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TLDR: DE is a gateway drug. Racing is more addictive than crack. There is a video of the final race from my first race weekend at the bottom if you are interested.
Acknowledgements: I had a crazy amount of help from many Rennlister's via posts and PMs just to get ready for my first race. But three people that really put a lot of effort into going above and beyond to help were Charlie Lacy coaching me on my build, Tim Webb coaching me on my driving, and Matt Romanowski supporting me on my Data Acq. system implementation.
This turned out way to long but it's my story so here it is.
Six months ago I took my newly purchased '99 C2 Coupe 6MT to the local track, Hallet Motor Speedway. I had always wanted to go and had previously owned multiple cars worthy of taking there but had never gotten the chance. After my first session, I felt like it was what I was meant to be doing my whole life. I have an extremely addictive personality (hence the necessity of my 11 years of sobriety) and this was just the type of legal drug I had been looking for. I didn't know much but I knew I wanted to get faster. So I began upgrading my car and seeking as much instruction as I could get.
The next month I headed to Motorsports Ranch with a private track group. I had fully upgraded the suspension with KW V3, GT3 sways, Tarret drop and toe links, had NT01's, racing pads, and 3 track days under my belt. Two things happened that day. One, I started going fast enough that I was scaring myself and knew I needed to upgrade my safety. And two, it absolutely grated at me to have GT3's, GT4s, McLaren 650s and C7 Z06's passing me. But I had already done enough ride alongs in the GT3's and Gt4's that I knew they weren't for me. The cars were technological wonders but seem to take too much of the driver to pavement interaction out of the equation. That and I didn't want to just go spend $150k+ for faster lap times. I wanted to feel like I was earning it.
Up until this point, I had proclaimed that I had no interest in a dedicated track car. That driving my DD on the track was half the fun. But I didn't want to ruin the DD to add safety, so I ate my words and scoured RL classifieds for track cars. I found another '99 C2 (my favorite year make and model ever) that had been an H class track car. I knew nothing other than it had a good suspension, aero, a data system, cage and harnesses. What I didn't know is that the shocks hadn't been rebuilt in 10 year, that bolt in cages aren't ideal, that 3080lbs is a really heavy '99, and that the CDS data system was extremely outdated and would crap out the first time I tried to use it. But hey, life is a learning experience and it was a good place to start.
I was driving it around the day before my first DE with it and the rear wheel bearing started squealing really bad. No place local had one in stock but the local salvage yard, Oklahoma Foreign, had a full wheel carrier they would sell me for a $100 that I could come pick up. So I stayed up until 3am replacing it. Having dealt with most of the local p-car shops when I had a previous 911, I decided I would do all of my own work this time around and as a first time DIY mechanic, I am extremely slow. When I got it on track something wasn't right. It didnÂ’t want to stop and it didn't grip in the turns. Between losing the alignment, not hooking the ABS back up right, and not bedding the brand new brake pads on the front it was squirrelly as hell and I didn't recognize it in time. My first time out with it, I ran it off track on the first lap and busted the rear subframe. I was devastated.
My next time on the track went better as it was better sorted and I started slow and worked my way up to speed over multiple sessions as I gained confidence. It was a really fun car, but it wasn't the beast I had hoped for. Back to the drawing the board.
To work on my driving, I signed up for the local Hallet one day race school. I also jumped on the Bondurant gift certificate deal that 944cup was offering and spent 4 days out there. The school was an amazing experience. I came away with the ability to heel/toe, trailbrake, a much better understanding of car control, and braking a little earlier to more consistently carry more speed through the corners. Up to this point, I had been saying that I had no interest in racing. It just sounded WAY to expensive. But when I came away from Bondurants with the ability to apply for my race license, the wheels started turning and the planning for my first race began.
I started researching licensing and vehicles requirements with PCA, NASA and even SCCA. But they all had me racing next year. It was my wife that pointed out that when we started team roping, we went to local jackpots before going to the bigger ropings. Wasn't there a local racing association I could start at? Brilliant! I called Hallet who has their own COMMA racing association and they said I'd already passed the school, come race!
OK, but I needed to get the car competitive. I initially started towards an SP996 build but then veered towards a GTB1 so that I could go a little lighter and keep the Moton's that came with the car. Even if I donÂ’t ever race PCA, I figured it needed to fit a PCA class in case I ever want to sell it. On multiple people's recommendation, I decided first thing would be to replace the bolt in roll cage with a welded one. Charlie Lacy at Innovative Auto Sports in TX came highly recommended and he said he could have it done by Sept 1. This would put me in position to make the last two COMMA races of the season. So with his guidance, I stripped out the interior, including every non-essential wire, and delivered it down to him with a cooler for a seat, a steering wheel, and nothing but the remaining wires on the inside.
While he had the roof and glass out to do the roll cage, he replaced the glass with Lexan, the roof with a GT3 roof skin, hollowed out the doors, and got the interior and new roof painted. The work was excellent. Charlie is great guy and his guidance on my build has been invaluable but unfortunately he finished up Oct 17th, 11 days before the last race weekend of the season.
So I took the next two weeks off work to finish stripping out the AC lines, condensers, heater lines, fans, dressing all of the wiring, installing the dash, SP996 wing, fiberglass hood, AIM MXS dash, Vbox Lite video system, fire suppression system, rebuilt shocks, seats and harnesses. Once again, I finished up at 1am Friday morning and headed to the track for Test and Tune with 4 hours sleep and nervous as crap.
Friday went awesome. My car was quick, responsive, and every bit the beast I was hoping for. But it had lots of little bugs. The VBox kept losing power, my RL Classified Recaro Pro seat fell apart and became a rocking chair 2nd session, I moved the passenger seat over and then it started losing nuts, and the rear Lexan seal came loose and was only held in by the metal straps. I was able to get the passenger seat back together but the drivers seat threads had stripped which meant my coach, Tim Webb, couldnÂ’t do any ride along sessions. But none of that mattered. I was on the track with the racers for the first time and it was chaos!
Nobody warned me that learning to be passed, especially in a corner, is a learned skill. I was taught like everyone to just stick to your line and you will be fine. BS! First guy to pass me took the inside line from me in the braking zone and forced me out wide. I learned quickly that inside on the corner was obviously the easiest place to pass someone because that's where everybody was doing it. Trying to drive my line and work on my mechanics became secondary to watching my mirrors and making sure I didnÂ’t plow into anyone. It was scary as hell and absolutely invigorating!
My times kept getting quicker as I got used to the car that day. I put on some bargain R6's after the first couple of sessions and they seemed to be about the same as my NT01's due to their age. By the 7th session of the day, I was absolutely exhausted. Only two legend cars went out with me and without the adrenaline of trying to pass and being passed, I mentally crashed and was so sloppy I was lucky I only made small mistakes and nothing big. So I loaded up my car and hauled it the 90 minutes back home and stayed up until 1am again fixing all of the little things to be ready for my debut.
The next morning, I put on a set of Pirelli DH I had bought from JP (usedracingtires.com). It was my first time on true slicks and it was awesome! I dropped another two seconds off my time in the first session and was running 8 seconds faster than my DD when it was fully upgraded. Strangely though this seemed to give me a false confidence in the tires that caused me to quit focusing on my mechanics and by the time qualifying rolled around I was two seconds slower than the first session and positive that the tire's had lost their magic. Fortunately my coach talked to me through it during lunch and if the tires didn't feel greasy, then it was definitely my driving.
The one thing that had slipped that I had been working really hard on was unwinding. Strangely enough, with all the race schools and DE instructors I've had, none of them ever pointed out that I wasn't unwinding at the apex. It was the first thing that Tim noticed on our first day together and he has hammered me on it ever since. Because you have to late apex to be able to unwind and my tendency is to early apex, it really is the key to my driving.
My first race was COMMA's 6 lap "qualifying" race that determines your order for the 12 lap feature race each day. I knew I could be quicker than a few of the cars in front of me but my main goal was not to screw up and wreck somebody else. So when we hit the green flag, as I was told to expect, my heart was beating a million miles an hour and the adrenaline was shooting through every vein. And I was completely lost. I think somebody had stuck a "Swiss Cheese" sticker on my rear bumper because I had 3 cars pass me by T1 and 2 more by T3. What the crap! I finally got my bearing and started racing. I managed to get back around 4 of them and get in decent position for the feature race.
The start of the feature went much better. I was on the inside for T1 this time so I stuck my bumper on the rear of the car in front of me and didn't even look at my mirrors through the first two turns. I got past the GT3 leaders and was closing in on the GT2 (my class) racer ahead of me by lap 10 when I took a turn too hot and started to spin. This is where the rookie stupidity kicked in. I decided to try and save it so I could still catch the car in front of me. I mashed on the gas to get the rear under control and it worked, but I was off line and ended up in the grass on track out. It started to spin again so I went to the gas again, but this time it spun out in into the middle of the track facing backwards. Oh crap. Thankfully nobody was coming yet so I whipped a U turn back onto the grass and started back onto the track. With halo, HANS and tunnel vision, I couldn't see that the GT3 leader had come around the turn and was tracking out straight for me. If my rear tires hadn't spun in the grass trying to get back on we both would have been toast. I went up to him and apologized profusely afterwards and he just laughed and said in wild Aussie accent "I was watching your wheels spin and knew that if they caught there was nothing I could do. So I was proud of myself, I just stayed full throttle the whole time ."
I lost two spots and finished the race without further incident. They had a potluck that night but I was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. So I left my car and trailer, drove home and was asleep by 8:00p.
The next was the same thing all over again. Two practice, qualifying, qualifying race, and the feature race, only going the opposite direction. I felt rested, relaxed, and much more experienced (though still a total noob.) Tim wasn't there that day so I was on my own.
The first practice sessions went off without a hitch. I started out slow, really focusing on my line and unwinding. The second session didn't go as well. I had passed the GT3 winner from the day before and was watching him in my mirror when the back in end started coming around. This time, I just went both feet in right away. Except once I hit the grass, it was a little wet so I slid what seemed forever right into the tire wall and ripped off my front bumper.
Now Charlie had told me that to be good racer, you had to be fearless and not care whether you wrecked your car. I told him that I felt like I was fearless but that wrecking my car would be tragic and I was starting to second guess my decision. Well that was before my first race. Sitting there staring at my bumper on the ground, all I could think was I have to figure out how to get it back on otherwise my aero will be screwed up and I will never catch that green and purple Porsche that is just in front of me in my class.
Qualifying was going pretty well and while my times were off a little, so was everyone else's which I'm guessing meant a slow track. I finished ahead of the other Porsche in qualifying, got a good start in the 6 lap race, and had him on my tail the whole time. My front pads were almost gone and I'd forgotten to load my spare set so I was braking early to save them for the feature but held my line and had a little more torque in the straightaways to keep him from getting by. On the 5th lap, the one time I didn't check my mirror for him in the turn, he was turning inside of me as I was double apexing and I would have run him off if he didn't slam on the brakes. I felt horrible and just gave him a point by to make up for it.
The last and final race is in the video below. Not much to explain except that the video split after lap 10 and wasnÂ’t worth splicing for the last two laps as nothing changed.
The last 6 months I have been living out a dream. I have enjoyed every step of the process, of working on my car, the track time and all of the people I have met. My current times are 5 seconds behind the class leader and I have 5 months to prepare for the next season. I'm still coasting at times, not using all of the track, and way late to get back to WOT. Not to mention the car has no rake, could use more camber and desperately needs a corner balance. But right now all I can think about it is getting it back out for just one more lap. Always just one more lap.
__________________ -Peter Krause www.peterkrause.net www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
Consultation Available Remotely and at VIRginia International Raceway
Only because it was a relatively low speed incident caused by throttle oversteer and Hallet has very forgiving runoffs. But that being said, I am pretty keen on not having it happen again.
Enjoyed reading this Slakker. I think I'm now going to be a few years behind you as we are now starting our family (married 9 years, just had our first kid of probably 3, wife works too). I can't commit like you have - and it's certainly the right thing for me, but in the way of hobbies I must say I wish I could join you out there right away! I'll be following these types of threads with a lot of interest.
Your write up here had more influence on me than a lot of prior reading. Since I'll stay local for most races and the classes are weak in this area I keep seeing costs to build a good SPB/SPC and thinking something like a radical sr3 just sounds too fun to completely ignore. I get that it would be a lousy learning tool, but this really helped me see why while something like that would be great fun as a DE car, it would be a terrible first race car in my local area.
Welcome to the racing community! I really like your attitude - you will do well as you gain more experience.
On your video: I'd suggest you focus more on getting temperature in your tires in the pace-lap by dragging your brakes and braking and accelerating and staying off the curbs. During the start, stay much closer to the car ahead of you.
Welcome to the racing community! I really like your attitude - you will do well as you gain more experience.
On your video: I'd suggest you focus more on getting temperature in your tires in the pace-lap by dragging your brakes and braking and accelerating and staying off the curbs. During the start, stay much closer to the car ahead of you.
Great story!
Thanks Frank! I took your advice for most of the weekend and it worked really well. But my front pads were about gone and so I went to weaving for the last two sessions to try and save them..... And I was really trying to stay off the curbs for the pace and first lap. But obviously wasn't always successful. Definitely an opportunity for improvement.
11-01-2016, 11:39 PM
My Journey into Racing
