Had a great time at the track! This was my first high performance driving event ever, so I was plenty nervous. But I had the roll bar installed, so I figured there was no turning back. It made it alot better having Jason and Ron there, so thanks guys! Both the guys were really cool in making me feel welcome and comfortable. Ron even sent me a picture Friday night of their spot at the paddock (with the stolen canopy ) and Jason texted me Saturday morning to let me know he arrived. Them saving me a spot also made it easier, because I had never seen the Summit Point paddock before.

I got an instructor named Guy who was a pretty grizzled older guy from PA who runs his own shop and is a huge Ford fan (he has 9 Mustangs, including one race one he brought and a brand new Boss 302, as well as a Ford GT). His gruffness was a little intimidating at first but I thought he did a really good job. I had not even studied the track map before the first run () so the first run he had to tell me each turn which side I had to be on. His main critique after the first session was to study the map. Second session I was already much better with them. One thing that really flustered me was trying to downshift from 4th to 3rd when entering some of the slower turns, along with trying to match the revs and enter the turn. I even entered Turn 1 holding in the clutch which my instructor quickly scolded me for and luckily I wasn't going fast enough that the car spun out in the turn when I let out the clutch. I have gotten in a very bad habit of doing that on the street, holding in the clutch when coming up to a turn. So I spent the whole weekend in 4th gear, just trying to learn the line. A lot of people passed me, but that was ok. (I got to learn the point by really well! )

Second day, it was raining in the morning so the track was a little bit wet. The car handled completely differently, and I didn't feel very comfortable at all. I took Turn 1 a bit too fast one lap and spun out, but I managed to get both feet in really quickly and didn't stall (Luckily "both feet in" was just hammered into us via classroom instruction). I got through the rest of the session without spinning out, but it was pretty stressful. Session 2 I did ok, and Session 3 I started by letting the instructor drive my car a few laps. He was really impressed by the car. I think throughout the first few sessions he thought the car was really slow because I was driving in 4th the whole time. But he was like "This is a sweet car!" and "The brakes are excellent", and even asked to drive one more lap haha. After seeing what the car could handle, I felt I was able to push the car more that session than before. I asked the instructor to critique me more on my entry turn in, etc. and he mentioned that I "apex too early almost everytime". He then told me on a couple more turns when to turn in, and I could see how waiting till later made a difference. I was also able to get closer to the apexes.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable experience. I am much more sore and exhausted today than I thought I would be. It was a really cool event when I was in the same group with a Lotus, a GT-R, a Porsche Boxster, etc. Also, I met a few other cool people, including Aaron and Keith. Keith even let me drive his Ferrari around the parking lot, which was really cool of him. When's the next HPDE??

Here's me

 

Congrats Oleg! You guys are on a roll!

 

Sounds Like a action packed weekend for everyone.

 

Did anyone see a video of a guy driving what I believe is a 240sx in HPDE2 during hyperfest 2008 and flipping it by lifting in 4? This kinda stuff makes me uneasy pushing my car to it's limits....Here it is:

My link

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...nt-crash-vids/

 

Yea... you shouldn't lift while turning there, I was warned about that.

The linked mustang crash at 9 scares me more because the cause wasn't as obvious.

 

We are glad to know you enjoyed your first outing at the track, Kevin. One of the key factor to enjoy a track day that I learned is preparation. Preparing your car and yourself will almost guarantee you will have fun day at the track and you did that, so you did good. The best factor thought for me is having friends around to enjoy the track with. Keep us posted whenever you are signing up for the next track day, Some of us might just sign up if someone from our community is going.

 

This crash? (Sorry, don't know turn numbers. Seemed to be the only crash with a mustang)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTv_o_w9BVE


Looks like he came in way too hot, went wide to avoid rear-ending the civic, and then got on the brakes hard with two tires in the grass.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ5dy...ature=youtu.be

This video is the one he was talking about. I didn't see it until I looked at them a second time. It is linked underneath the first video.

 

 

Ok that makes a lot more sense. For the one that I linked to I was thinking, "How the heck does Jim not know why this guy crashed? "