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My first race weekend Wetday (aka Saturday)
Posted by
davecarama
,
04-19-2011
·
1,501 views
This past weekend was my first race weekend. I was hesitant to register, and didn't until maybe Monday or Tuesday the week of the race, because the weather forecast was less than optimal. The weather stations were calling for 80% chance of rain on Saturday, and although I have worked out a deal where I get tires from Hoosier extremely cheap, I still don't have my own set of rains, and that is a problem.
I was able to "borrow" a Toyo RA1 set from Alex Ratcliffe (King Rat Motorsports). They were light years better for wet driving over the Hoosiers I used in the school. But they were pretty low on tread depth (which of course is needed for water shedding).
But I think I am getting ahead, so lets move back to Friday day.
I had to work on Friday, so I skipped the practice day (couldn't afford it anyway). I left work around 6 and ended up at the King Rat garage by 9:30 to pick up my car. My friend Brent Simonson let me sleep in his toter-home so I had a nice DRY place to live for the weekend. That evening, I emptied all the crap out of my car and that was really about all.
In the morning I had to get up extra early so I could go through registration. In registration I found out a few things:
When it was time, we all suited up and pulled around to the grid. It turned out that we were late and the grid was already out there... which really is not a big deal. Qualifying is the same as time trials. Who cares what place you are in, as long as you have space to do quick laps... er... make that quick lap! You only need one fast lap to put you on the pole!
When we were done with our 15 min qualifying, we were called to the classroom (normal protocol to meet after that session). This was where the stuart was introduced to us, and some "rules of the day" were mentioned. After that one of the drivers wanted to address the class. Now, I want to mention first before I go into what was said, that I was in full on rookie mode. Anything that was said to me, I was wide eyed and agreeable with. Me: Duhhh OK.
The gentleman went to the front of the class, and introduced himself. I remember thinking in my head "oh, that's so-and-so, I should introduce myself". Then he started talking (this is pretty much what he said)
Nobody said anything. The class ended, we all went back to our cars.
Being the rookie, I only thought. Hmmm. I need to look out for people with lights on I guess. Then I heard others talking and the consensus was pretty much:
When we got back, I unbolted my front and rear sway bars to prepare for the even wetter rain that was coming. When it was time, once again, we rolled out to the grid. On the pregrid sheet, it said I was 13th place, but since it was a split start, I was bumped up to 11th. Sitting there on grid, I thought I was going to puke. Someone offered me a bucket, but I didn't want to remove my helmet
. The 5 min signal, then 1 minute, then we started rolling. I was motioned by the starter to move to the right, inside line a familiar place for me and starts! I saw no need to scrub tires and drag brakes. It was cold and wet and the last thing I wanted to do was go off track in the warm-up lap.
As we pulled around to turn ten, the pace car pulled off and we were in formation for a start. We pulled up toward start/finish. Of course I couldn't see even the cars in front of me. The spray was so thick. Then I heard the cars rev up so I knew I needed to go-go-go!
The track thinned out relatively quickly and the cars all lined up in single file. My start was not so great, and I saw a MR2 who started in the back come flying through traffic. I had a white Miata behind me for the entire race. He stuck a nose in a few times, but there was no real path for him to successfully pass, so I decided to just ignore that he was there... he was not getting by me.
I saw car after car in the grass. I picked up at least 4 spaces from that alone. I think I passed some of the slower cars as well. I started getting a little brave, and that was when it happened. 7 laps into the 10 lap race, I broke for turn 1 and new right away I locked them up. It begun to rain harder, and I just didn't have the tire for the standing water. As I headed to the edge of the track, I made one last attempt to save it and tried to turn... nothing. So I dropped a gear and floored it in hopes to make it to the firm side of the gravel pit. I made it half way through and the car sunk like it was in quicksand. I was stuck.
Watching cars go by sucks.
The awesome folks in orange pulled me out after the race had ended. It was a successfull race, I had completed more than 50% of the laps. Later I found out the white miata behind me spun in 3. So I was last place with 7 laps, and he was second to last with 7 laps. It actually said "Last" next to my name... that sucked!
This was Saturday and now I was done before lunch time! So I decided to volunteer in turn 3 as a flagger, and later in timing and scoring as a ribbon taker (I guess that is what it was called, I wrote numbers as they passed). I went to the stuarts tower to volunteer there... but they were in HEAVY talks about canceling the day, and that is exactly what happened.
Day 1 down, day to coming right up!
I was able to "borrow" a Toyo RA1 set from Alex Ratcliffe (King Rat Motorsports). They were light years better for wet driving over the Hoosiers I used in the school. But they were pretty low on tread depth (which of course is needed for water shedding).
But I think I am getting ahead, so lets move back to Friday day.
I had to work on Friday, so I skipped the practice day (couldn't afford it anyway). I left work around 6 and ended up at the King Rat garage by 9:30 to pick up my car. My friend Brent Simonson let me sleep in his toter-home so I had a nice DRY place to live for the weekend. That evening, I emptied all the crap out of my car and that was really about all.
In the morning I had to get up extra early so I could go through registration. In registration I found out a few things:
- The drivers from group 1 were moved to group 9. Group 2 (my group) will be going out first.
- The people in registration are probably some of the nicest people in the world.
- My membership expires soon
- They pre-gridded us all "randomly" and I was in second to last place (18 in class) with the other rookie... which doesn't sound "random" to me, but I didn't care anyway I was just glad that I could go out and play with the big boys finally.
When it was time, we all suited up and pulled around to the grid. It turned out that we were late and the grid was already out there... which really is not a big deal. Qualifying is the same as time trials. Who cares what place you are in, as long as you have space to do quick laps... er... make that quick lap! You only need one fast lap to put you on the pole!
When we were done with our 15 min qualifying, we were called to the classroom (normal protocol to meet after that session). This was where the stuart was introduced to us, and some "rules of the day" were mentioned. After that one of the drivers wanted to address the class. Now, I want to mention first before I go into what was said, that I was in full on rookie mode. Anything that was said to me, I was wide eyed and agreeable with. Me: Duhhh OK.
The gentleman went to the front of the class, and introduced himself. I remember thinking in my head "oh, that's so-and-so, I should introduce myself". Then he started talking (this is pretty much what he said)
That was when I was thinking "Uh oh... this aught to be good..." The guy he hit waived and said "that was me, it's all good, forget about it" then the guy in front said:Hi, My name is XXXXX and I hit someone in the session approaching turn 5
No, we should talk about it. What happened was I was faster than you by about 40 mph. You two went through 4 nose to tail and you pulled out approaching 5. I couldn't slow enough and my options were to hit one of you or go off track and maybe damage my vehicle. I didn't want to risk damaging my car, so I had to choose which of you to hit.
Now... I had my lights on, all the fast cars did. So you should have seen me coming and not pulled out so I would have a safe route though. You didn't give me an escape route
Nobody said anything. The class ended, we all went back to our cars.
Being the rookie, I only thought. Hmmm. I need to look out for people with lights on I guess. Then I heard others talking and the consensus was pretty much:
- The faster driver is responsible for making a clean pass.
- You should never be out of control of your car
- Contact is not the right choice
When we got back, I unbolted my front and rear sway bars to prepare for the even wetter rain that was coming. When it was time, once again, we rolled out to the grid. On the pregrid sheet, it said I was 13th place, but since it was a split start, I was bumped up to 11th. Sitting there on grid, I thought I was going to puke. Someone offered me a bucket, but I didn't want to remove my helmet
. The 5 min signal, then 1 minute, then we started rolling. I was motioned by the starter to move to the right, inside line a familiar place for me and starts! I saw no need to scrub tires and drag brakes. It was cold and wet and the last thing I wanted to do was go off track in the warm-up lap.As we pulled around to turn ten, the pace car pulled off and we were in formation for a start. We pulled up toward start/finish. Of course I couldn't see even the cars in front of me. The spray was so thick. Then I heard the cars rev up so I knew I needed to go-go-go!
The track thinned out relatively quickly and the cars all lined up in single file. My start was not so great, and I saw a MR2 who started in the back come flying through traffic. I had a white Miata behind me for the entire race. He stuck a nose in a few times, but there was no real path for him to successfully pass, so I decided to just ignore that he was there... he was not getting by me.
I saw car after car in the grass. I picked up at least 4 spaces from that alone. I think I passed some of the slower cars as well. I started getting a little brave, and that was when it happened. 7 laps into the 10 lap race, I broke for turn 1 and new right away I locked them up. It begun to rain harder, and I just didn't have the tire for the standing water. As I headed to the edge of the track, I made one last attempt to save it and tried to turn... nothing. So I dropped a gear and floored it in hopes to make it to the firm side of the gravel pit. I made it half way through and the car sunk like it was in quicksand. I was stuck.
Watching cars go by sucks.
The awesome folks in orange pulled me out after the race had ended. It was a successfull race, I had completed more than 50% of the laps. Later I found out the white miata behind me spun in 3. So I was last place with 7 laps, and he was second to last with 7 laps. It actually said "Last" next to my name... that sucked!
This was Saturday and now I was done before lunch time! So I decided to volunteer in turn 3 as a flagger, and later in timing and scoring as a ribbon taker (I guess that is what it was called, I wrote numbers as they passed). I went to the stuarts tower to volunteer there... but they were in HEAVY talks about canceling the day, and that is exactly what happened.
Day 1 down, day to coming right up!
