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Fred Switzer and I just finished up a track day at CMP hosted by Stacey King’s outfit. Great format. 8hrs of open track, man it just does not get better then that. Switzer and I dragged Skeen down for some 1 on 2 coaching. We both dropped our times by 2 secs. Really was a great day.
The only off worth mentioning was was a 350z that did a perfect post-kink 360 and ended up perfectly oriented to continue on down the track. If it had been any more graceful it should have been set to music.
Ranger wrote:
[quote] 8hrs of open track, man it just does not get better then that. Switzer and I dragged Skeen down for some 1 on 2 coaching. We both dropped our times by 2 secs. quote]
Sounds like you are ready for RA then…
The only thing better than 8 hours of open track is 40min filled with 30 SE30’s buzzing angrily.
Scott, many of us refrained from comments about all of the brake bias stuff, brake compounds, brake cooling and the like when you posted several weeks ago. “Gee, what those guys really need is seat time,” was my thought.“Forget the brakes.”
So, rather than spend money willy-nilly on the car, you and Fred did the right thing—purchased seat time with a great instructor. Now it is up to you and Fred to pass on the wisdom that you’ve learned.
My hat is off to Hollywood Skeen for helping you guys out.He certainly didn’t have to do it, but Mike is what makes racing in the Southeast such a cool thing. Buy the son-of-a gun some new tires or something. I’ve had help from the likes of James Clay and Seth Thomas…the sport is filled with so many good people.
Regards, Robert Patton
PS forget the tires ,Skeen is already too fast. Mike, thanks for helping out.
Patton wrote:
Plus 1 on that. Mike is an excellent instructor (tho’ looking at his traqmate plots compared to mine were kind of depressing. Very educational, but depressing… :laugh: )
–Fred
Fred, you and I will both be working on the seat-time thing.
While none of us will be the next Tiger Woods, we can work on all of the different “shots” to be a better racer.
Regards, Robert
Patton wrote:
[quote]Scott, many of us refrained from comments about all of the brake bias stuff, brake compounds, brake cooling and the like when you posted several weeks ago. “Gee, what those guys really need is seat time,” was my thought.“Forget the brakes.”
So, rather than spend money willy-nilly on the car, you and Fred did the right thing—purchased seat time with a great instructor. Now it is up to you and Fred to pass on the wisdom that you’ve learned.
My hat is off to Hollywood Skeen for helping you guys out. He certainly didn’t have to do it, but Mike is what makes racing in the Southeast such a cool thing. Buy the son-of-a gun some new tires or something. I’ve had help from the likes of James Clay and Seth Thomas…the sport is filled with so many good people.
[/quote]
Hmm.
Re. Constant flow of questions, brake bias among them. Give me a chance and I will drive you crazy with questions. It’s my nature to drive people crazy. Insatiable curiosity is only one means to that end.
But it’s certainly not an alternative to seat-time, it’s a supplement. My boss allows 4-6 trackdays/month. She says that more than that would require consultation with a divorce lawyer.
I would fare poorly in a divorce. I married a lawyer.
Kidding aside, I really am curious about everything. And it really does drive everyone bananas.
The questions are about better understanding what I’m doing. Seat time will make me better at what I’m doing.
Re. Skeen. The coaching day with Mike really could not have worked out better. He is a great guy, it was great fun, and also highly productive. But I don’t want to leave the impression that folks can expect to get a day of his time for free. I’m 45 and I vividly remember being a 20 something college student living on ramen noodles and potatoes. What Mike charges for a full day of his time is very reasonable.
Re. Fred and I passing on what we learned. Well, I’m not sure that those bringing up the rear of the pack have much to offer, but here’s a couple issues that got emphasized. Note that these are all going to seem obvious, but Fred and I thought that we already were doing these things. What Mike was able to do is to show us (Traqmate helped here) that we weren’t doing these things after all.
Brake HARD early, then trail off as speed comes down. Skeen’s braking hit 1/2 again as many g’s as us. I don’t mean start your braking sooner, I mean that when you do start braking, really get on them hard.
Work on holding some braking well into the turn. Work on reading and handling slip angle under braking just like you do under acceleration. The conservative braking scheme of getting all braking done straight that is taught in DE’s has to go away entirely. If in a turn you are not braking to rotate, and/or braking to reduce understeer, you are probably wrong.
Get downshifts done a little early. That way you can concentrate on braking into the turn.
Don’t look for the apex. The apex doesn’t matter. Turn-in and track-out matter. The apex is just a place in the middle. And if your turn-in and degree of steering input are done well, the apex will end up being where it ought to have been.
Good newby lessons.
Scott, thanks for the update and the information. We can always learn…can’t always apply what I know to be the best-practise,but I can learn.
No problem with the questions, but it is agonizing to see you have to process through so much junk to get to the right answer. But, you have found that getting data from the best will better your performance and cuts through alot of stuff.
We’ll see you this weekend.
Regards, Robert Patton
Patton wrote:
[quote]
No problem with the questions, but it is agonizing to see you have to process through so much junk to get to the right answer.
Regards, Robert Patton[/quote]
That made me burst out laughing. Agonizing is the perfect word.