This was a first for me: so much seat time that blisters started to form on my hands.
My best guess is that we all got the equivalent of
fifty autocross runs in two days. So, let's say THSCC does nine events in a season, averaging 4.5 runs per. That's over a season's worth of seat time in two days.
Chris and I corded a brand new set of tires. Road race compound tires, at that - not A6s.
Tim Aro and Jinx Jordan are uncanny. Those guys don't know me all that well, and in about half a dozen runs, both had pinpointed pretty fundamental problems I was having behind the wheel. Jinx, in particular, nailed one early. We got done with a run where I had been in damage control mode the whole way through the seven cone slalom. He looked at me and said, "I get the feeling that the whole way through that slalom, you're thinking to yourself, 'I hope I make it through this.'" And he was right. I'd developed this habit of fiddling around with the throttle trying to get the car to rotate past each cone. I didn't know I was doing it. I'm sure that on the occasional time I managed it, it was really fast. The other dozen that I didn't manage it, though, the course workers probably hated me. So we went to steady throttle, accelerating slowly through it. MUCH easier. And just as fast.
Tim and I worked on car placement, sort of as a side effect of doing things a little earlier. Earlier braking, and earlier, less severe turn-in. It sounds so simple, and I guess that maybe it is, but it's a change I've been working on all year. This school was a huge help for it. And having the DL-1 data to go over with Tim to see "in pictures" how being early was faster sealed the deal. There's still work for me to do there, but a little less of it now.
Everybody there got faster, more consistent, and more focused over the two days. The difference was striking. I didn't get to watch Gwen, since we were in the same pairing, but those folks I did watch looked like different drivers. I know I felt like a different driver. I'm a lot more confident now. I got a little cocky once, too, and spun the car; that was a valuable lesson. Not the way I'd hoped to close the day, but it was one more thing I learned, so it was a good thing in the end. I think it was Eric that said, "when you feel like you were at the limit, and you did something as well as you possibly can, you probably did."
Now, we all have to make it stick. They gave us the ways to do just that - we just need to follow their advice. If you guys see any of us over in the corner doing some "pretend driving," we're doing visualization exercises. Leave us alone.
Gwen Baake wrote:
If you've never taken a SoloPro Extreme School, or haven't taken one in a couple of years, I can't recommend it enough. The difference in everyone's driving from day one to day two was outstanding.
Yeah, what she said. When there's another one, if I can afford to do it and can make the time to, I'll be there. No question.
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Having an instructor who knows the car so well is a double bonus.
) forever. The data logging was a real eye-opener, even if it just showed me what I already knew was probably the case. And while I have traditionally found the "classroom" portion of track schools lacking, I think our roundtable discussions really changed the way I will approach course walks and visualization. It was very constructive to be in the company of so many great drivers.
