buckle-up

The silly season …

2012-01-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

Housebound for the next couple of weeks, which is pretty much what all we have been doing for the past couple of weeks, it’s hard not to let the mind drift and where thoughts center on much sunnier days. Winter is never a good time for car enthusiasts and even though it’s a time for car shows and for wandering through showrooms, it’s still a poor substitute for getting back on the road. Perhaps I should just stay indoors, look out the window and take in the view of the mountains, a grab a warm drink.

The Escalade SUV is tolerable and lets us get about in slick and treacherous conditions but let’s face it, there’s little to get enthusiastic about when you are behind the wheel of something that weighs almost 6000lbs! And each time I take out the trash I pass through the garage, as seen in the photo above, and in doing so, I pass a bevy of cars and motorcycles anxiously waiting for Spring!

Pulling the latest issue (February, 2012) of Grassroots Motorsports from the mailbox always cheers me up – features and photos from track outings that look all too familiar. A column not too deep into the magazine promotes the 2012 running of “One Lap of America” where the proposed schedule includes a day at High Plains Raceway (HPR) to the east of Denver Colorado that is now our home track and where we will be spending several Friday afternoons as soon as the weather breaks and the conditions improve. I can almost hear the full-throttle roar of finally-tuned “cam-ie” engines resonating from the paddock!

But it wasn’t the promotional column that had me thinking as much as it was a column much deeper into the issue – Busted Knuckles – where writer Per Schroeder made the observation about this time of year being the “silly season” suggesting that this “describes the periods when governments aren’t in session, leaving the news media with little to cover” and of how “racers have coopted the phrase to describe the winter months between championship seasons, and the result is the same in both worlds: a lot of mental wheel spinning without any real progress.”

As Schroeder describes the many activities that are likely to draw him back to his garage, he makes two very astute observations that are applicable to all enthusiasts. I am not a racer nor is it the intention of our family to become racers; a recreational weekend enjoyed at different locations around America is what had drawn us into this particular pastime. And yet, we were nearing levels where we were discussing what next to do to the car!

For Margo and me, the “mental intensity” associated with improving our skills on the track are proving applicable when it comes to our everyday driving. It remains as the very essence of why we have persevered with our track weekends and we have found out that we have become a lot more observant of our fellow drivers out on the highways. What is he “best way to leave” the highway should there be incidents – left, or right, as well as when to late-apex for clearer visibility of what lies ahead. Not to mention how well modern cars can brake and how maneuverable they have become – no signs of rolling over or spinning out at all! And all techniques we hadn’t known anything about before running under the ever-present, watchful instructors. And yet, after four years, we thought there was still more we could do and what was lacking with our car!

For the past four years, with the exception of a couple of weekends when we tried our hands behind the wheel of our Infiniti G37S coupe, we have relied upon our highly modified sixth generation Corvette. Consistently running with the number 116, it has become a familiar car at tracks from California to Colorado. Equipped early in its track days with a Vortech supercharger and complemented with American Racing headers and long-pipes, bigger radiators by DeWitts as well as a custom A&A intercooler put together by Andy and the team at A&A Corvette Performance and now nicely tuned by the Mike and his team at Rocky Mountain Competitive Resources (RMCR) and with new shocks, alignment and set-up by Curt at Corvette Spa, close to home, here in Longmont Colorado, the big Vette is about ready to go. And yet, there’s just something missing and we have begun to question just how much more we need to do! The picture above is of the C6 Vette, number 116, alongside our C5 Vette.

In Grassroots Motorsports, columnist Schroeder’s two observations came down to “soul searching and honesty prevail here … looking forward involves thinking about what changes can be made to go faster” together with “not surprisingly, I want to make the car lighter, safer and better handling.” More than ample power was on tap with the C6 supercharged and tweaked Vette, but it was a little heavy and with the six-speed automatic there were times when even with the use the paddle shifter, it had a mind of its own and at speed left us wondering about our safety.

Right off the showroom floor, the big Vette handled surprisingly well but with the added weight, it did so at the expense of steering finesse and suspension disruptions. Often, and at just the wrong time as well and so, yes, in the words made famous by Colin Chapman (of Lotus fame), we needed to add less weight while attending to our safety.

There are other factors to be considered as well. We can no longer house our cars and motorcycles in the garage space that we have, as the picture above also depicted. The upshot of the congestion is that our SUV now lives outdoors and as it is the primary winter vehicle, there’s many a time spent dusting off the snow and spending the first twenty minutes or so freezing behind the wheel as everything comes up operational temperatures. Walking past the cars on battery trickle chargers knowing that we cannot use any of them in winter, all the while contemplating a frozen excursion has become the less talked about negative aspect of the silly season. No, it’s time to downsize and something has to go!

For nearly a decade we have “babied” our other Corvette, a fiftieth anniversary, fifth generation, torch red Corvette Z06 hardtop. With very few miles on the odometer – just a tad over 12,000 – this is a car that is definitely lighter and equipped as it is off the showroom floor, possessing more than adequate suspension and brakes. We changed the tires a few months ago replacing the aging (and likely hardened) Goodyear tires with a set of new Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sports. While not offering the same stickiness as the Toyo R888s that we had on the blue Vette, they should be a good choice to start out with. The fluids and oils will be changed to higher-spec equivalents to better handle the heat that comes with track sessions but all up, the C5 Z06 Vette should be able to provide us with a platform where we can continue to fine-tune our capabilities.

While there was never anything wrong with the C6 Z51 Vette, driving the automatic hadn’t provided either one of us with the level of control we wanted we have. It had been a deliberate decision to take the automatic to the track so that we could spend our first couple of years concentrating on the course layouts and working being consistent without worrying too much about technique and choice of gears – indeed, there have been occasions where Margo was more than quick enough to stay with her peers simply by staying in third gear for the entire lap – a circumstance I was to repeat on occasion. But letting the auto pull us out of corners was something we both agreed upon as something less than optimal. Yes, we were now looking for a lot more control over what we currently had and this became the deciding factor. Big blue, for all we love about, has become the “victim” and will have to go …

In the final post of 2008 to this blog “Looking back on '08” I wrapped up the story by suggesting that perhaps it was time to think of taking the Z06 to the track. I thought maybe, as 2010 rolls around, maybe it would be time to change cars and prepare the C5 Z06 LS6 Vette. As for the coming year (2009) then perhaps it would be the last year that we would drive the C6 Supercharged LS2 ‘Vette. It was in that post of 2008 that I first mused on how the C6 Vette may not be the perfect car to use for learning but it will be the source of a lot of fun as we head back to the track!

Yes, we want to go faster and yes, we enjoy it. But even more importantly, we want to become better drivers and we enjoy the atmosphere and camaraderie of the race track. The C6 Vette has allowed us to progress admirably but for 2012, there will be a change. It will be more than likely that HPR will be the venue for the first outing – the circuit has been resurfaced and should prove an ideal place to launch the New Year. And from now on, this pursuit will continue but this time, it will be in the lesser-powered, “momentum car”– the C5 Z06 Vette!

Preparing the C5 Vette, tentatively numbered 161, ready will be relatively painless but getting the C6 Vette ready for sale will be another matter and already plans are in hand to return the car for a complete service – every nut and bolt checked so that mechanically, it will be all any other driver could want. We have also lined up a detailing shop to remove every stone chip and scrape and to apply a wax good enough to return it show room condition. Yes, the 2006 C6 Z51 Auto Vette, supercharged will be put up for sale this spring.

Of course, the garages will retain a certain amount of appeal for any enthusiast who passes by – alongside the motorcycle cruisers Margo and I continue to ride, and the big Escalade SUV there’s still the AWD Nissan GTR and the Viper SRT/10 roadster to choose from as we take to the mountains and carve out some canyons. Two Vettes had always been a little over the top but now the Nissan is Margo’s while the Viper is definitely shared. It’s still a tight squeeze but this will ensure that all cars are under the one roof as winters snow entombs us!

I have often thought we needed a Ford to round out the stable and had looked several times at replica Ford AC Cobra’s but with the Viper it’s somewhat redundant – one snake is enough. But should there come a time when a Ford GT (2003 – 2008) is offered at a reasonable price then that may complement the set but no, for the time being, I think we are just fine as we are! But perhaps thinking of what next to purchase when the garage is already full is another aspect of why this time of year is called the silly season. For surely, this represents “a lot of mental wheel spinning without any real progress”.

If having the opportunity to take the C5 Z06 Vette to the track on warmer weekends materializes this year then that will be something to treasure and if the C6 Z51 Vette finds a new happy owner, then maybe the spinning wheels found traction after all. Ah, time to put the keyboard aside, head for a warm winter drink and stare out the window again – Spring has to be only a few weeks away and, with warmer weather, a man’s thoughts just have to turn to rides of fancy! And as sad as I am to admit it, I sure hope that big Vette finds a good home.

Memories? Fuggedaboutit!

2011-12-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

It’s time to look back at what transpired in 2011. While returning to living full time in Boulder, CO, was definitely the highlight of 2011, when it came to adventures on the track and the fun we had behind the wheel, unfortunately, the needle was firmly planted in the other direction. The year 2011 had to have been the worst of years. But then again, if learning to drive quickly and safely on a race track was easy to do, America’s many road circuits would be full of participants every weekend!

The picture above is of the 70’s era Pontiac Trans-Am I purchased for US$2,000 shortly after arriving in America. For the third time! Yes, I had spent several months in 1977 living in Dallas, Texas, where I rented a Pontiac Grand Prix for the duration of my stay, and when I returned in 1986 I had bought a used Pontiac Grand Prix for US$2,000 that I kept for all of that year. If I am residing in America, it would seem then, there will be a GM car in the driveway. And yet, I still harbored feelings for my most memorable possession of my youth, a Holden Torana SLR5000 - a lightweight sedan with a five liter V8 shoe-horned beneath the hood –I was forced to sell it before making that first trip to America.

The point here is that loyalties run strong through Australian families – yes, my father only owned Holdens – and this is not unlike what I have observed among families here in America. But if you had any second thoughts of how strong this emotion ran across Australian families then check the video (voiced by Russell Crowe) that was filmed prior to the start of the 2010 Great Race – the Bathurst 1000: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi14JnLqFek What stands out in two quotes coming from Crowe – neither I suspect original, but catchy nonetheless.

The first quote, reflecting the gulf that separates the fans of GM from those who support Ford, has Crowe observing that “it’s tribal … there’s only red and blue on the mountain; there’s no beige!” The second quote, about the history of the event, hits a lot closer to home as Crowe reflects on how “reality will prove a harsh mistress!”

For many of years you could lap the circuit at a reasonable, safe, speed (of course in the early hours of Sunday morning, when the track was still open to the general public) and wave to the gathering crowd – something I was able to do back in October, 1975. Yes, I have done a lap of the old course at Bathurst and anyone looking at the back window of our blue C6 ‘Vette will not miss the decal from the Mount Panorama circuit right alongside the one depicting the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

GM has been the manufacturer of choice for me for so many years and it should come as no surprise that for the past four years, as I have been a student of road courses, it has been behind the wheel of a sixth series Corvette coupe – affectionately known to all who own them as the C6 Vette. It was two years ago (the second year as a student) that I thought I was making progress, a circumstance that was confirmed as I progressed from NASA HPDE 1 classification and into HPDE 2. And it was only last year where I squeezed in ten weekends of track time and where I really thought I was making progress, even if I did continue to struggle to sustain my concentration for the duration of each session.

Yes, if it truly was easy then everyone would be doing it, no matter the age or gender. Maintaining the necessary levels of concentration any road circuit demands for anything more than 20 minutes remains a challenge for all of us, save that selected few who test themselves in endurance races. It was during my last outing in the ‘Vette at High Plains Raceway (HPR) when, following a really big “agricultural excursion”, I calmed down, checked out the car, and proceeded to lay down laps for just over 40 minutes.

And the level of exhaustion that followed wiped me for the rest of the day. Save for one late-afternoon 20 minute session, I was done! However, the chance to be able to lay down as many laps as I did that day at HPR - at a reduced pace so that I could take a really good look at the track - gave me the chance to hit my braking and turn-in points consistently (while tracking all the way out as I made use of all of the track), so much so that this overcame much of the frustration that had developed through the year.

There are no more intense moments than when on the grid waiting to be flagged onto a hot track. While this is not a racing session and the cars are lined up based on experience and observed skill levels, all the same the tension is palpable. This was filmed last year when at Willow Springs, and while the camera focused on me initially, as it pans back through the grid, you will catch a glimpse of our good friend, Brian Kenny, in his red Vette behind two other cars, well to the right of the grid – and that was where you found the better drivers. On the extreme right, as I found myself, well… that needs no further commentary!

Readers may recall the first planned event of the year was sidelined after I found oil dripping from the ‘Vette only three days before it was to be driven to Infineon. And then snow closed the track at HPR for our first local outing. The much anticipated run at Spring Mountain Motorsport Ranch came to an abrupt halt early in the second session of the first day as a supercharger seal let go. Only a few weeks later I messed up badly with my first outing of the year with the NASA Rocky Mountain region, bringing down the wrath of the organizers in only my first session of the day – so much so that I only ran two more sessions before calling it quits. My final outings at HPR were marred by a suspension that had clearly given up, and where those driving with me remarked of how the car looked like an old dog lifting a hind leg in order to relive itself.

If it had been a bad year for me then it was considerable worse for Margo. I gave her very little opportunity to be on track. In looking back at the year I recall her behind the wheel of the ‘Vette on only one occasion and that was for only a few laps before the lack of any working suspension saw her abandoning the session. Now she is adamant that in 2012 she will be the first driver out each and every weekend, and that it will be my time to watch from the bleachers! Indeed, it may be the second day before I ever get behind the wheel!

But the year did have some bright moments as we continued to enjoy our friendship with Brian and Jan Kenny. Yet again, they came across to Boulder to join us for a weekend at HPR, and even though they had the opportunity to be behind the wheel of our Viper SRT/10 – I know Briand is anxious to return with his own C6 Vette, more than capable car that should excel on this track. Next year I am sure we will see their red ‘Vette on a trailer behind their new diesel truck! And yes, before I forget, their grandson, Colton Herta, won his Kart series championship, again, and congratulations are in order for him achieving this where not everything had gone his way.

Flipping through the pages of the December 2011 issue of Road and Track I came across an opinions column written by former F1 champion, Emerson Fittipaldi. I wasn’t surprised in the least as I read of how, when he offers “advice, I tell aspiring racers several key points. First, they must have passion and dedication and also be prepared for frustration, because that’s part of motorsports”. Jeeze Emmo, who would have guessed! Frustrations are all part of the deal? No kidding!

However with the time I did spend on the track, even as I knew the ‘Vette had its faults, I found my style of driving changing through the year. At many of the tracks the course simply winds across a featureless landscape. True, there are a few fixed landmarks that can help, but for the most part these tracks are simply laid in fields with only marginal elevation changes. Whenever I come back to driver meetings there are always those who ask the instructors to show them the racing line and to tell them what to look for before turning in and I have found the information provided only of marginal use.

The big ‘Vette, even now with 560 rear wheel horsepower being delivered through a very low final drive – something like 2.4:1, has little grunt when it comes to leaving corners. It’s all I can do to try and manage the throttle so that I can have something left to carry me into the following straights. The video clip above is from happier times as I run down the main straight at Willow Springs.

The ‘Vette is an automatic, but with paddles that are slow to acknowledge driver inputs – a tug on a paddle often needs a full second before anything happens. Trying to punch a shift with the paddles at 6,000 rpm will not cut it – rather, I have to time it such that as the revs build and swing through 5,250 I flip the paddle in order to execute a gear change before the rev limiter cuts in around 6250 rpm. In other words, I’m making a lot of adjustments as I try to keep the car running smoothly.

“You are driving this torque beast as if it were a momentum car,” was the puzzled response early this year, and in effect I was. And just as importantly, it wasn’t the landmarks and terrain changes that I was looking for to determine my brake and turn-in points, but rather getting a sense of rhythm going where I felt I wasn’t upsetting the ‘Vette too much. Markers were fine, but for me, I was more determined on keeping my eyes focused a lot further down the track and trying to just let the car find an optimal way around the track.

Imagine my surprise when I came across a passage in the book by Garth Stein “The art of racing in the rain” where the dog, Enzo, describes how his master, Denny, tells him of how “’I’m finding my visuals,’ he explained to me. ‘Turn-in points, braking. Some guys drive more by feel. They get in a rhythm and trust it. But I’m very visual. It makes me feel comfortable to have references.” Yes, I can relate to this in every sense, and in a way sighed with relief as I read these few short sentences.

I am taking with me, though, much to reflect upon over the winter months. Not just that I am a driver more comfortable with developing a feel for circuits than simply responding to an ever-changing landscape dotted with potentially multiple markers, but for me, and just as importantly, a stronger connection to those driving with me on the track. There was one instance where a driver turned up in his wife’s Infiniti sedan, as I recall, who after only one session declared “I’ve found my boat!” - it was a reference to an earlier remark he had made on his wife’s advice that he takes up fishing or something similar in his retirement.

There was another time where a driver brought his brand new BMW Z4 coupe, the latest model, and never having been on any track came up to me and asked if he could ride along to get a sense of the track “this is all new to me!” By lunchtime of that same day, I was finding it difficult to simply stay with that Z4 – not a young driver by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely someone who figured things out pretty quickly.

The camaraderie that develops in the paddock is unmistakable and there are plenty of times where wrenches are borrowed and bottles of water provided freely. For me, it’s always exciting to return to your spot in the paddock and to share your experience with those nearby. Yes, the year was so frustrating for me and there were times where my neighbors were content to leave me well enough alone. Leaving any track early, and in the passenger seat of a tow truck, needs no further explanations.

And so it was interesting to read Peter Egan’s observations in that same issue of Road and Track. “There’s something about a track session that simply energizes people and leaves them with a strange, lingering high. You can see it after any (session) - a group of drivers standing around talking a little faster than usual in a high state of animation.” Throw in the relief that comes with still being in one piece and with a car that can still be driven and you have a pretty good image of what weekends at the track feel like. All of this was nicely captured in the video above another good piece of cameraman-ship from our friend from Simi Valley, Mark MacWhirter, who was also responsible for the other two clips.

I was so disappointed with myself this year. And I was more than a little upset to have the ‘Vette sidelined as often as it was – looking through the pictures I used in the posts for 2011 there’s more than one snapshot of the car in the garage, up a lift, with one piece or another lying on the floor. In the picture above, the ‘Vettes are lined up in front of the house with the blue ‘Vette looking better than it has in some time. I have always been a GM fan and my association with Pontiacs, Chevies and Holdens has spanned multiple decades. However, with snow falling and pictures of cars all around me, I am ending the year with thoughts only of what will be our plans for 2012. It surely couldn’t be any worse and hopefully, with a little luck, it may actually be a whole lot better.

Very early in Stein’s book, “The art of racing in the rain”, he makes the observation through the eyes of his dog, Enzo, “balance, anticipation, patience. These are all vital. Peripheral vision, seeing things you’ve never seen before. Kinesthetic sensation, driving by the seat of the pants. But what I’ve always liked best is when (Denny) talks about having no memory. Good or bad. No memory is time folding back on itself. To remember is to disengage from the present. In order to reach any kind of success in automobile racing, a driver must never remember.”

And perhaps with this, there’s no better way to close the chapter on the year that was 2011. Already it’s a distant blur and I seem unable to recall the specifics all that well. Maybe that’s just how it is meant to be – on to a great 2012!

Dalmatians, and other dog tales …

2011-11-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

There’s no escaping the fact that with the early onset of winter this year there’s little opportunity for any further track time. The blue Corvette is ready to go – new suspension, new alignment and ride height, and with the track-ready wheels and tires mounted. Each time I walk past the car that is sitting rather forlornly in the garage it is a reminder of how much I miss track weekends and just how good the Vette really is – yes, close on 65,000 miles with all by 20,000 running the forced-induction (FI) set up and with some twenty five track weekends under its wheels! And the picture above is of the car laying idle, but hooked to its faithful battery charger, waiting for the seasons to change. Keeping it company, and just as likely to be spelled from any further track driving duties is the Viper; every bit as reluctant to test step outside with snow on the ground!

Our home track, High Plains Raceway, is also out of action but less so due to early snow falls. The track is undergoing resurfacing so that come early next year it will be in pristine condition. When coupled with the fact that the track outside Pueblo, Colorado, is also being resurfaced then the prognosis for track days in Colorado in 2012 is looking real good. We have not made the trip down to the Pueblo Motorsports Park yet and we will take a close look at it for next year as we commit to spending more time in-state, with perhaps just a single trip to the West Coast – most likely, to join NASA Northern California - for another shot at laying down some laps at Infineon, Sonoma. Perhaps it’s even time to think about visiting the track at Hastings, Nebraska as part of a return visit to Omaha!

Whatever the plans for 2012 turn out to be our approach to track days has taken yet another turn – with less emphasis on the competitive side and more attention given to just having fun. I realize that even with four years of track experience under my belt, I will never be running with the more advanced and highly competitive groups as I just don’t have the time to put into learning the tracks. And there’s the additional consideration now about the costs of tackling circuits every month – the wear and tear on the Vette has been considerable and to continue to enjoy these outings will necessitate dialing back some of the aggression and working even harder on being smooth! Yes, old # 116 is a good car and is a lot of fun on the track but it is beginning to show its age and will need considerable more nursing than in the past if it’s to continue to be the go-to car in the garage come track weekends.

The other element that has arisen is that with my evolving business pursuits I am spending more time travelling – and much of this is being done on short notice. Having participated in Information Technology (IT) events in South Africa and India, vendor kick-off meetings in Denver and client meetings in cities as far away as Paris and Rome, it’s proving difficult to commit to events in advance. As much as I would have liked to have closed out the year with an event in Southern California – perhaps returning to the Auto Club Speedway or even Willow Springs – there simply was no time. As I pull together my thoughts for this posting I am back on the west coast only days after returning from a mix of business and vacation time along the Adriatic Coast and as much as I truly do enjoy track days, I enjoy time spent with my peers speculating on where IT is headed just as much as I like my time behind the wheel!

Perhaps the best thing that happened on this latest trip to Europe is that it gave me time to catch up on my reading. Top of the list was a book everyone has talked about for a long time, and so it was with a lot of anticipation that I turned the first pages of the book “The Art of Racing in the Rain” only to find that I was immediately hooked by the storyline. Yes, it’s a dog’s-eye view of a racer’s life alright, but it is so much more. Author, Garth Stein, has done a superb job of translating what is often taken for granted when it comes to track days. For those who have spent any time at all around race tracks and who have enjoyed conversations with real racers, and who have been fortunate to have them provide feedback on their abilities, this book will resonate well.

In the early chapters the reader is introduced by Enzo, the dog, to the thought “that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny” and it strikes a chord within all who read the book. After all, there’s little we can blame for any misfortunes experienced on the track – not the car, other drivers or even officials – as it all comes back to what we do. “Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.” Tied to this is the ever-revealing truth that we always go where our eyes are looking and as I recall the many incidents I have experienced, more than anyone, am aware that during lapses in concentration I have brought about my own misfortune!

A little deeper into the book, the reader is exposed to how racers truly prepare for track outings – yes, they take the time to walk the circuit and examine every square inch of track. As Enzo explains it, his central character, Denny, jogged around the entire track as “you can’t really see a track from inside a race car travelling at one hundred fifty miles per hour or more … you have to get out and feel it.” Why the necessity? Racers look for every possible advantage and in this instance, Denny is hoping to find “visible seams (on the track surface) that he might use as braking zone markers or turn-in points. Could he find better grip slightly off the established racing line? And there were tricks to the camber of certain turns, places where the track appeared level from inside a car but were actually graded ever so slightly.” For as long as I can recall, participating in National Auto Sport Association (NASA) events, our instructors reminded us to walk the track and as anyone who has walked the main straight of Willow Springs knows all too well the steep upward angle the track takes as it begins to bear left into the nicely cambered turn one is not immediately apparent from behind the wheel. The picture above was taken last year and captured me leading my good friend Brian, for just the briefest of moments, as we both headed into that turn at Willow Springs.

Right angle turns, such as you find with turn one at Willow Springs, have no right to be taken as fast as drivers do, but over the years by lifting my entry speed a few miles an hour with each lap, I am finding that I can turn into this corner at 100 miles per hour, when only two years earlier sixty miles an hour seemed extreme and perhaps even reckless! I have as yet not completed walking all of the tracks I visited, but at many of the circuits I have walked alongside them and felt the dips and rises that make up much of any circuits pavement. Yes, the sage advice from all those who have helped me along the way to simply get out there and walk the track is really something I now need to do pursue as a matter of routine.

But this is not only true of race tracks, as it equally applies to many of the highways and country byways we frequent. Is the surface beginning to break up and are the edges crumbling and uneven? Is there grip or does it feel greasy? A few hard-braking attempts as well as a couple of “late apexes” generally can tell you what is underfoot and prove extremely helpful should you be called upon to take defensive actions. That which we manifest is before us! On the trip back to the west coast I have driven the southern interstates for the first time since I traversed them in the Vette on the way to Spring Mountain and of course the memories came rushing back – all the expectations Margo and I took with us on the occasion proved premature as misfortune overtook us very early in the weekend. However, coming as this trip has, so soon after our excursion to Atlanta, has given me an opportunity to see more of America than I had ever imagined when we first looked at what tracks we would visit this year. And to some extent has more than made up for all the mishaps and breakdowns that have happened along the way.

The picture above is of the Vette up on the hoist inside the great facilities at Spring Mountain Motorsport Ranch (MSSR). It was the time when we found our oil leak was terminal and that our ambitious plans for the following week were dashed. We had hoped to combine the promotional side of our time at the track with other business pursuits only to see much of what we had hoped to do fade away as we went about renting trucks, trailers, and rental cars as well as flights back to Boulder. And yet, all it took was the installation of the wrong hose and from that moment, events escalated to the Vette failed. Yes, certainly, that which we manifest is before us!

And through the year, the mantra of driving the car you have kept echoing in my ears – sure I would like a little more torque and sure, I would like to have a taller final drive ratio and definitely bigger brakes, and racing slicks would be terrific, but I had none of these and just had to work with what I had. In many respects, even with a big torque car such as we have with the Vette, there’s a lot to be gained from respecting the power and treating them as though they are momentum cars, particularly at times when the weather isn’t perfect and where the track surface may be compromised. Avoiding the dramatic acceleration and subsequent hard braking that unsettles the Vette, and looking at ways to simply let the Vette have an opportunity to flow with the track has given me a lot more satisfaction than I’ve ever experienced in the past. Truly, we are the creators of our own destiny!

Between this trip to the west coast that will take us from San Diego, California, all the way to Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada, and the trip to Atlanta that gave us the opportunity to sample the tail of the dragon, we squeezed in a short trip to Italy as well as a cruise on the Adriatic and along the Dalmatian coast. Before we left I had considered renting Vespa scooters along the way as there are many rental shops at the ports we were to visit, but after the mishaps Margo experienced only a few short weeks ago, we elected not to pursue this option. I had been hoping to be able to retell the adventure from a different perspective but no, this particular trip to Europe saw us walking everywhere. With the less hectic pace this proved to be, I managed to see more than I have done on previous visits.

The picture above is from the fjord that leads to Koto in Montenegro – an amazingly beautiful township lying at the end of one of the fjord’s arms. In the background is a small island that was built by simply dropping stones into the fjord and creating a platform. For more than two hundred years, the locals came to the site in the ships and unloaded rocks, and today there’s a small chapel built on the platform that has proved popular with the sailing communities down through the centuries. The patience and persistence across many generations has to be admired, and again, it took my thoughts back to the track. Some weekends, after putting a lot of effort into my track sessions I am left wondering whether I had somehow regressed with very little to show following the many laps I covered.

But making progress on the track is a funny thing. In fact, until you actually get into a car and drive it on a track, it’s all rather academic. Concentration, once you are settled behind the wheel becomes paramount with memories of previous sessions put to one side. As Enzo was to reflect on the occasion he was a passenger for a few fast laps with Denny, “I intellectualized that I would enjoy being in a race car. Until that moment, I didn’t know. How could anyone know until he sits in a car at race speed and takes turns at the limits of adhesion, brakes a hair from lockup, the engine begging for the redline?” With every lap, there’s always progress being made and even if it’s unclear as to precisely how much progress has been made after a weekend at the track, your subconscious continues to work overtime, layering one experience on top of the other and developing knowledge that otherwise simply couldn’t be intellectualized or assembled any other way.

It will be hard to stay out of the garage, just as it will be difficult not to speculate on what will happen in 2012. The Vette looks anxious and I know it must be shivering even as the temperatures continue to drop. But the plight of the Vette isn’t being ignored, just as my subconscious continues to file everything away. Whatever transpires now will be my own doing and I am hopeful, as I am at this time of year following every other season, that next year there will be even more fun-filled weekends ahead for Margo and me – as yes, how can you ever know until that next time when once again you pull on your helmet and for one more time sit in the car!

Taming the Dragon?

2011-10-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Even as I harbored thoughts about of perhaps one more track day, I awoke this morning to snow. Lots of it! Everywhere I looked there was snow piled high; the picture above was what I was treated to as I opened the garage door and made my way out the few feet to the Caddy Escalade. Having spent the past four years commuting between Boulder, Colorado, and Simi Valley, California, I had managed to be in California for most of the past four winters, and so it was quite a rude awakening. And did I mention it was cold, too? Yesterday temperatures had hovered around 80 degrees, but this morning it was some fifty degrees lower!

The Escalade now has to fend for itself, outside, in whatever weather visits us, as all four garage spaces are now occupied. The reality of returning to Boulder meant that we now have four cars in addition to the two motorcycles, in addition to the Escalade, and so I am just waiting for the day my neighbors remind me that the rules of our little community disallow any permanent parking of un-garaged cars. But I just can’t think about parting with any of the cars – perhaps a two car lift for one of the garages is in order. Could work – I wonder what weight constraints we have, as we excavated under all of our garages, expanding our basement, and turned the space below the garage into our working offices.

But at least the Corvettes are warm, feeding happily from the CTEK trickle-feed battery chargers we have in place, and likely will have powered-on for the next couple of months, maybe through to spring? Although there’s a lot of excitement that comes with the season’s first snow fall, as it does paint the countryside in gorgeous monochromatic tones, I just know it will only be a few more weeks before we begin daydreaming of warmer days ahead. Then again, how fitting to be writing of winter again when it seems that it was only a few months back when snow had prevented us from turning our first laps at High Plains Raceway (HPR) – check the photo in the post of May 1st, 2011 “Just got in to the Windy City …” - it is midway through that post, and is of the track covered in snow!

Business this month has seen me heads down in front of my keyboard wrapping up a number of business white papers. My trip last month to India certainly did impact my schedule and I have been playing catch-up ever since. Compounding the situation was the need to accompany Margo on a trip to Atlanta, and early on we had agreed that it would be a good opportunity to see the countryside and taking the Escalade seemed to be the right choice, knowing that weather can be so unpredictable at this time of year.

In the back of my mind I knew that the trip home, again, weather permitting, could take us north to Knoxville, Tennessee, a route that would let us see the remaining colorful leaves of fall covering the smoky mountains. Leaving Atlanta we would just pass through a corner of North Carolina before crossing into the south-eastern corner of Tennessee and anyone familiar with the geography may already be second-guessing where I was headed. If there’s any doubt remaining, when I identify the tree in the picture above as the famous “tree of shame” at Deals Gap it can mean only one thing. We had arrived at the start of the Tail of the Dragon!

The drive to Atlanta had followed the direct approach, a series of interstate highways that took us from Colorado through Kansas and into Missouri, before cutting through the bottom of Illinois and on down through Kentucky and Tennessee to line us up for the quick run into Georgia. There hadn’t been any drama and the trip went by without a hitch. On the other hand, what we were looking forward to driving on our way back was nothing like the highways we had experienced on the way to Atlanta.

Quite the opposite, and while we have driven Colorado highway 550, “the million dollar highway” from Durango to Ouray Colorado, several times (once, on motorcycles with a colleague from Australia), not to mention the byway from interstate 70, west of Green River, where the combination of highways 24, 95 and 261 takes you to Mexican Hat at the very bottom of Utah, as well as the Pacific Coast Highway along the California coast between Cambria and Carmel and through Big Sur I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but Tennessee’s infamous highway 129 delivered!

A twisting collection of turns on a road that crosses the mountains, and as best as I could tell, serves little purpose other than to provide entertainment for all those who relish such challenges, all up 318 curves in just the 11 miles, and by way of comparison, the Nürburgring in Germany that we drove around last fall only had some 150 + turns in its roughly 12 miles! The drop into Ouray on highway 550, and the plunge down from the elevated butte and into Mexican Hat on highway 261 as spectacular as both had proven to be, even as they were sparsely covered rocky outcrops, the heavily timbered landscape of the Smoky Mountains was to give the road a completely different feel and provided very little visibility as to what lay beyond each corner!

No question, leaving Deals Gap there were some anxieties. I had no idea what to expect, although looking at the tree of shame and reading the comments penned to metal and glass, it was pretty obvious that this road didn’t suffer fools kindly. There would be no guard rails for most of its length, and at one point the narrow ribbon of road runs along a small spine of rock with fall-away on either side, dropping to the rivers far below. The weather was good, it was late afternoon, and the muted light filtered through the trees still wearing their fall colors that gave us a vista unseen anywhere else in our recent travels.

I had picked the Escalade up from service at the local dealer in Boulder only a few days before we set out for Atlanta, the most extensive servicing cycle the Escalade has ever undertook: having passed 125,000 miles, on went new shocks (rear), new brake rotors and pads, new lines for oils and fluids and a complete service of all transmissions - it’s All Wheel Drive (AWD) - as well as new plugs and injectors. Having the big SUV this rigorously serviced is an expensive undertaking, but not when I think about the benefits of taking it along on this trip. And the picture above is of us about to enter a particularly challenging series of corners (the picture courtesy of the photo crew from Killboy.com) and yet I still found time to take my hand from the wheel to signal thumbs-up!

At one point we stopped to talk briefly to the driver of a Viper SRT/10 roadster that had just pulled off the road. He wanted to stop and take photos, he told us, but Margo and I had our doubts. Pouring from the vents in the hood, as well as from the gap between the hood and the front windscreen, was the most “white smoke” we have ever seen. Even on track days! Whatever he had been doing or how hard he had been driving, something wasn’t right, and it was too much smoke to be “just the brakes”. This is definitely the place, if you really want to push your car to the limits, and should it be motorcycles that are your preference then this is possibly nirvana!

The corners kept coming – trying to keep count of the 318 turns was impossible as they just kept on coming. There are several folks who have asked me about how valuable is participating in National Auto Sport Association (NASA) track “driver education” programs, and how relevant it would be when it came to every day driving: the drive up and over the tail of the dragon left me in no doubt as to the value NASA provided. And it was as much about the basics that comes to the fore – keep your eyes up and look through the turn to find the corner exit, late apex “everything”, and limit trail breaking as much as possible using the short straights wherever possible to scrub speed!

The picture above is of the big Escalade exiting a turn and it’s already clear that there’s load on the suspension! Not by race car standards, mind you, but something that was clearly communicated to driver and passenger with each turn completed. Again, the photo is courtesy of the roadside crew from Killboy.com and this time reader’s familiar with the many track outings that we have enjoyed will recognize number 116 as they will the decals from both NASA and Speed Ventures. Today, sitting outside the garage where it has taken up semi-permanent residence, the rear window sports an additional motif – a decal from Deals Gap no less – alongside the track image of the Nürburgring. Tacky perhaps? All the same, it brings a warm smile to my face each time I drag the trash can down to the curb!

However, once we had completed our “run over the course” the first thing Margo and I discussed on the last leg of our trip into Knoxville was how soon would it be before we brought the big ‘Vette this far east? After all, with all that we observed, this would be ideal. Better still? Perhaps even chance our hand with the AWD Datsun we have as our back-up for winter should the Escalade become unavailable – the car is a beast when it comes to roads like this!

Either way, Chevy or Nissan, we want to revisit this highway at some point – perhaps after squeezing in a weekend at VIR. I think one of the NASA regions holds events on this circuit and the big 'Vette would be perfect! But no, for this trip to Atlanta it hadn't been an option as the 'Vette was still in the shop. Even with two Corvettes and as passionate as I am about Tandem and NonStop in my business life, the "back-up" Corvette is just configured differently and doesn't lend itself to long trips where there's shared driver responsibilities. Yes it's a manual whereas the big 'Vette is an auto!

The talk of the ‘Vette really highlighted just how much difference there is between driving on the track and driving on the open road. No matter the challenges thrown up by a highway, even as technically challenging as Tennessee highway 129, you are never driving at ten tenths! It’s more like three or four tenths at best and there’s considerable difference, although in hindsight, we are still wondering what the driver of the Viper had been up to! Consideration of others on the road takes precedence, and when you have traffic legitimately coming towards you, it does change everything when you keep so much in reserve. The brakes may seem like they’re working hard, and the smell of oil and other fluids suggest temperatures have climbed, but compared to how the car feels after a session on a race track… there’s really no comparison.

And this is fortunately for the best, as I would rather not read about anyone driving their car on the road as they do at the track. Even when it comes to their favorite freeway off-ramp! Yet throughout the few miles that took us into Knoxville all discussion about driving the ‘Vette over this mountainous highway was as if we could drive it at track speeds with corner workers stationed along its length and crowds gathered at every vantage point. It’s just that kind of road that takes you back to when racing was pursued on public roads and where, as is still the case on the Isle of Man, the local population turns out in force.

So, what of the big ‘Vette? The picture above was sent to us by our newest friend, Curt Ingram, as the ‘Vette was moved outside his shop, Corvette Spa. Readers may recall how last month I was filmed by Curt’s good friend Warren, and how on review of the video it was clear the shocks weren’t doing their job. Driving to Atlanta and back gave Curt ample time to put the car up on jacks and take a good look. Now the car has a new set of Bilstein “sport” shocks, and restoring the Toyo R888 shod wheels to the car, a new alignment. Further surprises came when we saw how badly the toe-in had been – camber and caster had been fine but the only way to describe the poor effects from the tow-in was to suggest that the car would have crabbed its way through turns!

Curt was kind enough to email this latest photo of the ‘Vette just as I was planning the route back home from Atlanta, and as hopeful I had been at the time to take it one more time to the track, it’s now clear that with the arrival of winter it will be just the three walls of the garage that will entertain the car for the next couple of months. Spending all those years in Southern California, as we have done for the past four plus years, rather spoiled us, but then again we have really little to complain about living in Boulder.

The first snow of the season is always special and for the next couple of days we, as will much of the local population, will simply revel in the novelty of it all. It will wear off, of course, and our thoughts will just as quickly turn to thoughts of spring, and as I sit at my keyboard there will be a check of both the NASA and Speed Venture sites looking for news about the program for 2012. After all there’s Infineon we still need to visit and there’s Laguna Seca and perhaps Big Willow we want to revisit, but for now, and with the recent exploits in Tennessee behind us, it’s a quiet brandy and a warm fire, and that suits us just fine!

Eating my own dust!

2011-09-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

The opportunity to return to High Plains Raceway (HPR) outside Byers, Colorado, and about 50 miles east of Denver gave me the chance to return early to the scene of what was a pretty dreadful weekend last time out. While the company had been terrific, and the weather perfect last time at this track, I let myself down when it came time to put my experience to the test and so I was anxious to take another look at the circuit. Memories were still vividly painted in my memory and I really wanted to demonstrate some degree of improvement, even if it was just for me.

The picture above is of the Corvette covered in dirt and weeds following a big off in the second session of the day – an ominous start to the day. I had elected to return to the circuit on one of the track’s open lapping days, and it being a Friday there were only a small number of participants. The track would be free to exploit for eight hours and so my plan was to run four sessions before lunch – three each of about 20 to 25 minutes and one of 40 minutes, and then wrap up the afternoon with just two 30 minute sessions.

Luxury! And a far cry from a typical club outing where the normal track time is limited to just four 20 minute sessions. I also took eight bottles of Gateraide and a dozen bottles of water in my ice “esky”, as we call these coolers back home in Australia, since I wanted to stay hydrated throughout the day! All the same, I was going to make sure I had plenty of downtime between sessions so I packed a small fold-away chair into the Vette along with the esky. Unfortunately, Margo would not be joining me for this outing as her work schedule had ballooned and there was simply no way for her to escape her commitments. It would be a strange feeling all the same not to have her nearby!

The first session was uneventful and already I picked up on what I had missed only a few weeks before. Turn 7, what the circuit management had named “High Plains Drifter”, turned out to be an almost classical uphill sweeper and whereas in my previous outing I had been attempting to late apex I began to turn-in a little earlier, without braking. It certainly looked like it was less disruptive for the big Vette’s and tracking out wide as I was now doing allowed me to carry more speed into the braking area before the more difficult turn 8 that preceded a series of esses known as “To Hell on a Bobsled”!

This first time out, I had a passenger with me. A driver new to the track, and indeed new to track days, had brought with him a new Z4 sDrive35is – a somewhat lengthy description of a pretty potent roadster. The “novice in a Bimmer” approached me and asked if he could ride along to get an up-close perspective of the track. Even though I was a little apprehensive, the Vette proved very docile and even though it was early in the day, when it came time to return to the paddock I had not only improved on my lines through turn 7 but really improved on turn 11 as well. My passenger thanked me profusely and later in the day, with the Z4behind me, the Bimmer newcomer showed few signs of being a novice!

Leading to the steepest climb on the circuit at 10 degrees, when it comes to rounding turn 11 you really have to continue deep into the braking zone before turning-in late, in order to set up the kink that bisects the “Ladder to Heaven” run! I was sensing that this would be a transition day and I was looking forward to catching up with newfound friend and fellow Corvette driver, Warren, who would drop by later in the day with his silver C5 Z06.

Tire pressures have become an important consideration of late when driving HPR, so before I left for the second session, even with the tires very warm, I eased the pressure back to 28 lbs on the passenger side, and 27 lbs on the driver’s side – the track having a majority of right-hand turns. I am still coming to terms with the science of all of this and all I wanted to do was to make sure that as I returned to the paddock after each session, the pressures would be the same all around and only be as high as 34 lbs, maximum. Experience was telling me that running with the Michelin Pilot Sports as I was, the Vette seemed to handle better when the tire pressures didn’t climb much beyond this level.

Onto the track, this time alone in the car, I took it easy for a couple of laps but then began to really work on the lower half of the track. I was pretty happy with the way I ran through the turns leading onto the long back straight and then the quick downhill plunge through turns 4, 5 and 6. Turn 5 is called “Niagara” and turn 6, “Danny’s Lesson” so you can appreciate how much elevation change is involved. However, everyone seems to be able to master this first sector and it’s what follows that has proved the bigger challenge.

The picture above is of the engine bay as I came to a halt in the paddock and threw open the hood. Yes, it was well into the session when I exited turn 8, as I had done several times already, when a dormant Frankenstein appeared after an absence of some three years! Readers may recall how, in the post of November 12th, 2008, “Coming to terms with Frankenstein” NASA SoCal HPDE Director, John Matthew, had driven the Vette with Margo as passenger only to lose the car twice.

His observation at the time? “This car is dangerous! Frankenstein is lurking up a few revs higher, and if you go there, he just wrenches the car from you!” John then explained “there’s way too much torque and it’s unpredictable. When it does hit, it lights up the tires so quickly that it becomes a very difficult car to control!” Since that early outing, Charlie and Austin at RPM Motors, Inc. had worked some magic on the way the automatic transmission handled the new-found torque.

Again, readers may remember about where, in the post of December 3rd, 2010, “It was wet! It was windy! But we adjusted ...” I referred to how they fine-tuned a couple of the tables used during gear changes. And what a difference it had made - immediately the transitions between second, third and fourth were the smoothest I had ever experienced and I could even change-up a gear midway through a corner without unsettling the car. Well, not so fast …

When Frankenstein hits, he does so with ferocity and as I changed up a gear exiting turn 8, the car’s rear broke immediately to my left and drove me off the track. I lifted and steered into the spin, braking only as the infield begun scrubbing-off the Vette’s speed. It was all over very quickly but I had executed a pretty lazy 180 degree slide that deposited half an acre of dirt onto the track. Unfortunately, perhaps more inside the car … coming up for breath and spitting dirt, I restarted the car, waited for a break in the traffic and drove slowly back to the black-flag station for a quick check. Even though all looked OK, I elected to ease the car back into the paddock and give it a good look.

The car was covered in dust, and I had eaten quite a bit of dirt as the wheels had thrown up a considerable cloud. But apart from a front valance mount that had popped, and was easily pushed back into place, there was no damage done to the car. My own pride, on the other hand, well – let’s just say I grabbed a bottle of water and sat quietly in my chair for an extended period. Once the Vette had cooled down, I went and checked the tire pressures and torqued the lug nuts.

Of course, the circuit’s management came by to have a few words and they were satisfied with my explanation and at ease that I knew what had happened. In reality they were more amused by it! I offered to walk back to the turn and help sweep off the dirt but they had already dispatched their tractor to look after that minor inconvenience. My front valance had always hung low with the leading edge of the front spoiler almost on the ground but now it was on the ground! When this was drawn to my attention by track staff I simply reminded them that it had always been close to the ground. No worries …

Inside of an hour, I was back on the track. I was still looking over my shoulder to see if Warren had arrived and as he drove into the paddock, his racing slicks on a custom-built dolly towed by his Vette, he elected to set up right next to me and before he did anything to his own car, he jumped into the passenger seat for his own up close look at the track. But this time, it wasn’t the layout of the circuit that was of interest, but my own approach to getting around it that was of interest.

And what a difference another set of eyes can make. “Track out even more as you exit turn 8 – don’t pinch it! And yes, track out exiting turn 8 as well! Go much deeper into your braking zone before turn 13, at the top of the ‘Prairie Corkscrew’, and turn in a little more aggressively so you open up the kink, or chicane, that precedes entry onto the main straight!” Wow – after only a handful of laps, not only was the Vette better balanced but the circuit became easier to round.

One of the reasons I had returned to HPR and to make the trip out to join Warren was that last time out, running hard down the back straight, the Vette experienced a little instability. At first, we weren’t sure if it was the car’s electronic aids, or “nannies”, kicking in or perhaps, it was the line I had used and where I may have straddled the pavement creases. But after a few laps, the diagnoses from Warren came quickly. “You have driven well past the life expectancy of your shock absorbers,” he said. “After 62,000 miles and some 25+ track weekends, they are letting you know it’s time to replace them!”

To confirm this, in a session later in the day, Warren let me pass him before he tucked in behind. We then did several laps before he re-passed me. In the paddock following what was the next to last session of the day for me, he told me he had been filming me and when we looked at the video the following week the initial diagnosis was hard to overrule. There was so much rear body roll that the comment was made that it looked just like a dog lifting its hind leg as it relieved itself. A quick check with my good friend Hal, and yes, we will be looking to replace with a set of Bilstein sport shocks.

The previous time at HPR I had participated in a NASA regional High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) program, and had been looking to progress to HPDE 3 for intermediate level drivers. As last month’s post reflected, I had seriously messed up my first session such that the results of my assessment were overly skewed by what I had done earlier in the day. However, after this last outing at HPR only a few weeks later, it was obvious to me that my lines weren’t where they should have been and any misgivings I had about the way the assessment was made is now a moot point.

The passion is still there and yes, my heart remains in the pastime. I really do enjoy it. But I sure do enjoy it so much more when Margo has time to participate. There will likely be one more outing for the year, although it may be restricted to just a couple of afternoon sessions but at least I am beginning to comprehend the complexities that make up the HPR circuit. Perhaps the team at NASA Rocky Mountains were on the money – no, there’s no substitute for lap time and there’s no easy path to gaining experience. You may end up eating a lot of dirt but you just have to get out there and learn!

Trackin' round the Rockies!

2011-08-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Now there’s no need to plan for the trip back to Boulder - after nearly five years of commuting to Omaha, Nebraska, and then Simi Valley, California, the wheel has finally stopped spinning and we are able to treat our house in Boulder truly as our home. Yes, the garages are full as we went about consolidating what was spread across multiple locations, and while I had done my best to join Margo as often as I could at her townhome in Simi Valley, neither of us ever felt really at home there.

As for the blue Vette, number 116, we finally were able to enjoy it once again. In the last post, “We need (more) new pumps!” the team at Rocky Mountain Competitive Research (RMCR) determined that our fuel pump was on its last legs and simply couldn’t keep up as revs rose, so a replacement pump was ordered and this time it would be the fuel pump normally reserved for the C6 Z06. When I was advised of its arrival I took the Vette once more to Colorado Springs. What a difference!

So, where do we stand today? Let’s turn to the charts. The first chart at the top of this page (click on any chart for a bigger picture) is what transpired at A&A Corvette in the summer of 2008 when the Vortech supercharger was installed. Stock figures for the C6 Vette coupe were 348.23 hp with 338.07 lb-ft of torque. All figures are measured at the rear wheels and are adjusted for sea level. With the supercharger installed, and an initial dyno tune performed by Andy, the new figures were 497.66 hp with 466.16 lb-ft of torque.

However, this was just the start of the journey. Following the power steering pump failure during the summer of last year, and as part of the rebuild that followed, we upgraded the intercooler (to be safe) and replaced the stock muffler system with one from a Z06 where a butterfly valve was added that could be manually flipped to give the inside two pipes the capacity for unrestricted flow.

The second chart here is of the dyno figures Andy generated following the repairs and much to our surprise, the results were pretty impressive. A jump to 545.12 hp and 490 l-/ft of torque.

The final chart below was produced just as we arrived at RMCR where Mark had been running the Vette on the dyno following the change of fuel pump. After we had a run on the dyno that produced figures of 588.43 hp and 510.67 lb-ft of torque, we backed off a little and made the fuel mix a little richer higher up the rev range for the engine’s safety. What this latest chart reveals is that we have pretty much 570 hp and some 500+ lb-ft of torque and where the shape of the torque line tells its own story – this blue Vette will really pull!

Now for a weekend at High Plains Raceway with an open lapping day on the Friday and an opportunity to join our friends at NASA Rocky Mountains for a full day of sessions on the Saturday.

Considerable planning had gone into preparing for the weekend and not everything revolved around the preparation of the Vette. For the occasion we would be joined by our good friends Brian and Jan from Simi Valley, and while I would be driving the Chevrolet, they would be entertaining themselves in the Dodge – once again, a “loaner Viper” from good friends of theirs.

Arriving at the track early Friday morning and bringing with us some 1300+ hp, was quite a treat! The picture below is of the pair, the Viper and the Vette, having spent the night parked in our garage!

Margo would not be joining us; a change in careers prompted by our return to Boulder has her fully committed, time-wise. Furthermore, her last time out was cold and windy and she just wasn’t at peace with the track. We have been asked on several occasions whether we would be continuing with this activity and I was still hopeful that we would. Margo, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic.

When the time came to roll out onto the track for the opening session, Friday, I was determined to give it my best. There were a few moments arising from just being a little rusty, but I was ready for the second session when Brian offered to ride along as a passenger. Brian usually circulates in HPDE 3 and in NASA Southern California events has of late been asked to observe candidates in HPDE 3 that are looking to move to HPDE 4. As I do Hal’s, I value Brian’s judgment very highly.

After 30 minutes circulating the track among the fast group, where racers were fine-tuning their cars for the upcoming weekend, all Brian offered was “drive like that, as consistent and as smooth as you were, and you will easily make it into HPDE 3. You’re ready. There were a few times when I thought your brakes might fade but you managed them well and there were no incidents late in the session.” And the picture below is of the two of us thundering down the main straight with just a glimpse of the back straight at the top of the picture.

It was only a few weeks earlier that my good friend Hal had followed me around the track, as readers may recall, in the post of May 1st, 2011, “Just got in to the Windy City …”. Hal races in the American Iron series with NASA Northern California and as I said, I value his judgment highly, so I was pretty pleased with his observations. “You used all the track, you were changing gears where I thought you should, and consistently with each lap,” Hal had said, “and you used all the track while you were making full use of the rumble-strips!”

I went out on the track for four more sessions, a total of six thirty minute sessions in all, and worked on a couple of different lines through two of the turns – turn 7 “High Plains Drifter” and turn 11 “Bobsled”, and the climb up through the “Ladder to Heaven” – and as these were tough, right-hand uphill turns requiring finding just the right trade-off between traction and retaining momentum, in the Vette, with the power it had, both turns were proving to be a handful!

Inevitably, Saturday morning arrived. In the weeks leading up to the NASA event, there had been a number of email exchanges with all involved at NASA about being approved to drive in HPDE 3, and I was unsure how the process would work, but as the driver meeting wound down I was called me out to join a number of others for a briefing.

As succinctly as possible I was informed of what would be expected, who would be joining us (as passengers, conducting the evaluations) and then letting us know that should we be invited to join HPDE 3 there were already too many entrants and our participation in an HPDE 3 session would be deferred until the next event.

Rushing quickly to the HPDE 1 and 2 briefing, as I needed the wrist-band to go on track, I caught up with the group only as the wrist-bands were being handed out. There had been no time left to catch up on the group’s protocols or to listen in on grid and starting procedures. Where are the passing zones? I asked those around me. Are they opening the front and back straights? Unsure of what I heard in response I left in the belief that for HPDE 1 and 2, both passing zones would be in effect.

With little time to prepare further, I had to grab my helmet and head for pre-grid. Joining the group a little late I already had five or six cars ahead of me, and catching the attention of one of the evaluators I jokingly said that yes, I was sure appreciative of NASA not wanting to judge us on our first session. Nerves were still raging and it was difficult not to be anxious. Finally, rolling onto the track I thought that with all the preparation and coaching I had received over the past couple of months it would be a simple formality before I was driving in HPDE 3!

And then the disaster out of nothing more than a rookie mistake. Would there be a full course yellow, as is typical first time out? Again, no one responded but watching the flags I could tell that yes, there was a full course yellow for the first lap. But as I came out of turn 15, the exit from the Prairie Corkscrew, I could see the green flag waiving, signifying the start of the session. On entering the front straight, I romped on the gas and quickly passed a couple of cars.

Negotiating the next couple of turns easily I entered the long back straight and, an open track ahead of me, I pulled out from the other drivers and passed them all, braking deep into the turn that dropped cars down a short incline. With nothing ahead, I really focused on my line. Yes, I wanted a repeat of yesterday’s consistency. The picture above is of the big Vette rollicking down the Prairie Corkscrew!

Pulling onto the main straight for the end of the first lap under green, I had already caught the tail of the HPDE 1 drivers so I easily rounded a couple of them. Again, on the back straight and now three wide I eased passed a sizeable group and was back into clear track. Pulling quickly through the turns and continuing to build speed, this time I entered the main straight only to see the black flag being waived furiously with 116 being held above it.

“What were you thinking? There’s no passing on the main straight with this group and remember, point-bys? They are mandatory for all drivers in HPDE 1 and 2 and one point-by, one car, and never any three-wide passing, not under any circumstances!” And the condemnation kept on coming. NASA runs 20 minute sessions so all I had time for was a cool-down lap and it was back into the paddock.

Still, there was no let up as each returning student who passed me had their instructor trying their best to educate me further. At least, I think that’s what they were so earnestly conveying; it was hard to tell amid all the ruckus being thrown up!

I attended the download all the same, but slinked back to the wall and kept my head bowed. Oh yes – my car number was called and I was given a true education on the finer points of driving at this level. And for me, the weekend ended with that meeting.

My heart wasn’t in it and as I picked up Joe, my evaluator for HPDE 3, just as the second track session began I was still so angry at myself and just about at anyone else I came across. However, as best as I could I behaved myself and lapped the tracks as a much-humbled HPDE 2 driver.

“You demonstrated situational awareness expected at HPDE 3; you were consistent with each lap; and you lapped at a speed HPDE 3 would require,” Joe informed me, but it will be up to the others to confirm your move up. And of course, as you would surmise at this point, this elevation to the higher group was not granted. “Your lines through turn 7 weren’t consistent, as was your approach to turn 13, the Prairie Corkscrew,” was the consensus followed by the expected “all you need is a little more coaching.”

Never mind that this comment came from the instructor behind me, even at a time when I was explaining to Joe the different lines I had been trying through turn 7 – yes, they weren’t consistent as I was showing him how difficult it was to drive all 700+hp through an uphill sweeper turn without it breaking away!

It was disappointing to end the weekend on this note. I did go out for one more session but not only was my heart not in it, my brain was wondering miles away, so for my own safety as well as that of others around me, I came back into the paddock early. After expressing my feelings to everyone I could find – how could they let anyone onto the track un-briefed as they did; what were they thinking!

After all, looking back through these blog postings, it’s been more than a year since I last drove with NASA and after more than a dozen events in race groups of all capabilities, forgetting about the point-bys was not surprising.

Never would have happened in Southern California on John Matthew’s watch, of that I am sure! But even as ranted and kicked sand high in the air, I really had no one else to blame. The assumptions I made were wrong, and Dave had every right to be critical, but I did recover and I did drive pretty well for my second session, and I will leave it at that.

Margo and I are now looking at how we will end the year. It’s been tough on her with the conditions against her, and a Vette that’s not quite made it into her hands those times she’s been to the track. The expenses this year have mounted to an unsustainable level, so we need to come to terms with that as well.

We pursue this pastime for fun and for Margo it’s likely to be starting close to the bottom once more. Not in terms of driving ability, but in terms of overall enthusiasm It was only a few weeks ago that Fulton Haight, an instructor with NASA SoCal and a winner last year at the Nationals, emailed with the observation “you are right Margo developed a special feel at Willow that should carry her well at other venues as well.”

Next month will be a big test and I hope she will find the peace she needs to settle back into the driver’s seat, as I for one really miss having her trackside on these weekends. Winter will arrive shortly and our ability to turn laps at HPR will be curtailed, but there’s always that one more opportunity and for that, I remain very thankful. Perhaps I do need to take a closer look at my lines through turns 7, 11 and 13 after all!

We need (more) new pumps!

2011-07-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

The drive to Colorado Springs is now becoming a routine event for Margo and I, and from Boulder it’s just over 100 miles. Each way! More trips than I had anticipated, of course, but then there are some early signs that progress’ being made. The photo above is of the ‘Vette on the dyno at Rocky Mountain Competitive Research (RMCR), generating some new numbers for us to check out.

So much has happened since the last post that it’s hard to know where to start. Readers may recall however that we had taken the nearly mortally-wounded C6 Corvette Coupe to A&A Corvette Performance, following a rather traumatic incident while on track at Spring Mountain Motorsport Ranch (SMMR), just west of Las Vegas, Nevada. A simple puff of whitish smoke was all that was required to see me heading for the pit lane and as I approached my parking space, I dropped oil everywhere.

The friendly GM mechanics at SMMR, normally assigned to maintaining the Corvettes of the Ron Fellows Corvette performance driving school, inspected the ‘Vette only to detect oil seeping from a seal in the Vortech supercharger. Readers may also recall that we loaded the ‘Vette onto a U Haul trailer and delivered it to Andy at A&A Corvette Performance, in Oxnard, California. It was only a short time later that we heard the news that the last mechanic to work on the ‘Vette had mistakenly swapped out the oil return hose from the supercharger back to the engine block, replacing it with a water pipe rather than an oil pipe. And it had compressed when bent, and pinched off any possibility of oil flowing back to the block.

Rather than enjoying a week touring the California coast in the Corvette, Margo and I ended up making a quick dash up to Palo Alto for a number of business meetings before heading east and home to Boulder, Colorado. In place of the Corvette we had a Chevie Aero, courtesy of Budget car rentals – not exactly a track car, mind you. But we made it home in one piece and, avoiding conversations with our neighbors, we packed for our trip to Europe.

A weekend in Warsaw, Poland, for the memorial service for Margo’s mother, who passed away early last year, was followed by a few days in Paris and a weekend in Frankfurt where we caught up with business clients. However it wasn’t all business, and we did sample a couple of fine restaurants in Paris. The return trip took us back to Los Angeles, where our good friends Brian and Jan picked us up and entertained us until we could return to Oxnard and retrieve the Corvette.

While we had been away, Andy and his team had been busy. The supercharger had been returned to Vortech, where on examination it was determined that it could be repaired. The main seal was replaced but a quick check of the turbine fans showed some fatigue with some chipping so it was replaced. The fan that was installed was a more recent design, what Vortech call the Si trim, and being a little more efficient, produced another couple of pounds of boost. Just perfect! And exactly what we needed – more power! Oh boy …

When it came time to pick up the ‘Vette and begin the drive back to Boulder, Andy was sure we needed another dyno tune as we were certainly going to be a little too lean at high revs, but we assured him it would be a cautious drive home. It was Andy’s offside, Steve, who gave us all the info about RMCR and its proprietor, Mike.

With all the driving that Margo and I have done over the past five years, commuting as we had been doing from our home in Boulder to the townhouse we rented in Simi Valley, you would think that the thought of one more 1,000 mile drive would be anything but a fun drive home. But of late, we have really come to enjoy the solitude of the open road and even though it had only been a few days earlier when we had been strolling down the Champs Elysees, we couldn’t wait to get going.

We overnighted in Las Vegas and were able to easily push through the remaining miles to home the following day. For one reason or another, a 700 mile day on the Interstates is just a normal day’s driving for us these days and with two drivers, there’s little fatigue involved as long as we stay hydrated. This trip however proved to be rather special – whatever Andy and the lads had done, the big ‘Vette was delivering incredible mpg numbers. We watched rather shell-shocked as the range from our measly eighteen gallon tank began stretching from 300 to 400 to well past 500 miles with averages well into the 30 mpg. Unheard of, for a car with a lot more than 600 horsepower at the engine!

When you think something is too good to be true, then it usually is, or so the old saying goes. As I stood next to Mike’s offside, Mark, as he wound up the revs of the ‘Vette now firmly tied-down on RMCR’s dyno, the lines on the graph produced some odd wiggles. And it was proving difficult to maintain fuel pressure at 60 pounds – it was dropping down to as low as 24 pounds. After all those miles across the desert and the excitement from getting 30+ mpg, it was pretty obvious we had a fuel pump on its last legs.

The drive down to Colorado Springs I had done myself and the ‘Vette was my ride back home, so I was going to have to return to RMCR as soon as I could set aside time for the return trip. I was also going to have to coordinate with Margo for the ride back, as Mike would need the car for a couple of days. All because we replaced the water pump and the power steering pump and, with oil apparently seeping from a hose attached to the supercharger, replacing it as well.

With a folder full of paperwork, and a picture, I returned to the GM dealership where the original maintenance work had been done. It was my local Cadillac / Buick / GMC dealer and much to my surprise, they listened and then read the reports and the next day the service director phoned me to tell me a check was ready for me to pick up! I have been a customer of this dealership, McCadden of Boulder, for more than 15 years but all the same, this was a fantastic response – all the work done by Andy as well as the tuning by Mike! Fully paid for, by the McCadden services team!

I still recall as we left SMMR a few months back a fellow participant saying “don’t worry, it’s only money!” But at this point, I have to admit, the well is beginning to run dry. Like many other participants, Margo and I are looking to curtail one of our favorite pastimes. In the last post, readers may recall me writing of how NASA Rocky Mountains looks increasingly as if it will become our new home. With an event coming up in August and at the High Plains Raceway, this will more than likely be our one big weekend for the year. The Friday preceding the NASA event is an open track day and another good opportunity to get a little seat time under my belt. No question at all, I need the time!

My enthusiasm for this pastime remains but I also recognize that Margo has been hard done by for most of this year. When I look back at the last event of 2010, when the track conditions were miserable, it was Margo who gave up her allotted sessions on the Sunday after the Saturday sessions were cancelled. And it was Margo left standing in the bitterly cold winds of late spring as I put down laps at High Plains Raceway. Yes, it was Margo who was left without a car to drive at Spring Mountain. I feel quite the cad!

I have had a number of emails and a couple of phone calls where I was asked about our future plans and whether we would continue. Of course, everything will be predicated on us having a reliable vehicle and on that count, I have my fingers crossed that finally, after nearly two months of poking, prodding and in general, hammering away, our beautiful ‘Vette will be ready to go. I never want to hear anything more about new pumps – we’ve replaced them all! Well, perhaps with the exception of Margo’s pumps, those with the really high heels … now, Margo does likes pumps!

But when it comes to future events in California, at tracks we have come to enjoy so much, perhaps I need to become a little more realistic. We have so many friends supporting these events that it will be difficult to stay away, but that may end up being the case. Perhaps we will figure out a way to drop in on perhaps just one event – Laguna Seca will always be a draw card, as Margo and I just love the Monterrey peninsular. And maybe, just maybe, a quick trip for old time’s sake to Willow Springs – the very first track we placed a timid wheel on!

Margo is still quicker than I am through turns 8 and 9, and I just need to work on that for a bit longer. Then again, the recipient of instructor Fulton Haight’s award of a pair of driving gloves for the most improved driver at the track in 2009, perhaps Willow Springs is Margo’s special track and maybe I will never scale to the heights she’s managed to reach no matter how many laps around the track I complete. Carrying 130+ mph into turn 8? Truly remarkable! After all, the ‘Vette is just a coupe and there’s been nothing done to the suspension or brakes other than adding Hawk pads …

As I scan my emails, other options are opening up and they are all offers to participate in events here, in Colorado. Perhaps it is time to take stock and to be just a little more realistic. I will never become a racer but that was never part of the plan. For as long as Margo and I have talked about taking a car to the track the overriding objective was to simply be safe, and to have fun! I’m thinking long and hard that this is perhaps the best advice any participant has even given me so yes, it is time to put the fun back into our track weekends and adjusting to the tracks of Colorado looks like it will fit with our plans perfectly.

No respite on Spring Mountain ...

2011-06-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Well, if it wasn’t that darn snow again! Yes, it’s the middle of May when every other sign screams spring and yet the weather map suggests winter isn’t about to let up anytime soon. The mountain passes high up in the Rockies were still wrestling with the icy fingers of winter and, apparently, failing to regain control. There would be no way to safely traverse the continental divide in our Corvette. Interstate 70 would be a no go. We had committed ourselves to a tight schedule as I had business to attend to on the west coast, but prudence overruled and we headed south on Interstate 25.

I had thought about renting a trailer and towing the Vette behind the Escalade SUV, as we had done so often last year, but the trip would be long and the Vette would pass as an adequate touring car. Not the first time we had driven to a weekend track day and not the first time we had to be watchful of the weather.

Fortunately even though the snow began to fall in the early morning hours, Interstate 25 had warmed sufficiently overnight ensuring that there was no accumulation and we made it out of Colorado in good time. Arriving in Las Vegas late afternoon Friday, after travelling for more than 1,100 miles, the big Vette hadn’t missed a beat! My spirits were high and I was really looking forward to the weekend.

The picture at the top of the page was taken during the first outing at Spring Mountain Motorsport Ranch - the pictures of the Vette on the track were taken by Mike La Putt of Trackday.net As the background of the photograph suggests, there’s absolutely nothing out here except the desert. However, the Motorsport Ranch is a new-age country club catering to members who like to drive their cars without worrying about law enforcement and natural beauty was never a consideration. And did I mention that condos have been constructed alongside the track, each with garages, and that these condos are available as rentals to anyone who cares to spend the weekends in pursuit of this pastime.

Hot and dry, and as featureless a place as you can imagine, but if you track Corvettes it’s absolutely a must place-to-go. After all, its home to the Ron Fellows Corvette performance driving school and if you should be among the fortunate few to purchase the Corvette ZR1, this is the place that they send you as part of the car’s purchase program.

When you exit the highway at Pahrump, Nevada, you drive into the infield paddock by passing over the circuit. When the track is “hot” with sessions under way, there’s a passageway running beneath the track that allows cars to enter and exit the paddock, and I had my fingers crossed that I would not be taking advantage of this “feature”. Sure enough, our good friends Brian and Jan had marked out an area for us alongside their Vette, and as we drove towards them this bright and sunny morning I couldn’t wait to get onto the track.

This is the home of the Corvette driving school after all, so there had to be some consideration given to these massive torque cars. Ever since we had taken up the hobby of motorsport, we had shied away from the smaller, twisty tracks preferring those with some opportunity to stretch the big Vette’s long legs, and yet this track, on first sight, looked more like Buttonwillow. And yet, there they were lined up trackside – Vettes of every year and color, several Nissan GT-Rs, and of course, Vipers.

I am careful about using the term hobby as for Margo and me; the word hobby brings with it a lot of baggage. However, I couldn’t help but recall the last outing I had at High Plains Raceway where the participant next to us had driven the family Lexus IS350 up from Texas. “I don’t fish, hunt, or play golf,” he told us, and my wife wants me out of the house and encourages me to take up a hobby, “so I am going to give motorsport a try.” When we caught up with him later in the day he told us he had called the wife, telling her “I have found my fishing boat! Yes, I now have a hobby!”

After the driver meeting and learning of where we would all meet for our mandatory download sessions, it was time to grab a helmet, strap ourselves in tight and head to the staging area alongside the hot pits! The picture above typifies how my first session unfolded – eyes in my mirrors, and giving timely point-byes to everyone.

For a moment, I thought I was back on the Nurburgring among a pack of works’ teams, and I had my work cut out for me just sorting out a couple of the easier corners. I would revisit the more technical corners later in the day but my initial priority was to develop a kind of fluidity through the sections I recognized. Developing consistency through a couple of sections would be how I would develop the confidence needed when it came time to tackle the trickier, more technical, elements of the circuit.

Course designers always try to mess with your minds. Just when you think you can see your way through a section of turns, you find that the camber isn’t what you expected or there’s a slight change in elevation that unloads your suspension right when you are looking for as much traction as possible. The surprising element of Spring Mountain is that it does have elevation changes and while we aren’t talking about changes of hundreds of feet, with severe climbs and runaway down-hills, all the same, Spring Mountain presents drivers with numerous challenges that aren’t apparent from looking at track maps or from watching film.

After a couple of laps it’s not surprising that this doubles as a performance driving school. Compressed into the circuit were examples of pretty much every combination of turns with varying locations of apexes, so much so that mastering this circuit is definitely an achievement drivers can be proud of – indeed, “mastering” is perhaps a poor choice of words as very few drivers will master this circuit, I suspect, without a lot of seat time.

As the session began to wind down I was able to get in a couple of quicker laps – still way off the pace of others in the group, but with enough of a glimpse of the potential of what I might be able to do to encourage me for the next session. This was the first time I had driven a circuit where the flags were electronic – combinations of lights being used to communicate with drivers - so it was with a sense of relief that I caught the waving checkered flag and began my cool-down lap before returning to the paddock.

I had only caught a glimpse of Brian as he took his Vette onto the track in the session before me, but from what I saw of him, circulating with the other Vettes he too was erring on the side of caution. It was surprising to me, as several years ago Brian had attended this performance driving school and while we weren’t driving the same configuration I knew he had been very anxious to push his Vette as hard as he could. After several modifications, the Vette coupe was now a significantly better set-up for lap days than the stock Corvettes he had driven at the school.

It was during my last laps of the first session that I really did see some pretty good drivers and among the more impressive cars on the track was a new Cadillac CTS-V. The picture above is of me maintaining my line through the turn before waiving him on to pass me. He was having fun and yet, was patient with me, the circuit newbie, and I caught up with him after the session to take a look at the set-up of his car. It proved to be anything but standard so next time out I would see if I could drop in behind him and watch his lines.

Walking back through the paddock following the download session I came across Brian. “I’ve just been schooled at the school,” he informed me. He had completed his download and he had been frank with his fellow drivers in admitting that he too was in learning mode. The circuit really was a new experience and sorting our way through the cones and concrete barriers had proved more difficult than any of us would admit. I asked him if I could join him for his next session and he readily extended an offer to me to strap into his passenger seat.

Each time I join Brian at a circuit I have not been to before, I try to hitch a ride early in the day. In the passenger seat I get to experience the track with a highly competent driver whose lines are usually spot-on and the education is something I take with me. I rarely match Brian’s speeds but just getting a look at the track in this fashion is priceless! Brian has anything but a standard Vette and with the suspension modifications, the wide-body kit with Hoosiers, and the Willwood big-brake kit, his ’08 coupe has become quite the track beast!

Returning to the paddock it was time for me to jump in the blue Vette and grid up for the start of the session. As I pulled back from my parking spot, Brian’s wife, Jan, called for me to stop. “Were these oil marks here when you pulled in or are they new?” Popping the hood we check the lines and couldn’t feel anything with moisture so I let the incident pass without further concerns. After all, it was only two months ago that I had the power steering pump, the water pump, and the oil line from the supercharger, where there had been some seepage, replaced. Everything up front in this part of the engine bay should be working just fine!

As the session opened I pulled onto the track with an older red Mazda RX7 behind me, but after getting a couple of laps under my belt I began to open up the car. I was becoming a lot more confident with the layout of the track and after two laps I could see I was easily pulling away from the Mazda. With 550+ rear-wheel horsepower this wasn’t surprising, even though getting it all down on the track was never easy to do. A quick check of the mirrors and there was the red Mazda right on my bumper! So, I knuckled down and concentrated and began to open up a small gap.

For whatever reason I looked back as I was negotiating the turns of the infield portion of the track and, with a gear change, I caught a puff of blue-white smoke from my exhaust. Another puff on the next gear change so up went my hand and into pit lane I pulled. The red car blew right past – it wasn’t the Mazda RX7 at all but a new Ferrari California, out for a little fun on the track. Slowing to negotiate my way through the paddock, I turned into my parking spot only for the engine to let go. Oil everywhere and as we lifted the hood, it was as though fountains had erupted! Buckets of kitty litter began arriving and all around thanked me for getting the Vette off the track.

Another weekend at the track, and another Saturday ending without a car to drive home. What was even worse, no Vette for Margo to drive Sunday. Again! I just couldn’t believe it, and as I sat alongside the car, dejected and wondering what next to do, I just had to let the car cool down before we could look for the cause. Pulling into one of the bays of the Corvette school, a quick check by the mechanic told a sad tale. A major seal in the supercharger had let go and it was terminal. I would have to get the Vette back to A&A Corvette Performance in Oxnard, for them to have Vortech check out the supercharger.

The picture above tells its own story. A local AAA flatbed trailer transported the Vette back to our hotel in Las Vegas and a U Haul truck and trailer provided us with transport back to Oxnard. It all happened so quickly. One minute I am matching it with a Ferrari and the next I’m standing alongside a mortally wounded Vette. Unfortunately, the Vette has been a little fragile of late, so the discussions with Andy at A&A focused on really taking a good hard look at the whole set-up.

Fortunately, a phone call a few days later told the story. The wrong hosepipe had been used for the oil return from the supercharger; it had crimped, restricting the flow of oil returning to the engine block and under the load that it experienced on the track, oil built up within the supercharger until the seal gave up!

As we steered the wounded Vette under the track on our way, even more narrow than it had appeared earlier that morning, and stood in the desert waiting for the AAA tow truck, if finally hit me. We will never mix track weekends with business again nor will we drive the car out of state – yes, there’s a trailer somewhere in our future, and we long for a nice comfortable RV with A/C and a rest room.

And yes, NASA Rocky Mountains looks increasingly as if it will become our new home … now, when is their next event?

Just got in to the Windy City …

2011-05-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

Sitting on a rickety chair inside a shack that could just as easily be described as a man-cave, dotted as it was with pictures of mechanical paraphernalia typical of an old-school auto repair shop, I was trying to stay warm as I inched the chair closer to the wood-burning pot-belly stove that occupied pride-of-place in the center of the room. Looking out through the large windows, I could see the pavement of a race track, scaled-down from what I was used to driving, although it was easy to pick out the course elevation changes and tightly grouped turns – this was a circuit designed for Karts and we were a long way from our home in Boulder, Colorado. While the calendar told us it was Sunday, and it was April with spring only two weeks away, outside it had begun to snow; again!

It’s now a little warmer and three weeks have passed since that Sunday morning, just outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and we have just arrived at our hotel in Chicago. We have just checked in to the Westin hotel and our gracious hosts have upgraded us to a suite right on top of the river and the views across the water to familiar landmarks of Chicago are impressive. We elected to drive from Boulder to Chicago by way of Omaha and Davenport and spent Friday night enjoying dinner right on top of the Mississippi in full-flood as it rides-out the normal heavy run-off as spring snow melts several states away.

Sitting comfortably ensconced in our hotel room, now several thousand miles from the wine district of Northern California, it’s a lot easier retelling the story of how we managed to make it to the track for our first sessions of the season. The picture above is of Margo enjoying the view from the hotel window on a sunny, yet still breezy, Chicago afternoon.

It’s no coincidence, I believe, that when United airlines publishes in their magazine stories of three perfect days spent in one of the world’s finest cities, they nominate three days. In all the time I have spent in Chicago, I have to believe with this trip I am closing in on three perfect days; not quite there yet and definitely not with contiguous days – but if the breeze backs off a little from being a force 9 gale, we could get close! To having our third perfect day in Chicago!

It’s no coincidence either that often we just have to wait for fortunes to change. Sometime it’s just not going to happen the first time. Or even the second time. In that time of year when we shake free from winter to enjoy the early warmth of spring, it’s not unusual to have to wait, and this year, third time out was our lucky break! Trying to stay warm in that shack well to the north of our Boulder home, however, we thought we would never get the chance to unleash the big Vette and see how rusty our driving technique had become following almost five months away from the track!

Waking at our usual 4:30 am and prepping the Vette for the trip to Colorado’s High Plains Raceway (HPR) is always a lot of fun and routines have developed. We always pull into the local market at Bennet, the last township before we exit the freeway at Byers, to gas up the car and grab a Starbucks and this Sunday we followed the exact same routine. As we left the freeway at Byers however, and began the ten mile drive along highway 36 out to the track, the overcast skies and light rain that had been with us since we left out home turned ominous. With perhaps three miles to go, what we had first thought was residual hail stones, as we had experienced a brief hailstorm overnight, turned out to be snow. Cresting the last hill before we turned through the gates of the track, it was a full-on snow storm with several inches of accumulation on the road.

The big Vette has achieved much in its life with us but being an effective snow plow doesn’t rank among her finer moments! Of course, the entry road included a slight uphill gradient before we made it to the circuit’s gate that proved quite treacherous and as I began executing a u-turn, unaware of the narrow pavement hidden beneath the snow, dropped two tires into the mud. The only other accomplishment the Vette proved inept at doing was off-roading. Clearly stuck, with little evidence any other drivers were heading for the entrance gates, I let the Vette slide back down the hill until I could ease it over the lip of the pavement and back onto something more solid.

The picture above is of the HPR circuit in winter as the track descended to round “Danny’s Lesson”, a very tight turn that leads into the section of the track named “High Plains Drifter” that precedes a tight turn that drops you into the esses, a part of the track that’s called “To Hell on a Bobsled!” Today however, and as the picture clearly illustrates, there wasn’t a single feature we could recognize and as the track retains no snow removal equipment, it would not be reopening until warmer weather arrived to melt it away!

We had hoped to catch our good friend Hal and over a mid-morning breakfast of omelets and poached eggs back in Boulder, we finally connected with Hal. “Want to try another track up in Wyoming – the weather looks a lot better up there? It will be cold and windy but the weather seems to be holding!” Why not – so after having driven 150 miles in occasionally treacherous conditions, we made the 100 mile drive up to Wyoming!

We hadn’t realize it was a Kart track and after the rain we had to endure in Sonoma, and now the snow this weekend, standing as we were around the potbelly stove, we called it quits and made the best of the day by grabbing a late brunch with Hal back in Fort Collins. Would the third time out prove lucky? Could we finally spend a session or two out circulating in sunshine and on a clean track?

Two weeks later, and following the same early morning routine, we pulled through the gates and into the paddock. The track looked clean enough and there was sunshine. But it was bitterly cold and windy – just delightful for those attending but having to wait their turn before getting into the car and onto the track. The photo below is of Margo alongside Hal as the two head to the track late early in the afternoon.

Pulling onto the track for the very first time in 2011, I was nervous and as I discovered very quickly, rusty. The car was fine, but the brain needed a little more exercise! For the first two laps, I eased into the spirit of the day cautiously, aware that being in the fast group, there would be some experienced drivers and that we would all be watching each other. The Vette was running strongly, all gauge needles were pointing where they were supposed to, but on street tires and brake pads, I had to make adjustments when it came to braking and turning in. However, not quite quickly enough as on the third lap, passing the start/finish line, I braked too late and drove off the track; a couple of deep breaths later, I brought the car around the outside of the first turn and rejoined the field. Yes, I was rusty …

When it came time for the second session, Margo jumped into the passenger seat for a couple of laps to get a bit better orientation of what came when and what followed next! There’s never any substitute to taking a good look at the track and no matter how many words are used to describe the experience, they all fall way short of actually seeing it yourself. All went well and after lapping for five minutes, I pulled into the pits and let her out. By now, I was getting into the swing of things and I was really enjoying my time on the track, but all too quickly there came another wake-up call.

This time, it was at the crest of the section of track “Ladder to Heaven” that precedes the blind drop down through the “Prairie Corkscrew” where I was too late getting onto the brakes and in a move reminiscent of the infamous Laguna Seca move Alex Zanardi put on Bryan Hurta at Laguna Seca as they approached that track’s famous Corkscrew, I straight-lined through the outside of the turns and powered right back onto the track as it led to the last turn before the main straight. And pulled away from the two cars behind me much to the amusement of both of them! “New line through the corkscrew, eh Richard?”

Hal had arrived at the track and for the third session, followed me out onto the circuit. Over our brunch in Fort Collins a few weeks earlier, I had asked Hal to have a good look at how I drove this track and in particular, how I made use of the whole track, something I often forget to do. The session this time went without incident – a minor wobble or two – and I was tuned-in to what the tires and brakes were giving me and I drove accordingly. “You used all the track, you were changing gears where I thought you should, and consistently with each lap,” Hal said, nodding approvingly, “and you used all the track while you were making full use of the rumble-strips as you tracked out and I could see air under the tires at several points. Don’t track out any further – you’re not racing!”

Leaving the pits for the fourth and final session of the morning, I could see Hal was still in the paddock. Hal had brought the BMW 335i, and even with street tires and brakes, in Hal’s hands it was a highly capable vehicle. As this was my last time out, I pulled clear of a couple of cars and as I turned in for the tight radius corner before dropping down through the esses, I caught a quick glimpse of Hal midway along the back straight. Concentrating on what I was doing I still couldn’t help casting a quick glimpse over to the back straight and with each lap, I was pulling away a couple of car lengths at a time.

Driving conservatively as I am sure he was, if Hal had elected to put in a couple of quick laps in the BMW I am sure it would have been a completely different story but often it’s just little incidents like this that provide you with enough encouragement just to keep at it; returning to the paddock for the final time, much of the rustiness accumulated through the winter months now shaken lose, and I was quietly confident that I could improve significantly in the months to come.

Standing in the cold and wind for more than five hours had proved difficult for Margo. The track at HPR has nowhere to go to get away from the wind and while she was staying hydrated, the weather was sapping energy out of her with every hour that passed. When it came her turn to go onto the track, she just wasn’t “in the moment”, and overhearing the conversations between Hal and myself on tire wear and the minimal capabilities of street brakes, she returned from the track early. One small item that I had failed to convey to her was that powering down the back straight, drivers faced a fierce headwind so much so, that it was pushing the car around and as my speeds pushed through 100 mph and eventually as high as the mid 130’s, it was proving quite a handful!

As she complained bitterly about how poorly the car performed, following his own session Hal took Margo for a couple of laps in the Vette. “Runs fine,” was the response from Hal, “although you are ready for a big brake kit; it’s time you upgraded!” Little help for Margo who decided to call it a day; her energy was spent and she just wanted to get warm! It had taken three attempts and holding up under unpleasant conditions across a number of states, but we made it and our calendar of track weekends has officially started.

I finished the previous post with a reference to these upcoming lapping days at HPR and of how we relished the thought of paying it a visit. Even as I wanted an end to the wet weather we had faced all weekend long at Infineon, little did I expect to see snow and then bitterly cold winds! We have a weekend planned for Spring Mountain, just outside Las Vegas, and another circuit that will be new for both of us but this time, I am making no predictions about what to expect or what we hope to achieve. For sure, we will not be facing the same weather as we now have here in the windy city!

It could just as easily turn out to be three perfect days in the desert and yet, with all that we have gone through, who knows! Safer to hold off speculating about anything when it comes to track days and all we both hope for is a straight car that we can drive home – and a great steak dinner at Mastro’s in Thousand Oaks before we head up the California coast, taking the long way home!

Follow or spin!

2011-04-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

It’s raining heavily and there are rivers flowing across the circuit, with several pools collecting in all the wrong places. We are looking out across Infineon Raceway, formerly Sears Point, and there’s a major pond, Sonoma Lake, across the approach to the back straight and everywhere there are chunks of turf littering the track, evidence of where participants have spun and left the track! Yes, the weather puts a whole different spin on track weekends!

The forecast had been for a wet weekend at Infineon but all the same, looking at weather maps and watching brightly colored circles move across the charts didn’t fully prepare us for what we were now encountering. Driving cautiously that Friday afternoon, as we picked our way around the pools of standing water scattered around the paddock behind the grandstands, was depressing and yet, the sound of cars accelerating past the start-finish line reminded us that track weekends were held in all weather conditions. Adapting to what we found on the track was all part of the program.

The picture at the top of the page is of the view across the circuit looking drab under the clouds that just kept coming in all that weekend! We have history with this track even though we hadn’t driven a lap. It was at a NASA Northern California event, back in 2008, that we first showed our faces at a circuit. The invitation to take a look and experience a weekend of events was extended to us by our good friend, Hal, an extremely competitive racer in the American Iron series and simply hanging around the trailer for a day and a half had us hooked!

When we first went through the calendar of events for 2011 we immediately penciled in this event’s dates. And we were quick to register as soon as the web site began to accept registrations. Part of what we planned to do for 2011 was to experience a couple of new tracks – we had long ago foregone any pretentions to being real race car drivers and were simply looking forward to taking in the atmosphere of circuits we wanted to say we had driven!

Our good friends Brian and Jan had arrived a little ahead of us and had set up the RV that would be the headquarters for Kenny’s Corvettes! We welcomed the invitation to spend the weekend in the RV as the road conditions outside the circuit weren’t any better and drivers’ encountered difficulties with the roads all weekend – many missing briefings early Sunday morning as trees had come down during Saturday night. The picture below is of the paddock, early Saturday morning, as cars began to occupy every spare patch of black-top.

As for the team Pyalla Technologies Corvettes, we would not be participating as drivers. With all the planning that we did, our plans for the weekend deteriorated as I pulled the Vette out of the garage early Wednesday morning. There in the middle of the garage where the Vette had stood was a very thin oval stain that felt ominously greasy to the touch.

An urgent dash to the local dealer proved that there was a leak and that it was terminal. Pulling the front right suspension off the car revealed seals leaking around the power steering pump, small ruptures in a couple of the hoses passing oil from the crank to the supercharger and yes, the water pump was also leaking. Parts would be required and the best guess at when we would get the Vette back were for later the following week!

Left with no track car, as well as our ride to Sonoma, we reluctantly transferred our belongings to the All-Wheel-Drive Datsun Skyline we occasionally take trackside and headed into the mountains for the two-day trip to the coast. Bitterly disappointed, it proved to be a very quiet trip!
Walking the paddock with Brian late Friday, having seen the water pooling on the circuit, the unmistakable exhaust note of a big Corvette shattered the relative peace of the afternoon. Sure enough, it was Terry Free and the Corvette he has campaigned for a couple of years. Pushed out of the garage, it was about to head out onto the track. With his spotters seated high in the stands, where we had all gathered, it wasn’t hard to miss the conversations!

“There’s a river flowing across the track as you turn in under the bridge following turn 1; there are slippery surfaces as you go through turn 4 and head for the carousel; and where turn 9 should be there’s a lake!” The picture below is of Terry at speed on the main straight. Terry has given us a lot of his time as an instructor. As competitive as Terry is, and despite the focus he needs for his own events, it’s not uncommon to see Terry heading to the pre-grid of a lowly novice event where inexperienced drivers await instructors.

Terry was in a class of his own for the weekend. He was the only participant of his group to show for the weekend event and as he chalked up two wins, he would be heading to the nationals later in the year. Not a bad weekend, and as he walked from the garage for the last time, he couldn’t hide how pleased he was walking from a car that was still in one piece!

In the lead up to the weekend, NASA had been in touch with us and we knew our instructor would be Mike DiGiacomo, another Corvette driver who participated in Time Trial events. Of course Mike was disappointed to see us without a car, but quickly consented to taking us both out for a couple of sessions to get better acquainted with the track.

In the first briefing session of the morning, the chief instructor bemusedly noted how today, with the weather as it was, “even the drivers with momentum cars of only 100 horsepower get to experience what it’s like driving a 1,000 horsepower car in the dry! And yes, the high torque cars have to be driven as smoothly as any top flight momentum car. The rain is a great equalizer!”

Mike invited me to join him for a session with the HPDE / TT group, but even for Mike the tire set-up he had for the weekend was unable to cope with the conditions and after a few laps we headed back to the paddock. As I strapped myself, tightly, into the passenger seat of Mike’s C5 Z06 Corvette, I wasn’t sure what to expect as cars continued to leave the track and the sight of the tow truck, lights flashing, heading onto the track became a routine we lived with for the rest of the weekend.

Apart from staying on the track, as Mike pointed out, driving in the rain is an opportunity to smooth out your lines as the speeds are significantly lower and there’s more time to take in the surroundings. “Don’t stray onto painted surfaces such as can be found on brightly colored rumble strips,” he pointed out and at Infineon, “don’t late break or suddenly accelerate but rather, apply progressive, gradual braking before lifting quickly and easing onto the gas pedal just as smoothly – no ‘sudden anything!’”

“Work on just one aspect of your driving – take the extra time to try to sort out one area of the track that’s been a problem in the past!” Mike then pointed to the track surface and advised “look for different pavement ‘patches,’ those fresh, darker colored strips applied to fill in holes – they have different adhesion characteristics and today, the racing line has two important corners with patches in critical areas. Avoid them; find a different line, otherwise spinning becomes inevitable!”

Only a few garages down from Terry was our good friend Mike, campaigning his Camaro, “Plum Crazy” in the Camaro Mustang Challenge (CMC) events and working as hard as Terry had been to accumulate enough points to make it to the nationals this summer. As we had seen last time out, Mike had brought the family and when it came time for the first race, Mike and the family were hopeful that he would do well, despite the conditions.

The picture above is of Mike getting a great start. At the first flutter of the green flag, Mike really jumped on it and pulled away from the other contestants as they went through turn 1, under the bridge and up the steep climb to turns 2 and 3, a sequence that briefly took him out of view. Cresting the rise before the drop into the carousel, Mike was a clear leader and the distance separating him from the other drivers had opened up significantly. Apparently out of sight, the second placed car had left the track and in so doing, had slowed the cars behind him.

For the remainder of the race, Mike put on a good show holding off the rest of the pack before taking the checkered flag. One race down and one win! And the car was in the garage, undamaged, as “straight” as when it had left less than an hour earlier.

When it came time to race Sunday afternoon, Mike once again led for a number of laps before the second placed car, a Mustang, put on an overtaking move up the hill into turn 2 that brought the small crowd to their feet. With one win already, Mike settled in and held on firmly to take second place and enough points to qualify for the nationals!

Sunday had seen the conditions deteriorate further as overnight wind gusts had knocked out all power to the track – the officials in the control tower, the scorers manning timing stations, the café and shops, all powerless! Of course, somehow I managed to sleep through it all – but stepping out of the RV, the evidence of the gusty conditions overnight could be seen throughout the paddock!

The rain was a great equalizer. It wasn’t just a case of the smaller cars behaving as if they were more powerful or that staying clear of the racing line was a prudent decision to take, but that the conditions were the same for everyone who ventured onto the circuit. It was obvious that it was an unlikely venue to see dramatic door to door racing; bringing a car back to the pits in one piece was celebration enough!

Our host Brian had brought his Corvette to the event on Michelin street tires, opting to put aside the set of racing wheels and tires he normally installs. Slightly narrower, and with a better groove pattern, even so, there were moments when a certain uneasiness with what was happening kept the adrenalin flowing free and fast! The picture below was taken late Saturday afternoon, as the sun made a brief appearance but even so, the water on the track is clearly visible.

In one of the early sessions Saturday I had the opportunity to ride with Brian and it took every ounce of restraint for me not to become fully engaged as a back-seat driver. Having driven around the Nurburgring “north loop” with Brian in equally poor conditions as we faced at Infineon, I knew full well how appreciative Brian was of unwarranted coaching! All the same, it wasn’t easy being a passenger!

I was in the passenger seat for one of the more exciting moments. Having sat behind an Audi A3 “Quattro” and a Porsche Turbo for several laps, the Audi finally gave Brian a point by. Disposing with the Audi, with minimum fuss, we came upon the Porsche in battle with another driver using the entire track. Coming down the main straight, the Porsche pulled out and Brian followed, but rather than moving off the line the Porsche stayed out, with Brian on the outside of him – both cars well to the right as they passed the braking zone before turn 1 for the pull up the hill and under the bridge.

The track had been drying and the right side, as far out as Brian found himself, was an unknown environment, but he stayed with the outside line as both of us begun to inhale noticeably, and eventually managed to squeeze out enough track to complete the pass. As we exhaled appreciatively, I caught a wry smile on Brian’s face – we made it!

As the skies darkened late Sunday, very few drivers remained for the final sessions. In the receding light Brian’s Corvette returned to the trailer and we both headed for the exit. We had business commitments that night that would see us remain in the Bay area for a short time, and little did we realize what lay ahead on the trip back to Boulder.

The last we saw of Brian and Jan and the RV was as we left the circuit and their return trip proved uneventful. On the other hand, no sooner than we had passed Auburn, east of Sacramento, the snow began to fall. By the time we had reached the summit, we were in the middle of a full-scale blizzard that had caught the weather forecasters, as well as the California Highway Patrol, by surprise. Even with its very capable AWD system, the Skyline was still shod with summer tires and the conditions created some very tense moments.

As we lay stuck in stalled traffic just the other side of Truckee, all we could think about was the “what if’s!” What if we had stayed longer in the Bay? What if we had trailered the Vette as we had done for most of last year? What if we had driven the Vette on summer tires – all 650+ horsepower! What if we left this late night madness and grabbed a hotel for the night!

When Brian returned from his first outing in the rain he had suggested that today, with the level of comfort he had on the track, it was going to be a case of “follow me, or spin!” When we heard that the lanes were all blocked as tractor-trailer rigs had spun passing each other, which sealed it as we peeled off the interstate and rode out the night!

The final picture above is of us outside Reno, putting gas into the Skyline; with sunshine in abundance. In no time at all our thoughts took us to what we could expect to see in Boulder and to when we could pick up the Vette. After all, there was an open lapping day coming up in April at the local track, High Plains Raceway, just east of Denver, and we knew we just had to pay a visit! Enough of this wet weather and enough of sliding in the snow, and let’s get the season started!

The miles will add up!

2011-02-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

We’re returning to Colorado, and we realize just how much we missed the change of seasons, the view of the mountains from our front porch. Yes, even the periods of snow we are subject to represent moments of tranquility we have really come to miss!

We hope that although this change in location will definitely put a damper on the program we had planned for this year, we will get our C6 Corvette coupe onto tracks for a couple of outings this year. As much as we grew to appreciate Southern California and enjoyed the friendships we formed during our time there, as the saying goes, there’s simply no place like home!

Pictured above is the blue ‘Vette, #116, being unloaded from the trailer that brought it across the continental divide. With winter very much a force to be reckoned with, it was a tad too risky to attempt driving the western interstate system with the ‘Vette set up the way it is – no doubt, its ability to plow through snow is a capability we just don’t want to put to the test.

Last year we managed to participate in events on two continents as well as in two states and the impact that made to our daily routines were considerable. While I have covered in previous posts how we planned on cutting back so as we had time for other endeavors, this move will force additional changes on us and we will be even more selective than we had originally planned.

Distance will now be something we will have to live with, and track weekends will have to be planned around business activities to better capitalize on any absence from our Boulder office.

Perhaps the biggest impact from the move will be on the car itself. For much of last year, we trailered the ‘Vette, happily towing it on a rental from U-Haul and finding the Escalade a willing workhorse. We had run the car on Toyo R888s for most of the season and had upgraded the brakes by installing Hawk HP+ pads that were better suited to track usage than for daily drives – although we had become quite accustomed to the anxious looks from adjacent cars whenever we pulled the car up at traffic lights!

With the last event of 2010 we came away from the track with safety concerns. On the wide open and banked corners we encountered at the Auto Club Speedway, it wasn’t unusual for me to see speeds of 155mph even close to 160 mph on occasion, and while tracking back out as wide as we could, following rounding the turn at the end of the speedway’s main straight, we would often glimpse the wall mere inches away from us. Any mishap at these speeds and as solid as the ‘Vette’s construction is, we couldn’t help wondering what condition either one of us would be should something fail and we wreck against the wall.

For the past couple of weeks we had been pricing the installation of a seat more appropriate to the ‘Vette’s usage as well as a harness bar and five-point harness. We were also pricing the installation of a much bigger brake kit and were close to ordering the Willwood upgrade. We had even been online with TireRack and ordered a set of Hoosier R6s.

However, as the storyline unfolded and the move back to Boulder became definite, we cancelled the tires, put back the brake upgrade, and filed the paperwork on the safety upgrades. Furthermore, we decided to take the ‘Vette down a level so that we could drive it to tracks pretty much anywhere in the western half of the United States.

As for tires, we have now gone for a set of Michelin PS/2s, and for brake pads we have installed the more practical Hawk HPS “high performance street” pads. A little softer than we have run of late, with a lot more brake pedal travel than before, but as a combination, a package we can handle. All our fluids were replaced during our most recent service but we stayed with the same higher quality fluids that we have relied on for the past couple of years.

Over the past couple of seasons, we have developed close ties to Andy, Jessie, James and Steve at A&A Corvette Performance in Oxnard, as well as Charlie and Austin at RPM in Santa Clarita, Dave at North Star Automotive Technology up in Mountain View, and Joe at West Coast Corvette. All of them had invested time in bettering the big ‘Vette’s performance during the past year!

Andy was now looking forward to adding the bigger brakes and Austin was going to overhaul our transmission – strengthening it considerably while changing the final drive ratio. Between Charlie and Andy, there was always the subject of changing out the cam for a more supercharger “friendly” grind. As for Dave, all he wanted to do was something really crazy with the suspension set-up, and was providing me with a number of likely scenarios. However, all may not be lost and contact with those who helped us over the years will be maintained as I have really come to rely on their judgment.

Returning to Boulder will bring me back into contact with Pete Cochetas of nearby Dragon Race Engineering and for anyone who subscribes to ‘Vette magazine they may be familiar with his yellow C6 on the April 2011 cover – a rather dramatic interpretation, adorned with miniature skulls across its formable splitter! Pete helped me out last year when I ran afoul of the emissions testers and had to rework the high-flow catalytic convertors on our ‘Vette.

Pete’s a pretty amicable fellow for someone who doesn’t care for the centrifuge-style superchargers produced by manufacturers like Vortech, who supplied the one Andy installed on our Vette, but he seems gracious enough to take a look, and he will become a likely source of local support should a situation ever develop.

According to Pete "we use them and love them in a drag racing scenario but I just haven’t seen them live up to the reliability required to road race them consistently; however, they do offer a fantastic level of performance for very little investment." Fair enough and to date, we have had issues as readers may recall but none that could be related to the supercharger so I’m keeping my fibers crossed!

If we hadn’t taken the ‘Vette to the track, or thought about changes we could make to boost the ‘Vette’s performance, we may never have ran across any of these folks and that would have been our loss. One of the more impressive aspects of owning Corvettes is the ecosystem of vendors and there is practically nothing we would consider pursuing without there being multiples choices of suppliers to turn to – all anxious to explain the relative merits of their approach versus anyone else. When it comes to high performance cars and their tuning, it is just like a religion …

The National Auto Sports Association (NASA) has been very good to us and has proved to be a great club for beginners. While I haven’t necessarily agreed with everything they have suggested – a big horsepower car like the ‘Vette really cannot be driven by simply being hard on the gas, whenever not being hard on the brakes; treatment of the gas pedal requires careful and judicious exploitation and many situations cannot take a full-on approach and we have seen on several occasions NASA instructors leave the track as they pursue such tactics.

However, we continue to hold the NASA organization in high esteem and enjoy every occasion we have to participate in their events. Having now run in weekend events with their Southern California and Rocky Mountain regions, we will work hard on making sure we can work in at least one event this year.

Speed Ventures has been the other club we have embraced and their philosophy is far removed from what we have experienced at NASA. Picking a group to track with is self-determined, but always subject to peer review. Yes, you join as advanced a group as you want to, but it will be very quickly highlighted if you have stepped way outside your skill level. Even so, Aaron and Dave do such a great job of administering just the right amount of insightful intersession and no driver seems the worse for such “education”.

Fortunately, the programs put on by Speed Ventures takes us to tracks we would otherwise not have the opportunity to savor and it was through Speed Ventures that we participated in an outing at Laguna Seca. It will also be through this organization that we will spend a weekend at the circuit at Spring Mountain, just outside Las Vegas, and home to the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School where new owners of Corvette ZR1 coupes get a couple of days of helpful tuition behind the steering wheels of these awesome vehicles!

This weekend, Speed Ventures will be running a full weekend at the Auto Club Speedway and we will not be present. We will be busily unpacking and moving furniture around, as we settle back into our home, a task I know I will just appreciate so much more than being at the track. Perhaps not, but as we will be heading down to Johannesburg, South Africa it may be as late as April before we once again find ourselves behind the wheel on the track!

Throw in a weekend back at Laguna Seca, as well as at Spring Mountain and then add an outing to High Plains Raceway a little to the east of Denver (with a possible appearance later in the year at either Willow Springs or the Auto Club Speedway), and the “compromised” program for the coming summer doesn’t look as bad as it once did.

Much can be made of how track-ready a showroom Corvette has become and how, for the price, there’s little that can match the pure fun it provides all those who take them onto a track. We consider ourselves to be so fortunate to be counted among those who have enjoyed such an experience and thank all those who have helped us every step of the way.

And to the deep friendships we have developed in that time, we are extremely thankful and appreciate it all! We are sure that overcoming the distance and getting together will be a fun thing to plan!

2011 will be a vastly different program to what we have pursued up until now but ultimately it will still be a lot of fun, and the education we are given well worth all the extra miles we will need to drive!

It's a wrap!

2011-01-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

In winter the blue Corvette takes on a completely different persona. Pictured here, parked outside our neighborhood Starbucks, stripped of all the trappings of racing and bereft or any numbers, glass roof removed, it looks like any other daily drive.

But oh, how looks can be deceiving! With chrome wheels and road tires installed and nothing in the body work to detract from its “I’m just a coupe” demeanor, it rarely gets a second look. Yet what lies beneath remains so delightfully wicked and, at times, flat out scary!

After another year of taking it out onto the race tracks of Southern California and Colorado, of enjoying enumerable quick laps among the many friends we have gained, it’s time to look back at what’s transpired over the past twelve months and to take an early look into what may transpire in 2011.

This past year certainly proved memorable. In terms of the number of weekends spent on the track, 2011 represented a significant step up over either of the two prior years. When we first began participating in organized High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) events we envisioned participating in no more than five or six events a year, but in 2011 we somehow managed to squeeze in ten. Not just in California or Colorado, but enjoying our first adventure into the world at large, and savoring one of Europe’s best known venues – the north loop at Nurburgring!

The picture of the Vette outside the Wood Ranch Starbucks in Simi Valley is appropriate for many reasons. It’s where our friendship with Brian and Jan developed and where in time, fellow coffee lovers Mark, Kevin, Ken, Dan, and Bill became friends – simple Monday morning stories about the weekend’s adventures tended to generate increased levels of interest as the months unfolded. On one occasion we had the pleasure of having Mark and Kevin spend a day with us and I have to believe, it will not take all that much before Kevin finds a way to join us on the track!

But the Vette being parked outside Starbucks is significant for one other reason. Over coffee with Brian, while Margo was out running errands, I emailed her for insight into how she felt about the program for 2010 and the many weekends spent trackside. While it wasn’t completely unexpected, her response nonetheless, contained a number of gems that I have to admit accurately summed-up our various achievements and yet, on reflection, confirmed for me that in the end, this is just a recreational pastime, a hobby, a practical distraction from all that happens during a busy work week. For us, this is not the start of a new career or our entrance into a new lifestyle but rather, pure escapism!

The paradox - how to improve while not damaging the car!

The starting point for Margo, as she responded to my email, was the simple observation “I have respect for all property and I have never believed that cars grow on trees, so when I observed my husband, in my car, headed very rapidly towards a wall, my reaction was ‘not my car!!!!!’”.

In the same sentence, Margo then added “going off the track is irresponsible, in my opinion, as it indicates to me that the driver cares more about impressing folks, who do not really get impressed anyway, than about the well-being of the car!” On this point, of course, I tend to disagree as I point out that anytime a car is taken out onto a track, there’s always an element of danger and that there’s simply no way to participate and to improve without the occasional “agricultural detour” as our friends Hal and Kim called these “offs” and there is always an element of danger to the driver, as well as the car.

Of the many pursuits we could have taken up, the very process of learning and acquiring skills, of figuring out where to brake and where to turn, brings with it a measure of risk that can never be eliminated if the participant truly wants to develop as a driver.

Retaining at least a modicum of humor, as well as reflecting on her central European heritage, Margo then finished with “never believed that cars grow on trees? That could imply that I believe husbands grow on trees ... Hmmm, where I come from it sure was indefinitely easier to get a husband (or two) than to get a good car!”

The price of today’s recreations!

It was a natural development out of her initial observations that Margo would then raise the subject of costs – not with respect to repairing a damaged car, but rather, the cost of just getting the car back into track condition after each event. “There’s a sad realization that being on the track ruins the car; so much so that on several occasions the car became un-drivable after just one day, leaving me with no chance to enjoy the second day,” Margo reflected.

And yet there she was, as the weekend wrapped-up, not just disappointed at having not been able to drive fast, but counting the cost as well. “I sure had to pay for the repairs every time, as we had to put the car back on the road – it’s my daily drive after all; and that does not feel all that fair in retrospect!”

Wear and tear proved costly during 2010 and many of the blog postings addressed situations where brakes had been worn down to nothing and where tires ceased to be up to the job of keeping the car on the track. And then there were the “surprise fluids”, like that used with power steering that simply couldn’t take the additional stresses and in failing, created much more havoc under the hood than we could ever have suspected.

Ten outings and the cost is still being tabulated; but as I watched the figures scroll up the screen, I know that this is going to finish up being way more expensive than I had ever contemplated when I had first given consideration to this pastime!

The emergence of the “social racer”!

The news isn’t all negative and the remaining observations by Margo weren’t as bleak as her opening lines. “I believe I have accomplished what I set out to do - I am feeling comfortable to join friends at a track event, and as may be the case with those who ski, I am now quite happy to be a ‘social racer’ just as they are ‘social skiers’”.

For Margo and me, with our roots far removed from the America we enjoy so much, the thought of being able to take our car to a race track for the weekend was inconceivable. Just the thought of having a car in the garage that had been bought purely for fun, is so far removed from anything we could have expected in our youth, that we often overlook the accomplishments we have made.

Cars represented a means of transportation and while some models gained our attention as we checked them out, as teenagers it never occurred to either of us that we would be given the opportunity to simply drive them as fast as we could. It still gives us cause to smile and we often remind ourselves that one day, one authority or another, will wake up to what we are doing, and take away our privileges!

However, among all the excitement these weekends have generated, Margo did add that she was “not prepared to go to every event that is on offer from every club in 2011; perhaps three or four events a year is about all I now want to do”. Regaining her sense of humor she then slipped in how she still has a need to develop an acceptable game of golf, just as she enjoys picnics in the wine country!” She also made a New Year resolution to see her Daughter more frequently!

Focus! Focus! Focus!

When we first took to the track, back in 2008, fear was the dominant emotion. After a session of only six or seven laps, it took every ounce of energy we could muster just to climb out of the car. A bottle of water or sports drink later, and we still were shaking from the experience. As raw rookies, those early weekends were ones of survival where primal instincts kicked in and adrenalin pumped unabated through our bodies.

But familiarity proved to be not just a plus, but a thief – stealing our attention the more we circulated a track. Familiarity gradually saw us develop better technique and helped us become smooth, but it also tricked us into letting our minds return to more mundane pursuits!

“Being distracted and not concentrating - what a difference!” Margo would often return from a track outing and grab her PDA, anxious about an ongoing problem with her work. And at times like these, her on-track performance suffered noticeably.

“While thinking of stuff when driving around the track, as I sometimes did,” Margo wrote, “I could not remember the sequence of corners even if my life kind of depended on it!” However, there were some good times where “on those occasions when I did concentrate, the results were so much better!”

It was common knowledge to all those who drove in her group, don’t worry about her first session of the day as it will be slow; and as for the first two laps of the remaining sessions, she will be waiving everyone else past as she looks for a clear track. The results at the end of the day however showed significant improvement, and this year saw Margo not only drive with a more advanced group where there was passing everywhere on the track, but she completed five laps of the Nurburgring during a closed track day, where manufacturers had brought developmental race cars to the circuit!

Going Fast! Having Fun!

It’s the well-known mantra of the clubs we join for these weekends; what are we here to do? Drive fast! Have fun, and to do so, in a safe, well managed, environment. This year, we have really come to understand this message and with each event, we have eagerly anticipated the weekend’s arrival!

Our protocol for weekends at the track evolved considerably and perhaps, it was this process that led to Margo’s earlier observations. We began trailering the Vette to events and we switched to a stickier tire – running most of the year on Toyo R888s with considerable success. Brake pads had been upgraded to Hawk HP+ a little earlier, and we had added ducting to direct airflow to the front brake rotors which really helped extend the life of the rotors.

But with more frequent appearances at the tracks, we began to recognize more of the participants and we began to feel more at ease with the officials and the other participants. 2010 can perhaps be best considered as the year Margo and I made real progress, became more at ease behind the wheel, saw considerable and indeed consistent improvement in our lap times (even as they were hand-timed by others who watched us both), and developed many new friendships.

“The social aspect of track events and making friends - yes, I enjoyed it,” Margo closed out her email. She then suggested that “whatever we do and wherever we go, we meet people that share our interests whether it’s cars, or golf, or skiing, or simply reading books and enjoying a bottle of good wine! Each group may seem different at first yet, in many instances, the friends I now have share more than one of my interests!”

There will be real challenges ahead and we will shortly be changing gear and beginning our preparations for 2011. But already the plans we had first laid out appear to be in flux as business travel and work commitments are shutting down our options. It’s increasingly apparent that Margo’s initial musings on doing perhaps just three, maybe four, events a year will come to fruition.

No matter, there’s still weeks to go and we will put a program together of one kind or another and yes, the big Vette will remain our track car and, in time, will be plastered with numbers and decals once again! We may enjoy the social aspects of these weekends but also there’s still that huge adrenalin rush every time we fire up the car and perhaps, just for that reason alone, you may come across us at one track or the other so do come on by, take a little time out, as we will surely enjoy your friendship!

It was wet! It was windy! But we adjusted ...

2010-12-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

We found out Thursday afternoon: Saturday’s event would be cancelled as the weather would not be cooperating with periods of heavy rain forecast. Not to be put off by the expected poor weather for Saturday we were keeping our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t rain on Sunday and that we would get at least one full day of driving.

Margo had spent all day lapping Buttonwillow only two weeks ago, so even though Sunday was usually “her time on track” with Saturday now cancelled, she graciously forgo her planned outing to let me have one last track day for the year.

The weekend was to be spent at Fontana, California, the venue being the Auto Club Speedway. As this was also to be the last event in the Corvette Challenge year-long program, there proved to be plenty of Corvettes on hand with the west-facing portion of the garage complex given over to housing just the ‘Vettes!

I could have just as easily driven the ‘Vette to Fontana, as it’s less than a hundred miles away. However, loading up the ‘Vette onto a trailer and using the Cadillac Escalade as a support vehicle as we have been doing of late, seemed to be the smarter thing to do, and the picture above is of Team Pyalla Technologies ready to head to the track.

Towing the car across LA on a Saturday afternoon proved uneventful, as traffic was light, and we arrived in Fontana in daylight and were able to unload the ‘Vette and tuck it away inside a garage. However, returning to the facility early Sunday morning, the rain was coming down by the pail full! A quick check of the infield showed large pools of water and the entrance to the section of turns leading onto the oval’s main straight, and simply called “the complex”, had multiple rivulets running across the track!

Deep pools of standing water could be seen up and down the infield straight, a favorite stretch of track for all drivers. As we watched the first cars, from the most experienced “red group”, it was hard not to sympathize with them as they tried to find safe passage along this treacherous stretch of flooded pavement!

The talk among the drivers had more to do with the wind than the rain and the more optimistic drivers began to point to breaks in the clouds. Surely, with the rain now showing signs of easing, the wind would help dry the track even if it made those of us standing outdoors miserably cold.

As the plans were reworked late Thursday, and after the news of Saturday’s event being cancelled our friends and fellow “Vette drivers, Brian and Jan, elected to leave their RV back in Simi Valley. Surely it made little sense to drag it to Fontana for just one day’s use! The wind continued to strengthen even as the rain began to ease and the only place to stay warm was inside the Escalade. This became the plan for both Margo and Jan who sorely missed the warmth of the RV.

As the clouds continued to thin out and as the rain eased, we were able to see the mountain range directly behind the track, probably less than ten miles away. Visible on the mountain peaks was the snow that fell overnight, and the picture above is of the scenic view everyone at the Auto Club Speedway just couldn’t miss seeing! As we broke away from the drivers meeting and began to pursue critical pre-session inspections of the car, I couldn’t help remembering an event from earlier in the year where poor weather, too, had been a factor!

Returning from the circuit with a car that was in as good a condition as when it arrived, I had ended that earlier post by admitting how we so often talk about being consistent and about being smooth, but when driving in the rain, these guidelines become even more important. For some reason, seeing water everywhere, I recalled that previous blog posting. Keep it smooth and bring the car home in one piece!

Participating in the “green group” of racers, Brian was already on the track as I drove into pre-grid. He would be participating in the Corvette Challenge, his fourth event of the year. Mine was a group of very nervous drivers bringing their cars out of the paddock and into pit lane, and even though I would be joining the “black group” of high intermediate drivers, some of us were anything but comfortable as we watched the rain coming down.

Brian could be easily heard as he passed the start/finish line to our right. Just as I had street tires on the Vette, so too did he – although, with 345 X 30 X 19 rear tires, I’m not so sure their ability to pump water from beneath the wheel as effective as my less aggressive and much “narrower” 305 X 30 X 19 rear tires. All the same, watching as Brian circulated with a group of other competitive ‘Vettes it wasn’t hard to miss their desire to squeeze out quicker and quicker lap times!

The picture above is of me walking alongside the ‘Vette and checking out the other participants. I normally take time to talk to the other drivers in my group to get a better sense of who was circulating with me and this time, it was pretty easy to tell who was calm and who was nervous. It was going to be a great day on the track!

Earlier in the year, while we were at WSIR mid-summer as I recall, Jan had been keeping an eye firmly on her iPhone. Her grandson, Colton Herta, was participating in the International Kart Federation (IKF) “Grand Nationals” where he placed first in the Junior 1 Comer class. More impressive still, for the first time ever in a karting national’s final, Jan’s grandson Colton started last and in a 15 lap event worked his way past all other competitors to take first place to become Rookie Sportsman champion.

However, this weekend was even more important for Jan, as young Colton, not yet a teenager was participating in the final series of the 2010 SKUSA Pro Tour (International Race) that was being held a little north of us in Las Vegas. This had been a three-weekend race series, with two races per weekend, and already Colton had scored a 2nd and a 3rd first time out, improving to take two 1st places the second time out. This weekend would be the final weekend and it would determine whether he wins the series, and with it, the chance to go to Italy to compete with the Europeans. And oh, did I mention he isn’t even a teenager yet?

It was finally time to step onto the track. Lining up midway along the group of slower, more timid, drivers, it was a testing experience. Staying in higher gears and avoiding selecting second gear at all costs, I began to see first-hand how much water was on the track, and it was a case of simply looking for a line that kept the car balanced as long as possible. On the second lap, exploring different braking points coming into the buttonhook that leads onto the long infield straight, I dropped two tires over the rumble strip but the big ‘Vette steered true and it wasn’t an issue.

The picture above was taken during that early session and as I finally caught up with the ‘Vette ahead of me, whereupon I was given a point-by that allowed me to track a little higher for the pass. With High Performance Driving Education (HPDE) events such as this, it’s not about racing but about developing the requisite skills and accumulating the experience that might take you into other forms of motor sports.

There’s always more than a little adrenalin generated, however, when the opportunity to pass presents itself! Particularly when it’s in the banking on the main straight at Speedway, where the big ‘Vette really gets to stretch its legs and speeds of 150 mph are regularly exceeded!

Prior to Margo taking the ‘Vette to Buttonwillow earlier in the month we had taken the car to RPM in Santa Clarita. On a recent trip to Andy and the lads at A&A Corvette Performance, where much of the work on the ‘Vette has been performed, I had run into Charlie of RPM and enjoyed a lively conversation with Andy and Charlie on the benefits of camshafts!

Proprietor Charlie knew a thing or two about tuning Corvettes and I had been unhappy with the way torque was being managed following the installation of the Vortech supercharger. We talked about what I wanted to achieve, and why I wanted to use the automatic’s paddles to select gears, and together with Austin, they fine-tuned a couple of the tables used during gear changes.

What a difference! Immediately the transitions between second, third and fourth were the smoothest I had ever experienced – I could even change-up a gear midway through a corner without unsettling the car. However, while we didn’t require shifts into fifth gear to circulate around the track at Buttonwillow, in daily use it’s a must-have, and when I first hit the paddles to change-up up to fifth, all hell broke loose!

I returned to RPM and Austin went back to basics, finding an upgrade to the software from G.M. that we then installed into the transmission control unit, or TCU. He re-applied the changes that he had made earlier, and presto! The smoothest transitioning automatic gearbox I’ve ever experienced! For me, Austin and Charlie are the closest thing to miracle workers I have come across.

The weather pundits had proved to be right after all, and by lunch time and with the rain having eased up considerably, the winds that had been blowing all day had dried out much of the circuit. The more serious participants, Brian included, began switching to slicks as participants in the Corvette Challenge only had one session remaining with an opportunity to improve on their lap times. And every ‘Vette driver was anxious to make sure he made good use of the break in the weather!

As for my third session, with the track almost completely dry, I remained on street tires but quickly settled into a grove. So much so that those watching me hand timed me at 2 min 3 secs. Consistency certainly pays off and I was only a few hundredths off the same time for a couple of laps where I faced little traffic. Previous unofficial hand timing had me circulating around 2 min 10 secs so this represented considerable improvement over prior outings. Still well of the pace of those in the Green and Red groups, but ever so gradually, now down to close on 2 mins, I was inching closer to their times.

The picture above is of me coming into the paddock after the third session – holding up my hand to signify five seconds of improvement, obviously. Jan was nearby, relying in emails and text messages to keep her informed on how Colton was performing but the early news wasn’t looking good.

In an earlier race, inspection of his kart found minor measurement discrepancies that once again, would relegate him to the back of the field. How his engineer missed the measurement in question however brought consternation to the family! With the competition as strong as anything Colton had faced all year, starting from the back of the grid was certainly going to damper his spirits.

I hadn’t had an opportunity to catch up with Brian as he had come back into the paddock as I was driving out of pit lane. However, I knew that his third session hadn’t been without incident as he had driven to the “black flag station,” alongside pre-grid, for a quick inspection; four wheels off and a spin! Since the “off” came early in the session, I suspected the Hoosiers he had mounted during the break had not come up to temperature! The first words we exchanged on my return confirmed that yes, something like that had occurred.

It was getting dark when I came off the circuit for the last time. Brian already had his trailer hitched to his truck and only had to drive his ‘Vette up the race ramps and onto the trailerThe paddock was deserted and now getting colder.

Margo stepped out of the Escalade to tell me that Brian and Jan were in the driver’s room where the trophy presentations were under way. As we had much to do and knowing how disappointed Brian had been to come off the track, I waited for him to return to the cars before I asked him how he went.

The picture above pretty much tells its own story although I’m not sure in which hand Brian holds the trophy! He had managed to overcome the earlier incidents to finish first in his group on the day, and third overall for the season. But Jan came with news of her own, direct from her daughter in Las Vegas. Colton had just finished third, but in so doing, had won the championship – yes, he was off to Italy next year! Somehow the symmetry didn’t escape me as Jan had watched her husband Brian score a first and end the season with a third while her grandson Colton scored a third to finish the season with a first!

Driving home, there was still a little rain falling in places, but the big ‘Vette had performed well and best of all, it was straight and without a scratch. And for our family, this would be all the trophy we needed! But then, there’s next year only a few months away …

The "big off"

2010-11-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

Walking to the far end of the western loop of the Buttonwillow circuit, towards the sweeping Star Mazda corner, I turned in time to look back to turn 1, Sunset, only to see Margo straight-lining into the infield a huge cloud of dust rising all around her. I had walked past the Esses so as to get a better shot of her driving through them, but watching her kicking up a dust storm stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t even have time to snap a picture! Little drama eventuated as Margo slowed the car, brought it around to where she could rejoin the circuit, and looked for a favorable sign from the corner worker.

After leaving Margo without a ride on three separate occasions this year, we registered for a Saturday’s outing with the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) Southern California (SoCal) region in their High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) program – and rejoined longtime friends for only the third event this year. Having done so, I felt it is only right that most of the seat time should be given to Margo although, I was hopeful that she would, at some point, appreciate my plight and offer me the big Vette for one session. But when it came time to join the first session, Margo was all smiles and I should have known better. This was going to be her day on the track and the picture above is of her already on the grid, about to head out onto the track.

This year I had cooked the power steering fluid that had finally led to the serpentine belt braking at Willow Springs. I had worn out the brakes at Laguna Seca, and then in the return visit to Willow Springs I had shredded the tires to where there was nothing left. What a guy! So with near-new, slightly oversize, Michelin Pilot Sport street tires on the Vette, and everything checking out just fine, this would be a good opportunity for me to act as crew chief and to sit back and watch Margo enjoy herself. Yeah, but I wasn’t too upset, not in the slightest, and all the while I held onto a ray of hope for just a one session! On the other hand, being the crew chief provided me with opportunities to snap away with the trusty Nikon -a surprising first for us as we had completely ignored taking the camera with us for the past three years!

Margo is now running in the NASA HPDE 2 group. Her recent outings with Speed Ventures, participating in their Blue, Purple and even Black “intermediate” run groups, together with her coolness-under-fire for five complete laps of Germany’s Nurburgring only two months ago, were proving helpful in settling Margo into the rhythm that can be expected when running at this level. I wasn’t anticipating instant success but I was sure she would improve significantly over the course of the day. As joinedthe grid for the first time, I was somewhat relieved when I saw Terry Free opt to jump in alongside her to help Margo sort out the line after being away from the course for a year.

Terry races a yellow C6 Z06 Corvette in Super Touring-R 1 (STR 1) and had performed well at the recent NASA Nationals at Miller Motorsports Park, finishing second according to the results published on the NASA web site, and I couldn’t have wanted anyone better to sit alongside Margo. Terry has seen us at NASA events through the years and had provided me with tutoring last time I was on track with NASA at the Auto Club Speedway. While Terry had important end-of-season racing to pursue later in the day, he was able to join Margo for the first two sessions and, for a couple of laps, took the wheel of the blue Vette himself at the start of a HPDE 3 session just to show Margo how well the Vette would handle the track and to provide just another perspective on lines she may want to follow next time out. Coming off the track following the second session, Terry told Margo that she had improved 100% on her first session outing! The picture above is of Margo leaving the starting grid and heading onto track following her session with Terry.

It was late in the day when I had begun to walk to the furthest end of the track with the thought of getting a couple of photos of Margo but from a different perspective to those I had already shot. It was also a distraction for me as I was sorely missing the opportunity to participate in a session but as each session completed, Margo was showing no signs of wanting to step away from the car. Earlier in the week I had emailed Fulton Haight and hinted at the likelihood I would step in and do a session, maybe two, late in the day. “No way you are going out and messing up my run groups third session. After the last few blogs it is apparent that you have lost your way in a car and are in grave need of clarity behind the wheel or some momentum time,” was the immediate response from Fulton. He then pushed home his point even deeper, “maybe we should make you go out in the right seat with your wonderful bride for a tune up ... oooh! Can't do that in HPDE ½, though (can we) ... Just kidding ... mostly!”

Just as Terry had competed in the NASA Nationals, so too had Fulton. We have known Fulton for several years and I have enjoyed every time he has offered me a ride in the passenger seat of his car, whether a Mustang or a BMW, whatever he was driving on the occasion. At the Nationals, Fulton had gone one better than Terry and driving a BMW M3 in the Time Trial – D (TT D) group, picked up the win. Not giving up completely, as I wanted to make sure I could step into the Vette should Margo ask me, I asked Fulton if he would mind me joining the third session. “I would suggest we have you go out with me in the first session, as a passenger, to get you the lay of the land and then take Margo's place in the second session before the group gets up to speed so you are not a rolling chicane (with all that horsepower) as the group picks up speed in the 3rd session,” was the almost immediate response from Fulton! The picture above, however, was taken later in the day and shows Margo negotiating the esses at speed!

Good thing Fulton and I are friends and yes, I did get to ride along as a passenger in the BMW M3 he had driven to record the fastest time in the Nationals. A “rolling chicane” among his quicker students? Now that was hard to take but somehow, all I could see was Fulton’s grin so I went along with it; turns out Margo’s run with Terry behind the wheel of her Vette in the HPDE 3 event was Fulton’s plan as well, so he was looking out for Margo. During the first session, with her instructor Terry alongside, Margo had been anxious to make sure she didn’t hold back faster drivers as she relearnt the track.

In the passenger seat of Fulton’s M3, I had a good look at how she was fairing but just as we caught her, in the run up to Magic Mountain, or Lost Hills, or whatever it’s called these days, she gave a point by on the wrong side, for a pass in the wrong place and, watching the cars around her, dropped two wheels off the track. She didn’t even stop by the black-flag marshal for a quick check! However, for the rest of the time we watched her, it was clear to both Fulton and I that her lines were indeed excellent so there was more than enough positives to come out of the incident that no further penalties were applied. After two complete sessions with Terry tutoring her and following a couple of laps in the passenger seat, completing the third session proved to be a turning point for Margo.

Everyone who drives with Margo is aware that she has their desire to have fun and enjoy themselves very much on her mind. For this session, it was no different and standing as I was with the father of another participant, he drew my attention to how Margo’s first movement coming onto the main straight was to look in her mirrors and begin to waive by whoever was behind her – a distraction that took her away from the “line” and effectively clipped seconds from her time. But as any observer family with HPDE programs can vouch for, moving up a group often results in a brief let-down period as drivers adjust to their new circumstance and Margo was showing she was no different from anyone else. And looking back across the track I could see Margo continue maintain good lines and the picture above is of her driving out of the track’s famous sweeper, the buttonhook!

Apexes are missed and there’s a tendency not to track out on exit – we all pay to use the whole track but it’s sometimes difficult to do when you are with a new group of drivers. “I will arrange for Margo to go out with her instructor driving in HPDE 3 if there is not a conflict to keep her moving along. As usual, I would prefer if you did none of the above as from your blog it seems Margo could use some track-love time...would be a fitting penance for your breach of tire etiquette (at Willow Springs) for you to watch her burning up your new tires,” came a later response from Fulton. I couldn’t respond to this and just had to admit that he was right.

Margo had to make a mandatory stop at the black flag station at the end of pit lane. A marshal stationed there had to check out the state of the car, not to mention the condition of the driver. This has become a familiar routine for me but was a new experience for Margo. As I continued my walk back from the esses I began to wonder whether, being the last session of the day, I would see Margo return to complete the last laps. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes had passed, there was the Vette pulling out of pit lane and heading once more onto the track. A short period to settle down, making sure the tires, brakes, and steering were all working, and she was once again picking up the pace.

I have to admit that the big off a few laps earlier was the result of what we had discussed only an hour earlier. Coming in from the circuit after the third session where she had spent time giving the cars behind her point-bys, she agreed to see if spending less time looking in the mirror and more time working on her lines through the turns could lift her speed onto some of the shorter straights, and so open up some separation between her and the much slower cars that had been catching her all day. The opening laps of the final session certainly seemed to suggest that this was exactly what she was capable of doing and in a relative short period of time, there were several car lengths between her and the cars that started with her. The picture above is of Margo pulling hard down the main straight with prospects of even more improvements to come!

As I watched Margo leave the track at turn 1, and as I watched her recover, my immediate concerns for her welfare were quickly put to rest and as she continued with her lap and passed me at the exit of the esses, I was proud of her and of the way she handled the situation. Margo had not left the circuit during any of her sessions for all three years she has been on the track and yet, on this day, she had first dropped two wheels and then all four wheels in a significant “off”. Going faster, she had told me, made her adjust her brake points and she had been aware of the need to brake a little earlier. However, just as importantly, it also meant braking harder and in the lap where she went off, her first braking effort had only transferred weight onto the front that in so doing, left her with few options as she went to the brakes a second time only to lock-up the rears and spear right off the circuit.

Fulton’s closing comment in the email exchange followed advice from previous times when he suggested, “I am sure it is too much to ask you to use a momentum car that would be much faster for both of you?” Driving the big Vette, however, may be slowing our development time, but just completing the day in one piece and performing a lot better during the last session than in the first, remains very much its own reward. It’s hard to give up on the car and there certainly are a lot easier cars to master, but after three years, ever so slowly, it’s starting to come together and it would be so hard to step into anything different.

The “big off” then? All part of learning, she responded with a smile! The picture above is of Margo crossing the start-finish line for the last time and all the way home, she half apologized for taking all four sessions, but with an innocent smile proceeded to remind me just how many occasions there had been this year where I had done all the driving, leaving the car in no condition for further track use. I guess that’s fair, and later the only discussions were about our next outing – our last for the year.

Taking it up a level ...

2010-10-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve been enjoying a relaxing week back home in Boulder, Colorado, where I’m surrounded by the evidence of the changing seasons. Every now and then, the clouds pull back and I can see the continental divide covered in white: the snow is certainly falling in the high country. And later today, I will be starting on yet another trip to California to wrap up this year’s program – returning to NASA So Cal for their event at Buttonwillow, and then closing out with a full weekend with Speed Ventures at the Auto Club Speedway. Only a few weeks ago, I was in California, for a weekend with Speed Ventures at Willow Springs International Raceway (WSIR) a return to the circuit better known as Big Willow!

The picture at the top of the pages was taken by our friend Mark, who had driven up first thing Saturday morning and had brought with him another friend, Kevin. All the pictures of Saturday’s action included here were taken by Mark. Saturday, we were sharing the track with the participants in the “SubieFest”, a gathering of Subaru’s from all over the country, and I joined the only event open to Speed Venture participants which was the open-passing, point-by’s optional, “Green” group.

As can be seen from Mark’s picture, not everyone escaped the drama of a track day. Just as Mark was setting up to film our Corvette on-track, an over-zealous Honda S2000 driver spun out approaching turn 4 having dropped two tires off the track exiting turn 3 – one of the few places on Big Willow where the situation can deteriorate rapidly, if you try to return the car to get back on track too quickly! Then again, even experienced drivers can make mistakes and the weekend saw a lot more mistakes being made, particularly in turns 8 and 9, than we had seen in several years and we lost count of how many clouds of dust were kicked up by errant drivers missing the exit out of turn 9!

For the Corvette teams of Brian and Jan, and Margo and me, our weekend had started Friday night when, once again, Brian and Jan arrived in their motor home, trailing the red Vette, and we arrived in the Escalade, towing our U-Haul trailer with the blue Vette aboard. The trip had gone smoothly although, as I had strapped our Vette onto the trailer, I had noticed wetness around a lower connection of the power steering cooler and simply wiped it clean. There were no traces of a leak on the garage floor and I thought nothing more of it. As we settled in for a quick snack in the motor home, Brian’s friends Gary and Carla arrived. This weekend, we were enjoying the company of several friends!

The picture above is of an early outing Saturday morning, as I head toward the top of the track and into turn 4. While participating in the Green group is still far from a racing experience, the skill levels of all involved are very high. I had experienced an outing with advanced drivers on my last open lap day at Colorado’s High Plains Raceway, and hung in with real racers during my time on the Nurburgring last month, I was more than a little anxious as I took to the track the first time. My early nervousness wasn’t helped when it was announced that Green group drivers should be on the grid twenty minutes after the mandatory driver meeting!

While it was great to have company and to have friends standing trackside, moving up a group was still a stressful undertaking. The first session with the Green group was a period of adjustment and I felt less than satisfied with the results and had to settle with the more experienced drivers catching me after only three or four laps. In the second session however, I began to pay more attention to my lines and even began to look at who were the “rabbits” and who had less experience. The faster cars were now taking five or more laps to catch me. By the third session, I was beginning to feel at ease, although I was experiencing the first signs that perhaps not all was well with my tires.

Coming to a stop in the pits before lunch there were now ominous traces of fluid, originating from somewhere under the front of the car spotting the pavement. There was more bad news as our faithful Toyo R888 tires, first fitted for the last NASA event at Buttonwillow in 2009, had now seen fifty-plus heat cycles (which was pushing well beyond anything the manufacturers had recommended) weren’t behaving as predictably as on previous sessions. However, I felt they could make it through the weekend but all the same, lying inside the Escalade were a full set of Michelin PS/2 street tires, that I had loaded just in case. The picture above is of me passing the Mitsubishi Evo during the first session after lunch.

Earlier in the day I had been consistently waiving past a group of cars but during the session before lunch, I had wondered whether all the drivers were of equal experience and capabilities. In particular, there was a BMW M3 that didn’t pull away from me and whose lines through corners I chose not to emulate. In the fourth session, as we all circulated on our first lap out and as tires came up to temperature, I waived past a couple of cars, but not the BMW M3. Rather than watching him in my mirrors, I lifted my eyes and focused more intently on my exits all the while doing little mental exercises so as not to lose concentration. After two laps the BMW had fallen back considerably, and after four laps, I could no longer see the car.

All weekend I had been working on my approach to turn 5 and my exit out of turn 6. Focused as I was, it wasn’t until late in the final session that I noticed Brian in his red Vette closing in on me, and as I came out of turn 9 I passed a slower car only to see Brian pull out, three wide. It was then a sprint down the main straight but in all the excitement, I didn’t lift to give Brian the space he needed for the upcoming corner. After all, he had to know what he was doing. Fortunately, he negotiated turn 1 safely, but there was a moment …

Brian and I spent much of the evening discussing that final session and the excitement it had momentarily generated; I did apologize and I am sure Brian knows I will not be as reticent to let him move across again! Over several apple martinis that have, of late, become the specialty of our hosts, Brian and Jan, and with the slow cooked pork tenderloin, cooked to perfection, this maneuver continued to be dissected many times.

Sunday, was Margo’s time on the track, and this time she was running in the “Black” group, the high intermediate level with Speed Ventures. There had been too many “trains” of cars last time out with the “Blue” low intermediate group for Margo’s liking, so this was going to be a new experience. After all, Margo had completed one more lap than I had on the Nurburgring and seemed quite capable among more experienced drivers. The picture above is of Margo, during her earliest outing, heading towards turn 2.

The first session for Margo had looked good for the first few laps. She was aware of her situation and waived by the more experienced drivers. Unfortunately, it was a brief, unsettling moment, as the tires lost their grip coming down the hill into turn 5 that threw her right off her game. A little “spooked” by what happened, she backed-off and coasted around the track. Returning to the pits, we noticed the leak we had seen yesterday getting much worse and after a quick look under the car, I found a loose connection at the bottom of the power steering cooler that, after tightening, fixed the leak.

Much worse, however, were the tires, and the second session proved even more difficult for Margo, so in the break between sessions, I changed all four tires back to our street Michelins. Margo spent the third session back out on the track with the Black group, but it was visible that she was off the pace. Returning to the pits for the third time, the car looked good; no leaks, brakes working, and the tires holding. The distractions of the day however, and the constant checking of her mirrors, together with the remnants of earlier anxieties, were proving to be a little too much and Margo was losing confidence in her abilities. The lunch break couldn’t have come at a better time!

Still uncomfortable with the car’s behavior, Margo went out for one more session. Lunch had been spent thinking about how to best drive the car on street tires and what to expect in terms of braking and turn-in, but Margo felt that with the set-up, she would give it a go! Pulling off the grid and accelerating hard for the first turn of the opening lap, she looked good and pulled away from the cars behind her. The photo here, as with the previous photo, supplied by CaliPhotography, as Mark had returned home late Saturday, is of Margo enjoying the company of a very aggressive Mustang driver dropping down into turn 5.

Coming in early, it was obvious that Margo simply wasn’t having fun any longer. There had been too many early incidents that had shaken her confidence and there had been far too many distractions. Cars had finished up on their sides atop berms and there had been a roll-over out of turn 9. Wrestling with the Vette as it struggled for grip, entertaining many good friends, and watching several of the wrecks as they happened, unsettled Margo to the point where she could no longer enjoy her time out on her favorite track and coming in when she did was a very smart move.

There would be other days and there would be fun days again on other tracks. This weekend, however, could be viewed as another learning weekend and one that neither one of us had previously experienced. The Vette is a very difficult car to drive well and we are still far from being capable of driving it anywhere near its limits. The automatic transmission remains its Achilles’ Heel and dogs us at every track as we wrestle with running with paddles or in full auto. The 2010 season was now coming to a close and yet, Margo still wanted to get more seat time. Distractions or not, being at ease with the car and enjoying herself, remained Margo’s goal.

With Boulder enjoying a late fall and the weather holding, I took the motorcycles for a ride. I have a Honda VTX1800 while Margo has a Yamaha V Star 1100 and both have been tweaked and dressed-up. Once out on the road and without distractions, I worked even harder on being smooth and found that looking well past corner exits I could stay in a higher gear and, pulling though the exit, less effected by any sudden additions of torque, I rode more smoothly than I had in months; I routinely take to the bikes and simply practice, and use time on the bikes to improve my technique. With a motorcycle, on the open road it’s more a case of staying focused or fall off. Or worse! Riding alone and as focused as I was reminded me of how badly any endeavor can become with distractions no matter how unintended or minor they may be.

The picture above is from late Saturday as I returned to the pits and of Margo walking to greet me. I’ve always enjoyed having company and the presence of friends is always appreciated. However, it is us who have to make adjustments when it comes to weekends at ta race track, and for us to find ways to deal with the distractions that their presence creates. After all, for many years it had been the two of us who had been providing the distractions to so many others we had visited. I spent too much time thinking of how to make their time with us more enjoyable, when I should have been lifting my eyes and looking further down the track.

WSIR remains our favorite track. We have driven around it more than any other track and after three years and seven weekends it will be hard to find something we enjoy more. However, even though we have the Vette settled down and ready to go, Margo is looking forward to a weekend all to herself as we are returning to Buttonwillow to enjoy the company of our good friends at NASA So Cal. There’s still a full weekend at the Auto Club Speedway with Speed Ventures before the season ends for 2010, but the opportunity to spend time alone, soaking up laps at Buttonwillow will, for Margo, be therapy and something she so much wants to do. For me, watching her circulate once more and stepping out of the Vette sporting a contagious smile? Priceless!

Respect the ‘Ring!

2010-09-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

For nearly two weeks Margo and I had been driving around Europe on business and yet we still found time for some much-anticipated downtime. As chance would have it, we were able to spend a day and a half at Germany’s Grüne Hölle, the world famous Nordschleife, or North Loop, of the Nürburgring! The name Grüne Hölle, or Green Hell, is a reference to how it was once described by former F1 driver, Sir Jackie Stewart. Located within the Eifel forest that separates Germany from Belgium, the Nürburgring winds its way through dense woodlands for 21 kilometers, or 13 miles and, with elevation changes of almost a thousand feet, it’s an absolute must for anyone with an interest in cars. The picture at the top of the page is of our first evening in the township of Nürburg.

This adventure started at Frankfurt airport where we had landed ten days earlier. We rented a car, as I was to meet with business colleagues in Munich and Mainz, and wanted to visit Lake Garda and Lake Como in Northern Italy. Having crossed the Alps to get to these lakes, it seemed a simple step to then push on towards Nice and to spend the weekend on the French Riviera, the Côte d'Azur. While I had been a passenger many times in Germany this was the first time I actually occupied the seat behind the steering wheel.

Our first surprise on arriving at the car rental desk in Frankfurt was to find that the automatic Mercedes Benz C200 we had requested wasn’t available and that we had been “upgraded” to a 6-speed manual BMW 318 diesel. Little did we know at the time how beneficial this was going to be, but at the time, Margo was none too pleased. Our second surprise was how little of the much beloved German Autobahn remains unrestricted, where you can drive your car flat out. Much of the Autobahn these days is limited to 130 kilometers / hour and frequently we ran across limits as low as 100 kph – yes, this represents speeds of 90 mph on down to about 60 mph and a far cry from what we had been hoping for…

We hadn’t come to check out the Autobahns, or to see how fast we could drive on public roads. While the towns and villages we passed through had a certain charm and the early signs of autumn were clearly visible, sight-seeing wasn’t our priority either. What we did come to try however, was the Nürburgring and as we sat down to dinner each night the discussions quickly turned to what was yet to come – and with each passing day it was harder to hide our mounting excitement!

We had contracted with a local Nürburg company, Ron Simons Racing (RSR), that rents track-ready cars. RSR is more than just a race car rental company, however, as it develops complete programs and it really is the best place to start for any first-time visitors to the ‘Ring. Following numerous email exchanges with proprietor Ron Simons, he put together a program for us that would see us driving the Nürburgring in a Lotus Exige S 240. Pulling up outside the RSR premises, we could see the car already prepared and it was proving ever more difficult to mask our excitement. The picture above is of Margo and our friend, Jan Kenny, relaxing in the drivers lounge.

Starting with a two hour guided tour of the Nürburgring in the Lotus we would be driving, we were given our first opportunity to look at the track and to view a selection of critical corner sequences. Thomas Lennackers, a former BMW test driver and now an instructor with RSR, walked us through the racing lines and provided us with cues on braking areas and turn-in points and these tips were to prove very helpful. The following day we would be venturing onto the track and participate in a closed track-day session where we could drive as many laps as we liked. The Grüne Hölle would no longer be an image on our computer screens, but be right there, under our wheels! The more we talked with Thomas, the more we came to understand how the ‘Ring demands respect.

From the time we had landed in Frankfurt we had been watching the weather and as the afternoon progressed, we could see a system moving in from the northwest. The following morning we had to get to the RSR premises by 7:00 am and be ready for a drivers briefing at 8:00am but, as we departed our hotel, all we could see was rain! As we pulled into the RSR car park, our cars were already up on lifts and tire changes were being carried out at a rapid clip. Off came the slicks we drove on yesterday and on went the more heavily grooved rain tires.

We had missed catching Ron the day before as he had been on the other side of the Eifel Mountains with another group of drivers lapping the almost-as-famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps – the site of the F1 Belgium Grand Prix. This morning however, he was back at the facility and leading the driver briefing. About thirty drivers participated and as he went through the inventory of cars that would be heading to the track he paused and asked who would be driving the Lotus cars and upon seeing us, requested we stay behind for an additional briefing. “This track can kill you,” he started, “you will be better off if you delay your arrival and let the track dry out!” The picture above is of me tentatively driving the Lotus out of the RSR garage the previous afternoon.

Joining us for the event were our good friends from Simi Valley, Brian and Jan Kenny, fellow Corvette drivers with whom we have spent many weekends at tracks in California and Colorado. They had arrived in Germany a day ahead of us and had joined us for our weekend on the Côte d'Azur. They were much more experienced drivers and they weren’t in any hurry to get onto a wet track. An hour later, we gingerly stepped into the cars and carefully drove the short distance to the paddock that led onto the track.

After a little nervous banter and watching a couple of cars returning, a lot worse for wear on top of flat-bed recovery trucks, we ventured out through the staging area and onto the track. The circuit is entered about two-thirds down the main straight via a short “hot pit,” and we let Brian and Jan lead the way. Upon entry, this straight ends with a high-speed dog-leg turn to the left that opens onto a short straight before rounding a right hand turn, followed almost immediately by a tight left hand that then propels you into the flat right hand turn that leads to the start / finish line. Crossing the start / finish line for the first time, the full impact of trying to comprehend what 13 miles of track can throw at you finally hit home. The picture below is of both of us standing in front of a track map looking anxiously around as other cars begin to head out onto the track.

The plan had been to run a series of two-lap sessions with myself behind the wheel for the first session and then Margo taking over for the next two-lap session. In this way, Margo would at least get her first view of the track from the passenger seat. Merging onto the straight for the very first time as we headed to the start / finish line we were immediately given a taste of reality as a number of Porsche’s passed us in a blur as they came to the end of the long straight, driven perhaps as much as 100 mph faster than what we were doing. And it just didn’t let up!

Mixing it up with us during that first session were groups of Porsche 911 Turbos and GT3s, as well as the occasional GT2. There were a handful of BMW M3s – far fewer than we had expected – but many more Ferraris including the new F458s and even a new 599 GTO. We sighted our first Aston Martin V12 Vantage and there was a Mercedes Benz SLS Gullwing and both were competing rather aggressively with the Porsches. The real surprise however was just how many Nissan GT-Rs there were circulating on the track, as well as a smattering of Corvettes and a lone Hennessey Viper. Rarely seen on the Autobahns, but watching them routinely pull away from us, these “imports” were certainly more than holding their own against their German and Italian brethren.

Ron had gone to great pains to let us know how dangerous the track would be and how costly any mishap would prove – particularly as this was a track day where there were no speed limits. Every apex would be aggressively attacked and holding the “race line” meant nothing whatsoever as the much faster race cars pushed past us on either side. Having a passenger proved to be an advantage as they could watch the mirrors and call out cars as they approached – “there’s two on the right and one on the left!” And perhaps much worse – “there’s a train of ten or more cars coming and they are hotly contesting positions all around us!” In time however, and as the nerves began to settle down, our speeds began to climb and the passing moves became a lot more predictable.

My goal for the first session was to see if I could build on the basics – look for the corner exits and then work backwards to pick up the apex and brake and turn-in accordingly. Thomas had given us a lot of advice the day before, but during the first lap, there was little time to even think about track position. However, as we started the second lap, the brain began to slow everything down and I was able to recognize some corner sequences and begin to drive more smoothly. Pulling off the track and into the paddock for a driver change, with the car undamaged, was a wonderful feeling!

Margo was quick to jump into the driver’s seat and wasted no time in pulling back onto the track. The picture above is of Margo heading out of the paddock for the first time and looking for the entrance into the hot pits. Having viewed the track for two laps, once out on the track she improved more quickly than I had been able to do, and seemed at ease behind the wheel. Driving the manual BMW rental car for a couple of days was proving to be beneficial as she smoothly executed gear changes. But once again, Margo set the ground rules when it came to no uninvited comments, and I had to bite my tongue and just let her drive. All the same this was hard on me as I wanted to give her a few pointers after my own time behind the wheel. Unfortunately, with all that was happening on the track, she let me know in no uncertain terms, that my input was proving to be anything but helpful!

Brian and Jan had asked to have their Lotus equipped with a multi-camera video set-up and, after lunch, we strapped ourselves into their “video car”. Grateful for the opportunity, we would each do a single lap and record it as evidence that we had survived the Grüne Hölle! I drove the first lap – but this time, having earlier completed a lap as a passenger with Brian, and getting a better perspective of the track, I upped my game and pulled onto the track carrying more speed and then I held the gas down hard through the dog leg before entering the turns that took us across the start / finish line.

Knowing that the video would be recording everything, I tried a little harder and I thought I was really motoring! That is, until the train of race cars blew past! The more aggressive racers would quickly disappear around a corner but every now and then, one of the cars that passed me wouldn’t be quite as fast and this allowed me to follow them for a couple of corners and observe their lines. Continuing to lap the circuit in this manner and looking for the cues Thomas had pointed out the previous afternoon, I began to develop more consistency and my confidence grew considerably. Margo was really impressed with my driving, and gave me a number of “thumbs up”. By the time I came onto the final long straight I really began to feel more at ease with the track and as we did the driver change, I was sure Margo would do well too! The picture below is of Margo anxious to get around to the driver’s side of the Lotus.

And doing well she did! With even more laps under her belt, Margo went after it, but this time, on a dry track, the other drivers were becoming even more aggressive and there was barely an unchallenged apex for her to work with. There were still many Porsches, Ferraris and Corvettes mixing it up on the track but from where I sat, it looked like Margo was taking it all in her stride. At one point she was determined to hold her line and claim the apex – so much so that she closed the door abruptly on a Porsche GT3 that forced the driver to stand on their brakes. Go Margo! It wouldn’t be until much later, after we viewed the video, that we would see the other cars lapping in the 8 to 9 minute range, perhaps some a little faster, as we cruised, relatively speaking, recording more leisurely times some 3 to 4 minutes off the pace.

In the final sessions of the afternoon and with the track completely dry, Margo did another two laps while I completed one more, before the gas needle began to hover on empty. Entertaining ourselves on the Grüne Hölle, as we had done, and concentrating as hard as we did the whole time - terrified about joining the scenery - left us with very little energy. Completely exhausted we elected to end the day at the local gas station picking up souvenirs. Will we return? Are there more laps still left in us?

Laguna Seca is a beautiful track and the circuits at Willow Springs and the Auto Club Speedway provide challenges. But all of them fade into the background when compared to the Nürburgring Nordschleife and so, perhaps yes, if the opportunity presents itself again, we will be back! About that, I have no doubt and the respect we developed for the ‘Ring will be with us for as long as we continue driving our cars!

It's all starting to slow down!

2010-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

It’s becoming quite a pattern, and one I am more than acutely aware of, as it’s an indication that progress is being made. Each Tuesday before a track weekend we are finding ourselves in the shop at A&A Corvette Performance, the big Vette up on the lift, and either Jessie or James busily working hard on last minute adjustments. We are now driving the Vette much harder than we ever have before, and components are beginning to wear out fast and the stress this is generating on some parts requires almost constant attention.

This past Tuesday however, we were still trying to track down a gremlin that was kicking on the Check Engine Light and throwing up the message “Engine Hot / Air Conditioning Off” in the two line Driver Information Center (DIC). It had first appeared as we were driving to the track at Laguna Seca, but after saving the ECU program, installing a GM fix, and reloading the program, we thought we had it licked, yet barely a day later, up came the message again. Swapping thermostats seemed an obvious next step and this we did, going back to the original. As we had been working with the programming we took another run on the dyno and the picture above is of the Vette strapped down firmly as it was being prepared for a couple of runs!

I am often asked about the effects of taking Margo’s “daily drive” to the track and of the merits in tracking an automatic. For the most part, these questions center on the costs associated with having the car track-ready and of ensuring that all parts subject to wear are replaced. I usually shrug-off these questions with a simple “not too much!” or “the Vette is just a natural!” and leave it at that. However, the parts that suffer the most are in many ways directly associated with the car being an automatic – tires and brakes. Cars that are taken to the track will wear out their tires and brakes and there’s no escaping the costs that this represents, but when the car is an automatic, there’s a tendency to push harder on the brakes and this adds additional loads to the tires so everything tends to wear out a little quicker.

Towards the end of her sessions at Laguna Seca, Margo had made an early return to the pits complaining that she had no brakes at all and readers of the previous blog post, following that weekend at Laguna Seca, may recall how she hadn’t been too thrilled to find she had nothing to slow her down at the top of Laguna Seca’s notorious corkscrew. Before returning to Southern California I had taken the Vette to the far end of the infield parking lot and sure enough, a couple of hard braking stops following short bursts of acceleration told me the brakes had gone, most likely overheated, but also well-down on pad depth judging from the amount of brake dust visible on the wheels.

The picture above is of Jessie installing an LG Motorsport front brake cooling kit that, together with upgraded pads (this time, it would be Hawk’s High Performance plus (HP+) pads) should help us better manage the Vette’s ability to stop. Heading for a weekend out on the “Roval” at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, brakes were going to play a very important role. As for the numbers following a couple of runs on the dyno at A&A Corvette Performance well we were all a bit surprised. As we prepared for Laguna Seca the month before we had changed the air-to-air intercooler and bolted on new Z06 mufflers that included the option to pass right through but the results were impressive.

The big Vette pulled a best run that gave us 545.12 rear wheel hp with a max torque of 490.90 – up from 497.66 rear wheel hp and a max torque of 466.16 almost two years earlier. This now puts the Vette fair and squarely in supercar territory as, allowing for the loss through the automatic transmission, hp as measured at the engine was greater than 650hp! All achieved with just a better breathing engine – any wonder that our attention had so quickly turned to ensuring we had more than adequate brakes as we headed to Fontana!

After what had happened to us at Willow Springs and then seeing what had happened to Joe’s Z06 at Laguna Seca, we decided the time had come for us to trailer the Vette to the track. The extra cost could be simply categorized as insurance. While our good friends Brian and Jan Kenny had invested in a terrific aluminum trailer for the red Vette, they were paying a princely sum in Southern California to have it stored so with our budget already stretched to the breaking point, we paid a quick trip to U-Haul.

The thought of gremlins bighting once again, and causing further havoc this weekend, was never far from my mind and as we drove our Caddie SUV to the track Friday afternoon, pulling the Vette atop of the trailer, all I could think about was what next would go wrong. I kept recalling how cool I had been when telling those folks who asked about the costs, and of my enthusiastic endorsement of how great the Vette was, but all the same, the past two weekend outings had proved to be anything but routine. Was it going to be overheating issues? Brakes? or tires? Or, something completely different? And I couldn’t help but wonder if I was just having the same thoughts as any car team manager the day before a big event!

For me this weekend was going to be about Margo. We would again be participating in an event put on by the folks at Speed Ventures, a first for us at the Auto Club Speedway. This has been a circuit that hasn’t provided positive feedback for Margo and, as we prepared for her sessions, we openly talked about simply forgetting everything that she had previously been told. Instead, she spent the time Saturday as a passenger with Jan Kenny as she drove their red Vette. Margo very much became Jan’s “project”, and the opportunity to check out the track from the passenger seat proved invaluable for Margo. Readers may recall how I wrote in the post of August 2009 “Johnny needs a fast car …” of how, in my Sunday afternoon sessions, I had followed Jan closely and knocked some ten seconds off of my lap times, unofficially of course, as our good friends had hand-timed us on their iPhone. Over the course of four sessions, Margo was to knock 30 seconds off of her lap times but earlier in the day, the picture above (photos by CaliPhotography.com) captures her keeping the very quick Audi R8 at bay!

As for me, my time on the track was taking place as Margo was spending time with Jan. For the first session Saturday, I had Jan’s husband, Brian, in the passenger seat providing me with some insight but that first session on track, however, could only be described as casual as I was trying hard to remember the lines I had learnt last time out earlier in the year. On the second session, with a couple of suggestions from Brian, I really went after it and was quietly pleased with what I was doing.

When it came to the third session, Brian again joined me as a passenger and my improvements were visible to him. I passed the entire field including a Ford GT mixed in with the pack of Ferraris. Again, it was a mandatory point-by protocol and the only car that gave me trouble was a replica Peter Brock Cobra that I sat behind for a couple of laps. As for my times, all that I could get from Brian was “thrilling” and yes, unofficial as it may have been and based on the times of the cars with me, I had pulled my time down from the early 2 min 10s to 2 min flat, perhaps even a couple of hundredths quicker.

The picture below is from earlier in the day as I was pulling away from a Ford GT that had given me a point-by coming as we came off the oval. Earlier in the day I was really focused on my lines and really working the car but even after backing off as I did for this last session, as our chief instructor was fully aware of the possible onset of driver fatigue given the heat on the track, I ran a couple of laps at 2 min 03 sec. On the penultimate lap of the day, I didn’t dive quite as low into turn 1 but rather, ran high the whole time and, in doing so, managed to get by the replica Peter Brock Cobra coupe as it tracked back up and behind me. As the final session of Saturday ended, I was so relieved that the car hadn’t let me down and that I would be handing over to Margo a Vette that had finished the day as strongly as it had started.

Sunday morning arrived and it was time for Margo to take to the circuit and the line-up on the grid looked intimidating. The Sunday was a day our hosts, Speed Ventures, were sharing with a Ferrari club and the paddock was littered with Ferrari V8s and V12s. Big, Maranello 575s were sharing space with F360s and F430s. Margo found herself gridded ahead of a Ferrari 355 GTS cabriolet with a Ferrari 2360 coupe a few rows back. She joined an intermediate group and had elected to drive by herself, but thrown in with her in this group were a couple of Audi R8s as well as a Maserati GT. While many of the drivers were first timers to the track, they were all itching to see how well their cars would perform.

Waived out onto the track for the first time Sunday morning, Margo was running out front for the mandatory full-course yellow lap but then she quickly waived a couple of the cars past her. Unfortunately, among the group that passed was the Ferrari 355 GTS and with mandatory point-by’s in effect, Margo spent most of the session counting the number of support screws that held the license plate to the car. No point-by! OH well – there was a lot more track time to come.

Undaunted, when it came time to take to the track for the second session, Margo was aware that there were truly three or four fast cars (the Audi’s, the Maserati, and a Ford) but the rest of the field was evenly matched. Whereas Margo had used the first session to settle into the car and to get a much better feel for the layout of the track, this time she really began to pick up the pace and we recorded much-improved lap times on the iphone. From her early leisurely 2 min 50s plus, she dropped down into the 2 min 40s clipping a second off each lap as she developed more confidence.

By the time the session was over, she was really looking very good and standing on top of a luxury box near the steep banking of turn one, unoccupied, as they all were for this event, I could see how well she was settling in and watch the consistency of her lines. Yes, Margo was still making sure the faster cars could get by but, with every lap, there seemed to be less and less cars closing in on her bumper. The picture below is of her really hitting her apexes, something she was to show me time and time again – way to go, Margo!

The temperature was now really climbing and with the heat in the car while stationary, as they lined up for the start of each session, I became the “bottle boy” making sure Margo stayed hydrated. For the start of the third session, she had lined up at the front of the faster of the two groups and was waived off first. By the time I had reached my observation point on the bridge that crossed the longest straight on the infield, Margo had open up a significant lead, disappearing into the complex that precedes the entrance onto the oval before the second placed car had exited the button-hook that made up turns eight and nine.

It would be a full two laps before the faster cars in the group had passed the much slower second placed car and to reel her in, but those early laps in clear air really helped Margo develop a lot more confidence. Lap times that had been in the 2 min 40s and 50s fell dramatically and Margo began lapping around 2 min 20 seconds – a full 30 second improvement on her morning session times! Both of us continue to participate in High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) events where sessions on the track are followed by downloads from experienced instructors. Lap times are not important and we don’t run with a transponder but we can’t stop our friends from telling us about the improvements we make. Unlike the downloads we experience with NASA SoCal where technique was emphasized, at Speed Ventures the focus is on track awareness and communication – a valuable lesson we take with us every time we merge onto an LA freeway!

The final session of the day for Margo came as long shadows were being cast across the track and all the drivers were showing effects of the heat earlier in the day. Times came back a little and there was less excitement. I had been joking with the driver of the Maserati about how he was holding everyone up and that he should be trying a little harder, but in that final session, he had to abort his exit from the oval, electing to run deeper into the oval’s back straight before turning around to rejoin the field. This gave me an opportunity to apologize to him and to remark on how his car wasn’t slow after all, it just couldn’t go around corners. Fortunately, he took it in the spirit it was intended!

The weekend overall could best be described by the enthusiasm coming from Margo. “Everything slowed down! I had time! I could even see all the corner workers,” she told me on the way home. As for me, nothing broke – given all the contingencies I had planned for, driving home in an overweight SUV and towing the big Vette seemed to be an anticlimax. On the other hand, if taking the trailer truly was an insurance policy, it was worth every penny. Next month? Well it’s the biggie – a full day on the north loop of the Nurburgring and about that, we will all just have to wait.

Did someone say Bucket-List!

2010-07-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Tucked into the rolling hills, only a few miles from Monterey Bay, is the Laguna Seca track – known worldwide as the venue for the United States round of the MotoGP World Championship. This is now the only true Grand Prix held on American shores. For car enthusiasts like myself however, this has always been among the elite road courses where I have wanted to drive.

In the post of September 18th, 2009 “Give me a “brake” – concentrate!” I wrote of how we really enjoyed the opportunity to participate as spectators at a Speed Ventures event held at that track. We were at Laguna Seca “not as participants, but as observers to see how other clubs ran track days. But we still had a lot of fun,” I had explained in last year’s post before remarking on how “Margo and I certainly enjoyed the opportunity, as passengers, to familiarize ourselves with the circuit from the right hand seat, we still wanted to get more track time ourselves!” When Speed Ventures published their calendar for 2010 we penciled in the weekend and began making plans.

In the August 2010 issue of Car and Driver there was a feature article on “America’s best road courses – an insider’s guide to our favorite circuits”, where the author had written that “the U.S. is also home to some of the finest road-racing courses in the world … and have elevation changes, blind corners, and distinct personalities.” Making the cut as one of the five best road courses, of course, was Laguna Seca and the personality of this track was best summarized by the author when he said “then there’s the Corkscrew, the left-right corner that plunges downhill and is the course’s signature turn. The first few times through, you’ll think you’re falling off the planet.”

Readers of last month’s blog “... finally succumbing to heat!”, however, will recall that our weekend at Willow Springs had left us with a car that needed a lot of attention before it would see another track. And the picture at the top of the blog is of both Vette’s at the shop with the blue Vette up on the lift – notice the PYALLA vanity plates now gracing the rears of both cars! We now have the C5 Z06 with us in California, but continue to resist the temptation of taking it out onto the track although, with what happened at Willow Springs, we did think twice about the possibility.

In the four weeks between events, as I described in that post, we had replaced “the power steering pump, reservoir, pulley, as well as yes, restoring the power steering cooler that had been removed when the supercharger had been installed. Also … upgraded (was) the air-to-air intercooler as well as the radiator – both to units with superior cooling characteristics. The new radiator includes integrated coolers for the engine oil as well as the transmission fluids. Taking off the wheels revealed that we had nothing left on the brake pads either!” What we also did was change the thermostat to a new 160 degree F unit (versus the factory 180 degree F unit), wrapped the transmission fluid lines that passed the exhaust headers in insulation, and upgraded the rear muffler and tail pipes with a modified C6 Z06 system - the same setof mufflers aspictured in the earlier post of May 13, 2010 "Changes aplenty".

For anyone familiar with track cars, this represented considerable change and required a trip back to A&A Corvette Performance of Oxnard for additional last-minute minor adjustments, but what a difference! This many changes, however, had its downside and it would surface on our way to the track Friday morning. After a quick break for Starbucks and a little extra gas, we suddenly had “Engine Hot / Air Conditioning Off” appear in the two line Driver Information Center (DIC). After checking fluid levels and hose connections to no avail and following a short track-side deliberation, we drove to the local GM dealer in Monterey.

The plan had been for Margo to drive Friday and for me to drive Saturday – after our last outing where I had been left with a non-starter, Margo had wanted to make sure she had first opportunity to drive the big Vette. But standing outside the GM dealer in Monterey and expecting to hear more bad news, we decided to change the plan with me driving the Friday sessions and Margo driving on Saturday. The news from the GM mechanic was encouraging, as it looked like there was a software glitch with a sensor, so he simply reset the code and after a quick road check with him watching the numbers, I was given a thumbs-up and we were good to go.

Friday morning saw us setting up a mini Corvette Corral – Brian and his wife Jan were again with us and had his C6 Vette prepped and ready to go. Joining us for the weekend was Joe, who we have known since our earliest outing with NASA three years ago, and he had brought his black C6 Z06. Both Brian and Joe would be competing in the same category during Saturday’s Corvette Challenge, but unlike last month where Brian had recorded a faster time than Joe and edging ahead of him by .05 seconds, both drivers looked anxiously at the much larger field that had gathered. It was going to be a little more difficult this time to get a podium finish, let alone a win! Returning to the paddock and to our Corvette Corral we heard of how Joe had just avoided calamity as the car in front of him had lost its engine and spewed oil over the track, temporarily closing it down.

Before the luncheon break, I lined up in the Blue group for low intermediate drivers, and began to prepare for my first outing. After a couple of laps however, I quickly realized that I was going to have my work cut out for me. The picture above is of me diving down through the Corkscrew and, as it would be revealed in other photos that I was to see later, way off the apex of the right-hand turn that is the second half of turn 8. Turns 2 and 9 were also causing me some concern. As the day progressed, while I gained more confidence with each lap, I was unhappy with the way I was handling my apexes. At one point I dropped all four wheels of the track exiting turn 2 as I had focused too intently on watching the apex, and completely missed the exit. Rookie mistake, again!

During the late afternoon, Margo took an orientation ride with Brian as he began to improve on his times. Brian no longer makes any concessions for Margo as she has ridden with him on several occasions. Each time Margo returns to the paddock exhausted! Brian has put a lot of time into ensuring he has really good brakes and they test the limits of the seatbelts each time he applies them – Margo and I have both been in the car with Brian and the Vette’s ability to scrub-off speed as rapidly as it does with Brian behind the wheel, is a testament to how capable the Vette is in the hands of someone with Brian’s capabilities.

While I was unofficially timed right on the 2 minute mark ( by Brian’s wife Jan using her iPhone) , Brian had dropped down through the 1 minute 50 seconds getting a best time of 1 minute 41 seconds. It was during one of these quicker laps, and with Margo in the passenger seat, that the young lad piloting a new Mitsubishi Evo lost control of the car exiting turn 6 and spun across the track and into the wall. Hitting rear-end first the Evo continued spinning and bouncing off the wall … every panel was damaged with the front visibly crushed, and the incident closed the track. It was another close call for sure, and right in front of Brian and Margo!

Returning to the paddock after the final session of the day, I was pleased to be able to hand over the intact Vette to Margo. However, during that last session I began to detect some brake fade – instead of replacing the pads with the same as before Hawk HP Plus pads, there was some miscommunication with the lads at Andy’s shop and we had reverted to Hawk HP Street. Whether it was the increased temperatures, or simply wearing through the brake material a lot faster than on previous outings, the feeling they gave me during those last few laps didn’t instill a whole lot of confidence. On the way back to the hotel they seemed to get a bit better as the car cooled considerably, but I was still a little anxious as we headed into Saturday’s sessions.

In the Car and Driver feature on America’s best road courses, the most attractive part of driving at Laguna Seca was its surroundings. “Most tracks are in the boonies, but Mazda Raceway is close to Carmel and Monterey and a sea of hotels, restaurants, and shopping,” the author remarked and that night saw us at one of the finer seafood eateries enjoying the view over Monterey Bay. Evenings spent at the tracks at Buttonwillow and Willow Springs were a distant memory! As we awoke Saturday morning, however, the peninsular lay deep in marine-layer fog, and the temperatures had plummeted.

Margo would be running in a slightly tougher group than I had been as she was in a new group, Purple. After having had a couple of sessions with Brian and having talked-through a couple of laps, Margo was quietly confident and didn’t expect any surprises. And the photo above is of Margo coming to a stop in the paddock after that first session, and she had indeed done very well. Having never driven the course, she had been careful during the opening laps but gradually had picked up speed just as I have watched her do so many times before.

For the second session, I was given approval to go out with her so long as I “said nothing at all!” Unfortunately, I just couldn’t help myself, and after one lap, she pulled into the pits, and threw me out! My comments were not appreciated and even though it turned out that I was helping her, and photos taken at the Corkscrew confirmed my observations, at the time they were not welcomed! As I had been forewarned, I did not argue and just jumped out of the car while I could see that she was smiling to herself. In the final session, Margo began to pass cars and was feeling a lot more comfortable with the course. The picture below is of Margo attacking the corkscrew!

Not even the Corkscrew stood in the way of her enjoying herself. But as the laps wound down and end of the session approached, she came off turn 6 carrying a good amount of pace only to find, as she reached her braking point for turn 7 that leads to the Corkscrew, that she had no brakes! Standing on them with everything she had still had little impact, but having been through the Corkscrew several times with Brian at much higher speeds she didn’t panic and simply steered the car down through the turns – and the big Vette never missing a beat. Heading straight for the pits, she drove sheepishly into the paddock, relieved that the car was still in one piece!

For our friend Joe driving his black Z06, there would be no such luck. Margo and I had walked through the pit entrance and were standing alongside the pit wall as the Corvette Challenge began their warm-up laps. Wanting to see how Brian and Joe would perform, we waited for the field to come through turn 11 and onto the main straight. We could hear the cars well before seeing them but as the first Corvettes passed us we were quite unprepared for what would come next.

Working hard behind the wheel of his Z06, Joe had been getting on the gas a little earlier each time through the turn, but this time, overdriving the Vette he just tracked out a little further than before and dropped a rear wheel onto the artificial turf that bordered the rumble strip. Perhaps only a few inches of tire made contact, but it was enough to break loose the Vette’s tail and Joe spun across the track and right into the pit wall. The force of the impact moved the concrete barriers, as the Z06 crumpled along its right hand side – the airbags inflated and as the dust settled, we could see Joe moving freely within the cabin. Pinned against the pit wall he waited as the tow truck was dispatched. While it was a close call for Margo and myself, a matter of ten or fifteen feet away, it was another stark reminder of how violent the sport can be and the picture below is of the Z06 as it too was deposited alongside the back wall of the paddock.

The author of the Car and Driver article featuring Laguna Seca wrote of the changes made to the track and of how “the added tightness has made Laguna a technical challenge, with a mixture of slow, medium, and fast corners that flow together beautifully if you get it right. If you overdrive the track and have a bad day, your brain will explode trying to figure out where you’re losing the time.” This pretty much sums up the weekend for us. We could see how the track could reward those who managed to exploit its flow and how savagely it could punish those who overdrove it – the line was very thin and crossing it was all too easy to do.

We have another event in a month’s time when we return to the high speed “Roval” track at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. We will be taking a good look at the brakes and having the car’s engine management software checked out. But the Vette continues to amaze and impress us and there’s no question that the rewards it gives to those drivers prepared to throw it around will always ensure a lively weekend!

... finally succumbing to heat!

2010-06-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

Just two weeks after our outing at High Plains Raceway in Colorado we found ourselves trackside, once again. This time we were spending the weekend at a track we have grown to really like, the venue for our very first adventure onto a track anywhere in the world, Willow Springs International Raceway (WSIR). Also known simply as Big Willow, this track looks relatively simple on paper, with only nine turns, but the more familiar it becomes the more every driver comes to realize how difficult it is to master and how much punishment it hands out to the cars that tackle its pavement.

It was Ernest Hemingway who said “auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games.” While we are still participating in sessions established as High Performance Driving Education (HPDE), where our cars are not officially timed, it doesn’t stop others following us with their iPhones – yes, there’s an application for that! But strap yourself into a modern car, line up along a track’s pit lane, and the emotions are the same as if you were really racing. And we all think we can drive really well! In an interview with Jeremy Clarkson on the BBC program Top Gear, Jay Leno remarked how “race car driving is like sex – all men think they’re good at it!”

Returning to Big Willow, now into our third season with HPDE programs, I was determined to improve on past performances and to stay focused throughout the day. In all previous outings I could recall having one, perhaps two, good sessions with the rest quite forgettable. Lapses in concentration have held me back more than I care to admit, but having spent some time on the phone talking to other drivers over the past couple of days, and fully aware of my failings, I was going back onto the track knowing that there was much to be done before I would ever consider myself good at it!

The photo at the top of the posting is of me alongside a Lamborghini Murcielago roadster. A fabulous car and not a regular participant at events of this type (the usual crowd turns up in well-turned out Mustangs, Porsches, Corvettes and Hondas), but the appearance of a true exotica always draws attention. So much so that we missed the later arrival of a couple of Ferraris including my all time favorite, the Ferrari Maranello 575! This weekend was not a typical one, as we were spending it with Speed Ventures rather than with NASA, and we were quickly coming to realize that they attracted a different crowd. Speed Ventures members value their time on the track above all else. For Saturday, we would be getting four 25 minute sessions plus a bonus fifth 20 minute session.

Regular readers may recall that in the blog posting of September 18th, 2009 “Give me a “brake” – concentrate!” I wrote about the weekend we spent as spectators at a Speed Ventures event at Laguna Seca. We specifically went to the Monterey circuit to see how Speed Ventures operated and whether we would have fun.. We came away from that experience certain that we would, and as Laguna Seca is a circuit we so much want to drive, we have already registered for their July 2010 event. Spending the weekend at Big Willow was our way to experience Speed Ventures trackside. Perhaps a little cautious of us, but we wanted to gauge the competency of those we will most likely meet at Laguna Seca and if the weekend at Big Willow told us anything at all, the level of experience as well as commitment to having fun, was every bit of what we had hoped for. Laguna Seca is going to be a fun weekend!

For this weekend at Willow Springs, I would be driving Saturday and would be running in the Black group for high-intermediate drivers, far removed from my earlier experiences with beginners and track newbies! Margo would be driving Sunday and she would be running in the Blue group that caters for low-intermediate drivers. The program for both Saturday and Sunday gave us three sessions before lunch with two more after lunch. Margo was really looking forward to getting a lot of seat time by herself. It’s not that she doesn’t want or need further instruction – her NASA instructor at HPR two weeks before had proved to be a very good teacher – but she’s reached a point where she just needs time by herself. This would be her sixteenth track weekend, and her sixth time on Big Willow.

In my last post “For a hot time ...” I described the experience I had in a lead – follow session with our friend, Brian Kenny. Brian drives a tuned C6 Corvette Coupe that like our C6 Vette, has been set up by Andy and the team out at A&A Corvette Performance. For four laps I had followed Brian around HPR and then he would wave my by, and follow me for four laps. In that last posting, I wrote of how Brian had responded to my question of how I looked with ““you missed every apex and you didn’t track out all the way as you exited – you left a lot of the track unused! Apart from that, you looked pretty good.” This time I was determined to use the whole track and to let Brian see me hitting the apexes!

Catching up on Formula 1 Grand Prix events that I had TiVo-ed, I was watching the qualifying session for the upcoming European Grand Prix when I heard Speed Channel commentator David Hobbs admonishing one of the drivers, telling him “you’ve got to be able to use the curbs!” Remembering my previous weekends at Big Willow, I began to develop a rhythm and had settled into hitting the curbs, or rumble strips, whatever, for every apex and exit – I began to fully exploit all of the track. The picture above (provided by CaliPhotography) is of me rounding turn 4 and looking down at the Lambourghini off in the distance.

My first two sessions went smoothly. I found a couple of cars quicker than the rest and I waived them past. These sessions had open passing but a “point-by” was mandatory. Once I recovered from the surprise that comes with seeing drivers wanting to pass everywhere on the track, I quickly adapted and began to enjoy myself. Our Vette proved very capable on this track and before too many laps, I was passing some of the smaller displacement cars. I continue to run with Toyo R888s and remain very impressed with the grip they were giving me as I worked to improve my speed through Big Willow’s turn 2 “sweeper” as well as through the final sequence of turns 6,7 8 and 9 that lead onto the main straight! The stickier Toyo’s allowed me to significantly increase my speed through these turns as the day progressed.

As I came in from the third session however, I pulled up to a stop next to Brian’s Vette and popped the hood. As Brian peered at the engine, there was immediate alarm from him. Getting out of the car I could see fluid all over the left hand fuel rail cover, and the top of the power steering reservoir was missing. Recalling the observations late in the second day at HPR, where there had been seepage from under the power steering reservoir cap, I couldn’t recall whether I had failed to tighten it or not. I had checked the cap to see if the fluid level was OK, but just couldn’t believe I hadn’t tightened it sufficiently! A quick lunchtime visit to the nearby AutoZone store and I had a replacement cap as well as additional power steering fluid.

One of the advantages of running in the Black group is that I could take passengers. For the very first time, I was able to take Margo for a ride. During the morning sessions I had seen my times come down from 1 min 50 sec to the high 1 min 40 sec and eventually to as low as 1 min 42 sec. I would start out the first session after lunch a little less aggressively and then finish with a couple of faster laps. There was little traffic but the excitement of the day came when I finally caught the big Lamborghini Murceilago and where I was given a “point-by” as we entered turn 8, not the easiest place to pass, but I nailed the apex and let the car track all the way out before bringing it back through the apex of turn 9 and onto the main straight. The Vette never looked unsettled and handled itself well.

Taking time to check my gauges during the cool-down lap however told me a whole different story. Engine temperature was through 310 degrees and the Transmission temperature simply read XXX! The car was overheating in conditions far cooler than we had experienced at HPR. And there it was again, fluid seeping from around the power steering reservoir cap. With only one session left, I was determined to take it easy and hold the Vette together for Margo’s Sunday outing.

However, as I talked with Margo and asked her how I had looked out on the track, she was very honest with me. “You are not taking the ‘Omega” properly! You turn into turn 3 too early, you can use even more of the track at the top of turn 4 and you don’t turn in aggressively enough through turn 4!” Ouch – but as I looked back at the fourth session, she was right! I had really worked hard on turns 6, 7, 8 and 9 but had let myself ease up on the critical sequence that led to those turns.

On the second lap of the final session of the day Margo, who once again was my passenger and proving to be a great instructor, was quick to congratulate me on my improved line through turns 3, 4 and 5! And it was clear from where I sat that she was genuinely pleased with the effort I had made. It wasn’t just a one-off performance, as on the three lapses that followed I nailed the sequence exactly as I had before. Aha! Consistency! However, coming up on a black C6 Z06 that I had begun to reel in and havoc cut loose! The power steering gave up just as I was entering turn 7 and it took all I had to pull the car through turns 8 and 9 where I then headed into pit lane and back to our “camp.”

Limping alongside of Brian’s Vette, the temperatures once again were as high as I had ever seen them, but this time as we popped the hood the radiator fluid exploded from its overflow reservoir. All around me drivers were pleased to see that it didn’t happen out on the track – coolant is extremely slippery and no driver wants to come across pools of it on the racing line! Looking under the hood revealed a pretty ugly sight. The power steering reservoir cap was missing, as was the serpentine “fan” belt. There was a tear in the hood’s insulation and shreds or plastic from the belt were scattered everywhere. The car would have to be towed home – a first in three years of track weekends. The picture above is of the Vette aboard Brian’s trailer.

Brian and his wife Jan were leaving Sunday morning to prepare for a vacation in Las Vegas but they graciously stayed behind to help us out. And the task of getting the Vette home wasn’t going to be easy. However, Brian had participated in the Corvette Challenge program and ended up with the best time in his group (a 1 min 30.1 sec) just pushing our good friend Joe in his Z06 into second place by .05 secs. Walking back to his RV, carrying a first place trophy, was more than enough compensation for what was now looking like a late departure Sunday.

Returning to our Vette the morning after, we discovered that we had left the passenger side door open all night and this had flattened the battery. We needed to start the car, even briefly, just to get it up onto the trailer. Before attempting this however, we needed to swap the tires on Brian’s Vette for those on our Vette as we would be driving his Vetter home. There was no room on the trailer for two Vettes and Brian’s Vette had Hoosier race tires mounted. So, we found a second low profile jack, swapped the tires all round and with a long set of jumper cables we were able to top up the battery sufficient enough to start the car and drive it onto the trailer.

Margo was going to miss her day on the track and for that, I was pretty depressed. She would now be venturing to Laguna Seca where she would be facing a new track and a new group of drivers. Not exactly what we had planned. As for the Vette, even as I write this post, it remains at A&A Corvette Performance torn down and inspected with a lot of work to be done. The picture below clearly shows the radiator missing and a lot of the major plumbing components removed. The power steering pump had failed, the shaft overheated, and the pulley had “walked” off the shaft taking the serpentine belt with it!

Reporting the incident to friends I know it was perhaps a business colleague, Mike, who summed it up best when he observed “power steering fluid takes a beating on a track like Willow Springs with the long sweeping turns. The fluid is under extreme pressure and builds temperature any time the wheel is off center and quickly reaches the boiling point.” Mike added that “once it boils, the observed failures can be: fluid expulsion, blown cap, blown reservoir, blown hose or pump lock up. Pump lock up leads to belt failure. Sticky tires compound the situation. An upgraded power steering cooler sounds to be in order.”

All up, an expensive exercise in that we are indeed replacing the power steering pump, reservoir, pulley, as well as yes, restoring the power steering cooler that had been removed when the supercharger had been installed. Also being upgraded is the air-to-air intercooler as well as the radiator – both to units with superior cooling characteristics. The new radiator includes integrated coolers for the engine oil as well as the transmission fluids. Taking off the wheels revealed we had no brake pads left either!

In many ways we consider ourselves fortunate. Nothing happened out on the track and we didn’t impact the other drivers. We met drivers we had seen at other events and everyone we approached for help was only too quick to provide assistance. The fellowship among participants was really heart-warming and the speed with which everything we needed appeared Sunday morning was greatly appreciated. Brian and Jan left for the vacation a little later Sunday afternoon and neighbors, seeing the Vette up on the trailer, parked outside our Simi Valley townhouse, were quite bemused by it all!

Power steering fluid may indeed be the “forgotten fluid” as Brian later suggested. The marked improvement in times that we had seen over the past three outings, and the extra grip the Toyo’s provided, overwhelmed the standard offerings. And the circle of high performance driving continues, as each upgrade highlights a deficiency elsewhere and each deficiency addressed only leads to a search for another upgrade!

There’s never a final component or fluid or pad that goes on, only the need to watch for what next develops as a weak link. But then again, we ruled out bull fighting and mountain climbing a long time ago and we just don’t have the interest in playing games any longer. Sure hope Andy and the lads can get the big Vette back on the road in time for Lagun Seca!

For a hot time ...

2010-06-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

It was a relief to finally be in cooler weather. The mountains of Colorado came as a welcome break after two days of driving through the high deserts of the western half of America. The late afternoon climb out of Simi Valley up through the Mojave desert, the early evening run across to Las Vegas, the passage next day south of the Grand Canyon and the increased desolation that leads to the “Four Corners,” with the final run through to Farmington, New Mexico where we spent the second night, saw temperatures routinely climb through three figures. Standing as we were, snapping off pictures, along side the twists and turns of the “million dollar highway” as it descended into Ouray, we just let the cold mountain air wash over us. The picture at the top of this column is of the blue ‘Vette framed by high, snow-capped peals of the San Juan ranges.

We needed to get the Vette back to Colorado to have her smog tested, and to pick up the new tags that Pyalla Technologies was happily sponsoring. Yes, we were looking forward to installing the PYALLA1 vanity plates after waiting many months. Spring sessions on California tracks were now behind us and once again, we were planning on spending a few days at the new track outside Byers, Colorado – High Plains Raceway (HPR). With turns yet to be named in honor of famous drivers it still generated a lot of excitement as plans were made.

Opened only the year before, the circuit lacks the facilities you normally expect to find at a track but from what we had been reading, it looked like there had been some improvements from our previous outing but there was no way you would ever mistake it for a glamour track! No “Brabham’s Bend” or “Montoya’s Mangle” yet we still had to face “To Hell on a Bobsled” and “Niagra” that had led me to observe, in last year’s September 18th post, “The Fifth Element”, of how important it was to be prepared. In that post I wrote “with corners labeled ‘Danny’s Lesson’, ‘Ladder to Heaven’, ‘High Plains Drifter’, and the ‘Prairie Corkscrew’, the track took full advantage of the many elevation changes the location afforded. And spending Friday afternoon to figure it all out? Priceless!”

The trip across the high desert hadn’t been kind to us. As we made our way across Arizona, the temperatures really began to climb and as we approached the exit we had planned on taking, that would give us a run through Monument Valley, we drove into a red dust storm. I have seen pictures of these desert storms when I had lived in Australia and knew they were a frequent occurrence, but until you actually drive into such a weather system you do not fully appreciate how difficult the driving conditions can become. With lights on and speeds reduced, it was still a nerve-wracking experience. It lasted for the rest of the afternoon and even as we drove into Farmington, the visibility only improved slightly. Walking to dinner proved to be extremely difficult so we picked the Outback Steakhouse right next door!

Taking the Vette to Colorado for smog testing meant we had to drive it to our local Boulder facility and subject the car, now supercharged, to testing. I was still thinking about the poor weather conditions of only two days earlier when we lifted the hood. Red dust was everywhere and not a single surface was without some evidence of our passage through the storm. Not unexpectedly, we failed the smog test the first time, but after an email exchange with Andy of A&A Corvette Performance, we took the car to the local tuning shop, Dragon Racing, only a few miles east of our Boulder home, and after backing out the timing and leaning the fuel mixture a little, we were able to pass the smog test. The car was now good to go but even so, looking at all the red dust that accumulated, I took the car to the local GM dealer for an oil change, just to be sure.

Our good friends Brian and Jan were joining us again for this year’s outing – this time, they, too, were driving from Simi Valley to Colorado in the red ‘Vette, but this time with street tires and no Hoosiers! Brian had thought through his options but he didn’t want to miss out on driving through the mountains so previous plans to trailer the car were put to one side. The picture above is of the two Vettes parked in the driveway the day before we took them to the track.

Just as we did last year, we registered for an open lapping day at HPR. This would give us the opportunity to re-learn the track and to just dial ourselves back in to what we just knew would be a difficult, yet extremely rewarding track. Margo stayed behind, not wanting to take a day off from work. We knew from pervious experience that the number of cars participating would be far less than for any club outing but all the same a lot of cars did make it to the Friday lap day.

Glenn, the track manager, set up two groups that were loosely categorized as slow, and fast. Electing which group to join was left solely to each driver so, still a little rusty from almost two months away from any track, I started out in the slow group. However, this would mean that there would be four thirty-minute sessions for each group before lunch with another four following the break – this was not your typical day out with clubs like NASA or even Speed Ventures. The picture below is of our group, trackside, with cars about to head out of the paddock and onto the track.

Last year I remember our good friend Hal returning from a lap day and telling me of how the oil temperature had climbed way too high, the brakes had been worn down to nothing, and the tires were completely shot. With little supervision, other what comes from each drivers own experience, it’s easy to see how any car can be driven into the ground on lap days. I have to admit, as 8:00am arrived, I was a little concerned how the big Vette would respond to this kind of abuse! But when it came time to drive onto the track, I found I was more concerned about how consistent I would be and about how much of the layout I would remember from a year ago.

I had decided to focus on turn 1 – after a short front straight, there’s a sharp left-hand turn that is not quite 90 degrees. After the warm up lap I found that I could accelerate onto the straight, change up a gear as I crossed the start/finish line, but then I would stand on the brakes late and hard and found myself turning in a little late. This line had me pinching the turn and not tracking out to the right side edge of the track where the fresh foundation for a rumble strip had been laid. Always a clue, I had missed both the rumble strip foundation on the turn’s left side apex as well as on the right side exit. Working back from the exit, I finally figured out that I didn’t have to brake as hard as I had been doing to turn in a little earlier and just get a tire on the rumble strip foundation, and let the car track out all the way to the right where I could execute a straight line shot to the braking zone preceding the next right hand sweeper,

Confidence began to build but when it came time for the cool-down lap, I again eased up on my concentration. Figuring I could skip the use of brakes and drive through the turns I was still carrying too much speed as I came around turn 1. Even with all the attention I had paid to it, I knew there was no way that I would make it – so I simply let the car drop four wheels off the track and continued around the turn with a much wider arc than anyone else had attempted. Returning to the paddock I found, much to my relief, that there had been no witnesses to my minor indiscretion! But it was a wake-up call all the same. Even during cool-down laps, you can never let you mind wander too far away!

I continued to work on turn 1 during the second session but when it came time for the third session, I switched groups and joined the fast group. Brian had been driving the red Vette in this group and I thought it would be fun to join him – so we went out for four laps with him leading and then we swapped positions as he tucked in behind me. “How did I go,” I asked as we pulled ourselves out of our cars. Brian looked at me rather sternly and responded, “you missed every apex and you didn’t track out all the way as you exited – you left a lot of the track unused! Apart from that, you looked pretty good.” Brian was running the Vette with street Michelin tires and I knew he was off his normal pace a little, but even so I felt pretty down. “Hey, I thought we were going pretty fast,” I tried to add before Brian gave me an all-knowing look.

As we drove back onto the track for our final session before lunch, the temperature was really starting to climb. It was already 90 degrees and in the thin air at this altitude, I was seeing the car temperatures climb much higher than I had ever seen before. Engine oil and transmission fluid temperatures were beginning to close in on 300 degrees for the first time. Ever! It was as if the drive across the desert never happened and the cool mountain air was a lifetime ago. While I was now getting through turn 1 consistently, I was beginning to work on turns 7 and 11 – both taken at speed as uphill sweepers with decreasing radius and a little off-camber that all added to the excitement. As the session wound down, I was hitting more of the apexes and using the track, all of it, and I was staying in touch with a group of very fast drivers.

Unfortunately, during lunch a situation developed and the ambulance had to transport a participant to the local hospital. Glen was forced to close the track until another ambulance could be located but by this time and knowing that Saturday would be another full day, we decided to preserve the cars and head home. Lifting the hood after the fourth session, I was surprised to see power steering fluid leaking from under the cap of the power steering reservoir. Having had the car serviced only the day before I put it down to an over zealous mechanic filling it a little too full, but the left fuel rail cover looked liked it had been cleaned with Armor All!

Saturday was Margo’s day on the track and it was a return visit to the NASA Rocky Mountain region. We enjoyed our time with them last year but this would be Margo’s first time on the track. And what a start! Leading out the High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) group 1 and 2 drivers, Margo stepped on the gas and as she entered the track at the exit of turn 2, she quickly accelerated through turn 3 and onto the long back straight such that as she began to brake for the dog-leg turn 4 at the end of the straight, she had already separated from the other drivers by almost the full length of the straight. Coming across the start-finish line on her third lap, she was already into the stragglers at the back of group 2! I just couldn’t believe it and the photo above is of Margo exiting turn 1 at speed!

How did she do? How did she feel after only a couple of outings this year? Pretty terrific! “This is a great track and having had the opportunity to look at it from the passenger seat with Brian,” she began, “really helped me sort out where I was on the track. I didn’t loose perspective as I sometimes do on new tracks!” Margo’s instructor was a fellow Corvette driver who campaigns a C6 Z06 in time trials. He was very laid back and watched Margo complete a couple of laps before providing any feedback and this is exactly what Margo was looking for. All too often Margo has had either enthusiastic instructors who just can’t help themselves and need to provide her with an almost continuous stream of input, or she gets an instructor that provides only an advice to point everyone else by!

Coming back into the paddock after the second session, it was clear Margo was picking up the pace and really having fun. As I lifted the hood for her, there again was the tell-tail power steering fluid oozing onto the fuel rail cover. Once again, I simply put it down to the over-zealous folks who serviced the car. Temperatures were running very high and with the altitude, I checked in with Hal to get a little more insight as to what to expect. “For the Vette the limits are 315 for engine oil temp and 260 for coolant,” he emailed me. “The computer knows … the car will go into limp mode if any design limit is exceeded!”

We were planning on leaving the track shortly after lunch as we had an early start Sunday morning to make it back to Simi Valley by Monday lunchtime. Looking at me checking out the car and looking as if I really wanted to drive it, Margo gave me the opportunity to drive the last session before we went home. It was getting even warmer and we were now drinking sports drinks at every opportunity.

Taking the Vette out onto the track one last time felt fantastic and I was determined to hit the apexes and track out to the edges. “Remember, to pick up the coupons,” Brian instructed, “at every apex you can collect a coupon if you get it just right!” I immediately caught his drift and I must have come back with a bucket load of them. Mentally working my way around the track all day, I was able to put down some of my best times, pulling a further 10 seconds off my previous bests of Friday. Not that I carry a transponder … these measurements were actually taken by Brian’s wife Jan who was using her iPhone – so the precision may be questionable!

How quick had we been going? On Michelin PS/2s, Brian recorded a 2:14 whereas, according to Jan's iPhone, I was a good 10 seconds slower on Toyo R888s recording a best time of 2:24. On my cool-down lap, I took the time to check my gauges. Oil temperature was at 280, coolant only at 235, but the transmission temp was all the way over in the red and 272! “None of those temperatures are terrible, per se,” came back Hal, but all the same, I was now a tad concerned. I had never seen the needles push this far around the dial! The final photo here is of the Vette slowing down on its cooling lap with its newly-installed vanity plate clearly visible.

For the first time Margo and I completed a weekend with the car intact and with a lot more confidence! After a little more than two years driving the big Vette on tracks it really has got us hooked! We had fun, and we shared the fun with our friends – seems like a great way to enjoy a Memorial Day weekend! If only it hadn’t been so darn hot …

Changes aplenty!

2010-05-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was walking through the local mall looking in shop windows and I was surprised by the number of people that were there shopping. If I was an economist I would have no other choice than to say the amount of optimism across California is definitely on the uptick! In case you are wondering why I would spend time at the mall and actually look forward to visiting it – our local mall now includes an Audi showroom as well as toy shop full or Lamborghinis. Real ones, not toys, and where on any day, you can see a colorful mix of Gallardos and Murcielagos. The photo at the top of the page is of me taking a good look at a very orange Murcielago and checking on the quality of the interior.

Nothing screams cars more than a modern Lamborghini! A Ferrari will always be a thing of beauty and there’s almost no way Ferrari can mess up the glorious lines that always differentiate a Ferrari from everything else. Just as a Porsche will always be recognizable, whether it’s a simple coupe or one of the specialty track models. On the other hand, if you are looking for a car that is in your face, that screams excess, then it just has to be a Lamborghini. It’s still too early to talk about changing cars, but if the business I am now building meets with any success, I may just change my mind!

In the previous post, “A father's advice ...” I talked briefly about our weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix and of how, on a weekend when National Auto Sport Association (NASA) was holding an event at Buttonwillow, we had headed in the opposite direction. From what I heard later, it was a pretty successful weekend for the NASA club and I suspect that much had to do with the mild temperatures they experienced. For us, however, the change of plans had us spending the weekend at Long Beach and it had proved to be particularly special as it was the very first time we had been up close and personal with pro drivers from the Corvette racing team.

The picture below is from photos posted to the Autoblog.com web site as part of an April 18th, 2010 post by Frank Filipponio and it was taken from almost directly in front of where we had been seated. We were among a large gathering of Corvette supporters who somehow were squeezed in with an Aston Martin group, which was only too happy to provide us with green Aston Martin flags that we all dutifully waived when the new Aston Martin - Lola prototype, roared past. These flags have now been added to my growing collection of track memorabilia.

Spending time hanging out in the Corvette Corral allowed us to mingle with many fellow Corvette drivers and to sit in on a couple of presentations. The highlight for me was to listen to Ron Fellows and hear his perspective on the incident involving the Corvette team, new to racing in the GT2 class in the American LeMans Series (ALMS), and the Porsches of the veteran Flying Lizard team. The venue had been Laguna Seca circuit, just outside Monterey, California, and as the last laps unwound at the last event of last year, the Corvette and the Porsche took it to each other.

After being told by race officials to give up his position after a pass on the main straight, the Corvette bit back hard and spent the final lap hounding the Porsche. Coming out of the final turn and heading for the Start / Finish line, the Corvette bumped the Porsche, as the Porsche clearly “brake-checked” the Corvette (a perspective not shared with Porsche drivers, mind you, but all the same, what I saw as I watched replays), and then proceeded to drive the Corvette into the pit wall.

The impact spun the Corvette around and drove it headfirst into the wall on the opposite side, so as the Porsche went under the checkered flag it was just the wreckage of the Corvette that careened across the line. Both drivers earned probation for the start of this year, and it was clear to all who listened to Ron Fellows, there was no prospect of anyone other than the Porsche driver being at fault for the spectacular year-end incident.

Ron Fellows wasn’t the only speaker of note! Just before he talked to the Corvette throng, ALMS Race Director Beaux Barfield, came on stage. It was his decision that led to the Corvette having to relinquish its position in the closing stages of the Laguna Seca event, and it was his decision not to disqualify the Porsche of the Flying Lizard team. It was a tough crowd but after viewing many replays, Barfield was adamant that he wouldn’t change his decision. One of the most critical aspects of the job of race director is to remain consistent and to rule on on-track incidents quickly. He knew he had upset a lot of Corvette fans but he also knew that there would be no changes!

To top off a good weekend, when it came time to drawing the winning raffle tickets, and the Corvette Corral provided quite a few, I happened to be the lucky winner of a ceramic-topped box autographed by last year’s Corvette racers. For some time now I have been thinking about adding Corvette memorabilia to the other collectables I have, and this certainly was a good way to start – check out the box in the photo above! However, no matter how exciting the weekend proved to be, it still was a poor substitute for actually being out on the track, and while it remains a highlight in terms of race day spectacles, plans are now moving ahead quickly to return to the track.

In ten days time we drive back to Boulder. Our time in Simi Valley has been the longest we have spent away from Boulder for some time but the time was broken up considerably with weekends spent in Northern California and with several great drives along the Pacific Coast Highway. The return trip to Boulder always excites us and at this time of year, as the seasons change, the local tracks begin to open up and the long weekend will see NASA Rockie Mountains host HPDE events at the new High Plains Raceway (HPR), a track I visited for the first time last year. Check out the post “The Fifth Element” of December 2nd, 2009.

We will drive the C6 Vette back to Boulder as it’s never been to the circuit and Margo and I are anxious to see how it performs at these altitudes. Supercharged, it shouldn’t face too many problems but any time you change your track environment there’s never any assurances that everything will go smoothly, so we will be treating this outing with some caution. Hopefully, as was the case last year, Brian and Jan, our good friends from Simi Valley, will join us again but this time rather than relying on a friend’s car, they will be bringing their C6 Vette. Perhaps we will see other Vette drivers participating and we will be able to assemble our own Corvette Corral!

This event represents the start of a number of changes for our driving program. Sorting through our own commitments and the availability of weekends at the track, we have decided to participate in a weekend event at Laguna Seca. This time it will be with the Speed Ventures organization rather than with NASA. We continue to enjoy great fellowship with all who drive with NASA, and will return to a couple of their events later in the year, but we are going to give Speed Ventures our support for the next couple of months.

Readers may recall that Margo and I went to Laguna Seca as spectators last year. Check out the post “Give me a “brake” – concentrate!” of September 18th, 2009 where I described the experience. Much like how we felt watching the ALMS event at Long Beach, our time up at Laguna Seca made us only more anxious to participate. Driving the circuit at Laguna Seca presents a number of challenges, so as part of the preparation, we have had bright red Pfadt tow hooks installed front and back of the Vette. We hope we never have to rely on them, but the circuit is liberally surrounded by gravel traps and wheels-off situations often end up with the car stalled and needing help from the tow truck!

But Laguna Seca also presents problems with noise – there’s a decibel limit and all cars have to pass by a monitoring booth: cars that exceed 92 decibels are black-flagged and forced out from the track. Racers often go to extreme measures to ensure they aren’t black flagged, with some drivers simply lifting off the throttle as they tip-toe past the monitoring booth, while other racers reroute their exhaust to come out the left side of the car and away from the monitoring instruments.

Corvettes are far more civilized, of course. For some time now, Corvettes can be equipped with mufflers that, for normal driving including Laguna Seca, can have their exhaust gases pass through a partly baffled muffler, and yet can be opened up fully via a bypass switch operated from within the cabin. Pictured above are a set of Z06 mufflers that A&A Corvette Performance are holding for me that can operate in this fashion - Andy will cut off the pipes aft of the muffler, gut them, and equip with a valve - and we will be looking to have these installed following our trip to Boulder.

We have been reluctant to change the mufflers, but it’s no longer an issue of gaining extra horsepower no matter how small, although this is likely to be a byproduct, but ensuring the supercharged Vette just breaths better at mid to high revs. We have taken a set of American Racing 1 7/8ths headers and fed them into a 3”collector and long pipes, and run them all the way back to the stock mufflers where there’s only one small exit to a dual exhaust tip. By going this route we will more than double the volumne of exhaust gas that can exit through the muffler.

This event is scheduled for July but rather than turning up to Laguna Seca without any prior experience driving with the group, in June we are planning on spending a weekend with Speed Ventures out at Willow Springs. This is one of favorite tracks where Margo and I have spent many weekends and where we will be able to gain a measure of our capabilities, as compared to the other participants. It will also be a great way to introduce ourselves and to become familiar with those drivers we will likely meet at Laguna Seca. We are extremely grateful for all the time NASA instructors devoted to us and we are sure going to value the effort they made.

Some months back, as we flipped through the calendar of events, we saw that the Laguna Seca event in July was to be followed by an August weekend back at Auto Club Speedway. This is a circuit we would like to explore more, and to really improve our driving skills. Over the past two years at NASA events on this track, we have come away with mixed feelings and know we can do a lot better. Perhaps an outing with Speed Ventures, and among the drivers we will have been on track with for the previous two months will help us. The big Vette certainly feels at home on this track and I was pretty impressed with the way it handled earlier this year, so perhaps we will finally come to terms with the tracks infield “Roval”.

Of all the changes we are anticipating over the coming months, perhaps the most exciting will be our first event out of the country. For our annual vacation we will be going to Europe where we will be renting a car and driving through Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and Switzerland. As we near the end of the vacation we have booked a day on the Nurburgring north loop, the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife. Cars frequently turn up at our NASA track events with decals showing the outline of the fabled track and it’s just been one of those things we have always wanted to do.

Rather than trying to sneak our rental cars onto the track, we have reserved Lotus Exige S 240 track cars for the day, and we will be joined by Brian and Jan. Ron Simons, Director and Chief Instructor for RSR Nurburg (http://www.rsrnurburg.com/) worked with us to set up the day and the picture above is from his web site – it’s the famous “karussell” and one of the more challenging parts of the track! Ron has a Lamborghini Gallardo available and it was a close call but after visiting the local Lotus dealer and checking out the Exige, it’s going to be a day that will not be forgotten!

The changes we are making are not being undertaken lightly. We don’t change our cars all that often. Recently, however, we have come across deals that we simply found too hard to walk away from. Changes to our track car, on the other hand will continue but scaled back a lot from what we did earlier; now it’s just one item at a time. A situation that’s a lot more manageable and where we can quickly assess the benefits provided.

Margo and I are coming to the realization that track days will not become central to our lives as there are so many other things we want to do, but we are happy with the progress we made over the past three years. We wanted to be able to drive our cars a lot closer to their capabilities than can be achieved on highways, and we are doing that. We wanted to experience world-class tracks, and now we are doing that as well. The mantra at NASA has always been to drive fast! safely! have fun!

And there’s no way either one of us can deny that we have done all three and because of that, we will always find some time each year to pay down a couple of more laps. Somewhere! Anywhere! And among friends we would have only met in pursuing this pastime.

A father's advice ...

2010-04-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

The preparation for a weekend at the track has become a ritual, really! Typically, it involves changing the street wheels and tires for a wheel and tire package that I have set aside for track use only. The shiny chrome wheels, shod as they are with Michelin Pilot Sports are probably a good set-up for the track, but I have become fond of the black wheels and the Toyo R888s that see only track day usage. Once the wheels have been changed it’s a visit to the local car wash for a comprehensive bucket-wash and hand wax before I affix the car’s distinctive 116 numbers. The picture above is of the car in the garage as I go about changing the wheels.

As I was working on the car, preparing this time for a weekend at the Auto Club Speedway, where only a short time before NASCAR had held its annual event, I recalled the many weekends that were spent watching my father perform maintenance on the family car, back in Sydney, Australia. Whether it was cleaning the carburetor, calibrating the spark plugs, or changing the head gaskets, my father was a great “wrench” man! All the while, watching him meticulously working on the car, all I wanted to know was whether it was finished or not, and could we go for a drive! He never had the opportunity to go to the track in those early post-war years, when resources of any kind were scarce, but helping me jack up the big ‘Vette, changing the wheels and tires, torque-ing the lug nuts, would be tasks he would have been only too willing to help me perform.

The Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, formerly Cal Speedway, has proved to be a popular venue for club events. It’s always a thrill just to drive under the main straight and into the infield. When we participate in events at the Auto Club Speedway, we rent a garage close by our good friends Brian and Jan. Parked alongside their Corvette it seemed as though the garages held nothing but Corvettes and the picture below shows a Corvette C5 Z06 at the far end, with a C6 ZR1 alongside us. While the other tracks we visit favor the nimble “foreign cars” like Porsches, BMWs, and the ever-present buzzing cloud of Hondas and Mazdas, the Auto Club Speedway draws in the big cars; the Mustangs, Vipers, ‘Vettes, together with a sprinkling of new Challengers and Camaros.

The layout of the track used by the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) is called the “Roval” and it includes the main straight of the NASCAR oval through to the steeply banked turns 1 and 2. Halfway down the back straight a ninety degree left-hand turn, that’s followed immediately by a ninety degree right-hand turn, takes you onto an infield road course. A final set of turns, simply called “The Complex”, brings you back onto the main straight. It had been about a year since I was last on the circuit, so when it came time to drive under the luxury boxes and into the hot pits, I was a little anxious.

With five minutes remaining before I was to drive onto the track, even though I was driving in NASA’s High Performance Driver Education (HDE) Group 2 with no need to take an instructor with me, I saw Terry Free alongside the pit wall and waved him over to the car. Terry campaigns a Corvette Z06 in time trials (TTU) and I’ve never turned down an opportunity for driving with an instructor.

What a disaster! As we were about to depart the pits, Terry gave me an earpiece / mic set up so we could better communicate, but after only a hundred yards or so out on the track I could tell we would be having problems. I couldn’t understand one thing Terry was saying! The more I concentrated on what he was coming through the earpiece, the less attention I was paying to the track. My lines simply fell apart and I could hear Terry attempting to make even more suggestions. Then the automatic transmission decided to give up. On the third lap, using the paddle mode, as I like to do, the gearbox wouldn’t shift out of third gear. Imagine leaving the complex and driving out hard onto the Oval, listening as the engine revs climbed past 6,200 rpm only to find no more gears!

Quickly shifting out of the automatic’s sport mode to just the regular drive mode yielded nothing – all I had was the last gear selected in sports mode. Third gear was all I had and nothing I did would entice the gearbox to give me anything else. So, I took a deep breath, backed off a little, and finished the session in third gear. Backing off further for the cool-down lap, I was despondent and worried about how the weekend was going to turn out.

After the ritual of preparing the car and having it look as good as I could get it, to end up with a gearbox that wasn’t reliable was a return to earlier times where I had experienced similar occurrences, but where I had been assured by the GM tech’s who had taken a look at the problem that the issue had been resolved. The picture above is of me crossing the start / finish line during that morning session.

There was little time to worry about it as the download meeting, following the first session, was lengthy and it was then back out onto the track. For the second session, I was out on the track by myself, and began to settle down – the first session nerves firmly behind me. I just pulled tightly on my seat belt and took the car slowly for the first three laps to check it out and it was only as I started the third lap that the transmission once again locked itself firmly in third gear.

With way more torque than anyone sensibly could use, I just decided to run the session in third gear and to use the time to practice my lines and to work on finding a smooth line around the track. If this was all the car I had, I was going to have to figure out a way to wring the most from it. As the session was winding down, and with only a couple of laps to go, I shifted between sports and drive modes one more time, and suddenly found the drive mode working! I had gears with shifts that were pretty slow, mind you, but I began to figure out where gear change-downs could be induced and how heavy on the gas pedal I needed to be to force the change without overloading the rear-end with too much torque.

The picture above is of me coming down from the banking on the exit from turn one following a fast run down the main straight. The third and fourth sessions of the day turned out to be much better as I overcame the shortcomings of the transmission and used the delayed changes to my advantage. The previous outing at the track I was barely breaking into the 2:25s but during the third session, Jan had been hand timing me on her iPhone and clicked off 2:12s, then 2:11s, followed by a succession of lower times until I dropped to 2:07:01 as the session ended.

On the fourth and final session of the day I backed-off a little as my brain was beginning to slow down, and yet was still happily circulating with lap times of 2:08s. To be clear, having a friend time you on her iPhone is not competitive driving, certainly not TT (Time Trial) where a transponder is attached to your car, and split seconds can be attributed as much to my improved performance as to Jan being perhaps slow to hit the button, but all the same I was pleased!

Sunday was Margo’s turn out onto the track. Due to other commitments, Margo only joined us late Saturday afternoon and had missed much of my time on the track. While she had spent just one session on the circuit a year ago, this was essentially new territory for her and she had some anxieties about what lay ahead. The picture below is of Margo passing the start / finish line during her first session.

The early going turned out to be difficult. The skill levels of the participants was significant, with several of the Group 2 drivers, with the experience from four sessions the day before, being a lot quicker than the rest. Compounding this was the appearance of some new arrivals arriving with more powerful cars. There were now a couple of Corvette Z06s in the group as well as some race cars. And after a few laps they were into the pack of Group 1 drivers where instructors were keen to waive them by.

The final session of the day went smoothly for Margo and the picture below is of her throwing the big ‘Vette through a series of right, then left, corners leading into the complex. Clearly visible in the picture is Margo making full use of the track with the car nicely dancing over the rumble strip encroaching into the corner’s apex. Margo did not enjoy her experience, and now wants to consider other options including attending other club events where she’d be left alone to practice – the input she is now receiving is no longer helping her at this point. As we had two cars at the track, it was a long and lonely drive home. However, over cocktails, we began to plot anew what our goals really are for track days.

This past weekend we had thought we would be joining NASA for their outing at Buttonwillow, but our plans changed as we headed in the opposite direction. The Long Beach Grand Prix, where I had seen my first F1 event in March, 1977, was the venue for the second round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Again, our good friend Brian was with us and we took advantage of the hospitality on offer in the Corvette Corral. Brian’s wife Jan is the mother-in-law of Bryan Herta, a former CART / Indy / ALMS racer who is now the very proud owner of an Indy Lights team - Bryan Herta Motorsports. This weekend they would be fielding a two car team for drivers Sebastian Saavedra and Stefan Wilson. Last time out, Saavedra had earned a spot on the podium and expectations were high for the team to again perform well.

One benefit of the relationship was that Brian was able to join the Bryan Herta Motorsports team in the pits for the qualifying laps, Saturday, as well as for the race, Sunday. The race proved frustrating for Wilson but Saavedra brought his car home in fourth place. Brian was standing alongside Saavedra’s father and as Brian congratulated him on his son’s good fortunes, Saacedra’s father remarked “Sebastian understands well what I always taught him; if you don’t have a first place car, don’t drive it like one! Drive the car you have, finish the race, and take the points!”

Checking the web for results of the Indy Car race later, I came across the online publication PaddockTalk and read a posting by M Sulka on the fortunes of Wil Power, an Australian racer with Team Penske and a pre-race favorite to win the event. Unfortunately, Power only managed a third place finish and, according to the Sulka, Power had remarked, "once it became clear we weren't going to win … I just consolidated my position, and tried to get good points." Almost the same expression as Brian had heard in the pits of Bryan Herta Motorsport. These comments, coming as they did as I was developing the storyline for this blog posting, it only served to remind me of what went through my own mind that weekend at the Auto Club Speedway.

It’s still a surprise to me how much good advice a father can provide. In the Saavedra family, it certainly made a difference. Last year I missed another NASA weekend at Buttonwillow as my father passed away and we made the trip back to Sydney to attend his memorial service. His last car? Yes, he bought a stick-shift sports car and only reluctantly gave it up a short time back when his diminishing eyesight made trips just a tad too exciting for my sister, Judy.

Would he have wanted to help me with my routines? I have no doubt he would. My father never saw me at the track, but we frequently discussed at length our outings with NASA. I was never given the good advice for racing that Saavedra received from his father, but the love I have for cars, and for driving, definitely was a gift from my father.

I could complain about the car all I wanted, that weekend in Fontana, to anyone prepared to listen. As racers know only too well, to finish first, you first must finish! There wasn’t much that I could do about the Corvette’s automatic gearbox, of course, but like Power and Saavedra, I simply had to reconcile with the fact that the Corvette was only going to give me what it had, and I was just going to have to drive the car I had!

Rain dancing ...

2010-02-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

We are home in Boulder. We have one furnace not working and all the while, the snow keeps coming down. I have lit the gas fires but the air has a distinct chill to it – this time, I can’t wait to get back to California. I have pulled out the maps to look at routes and I25 north to I80 “across the top” seems to be about the only option, and we will leave Sunday before lunch with hopes of making it back to the West Coast by Tuesday. The picture above is looking out our back door, past our BBQ and into a small grove of Aspens, and it’s a picture I shot with little enthusiasm to walk any further from the warmth of the house.

Viewing weather maps, and looking up small townships to check the local conditions, have become part of our routine these past few months. As the time for our first outing with National Auto Sport Association (NASA) program, High Performance Driver Education (HPDE), approached there was no question about it. I was getting concerned. We had paid our registration fee several weeks before the event, with little concern about weather conditions, but as the week before the event wound down it became pretty clear, we would be in for a wet weekend!

For readers who check out my business blog you may recall the post of February 10th, ’10 “Taking the party to the village …” where the opening paragraphs talked about driving in the rain. For two years now Margo and I have discussed how we wouldn’t turn a lap if we encountered rain – after all, the ‘Vette was her daily drive. All 600+ horse power. How would it handle in these conditions? Would I have the patience to just dial it back a tad, and take it easy? Or would I be the first one to slide off the track and return to the pits covered in mud! The look of concern on Margo’s face clearly suggested it would be the latter!

In the lead up to the weekend event at Willow Springs International Raceway (Big Willow), I had taken the ‘Vette back to our local dealer for an inspection as it had been several months since we were last at the track. Everything checked out OK – the brake pads were showing signs of wear but would be fine for one or two more weekends. There were new tires on the car – for the last event we participated in ’09 we changed up to Toyo R888s, much to the consternation of our instructors, but after only eight heat cycles they looked pretty good and we had kept the ‘Vette off the street. All the same, it was definitely a case of keeping our fingers crossed as we took to the track for the first session on Saturday, with rain coming down in a steady stream.

Saturday would be my day behind the wheel, and I lined up at the head of the HPDE Group 2 to see that there was only one other student. Another car did show, as we peeled out of the hot pits, but all the same, the field was way down compared to previous outings at Big Willow. The track is a fast track that suits the big horsepower cars and there had always been a solid showing of Mustangs, Corvettes, and Vipers but not this weekend. As I waited for the session to start, I did step out of the car to look at the main straight only to be greeted with large pools scattered randomly along the length of the straight. Oh boy, I thought, I wonder what effect this will have on our cars as we all get onto the gas as we accelerate hard on this section of the circuit.

No matter how many times I have been to a track, if an instructor comes up to my car, they are always welcome to join me. I’m not proud, and there’s still a lot I can learn from someone watching me as I continue to sort out my lines. Sitting nervously by myself, as a Group 2 “newbie” and having only driven one session before by myself, I was greatly relived when Mike, an instructor I have talked to and who races a Factory Five Cobra, asked if he could come for the ride! The picture above is from a little later in the day but it gives an accurate portrayal of what were the conditions out on the track.

I was clearly rusty the first time out. Missing apexes and not letting the car track out as I should. My hands gripped the wheel about as tightly as they could – I was hanging on for the ride. As for the pools of water on the main straight, I learnt very quickly to avoid them when accelerating! Visibility wasn’t that bad so there were no concerns on that front, but feeling the car moving around under me was very unsettling. The tires worked wonderfully well and as they warmed a little more with each lap, confidence finally returned and I eased up on my grip of the wheel.

I was once again working on the sequence of turns that make up the “omega” – turns 3, 4, and 5, and I was beginning to find a rain line I liked. What was a new experience for me was ignoring the lines I had previously followed as they no longer worked as effectively in the rain – I didn’t track out quite as wide before turn-ins as I had on previous outings (leaving a little margin for error), braking was a little sooner and gas pedal depressions weren’t as aggressive. Smoothness really was the byword of the day – every input whether turning the car, braking, or accelerating all had to be done fully aware that any unsettling of the car that could easily see it break traction and head for the infield.

I was still a little uneasy about being out on the track, and as the session ended I was grateful to be back under cover. By the time the second session came around, the nerves were on edge again. Lined up in the pits, I had decided to drive by myself and to see how much of Mike’s suggestions I could implement and repeat consistently. With only the two cars in Group 2 we were able to take to the track with a little separation between us and the cars in Group 1. Fulton, our instructor on the track, was once again leading us for a few laps before waving us by so he could check on the others. After the green flag was waved and the session started, I stayed focused on Fulton as I continued to try different lines. After only a couple of laps, I had one of the worst experiences, ever, on the track and one that saw me come into the pits to compose myself.

Unaware that I had attracted a Saturn from Group 1 that had tucked in close behind me, I was completely taken by surprise as I began to turn-in at corner 5 only to see a black Saturn pull right inside me, door handle to door handle! The Saturn took away any option I had to complete the turn and I had to swing wide to avoid him, and brake hard so I didn’t leave the track. I had just been effectively “dive bombed” on a section of track that was closed for passing. The incident brought the two cars so close together that I still can’t believe I missed running into him. As I came back up to speed, I was shaking – where did he come from? Why had I missed him in my mirrors? And what was he doing overtaking in a section off-limits to passing of any kind?

In the subsequent download session the incident was duly noted, and an explanation was requested by John, our head instructor. “He braked earlier than he had before, and I found myself without brakes. Rather than running up the back of him I swung inside and then, had to turn in more quickly than I had wanted to in order to avoid T-boning him!” Ryan, the driver of the Saturn, sought me out later to apologize and I could easily tell the situation had shaken him as well. “Your lines were pretty good so I tucked in behind you to follow you, but I ended up following you a little too closely!”

The picture above is of the conditions on the track following the luncheon adjournment. Groups 1 and 2 don’t return to the track until well after 3:00pm and by this time, the rain had stopped and the track had dried out. With a small group of cars behind me, I was able to settle in and after four or five laps began to lap some of the slower cars in Group 1. Traditionally, the third session of the day has been notorious for “offs” and the list of guilty parties given to John for the download has sometimes included more incidents than participants. But on this occasion, there were no reports and John was about as pleased with himself as I have ever seen him! “Well done, and see if we can finish the day with a clean sheet!”

Between sessions I sought out Mike and asked him if he would like to come with me for the last session of the day. Could he just see how I had worked on his suggestions and adjusted to the conditions of the track? Without a further thought, Mike came up to me in the pits, helmet in hand, and jumped into the passenger seat. This would be my last session of the day and, not unexpectedly, the rain came down once again. Perhaps not quite as heavy as we had encountered in the morning sessions, but enough all the same to see pooling, once again, on the main straight. My fellow Group 2 driver, a young lad in a well-tuned Audi A6, wasn’t going to be joining the group this time as he had damaged his radiator last time out and the car had been “retired.”

After three sessions and no “offs” I was finding a line that seemed to work for me. A few minor inputs from Mike and I quickly settled into a line, lap after lap. Not a tire off the track, not an apex pinched, and not an exit reigned in too tightly. By the second to last lap, I passed all of the Group 1 cars and Mike’s reaction was positive and encouraging. “A big improvement over your first session, and pretty close to perfect for the conditions; well done,” was the response from Mike and with that, I was pleased to be able to return the car to Margo in the same shape as she had given it to me in the morning!

As fortune would have it, Sunday dawned sunny and dry. We could see the surrounding mountain ranges and the higher elevations were all dusted in snow! Big Willow has thrown heat-waves at us, as well as bitterly cold mornings. To have seen off the rain came as a welcome relief, and Margo couldn’t have been happier. The picture above is of her out on the track mid morning. Margo was teamed with Terry, her instructor, and the pairing was a good one, as Terry races a Corvette. “She isn’t afraid to go fast,” Terry informed me as they returned to the paddock.

Watching Margo from the grandstand at the end of the main straight it was clear Margo was taking a little time to adjust and as always, a little anxious about messing up the lines of more aggressive drivers behind her and wanting them to pass at the first opportunity. However, she quickly settled in and watching her through turns 6, 7, 8 and 9, I could see she hadn’t forgotten much from her last outing in ’09. Margo was having fun and with a dry track, was using it all as she gave the big “Vette it’s head!

Margo’s second session would be the last of the weekend as we had to return home and attend to a number of outstanding business items. The picture above is of a close-up of Margo concentrating hard behind the wheel of the ‘Vette as she came out of turn 2 and headed for the omega complex. As in the earlier session of the morning, Margo didn’t put a foot wrong and easily improved her pace around the circuit. And as she came back into the paddock for the last time, the smiles were obvious. Terry was pleased with her progress and, for the first outing of ‘10, Margo had set a pretty impressive starting point.

The final picture, below, is of “Team Corvette” preparing to depart. Once again, we had the good fortune to share the weekend with Brian and Jan Kenny and to enjoy the comforts of their spectacular RV. Enjoying a quiet Martini Saturday night while Brian was slow-roasting pork ribs, was an experience we thoroughly enjoyed. Brian continued to improve his times in the red ‘Vette, but already discussions were turning to what further improvements could be made to the car to keep up with Joe in his black Z06 ‘Vette. We will need to make sure we invite Joe to our Corvette paddock when we get to the upcoming event at the Auto Club Speedway.

Track conditions will always be changing. Whether the thermometer climbs into the high 100s or sinks below freezing point, the track remains the same and it’s the participants that need to make adjustments. We so often talk about being consistent and about being smooth, but driving in the rain, these guidelines become particularly important. Realizing that the line is very different from the dry weather line was quite a surprise but I was able to make the adjustments. On the return trip home, we were already beginning to put together our plans for the next event. And relishing the opportunity to go fast, have a lot of fun, all the while doing so with safety. There just can’t be a better recipe for a great weekend, no matter what Mother Nature may throw our way!

Now, all we have to do is get out of Boulder and make it safely back to the coast. See you all at Auto Club Speedway in a few weeks time!

Looking back on 2009

2010-01-30T20:20:00.000-08:00

Where did 2009 go? It’s a cliché, but the years seem to be flying by and while I was assembling my thoughts and preparing to write, a check of my calendar tells me there’s only a week to go before we begin a new year of track events. At least we had some down time during the holidays to pull corks from some good wine and the picture above shows a couple of fine Australian wines – a 1998 Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon alongside what turned out to be an even better 1996 Lindeman’s Padthaway Shiraz.

The wines had developed wonderfully as they had aged, and it was difficult not to feel sorry that the number of bottles I had on hand were limited. The past couple of years has seen the cellar become somewhat depleted as we have failed to replenish the inventory as often as we have helped ourselves to our stash. Then again, we wouldn’t want any of the wines to go off and turn to vinegar either. The aging of wines, on the one hand, brings with it the promise of better things to come and as I think back on our track days in 2009, I can see some definite signs that improvements are happening.

In 2008 we managed to make it to the track for five weekends, but in 2009 we made it to the track for seven weekends. Whereas in 2008 we lapped just two circuits – three if you count driving around one track clockwise and counter-clockwise, in 2009 we lapped five different circuits. We continued to gain experience at Willow Springs and ButtonWillow, but we found the time to add weekends at the Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, California, the Colorado State Patrol Driving Academy course at Golden, Colorado, and the brand new High Plains Raceway at Byers, Colorado. We even managed a session as passengers around Laguna Seca.

Along with the weekends at the track, we not only built experience but we also built friendships. It wasn’t always easy and we had our moments but we did develop friendships with the instructors and track support volunteers at NASA Southern California. With their help and guidance we certainly came on strongly towards the end of the year. We also developed friendships with other drivers – Joe, Carlos, Steffen – all of them made significant strides through the year and have become terrific drivers. We also developed a very strong friendship with Brian and Jan, who we first met at the end of 2008. We spent many weekends with them and I was able to pick up a lot of tips from them as we continued to review the weekend in the weeks between each event.

When I wrote the final post for 2008, I closed with the remark “when 2010 rolls around, we may again consider taking the Z06 to California. For this coming year however, it will be a full calendar of events for the C6 Supercharged LS2 ‘Vette. It may not be the perfect car to use for learning and the wheels and tires may require changing, but then again, this is all about the driver and it will be the source of a lot of fun as we head back to the track! Yes, we want to go faster and yes, we enjoy it. But even more importantly, we want to become better drivers …”

Full calendar of events? While we had high hopes for participating in all the events run by NASA SoCal, we didn’t quite make it. Combinations of our own anxieties and stress, the demands of business and a number of family situations, cut into our weekends at the track but through it all the management of NASA was very supportive. And for the kindness and support they showed us, we were very grateful.

Become better drivers? Sharing the one car is something that we enjoyed doing and it kept us both involved as each weekend unfolded. But it was effectively cutting our time on the track in half. We continued to experiment by first alternating sessions with each of us driving two sessions on each day, and then switching to what we had done on some weekends in 2008 – each of us driving for a full day with Margo driving all of Sunday’s sessions while I went out first and drove all the sessions on Saturdays. By the end of 2009 we found we gained more experience when driving all four sessions of a day and will continue with this pattern as we begin 2010.

A perfect car? We started with the C6 ‘Vette but after the first weekend, switched to the lesser-powered, “momentum” car, our Infiniti G37S coupe. For several outings, it certainly proved to be a good vehicle for learning new circuits. However, after only four weekends, we had demolished its brakes and rotors and worn out a set of tires. So we finished the year back in the C6 ‘Vette. By no means a perfect car, but we decided that if we were committing ourselves to improving our skills, it was pointless to trash two cars and as we had already earmarked the C6 ‘Vette as our track toy, we were better off staying with it.

Margo certainly showed the most improvement. Her first outing at Willow Springs was essentially a fresh start as the break between the seasons had been lengthy. But it was not a case of starting from nothing, as quickly the track took on some familiarity and she showed some consistency. By the end of that first day, she was looking forward to her next outing. When Margo returned to Willow Springs a couple of months later, our instructor Fulton presented her with a set of racing gloves for being the most improved driver and I had the chance to see the improvement first hand – from the passenger seat of Fulton’s ride as we tucked in behind Margo for a few laps.

From her early outings where she wasn’t sure where the track was going, Margo was now carrying a lot of speed through Willow Spring’s notorious turns 8 and 9 and her line onto the main straight was spot on! It became apparent to all of the instructors that Margo takes two or three laps to settle into any sort of a rhythm with the car. But after these initial laps, Margo lifts he eyes and looks further down the track and becomes smoother and more consistent. Standing alongside the track, this is very easy to see – and the picture above is of her, several weeks later, cresting Magic Mountain at ButtonWillow!

Perhaps the best testament to Margo’s improvement came when she spent two 30 minute sessions back to back on the tight, technically-challenging Academy track at Golden, without an instructor in her car!. Following a basic triangle shape, with a chicane in the middle of the triangle’s longest straight, the track also included several quick changes in elevation that unsettled the car. But despite this she managed to chase down a brand-new Callaway Corvette to be given a point by, and then tucked in behind two Vipers and stayed with them for the remainder of the session. I was lucky to see this up close as I volunteered to be a corner marshal and was the flagman during her two sessions. She maintains that being in a car by herself actually lifted her game.

The C6 ‘Vette remains a handful. Margo continues to drive it in full auto mode with no use of the “optional” paddle shifters. Nevertheless, with the experience she gained in the Infiniti coupe, the big ‘Vette is still the car she enjoys driving the most. After all, it’s her “daily drive” and the car she spends the most time in so even though it may be holding her back and slowing her development, she plans to continue driving it. For 2010 I have to say I will not be surprised at all if she does indeed develop into the better driver and shows me up with more consistent and smoother laps!

As for me, the year proved to be a very “mixed-bag” as I tried to put together consecutive “good laps.” In the last event of 2008, I had finished my day by spinning the ‘Vette coming onto the main straight at ButtonWillow, only missing the pit wall by inches. So I was very determined to exhibit a little more care with every lap I drove and to be aware, at all times of my position on the track. I really wanted to concentrate better and to remain focused on being smooth – consistency and smoothness will see speed increase, I have been told time and time again!

In the first session of my first weekend, at Willow Springs and in the “Vette, I stepped on the gas a little too soon after coming out of the tricky turn 5 and where there’s a crest that un-weights the car, as I looked to pass the car in front of me. Sure enough, the back came around and I had a little agricultural excursion but I kept the car straight and returned to the track once the cars behind me had passed and it was safe. The first weekend at ButtonWillow, during the third session, I recall, I missed an apex that positioned me poorly as I rounded a turn just prior to “the Bus Stop” and looped the car again. And during the last session at the Academy track at Golden, I spun the car when I stepped on the gas too soon (again) coming onto the main straight.

The issue for me throughout 2009 was concentration. As simple as it may seem, I had difficulties focusing for the full twenty minutes and I struggled to be consistent. I may put together three or four good laps in one session, but struggled to repeat them only an hour or so later in the following session. The picture above is of me looking ahead during the last weekend at ButtonWillow, but for the most part I was guilty of looking everywhere except where I should have been looking. I had never given any serious consideration to thinking about the mental aspects of driving before attending my first track day, but after two years this has now become the most important aspect of my future learning. For 2010, I really do have to sort out this aspect of my approach to driving and to figure out a way to block out all other considerations – oh look! There goes a rabbit!

Against this background, I still managed to improve and with the weekend at Auto Club Speedway, I managed to move up to HPDE 2. I am now driving sessions only under the watchful eye of the head instructor as I no longer have an instructor in the passenger seat. Of course, the first couple of times out came with some anxieties, but I have found that I am dealing with less distractions without the additional guidance. Not that I am not in need of the guidance, mind you, but for the most part I now know my way around each of the tracks and what I am working on is making sure I hit braking zones, turn-in correctly, put a tire right on the apex where it needs to be, each time, and exit using all of the track!

Leafing through the pages of Cycle World a few weeks ago, I came across a feature story by Mathew Miles on Ride Craft – “Be a better rider!” The story was about a new motor cycle riding school that had opened outside Birmingham, Alabama, and he explained that the “school curriculum focuses on the following: visual awareness and concentration; body position and steering; cornering lines and reference points; gear selection and shifting; braking, staying smooth and controlling panic.” It then told of how chief instructor Ted Cobb told the class “don’t worry about speed … rather, focus on finding reference points, looking up the track, and smoothly applying the throttle and the brakes. The speed will come later – naturally.” Cobb closed with stressing “we need you to anticipate, not react.”

This is exactly what our instructors had been telling me for the past two years. Stay with the fundamentals and you will improve! Yet, I still wasn’t convinced that I was giving myself enough time and that I should be trying to drive more laps. When I asked the national chairman of NASA, Ryan Flaherty about this, he responded with “every single lap should yield an improvement however undetectable. Let’s say you do 8 laps in a session. That is 32 laps in a day doing the same thing. An apex is an apex so while the tracks change, the fundamentals remain the same. 32 laps x 8 events= 256 laps of potential learning. Will you become a more skilled driver? Absolutely.”

Our “sophomore year” proved to be a mixed year for us. We had improved over 2008, and we understood how much further we had to go and the difficulties that we faced. I am now a lot less concerned about moving up to the more advanced HPDE categories as I was a year ago. If either of us improves, then this will just happen! The track remains the same no matter what group you drive in – and that’s the only challenge we are both interested in. Improving our concentration, staying focused and fully aware of our track situation at all times, and working on being smooth for the full twenty minutes!

Looking ahead to 2011 and beyond, we want to diversify a tad and spend more time riding our motorcycles and playing golf. 2010 is probably the last year of attempting to get to all NASA events we can – and Margo keeps reminding me that we need to reserve a few weekends for wine tasting, too! And with that, just as I said at the end of 2008 – see you all at Willow Springs next week!

The Fifth Element

2009-12-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

It wasn’t to be, after all; we missed the final weekend of NASA’s Southern California (SoCal) region’s 2009 program. It was going to be touch and go anyway as we had just returned to Los Angeles, having spent a week in Sydney, Australia. On arriving in Simi Valley, a family emergency arose that saw us spending the weekend navigating the Interstate system instead, as we drove back to Boulder.

However, we had spent a weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway in October, and had really enjoyed it. I am very pleased to write that we are both showing signs of improvement and the good form we had demonstrated at Cal Speedway the previous month turned out not to be an anomaly. The picture above is of the Corvette before heading to Buttonwillow, leaving the car wash, where it had caught the attention of the local Simi Valley constabulary – the new black and blue color scheme suggesting to the officers present that it would make the perfect backup for their mobile command center. In case they needed to get somewhere in a hurry, of course!

We have built a friendship with Brian and Jan, our Starbucks buddies in Simi Valley. After spending weekends with them at Willow Springs and Cal Speedway, they joined us for the weekend at Buttonwillow – a track they least liked to drive in their ‘Vette. Brian had made some major modifications to the car and was a little anxious to see how it would perform. With a new cam, new intake manifolds (port and polished), new headers and long pipes, and re-mapped engine software, his ‘Vette was putting out more power than a showroom version of the C6 Z06 ‘Vette.

And the weekend at Buttonwillow saw us once again, as it just so happened, spending our last outing for 2009 in our C6 Z51 Corvette Coupe. Supercharged, with improved transmission software, and newly shod with Toyo R888’s on wider wheels. The picture below gives you and idea of how the old Pirelli tires looked, compared to the new tires, after dutifully supporting a year on the open road as well as 6 weekends at the track.

Two weeks before Buttonwillow, however, and with Fall making its first appearance across the Rockies, we signed up for a three day weekend at the new High Plains Raceway (HPR), just outside Byers, Colorado. This was only an hour’s drive from our house in Boulder, and we had been relishing the thought of checking out this new track. Two different clubs would be running programs, with the Colorado Exotic Car Association (CECA) running on the Saturday and NASA’s Rocky Mountain region running a full program on the Sunday. And did I mention the track had an open lapping day on the Friday!

Brian and Jan flew in and spent the weekend with us in Boulder – but this time, our car of choice would be the Infiniti G37S coupe. We were growing fond of this car and found it the ideal choice with which to learn a new course. Brian, on the other hand, had arranged through a friend, to learn the track in a Viper SRT/10 roadster and the picture below is of the odd looking team that resulted. I never did get to see much of Brian and he quickly adapted to the “black asp!”

The track had opened earlier this year. And what a treat! With corners labeled “Danny’s Lesson”, “Ladder to Heaven”, “High Plains Drifter”, and the “Prairie Corkscrew”, the track took full advantage of the many elevation changes the location afforded. And spending Friday afternoon to figure it all out? Priceless! It was an experience well worth the time invested – it made the rest of the weekend’s outings more enjoyable!

Unfortunately, this time Margo remained in Boulder, tending to the family – but what an experience she missed! As you would expect from an open lapping day, the caliber of participants spanned the full range from novice to out-and-out racer. At one point, I was on the track at the same time as well-known NASA NoCal “American Iron” racer, and just to have the opportunity to watch his lines, at least until he rapidly disappeared into the horizon, was well worth every penny I spent! Later, I took a few laps with him as his passenger, and really appreciated his skills!

NASA Rocky Mountain region runs a much less formal program than any of us, familiar with SoCal, are used to. But the instruction provided by David Wright, Group 2 instructor, was the equal of what I had experienced at SoCal. At one point, the head instructor, Kevin Rogers pulled aside all the Group 2 drivers to caution us that drivers, new to Group 2, often experience a falling away and become frustrated. They begin to miss apexes, and stop using “all of the track”. For those with an interest in progressing to Group 3, it was important to stay focused on these basic fundamentals of driving, as bad habits are so easy to develop at this critical juncture and, left unaddressed, were likely to keep them from joining Group 3, should that be their objective!

Even with the basic elements of cornering well understood however, I found myself continually in traffic and, with more passing opportunities, coming upon braking areas from everywhere on the track that gave me a different perspective on corner-exits every time. This led to me making some pretty frenetic adjustments, earlier in the weekend as I drove in smaller groups, with many more passing zones, as I struggled to nail my braking points. But with the words of Kevin in the back of my mind, I worked hard on hitting my apexes and on using the whole track!

With the opportunity to spend time alongside a racer in his street ‘Vette, as well as with my friend Allen who frightened the life out of me in his Viper, especially when he did a late pass on Brian in our Infiniti Coupe, with Jan alongside as a passenger, I was given the perfect opportunity to really come to terms with the track. When we finally left HPR late on Sunday, after two and a half days of track time, the brakes on the Coupe were in a pretty sad state - the original equipment pads weren’t really designed for the heat that we generated - and the rotors looked pretty badly scored. The Coupe’s original Bridgestone tires, even though they performed extremely well and much better than I had anticipated, had been scrubbed down past the wear bars and looked every bit as bad as the brake rotors!

And the question we asked ourselves as we headed back to California was whether we really wanted to track multiple cars, or were we going to revisit tracking just the ‘Vette. Both cars were in need of new tires, some attention given to their brake rotors, and new sets of brake pads. It seemed pointless to spend the money on upgrading and maintaining both cars for track days. After much discussion, we decided to go back to the much-maligned ‘Vette. The picture below is of the afternoon we spent changing the wheels and tires on the ‘Vette having just replaced the front rotors as well as all four sets of brake pads.

The first reaction from our instructors was dismay as they caught sight of the Toyo R888s. What were we thinking? Circulating with HPDE Group 1 and 2 drivers, they were likely going to hide a multitude of driving sins, so we were informed. But we liked the feel and given that we had no aspirations of ever becoming racers, we managed to complete eight sessions without putting a wheel in the dirt. Certainly, the “turn-in” was much quicker and, once warm, the grip was terrific!

Following the success we experienced at Cal Speedway, and then again during the previous outing at Buttonwillow, we decided that I would drive all the sessions on Saturday and Margo will take the Sunday sessions. It may not be the best option but we continue to push back on taking two cars to the track – it is, after all, just a sport where the objective for both of us is to spend the weekend having fun and staying safe. And splitting the days this way ensured that we came away from the track having achieved exactly that – fun, in a safe environment. Over the course of the weekend, however, I was to learn even more about the track, and the ‘Vette.

Running in Group 2, I was with two or three particularly good drivers for HPDE “newbies.” They improved a lot, as the day progressed but during the first session, where I led the group out onto the track, I was just a little more familiar with the course and was able to put together a number of consistent laps. Fulton Haight, our instructor, set himself up for us to play “follow-the-leader” so that we could all get a better feel for the line, and it really helped. By the third session, however, I was no longer able to keep up with the lead two or three cars and two of them were “promoted” to Group 3 by the end of the day.

In the ‘Vette, I wasn’t putting together enough good back-to-back laps and I was a little down on speed. I now have a T-Shirt that reads “I’m not consistently good, but I’m sporadically great!” And that about sums up how I felt by the end of the weekend! The track gradually showed less hostility towards me and the ‘Vette, yet it’s way too soon to think of it as a friendship!

Watching Margo was quite the revelation. Starting out cautious, with an instructor fully aware of how she approaches each session and how she works best with minimal input, she continued to improve with every lap. Margo, more than anything else, drives smoothly and “manages” the gas peddle. The big ‘Vette is so easily thrown off-line, but I never saw as much as a nervous twitch all weekend with her behind the wheel. As the last session of Sunday came to an end, the smile was as big as it was genuine, and the degree of satisfaction from her accomplishments about as high as I have ever seen it.

For the weekend, we were able to enjoy the “creature comforts” we rarely experience at the track. Brian and Jan had just purchased a luxury 36’ RV and had tailored their ‘Vette to the track. So suddenly lunches and dinners became something we looked forward to and Saturday night’s cocktails and steaks proved exceptional. The picture above is of “Team Corvette” early morning Saturday.

Brian had been running very well and, following on from his experiences at Byers HPR, even though he didn’t particularly care for the Buttonwillow course, he was always mixing it with the quickest drivers in the group. In talking with Brian, he told me how their Group 3 instructor talked about the “fifth element’ – yes, there’s the exit and working back from the exit, there’s the apex, the turn-in point, and the braking zone. These four elements we are all very familiar with – but a fifth? Yes, you need to be aware at all times of your “position.” There’s no point to blindly master a specific line if you are rarely going to be given an open track!

In a rush, it came back to me. As I laid down laps at HPR only two weeks earlier, and where there had been a lot more passing zones, I frequently had to make adjustments as I approached braking zones, and as I transitioned to the turn-in, from different track positions with every lap. I had been preoccupied with trying to push the car to a spot on the track where I was comfortable, prior to braking. What I hadn’t realized was that I was experiencing first hand the subtleties that come with driving in traffic. I still have so much to learn!

No clearer demonstration of this was given to me then when Fulton came to me late Sunday afternoon and asked whether he could take the ‘Vette out in a Group 3 session and would I like to come for the ride. The instructors were still concerned about the “drivability” of the ‘Vette, particularly when the automatic transmission was controlled by the paddle shifters. Last year, early attempts at smoothing the torque delivery through programming changes had made the car difficult to control. Fulton suggested that if I was serious about continuing with the ‘Vette in 2010, he needed to see just how drivable it could be in the hands of someone more experienced competitively driving a high-torque car.

“I will drive a few laps as though I was a Group 3 driver,” he suggested as we left the hot pits. But after a few laps without incident, it was becoming clear he liked the big ‘Vette. Turning to me, he simply said “sweet!” And then he pushed the car a lot harder yet still below the level I am certain he could have if it had been his own car, and passed every car we came across. Physically man-handling the ‘Vette in a manner it would be many years before I could emulate, Fulton’s driving of the ‘Vette revealed a side that exemplified the true nature of America’s sports car!

The track is no different whether you participate in Group 1 or in Group 2. It’s no different if you are in the more advanced HPDE Groups, either. And it’s definitely no different for the racers. Irrespective of the level of experience any one of us may have, the track remains constant. The only issue I now have is that I am less able to get a clean lap as there’s always traffic with “trains” to join. With the tracks less hostile, and the car more manageable even as I become aware of the fifth element, 2010 should be a blast! Already the planning has begun and the upcoming holiday season looks to be nothing more than a minor distraction!

Give me a “brake” – concentrate!

2009-09-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

National Auto Sports Association (NASA) events take a break over the summer months as attention switches to the annual NASA Championships. This event is for racers, and not for students like us participating in the High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) program, so we just have to wait. After the successful weekend at Auto Club Speedway at the end of July, our next weekend with NASA will be in early October when we return to Buttonwillow.

We are planning on continuing using the Infiniti for the last two weekends of the season, as these will be held at Buttonwillow, and we have become better drivers at this track following the switch to the Infiniti coupe. But the weekend at Auto Club Speedway has fueled our enthusiasm for getting even more track time, so we decided to explore opportunities outside of NASA.

Our good friends Brian and Jan, who have joined us for several weekends with NASA, have spent time on the track with Speed Ventures, and as this club’s next event was planned for Laguna Seca, we thought we would join them. Not as participants, but as observers to see how other clubs ran track days. But we still had a lot of fun – and the picture at the top was taken of Brian and me dropping down through the famous “Corkscrew” at Laguna Seca.

Brian was extremely generous as he took Margo and me out for sessions, even though we both knew that Brian backs off a tad when there are passengers along for the ride. All the same, we have now experienced Laguna Seca up close and we are looking forward to penciling in a return weekend as part of our program in 2010.There had been a number of changes made to Brian’s ’08 C6 Vette, following the weekend at Auto Club Speedway, which had significantly improved the engine’s performance. More aggressive camshaft, new intake manifold (with a beautiful port and polish job), and American Racing headers with long pipes – the final dyno readings showing he now had about 470 “real-world” rear–wheel horse power.

As impressive as these figures were for the naturally-aspirated ‘Vette, since Brian was driving the 300 plus miles to and from the track he elected to stay with street tires and brakes. There were some anxious moments before driving out onto the track but as the laps unfolded, he made the adjustment, and the car ran smoothly and consistently all day. His best times came in the last couple of laps of the last session when he decided to “have a go.” But the ‘Vette is likely to get “new shoes” shortly as well as brakes (the rotors were beginning to crack again) and they were a concern for him at Laguna Seca. No question, this could quickly turn into a nightmare if his brakes weren’t up to the job!

Parked, as we were, among the other ‘Vettes, there were still many other interesting cars to look at. A transporter had come down from Alberta with a BMW, two Porsches, and a C5 Z06 ‘Vette. This group caught my eye as back in the ‘70s I had lived in Edmonton, Alberta, and driving down to Monterey had to have been quite the adventure. Across from us was a young lad with a nicely prepared supercharged Acura NSX that performed extremely well on the track. Nearby was a Radical powered by a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle engine that turned in some of the fastest lap times. The picture below is of the ‘Vettes, preparing for the next track session.

I had trekked up to the mid-point of the corners in the corkscrew, as I wanted to see Brian in action. I was with Jan who had brought along her camera as, in this session Margo would be Brian’s passenger. But what caught my attention was a new Nissan GT/R “Godzilla” that had arrived late in the morning and was now out on the track and mixing it up with a BMW M6 coupe. Brakes squealing, front ends forced down hard onto the track and scraping loudly, and the roar of the exhausts as drivers jumped back onto the gas - experienced from only a few feet away - was an astounding sight! More theater than you could experience from watching a Cirque du Soleil performance. I loved it!

Seeing the transporter from Alberta reminded me of a night, back in the mid ‘70s, when I took a walk around my hotel in Boise, Idaho, and came across a BMW dealership. Only a few weeks earlier I had taken delivery of my own new BMW 530i from an Edmonton dealer, but on this showroom floor, sparkling under floodlights, stood a new BMW 630i. I though it was the best looking coupe I had ever seen. Now, standing trackside at Laguna Seca, I watched the M6 battle the GT/R, only to see it falter and fall behind, unable to maintain the pace. The early effort had reduced the BMW’s brakes to mush!

As Brian’s ‘Vette rolled into the paddock from the next-to-last session of the day, with Margo still strapped in as his passenger, his front right Michelin began to loose air and within seconds was flat. Running my hand over the tread, I detected a small leak and on closer inspection, it revealed a small puncture most likely from a nail or screw that had been picked up earlier. Probably on the drive up to the circuit as the track was being kept very well groomed. After the heat cycles the tires had gone through, whatever had made the puncture had probably been ejected.

Removing the wheel and throwing it, somewhat dejectedly, into the back of our Vette, we headed into Monterey to find a tire shop … not quite the finish to the day we had anticipated. Over a Starbucks, as we waited for the tire to be patched, we began talking of our next outing. We had joined the group with Speed Ventures to check it out and really like the way club organizer, Aaron, ran the show. And while Margo and I certainly enjoyed the opportunity, as passengers, to familiarize ourselves with the circuit from the right hand seat, we still wanted to get more track time ourselves. Anywhere!

Checking out the NASA web site, I came across the site of NASA’s Rocky Mountain region. With our primary residence in Colorado, it seemed understandable that we should check them out and I came across an invitation to register for an event at the new High Plains Raceway (HPR), east of Denver. The event would be for one day only – Sunday September 27th. That seemed extremely fortuitous, as Margo was going to be back in Colorado that weekend working out of our house, and tending to family obligations.

NASA events usually span a weekend so, being curious about NASA only running a one day event, I dug around a little to find that the weekend would be shared with another club, the Colorado Exotic Car Association (CECA). I had seen emails about CECA from another club I belonged to, and as I searched for a registration page for the September 26th event, I came across an opportunity to spend a Saturday on the Colorado State Patrol Driving Academy Track. It was a small facility but the club was only expecting thirty cars to show up. This looked absolutely perfect for what we waned to do – a whole day out on the track!

So, just a week later, we found ourselves atop a messa, behind the city of Golden, Colorado, waiting to get through the padlocked gates of the Academy track. And the photo above is of cars lined up waiting to get to the facility. While I was half-heartedly expecting to see patrol officers lined up in the pits and acting as corner workers, perhaps even taking down our license plate details, there was no State Patrol presence whatsoever. And with only a small group of very sociable participants, the amount of time on the track was wonderful – the complete opposite end of the spectrum to anything we had previously experienced with NASA, or even with Speed Ventures.

When I posted the previous blog entry covering our weekend at the Auto Club Speedway (a.k.a. Cal Speedway) I wrote of how I enjoyed time driving “solo” and of how it was “not a criticism of the instructors I had been given, or a suggestion that I needed to ignore the feedback they provided, but rather a recognition that for many of us, progress only comes when we get the opportunity to ‘talk ourselves’ around the track.” I also wrote of how I “had arrived relaxed, ready to drive! And the progress I made was a reflection of the emotional investment I had put into my preparation.”

At the Academy track in Golden, what I had experienced a few months earlier at the Auto Club Speedway, Margo experienced first hand as well. I had volunteered to be a corner worker and spent more than an hour watching Margo drive the car for two thirty plus minute sessions. And what a sight! A little anxious at first, as she built on the experiences from her early morning sessions, she quickly developed a rhythm. We had taken the car onto the course during the lunchtime “parade laps” and checked out our braking points and where we should turn in, and this proved helpful for both of us.

Below is a diagram of the circuit, for those who not be familiar with it, and I was stationed as a corner worker at turn 5. I had a view of each car as it left the pits, and then made its way up through the “chicane” made up of turns 1, 2, 3, and 4 and climbed up to turn 5 – there were several elevation changes that made the track very interesting. After completing turn 5 the cars went flat out over a small bump before braking for entry onto the main straight.

It was during the second session that Margo aggressively pursued a new Calloway supercharged Z06 Corvette, only to be given a “point by” a few laps later. Maintaining a pretty consistent separation for the duration of her session, she matched it with a pair of hot Vipers – one of them a grey ACR driven by a New Zealander, Tony. After returning to the pits, Margo was invited by the Calloway driver to get in under the shade of his awning as they settled in for a bit of a chat. With an open session beckoning, it was my turn behind the wheel of the car.

And yet again, after only a couple of laps in this next to last session of the day, a brief lapse in concentration saw me spin the car in turn 6. And yes, it was a case of when in spin, both feet in! But it was strange – where were my brakes! It was enough to hear Brian worry about his at Laguna Seca, but now I really needed mine! The car kept on powering through the thick undergrowth, throwing out vegetation in all directions, before finally stalling. On came the dreaded “Check Engine” light but, after restarting the car, I was able to reverse out of the scrub and then I attempted to drive back to the pits.

The car simply wouldn’t go – no matter how I feathered the gas peddle, I couldn’t bring the car back up to speed. Seeing Tony in the pits alongside his Viper, I asked him to jump in and check it out and Tony promptly lit up the car – nothing wrong with the car at all. And I just couldn’t figure it out. But the lapse in my concentration ended the day for us as we headed, yet again, to the local tire shop to have the wheels taken off and the tires removed and the bead checked. A one and a half hour process that the lads at Golden’s Big O tire shop simply did it for free! I decided: my next set of tires? I am going to ive them a chance to bid!

It wasn’t until we took the car back to the dealer on Monday morning, for a follow-up service and where the engine codes generating the Check Engine message could be analyzed, that we found out that I hadn’t been on the clutch and brake but rather the gas peddle and brake. Momentum and the disorientation that comes with a spin, had seen my feet move to the right. And afterwards, the car had refused to go fast as I had simply put the car in 5th gear …

Sitting outside another coffee shop, yet again, waiting for the tires to be checked and cleaned, wasn’t quite the way we had expected to finish the weekend. But the car will find its way back to the track and, as we sipped our coffees, once again we began to talk about the upcoming event with CECA and NASA. I can’t say enough about the wonderful support we received from the CECA club – the organizers and the participants were all terrific and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

But I have to work on my concentration – three major spins over the course of a year. Each time I was distracted by other cars – drivers I had grown to know quite well had me looking around for them. Checking my mirrors at just the wrong moment! The sessions at the Auto Club Speedway had been completely incident free but I had been tagging along behind an excellent driver (our friend Jan), and concentrating hard on following her lines.

Alone, often in front of drivers I know, and letting up on my concentration has led to my undoing of late. Clearly, this is something I need to work on. Staying focused no matter the distraction, and eliminating the mistakes they cause, is becoming a priority for me. I really don’t want to finish another weekend in a coffee shop contemplating what-ifs!

I don’t want to miss out on the final sessions of the day - I would really like to end this pattern! I have sipped way too much coffee over the past couple of weekends. And I truly would enjoy the break!

Johnny needs a fast car …

2009-08-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last saw our return to Cal Speedway, which is better known these days as the Auto Club Speedway. This is a major facility that hosts NASCAR and Indy Racing League (IRL) events, and is a far cry from the usual tracks we drive. The centerpiece of the track is the banked oval familiar to all who watch NASCAR events, and the photo above is of me, on the banking between turns T1 and T2, during a late morning session on Saturday (photos by CaliPhotography.com).

“The oval (that you will drive on) is, technically,” our instructor Fulton later explained to me, “NASCAR 1 (entry) and NASCAR 2 (exit).” For groups like National Auto Sport Association (NASA), we use the “Roval” configuration that combines part of the NASCAR banked oval with a road course laid down within the infield. What Fulton was telling me was that we would be driving down the main straight of the oval – shaped more like a “D” than a true oval – and rounding turns T1 and T2 before exiting part way down the back straight. And as the picture above illustrates, the sensation that comes with driving on a banked track, and following the lanes that are so visible on our TV sets whenever we watch NASCAR events, is unlike anything we had previously experienced in our High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) sessions.

We approached this weekend with some trepidation. Readers may recall from the posting of April 5th, ’09 “Best laid plans ...” that our last trip to this venue had seen us poorly prepared mentally. It was during an extremely stressful period for both, Margo and I, and we had arrived at the track emotionally drained. As I wrote at the time, “while nothing on the car failed, and there were no incidents, I never made it out onto the circuit itself.” Even though I had taken extra steps to ensure the ‘Vette was good to go, I wrapped-up that post with the observation of how “I have a much better feel for all the preparation I have to do” and being prepared to drive on the track “applies equally to us as humans as it does to the car.”

How far we have come since April! We arrived at the track relaxed, and looking forward to going fast and enjoying ourselves. We had reserved a garage so we could be out of the sun and have a place where we could simply hang out. Our good friends Brian and Jan had their garages alongside – Brian with his C6 ‘Vette coupe, and Jan with her “Dinan 3” BMW 328 coupe. Even so, nothing quite prepared us for the sensation that comes from driving through the tunnel, running directly beneath the track, and surfacing in the paddock behind the pits with the grandstands towering over us. We certainly had moved up to another level, at least as far as atmosphere was concerned.

“The secret to a low lap time at Cal (Speedway) is to hold your foot all the way down on the throttle as you enter, apex, and exit T2 - the big banked turn at the end of the banked straight,” recommended Hal, a racer and a good friend of ours, who is familiar with the track. He then added “the infield is a bunch of reasonably long straights tied together with non-technical turns. It is important to make every one of those infield straights be as long and as fast as possible.” Non-technical turns! Ah the luxury that comes with experience!

As for me, at that first session on the track Saturday morning, the turns looked as intimidating as all heck, and working backwards from the straights and figuring out which corners were throwaways took all of Saturday to sort out. But with guidance from my instructor Derek, I was able to gradually piece it together and, a little sooner than I had expected, I fell into a rhythm that saw me tracking smoothly and developing a consistency. And with that, a growing sense of confidence. I was definitely improving on previous sessions at other tracks.

Cal Speedway rewards those who bring their fast cars, and as I passed the “big-torque” cars lined up for tech-inspect, Mustangs, ‘Vettes (even a new Corvette ZR1), and a pair of menacing black Ford GTs, all I could think of was the song by Chris Rea, “Johnny needs a fast car” and its opening verse:
“Johnny needs a fast car
Johnny needs it bad
Johnny always do the best whatever Johnny has
Johnny needs a fast one
Johnny needs it now
You got to give him something to let him show you how”

I wasn’t going to be showing anyone how, but the sentiment rang true all the same as around me the expressions on the faces of the drivers reflected how they hoped they had brought a fast car! And so the time came to drive out onto the track – and it was everything I had expected. It was big and easily accommodated all the participants for each session, and the picture above is of me in traffic during an afternoon session on Saturday.

It was during the third session that I was once again reminded about letting my concentration slip. I had been lapping with Fulton directly behind me – this time he was not in his red Mustang, but in John Matthews’ tattered, red, early model BMW M3. With only a little more than 200 rear-wheel hp, it was a grossly-underpowered momentum car if ever I have seen one. Not! Pound for pound, this car is ferocious and John has laid down some very quick times in it – but unlike on previous occasions, I didn’t let Fulton’s antics get to me and I concentrated solely on the track ahead. Although I had given Fulton a point-by, he stuck with me for a couple of laps, but eventually he passed me as we approached the first infield chicane that led to the “button-hook.”

Still no concerns – but out of the corner of my eye I saw that Margo was in the passenger seat. And, clearly enjoying herself, as Fulton’s guest! So I turned, smiled, and waived to her – a natural response I thought – only to hear Derek remind me that I better get myself back on line for the chicane, or there would be no way that I could carry the speed I had into the button-hook. Ooops! The focus quickly returned, and all was OK – just a little “unsettling of the car” as I exited the button-hook, and not anything I hadn’t managed to catch before. It was a reminder, however, of the necessity to be completely focused on the track, at all times, no matter the situation, and it was a quick whack across my “mental” knuckles!

The Infiniti G37S coupe that Margo and I were driving was plenty fast enough for our skill level. But even so, we were to find out that the effects of aerodynamics couldn’t be ignored – no matter what line I took, or how early I came down hard on the gas in the complex leading to the oval, the car simply wouldn’t go faster than 125 mph. (After the weekend, I took the car back to Infiniti to learn more of the “governor” restricting top speed only to be told that there wasn’t one!) As my racer friend Hal reminded me, it could be that “you may have run out of hp, and settled in at 125 - pushing a big chunk of air …” Turned out, “Johnny” didn’t have his fast car after all!

The good news that came with my efforts on Saturday was that on Sunday, Derek signed-off for me to move up to Group 2! For me this was a big deal – but for those unfamiliar with NASA and the HPDE program, this simply meant that I had successfully completed the “novice” program and could now participate as a “beginner!” Following her session on the track Sunday morning, Margo proved incredibly accommodating and suggested that I might benefit from more track time, running in Group 2.

Returning to the track in time for Sunday’s second session, I was hand-timed by Brian, with his iPhone. no less, lapping at 2 mins 18 secs. Sessions at this level are not timed – this is driver education after all - and while these times were nothing to get too excited about, what I was pleased to see was that I was putting together multiple laps with the same time. Consistency! Yes, at last. For me, this was pretty pleasing until Margo reminded me of how Jan, in her BMW coupe, had started positions ahead of me and had finished (after just 8 laps) half a lap ahead!

For the afternoon sessions I decided to drive behind Jan and take a closer look at her lines – and I improved considerably. And the picture above is of me, in traffic, managing to hang in with her. Returning from the third session, Brian looked at me and said “where did that come from! After watching you this morning – you took a big step up! That was a whole new level of driving!” Given a little space, and some separation from the others in the group and the distraction that came with being in a pack, I managed to stay in a lead group of three for the whole session!

I think that everyone who decides to take a car out onto a track, and to learn how to drive it better, gets a huge lift from any positive feedback. And when it comes, it only fosters a desire to improve even further. The added sessions that Margo so generously gave to me, made the difference, and I just cannot wait to get back out onto the track. Again, my thoughts took me back to the Chris Rea song, and to the next verse:
“Johnny needs a fast car
Johnny needs a break …
He'll always make it look good
You'll always see him smile
Give Johnny a few inches and he'll give you back a mile”

And talking of fast cars, the ‘Vette-faithful may be wondering where’s our C6 Supercharged ‘Vette! Will it be returning to the track any time soon? This week we began working to get the ‘Vette ready for the track, and the picture below is of the ‘Vette being fitted with new brake rotors and pads – yes, after six weekends on the track, there was nothing left. We will also be replacing the tires as they, too, took a beating and look a little worse for wear. However, we are in no rush to bring it back this year and we will be watching NASA’s 2010 program to see what makes sense – we still have much to learn about each track.
As far as Buttonwillow goes, our next venue, we will continue with the Infiniti and we may continue driving the Infiniti at Buttonwillow indefinitely. The track provides little reward for drivers, with our level of experience, who turn up in big-torque cars – but at Willow Springs and Cal Speedway, it may be a different story. The storyline, for the weeks ahead, however, will not be about our choice of cars, but about the progress we make with more time at the track. And I am really beginning to enjoy my time driving in group 2!

“There comes a time,” suggested Brian, “when you need to just focus on driving the car and not trying to second-guess what is being suggested by your instructor!” Alone in the car, trying different lines, and with nothing to distract me, I settled down and found the consistency I was looking for. For me, driving Sunday’s sessions alone in the car, time seemed to slow down and I could see so much more of the track. It felt as though I had more time to brake, turn-in, and exit. “Without instructor distraction you may find you improve and retain more information from session to session,” added Fulton.

This is not a criticism of the instructors I had been given, or a suggestion that I needed to ignore the feedback they provided, but rather a recognition that for many of us, progress only comes when we get the opportunity to “talk ourselves” around the track. As with any other discipline, whether sailing or flying a plane, there is a need to “solo” and to come to terms with your limitations and with what you can and cannot do. This past weekend, I came to appreciate what I needed to do for me to become consistent and smooth.

After all, this past weekend we had arrived relaxed, ready to drive! And the progress I made was a reflection of the emotional investment I had put into my preparation. Among good friends, as well as those eager to see us progress, and with levels of stress down considerably from the last time we were here, the results truly exceeded anything I had thought possible and, as improbable as it seemed only a few weeks back, Cal Speedway could easily become a favorite track of mine – one I will eagerly look forward to next year. I sure will return the favor, and give Margo extra sessions the next time we visit.

And the “Johnny’s” may just have their fast car … but then, maybe not, and perhaps after all it’s just not that important!

Further tales of two 'Vettes!

2009-06-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend we will not be at Buttonwillow, after all. A family illness necessitated our return to our home in Boulder, Colorado, where we will be spending the next couple of weeks, and we have no chance of a quick dash back to participate in NASA’s HPDE event at what has quickly developed into our favorite track. We hear this weekend the cars will be circulating in a counter-clockwise direction, whereas the previous time it had been clockwise. Check out the post of April 30, ’09: Are we humans? Or are we dancers?

Perhaps the saddest sight to see is both of our cars sitting in the garage hooked up to battery charges, as pictured above, where they will remain until much later in July. With the arrival of the July 4th weekend we head to Copenhagen for a much-anticipated cruise around the Baltic that will take us to a number of Eastern European cities, including St Petersburg, Russia, Tallinn, Estonia, and Gdynia, Poland. In the meantime, it try not to think about the Corvette (and the Infiniti, of course) locked away in a garage, some 1,000 miles away from Colorado, in our other home in Simi Valley, California. And look for a post on this adventure next month – but I am digressing.

While walking along the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder a few nights ago, Margo and I ventured into a notorious T-Shirt store: it has some of the funniest ones I’ve ever seen. And I came across one that illustrated my digressions: it said “Of course I don’t have ADD. Look, there’s a rabbit!”

Simi Valley has developed into quite the Mecca for Corvettes, and there’s been barely a day go by without seeing one a little out of the ordinary. There’s a very active Simi Valley Corvette club that regularly meets at a little Italian restaurant nearby and whenever they gather in the car park, there’s always a lot of well turned-out Corvettes to look at.

This is also the neighborhood where Margo and I first met our good friends Brian and Jan – they too drive a C6 Corvette that they take to the track, so it was pretty easy to form a friendship on this basis. They also track a BMW 328 coupe, just as we track the Infiniti G37S coupe, so there’s always something to be discussed each time we get together – over apple-tini’s! (Brian and Jan introduced us to this amazing drink, which when served at Maestro’s together with a touch of dry ice, looks like a witch’s brew, but tastes fabulous!)

While waiting for a latte at the local Starbucks, only the other week, in pulled a beautifully restored 1966 C2 Corvette with a big-block 427! The driver owns a custom motorcycle shop but, his custom cruisers aside, this Corvette is very much his pride and joy and the picture here is of it parked right outside the café. In between business transactions that he was actively pursuing at the time, we were able to exchange a few pleasantries as we both waited for our coffees.

But this is not the end of the story. The next day as I walked across to Starbucks, on my “morning tea” break, I spotted what I thought was the same red C2 Corvette parked by the café again. This time however, I am really taken by surprise. As the photo below suggests, it is not the same Corvette but something equally as special. The license says it all – it’s a 64 Z06! While many Corvette owners know that the C5 and C6 models included a Z06 performance option, the original Z06 performance option came out with the introduction of the 1963 C2 – but I wasn’t sure about a ’64! Seeing the license plate really made me curious!

We may be far away from our C6 Corvette and missing the opportunity to be Buttonwillow, but we shouldn't be expecting to get too much sympathy as we have a 2003 C5 Corvette Z06 in the garage of our Boulder home. This is our back-up car and while recently we were tempted to take it out for a track session at a new circuit just opened to the East of Denver, we hesitated. With two cars spending time at the track, do we really want to take another car onto the track? The Z06 is very special for us, as it was our first Corvette. It is not something we are likely to sell, or trade, anytime soon. But owning a Z06 has given me the opportunity to come to appreciate the heritage of the Z06. For a picture, check the earlier Looking back on '08

As I walked closer to the car claiming to be a 64 Z06, it certainly didn’t look like a typical C2 restoration – for starters, it had modern C6 wheels and, clearly visible through the spokes, what looked suspiciously like Z06 brakes. And the suspension appeared to be modern as well. As I walked alongside the car, sure enough, there on the right fender was a current C6 Z06 “505hp” badge. Look closely at the photo I have included below. The car was a hybrid put together by Greg Thurmond, owner of GTS Customs – check out his site http://www.gtscustoms.com/

Well, I quickly sent him an email – his wife had driven the car that morning to Starbucks – and later that day I dropped by his shop located, imaginatively enough, on Simi Valley’s Easy Street! Who knew! What Greg basically does is accepts pretty distressed C2s (and C1s for that matter) and then takes a highly modified C4 frame that he chops around a bit, before dropping in C6 engine, including today’s latest LS7. There are other power-plant options, and when I suggested installing a Supercharged LS3 “Stroker” I seemed to recall Greg even knew my friend Andy Green out at A&A Corvette Performance.

The last time we attended a NASA weekend at Buttonwillow we were able to get up close to Corvette’s of a completely different ilk. We came across a team competing with a Factory Five GTM Supercar. For those who may not be familiar with this car, Factory Five has set about creating a Corvette for the track that’s done pretty much about right! The big difference from any other Corvette that circulates the track is that this is a mid-engine set-up, with the beauty of the LS7 fully visible underneath the rear window, a la Ferrari. For more information, check out the Factory Five web site: http://www.factoryfive.com/gtmhome.html

There has been a lot of discussions of late on blogs and in online forums about the failures of both Chrysler and Chevrolet. And a lot of it had to do with their respective performance cars – would FIAT even bother to continue producing the Viper, for instance. And would the new GM even want to have the Corvette remain part of Chevrolet – or would they be looking for a buyer for this product as well? Or, are there already enough “models” in the ‘Vette family that could sustain it as a separate “marque” alongside of Chevrolet and Cadillac?

Chrysler is out of Chapter 11 and FIAT management is in place – and to the surprise of many I suspect, the first plant put back in operation was the small shop that produces the Viper. So perhaps it’s not all that bad for America’s super cars, and perhaps we will continue to see both cars developed even further. And while there is discussion on the blogs as to whether Corvette needs a mid-engine “racer”, or even a four-door model (as Porsche, Aston Martin, and even Lamborghini are planning to produce) to sustain it as a stand-alone marque – the consensus, as of today, is no it does not need anything additional. The basic C6, the optional C6- Z51 (as a junior track car), the C6-Z06 (as “the” track car), and now the C6-ZR1 “Supercar” give the marque a substantial product lineup, better than nearly anything else from the more famous manufacturers.

While Buttonewillow is not the best track for the big American torque cars like the Viper and the “Vette, every time you hear one blast down the main straight, it still sends shivers up my back. There’s absolutely nothing like the sound of the current crop of large displacement, high-revving, big-iron (mostly alloys, of course, these days) engines! But for Margo and I, this track will continue to remain the venue for which we think the Infiniti G37S coupe is the best option. We simply have learned so much more about the track from the driver’s seat of this car, than in all previous outings in the “Vette.

But our Supercharged C6 ‘Vette will be making a comeback. Even if it’s early next year! The hidden lesson for us both is that nothing comes for free, and with all the enjoyment we have had to date from participating in NASA HPDE events, the cars have taken a beating. Right now, the ‘Vette is facing new rotors and brake pads (with a change of fluids), and new tires. The Infiniti, too, will probably need new brake pads after the next weekend outing – which, according to the calendar, will see us return to Cal Speedway and that’s a track that typically is pretty heavy on everything, including brakes! It’s all become a case of managing the “variables” of the two cars – and looking to make sure we do invest any additional money in only what we need!

I have already begun the email exchange with Andy at A&A Corvette Performance and I will let him “freshen-up” the Vette in a month or two’s time, once we are back in Simi Valley. Andy can easily do the brakes and perhaps we will change the tires as well. Maybe even add an anti-sway bar that is a little stronger – and adjustable. Oops - that’s probably an example of “not really needed!” May have to cross that out! And maybe it’s even worth considering changing out the rear-end for one of Andy’s taller units 3.1:1 perhaps? Oops – maybe a bit extreme and not really necessary at this time! The ‘Vette has the standard rear-end that comes with all automatics (around 2.4:1), and getting more torque to the pavement may have advantages at tracks like Willow Springs! Yes, definitely, that’s what we need – more torque to the pavement! Ah, but the list is growing.

In one of our more-recent L.A. freeway drives, we must have run over something, (most likely rubber that had separated from a truck tire), that rebounded underneath the car. When we last had the ‘Vette up on the lift, it had a large piece of an underbody panel missing, with a substantial hole revealing the inner-workings of the windshield washer receptacle and its associated plumbing –probably not an ideal situation for future track outings. But Andy knows what will be required and it will be included in the list as well. So it’s not just being on the track that generates all the maintenance items on our check-list, but being Margo’s daily drive the ‘Vette comes with a price!

Logic dictates that there’s little sense in messing up two cars as we continue with NASA’s HPDE program – and looking at both the Infiniti and the ‘Vette, it’s the ‘Vette we really love to drive. The Infiniti is serving a wonderful interim job in helping us learn the tracks – and the ease with which a “momentum” car, like the Infiniti coupe, gets around the track lessens the distractions that otherwise arise from a big torque car where throttle management becomes so critical. And ‘Vettes belong on the track –their history is liberally sprinkled with success from every corner of the planet. Even when the prettier examples are restored, as Greg does so well, they still need to perform as well as they look!

Having experienced tracks with a few less cylinders has had its advantages and definitely improved our relationship with the organizers, yet Margo and I do so miss “Frankenstein”. And if what we have learnt from the Infiniti translates to better management of the beast when it is next out on the track – then the lessons have been well worth it. Already, 2010 doesn’t seem all that far away and the next three or four outings will only help in better preparing us for the inevitable return of the ‘Vette. After all, there’s only so many times I can look at the photo at the top of this posting without cringing and being overcome with remorse – life on battery feeders is no life for a car, engineered to deliver in a way only the ‘Vette can!