Archive for the 'HPDE' Category

Summer Heat - NHIS - August 23

Published
by
brownmini
on August 27, 2007
in BMWCCA, HPDE and NHIS
. 0 Comments

Another NHIS day is in the books, but this one had a fair number of firsts. There were a dozen MINIs at this event, and about half of them were track newbies. The BMWCCA’s effort to bring in new people to HPDE events seems to be working.

This was my first event running in run group 1 (the advanced student group). I didn’t notice a huge difference between group 1 and group 2, but group 1 does have an addition passing zone available - the short chute between turns 10 and 11. That makes all the “straight” portions of NHIS passing zones except for the stretch between turn 6 (the bowl) and turn 9.

I started the day by catching a ride in an instructor’s e30 325. This was nice, because it gave me a chance to see the track again before I had to drive it. It also showed me just how smoothly you can get around the track while still being fast.

I ran the first session in the morning with my instructor as a standard student / instructor session. I felt comfortable out there on the track using RA-1s for the first time. Replacing the worn out front control arm bushings made this trip to NHIS much better than the previous one where I spun in turn 2 early in the day.

For the second session, I did some instructor role playing. I pretended to be an instructor introducing a new student to the track. Of course, this slowed my laps down a little. And, I was already one of the slower cars in my run group. So, along with driving my car and trying to explain what I was doing as I was driving, I also had to keep track of the faster traffic around me. It was a lot to keep track of. I often had to ignore the talking / teaching part of the exercise when faster traffic needed to be let past. And I don’t think I ever mentioned gear shifts during the entire session. But, it did give me a glimpse of what an instructor needs to be able to do.

The third session, I rode as a passenger in my instructor’s Porsche 911 turbo and pretended to teach him around the track. He ran his laps well below full speed for his car. Again, I don’t think I mentioned a single gear shift. And I guided him on the line I know best for the track - the line I take in the MINI. Of course, the line a Porsche 911 turbo takes and the line a MINI Cooper takes are very different. For the last quarter of the session, my instructor took over showing my the line he takes and explaining the differences between the Porsche line and the MINI line.

Since there was one of my sessions where I wasn’t driving, I asked to go out with run group 3 for a session so I could get some more track time. The people in charge had no problem with this, and it felt great to get out there and just [i]drive[/i]. Of course, it meant that I wound up doing 2 session back to back. Well, I headed in 5 minutes early at the end of the first of the back to back sessions, but I still drove close to 45 minutes straight. Again, the MINI handled great and I put in my fastest laps at NHIS yet, and was fairly consistent at the same time.

So, I’m looking forward to spending more time doing instructor training. I definitely need more time riding with experienced instructors and riding in different cars. There’s a long way to go, but at least I have gotten started in the process.


NHIS - May 24

Published
by
brownmini
on May 30, 2007
in BMWCCA, HPDE and NHIS
. 0 Comments

The long video:

NHIS

Published
by
brownmini
on May 26, 2007
in BMWCCA, HPDE and NHIS
. 3 Comments

Early morning mishap:

Fast(ish) lap:

the day before

Published
by
brownmini
on May 23, 2007
in HPDE and preperation
. 0 Comments

I hate the day before a track event.  Thoughts of my car ending up crunched against a wall keep running through my head.

Once I get out on the track, those thoughts are long gone.  But, the day before…

What’s in the box?

Published
by
brownmini
on April 5, 2007
in HPDE and preperation
. 7 Comments

One of the more important things when heading for the track is the “track box”. It serves two main purposes…

As part of the preperations to go out on the track, all the loose stuff inside the car needs to be removed. At some tracks, you’re lucky and there are covered garages with work tables, so you can just stash stuff in a relatively safe, dry place. Other tracks aren’t so well equipped and you’re basically hanging out in a gravel parking lot. And, it usually rains at some point. So, a container of some sort that is big enough to hold all the stuff you take out of the car, and keep that stuff dry, becomes pretty important.

Since you’re going to need a box to put stuff in anyway, why not get one that’s a little bigger, and use it to carry other supplies as well? That’s use number two. Here’s what I have in my track box:

  • Tire pressure gauge - get a pretty nice one that has a relief valve for lowering pressure easily
  • Notebook and pen - useful for writing down stuff like tire pressures, contact information for people you meet, etc
  • Scotch tape - some clubs will give you nice vinyl numbers to put on the car, others will give you a piece of paper with a number printed on it and say “tape this to your window”. Without tape, that’s pretty hard.
  • Painter’s tape - some clubs will make you tape up and glass on the front of your car such as headlights. Painter’s tape can also be used if you have to supply your own numbers on your car, but it’s a pain to do it that way
  • Glass cleaner - windows get dirty, so bring something to clean them with
  • Paper towels - goes with the glass cleaner, but get used for lots of other things too
  • hand cleaning wipes - hands get dirty
  • brake fluid - at some point, you’ll need to bleed your brakes, so have more fluid handy
  • a quart of oil - my car doesn’t burn oil, so I’m not really sure why I carry this around, but it feels like the right thing to do
  • tire tread depth gauge - so you can keep track of just how worn those tires are getting. Comes in handy when you want to rotate the tires to even out the wear on them
  • brake pads - at some point, you’ll use up the brake pads that are on the car, so carry along the next set so you don’t have to go home early
  • sunscreen - if it’s not raining, you’ll be getting sunburned
  • Tarps - for covering the box and other stuff when it rains
  • clean t-shirt for the drive home - it’s either going to rain, and your shirt will get wet, or it will be hot and your shirt will get all sweaty. And either way, it will end up dirty. A clean, dry shirt can make the drive home a bit more pleasant.

Also put in the car an umbrella and a folding chair.

Water is another important thing to have on hand. Get an insulated container that can hold a fairly large amount of it. You don’t want to have to pay the track for overpriced bottled water.

I carry along my full (but small) toolbox. Minimally, you want to bring the tools you’d need to rotate / change tires and bleed brakes. So, the right size sockets for those two tasks, a breaker bar, a torque wrench, socket wrench, and a plastic hose and bottle for bleeding brakes.

I wish I had the following:

  • aluminum racing jack
  • mechanic’s gloves
  • easy-up tent like shelter
  • air tank or compressor

signed up

Published
by
brownmini
on March 16, 2007
in ADSS, BMWCCA, HPDE, NHIS and preperation
. 0 Comments

I just sent out my registrations for the April 7 ADSS at NHIS and the April 13 “Cabin Fever” HPDE, also at NHIS. Assuming there’s space left in the events, I’m going driving!

I’ll post some more as I go through the preperations for these. But there’s a foot of snow forecast for tomorrow night, so it’s not quite driving season yet.

There will also be pictures, video, etc from the events. So stay tuned.