Track Prep 2025

This weekend we are headed out to Carolina Motorsports Park for our first track driving in 2025,  so NMS is prepping the cars and getting ready to hit the ground running. The NMS-North Cayman is about to hit 60,000 miles, so it's probably a good idea to do the 60,000 mile service! Basically it's an oil and filter change, change the belt, and do an automatic transmission service. On top of that, we flushed brake fluid, swapped to the better brake pads for the track, and put on our best 18 inch OZ wheels with Michelin tires. 

The only new part of that for me is the transmission fluid, which consists of draining the fluid in the transmission pan, and then removing the pan. Why would you do that? Because unlike an oil change where you also change the separate filter, a lot of cars have a filter built into the transmission pan that is not serviceable. That means that you just buy a new pan that has a filter built in. One option I saw on line was to upgrade to a metal pan that does have a serviceable filter, but with the transmission you're probably only doing this every 60K miles. 

Down at NMS-South, Brian is planning on mostly instructing in a student's car, but he's also prepping the 350Z for a few sessions. This car is just about ready for racing, as far as having a full roll cage and other safety gear required, like racing seats with an up to date harness, cut off switch, and fun stuff like that. Brian is mostly doing some instructing this weekend, so he'll also mostly be in his student's cars, giving them lots of pointers and tips for driving on track. 

The weather man is saying it will be wet both days, so while it would be more fun (FASTER) if it was dry, you get a lot of good practice on a wet day dealing with less grip. Driving at this level is an all-weather thing, although we don't have a lot of ice racing in South Carolina.