Drove on a Track, Had a Blast Vol. II

Friday Night Track Walk

What I like most about being on a track is the driving fast part! OK, that's pretty simple, kinda like Ricky Bobby, but it's true! Why do people ride roller coasters? To go fast! Why would you jump out of a plane? Not for the landing, but to go fast! Driving on track remains pretty much the opposite of every day driving, so it's kind of a release. 

Track Walk, into turn 7, the toe of the boot

This past weekend got a little frustrating since it was just a little wet/misting/rainy. Not much really, but you just can't safely go as fast in the wet, but after thinking about it, I think that's a good thing! The first session on Saturday in the wet forced everyone to slow down and keep it safe, so that's a good way to kick off the weekend too. The track gradually dried all day, and my speed picked up a bit too. I should point out that my driving is in a driver education group, where we are supposed to be learning and practicing to improve our skills. In other words, are should NOT be talking about our lap times, top speeds, or all that kind of stuff. I'd like to think I'm a pretty good student, but, well, my lap times were slower than the last time I was on this track and it bugged me. 

Free T-shirt!

However, I realized that this weekend I was in a much larger group, which means more cars on track. More cars on track means that more frequently you slow a bit to let a faster driver pass you, or you slow down because the driver in front of you isn't ready to let you pass. On the good news side, this totally makes passing on track predictable, so that both cars involved know what the other guy is doing. Very good news! 

Sunday schedule

Having said that though, some of the new drivers seemed to be too focused on their own driving, and weren't letting the faster person behind them go ahead and pass them. Well shoot, that's why we're on track, because we're learning how to do this thing! After talking about this amongst the students, instructors, and even organizers, then Sunday's driving was much improved, and it felt like everyone on track was cooperating much better. 

In between driving, why not watch some other groups on track!

As Sunday's 4 sessions went on, there were fewer cars on track each time, as each student maybe headed home a bit early. For those of us that stayed for the full weekend (hey, I paid for it, so I'm staying!) that just meant much less traffic, and the totally dry track Sunday afternoon was great! Confession time: during the last session I was able to go faster than I had back in July, same car on the same track, so that was very rewarding. Plenty of other drivers were faster, and plenty of other drivers would have been better in my car than me, but I'm betting that none of them had more fun than I did.