Getting Up to Speed - Highs and Lows

My Neon made it through tech without so much as a second glance. I was given my student packet, which included, most importantly, my car number window stickers!

Just call me 27c!


























We're numbered alphabetically, and the car groups are lettered. Novices like myself were all C's. Intermediates were B's, Advanced were A's, and Instructors were I's. Pretty simple, yes?

I was assigned an instructor by the name of Blake Smith. He's a very decent guy with a slightly kooky sense of humor. He's also a helluva driver as I'd discover later on. His instructing style is encouraging and attentive. He always tried to push me further (as is the point of high performance) but never pushed me too hard out of my comfort zone. Just gradually encouraged me to find and then exceed each new limit.

Blake was particularly patient with my self-imposed rev limit for the event. I was not willing to risk losing the motor as this is my daily car. As I've said in earlier posts, the age and condition of the vehicle, especially the engine, limited my confidence in the stresses the car could withstand. I set a limit of 5,000 rpms, which was nearly 2,000 short of the redline. I knew I would be giving up power and speed to do so, but I simply could not afford to take the risk of breaking something. This car was about to face 2 days (approximately 200 miles) of stress I'd never subjected it to in the past.

Following a general all-drivers meeting, each group had initial classroom instruction, which in the case of the Novice group, was very basic. Extremely basic, in fact, for someone who is familiar with the concepts involved, and has experience in computer simulated racing. While I went in with the attitude that sim racing is *not* real experience, I was confident that my familiarity with the principles gave me a solid foundation to build upon.

We then went to our cars, picked up our instructors, and hit the track. We started out pretty quickly. More quickly than I was expecting. I'm glad I already knew the track, from both sim racing, as well as actual driving (both in pace car tours and traveling to flagging stations when I work at the track). I imagine the learning curve was much steeper for those who didn't know the track well.

We did two 25-minute sessions in the morning, along with additional half-hour classes. After lunch, students got to ride in their instructor's cars for a session.

Blake's car is a BMW E30 M3, I believe. Pretty similar to this, but stripped of most road-going features, and fitted with a full cage, racing seats, harnesses, etc. His car is a serious piece of track machinery.

I had never before taken a corner at 100+mph. I had never gone hurtling at 130+ before slamming the brakes on and whipping through a corner so hard you can barely hold your head up. A proper race car in the hands of a proper driver on a proper track is, without a doubt, the very best roller coaster you can ride.

Afterward we had more class instruction and 2 more driving sessions. I found that having experienced what I did in the passenger seat opened my eyes a little wider to what I could do with my own car (on a smaller scale, of course... it's still a tired old Neon). Some of the instructions and encouragements that Blake had given me earlier made more sense. So I found I was quicker than before, as the lessons and experiences were coming together.

After my last session I was scheduled to attend a car control clinic. A rudimentary autocross in the paddock consisting of a slalom, a hard acceleration and braking zone, and a figure-8. We had to complete this and be signed off in order to drive again the next day.

Unfortunately, my car didn't complete even one run. At the end of the slalom, making a hard left onto the acceleration section, the engine suddenly bogged and began misfiring terribly. I pulled the car off course. I had no clue what would be the cause. Despite my efforts to do my own wrenching on the car, I simply lack enough experience to know how to trouble shoot all sorts of issues.

I limped the car back to the main parking area and called my dad to brainstorm with him. I decoded the check engine code via him checking the internet back at his house. No help there. "Multiple engine misfires" was the code. Well, duh! We concluded that the car was done for the time being, but it would have to be trailered home. He would go pick up his trailer and come pick me and the car up within the hour (thankfully, we each live only 20-30 miles, respectively, from Watkins).

In the meantime I caught up with Blake and told him I was probably out for the second day. He heard my tale of woe and suggested that I go talk to another instructor named Roy. So I did. Turns out Roy is something of a mechanical whiz. He also knows Neons inside and out, having rally raced one with over 200k miles on it. I explained my problem. He grabbed a ratchet, a 10mm socket and followed me to my car. We determined which cylinder wasn't firing, and he then pulled the fuel rail off the head. He then popped the corresponding fuel injector and showed me how clogged it was, We scrounged some carb cleaner and he blasted all the injectors out. Put the works back together and the damn thing fired right up.

Ho-lee shit!

Mere moments after it started my step mom calls saying that they're just leaving. I tell her, stay home.

I'm back in business!

The only remaining thorn, though... I missed the last car control clinic. There wouldn't be any more. Zip. None. The car was running again, but I was still screwed for coming back the next day.

Roy rides to the rescue again.

I had mentioned this to him while we were beaming over the paddock repair success. He, Blake, and Boz (the guy who invited me to attend) all assured me that a mechanical problem shouldn't disqualify me. And wouldn't you know it, a short while later, Roy comes walking back to my car with the window sticker for the car control clinic (an orange cone, appropriately enough).

Yep. Now I'm really back in business.







So we all head over to the main garage where the end-of-day party is just getting going. Time to nosh some chow, drink some beer, and all around talk cars and driving with people from all different levels.

And speaking of Roy.

I learned from a fellow driver, Steve, who was Roy's B-group student, that Roy is kind of a big deal in BMW circles. Turns out, Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes won the Targa Newfoundland in 2007. Now I'd never heard of this race, but when I looked it up, I found it really is a pretty big deal.

He was even driving the same '69 BMW 2002 (nicknamed "Woodstock" for it's wild paint scheme) at the Glen that had won that race.




And Roy just happened to be right there, happy to help a fellow driver fix a problem (2, if you count the sticker).

Thanks Roy.

What a helluva day.