mirth

First track day ever at Lime Rock Park.

The trip there:

Fun drive down with my friends <a href="http://www.bayareamotorsport.com/~bseastead/">Bryan</a> and Ian (E30 M3 and Passat 1.8T, respectively). Took the scenic route -- Route 8 from Otis, MA to Winsted, CT is a windy mountain road; lots of fun high-speed sweepers, and minimal traffic.

Arrived at the track bright and early; passed tech "inspection", which was more "you sign our waiver now" than "we inspect your car." Much less thorough than other events (COM and BMWCCA) I've attended.

Got a ride in the first instructor session to get a sense of the track with Joe (last name?) in an E39 M5. He races formula atlantics, and it was his first time on the track in the M5. The track was very cold early on, and he struggled a bit to readjust his turn-in points to suit the temperature and the M5's different handling characteristics. The M5 is a fast, fast car. The session gave me a great mental map of the track, though.

Ran with novice run group, which was fine for the morning -- great way to learn the track. (first time with SCDA and at Lime Rock). Took a little while to get the esses; I started out turning in too early in the left hander, and slightly too late in to the right hander before the no-name straight. Toward the end of the day, though, started to nail it, and got progressively faster. By late afternoon, I was shifting into fourth midway through no-name, and staying there all the way to the big bend, only tapping the brakes to help turn in. fun fun.

Also played with different lines through big bend; by the end of the day, was trail-braking into the first part of the turn, tapping the brakes again midway through.

Rode with Jeff (instructor) in a 328i, stock sport suspension. Very nice driver, very smooth and fast. Learned a lot from him.

Side notes: didn't get very many fast laps due to traffic and lack of pointbys... third session, watched a 911sc get sideways right in front of me just after cresting the uphill. Scary. Nice save though. More bent metal than any other track event I've been to; at least three cars left on flatbeds with significant damage. Classroom instruction at SCDA was of a higher caliber than any other event so far.

Overall, a good day; looking forward to going back to LRP next year.

Brake Pads: Performance Friction PF90 front, MetalMaster rear.
The PF pads are by far the best pads I've used; no noticeable fade
Tires: Bridgestone RE730 205/50/15 on Kosei K1 wheels.
Weather: cold (45 deg and cloudy); warmed up to high 50s and sunny by late afternoon

People met:

- Mike DeCunzo -- instructor 4th session; E30M3 club racer
- Jeff -- instructor other sessions; former skip barber instructor

UnderPressure

lost it going into West Bend because a BMW in front dumped it's coolant. Unfortunately the Toyota behind me did go into the wall at the Uphill.

The Ferrari 355 Challenge car crunched it in the first session.

My run group had decent point by's except the folks in the yellow rent-a-racecars.

All in all, it was a well organized event, considering that each run group got 2 hours of track time.

What did you think of those race trucks?

jons355

Two of my friends, Matt Karson and Chris Sarkasian, run their Challenge cars frequently at Lime Rock. Hope that F355 Challenge was not a yellow one. Did you happen to get a number or color on that car??

Regards,

Jon C.
95 F355 Challenge #23
88 Dinan M5

UnderPressure

it was mostly dark red/burgundy IIRC, they also had a F360

john s

I thought you weren't allowed to take short cuts.

mirth

but you have to empathize.

For background -- most people running at speed in our run group would come up on a C4 corvette about every three or four laps. Frustrating, because it would cause traffic to congest.

Ian told me that the driver had received the track day as a surprise birthday gift... so... it happens, you know? I didn't get too worked up over it.

john s

Oh, I didn't think of that, now it makes sense. (I had the Blue TT)