As per my track report on the 3S Racers List...........
Just got home a short while ago from what was supposed to be a 2-day track
event for me at R.A. but turned into a 1 day event due to rotor warpage.
This was my first NASA event and also NASA's first event at Road America.
My impressions overal of NASA are very positive.
Unfortunately, there weren't any other 3/S' out there this weekend. I was a
loner. Rudy Aries showed up, but with his Z06 instead of his Stealth N/A.
George Bruggenthies had his Stealth RT/TT there, but he didn't participate
in the event. Chatted with George for awhile. He's running One Lap again
btw, but with Rudy this time.
The day started with registration and tech inspection. The tech inspection
was very light. They relied on us more or less to go through the checklist
and make sure we met the criteria. For me, the inspector did tell me to
cover up my battery terminal, but passed me anyways and didn't require me to
show any proof. Suppose that's good and bad. Good becaused I passed tech
without much of a glance, bad because you never know if some yutz will get
passed too when he's missing important things I expected the tech
inspetion to be much more difficult to pass. It was more thorough at MFBA
surprisingly.
Mandatory HPDE drivers meeting at 7:45am. Miss it, and you didn't get to
drive. Seemed fairly strict with that, but I suppose that's a good thing.
There were a few late registers later in the day though, I'm not sure
whether they were allowed to drive that day or not. After that, I had a one
hour classroom session then out to the track.
I ran in HPDE-2 as I got the "ok" from Lawrence Mansier (Midwest organizer)
to skip HPDE-1 due to my past track experience. HPDE 1 and 2 both ran at
the same time (there was only 9 of us total, and at R.A. you can imagine
that leads to a fairly empty track). HPDE 3 and 4 also shared the same
track times.
My instructor's name was Wade and he was from Cleveland and particpated in
HPDE-4 and American Iron races. I gave him my short summary of track
expereince, the car, and then we were off. Sessions were 30 minutes,
instead of the usual 20 I'm used to. Halfway into the first session, he
pointed out some things he felt were bad habits and/or flaws. He asked me
if I could give him a chance by just "trying" his recommended changes
(mostly braking and having better overall control/balance of the car at turn
in). Wow. What a difference it made. By the middle of the next session, I
had, according to him, mastered the techniques he wanted me to use and my
track speed, smoothness, and consistency ALL improved.
By the 3rd, 4th, and 5th 30 minute sessions, I was tearing it up out there
and Wade was having the time of his life in his first AWD experience. Those
sessions were the first sessions ever at R.A. that actually managed to make
it around an entire lap with hitting my apexes perfectly and driving
consistently all the way through. No, it didn't happen EVERY lap obviously,
but there were a few I pulled it off.
Wade was in awe of the Stealths ability to corner (especially through the
Carousel where I routinely carried 80-85mph through it - something his Z-06
he said was not even capable of doing whatsoever). He was very animated and
provided feedback often, giving me lots of praise and some criticism where
necessary. More than anything though, I think he just loved when I plowed
through the Carousel and caught up with the Vettes in our rungroup. By the
3rd session, he was asking me about how much a 3/S costs, typical problems,
availability of parts, etc. He interested in our cars now and loved how
capable it was, especially considering I'm just stock "performance" and no
mods. He sounds very interested in picking one up in addition to his Vette.
In the 5th session of the day, my rotors developed some serious warping
problems. Hitting the brakes almost caused you to lose the fillings in your
teeth so unfortunately I did not participate in the 6th session as a result.
Even so, I was pretty exhausted from 2.5 hours of track time already.
Overall I think I drastically reduced my times and improved on my
smoothness, consistency, and reduced wear and tear on the car due to some
new techniques I was using. I give my instructor Wade from Cleveland an A+
for his ability to help me out. At the end of the day Wade filled out my
drivers log book and gave me a great writeup. He also also told me flat out
that he'll give his approval for me to graduate to HPDE-3 because he felt I
was a capable enough driver to be in that run group. In the end, I decided
I'll stick with HPDE-2 for another track day or two because I'm in NO hurry
to race with the big-boys in NASA events. Still, it's nice to know he has
the confidence in me to move up another run group after just one day of
driving.
Overall, NASA was a LOT of fun. I got exactly what I was looking for. Seat
time (lots of it), more classroom time, and met some new friends that I'll
hopefully see again. Oh, and the weather kicked ass! Also, no accidents
all day long. Although an M3 did throw a rod through the block. Oh yeah,
and the competition racing was fun to watch. No passing rules - whoa.
Serious s***.
There were a few people there that I recognized from Speedseekers... like
Damien in his RX-7 and some others. Spoke with him for awhile, his car is
awesome. I think he was running HPDE 4.
I would definitely recommend trying a NASA event if you haven't yet for
those of you in the midwest.
Jesse Rink
Eagle, WI
PS - I love my Toyo Proxies RA-1's
;)
