Spohn's First track Day

SPOHN

EDIT: http://contour.com/stories/spohn Here's a vid from my second session. I just had reduce the tire pressure and it took some getting used to. I lifted a lot in this one but not so much on my last session. Not sure how to embed this one but here's the link.


Today was officially my first track day. I don't even know where to start but I hope you guys will read and I welcome any feedback you can offer. The hole day was so wonderful. Got off to a late start but for myself it was well worth it. My car held up well. Below is a map of the track at Atlanta Speedway. Mostly a oval track for Nascar but they do have a road course built in which I believe hasn't been used in awhile. But we got to enjoy this track along with the banking it offers.



First before I get started I'd like to give my instructor a big thanks. You guys know him as Mike here on the boards. He was very informative telling different lines to try, relating steering to throttle control, how to look threw a turn, and much more. He hadn't drove on this track either but he quickly knew what to do. It's was like having a computer in the car with me data logging. LOL.

We first went out for two quick laps to have us drivers see the layout of the track and what to expect. Mike went out earlier during the instructors meeting. My first impressions of the course was it seemed intimidating. Had lots of gravel and not much room for error in a lot of the corners. Then we headed back to the pits and starting staging for our first session. I/ we took off with a conservative pace to learn some angle of attacks and about 3 laps later Mike had a good bluprint of what lines to take a began coaching me on where to hit them along with throttle control and how it upsets the car. With each passing lap after that I started to pick up the pase but wasn't getting on the banking yet. That was next session. Basically that's the short of it. We went back to the garage area after the first session and discussed my flaws. Mike began to tell me how to look threw a turn and steer towards that (hope I worded that right, but you get the point). Also how I was getting in the throttle to much to soon when exiting a turn. Also before going out Mike told me to check my tire pressure and reduce it to his recommended levels. Which that ended up being the best thing I did. It gave so much more traction, better feedback, and more predictability.

So after that I was ready to attack the next session. As soon as it begun I had less fear (Mike probably still had some being I was a newbie ) and was picking up a good pace now while also trying to nogotiate my braking zones and down shifting/ rev matching for I have a base model with no rev matching. And not good at heel to toe especially in this enviroment. It really just seems harder to me in the Z. But anyhow Mike was still telling me lines to take while in the meantime I was trying to get my braking and down shifting correct. I need to work more on the correct time to shift. Which I was doing late. Sometimes I waited to late for things happen so fast with all kinds of random thoughts. So getting my braking zones down pat should lead to proper shifting points. Mike did say I was smooth but I know what I have to work on more. Which Mike like that fact that I knew how to identify my flaws. With each passing lap I was choosing the correct gears for each turn which in turn was bring me more speed in the straights. I also got to pass a couple of people this time. But I also noticed that some drivers would catch up to me before entering turns but I would leave them halfway threw the apex and so on. Which makes me believe they where coming in deeper and faster but they were in the wrong gear and were braking threw majority of the apex (either or ). With the lower gears and putting down more power because of that it demands more respect and carefullness. Which caused me to catch a decent drift coming out of turn that had some people in the garage talking about it (in a good way). I know some of the camera guys were loving it. But I was defiantly in control. Thanks to my OS Giken LSD. So that session ended. Again went back to the garage. Mike gave me some more sounded info. Which basically came down to mild bad habits from my past and more repetitions of the do's and don'ts.

The third session was great by far. Reduced the tire pressure a little more and was getting faster while staying on my lines most of the time. The reduce tire pressure played in so well. I was really learning my strong points, weak points, and some limits of my car. My car can be pushed more but I still have to get there by far after seeing what Mike can do behind the wheel on another 370 (not his). I have to learn to trust my tires a little more. Mike was trying to get me to push it a little more in a particular exit of a sweep but I guess I felt uneased about it for it would of made me slide a little (my terms). Sort of like loose is fast. In the end I was getting up to 125mph on the back stretch. That's about as far as I'm going to take this session.

In the end I know what I have to work on and look forward to some more track days soon (Nov.). Mike really was happy about last session and made a comment along the lines of how well I did for a first track day. So that was good to hear. The track wasn't too bad on the brakes either. So my HP+ held up pretty nicely for this event. But I'm going to go ahead and get some Carbotech's XP8's before the Hawks tear my rotors up. I also early next year going to get some different type of coilovers. I beat myself you for not going with something better especially being money wasn't a factor. The Stance are just not made for this. But are good for everthing else, even spirted driving. I also need to raise my car up for in some transitions points my upper control arm was hitting. I kind of already knew this. So thank you much if you read threw all this and my expeience of my first. Feel free to comment.

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