Indianapolis Raceway Park SCCA drivers school on 4/3/99.
Members from all over Cendiv helped put on a great school
for all of us newbies. After putting the car together over the winter
(a Spec Rx7) it was time for it's annual inspection Friday evening,
("What? You want to drill holes in my nice new roll cage?") then we had
a classroom session and test.
My 1983 Mazda Rx7 GSL. Even with only 100hp it managed to hit
100mph at the end of the main straight. On Saturday we had five 1/2 hr
track sessions plus a couple of ride alongs with instructors. Thanks
E.B.!! The ITB record is around 1:57 and I managed a 2:07 lap during
session 3, our driest session.
Unfortunately, the weather didn't exactly cooperate and IRP has
a drag strip for it's front straight. This means it's covered with VHT,
a traction agent which is great when it's dry but it get's very
slippery when wet. Think ice racing slippery. T15 which leads onto the
straight was always an adventure.
This wasn't the only Porsche to hit the wall and repairs aren't cheap for these things.
The rain lead to a lot of these types of sightings, this one
going over the bump in T7. Actually, the TR7 driver did a nice job of
saving it.
Four rainy Rx7's in a row. I felt sorry for the open
wheel/convertible drivers not to mention the corner workers. Glad I
didn't buy that Formula Vee!
The big V8's took off down the straights but I got'em back in
the corners, (well, some of them). I started the day on my full tread
Kumho's (spec tire) but they were almost down to slicks after the
mostly dry 3rd session. The car pushed coming out of the corners after
that.
"This doesn't look good"
We did practice starts the last session. The MR2 didn't end up
hitting anything/anyone but raised my heartbeat a few more notches.
"Hey, what class is he in?"
Unfortunately the wrecker had a busy day
A (rented?) Honda Civic got upside down after hitting the tire wall
"Jim, I think it's dead!"
I wonder what agreement/insurance the owner had beforehand?
Quite a few open wheels cars had off course excursions too, and
I don't even have pics of all the wrecks. This is one reason I started
building from a $2,000 car, not a $20,000 one. Did I bring my car home
in one piece? Well, I did manage to spin it once in T5. Yes, that's
next to the oval tracks outer wall.
Things look good here
but they're definately going wrong here. The tape shows I
didn't jerk the wheel so I'm not sure what caused me to go around.
Notice the flying hands.
I remember consciously thinking, "Do a Rockford". The tape
shows it wasn't just luck and that I actually did turn the wheel the
right way. More flying hands.
Believe it or not I didn't swear, just a couple of "Oh nooo's!"
and that wasn't so much fearing for my personal safety as how much it
would cost if I tagged the wall.
Now this looks better. Put it in gear and kept going. Whoo-hoo!!
Click me for a 1 meg .mpg movie of Jeff's spin.
Yes, I was very lucky. I shouldn't have been trying to keep
the Neon behind me. Les Moore did a good job of missing me by putting
two wheels out on the grass. No harm, no dents, no foul. The only
surprise of the day is that there weren't any surprises. The new car
was perfect. I wondered on the trip down if it was all worth it. The
time, money, hassle, details, etc. Judging by the smile on my face, it
turned out to be everything they said it was. 3 hrs of wheel to wheel
track time makes 6 minutes of autocrossing look silly. Next stop, Road
America/Elkhart Lake May 15/16th!
Spec Rx7 Racing Info on inexpensive wheel to wheel racing.
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