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Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point
For me, this brings to a close my motorsports activities for 2006. On the weekend of November 11th, I attended my fourth BMW driver’s school. This school was on the Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point, the same place as my first event of the year. Saturday was a beautiful Fall day, but Sunday was just plain nasty. Wind and rain all day, making for a slippery track. Slippery is actually good for a MINI driver (any front wheel drive car for that matter). On Saturday in the dry I was probably about mid-pack for my run group, but on Sunday on the slippery stuff MINI lead the way. (Yes, this is not a competition. It’s about skill. No wagering….)
The day got off to a rather rocky start when my instructor put his E36 M3 into a tree on turn 5. He had almost completed a 180 degree spin on the track when he just ran out of track. We only slid 50 or 60 feet but it seemed to take forever. We came to rest in about a foot of water up against some trees. He had a pretty large dent in the left rear quarter panel. Once we pulled it out a bit it was drivable but his day was pretty well shot. To get out of the car, we had to take off socks and shoes and wade through the water. Not so much fun when it’s about 45 degrees outside.
In the end I think it was a very instructive day, however. The conditions were such that you were on the edge of losing control at very low speeds so you learned quickly to respond to what you car was doing. I’m already looking forward to picking up in the Spring.
Summit Point Main HPDE
[Click here if the movie doesn’t load.]
I spent the weekend of September 23-24 on the Main Circuit at Summit Point, WV. This was the third class I’ve done with the National Capital Chapter BMW CCA and I highly recommend attending one if you have never been on the track before. This was also my first session on my new shaved competition tires.
Saturday started out rainy and slick. The morning sessions I completed with my Goodyear street tires. This was the first time I’ve really pressed these tires and they performed extremely well even though my R90 wheels are a bit on the heavy side at 20 lbs. each. In the afternoon I put on the Hankooks (225/45R16 Ventus RS2 Z212s shaved to 4/32 inch) with my Kosei wheels and the car really came to life.
On Sunday, I was “signed-off” by my instructor to solo. That was both exciting and a bit intimidating — in fact, I was sweating like one of Dick Cheney’s hunting companions. Once I got over the initial shock, I found it quite relaxing. It was odd to only have my own voice in my head, but quickly found a rhythm and really enjoyed the session. Also the car was quite a bit faster without the added weight of a passenger.
We also did a “no-brakes” session in the afternoon. This was the first time I’ve done one of these. The goal is to lap the circuit without using your brakes. You have to find ways to bleed off speed and learn entry/exit speeds for the corners. You start out very tentatively, afraid to exceed the entry speed, but quickly realize you have lots of options to scrub off speed. I found that after the session there were a couple of places where I had previously been braking that now all I had to do was lift and that my entry speeds went up a bit. Unfortunately it started to rain again at the start of the final session so I didn’t get to really see how it affected my overall lap times. But then again, this is not a race — so no wagering.
Tighten the Nut Behind the Wheel
There’s an old saying in Motorsports that if you want to go faster, you should start by tightening the nut behind the wheel. It’s easy to blow a big chunk of cash on go-fast goodies for your car, but if you can’t find the line through a curve or you just aren’t smooth, you’ll never be fast.
I’ve recently taken up Autocross. Although I’m waaaaaay at the back of the pack (and unfortunately classified in the mod-till-you-drop Street Mod class) I’m having a blast. It started with a desire to improve my general driving skills. The more time I spend on the freeways around Washington DC, the more I’m convinced most of my fellow drivers are morons. One in four seems to have a cellphone surgically attached to their head. Of the remaining three, two are tail-gaiting each other at 85 MPH in SUVs with under-inflated tires.
Figuring a good offense is the best defense, I started to think about my own driving skills and my ability to avoid bad situations. In the asphalt jungle of “fight or flight” the MINI driver’s only defense is flight. It started with a highway safety course at the Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point put on by the local BMW club. That was followed by a high performance driver’s course on the same circuit.
This past weekend, I attended another driver’s school on the Shenandoah circuit. Now I’m hooked. These are not racing schools. There’s no wheel-to-wheel competition. It’s all about control and knowing your (and your car’s) limits. I hope the skills I’m improving on the track will improve my autocross skills as well.
