside last time through. Since this is a decent straight, he says to get up behind the red delsol (3rd car from the front). I get on it a little and motor by about 4 cars. Heal and toe at the 4th marker point and pull in behind the delsol. 7 is kind of a tricky corner, double apex and on realy slick concrete.. but plenty of run off room (mud) at first apex, and flat cement if you spin at second apex. We follow the delsol through the ess's at a little faster pace then before. I can feel the front end pushing but its not twitchy at all. Going into turn 11 steve says to take the low line, and keep it really slow (the rest of the cars were still going very wide), and as we exit, once the front wheel is straight to get around the next 3 cars so we are in front. Take the corner fine, but as we exit i either get on the throttle to much, the wheel wasnt completly straight, or the inside tires were on the paint. Whatever caused it, we did a slow motion spin to the inside of the track. Let everyone go by, and pull back out. We were going so slow i wasnt worried about hitting anything, or anyone hitting me.. but i felt like a tool. :)
We catch back up to the pack on the next lap, and get black flagged. We pull in and they ask us what happened. (any spin == black flag, 3 flags and your day is over) Steve says we just hit the paint and spun out. Back on our way, we get clear track ahead. I start hitting the corners better and am actually sliding the car a little bit and not flipping over. How cool! This run is over, go drop off Steve so he can catch up with the student in the other run group.
It is now raining hard, and the wind is *really* lewinskying (i didnt notice it much on the track). It feels like its below 40 degrees... im freezing my nutz off. Go attend the drivers meeting, and the chief instructor pulls out a paper with a bunch of car colors/numbers on them. These are the lists of all infractions (flags etc) that happened durring our run. 4 Spin outs (1 shelby cobra off into the mud.. doh! a late model rx7, and a white car) he mentions the red nsx spinning on the second lap out of 11 and asks what happened. We talk about it for a sec, and he says just to keep it off the paint..
I go check out the track action since it will be about 45 minutes before i get to run again. From the stands i get a great view of the turn 12 exit, front straight, turns 1 and 2. Im standing there with another guy when a gold colored early gen rx7 comes jamming around 12 and gets way to wide. Off onto the right side of the strip.. he seems to be going ok. (wonder why they were saying to avoid that part) As he is about half way down he starts to get sideways. I could see his front wheels turning to counter steer, but it was no use. Off he goes into the mini lake at the turn 1 apex and into the mud (lucky he missed the wall... so *thats* why they say stay off that part :)). A few more cars spin out on the strip.. a good view but i hate seeing other people bust up their cars.
9:30am time for my second run. Steve was in the group rite before mine licensing a racer, so we missed the start by a few minutes. No big deal, cause we got a good gap between other cars. Continue what we were doing before, only a little faster. After 2 good laps we start catching other cars.. there is this black Benz in front of us going *all* over the place... no idea what they were doing. We have to wait untill we get back to the front straight to pass. Then pass another group of cars before the finish.
I felt good on that run.. no spinning, sliding the car around and i never felt like i was gunna loose it. Hit the drivers meeting again, no infractions at all.. except the chief instructor asks me not to pass between 6 and 7 anymore, since thats not a valid passing zone in my class. I dont want to get Steve in trouble (they had waved us by anyway), so i just say sorry and he smiles.
Third run, we are a little late again.. but i kind of like it. Open track for a few laps before we catch anyone. Starting to feel more confident and we are taking turns 1-6 at a good clip. I probably get over confident, and on the second lap take 3 a little to fast.. no spin, but it was closer then i wanted. I now understand what he has been explaining to me. You really *drive* a mid engined car through these kinds of corners when they get loose. I put my foot into it and the car immiediatly gets back under control and we continue along. We are now starting to take the esses at a good clip. Bump the burm on the left exiting 7, straight through to dogleg before 8, lift a little while the car is straight before 8, back on the gas through 8, let the car drift wide (8 crests a small hill, you cant see the exit.. but the track *does* get wider. Keep it on through 9 and 10 (kick ass 4 wheel drift in the rain!). Get on the brakes *way* early for 11.. take the exit wide.. all the way out to the wall. Dont let off around 12 and keep it on the left side of the yellow line down the front straight.
It is now complete monsoon. Ive never actually been in a real monsoon, but it cant be any worse then this. Tents blowing over, cars getting towed off the track. Rain going sideways.. if it wasnt so cold it wouldnt have been so bad. I hide in my car this break between runs, i only have a sweatshirt on (my jacket got 'messed' up on new years, but thats another story). Hit the drivers meeting again, but only about half the people are there. Chief instructor looks a little bent, so he makes us all write our names and numbers on this paper.. only people on the track are the ones with there car #'s on the paper. I thought that was cool, cause the less people out there, the less we would have to pass. :-) Man was i wrong.
Fourth and final run of the day. The oil has been dispersed enough that we can take a few of the corners alot tighter, but some of the corners also became very slick on the fast line (most noticibly 8, so we take it a little wider, and go faster :)). Im now feeling pretty good. Im hitting most of the corners well, alot less input from Steve on if im turning in to early or to late, or if i should get on the gas to straighten it out etc. On the second lap we make it through the esses at about 65mph constant.. only lift off before 8 to help get the car pointed at the apex, then power through. The esses now felt more stable at 65 then they did the first run at 45. 65 may not seem very fast, but remember were in a monsoon. :-) 3rd lap as i enter turn 1 (no lift off yet) and slide through 2. I notice a yellow mustang on my ass (must have caught up on the front straight, thats the only place i really dont want to spin.. to much concrete). I take 3 and 4 well, and no lift off around 5. Mid way through 6, it looks like somone dragged their inside wheels on the mud cause there is a bunch of it rite on the line. We make it through the mud and drift wide on the exit to wave the mustang by. (Race licensee.. doh.. there goes my theory for less people == less passing. looks like they let out more instructors by themselves since there wasnt many cars on the track) So now for the first time ive been passed.. didnt feel so bad.. but i wish it wasnt a mustang. :P Last lap, entering turn 1 again i find a car closing on me.. its a early gen black rx7. This guy is hauling ass. Exiting 6 i go wide again so he can pass.. as he passes i notice the X on the side and back of his car. Damn instructors! By the time im turning into 7, he is already out of it heading for the ess's. We take the esses pretty fast this time, i didnt get a chance to check the speedometer on exit.. but it felt like the fastest one yet. The rx7 didnt pull away very much, as i exited 10 he was still breaking for 11.
Steve and I talk for awhile about the run, i grab his email addr before he takes off to instruct the other student. Out of the 4 groups, he says next time i come out i can run in 1, 2 or 3. 1 and 2 being mainly instructor led classes. And 3 being solo with optional instructor. I think ill stay with an instructor for awhile, untill i get more track time. Besides, i still need to drive a dry race track... :)
If your interested at all in taking one of these courses, id highly recommened requesting Steve Muclvey as your instructor (they let you do that too!). Especially if your driving an nsx, his race car is a midengined MR2. Plus he actually has a sense of humor.
I originally thought driving in the rain was going to suck. Altho after i did it, im glad thats how it turned out. There is absolutly *no* way i would have been comfortable drifting the car around had it been dry. Would i have been driving faster? Ofcourse.. but i doubt i would have had as much fun, or learned as much control. Think im gunna drive down to Willow Springs on the 12th for a class there... it should be dry. It never rains in So Cal rite? :-)