I had Dennis Sakamoto on Saturday and Kye Wankum on Sunday. Both were good in different ways. Both have experience with older cars like mine, esp. Kye.

Personally, when I'm out there I want an instructor to 1. make sure I'm not overstepping my or my car's limitations and 2. watch what I'm doing closely and keep comments to a minimum. I know when I've made a major screw up, I don't need to hear it out there. I'd rather a good debriefing session in the pit, where we can discuss subtleties and I can actually pay attention. I've had instructors in the past try to explain in detail what I did right or wrong in turn 2, while I'm trying to drive 3, 4 and 5! Sorry, I'm just not able to pay attention and visualize exactly where I was apexing 2 early by a foot or so when I'm entering the braking zone for 5.

What Dennis and Kye were both doing for me was helping me shorten my braking zone, simply through hand signals. That really helped a lot. Not telling me what markers to look for, where I should be, etc. Just a simple hand sign meaning "on", then "off". I'll find my own markers, then learn it by feel. Then we'd sit in the pit, discuss smaller issues for a while, then head back out and try and work on those small things. That's what's great about the 45 min. sessions - drive for 20, pit and talk for 5, drive for another 20. With PCA, there'd be over an hour between those 2 sessions - by that time I've forgotten everything the instructor said.

By the end of the weekend, Kye said there wasn't much more he could tell me, I knew what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong, it was just a matter of refining, which would only come with practice.

 

Exactly what I am looking for. Gotta sign up for May 14th

 

bring out your calculator buddy, 20 cars x 5 groups is 100 cars!

 

There is a time an place for everything.
I would not recommend Dexter to a noob. Not a good idea as most people don't have the intuition how to be fast and safe at the same time.
Yes, PCA beginner groups make noobs follow the prescribed line and it is pretty much rote learning. That is the whole point. You learn the basics that way and then you can start expanding on that. At a Dexter day, for example.

Also the reason a Dexter day can afford to have only 20-30 people is that it's on a weekday. Weekends cost a lot more for the organizer to rent the track. Many people can't afford to go to the track on weekdays. Also many do enjoy the social aspect. Not everyone wants to be the next Schumacher but rather to have some fun.
Myself, I prefer open track type events like Dexter or Trackmasters but I can see the use of the traditional DE, as well. I went through those at first and I did like them and I think I learned something.

 

dexter gets alot of cars and they lap all day long no sessions...i said there is more mileage not cars BUDDY.100 cars doing 20 laps each are less likely to crash then less cars lapping non stop all day....and yet PCA has more incidents...BUDDY

 

That's a good way of putting it, and maybe that's why I'm "losing faith" in the PCA way. I mean, I'm still a beginner no doubt, but I've learned the basics and I'm starting to work on refinement now. I guess that's the difference between a beginner and a newbie. My weekends are precious, and if I'm going to spend a whole weekend at the track, I want a lot of driving time.

 

break free before you start wearing porsche clothing head to toe and talk about how fast you are!! break freeeeeeeeeeee....

 

But dude, I'm like SO fast...

Oh, wait...

When you drive a car like mine you have NO illusions about how fast you drive. I've got a trucker's tan from pointing all the 944 turbos by on the back straight Of course, there's always a newbie in a 996 to save my ego!

 

My wife, who has never driven a car on the track, now makes fun of the PCA DE weekends/drivers after she spent a weekend at a CASC race...

I must admit that I spent sometime on track with the PCA, but I eventually realized that the DE events exist to give insecure people a place to feel important... The last thing I need in my life is some ****** yelling at me about track safety after three on-track crashes that did not even happen in my run group... The ironic thing is that I spotted the same ****** pull a four lane change without a signal on the 401 the same day.

If I want to socialize I will meet you guys at the GTGs... I go to the track to drive.

P.S. - The Rennsport Region guys seem like a good bunch of guys, I am mainly talking about UCR PCA.

cheers,
Patrick

 

best yelling at i got from a PCA instructor was 2 parts:
1. stop driving like its a club race!!
2. He had to slam on his brakes to get you off his *** before turn 4!! ( mosport)
when i pointed out he was yelling at me after another driver confessed to brake checking me on track at the top of turn 4 he looked confused and walked away......they just like to yell at people who dont worship their *** and drive faster than them...and i love the fire extinguisher requirement...ok so im supposed to put out a fire on track?? shall i pull over and start trying to extinguish a burning car?? sounds safe!!
AND of course my favorite experince was at the PCA UCR skidpad day when botho von bose stood at the end of a wet teflon skid area while all the new people with ABS disconnected were supposed to accelerate hard at him and turn when he points one way or the other after locking up the brakes...he enjoyed telling me i was a chicken for saying the excercise was stupid and dangerous...he then dared everyone to try and "kill him".... a few runs later a boxster ran him over....this tool is now a national PCA director...PCAUCR covered that up nicely by deleting all my postings asking how he was after i saw the ambulance take him away

 

Postings where, on the UCR forum? Sounds familiar (though for different reasons - I was bitching about Pfaff, others agreed, they threatened to pull their UCR sponsorship, I get an email asking me to edit or delete my post).

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that the fire extinguisher policy is probably for their insurance. I thought the same thing - if my car's on fire I'm bailing, not trying to douse it. My car would only cost about $15K to replace - no way I'm risking life and limb for that.

Man, even in my infinite chicken-****ted-ness, no way would I touch my brakes to get someone off my tail, anywhere. I've had people right up close behind me, no problem. As soon as I notice they're there, I forget about them until a passing zone. I trust other people in a DE not to make contact.

 

Oh man.. That Fire Extinguisher stuff was great... I got in **** for voicing my opinion on that and I never renewed my membership or attended anything to do with UCR after that...

I found it ironic that the "President" of the club and a few "Directors" would directly benefit from the sale of the fire extinguisher requiremment... yes you are required to stop your car on track and put out another car... but you are not alowed to get out of your car... stupid stupid stupid...

-Patrick

 

Really? If I saw a car on fire at the side of the track (or any public road, for that matter), esp. if someone was trying to get out, I can't imagine not stopping and helping, to the best of my ability, without unnecessarily risking my own safety. Of course, if it's that serious, my little 10lb bottle isn't going to do much... Who cares what the rules are. I mean, assuming this isn't in the middle of the back straight just over the crest of the hill, how could you not?

 

sounds great in theory but if its all about safety how do you pull over safely on a racetrack when you suddenly see an incident? that is what trained marshalls are for. would i stop and try to help someone if it was life or death....sure...would i have enough experience to not slam on the brakes and swerve over potentially taking everyone else out behind me? i hope so....does the average PCA or track day attendee have that skill...no frickin way..and i would be wearing nomex head to toe and could withstand some fire...most guys are in jeans and shirts

 

If I saw a car on fire at the side of the track I would NEVER stop and get out of my car until the red flag was thrown and everybody was CLEARLY in control and aware of the situation. At a PCA UCR DE you would have a bunch of people rubber necking at the fire and running into you... VERY dangerous, always stay IN your car unless it is on fire or you are asked by a marshal to get out.

I had an engine blow-up on me going into two (what an experience!), coasted the car to furthest wall and got out... still got a stern message from the stewards because it was the last lap and they didn't throw a full course yellow. You really learn a lot about track awarness and safety when racing compared to DE.

cheers,
Patrick