I told you that November would be busy, and it is SO BUSY that Brian kicked it off on October 31st! We just couldn't pack a month's worth of NMS activities into just 30 days! That was the Friday of a 3 day NASA Southeast track weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park. Here at NMS-North, we behaved ourselves and went to school on Friday, and hit the track on Saturday and Sunday.
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| Brian with the NMS #86, temporarily as #186 for the weekend. Painters tape has many uses! |
In addition to the NMS drivers and the NMS #86 350Z, our friends Kyle and Adam were also driving their Nissan 350Z cars in the Time Trials all weekend, and we have to report they turned in faster times than the NMS team. We suspect that they found faster times by only driving what race engineers refer to as "downhill, with a tailwind, and no brakes" so it's either that or they are just faster drivers.
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| Three silver Nissan 350Zs and a ruby red Porsche Cayman. One of these things is not like the other. |
Here at NMS-North, my times were the slowest of the group, and a good 3 seconds off my previous best, so let's say that I got in a lot of practice, had a good time, and drove flawlessly. Except for when I didn't drive flawlessly. Let's talk about that!
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| Part of HPDE 3 is some classroom sessions to keep everyone on the same page. |
Being a HPDE 3 level driver, I was working on improving my technique during 7 sessions over the two days, and by reviewing the data, analyzing the track sector times, screening my in-car video, I can now confirm that I went off the track twice! My first error was going wide after the Carolina Motorsports Park "kink" at about 109mph, hitting the deep curbing, and then got thrown across the track onto the grass for a long slide before coming to a stop. Good news: I did NOT hit the tire wall or damage the car! Some drivers refer to this as "pushing the limits" or "running out of talent."
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| Some of us drive our car to CMP, others bring it in a nice rig like this! |
Mistake #2 on a later session was after the kink, and braking too late going into turn 11. This time I just went straight where the pavement turned left, and went a few car lengths off the asphalt. Again, no damage, just lack of talent! In both cases I continued when it was safe, drove into the pits, and had a discussion with the safety steward to make sure I knew what the problem was. In both cases he also checked out the four corners of car for damage, and sent me on my way. Hey, if you learn from your mistakes, that's supposed to be a good thing, right?
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| I'm going with "More Cow Bell" on this one! |
One other fun part of this weekend was a HPDE 3 only exercise, where drivers perform specific drills during a 20 minute session. On Saturday, our drill was to drive a complete lap staying left of center of the pavement, and then on the next lap staying to the right of center. Repeat to the end of the session. This forced you to get way off the racing line in many places, and it also made me realize that there's a lot more pavement out there than what I usually use!
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| Four of the six Porsche 944s in one of the race classes. |
Sunday's drill was similar to Saturday, but with the added factor of doing it side-by-side with another driver! I paired up with a fellow HPDE 3 guy in a BMW, and we completed the 20 minutes smoothly, although we were not going at full pace. This drill was pretty straight forward and emphasized awareness of where you are on track, and where the other driver is on track. This is a fun part of driving in level 3 and our combined sessions with 3 and 4 together, when you can pass other cars at any point on track. That's a big deal, because in HPDE 1 and 2 you can only pass on a few long straights. I'm all for safety, so once drivers get into 3 and 4 they should be able to handle this.
Here's Brian going into the last corner and driving by on the home straight.
This was my 4th track weekend of the year, and with NMS-South, Kyle, and Adam at CMP also, was the most fun all year.
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| This Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport was in my driving group. Scientists would describe it as "fast!" |
