First Track Event Report 2026

Frost on the Coronet windshield? 
Welcome to South Carolina in February!

Over the weekend I drove on track at Carolina Motorsports Park here in South Carolina, and had a BLAST! The driving was one reason, but also big fun was hanging out with the Bunch of Idiots team, like Brian Nixon, Kyle Ray-Smith, and Adam Powlas, who were testing the 1972 Dodge Coronet, instructing, and competing in Time Trials (Adam.)

On top of all that, the local MOPAR expert and Army buddy of mine Mike Rooker stopped by to share his experience with the Coronet team, and we managed to talk over some old times too! If you have questions about MOPAR cars or drag racing, Mike is your guy!

Driver meeting on Saturday. 

Once I got to the track early on Saturday, things started with a driver meeting at 7:15 in the morning, and it was around 30 degrees, so I knew my first driving session at 8 was going to be chilly. Chilly temps means that the brakes and tires will be cold, so I planned to start nice and easy so that I wouldn't slide off track or spin. That worked out great, and over this first 20 minutes of driving I managed a best lap of 1:53. That was a bit faster than my last weekend at CMP in November, so hooray! Just maybe the changes on the car made things a bit faster. 

Unfortunately I don't have any video of driving during the weekend due to a technical glitch with the app that I use in the car. I'm  not sure why it didn't want to record video and log the times. Oh well, the driving part was still the most fun anyway!

Ready to drive on Sunday morning. 

Later in the morning my next session was even better, with the temperatures rising and the lap times coming down a bit. For the second go-round I got down to a 1:52.89, with six laps in this session under 1:56! Keep 'em coming I was thinking! When I drove at CMP in my old FIAT 500 Abarth, I think my best lap was a 2:06 or so. Apparently, having more  horsepower in a better car helps!

No video, but here's my best three laps Sunday morning on the AIM Solo 2 data logger. Top speed on lap 8 was 113.4mph.  Going that fast it's good to know that your brakes will work!

For the third session of the morning, well, it was warmer, and I went just a tenth faster, a 1:52.79, so it was a happy morning at NMS! The new rotors worked just fine, and when you install parts yourself, that's a good thing!

After a lunch break and getting the car gassed up, my driving group had a classroom session with our instructor. We covered the basics of driving on track (flags), and everyone had a chance to ask any questions on how things had gone in the morning. Oh, there were a few things that had come up, so we hashed all of that out.

Here is Adam's #99. He is faster than me in his silver 350Z. Kyle is faster than me in his silver 350Z. Brian is faster than me in his silver 350Z. There seems to be a pattern here. Maybe I need a silver 350Z
. 

After the classroom time, we had a final 20 minutes on track to run a practice drill. In this case, each driver drove laps where for an entire lap they stayed on the right side of the track, and then did a lap all on the left side of the track. This drill is a good way to get more familiar with the ENTIRE track surface, and to be better prepared for driving side-by-side on straights AND corners with other drivers close together. Since each lap was NOT the ideal racing line, the times were slower, but I still felt good about running a 2:00 lap for this drill! We're not racing or winning any prizes out there, so working on driving skill is the theme. 

It's not a Dodge Coronet Super Bee, because it's theTeam Coronautski SUPER KGB!

Right after getting down to that two minute time, I had a very soft brake pedal going into the final corner of the next lap, so I pulled into the pit and stopped to figure this out. All day long the brakes had been just fine, but not having brakes is BAD; VERY BAD!

Old Mustang? No problem. 

After consulting with the gang of friendly smarter-and-faster-than-me drivers, we bled the front brake fluid, and guess what? The brakes were fine! Probably I had just over-heated (boiled) my brake fluid at the end of the day, and that results in getting air in your brake fluid. Air does NOT compress in brake fluid, so that means your brakes don't work (normally with hydraulic fluid pressure pushing the pistons to make the brake pads hit the rotors and slow you down.) 

SO, NMS-North  (me) will do a better job of bleeding brakes before going on track, and I'm planning to upgrade from my current DOT 4 to a higher temperature brake fluid for the next track event coming up in March. 

Yes, that's a Mini Cooper. 

Sunday we had just a drop of rain for the first driving session, and a whole heaping bunch of rain predicted for the afternoon when the rest of my driving time was scheduled. My first session at 8:20 was just damp enough to slow things down a bit, and sure enough I saw a few people slide off track, but it wasn't really too slick yet. It's always good to practice in the rain and react to the conditions, but it didn't help my time at all, so this was just a good practice session, and yes the car was just a bit "slidy" in a few spots! My best lap of 1:58 didn't set the world on fire, but for my skill level, weather, and tires, not bad. 

After that early morning drive, my group wasn't scheduled to drive again until about 1PM, and with a 100% chance of heavy rain, I called it a day and headed home. On the good news side, the brakes were great on Sunday, so things are good with the NMS Cayman. Unfortunately, the Bunch of Idiots Coronet had a few engine issues all weekend, and may not be up to the 24 Hours of Lemons Race in April. More to follow on that one, and some braking upgrades are in my future too.