Just like the immersion program my (our?) kids are enduring in French at the French American School of RI, I thought it might be interesting to see what track immersion felt like. 20 or so hours at Thompson Speedway over two days seemed like a worthy experiment. Can you learn that much more quickly when you keep at it for a while with an instructor by your side? I'm sure you can guess the answer. But what exactly do you learn when you are immersed in a racetrack?
I think the first thing I learned is whether I was prepared enough mentally and with supplies. Funny things to worry about versus speed and lap times and all that? Maybe. But I'm a firm believer in the principle that you can't get max performance unless you are well cared-for. Getting sleep before an exciting track day - or weekend in this case - is always challenging for me. Fatigue is a tough opponent for concentration. Hunger and dehydration are also very sneaky adversaries that can sap you of mental prowess long before you recognize their symptoms. You can't be good if you don't feel good. Sleep was ok. Water, check. Snacks, check. Track food is mostly garbage so I tried to pack some healthier options.
I would be running with the Porsche Club of America Northeast Region (PCA NER) - also known by some as the Polishing Club of America...but track days seem to show a more functionally-focused side of the PCA. Aesthetics are not the main concern and this crowd embraces some changes to their cars to let the motorsports side of a Porsche shine through a bit more clearly. This was my second track experience with the PCA so I knew a little of what to expect. The PCA are a very buttoned up and orderly group. They have their stuff together and take it all quite seriously, especially safety. You can have fun, but don't get all crazy with them. Ever. You quickly notice that the average age is about 53 years old but often looks like 62. These are not the young, wild bucks. These are the old, big bucks. And by big bucks, I mean serious race machines that are well sorted with full sets of spares and tires, pulled in enclosed trailers by expensive SUVs. Not all of them roll this way, but enough for it to be considered an epidemic at this point. When the GT3 Cup cars and GT3 RS cars roll out, you know these folks are not messing around.
Is it intimidating? Yes. Until you get to know the people behind these things. They are often successful, high-strung people. But they are also genuine and predominantly very generous people. The biggest generosity on display is that most of the highly serious players here are also instructors. In between checking their own tire pressures and fluid levels, they are hopping into cars with their students and getting invested in their students' success. This you don't see everywhere.
On arrival, I checked into the entry booth to sign some sort of track waiver and found one of the few empty spots in the paddock right near pit out. Figured I could keep an eye on things over there. As luck would have it, I parked next to a guy brand new to PCA track days, Alex, and he and I struck up a dialog and friendship as we navigated the next two days. We were both in the Green (beginner) run group and it was only my second PCA track day so our experience levels were not far off of each other. It is amazing how much even one track day does prepare you, though, so I was glad to share my nascent knowledge with Alex as best I could. He had gone to the official Porsche Driving School at Barber Motorsports. That sounds like an amazing experience for sure. Might need to update my bucket list a little.
From our parking spot, we had a great view of the long straight and a short walk over to the paddock building. The morning starts off with registration and tech inspection. Despite all of the info about how this all needs to be done, someone actually didn't get their car pre-tech'd! And we forgot to check in at registration! So morning means cold tires and cold brains all around. After the driver's meeting (going over the track, passing zones, flags, etiquette, worker assignments, etc.) we had the novice meeting (more about the track, passing zones, flags, etiquette, some car dynamics). As you can tell, the PCA likes repetition to drill ideas into your head.
We finally registered and then met up with our instructors. I had some email communications with my instructor, Mike, who was just returning from a motorcycle trip down to the Tail of the Dragon (!). He was in a white 944 Turbo that he's had since new and has slowly made it really, really quick with a sorted motor, great tires and suspension, and phenomenal driving. We got familiar pretty quickly and got out on track for the first run to get a baseline. He hopped into the driver seat of my car to show me a few things about the track and probably to get a sense of what my car expected of me.
After a few laps, we switched seats and I got my brain and tires up to temp. It became pretty clear almost immediately that the time and effort I've put into driver education this year paid dividends. Without really pushing much, I was constantly catching the other cars in the run group and most of my time was spent coasting around the track trying not to scare people, often in a big "train" of cars. I remember that feeling from my first trip to New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) in early 2013. Trying to learn to watch flags, and drive fast/well, and watch out for cars behind you - it was way too much for my brain to handle all at once back then. I found watching the flaggers constantly fell off my radar. And I had to let 3 or 4 cars by at a time. It gets easier with experience.
Mike was amazing and suggested that we move to Yellow (the next run group up) immediately. The run groups go from Green (beginner, instructed) to Yellow (advanced beginner, instructed) to Blue (advanced beginner, solo, no instructor) to White (advanced, solo) to Black (expert). And Red is the instructor group - pretty much same as Black. With over 100 cars at this event, there were roughly at least 20 cars in each group. That is quite a few cars on track at once - more than I'm used to on a shorter track like Thompson, for sure.
The Yellow group was going out right after Green so I got some nearly back-to-back sessions right off the bat. Yellow was far better. The pace was faster for one. Point-bys (where you stick your hand out the window to tell a car behind to pass you and on which side) were happening a bit more, although still a bit slowly and trains were developing.
Trains are dangerous on track, especially in instructed beginner groups, because everyone is somewhat new and behavior on track can be unpredictable. Good point-bys prevent trains and should happen, especially with instructors in the cars as the instructors usually help point out following cars to their students. But everyone must have been very focused on learning the track and driving the cars over managing traffic.
Eventually, the traffic eased up a bit. By the end of the day, fewer cars were on track and those that were out moved fast or moved over well. It helped that the organizers pulled everyone in for an impromptu driver's meeting in the afternoon to talk about - what else? - point by's and trains! Green and Yellow/Blue were suffering and there were some unhappy drivers. Some reminders about etiquette were well-received and it showed.
Where did I learn the most on the first day? I actually learned the most riding with my instructor in his car. The grip his car generated and the pace he was able to carry around the track was inspiring. And his attitude was refreshing. He owed nothing on his car having bought it new many years prior. He knows that car inside and out. He has made some changes for the track but doesn't even have a roll cage in there yet. He isn't chasing the shiniest, fastest machine out there. He is focused on getting the most from what he has. And honestly, that is more impressive in many ways that seeing someone be super quick in a new 991 Cup car. You could see many a well set up 997 Carrera S, 944, older 911 and even an older Miata out on track absolutely ripping it up. Mostly because of the driver and some well chosen car setup changes.
As for actual driving learnings, my instructor was taking lines on the track that were far more direct through two turns in particular - Turn 5 under the bridge and Turn 8 coming off the oval. He stayed way left on both of those on entry and then braked very straight into the apex, then turned in. I still don't think my car could even pull that off, but maybe he could do it in my car. Straight in at Turn 5 takes some major guts as the walls are close there and not much runoff. We saw two crashes on that turn alone. Real, hitting the barriers/walls crashes. No injuries, thankfully beyond bruised egos and bent sheet metal. Turn 5 got more intimidating as the days went on and I found myself leaning toward a "slow in, fast out" approach there.
Mike also was very crisp and deliberate with turn-ins. You could see him really choose when to turn the wheel and how much pretty much during the braking process. It wasn't brake, ok, turn, ok, accelerate. It was brake, brake/turn, turn/accelerate. All the while looking precisely at where the transitions were. Hard to describe in words and even harder to get right on track.
One thing I started to learn for myself is that the throttle is far from an on/off switch on the track. Again, easier said than done and something you hear often. It can be tough to realize how important this concept is on track. And what makes it especially hard to learn is that going into a corner you go off the throttle fast and onto the brakes hard where the throttle is an on/off switch in reality. Its mid-corner and track out where throttle finesse comes into play. After you get off the brakes, you get back on the throttle but often not completely. It depends on how much grip you have and how long the corner plays out until you can get the wheel straight again. In between, you want to give it a variable amount of throttle. That part sounds intuitive, right?
Now add in Turn 11 which some may argue is more of a kink than a turn. Most cars don't need to brake (as in hit the brakes) for this one, but also can't go flat through it either. It's a decent kink and somewhat off-camber too so you slide off track if you go in too hot. It's also a super important turn to nail because its the last turn before the long front straight. Get it right and you can see a few extra mph at the far end. Get it wrong and you can't get those mph's back.
By luck, I found that my initial strategy through Turn 11 wasn't so good. I was coming through 9 and 10 pretty well and then giving a big lift going into 11 but getting back into the throttle hard just before the apex to get moving for the straight. I certainly couldn't take Turn 11 flat out or I'd slide off the track before the straight. With the little crest that is just after Turn 11, you can get it wrong if you work at it. The crest certainly unweights your car and if your wheels are turned a lot, when you land at 90mph on the other side of the crest you may be headed for disaster. But it's not as bad as the uphill at Lime Rock to be sure.
The improvement I found at the end of day 1 for Turn 11 was to modulate the throttle more gingerly instead of lifting. I'd go to maybe 60 or 70 percent throttle and carry that to the apex before going back to full throttle. The car stayed very poised all of a sudden and I could get to full throttle earlier instead of trying to catch the inevitable slide I formerly created with my 'hard lift, then hard gas' strategy. There was enough traffic and cars to pass on the straight that I don't think I saw more than the 117mph top speed I've seen before on the straight, but I'm pretty sure I'd beat it with clear track and deep braking into Turn 1.
Those were my big learning moments from day 1 that I wanted to bring into day 2. That and some caution in Turn 5 having watched one Boxster spin into the wall of the oval in front of my instructor and hearing about a 944 crashing in almost the same spot. I was pretty tired after day 1 mentally and physically. Standing in the sun all day took its toll as well. But I got some good rest that night and was ready for day 2.
We began day 2 with the usual tech inspection (lug nuts, brake pads, rotors) and the driver's meeting where we once again stressed point-bys and preventing trains. We had another quick novice meeting. I expected a worker meeting, but that didn't happen. Knowing I had to go work later and didn't know what I was doing was an interesting feeling... As I walked by Mike's 944, he was working to fire it up but it wouldn't go. I popped over to see if all was ok and unfortunately she wouldn't fire up. We got to figuring out what the problem might be. Motors need fuel, air, and spark and that's about it so we started with those.
Mike checked the fuel rail. Was ok. He checked the distributor and cleaned it. No visible issues other than it being a pain to get back together. Another 944 owner, Kevin, came by and suggested the DME relay. Mike had a spare and popped it in. Voila! She fired up and was alive again. Mike missed his run group, unfortunately, but he was kind enough to hop into my car for my first run.
I was trying to be consistent with my line, using all the track before the corner and sighting track out better. Getting my eyes up and to the apex and track out while braking on entry for turn - very tough for me to master still. I also wanted to test my new throttle modulation skills some more. The first session was for waking up the brain and heating the tires, but I wasn't as focused as I'd like. I knew I'd have to try harder for the second and final runs.
As Mike and I talked waiting to head out for run 2, we saw a 944 with lots of smoke coming out and limping around Turn 1. It looked bad. We all hoped he wasn't dumping oil onto the track because he just kept driving...all the way around... The car stayed track right all the way but now the whole track had oil on it and needed cleanup. They shut the track down and rolled the cleanup crew. That took a while. It would have been faster for all if the driver had parked the car off the track and gotten a tow back to the pits.
We finally got out for run 2 of the day. Here are a few laps:
I got to my station to do my work assignment to find Alex there looking for his relief - me. He gave me a quick idea of what needed to be done to get cars on track safely and handed me a radio that wasn't working. This was not a good situation. Luckily for me, Pierre, driver of a 997 Turbo, also reported for his assignment and knew what he was doing. We, by luck, got the radio to the right channel and he taught me how to respond to race control ("staging to race control...ok, we'll release the cars"). We talked a bit and lost sight of the fact that race control never actually called to release the cars, just showed the green flag. But we got the cars out there safely. Luckily not too many pitted and wanted to get back out.
Eventually it was time for the final run of the weekend. I managed a personal best time of 1:27.1 taking about 0.5 seconds off my prior best. And that was without being focused on laptimes at all so I should be in the 1:26s. It was interesting to see what good driving and a good line with do for times and really for track placement. Here are a few laps from this session:
Getting in the right place at the right time for a point-by really made a difference over the weekend. Turn in too late, track out too wide, and I was often out of position for the safe pass and had to wait. Late apex and get inside in the lead car's mirrors and I often got the wave. There's an extra strategy nugget specific to driver's education for you.
It was a great weekend and I have to thank my wonderful wife for taking the kids and allowing me to give this a try to see if two days are measurably better than one here and there. And thanks to the PCA for organizing these events. It's a serious amount of work that they take very seriously. I make fun here and there, but these cars had serious pace and no one got hurt - a testament to their prowess in running a top-notch event with over 100 drivers.
I already can't wait to see what next season brings.