Over the course of a driving season, I find that my emotional love of the sport changes dynamics severely. A dialog is constantly playing in my head: "Am I just going in circles? Do I need to improve my car? Do I need to improve myself? Do I still enjoy this?" And it is quite surprising, even to myself. I constantly assess what makes me enjoy this sport so much. Why do I do this? Why do I spend time and money driving in circles?
Have you ever wondered how much faster than you a pro driver would be in your own car? I often have. But how would you ever find yourself in a situation where you could find out? Well, I found myself there just the other day. And here is how I did.
Photo of Lee Carpentier, Lamborghini Trofeo race driver, from his Facebook page
As the kids settle into the new year in school, I'm hoping all of you adult types are also interested in more education - of the driving type, of course. The heat of summer is falling away (after this week, maybe, anyway) so the weather should be perfect for enjoying some fun with cars. The next couple of months have some good things in store so I thought I'd better do a quick review to make sure everyone has the info they need to plan for fun and education.
September is full of driving events for me - and hopefully for you too!! September 12 sees the Porsche Club annual Concours d'Elegance at Larz Anderson auto museum in Brookline MA. It will run all day and all the show-quality cars will be there for this one. The location alternates each year between this great spot and the Elms down in Newport. There is a Waterfire that night in Providence too, so make it a full weekend! Sunday, the 13th, is the summer season kid's karting championship race for my son on the joint track indoors at F1 Boston. He has finished up third in the points for the season and we'll see if he can add any additional hardware to his trophy case this time out.
I hope everyone is having a good summer and is getting excited for ADSI at Quonset on July 19th!!
Here is some breaking news! A very experienced driver–and a person I'm very happy to have recently met: Ron Savenor–has posted a much more in-depth look at the right way to get around Palmer Motorsports Park at speed. I found it pretty fascinating to compare his impressions to mine. The big takeaway for me is that I was throwing out too much of the theoretical line, thinking I was finding a faster way around the track. I now realize that it was faster largely because of my own limited skills! This info has helped me to see that I was on to something by observing the helpful camber in places on the track, but I was also leaving a lot of speed on the table by trying to cut corners too sharply. That was also probably hurting my tires a bit more than I should have been.
I hope you find it as instructional as I have. Thanks, Ron!
What a surreal weekend with the Porsche Club at Palmer Motorsports Park in Palmer/Ware, Massachusetts this weekend! I still can't quite believe it actually happened. We had Thompson Speedway's road course come online last year in this region and had the joy of working to figure out that new track. And now this! And this one is unbelievably complex. How you ask? Try adding about 150 feet of elevation change per lap!! Let's take a minute to explore why that changes everything.
