Hey, remember when people used to go to track days?
 

...well, there's one this weekend!

http://www.renoscca.org/index.php?pa...2014&event=289

*crickets*

:lol: Hopefully I will get out to one of these this year. Probably won't be until the end of the auto-x season if I do.

I used to go to those.... I decided not to run this weekend afterall. I try to keep a bit of a motorsports budget, and I've kind of blown that with my trip to the National tour coming up in June. Should be a fun day I'm sure.

Scott, if I come to the track day for a visit, do they still allow ride-alongs? or no?

Yeah, you can ride as long as the driver is an instructor.

We'll be there, with all the red cars...!

Scott, want me to just bring you the tool you need to borrow out the the track?

Well, I won't be able to use it for at least a few days, but if you don't mind being without it for a bit, that works for me.

I'm so curious! What is it? A GTR?

It's a totally top secret new kind of screwdriver.

Very exciting! :D

How did it go? I'm assuming the weather was pretty rough on Saturday.

We ended up shutting down early. Everybody got one less run group basically. I was in the last blue group, and it was windy, but tolerable. The green group right after had people pulling off track because the wind kicked up so much dust they couldn't see! :eek:

That track day was an utter clusterfuck.

First the ambulance was like an hour late getting to the site... so we wasted that time just sitting around ready to run. Then we had two cars that needed towing, which cost us another 20 minutes or so... which normally isn't a big deal, but when you're already more than an hour behind... 20 minutes more sucks.

Then the weather was shitty pretty much all day long... cold, windy, and a few sprinkles here and there. But after lunch, that sand storm came in and visibility was literally 10 ft during that green PDX group. We had cars just pulling off track so they wouldn't get rear-ended... it was nuts. They threw the checkers like 10 minutes into the session. All the TT/CT cars started packing up since there was no way you'd go faster in the all the sand and wind than in the earlier session, and finally they just called the event.

Ironically, Friday and Sunday were both super nice days.... I don't know how Saturday ended up being so shitty. :mad:

I like track days! I've been to Sears Point twice so far for HPDEs since I moved back. Running with the intermediate group is awesome and scary, but mostly awesome. My car always ends up unhappy on hot days though, so I usually only run in the Spring or Fall.

Wow, that sucks, you're right, the weather was perfect on the other days. Wind and blowing sand are no fun out there. Been there, done that...:|

I thought you were never going to pass that ls camino.....

Haha, that's why I posted a link that starts at 7:31 in, but the SECCS auto-embedded player starts it at the beginning regardless. If you click the link from where you quoted me, you'll see what I mean.

Holy shit... I want to know how you passed a Spec Miata, on the outside of the carousel, on street tires. :eek: Either you have magic in that car, or the SM driver is super new at this. :lol:

And what club are you running with that does open passing like that in Intermediate? The only place I've seen open passing is in the Advanced group. That traffic looked kinda hairy... I would have at least liked to see point by and passing on one side only in an Intermediate group. I don't trust other people enough to just romp past them on the outside at the exit of the carousel like that. :lol:

Looks like a crap ton of fun though. Next time you plan to run there... let us know. I'd kill to get down there in the Miata for an event. I've never driven Sears Point.

Haha, and that was on nearly dead Nitto NT05s. Now I have fresh Dunlop Z2s in the same size, 255/40/17. I'm not sure how new the other drivers were. NASA is really lenient. They let me into Intermediate (Group 3 of 4, 4 being Advanced) even though I'd never been on that track, and they let me do it with a passenger! The open passing is pretty nuts and I did get called out a couple times for slightly unsafe passing (including not fully getting around people in the carousel, which is a dangerous place to pass, period, because if the guy on the inside has a problem, he's flying into you), but nothing too crazy.

When I signed up, I chose to be in group 3 because of the open passing and indicated my experience including 10 years of autocross and 3 track days at RFR. I left out the part about my 100MPH spin off RFR's turn 1 during my first motorsports event ever. :lol: I did lose it once at Sears Point (Turn 8a) and it's pretty scary with all those walls. Luckily I kinda saved it and steered toward open grass, no issues.

It was a total kick in the pants and I'll definitely let you guys know next time I'm going to one. They have them all the time. http://nasanorcal.com/index.php?/site/section_schedule/

I'm not sure if I would have ever bit the bullet and paid for the membership and track day fee, but I won a gift certificate that covered the track day fee, for winning my autocross class with ESCA in 2012. It was so fun that I got the 2nd day in before my membership expired last year. I'll want to go again when it cools down, maybe in the Fall or Winter.

I really loved nearly hanging with that NSX at the end of the session. I was driving at 10/10s and nearly catching him in the braking zones and corners, but not quite. Wonder what he would have thought if I told him I had stock brakes, relatively soft suspension, mediocre tires, and only 215 WHP (on a good day) in my econobox wagon. Haha

Just watched the first half, that really looked like fun!

That NSX should have been killing you in the corners... but your wagon probably should have made up a lot of the difference on the straights. It looks like the driver was relatively conservative... which makes sense, since an NSX doesn't "sort itself out" the way a Subaru does when you exceed the limit. :lol:

Next time you go back to Sears, try to use more of the track. Brake a little earlier in the harder braking zones (like turn 4 at the top of the hill, and the turn 7 hairpin), get the car turned earlier, so you can get down to the apexes and get on the throttle even earlier, and make sure to track all the way out. I think you'll pick up a ton of time. Dean probably has some more specific tips, if he'll bother to check in here.

Your car control looked pretty great... i.e. you seemed to be able to put it where you want to consistently, and you're catching errors really early with throttle modulation. And it's hard to tell without being able to see your hands, but you seem pretty smooth. So you've got a handle on the hard parts. Now you just need to optimize your line to keep the cornering speeds up.

I've never driven Sears in reality, but I've got like a million miles there in various sims. ;) In iRacing, you *have* to nail every lap, or you're seconds behind the guys that spend 6 hours a day practicing. :unamused:


On a second thought... none of the laps in that video are very clean. :lol: Ignore that.

That was a fun battle! I think if you had some coaching regarding the best passing zones, you might have set up a little better for them and made them stick. Man, the only game I could find to prepare before I went to Sears Point was Grant Turismo 4. I hooked up my old PS2 and was floored by the crappy graphics, but it still allowed me to virtually drive the track before I actually drove it. Haha

The NSX was definitely pulling away in the "straights", at least at higher speeds when aero comes into play. I imagine we had similar power but a stock NSX weighs a little less than my wagon and definitely has better aero and handling.

Thanks for the advice. I think Dean had similar input on a video I posted from my first time at Sears Point. Yep, here it is. Turn down your speakers before you click that link and make sure to choose HD. It was shot with my Galaxy S2 which had horrible audio recording.

I think I attribute a lot of my autocross success to my late and hard braking style, but it definitely hurts me sometimes and I blow apexes which, like you say, can really affect your times on the track. I need to try I-racing or similar at some point. Is it expensive? I feel like I just don't know where the line is sometimes. I did have an instructor during the first run my first time driving Sears and during one of the sessions the 2nd time I was there, but I need someone like Dean who is really clear about what I'm doing wrong all the time. :lol:

Ya my coworker finally went to a track day after about a year of pestering from me.

now he NEVER wants to go back due to all the bad luck, he thinks he maybe got 30 minutes ?
EMS hour delay, a couple of tow outs , sand storm ending the day early.

and i don't think his instructor pairing was right for either one of them. ........


it made me feel pretty bad that he had such a bad experience. Wish i could have gone out to instruct, but hiring a baby sitter for a day and driving out there and back wasn't really in the budget (guess i could have ridden with him) I did check to see if his sister would have baby sat but no dice.

......
But ya i would love to get out to at least 1 track day this year... ah .. money to race. some how it was a lot easier 2 years ago .. when i was in a 2 income rental household with 2 incomes, zero kids, and a rising debt.

now that i'm 1.5 incomes , mortgage , with baby, and paying down my debt. i don't seem to be able to spend cash like i used to ... :?:

quick anyone on here an accountant ? what's going on ? :lol::lol: j/k

Stupid life getting in the way of racing!

Yes, life and paying down my debt, instead of growing my debt. has really cut into my racing budget & available time.

you know its getting bad when you have to day dream about just instructing at the track, let alone driving on it.

I'll just have to live through racing videos of yellow wagons :)