THSCC Forums

Well I don’t know where to begin other than it was an absolute blast!!

I’m quite certain I know what GM built the Z06 for now. While it is fun to autocross it. It is nothing like turning it loose on the track where it is right at home. Acceleration, braking, turning, balance. It seemed to do all of it quite well.

For prep I replaced all my fluids the week before the event. Oil, trans, diff, and PS were all replaced with Royal Purple synthetics. Completely flushed my brake fluid and replaced with Motul RBF 600. Good stuff. I went over all the tech inspection stuff then took the car to a mechanic to have it inspected and signed off. If the car is in good shape and has fresh fluids you should be ready to go.

Showed up at the track Friday night to do techistration. Registration went well. They went over everything with me to make sure I understood how the event would go and what I need to be aware of. Nice folks. My instructor for the weekend happened to be there getting his car ready. And there was a spot next to him so I pitted there. Introduced myself and we did tech right then and there. This is nice if you can do it Friday night so that Saturday morning you are ready when you get to the track. Having all my autocross gear came in handy. Setup my canopy, chair etc unpacked tool box, jack and all the other crap out of the car.

On Saturday morning all I needed to do was set my tire pressure and check the torque on my lug nuts. For my first session I was all nerves, tight muscles and stopped breathing from the braking zone at the end of the straight until the last turn leading back to the straight. My instructor, David Thackery was a really nice guy and very calm and collected. He got me breathing and loosened up so I could focus on learning. We had the 2-way mike/earphone setup so communicating was very easy. He talked me through the first session and got me acclimated to the environment quite well. By the second session we were focused on the line and smooth inputs (steering, braking, throttle). On the 3rd and 4th session we were running the line, trying driving off line when we got caught in a train. When we got clean air we were moving right along. Didn’t get to ride with him Saturday since our schedules were screwed up and there were no holes. So I didn’t get see by example all day. Nonetheless the progression was going well. By the end of the day I was comfortable enough with the track, the line, the cars out there with me, picking up my worker stations, reading flags etc.. We even got a red flag in our last session so we got tested on flagging. At the end of the day I flipped my wheels from left to right as that track is pretty hard on the left side tires, especially the front. Other than that no issues with the car at all. We got 4 sessions Saturday. 25-20-20-15 minutes. The last session got cut short due to the red flag. We had 3 – 45 minute classroom sessions also. That covered all the basics of track etiquette (worker stations, flags, hand signals, car spacing, grid, hot grid etc), basics on car dynamics, and driver issues.

On Sunday we were told to tone it down for our first session since we were probably tired from Saturday and would not be quite as sharp as we were later Saturday. Not a bad idea. Some students didn’t listen to that. We had a car do an off track excursion. Just flying dirt and a little bruised ego. We discussed it in class right after the session. By the 2nd session I was working on making sure that I was consistently nailing the lessons from the previous day. The 2nd and 3rd sessions went very well. Pushing the car harder, hitting apexes consistently, deeper braking, some heel and toe work. We checked off all the elements on the “report card” that I need to be able to accomplish. We had 2 moments during my sessions. One was at the end of the straight at the end of braking and doing the downshift. I let the revs drop a little too much and the car got a little squirrelly. Nothing horrible just not real smooth. The other moment was around turn 5. I hit the apex just fine. Starting rolling in the throttle and got in a little farther than I meant too. Rotated the car a little but got it right back on line. My instructor was pretty cool. He noted a very nice recovery but requested I save practicing car rotation at speed for HPDE Group II and not Group I first time out. That was an oops. Only time I surprised him all weekend. So that was cool. Having an autocross background made a lot of difference as rotating the car and catching it became a non event. I only ran 3 of the 4 sessions on Sunday. We got a long session to make up for losing time on Saturday from the red flag incident. So I ran 25-25-20 minutes. I passed on session 4. I was tired and absorbed all I was going to. Running that session would have been a waste of instructor, driver and car. That was a good idea for both of us as my instructor was beat since he also ran all day Friday. So we just sat down and reviewed the weekend instead of going out on track.

You get a report card when you run HPDE. Your instructor grades you on all the things you need to do. Rank from a 1-5. 1 is good. 5 means you really need some practice… I got 39 - 1’s and 4 – 2’s. Those are in the notes for me to work on next time out. Most of it relates to clutching, heel toe and braking. Since I’m rusty on a stick shift it is no surprise. The Z06 will heel and toe nicely as the brake pedal sits just right under hard braking so that you can blip the throttle without a struggle. I just need more practice. My instructor talked with the classroom instructor and event director to have them watch me through the back section to see how they felt. They were quite happy and agreed with his report. He had asked them because he wanted me moved to Group II. Personally I don’t care whether I run in Group I or II for now. It’s all good. It’s all learning. Make yourself a personal log book and put in comments about an event and a track. What you did well and not so well. Where you want to improve and explore next time you are at that track. My instructor was really big on me having a goal and what I wanted to get out of every session. I liked that. It makes you think beyond, “I want to do better than last time”.

We had 12 drivers in Group I on a 2 mile course. So there was lots of room once you escaped 4 or so cars that seemed to constantly get themselves into a train. I felt very safe on the track in this group. So if you’re really paranoid about track in HPDE I would say it’s ok to be nervous but go do it. We never even came close to hitting each other. You’ve had much closer calls on the street and highway, I can assure you. Just leave your ego at home and go to learn. You’ll have a good time.

I will also say that coming from an autocross background does help! Don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise. You learn car dynamics and control at lower speed. But you still learn it. It helped me quickly recover from one of my oops moments with no panic. You get to go faster. Your turns need to start way ahead and take a set on the wheel and leave it there. No see-saw stuff. Similar to autocross but not so many quick turns in a row. More about everything is smooth. There aren’t 10 turns in 100ft. There were 9 turns in 2 miles!!!

I have in car video I’m working on making clips of if anyone wants to see them.

Graham

Nice report. What group did you run with?

Welcome to the "Go fast crack pipe..."

Diane

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Diane (Hall) Bundas
1992 Spec Miata #48 - 1997 Chevy Tahoe - 2007 Honda Civic Coupe

Ran with NASA-SE. Fit in my schedule nicely at the track I wanted to run first. It's only about 20mins from where my daughter lives. So I spent 4 days down there so I could visit. Plus free room and board saved me a bunch over hotel costs.

Yeah can I appreciate the "Go fast crack pipe..." remark. It is a blast and addictive

Graham

Sounds fun Graham. Thanks for the write-up. I want to do an HPDE so bad, but I am afraid of wrecking. Maybe in a year or so when I can get the car a little more paid off though. NASA sounds like a good organization to start with. Plus, you get to watch the Honda-Challenge in between sessions, right?

How do you feel about Roebling being your first track? I heard it would be a good one since it has less walls to hit than most tracks around here.

Charlie

I am glad Graham had fun! Roebling is, to me, the ultimate track for a first-time student.

That said Charlie, there is this little club based in NC that does track events from time to time that is very novice-friendly and has a fantastic instructor base. You may have heard of them....THSCC.

Here is one lap for anyone interested. It is about 20MB. I removed the audio track and dropped it to MPEG-1 format to get it as small as possible.

Try this, it should work....

Click Me

The username and password on the webpage is thscc. There is only 1 file. The video. Right click it and "Save Link As" to your PC. Then play it.

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

Yeah I thought this would come up. Just to be clear. I wanted to do Roebling and NASA happened to be having an event that fit my schedule. I was hesitent to even post this since I didn't do it with THSCC. But some folks told me to do it anyway. So I removed the club name. The post was more based on sharing a first time track experience with people who are contemplating the idea but sitting on the fence.

There are several marque clubs that hold track events at the tracks I am interested in running. THSCC is most definetely one of them. I have always heard positive remarks from people about THSCC track events when it comes to quality, safetey, and fun. And not just on this forum or Tarheels members. My instructor for the weekend also complimented THSCC and their events.

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

Graham, I wasn't aiming that at you at all. As someone who has made a whopping 1 track event with THSCC this year due to scheduling issues among other things, I have no problems whatsoever with you or anyone else running with other groups....especially to get a "first track event" at Roebling!

I just noticed Charlie talking about NASA sounding like a good group to run with, which they certainly are I am sure, and felt the need to plug the program run by the club that provides this forum.

I think your post is a very good one to have here, as there are LOTS of people who are afraid to come out to the track for the first time that could be brought over to the dark side by writeups like this.

Charlie,

Your feelings on the car wrecking are understandable. I only just got the Z06 and still owe plenty on it. So parking it into a wall/tree etc. would really suck. Once you actually get to an event and go through it I think you'll find that it is safer than you thought. Stuff happens but we had one off-track in Group I and one in Group 2. Both were late braking and sliding off the turn. Some flying dirt and that was about it.

The instructors (classroom and in-car), event director and staff, and track staff all constantly reminded us about "Safety First". Especially the noobs in Group I. You aren't racing. You are not going to be pressured to drive over your head. Drivers are not allowed to crawl up each others butts and tail gate. We kept a bigger distance than most do on the highway. You can only pass on the straight and after a proper hand signal is given to you buy the driver to be passed. It is a very controlled exercise. You drive and learn at your pace. We had a rather interesting mix of people in our group. I felt more comfortable with 12 strangers on the track than I did with the ones on I95 coming home.

I think Roebling is an excellent choice to start. Fairly wide track. Only 9 turns. Not difficult to learn. Lots of runoff area in most places. Most of the runoff is grass with sand underneath it. The cars that went off stopped very quickly. Even the race cars. Nice long straight so you can run it up a bit. The only place I can see that would really hurt is the last turn (turn 9) that feeds the long straight. If you drift over too far and go off AND fight the car to get back on you could hit the wall that seperates grid and track. If you go off, two feet in, straight line. No heroic stuff.

They did have race groups that ran between us so we got to spectate for that. I didn't see a Honda specific group. But there were 2 groups running. One was Porsche, Vette, Mustang and the other was a mix of Miata, Honda, Toyota and a kit car Lotus 7. You can find some decent viewing spots of the front straight and some for turns 3-6.

It makes for a full and fun day. You won't be bored... and you will be tired. I slept like a baby every night and fell asleep in minutes.

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

I'm not directing this at Charlie because it's his car, his $$$, and his loss if something should go wrong. That makes it 100% his decision. However I will say that IMO the chance of you wrecking your car on track is much less than your drive to work each day. Like Bowie Sr. says "at least we are all going the same direction".

Of course it goes without saying that anyone who drives beyond there limits can get into trouble. However THSCC will provide you with an instructor with insight to most likely prevent that.

If someone feels comfortable of with their abilities, then by all means they should give HPDE a try. However, if you're "scared" I don't want to be on the track with you.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

There is one important distinction. I'm not going to argue the relative safetly. But if you wreck a car that the bank owns on the way to work, most likely your insurance company will pay the bank for it. However, if you wreck the banks car at Roebling Road race track, maybe they will, maybe they won't, I can't say that I would blame them for refusing to pay however...

If it is Roebling, you just borrow a trailer for half an hour and suddenly you wrecked when a deer jumped out in front of you while you were on the Jimmy DeLoache.

FYI, on the subject of Roebling, bring up the track on Mapquest and if you zoom in, you will see that they got something slightly wrong.

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Rich
http://www.v8mongrel.com/

Link? What are we looking for? When I did this, I got a big open area.

Maybe I am not very smart today.

Mapquest.
Pooler GA.
Pan west to Effingham county line.
Find where the track should be (Ziegler Rd) and zoom in until you can see the track.
You will see a small mistake.
If you still don't see it click here.

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Rich
http://www.v8mongrel.com/

Now that is funny! I seem to remember Rd. Atl. having a bit more elevation change...

For some reason when I was maquesting it earlier where the track was supposed to be was blank. Oh well, thanks for the humor!