JackOlsen

It's always different, but this time the perfect moment happens on the drive in. I’m awake at 5:00, a cold January morning, in the car and on my way by 5:30. I’ve been doing this so long that I’ve got the kinks worked out. There’s hot coffee within easy reach. Good heat from the exchangers down on the car’s headers. Noise canceling earbuds filter most of the engine sound, but not so much that I can’t hear how well the thing is running. I have music coming in through the earbuds, as well as an audio feed from the radar detector, which means I can plant myself in the empty left lane and enjoy watching the sun slowly rise in the hour and a quarter that it takes to get over the San Gabriels and all the way out to the oldest and fastest road course in North America. There’ll be a lot of adrenaline later, but this drive up out of the city, through the mountains and up to the high-altitude desert is a tremendously calm experience, every time I do it.

hughp3

Dreamlike , very nice...

mark kibort

That was my program for many years! it is a lot of fun and very serene watching the sun come up on the long drive to the track in the race car.. I never had any heat though but the food and music was plentiful

TXE36

Yep. It's almost 6:30 AM and just a quick check of RL before heading out to MSRH this morning. All the details down to a science. It's all part of the weekend.

-Mike

tedean

tgsmith4845

Veloce Raptor

Well done, Jack!!!

txhokie4life

Sweet!

Thundermoose

Every thing you write and all the videos you produce are top notch. Thanks!

dgmark

Your killing me, For me the best part of a race weekend is getting coffee at 4 in the morning and hooking up the trailer for a long haul.

TXE36

Now that I'm instructing I miss the morning driver's meeting by the gas pumps at TWS. Not the meeting itself however - it was the shattering of the morning silence by the instructors firing up their machines for the 8AM Red Run Group session. Of course, I'm one of those instructors now, but this is a rare case of an activity that I think was better as a spectator rather than a participant.

-Mike

mpruden

Good timing. I watched this right before I left for Willows yesterday morning at 4:30am. Could not agree more. Thanks for posting, Jack!

Viperbob1

Sweet video....

Hatzenbach

David993S

Great post and video. Thanks for capturing the feeling. The calming routine of that part of a track day or a race weekend is a wonderful part of the whole experience. I think it's because everything is still ahead of you.
I used to love Friday evenings before an SCCA race weekend. Towing to the track, unloading the car, going through Tech, saying hello to old friends, taking in the familiar atmosphere. At that point, no one had bent any metal, broken any fiberglass, no one had filed any protests, no one had won or lost, and all the excitement, anticipation and enjoyment of racing was yet to come. Anything was still possible.
While actual racing was the point of the weekend, it was one of my favorite times.