Archive May 2009
Watkins Glen – Day two from an Evo X
Day two was awesome. Having rest before going on track helped more than I could have imagined. We were going to have instruction for the first session of the day, then we would get rid of the lesson plan for the rest of the event and utilized what we had learned.
Mike had the Supra on track in the morning until a black flagged caution caused everybody to pit in. We saw Mike getting towed in, not for causing the caution, but because the car died and wouldn’t restart. A lot of the team went to work getting the problem diagnosed, which we thought was a fuel pump problem. There is still something not right about the system as it was in the connector that plugged into the top of the fuel pump assembly that was causing the issue. Through some soldering, rewiring and plenty of sailor talk, the car got back up and running. Tim did most of the surgery while the rest of us acted like a surgical staff, getting scalpels and rags ready.The car would need to be completely rewired eventually, but it was back and running and would survive for this trip.
Session 2 on the second day, I was signed off by Jim and ready to run solo.Jim wanted to let me know he would be watching from the guardrail, and when I asked him which one, he indicated all of them. I told him I wouldn’t make him look bad and headed off on my own. With a clear focus on the track and not on my instructor’s reactions, I ran some damn good times on the track. I put the video camera in the cockpit, and recorded the runs. The wide-angle lens definitely skews how the approach is on the cars. The track was relatively clear and I passed most of the field, knowing that Sean, Chris and Scott were somewhere on the track never to be seen. Close to the end of the session, I watched a gold 911 push, coming into the laces of the boot as he went off road. It was all in slow motion, but I am sure felt pretty quick to him.
Niagara Region PCA Drivers Education course with a 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X.
The third session was nothing short of perfect. If I had only had enough time to prep cameras again, this would have been the trophy keeper. I was hustling pretty good through most of the track, running clean, and passing which felt like every Porsche on the planet. Finally 4-5 laps in I saw it. There was an ominous gray Evo X on the horizon, and I wasn’t going to let him off easy. I knew Chris had at least 50hp on me, but I also knew he was limping in the braking department. He was complaining about some surging on the last session and it was like stalking a wounded animal once you knew the weakness.
Half a lap or so, going into the boot, I knew he spotted me in the mirror. For about 4-5 turns I could seem him sand-bagging the throttle, trying to keep the entertainment value up. Knowing he had the power, I wasn’t sand bagging, but made sure I made up the speed in the braking zones. His car would pull away hard in the straights, but I watched the brake lights go on, and set my mark for a third of the distance later than he was. After a solid lap, I was still there wearing him down. A few lapped traffic vehicles to contend with helped out along the way but it was the powerful runs I needed to really appreciate the car. He gave me a pass signal the turn before we reached the checkered so I took rode into the pits with pride, giving the devil ears to Tim and Harry who were heading out with the green group.
I had already decided to scrap the last session of the day. I was mentally OK, but the clouds were moving in, and I could not have had a better run than what I just did. Sure enough as the time grew near the rain started before the last run.
Tim’s wife came down with their daughter, so Tim headed out into the black group to at least take her around the track for the effort in the VR4. The track wasn’t too bad, but it was wet and required a dialing back of everything. Unfortunately the wrong combination got somebody out there, as we watched Tim roll back in shortly after following the yellow flag. Dave Moffitt had spun the 350Z and taken 
off the new nose from the car, of course right in front of Tim and Ariane. That was not the ride Ariane needed to instill confidence in track time safety. While she described how they were sliding out there, and I tried to explain that it always feels like that from the passenger seat, we saw the Z roll back in, minus a front fascia.
Watkins Glen – Evo X – Sessions 3 & 4
The afternoon sessions were better for the White group. The exercises moved along and progressed into more track time. I even 
had people starting to use the late pass by in the open sessions, which was the intention all along. I ran very clean runs on the third round, and could tell that Jim was a little less hesitant about the car making it around the track with me at the wheel.
We started dialing in the braking zone on turn 1. First lap around Jim instructed to have full throttle until the signal light, marking the start of the braking zones. After stabbing the brakes and seeing a whole lot of road in front of us, we moved it down to 300 and eventually 250. After the 250 pass, my brain started taking over my foot control and I wasn’t ready to go much deeper without some comfort passes at this level. Jim looked over and said, “you have plenty of braking to work with yet” “oh and by the way this car is awesome”. That made be feel better and I could see his clinching moments lesson quite a bit after that, knowing the car would have room to improve. The car was awesome, considering it was exactly how it came from the factory, with a set of better brake pads on there.
The last session of the day was good, but I will admit my brain was cooked. I stepped back quite a bit when I started missing the lines on my favorite turns, realizing I need to focus on keeping it smooth for the rest of the day to keep Jim from loosing my trust. Everything ended on a positive note for day one, but man the group was exhausted. We went back to the lodge for dinner with family and friends, until retiring to the bed. I fought staying awake as part of the group tried to keep a beer or two moving.
Watkins Glen – Evo X – Sessions 1 and 2
We learned in the drivers meeting that we were going to be running a different configuration than normal. I had heard enough before the meeting to know what was going on, but many people still had to absorb the information. In essence we were going to be running drills for the first half of the sessions, to promote and educate techniques revolving around late passing into the turns. The entire exercise is a good one, as it moves people into a trail braking maneuver and makes everybody more prepared for how to react when you don’t have the perfect line. Unfortunately the first time out was a huge failure in the White group. We understood the concept, but people were not giving the point bys, we were not paired up with other cars to play with, and it turned into mass confusion. By the time we had the flag to signal the end of the exercise, we had such a train of cars built up that it took a while to get through the field.
This is where the return to the classroom offered valuable advice as everybody in the room learned what we were supposed to be doing. The second session added some balance back into the mayhem that was out there.
The return to the track yielded some positive experience out of the White group. First, they paired us off with cars before we even left the grid. I was lucky to get paired up with Scott in the Subaru Legacy GT, so I would at least have somebody I felt was comfortable with. We practiced our late pass by’s which slowly increased in pace as the session moved forward. The problem came as we were moving too fast around the track, we ended up moving into the wake of the next group, which made the exercise too slow to appreciate. We would both end up moving down to parade lap speeds, only to re-inexact the entire procedure in super slow motion. Something the class would need to work on in the future.
The open session after our drills was more enjoyable after we broke up a little.
What I do know is that I can’t keep up with Scott. He has a damn clean line and the car has some enough power to make me feel like running to the garage and getting back to work. I started pushing the car pretty good in the session, and found that I was pushing more in the turns than I had hoped for. Trying to ride out one of the drifts I managed to bring the tires off into the laces of the boot, providing a nice dust cloud behind me. I knew when Jim said “dude, you got to dial it back”, it meant I better stop messing around with feeling the car and run some clean lines to gain back his trust.
My wife came in before the end of the morning session, and brought an armada of lunch along with her, making her the instant hero of a hungry crew. Using some sandwich meat as bribery, she was able to go out with Stu Sacks after lunch. I was grateful she got to share the experience on the track, and knew that I owed Stu a huge favor as I watched her stagger he walk after exiting the car. Sure the cars looks slow when you are on the side of the track.
0Watkins Glen Report – Instructor Seat
In the afternoon of the first day, I rode along with my Instructor for some hot sessions around the track. I have to admit my largest fear was getting motion sickness when riding along. Luckily the familiarity of the Glen had sunk in allowing me to anticipate the motions of the car would make, and allowing my stomach to relax.
I knew Jim had put the passenger seat back in the car to be able to take me around the track. What he didn’t accommodate for was a very large passenger. After shoe-horning my way into his caged 911, with Sean laughing the whole time, we headed on track with the Instructors group.
This car is sticky. Having a trailered track car has it advantages as having race tires on there makes all of the difference. I am addicted to turbo acceleration, but this car didn’t loose anything in the turns, making for some very smooth and consistent passes. I could see the 20+ years of running the car come out, as he seemed to nail each turn with consistency, making my inconsistent passes seem ham-fisted at best. Sitting in the passenger seat I could see how hard it is to observe as an instructor does.
There are different lines on the track. When we came up to a few turns, I found that I was mentally moving my braking zone and taking a different line through many of the turns. At first I started thinking that I better correct my lines to match Jim’s the next time out, but after a few laps in the passenger seat I knew that was not the answer. Each car takes a different line around this track and each driver takes a different line around this track. Having a car with AWD and a turbo is different than a RWD normally aspirated motor and I found a certain amount of pride sitting there, realizing I would be on a different line and it was my line that made it right when I was in the drivers seat.
It was nice being on track with the Instructors group. While I don’t mind the white group, I often find myself setting up the passes, then lifting as the failed point by signal comes to late. I can see why they have transitioned to teaching late passing zones, and gave me hope that I would be able to evolve out of the white train of cars down the road.
Watkins Glen Report – Arrivals
Signing up for the PCA even at Watkins Glen before we left for the trip on One Lap was brilliant. It was amazingly deflating to return to work after experiencing One Lap of America, but the PCA even offered a glimmer of hope that only two weeks after One Lap wrapped up, we would be back on the track.
Mike picked up the Supra from Mike at Innovative Tuning, which was an absolutely monster now. I was riding in the new Evo X, which I have done absolutely nothing to, except for put some new brake pads on. Tim was coming down in the VR4, still sporting the stickers from One Lap, but with an alignment and the LR1 turbo. We actually had a larger crew, as Sean Caron brought his Evo 9, Scott Wambach was there in the Subura Legacy GT, Chris Wirth brought his Evo X and Harry Freitas was there for his first time around the Glen in his Mustang.
I knew Tim was going to be challenged to instruct everybody in the group, so I approached Jim Gaylord the week before to get him in my instructor seat.. That turned out to be one of my best moves, as individual development at the glen is an accumulation of advice and experience from as many people as possible. Jim, knows that track and he knows it well.
My arrival at the Seneca Lodge was later than I wanted to be, missing early registration. This was mostly because of my iPhone mishap, right before leaving for the track, throwing me off 2 hours. Tim had secured us into the two A frames at the top of the hill, which were nicely redone inside. The comfort didn’t help me sleep much as pre-track anxiety always takes over.
After driving 3400+ miles, with 460HP at my disposal, and a completely different chassis, I knew I would have to take it pretty easy and relearn this new car I was in. That being said, jumping out of a 17 year old Galant VR4 into a 2008 Evolution X is a pretty easy jump.
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