Track Events
Here is a rundown of track events and autocross events I have participated in. I started this list years ago and it is interesting looking back to see what my comments were in the early days, and how my view of high-performance driving has changed.
| Club | Date | Location | Comment |
| 2002 | |||
| 2002 was the start of all this for me. I had won a contest and took a two-day driver skills course at Laguna Seca in June, then a month later I was up at Thunderhill for some real track driving. My day at Thunderhill would determine if I had become hooked or if I was done with the whole business. Well, five years later, over 30 track events, and thousands of dollars put into my car, I'd say I was hooked.
Five years later (when I set up this web site) I still recall the details of these events clearly. How couldn't I? Do you remember your first? |
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| Skip Barber | June 25-26 | Laguna Seca | Two-day drivers skills course in the paddock, but with a preview of the track. |
| SCCA | July 27 | Thunderhill | My first track event. I learned soooo much that day, and I had a great instructor. |
| SCCA | November 22 | Thunderhill | I'm back! I've got a new helmet and gloves and I'm ready to go, but I'm still a bit nervous about going out onto the track without an instructor. |
| 2003 | |||
| While 2002 gave me a my first taste of track driving, 2003 saw me taking it to the next level. I drove in seven SCCA and non-SCCA events for a total of eight days at a track, or nearly 1,000 miles. I wasn't planning to drive that much, but I just couldn't say no to these opportunities.
I finally got to drive at Laguna Seca but unlike my Skip Barber course I got out onto the track, not just the paddock. Plus, I started modifying my car, installing seats, harnesses, and other that stuff I realized I needed. My skills also improved significantly and I gained a lot of confidence in my abilities and the car. I drove the car pretty hard and I was burning through brakes and eating up tires pretty quickly, but I also finally experienced "slip angle" and my world has never been the same since. Driving with NCRC, per Steve Klein's suggestion, taught a whole new set of lessons The cars in NCRC are a lot faster and the passing rules are different, which meant I'd get to experience passing in the turns and as well as new aspects of driving in traffic. In other words, I got lots of point-by practice. I don't recall the details of each event, so the write-ups may be sparse, when there are any. But compare them to the write-ups for 2005 and later you can't not notice the change in skills and attitudes I've experienced. |
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| SCCA | January 18 | Thunderhill | New pedals, heel-toe practice, and my first set of burned out brake pads. |
| K2RD | January 25 | Thunderhill | This was a track/drift event. I didn't even know what drifting was. |
| SCCA | January 26 | Thunderhill | Yesterday was so much fun, and since the car already had its numbers on it... |
| SCCA | April 19 | Thunderhill | My first track event with a video camera. |
| SCCA | July 25 | Thunderhill | |
| NCRC | November 22 | Thunderhill | My first event with NCRC. Man, these guys drive nice (fast) cars! |
| NCRC | December 6-7 | Laguna Seca | Two-day events will take you from seeing this as a hobby to a lifestyle. |
| 2004 | |||
| In 2004 I continued with my bad driving habits and improved on my good ones. But about those bad habits. I realized part way through the year that much of my problems with down-shifting, problems with my brakes, and basically being more inconsistent that I should have been was that I had been using the approach that driving harder will find me more speed. By this I mean harder and later braking, more speed on corner entry, and just looking for speed anyway I could by pushing the car harder. One result of this was having to get the front rotors turned after almost every event, brake pads that would barely make it through three events, and buying four new tires after only four events or so. Well, since things weren't getting any better using that approach, and it was actually getting more expensive, I decided to back off a bit and instead of trying to win speed points I'd shoot for style points. The idea was to just relax and see if I could roll through the whole course quickly but with minimal effort. One of my favorite exercises was to drive the cool-down lap without shifting or using my brakes at all. That worked out very well. The wear and tear dropped immediately and to my surprise my lap times did not suffer at all. In fact, my lap time would later improve by 10 seconds, but that was due to the new coil-overs and an LSD.
In other news, I got to drive at PIR for the first time and at Laguna Seca for the second. PIR intimidated me even before I entered the facility. Laguna was a blast. |
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| SCCA | January 18 | Thunderhill | Coming soon. |
| NCRC | April 1-2 | Thunderhill | Coming soon. |
| SCCA | April 10 | Thunderhill | Coming soon. |
| NCRC | May 28 | Thunderhill | Coming soon. |
| NCRC | June 4 | Laguna Seca | A full day at this world famous race track. |
| ASRA/NASA | October 16 | Phoenix International Raceway | The road course includes turns 3 and 4 plus the front-straight on the oval. |
| SCCA | November 13-14 | Oakland Coliseum | My first autocross event. We'd see if it was true that road racers don't make good autocrossers. |
| SCCA | November 21 | Thunderhill | Coming soon. |
| 2005 | |||
| It seemed that SFR-SCCA wasn't holding any Street Schools this year so I started driving with TEAM Racing. That worked out very well. TEAM was holding events throughout the year, their events were a little cheaper, they used the whole track without chicanes, and members drove a greater mix of cars, meaning, I wasn't constantly being passed by 500 hp beasts that were common at NCRC events. By the end of the year Bonnie would ask me to help with the instructing, so I must have driven well enough to gain their confidence. | |||
| SCCA | February 20 | Oakland Coliseum | I'm back for some more autoX fun. The course was a bit wet, but driving was still fun. |
| TEAM | July 18 | Thunderhill | My first event with TEAM Racing, and my first use of a rear-mounted camera. |
| TEAM | October 22-23 | Reno-Fernley | A two-day event at this new track in Nevada! |
| TEAM | November 25-26 | Thunderhill | A two-day event that started in the rain. |
| TEAM | December 12 | Thunderhill | My first day instructing, and my start of capturing Greg's spins on video. |
| 2006 | |||
| This year was different for the previous in two respects: I was instructing a lot, and my track days had become data and video collection efforts to support the BS4TV project. I wasn't planning on attending all of Bonnie's events this year, but as an instructor I felt I needed to be there to help. TEAM is a club, after all. It helped that she gave the instructors a break on the costs. But it was my BS4TV project that requires me go back to the track to get better and more interesting video and the G-Tech Pro data to go with them. This also required my improving my video system.
As for the events themselves, instructing has become something I look forward to. I've met great people doing this and got to see them see that track driving was as fun, safe, and addicting as I have come to know it. I also think I have really matured in my own driving and have begun to enjoy it on a whole new level. I guess the question now is, should I move up to racing? (Excuse me while I check the number on my lottery ticket.) |
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| TEAM | May 26 | Buttonwillow | My first time at this track, and a bit far from home, but the long drive was well worth it. |
| SCCA | June 10 | Mather Field | A Shriner Children's Hospital charity event, and my only autocross for this year. |
| Got Guts at Thunderhill | June 19 | Thunderhill | A charity event for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (www.ccfa.org), and a fun day at the track. |
| TEAM | June 30 | Thunderhill | The session were full, and there were some really nice cars there that day. My tire cam video effort worked out very well. |
| TEAM | August 26-27 | Reno-Fernley | We got to run the whole track, all 4+ miles and 28 turns! Unfortunately my clutch gave out on Saturday morning. Well, at least I got to learn how shift without a clutch, all the way home to Davis. |
| TEAM | September 1 | Thunderhill | Dan and I finally had some company (more Preludes) at the track that day and I was instructing for a Prelude driver! |
| TEAM | November 17 | Thunderhill | We had 5 Preludes on the track that day! It was nice to finally be out there with cars like mine. Zep (3000 GT VR-4) and his dad (BMW mCoupe), both from Davis, were there. |
| TEAM | December 12 | Thunderhill | We had rain and we had sun. It was slippery and it was fun. |
| 2007 | |||
| The year has just begun and we've already got three excellent track days on the books. Bonnie's next event will be at Reno-Fernley in May, and SAMOA will hold its charity event at Thunderhill in April. | |||
| TEAM | January 12 | Thunderhill | It was really cold, and windy. People were in no hurry to take their helmets off after their session. Still, it was a great day, and I learned that cold tracks don't wear the tires very much at all. |
| TEAM | January 28 | Thunderhill | My friend Lisa, and her new S2000, finally joined me at the track, and I was gong to be her instructor. |
| TEAM | February 26 | Thunderhill | A great day at the track. The rain just before lunch made things interesting. |
| Got Guts at Thunderhill | April 23 | Thunderhill | Second annual benefit for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. No students, just driving! |
| TEAM | June 23-24 | Reno-Fernley | A two-day event driving the whole 4-mile course. I finally got to finish the day at this track. |
| TEAM | August 17 | Thunderhill | |
| TEAM | September 14 | Thunderhill | Sigi Vogler came to town, from Germany, and got to do his first track day, in a rental car. He had a great time, but I retired myself early that day, difficulty concentrating on driving. |
| TEAM | November 16 | Thunderhill | |
| 2008 | |||
| This year it was track days with TEAM and a couple of autocrosses. The best part of it all was Siggi coming from Germany to do his first track day. | |||
| TEAM | January 11 | Thunderhill | Cold and overcast, but dry. Several Davis students were there, too. |
| SCCA | April 13 | Oakland Coliseum | We all met early and drove down together. I got three good runs and lots of photos and video, including from a camera mounted on my door. |
| SCCA | May 18 | Mather Field | AutoX with Sac-SCCA, and lots of people from Davis. Four runs, on concrete, and it was a fast course. I rev-limited in second during my first run. | NCRC | September 26 | Thunderhill | I wasn't driving. I was there to get video for Steve during his race. I also got a ride in his Mustang. 2:06 lap times, even with all the extra weight! |
| TEAM | November 22-23 | Thunderhill | The "Chasing Turkeys" weekend, a whole weekend of just driving. Awesome weather all weekend. |
| TEAM | December 12 | Thunderhill | Chilly, but sunny and dry. I love track days that start before sunrise and end after sunset. |
| 2009 | |||
The year was good. I did a lot more instructing, and enjoyed it, and I really started working to improve my video skills, now that I have a high-def camera and I am doing the video for other cars and even race teams. I did get to drive but not as much as in the past. If I got one good session with video and data acquisition I was satisfied. I honestly think my driving is quite solid and my videos even bear this out. I'm very consistent, rarely make mistakes, and my lap times are consistently under 2:30, usually right around 2:25. I'm ready for that supercharger now. |
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| TEAM | August 28 | Thunderhill | Cool and cloudy, but a great day. Instructing was fun and I even got to drive two sessions for myself. |
| TEAM | October 16 | Thunderhill | Beautiful weather, and there were some awesome cars at the track, including a rare Marcos XP1 and a Ford GT. |
| 24 Hours of LeMons | November 21-22 | Thunderhill | I spent 2 days there with EGR's cars, getting video, photos, interviews, and then came home and spent week's editing it all. The videos turned out great. |
| TEAM | December 11 | Thunderhill | A good day driving and instructing. It had rained, but then I kind of like rain driving. |
| 2010 | |||
| Bonnie is taking the first half of the year off to tend to some other matters, but we have summer and winter events to look forward to. | |||
| 24 Hours of LeMons | March 5-7 | Infineon | I'll be there with cameras and with EGR. |
| TEAM | July 9 | Thunderhill | |
| TEAM | October 15 | Thunderhill | |
| TEAM | November 19 | Thunderhill | |
| TEAM | December 10 | Thunderhill | |
