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flat knee

A fresh-from-the-shower report on the day from our trackside reporter. I hopped in the car a little after 6am this morning, and once on the freeway was greeted by rain. A harbinger of a day washed out? (POC does not run in the rain) Or just testing my faith in the weather gods, or perhaps my ability to realize that the weather is one of those things that I can't do anything about, so I might as well make the best of whatever comes. So I flipped on the wipers (note to self: replace wiper blades), and settled in for a gentle trip as I'm driving on racing tires (albeit street-legal versions) that don't have a lot of tread. In other words, think tennis shoes on an ice rink. Well, maybe not that bad, but what's a good story without some hyperbole?

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Luckily as I crested the summit to drop down into the luminescent Antelope Valley, the rain stopped, and the clouds begrudgingly parted somewhat to make room for some sun. As I closed in on the exit to Rosamond, another phenomenon presented itself: fog. Visibility down to about 100 feet. Hmm, might be an interesting day. Of course every day is interesting if you are really paying attention.

I arrived at the track and it was wet. Evidently a passing cell had drenched things pretty good, or it had just rained overnight...hard to tell as at 7:30am in the desert in January with cloudy weather, wet asphalt doesn't dry very quickly. At least there wasn't much wind.

At the driver's meeting we attended to the usual affairs and announcements, followed by the assignment of instructors to students. I got a very nice Cayman owner named Duane, and he would prove to be a good driver but with a few challenges. More on that in a bit. Usually I run in the orange group (second fastest out of five run groups), but the last few times at these STS events I was one of the fastest in orange and our group was crowded, often resulting in traffic and slow laps. Red historically is a smaller group, but also has some of the wicked fast cars. In November though, my times would have put me about 2/3rds of the way down the red group, so I decided to take the plunge and run with the big dogs.

Red group was up first at 9am, and the track was still very wet. Wet pavement and slick tires and lots of horsepower is not a very good combination. That actually played in my favor as I don't have a lot of horsepower compared to the other cars in the group, and my tires aren't quite slicks. We all tiptoed about the track, slowly drying it with our driving, and some getting a bit squirrely in places. I actually had a good session, as I enjoy running in the wet. You have to be incredibly smooth with all of your inputs (steering, throttle and brake) and it is a great learning opportunity. I ended up about mid pack but I knew that wouldn't last as the rain was holding off and the track was starting to dry.

The 5th run group had my student, so I went out to ride with him and see what my day would be like. It turns out he was a very nice and agreeable guy (he listens...horray!), had a great car (the Caymans are sweet rides), and he drove a good line. The problem was he was a tad impatient. He wanted to be fast NOW. And he didn't like slow driver's in front of him. The rule in all groups except red is that you can only pass on two parts of the track, and only when the slower car in front gives a "point by", which is signaled by sticking your hand/finger (no, not the middle one) out the window. Often slower drivers, especially students, are not checking their mirrors as often as they should, and that combined with the usual male ego ("I'm fast...I'm not going to let this guy pass yet") results in some frustration for quicker drivers. My guy was starting to go nuts by the 3rd lap, and now had a buddy in another Cayman on his tail. I told him to point the Cayman by on the next straight, to which he somewhat complained, "why, he's only going to get stuck behind these two slow guys in front of me." I told him not to worry and just let him by, which he did. Then I explained that often slower driver's will take a while to either notice, or decide to give the point by...and often you have to "fill their mirrors" with your car. While it is ok to do that, I actually prefer to let another driver do that job, then tag along when the point by is given. Then you can get the pass and get to follow a comparable or possibly faster driver/car and learn something or push yourself a bit. My student said, "OK" but I don't think he believed me. Sure enough at the next passing zone the slow traffic pointed the quick car in front of us by, then us. Then we chased the quick car and ended up passing him in another 2 laps. Point made and taken by the student. Lucky for me it worked out that way ;-)

I won't bore you with play by play of the rest of the day. My student got better and better, dropping a few seconds off his lap time each session. He was very happy and ready to come back for more...and he was much more patient by the end of the day, so I felt good. As for my runs I was second to last in the red group for session 2 and 3, and last in session 4. But I was within a few seconds of half the pack (and within a second of 3 other guys), and never got in anybody's way. Plus I posted my personal best lap time in the 3rd run session (a 1: 32.8) which was a tenth off the track record for my class. Then the last run session it was just me and one other car (the 2nd fastest one in the group). I managed to stay away from him for a few laps, let him pass, then chased him and actually kept him in sight. I was driving pretty hard and having a grand time. No timing for those laps but I'm guessing that I probably was down to about a 1:31...I was flying on a couple of them and found a couple of quicker lines at certain parts of the track. One of my friends who was there to instruct was laughing when I came in, asking, "do you have any brakes left?" Because I was pushing hard I locked it up a few times at the end of the front straight (which is right in front of the pit/paddock area) so they had a good view of it all.

Then I packed up the car, stopped for gas, and started the drive home. I think I flat-spotted one or more of my tires because I have a bit of a vibration now in the car. And when I climbed out of the Porsche at home to swap cars to go pick up Calvin, my left knee let me know that I'd worked it a little hard today (and yesterday). But a hot shower, some quality snuggle time on the couch with Calvin, and early bed (and maybe some wood lock oil) will help greatly.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on January 28, 2007 8:02 PM.

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