First track day over (thunderhill)

[C.Yang]

got back a few hours ago from thunderhill. decided to drive up there the morning of instead of staying overnight. i would say it was not the smartest idea, only a few hours of sleep didn't help. got there, it was COLD and WINDY making it COLDER in the morning. First time out, got a mediocre instructer who kept talking in my ear to be smooth. I know smoothness is important, but he didn't help me as much as my other 2. second instructor was a friend of my brother, but he gave me some good advice. said i had most of the basics down, again, needed to work on smoothness. third instructor had me work more on selecting correct gears before entering turns, and some specific turns that i was having trouble with. upon finishing, he complimented me and couldn't believe it was my first track day. last instructor was my favorite. The guy used to road race in europe, and sounded exactly like tiff needel? he would point to turn in, apex and turn out, and would say tight things like "power........power......power......brilliant" I think he helped my driving the most, taught me how to use the track more so that I could steer with the pedal more. said i had the lines down pretty well, and was pretty smooth, but needed to work on selecting correct gears and being more deliberate with some of the turns. Its amazing how much more speed you can carry at Thunderhill if you use the correct line. After our run, he took me for a ridealong in his prepped 911 turbo. all i can say is wow. that guy scared me with his abilities. he was pushing it to the limit, because he was making a few mistakes here and there, but he had me clinging on for dear life. passed everything in sight, although I knows its not a race, blowing by all those turbos was pretty damn cool. I asked him to instruct for the last run of the day, and he sat back most of the time and just gave me a few pointers here and there. I think this style of teaching works a lot better.

moral of the story - 1. get a good night of sleep the day before.
2. dont go out there with an ego
3. geta good instructor, go for ridealong's to squash your pride
4. realize how much you suck, and how much you want to get back out there to get better

fun day. definitely gonna do again when i have the chance.

[badmonkey]

Thunderhill is a very fun track for sure, but damn, you drove up the morning of the event? A motel is what, $50 up there? They always seem to give me a discount of one sort or another (Golden Pheasant Inn ), get up early, scarf some breakfast, head to the track fresh. It's just part of the learning curve

What organization did you run with?


-John

[C.Yang]

unlimited laps. ran pretty smoothly from what I could tell. they fed us and raffled some pretty nice prizes. was only 185 entry fee for about 2.5 hrs of seat time.