NMS Back on Track at CMP

Photo 1: Ready for the Side-By-Side drill with Scott in the Corvette. 
No rain on Sunday!

Photo 2: Rain on Saturday. 

During the first weekend of May, the NMS squad returned to Carolina Motorsports Park in search of faster lap times. Or maybe just more fun driving laps and not worrying too much about our times? Either way, we  drove on track and have fun! Brian mostly instructed in Driver Education, so that's a lot more time on track too. Oh, his student had a new Nissan Z car! More description below, but here's 4 laps on Sunday when the track was dry!

FOUR LAPS AT CMP

At NMS-North, we prepped for the track by checking the car for tire wear, brake pad wear, and double checking the coolant, brake fluid, and everything else. I got the car up on all 4 jacks to check things over and take care of business like BTO.  

Brian signs in on Saturday. Did we mention it was rainy?

SPOILER ALERT! RAIN!

NMS at CMP. We do acronyms. 

With a new upgraded to Castrol SRF brake fluid, the brakes were great.  After Saturday's sessions, I checked the brake pads and they were getting to that point where they should be replaced. So, Saturday night I put on the new Ferodo pads, and they were also great on Sunday! 

Porsche GT4 RS. He kept passing me! See the blog post from last week about driving one!

We don't run on race gas 100 octane. It's $11.49 if you do. 

Do Corvettes go on track? YEP. 

One thing that's fun about going to the track is seeing other cars, talking with other drivers, and of course trying to improve my driving skills. The weather comes into play, since driving sessions are held rain or shine, and only stopping for dangerous conditions like thunder and lightning.  

This Mazda was driving in my group!

Brian in the instructor seat.

Speaking of other cars, since Brian was instructing in the DE 1 group, here's a look at them heading out on track. Pretty much any kind of car can drive on track, as long as it's in good shape, and the driver has a helmet. What are you waiting for?

Nice hauler!

My DE 3 classroom instructor Mike. 

Do Mustangs go on track? YEP!

Sunday was dry all day, so other than some concern for one of the front tires showing a lot of wear, things were good. Brian and I swapped the fronts left to right, and went with an increase in air pressure to try and avoid having any wear issues. This got the car through the day, lots of fun, but resulted in the NMS Chief Mechanic and Financial Departments ordering some new tires. 

One of the Spec Racer cars. 

If you're on track, there is a fleet of emergency, medical, and tow trucks and crew ready to support anything that happens. 

At the final session on a beautiful Sunday, Brian hopped in the right seat and coached me for 20 minutes. Well, when he wasn't laughing at how slow I drive he was coaching me. My driving group included the fastest group, the DE 4 drivers, and it felt like there was always people passing me up. That's part of the deal with Driver Ed, and it is all prep for any real racing on track, so just good experience. 

Spotted this Ford GT replica on Sunday, wasn't sure if it was going to be on track. 

YES! It was on track in my run group! Here's the view from my seat, waiting to go out. 

Also, with just the DE 3 group I'm in, we had sessions where we worked on our skills. In one drill, the idea was to do a lap side-by-side with another student. This forces you to be on different parts of the track, much less the spatial awareness of not hitting the other driver! I was driving with Scott in a fast Corvette, and it was a good exercise. Hey, here's a video! WARNING: it does include faster cars passing us and interrupting our actual side-by-side, but that's life too! SPECIAL BONUS: Starting about 1:55 of this video you can see the Mazda that passed me and had flames shooting out on the shifts! It smelled great too!

SIDE BY SIDE DRILL