danlee1

iTrader: (7)

Track day (at Moroso Motorsports Park) was absolutely phoneomenal!!! When I got up
that morning, it was cloudy and damp outside, with a
40% chance of rain. So as I'm driving up to the
place, it starts raining hard, with dark clouds
everywhere. I wasn't happy, but when I got to the
track, it seemed to clear up. There were some clouds,
but for the most part, it had not rained there in the
morning.

As I'm pulling into the place, I see all these
trailers and people. The cars that showed up were 7
Porshes, in full race trim, and a professional team
out there tuning a BMW M3. The only non-race cars
were my friends RX8, BMW330ci, and my 350Z I knew
there were going to be Porsches, but I didn't expect
all of them to be. I had a smile on my face from
ear-to-ear.

So I get out of the car to say hey to my friends and to
meet the rest of the crew. There were 2 instructors
there, one being a pro. The pro was Peter
Argetsinger....if you do a search on the internet,
you'll see his name everywhere. Peter, then gave us
tour around the track in a suv, giving us pointers
about where to hit the apexes and the turns, also what
gear to be in, when to lift off the throttle, and when
to go full throttle. It was probably one of the most
useful 20 mins of my adult life. He then said he was
available to rotate among the drivers to give pointers
and advice.

I got lucky and he was out with me first. I was
actually pretty nervous as it was my first time on a
track, ever. Well, we're driving along and as we're
going, he's giving me advice like, "you hit the apex
alittle early there, ease off the throttle here,
excellent turn there, etc". The amount of
concentration required to do this is extremely high,
because if you mess up, you could end up in a wall
somewhere. So after my 3rd lap, it starts
raining...very lightly, but enough to get the track
wet. Keep in mind there were sections where we go
from a 95MPH straigh, down to a 2nd gear 15MPH
turn-in, back to a full throttle. Top speed on the
fastest section was 120+MPH, with a shicane ("s") turn
in the center. After about a couple of laps, the rain
stops and he tells me to pull over to the pit stop so
he could drive. I was pleasantly surprised that he
wanted to drive my car so I could see some of the
techniques. It was a night and day difference...It
felt like a completely different car with him driving.
The car was doing things I didn't think it was
capable. The amount of grip and power around corners
was brilliant. What an experience!

The rest of the day was spent practicing what I had
learned that morning. My confidence grew with each
lap and I could feel myself getting faster and faster. The brakes were being worked extremely hard, because
after I pulled into the pit stop, they started
smoking. I completely destroyed my brakes by the end
of the day. Also, the tires were partially
melted...you could see clumps of rubber around the
edges and the tread felt sticky, almost like gum!

I'm hooked!

Dan

EnthuZ

iTrader: (2)

Great write up! Glad you enjoyed it. Come to think of it, I can't remember anyone NOT enjoying a track event.

Welcome to the club!


BTW, there is no cure for your new addiction.

danlee1

iTrader: (7)

Yea..I really enjoyed it! I went to a private session so there were only 10 cars out there. We had the whole day at our disposal to run, without traffic. One of the instructors said it was equivalent to about 3-4 club events.

Do you know how I can get more involved in something like this? I'm not so much interested in autocrossing, but more so road course type events.

Thanks,

Dan

P.S. After a day at the track, you really come to appreciate all the Z has to offer. This already beginning to have an influence on my upgrades. I was thinking about getting 19" but now I'm leaning towards staying with 18", but forged.

Th3Cleaner

nice, I wish I had a teacher.. I was out at the Pueblo Speed Park and was having a blast on the track... I was way to careful and didnt push the car to any limit at all cept for the streight 115Mph

but I was like I bet somone with experiance could make this car go .... ->


good write up.

Redline350Z

Excellent write-up! I had flashbacks to my first time out last year while reading about yours, so you must have done a good job at capturing that feeling. Nothing like it, is there?

... and HPDE syndrome claims another innocent victim. I'm afraid there is no known treatment, but group therapy at the track will ease the symptoms for a few days. It's okay though, Dan. You're among friends here.

GaryM05

Dan - welcome to the club! From now on, your most important question will always be...when's the next track day?

danlee1

iTrader: (7)

Thanks Guys....it feels good. Well, except I know my wallet is going to hate it. I'm probably going to do a Skip Barber 3-day performance driving school this summer. This is gonna be fun!