After a chilly run up to Sunday November 30th, we awoke to a day that would prove to be absolutely gorgeous - sunny, relatively warm, and no better than we could ask for at the end of November!
I fired up my season-worn car and hit the road early on the way to meeting up with a few folks before pulling up to the unmarked gates of Valhalla known as ADSI at Quonset Point. Attilio was ready to roll in his driveway, thankfully, since the local ATM machines were not cooperative with my schedule that morning and I was a little late. We rolled out of Lincoln quickly and set off to rendezvous with Jean-Yves in Cranston to add another turbo-charger to our fleet. He, too, was quite ready to roll that morning. After punching me for some sort of thing (in jest of course), we jumped into our trio of rides and set off to meet Josh for the first time.
I was introduced to Josh by a fellow parent at FASRI as a "fellow car guy". And I knew it was an accurate description when he rolled up in his awesome V8 Mustang Fox-body with aluminum wheels and tires that looked like they meant business. Who doesn't love the 5.0 and the sweet sounds of dinosaur-juice devastation that it makes?!? We'd soon see that the Mustang wasn't just another pretty face, however. And Josh would prove to be quite a horse-wrangler!
We needed 15 participants to get to the bargain pricing offered by ADSI for this special year-ending event. We almost made it but they gave us the bargain pricing anyway - and we are all very thankful for their generosity - on top of the generosity of having this event at all! They really didn't have to do two events on back-to-back weekends. But they did and we love them for that and more!
It was a different kind of day. There was no morning class this day. Just right into the fray with no real warmup. But it was nice in a way that our full energy was focused on the course (those of us who often do the class). It took a couple of runs to really get dialed into the groove but it's always fun to see the times drop steadily. That wouldn't continue all day, unfortunately.
With so few cars running, we got quite a few laps with almost no wait times during the first couple of hours. Everyone started to get pretty serious and times started dipping from the 1:40s...to the 1:30s...and even some in the 1:20s! On his first time at the track, Josh was running low 1:40's! Jean-Yves was dipping into the 1:30s! Alex was too!
I'm not sure if the moderate temps were allowing my engine to make more power or - more likely- that all the amazing instruction I had this year was actually sinking into the solid mass on top of my shoulders or what. But my best time was a mind-numbing, incredulousness-inducing run. And what is even better is that Attilio had the exact same best time!!! It was like a Hollywood ending to an absolutely incredible season.
We both achieved stellar results, albeit in different ways with different driving styles and different cars - but at the same place on the same day. And well above and beyond anything either of us had achieved prior. Before that day, I wasn't really certain I could make it out of the 1:30's. The 1:20s were not even a consideration. But my car once again reminded me that it's far better than me and that just when I think I have the measure of it - nope. It gently discloses that I had simply been at an artificial plateau of my own construct. And it was patiently waiting for me to improve. Very humbling indeed. Again.
But the best was actually yet to come for me. By 1pm most cars were taking extended breaks. By 2pm the track was nearly empty. And it was time to play. Just a handful of us started to take run after run after run, lapping nearly continuously. My car began to make noises indicating that it might have preferred a fresh drink of Mobil 1. Anthony gently told me that he had "never heard a Porsche tick like that before". But it kept on blasting out amazingly fun, quick laps. So I kept the hammer down.
As my fuel combusted into tire smoke and lateral acceleration, the car's steering became even more laser-focused and accurate. It was like oversteer had been erased from the realm of automotive possibility for one full hour of my life. I thought I had been granted a wish from the genie-ghost of Aryton himself!
For this last blast, we didn't bother with lap times. Jesse was sideways in his E30 M3 for about an hour straight! I spun out at one point so hard that I did three full revolutions before coming to a stop - and still had the presence of mind to push the clutch and not stall - so I could get right back at it! I pushed my tires to their ragged edge, knowing that a new set of front tires would likely have to appear under the pine-tree-shaped air freshener stand-in gift-location-indicator in the garage that would be the best I could do to attract Santa's attention out there this year. (And if you have a spare GT3 RS lying around, Santa, feel free to leave that here too!!)
All told, it was a truly magical ending to what has to rank up there as the best automotive year I've had yet on this earth.
There are many to thank for such an amazing year. Thanks to my family for joining my carburated passions this year where possible and allowing me the room to indulge them on my own when they could not. Thanks to all of you reading this for the support, encouragement, comeraderie, and laughs this past year.
And huge thanks to the staff of friends and now nearly family at ADSI - Anthony, Crystal, Matt, Bill, Sarah, Cheryl, Jon, Dave. And to the rich set of people that have created such a warm environment (no, not a global warming joke!) - Rich, Jesse, Jessica, Dave, Kathleen, Ben, Gomes, the Corrola crew including Rob, Alex G, Attilio, Alex SdB, Jean-Yves, Josh, Brad, Christian, Seth, Tim, Jason, Derek, Dillon, Paul, Adam, Russell, Sam, and the rest of the crew and anyone I've unintentionally omitted. Hope you all have a great holiday and we all get to do some snow cross!!
The holiday's and work have sucked up all my time lately, but we've got an awards ceremony to look forward to during the winter and maybe a karting event if you're all game for some of that! And with any snow we get - keep sliding sideways!!!