On July 18th I went to the turn1motorsports Open Track Day at CMP.

My wife and I drove to Lugoff (?) SC on TH and spent the night at the
Best Western there. We got up at 530, had breakfast and drove the 25 miles
to CMP with the top down (it turned out to be the only time the top was down).

At the entrance I rented the helmet and head sock (big drama as i could not
find my walled to pay for it!). While looking for a spot to park I saw a Silverstone
S2000 and decided to park next to it. Just as I parked a red S also parked two cars down.
They are both S2ki members, Mike and Al, very nice guys. Al has done lots
of Autox and Mike a couple of track events.

Mike and I were put in the DE1 group and Al in DE2 (advanced driver's ed).




We got the cars checked and went to class. It was a 20 minute introduction to
the track, flags, basic etiquette, passing rules, etc. and then we wait for the instructors
to come to us. Jim Pantis was my assigned instructor. Very nice guy and a
great instructor. He got me to do a power slide on session 3!




So we go into session 1. The other cars on the track are : Red Cooper S, Grey Corvette,
Red S2000 (Mike), Yellow Datsun, Bright Yellow something or other (It looked like a
fiat 2000 but I am not sure), Grey WRX and a Red Porsche 944 (I think there were
two other cars but I can't remember).

Jim gives me the spiel on each turn on the first two laps and points my faults
:Not baking late and hard enough, braking while turning, missing the apex on half
the turns, accelerating too late coming out of the turns. Gee! just about the
only thing I was doing right was that the car was moving in the right direction ! :-)

By the end of the first session I had worked out the line and was breaking much
better. I got a shock the first time I did it right as the stench of hot brakes
just hits you half way through a turn. I did well enough the rest of the session
to overtake two cars.




Next is another class. They walk us through each turn and give us a refresher on flags and stuff. This was a good class as it would not have made any sense to walk through the track before the first session. While the class is going on the instructor opens up the blinds so we can see the action on turn 1. He is pointing out errors which different drivers are making and BAM! a racing
911 rushes the downshift and goes off the track spinning like crazy. It almost looked staged for our benefit.

We wait 30 minutes and on to session 2. This time I have worked out
the line and the braking. Still missing about 1/3 of the apex on the curves
(Turn 12 eluded me until the last session). I was getting in the zone and
overtook the whole field. What a rush!

Tha amazing thing is that when we first caught up to the Vette she would
just leave us in the dust on the straights (a good 400 yards from bend to bend)
but then she would screw up pretty much every corner and I would be right
on her tail coming out of the turns. In the picture below we came
out of turn 14 together, five seconds later (when the pic was taken) she
is already well ahead).14 We did this for about three laps until
her instructor told her to let me through... never saw her again the rest of the
session !

When we came back into the pits Al was changing his wheels. Apparently his
AutoX set was not gripping that well and he switched to street tires.






We had a two hour break for lunch. Went to town wit Mike and had lunch
(nice air conditined area- a life saver). Then it was on to session 3.

Before the session Jim brought over some while shoe polish and put a marker
on each tire. He then says: "Now that you know the line you have to come
back at the end of the session with no shoe polish on the tires"... Sh###t
the shoe polish was a good inch down the wall of the tire!. "How am I going
to do that?" I asked. "Drive hard and slide on turns 5, 8, 11, 12 and maybe 13"
he says and then just smiles..

We get out onto the track and I give it all I got. I notice that the car is
a little more tail happy than usual ( I had a save on session 2). Mike tells
me that the track must be so hot (2:50 pm) the tires are getting 'greasy'. But
he encourages me to keep pushing. I finally nail turn 12 and get to do a power
slide on 11 that was so f#@$@#ing fantastic!

Unfortunately the 'greasy' tires bite me back and I loose it on the second last
lap on turn 13. I tried to save it so the tail goes the other way. I was going
to correct it but Jim tells me to straighten, clutch and brake pedal down and
let it roll off the track. We weren't going that fast (maybe 60MPH) so we pulled
into the pits (you have to every time you spin or have 4 wheels off the track).
We get told to finish up as there is only one lap left anyway.

I did not manage to get rid of all the shoe polish (see below) but I passed the
field once again (which was turning into routine by now).





Session 4 was the smoothest one. Got 103 on the back straight and managed
to shift into fourth on the main straight (every other session I was hitting
the rev limiter on 3rd farther and farther from turn 1 as the laps went by).

Passing the field is a non event by this time. :-)

We missed out on session 5 as a storm announced itself and everybody just packed
up in 5 minutes (they must have done it before!). I took a shower and then we drove
back to Raleigh. Those were the most mellow 220 miles I have driven in a while. :-)


I hope you enjoyed the pics and the story.

I am definetely going back many times!

 

Great write-up! That sure looks like a lot of fun.
I have a question; I know you have to tape up your headlights, but is there also some kind of plastic sheet on the body as well? Looks like there are some wrinkles. I've heard that you can get a lot of rock chip damage from running on a track, so I'd be interested in tips to avoid this.
It helps to get tips from the veterans so you can learn from their mistakes

Another tip I learned today, don't use your emergency brake after running your brakes hard or you can crack/warp your rotors.

 

smccurry, I don't think you have to tape your headlights. No one told me I had to do it. I just did it because everyone was doing it.

The plastic on the hood is contact paper ($4 /roll, I used two rolls). I had the whole front covered but it rained on the way there and half of it came off.

Most people say that you get a lot less rock chips on the track than on the road. What you do get is rubber rash (scratches and chips from pieces of tire). The rubber gets everywhere, rims, fenders, windshield, you name it.

I forgot to mention the e-brake warning. Good call

 

I'll see if I can find that paper here. I don't know if your competitors were running race tires, but I hear the stickier tires will often pick up quite a bit of gravel/debris from the road and promptly deposit it on your front bumper. I suppose highway driving would do the same, but I don't do much of that except to and from the track.

Maybe your track is different, but they require the tape on the headlights here in the case of a fender bender (makes the clean up easier).

Thanks for the tip.

 

great write up! did you ever worry about someone hitting your car or crashing it and totalling it? thats the only 2 things that scare me from doing something like this.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Squeezer
[B]great write up!

 

Nice writeup Diego Definitely looks to have been a great day for you. When you'd mentioned "autocross" in Raleigh yesterday, I'd assumed you meant small open parking lot or something with 10,000 cones. Hell, that was a ROAD COURSE!

- Dave

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by w1ngman
[B]Nice writeup Diego

 

Good write up! Makes me remember my first track days; lots of adrenaline!

I don't bother taping up the S2000 headlight cover, as it's polycarbonate, and won't shatter and leave sharp pieces on the track like glass.

 

AWSOME write-up....and sweet PICS. Thanks for sharing.... How far is CMP from Raleigh? Can't wait for October....I really need to get some cheap oem wheels and S02's for the event. I should have never sold mine

I would hate to ruin my bbs and yoko's on the track...