Racing journal

My adventures in a 1983 RX-7.

Coming up

Lap of buttonwillow by Team Venom

March 3 & 4, 2001 - Laguna Seca HPDE

Saturday - Per Holden, instructor

This guy raced in the Camero-Mustang Challenge -- the feature race at the track this weekend. The first lap out I was SCARED and went way too slow. But I was surprised at how quickly I figured out the line on my own. After the lap, Per gave me a map, and showed me some improvements I could make on the turns. Then I went out for a ride-around with Glen in our car, and I noticed that I knew where the line was. Yay! My next time out, Per said I had a pretty good line, and he let me take Glen as a passenger for the next couple runs. I'm sure I'm going to sign up for Group 1 for a day on a new track, and run Group 2 for the 2nd day. I'm getting better and I'm moving up a group.

Trouble spots today:

• Clipped turn 2 short sometimes
• Bad line through 8-8a
• Didn't track out wide enough after 8a for set up to 9
• Needed to track out wider after 9
• Don't need to break so much in many corners, particularly 4 and 10

Sunday

I can't remember my instructor's name for this day (Ali?), but it poured rain all day and I spun us off the track at Turn 5 the first time out. The instructor told me to go wide and not hit the apex at all on 5 for future laps, which seemed to work well. Unfortunately, I didn't push myself at all after the spin (it didn't help that the instructor reached out toward the wheel when it seemed like the back end might go loose). I continued to choose a great line most of the time, but I drove so slowly that I didn't get more experience with car control. The car also locks on a downshift to 2nd gear if you don't heel-toe, so I wound up scrubbing off tons of speed before turns 8-8a (corkscrew) and 11 (hairpin).

Trouble spots today:

• Need to avoid puddle toward apex of turn 5. Need to correct with steering much quicker when back end gets loose. Break after a spin when the car is hurtling backwards! ;)
• Need to heel-toe on down shifts, particularly turns 8-8a and 11.
• Need to push car faster -- should be in gears 3-4 most of the time, except for turn 11, which is 2nd. Also should upshift quicker out of 2nd.
• Remember to break and downshift early for turn 11. Spun off track into sand after one late shift, but drove back out.

Highlights:

• Glen saved a sideways slide on Apex 1 of the Corkscrew
  
• Julie planted the car and had to be towed out of the dirt off the apex of Turn 5
• Glen got invited to join a race club, where there are many swanky cars.

Useful links:

• Team Venom in-car video of Laguna Seca - full lap
• Stills of each turn (Laguna Seca Web site)
• Heel-Toe Downshift instructions

February 3 & 4, 2001 - Sears Point HPDE

Attended a NASA High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) at Sears Point racetrack. This basically means I got to drive the racetrack with an instructor's help. No passing is allowed except on 3 straight parts of the track. See the pix.

To drive on a race track successfully, you need to learn the "line." This is the fastest path through the course. Since Sears Point is a very technical track (lots of hard turns to navigate), it can take a beginner a few runs to learn the line. (In fact, after my first run, I was sure I would never learn the line. But I got it down for my last couple times out.)

Highlights:

• Glen slides at Turn 2. After working the wheel hard, he saves it.
• Julie takes 4 too fast/wide and over-corrects steering too much several times. After much work, finds line again and continues into the esses.
• Julie successfully follows faster-paced instructor around track last time out on Saturday. Instructor jumps up and down in glee.
• Julie went really fast on carosel and slid rear end correctly.

• Hit Turn 3a apex curbing a cuple times, launching car.
• Bad line through Turn 4. Need to remember to go wider on entry.
• Bad downshifting at top of carosel.
• Need to push car harder through the esses.

• A lap around Sears Point Raceway - brief description of turns with photos
• In-car video - same guy who did the lap around sears point page
• Team Venom's in-car video for Sears Point

January 13, 2001

• Glen finds good deal on a pro-7 race car with trailer and extras. We measure the garage, and Glen decides the trailer with car will just squeeze in. We drive up to Sacramento today to purchase it. ( Learn more about pro-7 racing.)
  
  
• Everything looks good, we hitch up the trailer with the car, and drive home. The truck is great hauling the trailer+car, with just a bit of bouncing on rough stretches of road.
  
  
• It's raining and dark when we get home.
  
  
• After much co-ercing, we get the trailer backed into the driveway (Glen driving and me shouting things like "Ok! Ok! You're fine! WAIT--YOU'RE GOING TO HIT THE NEIGHBOR'S MINIVAN!" (Neighbor peeps out window at this point, but doesn't offer to move the darn minivan.)
  
  
• ACK!! The trailer doesn't fit into the garage. Nor does it fit in the driveway -- it's too long and someone might trip over the ball hitch assembly.
  
  
• We decide to drive the car out and park the trailer by the beach. Unload the car, and leave the trailer near people's boats parked on the side of the road. It's still raining.
  
  
• We see a nice long space right near our house, so we pull the truck+trailer in there, with the truck blocking the road a bit and the entire crosswalk. People walk by now and then, staring at us, as they come out of the nearby liquor store.
  
  
• We untie the car (it's held to the trailer with several ratcheting straps), place down the ramps, and Glen starts the car. Nothing. The battery is dead. (later learn that battery needed water)
  
  
• We sit in the rain rather dejected and tired. Glen wants to leave the car on the street. I disagree. That's a lot of valuable hardware to leave on a city street, even though it is just one night. We tie down the car again.
  
  
• A bus driver double-parks her bus to run into the liquor store.
  
  
• Some women who works in the building next door asks us where we're running the car (Sear's Point, Thunderhill, Laguna?) and how it's placed. We explain our dilemma. She suggests we sleep in the car.
  
  
• After much back and forth, Glen gets the battery charger while I watch our vehicles and the gaping passers-by.
  
  
• Yay! The battery charging works. Glen gets the car running. We untie the car again. Glen re-positions the truck so he has room to drive the car down. I reposition the ramps, and Glen drives back off the trailer.
  
  
• Something's wierd with the hitch. The truck rises as the car comes off the trailer. THUNK! Car is down, trailer & truck are level again.
  
  
• Glen drives off, parks in our garage.
  
  
• Truck unhitched. We pack everything up, reposition the trailer next to the curb, and go park the truck in our driveway.
  
  
• We drink lots of beer.

Other days

• Bought a truck that will pull up to 6000 lbs
• Glen has race car in pieces -- he's putting it together to run in the super-modified class.
• Glen still has car in pieces -- we decide to buy a car in the class down so we can both race sooner.