I'm now officially permitted to race!
The driver's school was awesome!
Saturday morning I was very nervous about the car and myself and wasn't totally comfortable with anything because of overall inexperience, newness of myself to the car, never driving that track, and my experiences of repeatedly spinning around and around at Putnam in the rain a few weeks ago. So every turn for the first session I was just waiting for the car to kick out, but it never did. They impounded us after every session and after the third session we noticed a large puddle of fuel under the car when my guys went to move it back to the paddock. So they hurried up and fixed it while I was in class, turns out it was a pressure/venting issue. Sessions 4-6 were uneventful; except that coming in from the first session after lunch the car wouldn't idle and didn't for the rest of the day. Otherwise the car was fine and I was getting more and more comfortable in it and on the track. I was getting passed a lot, I was easily the second slowest car at the track but found it a lot of fun when I realized I was carrying way more speed through the corners and could catch and pass people through them. Of course those passes only lasted until the other car found the gas pedal. Practice starts and the race went well on Saturday and I took two seconds off my previous best lap during the race. By the end of the day on Saturday I was feeling very comfortable with the car/my lines and was able to run nearly all the turns flat out, only having to brake for 4, 12 & 13 and feather a bit in the carousel.
After the end of Saturday and my first completed school we took a look at the car and with the help of David (the BMW driver) fixed the idle (vacuum leak) and adjusted the float level.
Sunday was very fun. I felt comfortable from the beginning of the day though I did take it easy the first session because it was overcast and quite a bit cooler than Saturday and I didn't know what grip was going to be like. I was hanging with the faster cars a lot more in the corners and there were several cars that I'd pass twice in the same lap in the turns, only to have them pass me on the straights, so that was a lot of fun. The car was good but started to develop a stumble during the sweepers in the first session so I had the guys keep the fuel level a bit higher thinking it was the pickup in the tank. By lunch I had brought my best time down another second. At lunch we put on the shaved tires (I had been running my full tread RA-1 "rains" at the school because they're lousy in the rain) so I could feel the difference between the tires. We also played with the carb a bit and that fixed the stumble in the turns. My times improved dramatically with the shaved tires, I was three seconds faster in the first session with them. I even passed the Firehawk (ITE 420+hp, sweet car) - I was trying to pass the BMW and the Firehawk came flying up and passed me going into the kink but got stuck behind the BMW going into 12. I managed to secure the inside line coming into 13 and passed him at the apex of 13 and came up beside the BMW. Then the Firehawk slid beneath me and passed us both three wide in the front straight at a gazillion mph while I was almost up to 60mph. But all I care about is that I did pass him!
The practice starts and race went very well, I qualified 5th I think (I don't have the sheets and it's not up on MyLaps yet) and finished 4th. The last race was a lot of fun, especially the last few laps. I was feeling more confident so I started trying to push the braking zone back for 12 after carrying the biggest head of steam that my little car could muster and pinched 12 two laps in a row, running over the curb and lightening the rear end and drifting the turn. Ahhh, good times!
The car held together with some help from my great crew (Scott, Scott, and Steve) and I now feel comfortable on a track with much faster cars. I also feel comfortable getting passed (that happened a lot you know) and feel fairly comfortable passing - depending on the guy I'm passing. Most of the other guys were fairly consistent/predictable but there were a few that were a bit sketchy and kinda scary to pass. The best part is that I passed both schools and now officially have my novice permit and the car is still in one piece.
All in all it was a great time and I think everyone passed. On Saturday the BMW had a fun off at the carousel - went too high and away he went into the tires and the ITA Civic forgot(?) to brake to make 4 and also went off into the tires. And one of the Spec Miatas and the Integra both spun once on Sunday. Otherwise it was fairly uneventful in the offs dept.
Just want to say thanks to my instructor Bill, the other instructors that gave me tips (Karl, Christopher), the workers and everyone else that helped put on the school. I thought it was run very efficiently and I feel much more comfortable on the track now, which is probably a sign of a good school.
Now I just need to get more seat time and work on the motor a bit. I still don't think it's running at it's potential (20hp less than stock on the dyno is a bit of a clue). I don't know how fast it should be able to go but exiting 7 (80mph, 4th gear) with it pinned to the floor all the way to the braking zone at 12 (103mph max, still 4th gear), I thought I'd at least top out 4th.
Maybe you other ITC Honda guys can chime in. But even as is, it's a fun car and I really want more seat time.
