FruiTay

I remember being arouond 5 years old and seeing commercials for Power Wheels. I remember wanting one more than anything but it was a "big toy" and even though my dad mentioned getting one, I never did. I got too big
BUT WAIT! Around 8 years old my dad totally redeemed himself and got me a go-cart! It had a gas motor, sweet race car body which he painted his company's colors. It was awesome. I was lapping open parking lots and having a BLAST. A friend of mine had a little 50 dirt bike and I can't tell you how cool having our own little race vehicles was. IT WAS THE COOLEST, MOST FUN YOU COULD HAVE.
My dad took me to a customer's house where this man and his wife had a shop with 4, competition ready open wheeled carts. One of them was my size exactly. It was pretty. Yellow with purple just like the L.A. Lakers. The bucket seat fit me like a glove and they were selling it!.......
MOM WAS LIKE NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE



Well there goes that amazing feeling for a while......
Once I got my liscence I got the sportiest cars I could which wasn't much.
26 years old now and my mom can't tell me no so I got myself a red, 01' freakin' Z06. BAM!! And yesterday was my first day at the track and let me tell you my friends, that feeling I lost was back in FULL FORCE and is now greater than ever

I did "open track" at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.http://www.pacificraceways.com/Index.aspx The driving school was Proformance Racing which is led by pro driver Don Kitch Jr.
http://www.proformanceracingschool.com/about

I had an AMAZING time.

First off was a morning meeting and then the advanced drivers had a 45 minute "warm up period" while us newbies did some class time.
After that we did brake checking. I have stock brakes with Hawk + pads and they worked awesome! Here was the line for that: Challenger SRT8, Camaro SS, Porsche Cayman, 09' GTR, VW bug with turbo porsche motor, SLK 55 AMG, old bmw 3 series...


After more class time we did driver follow. The instructors drove a couple laps in each car and then sat in the passenger seat for a couple laps as well. After that it was time drive on our own!

The Z was SO fun. I was advised by the mechanic at Speed Secrets http://www.speedsecretsefi.com/ to keep my t/c on because he could feel that my brand new Vredesteins weren't "seated" yet and I think he was right, they felt a little wobbly at times on my ride there. This was a little annoying because the t/c was turning on even in 4th at times. The day had some fog and the track did have some moisture. I didn't even think to use the advanced t/c ( I don't know that I would have even if I remembered) but all-in-all the Z was haulin' ***!

Here are some terrible pics but I didn't have a lot of time.
My buddy's Focus and my baby:

I was lucky enough to be there at the same time as maybe the most favored race Ferrari ever, the F40

This middle aged, Romanian lookin' man signed up for advanced track. He looked like he just woke woke up. His hair was greasy and his once black jeans were faded grey but I need a pair of race shoes and I noticed his were Ferrari. I didn't think anything of it because I had a full Ferrari sweat suit made by Puma (I know I'm a dork but I like the suit and it was a gift) I should have realized the shoes probably came with the car. Needless to say I was thrown off. "Never judge a book by the cover." He ran his 458 Italia:






V10 R8

M5

And last but not least, the 63 year old lady that gave my Z a run for it's money! We had a blast. It was a 6 speed too. She gets extra points!

This was the most fun I have ever had. I NEED more track time. I'm hooked and ready for it all!
I have an oil catch can to install along with some ss brake lines even though I think I'll get some bigger front brakes and ducting to keep em' cool. I can't wait to hit all the tracks around the NW.
Thanks for reading!

FruiTay

The told myself I would keep up with the AMG in front of me but by the time that thought was gone so was he. I didn't want to get crazy being my first time and the way he took off, I don't think it was his first time with that on a track.

Here's a supercharged C4. The owner said they don't make a kit for that so he fabricated one himself. It had mega moisture out of the pipes and no ABS. The thing had LOTS of smoke.

jcsperson

Shouldn't that bug be #53?

Sounds like you had a ball. Does the sun shine in the Northwest?

FruiTay

Not as much as other states which can give you some serious Corvette blues but when it does, you can't beat it. I would love a real sunny day at Pacific Raceways cause the back side is all woods and it would look killer!

Crepitus

grandsport4me1963

Nice. Was this just an open track day event?

z06801

Good work! nice pics welcome to the madness

95jersey

another crack addict enters the crack house!!! :-)

FruiTay

Yes it was just open track day. There is another one this Sunday and best believe I'll be there!

FruiTay

Thank you!

FruiTay

I'm itchin' and scratchin' all right! I'll get my "fix" this Sunday with WAY more seat time now that I'm no longer "novice."


This is a little scary to me because now I'm free to run the track with MINIMAL training. I did get a little excited out of a tight turn last week and swung my *** out a little. I kept it under control but Pacific Raceways isn't a very forgiving track and man, if I mess up too bad......

z06801

Hey I would go for a little fog to get a track day right now, our track is 12" deep and my front lawn had 26" at the end of last week and now because of the inversion we have the snow and the fog/smog not fair

CHJ In Virginia

Welcome to the addiction !!
There are a couple of sticky threads at the top of the RR & AutoX section that would be well worth your time to read in detail. 1) New to AutoX and RR 2) C5 to track car conversion, what I have learned.
I would find some events that have more in car instruction. Having an instructor in the right seat is invaluable towards speeding up your learning and safety curve. Drive the car stock and focus on the nut behind the wheel before you start modding the car. Stock it has capabilities that you will be a couple of years into this before you have developed the skills to use them adequately.

95jersey

recommendation, you should always welcome instruction even if you are an advanced student.

c4cruiser

If you had an instructor from ProFormance, did he sign you off to run by yourself? PR can be very tricky especially if the track is wet (turns 3a and 3b, and even on the back side at the entry to Turn 4. Also pay close attention to feeling the bumps in 5a and 5b and use that for setup to Turn 6.

I would suggest getting more instruction and when you do get to run alone, work on learning the racing line and work on being smooth in steering, braking and throttle. Just going fast at this point won't be any help to you.

FruiTay

Yes I am good to go for open track but that doesn't mean I am 100% confident; this is still very new to me. Proformance isn't offering instruction on the "winter lapping days." They get pretty tied up with the 'newbies.'

Exiting 3b is where I oversteered from too much throttle in 2nd gear, I think I'll keep it in third from now on.
Also, speeding downhill into a turn like 3a should make any newcomer to a track pucker their

FruiTay

I will always welcome instruction. In no way do I think I am a professional or anything close to one.

FruiTay

[/QUOTE]I would find some events that have more in car instruction. Having an instructor in the right seat is invaluable towards speeding up your learning and safety curve. Drive the car stock and focus on the nut behind the wheel before you start modding the car. Stock it has capabilities that you will be a couple of years into this before you have developed the skills to use them adequately.[/QUOTE]

Yes I will do multiple HPDEs and Ford HPDS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcHy6...ayer_embedded#!)

But I cant cram either in by Sunday!

No plans for any major mods either

Bedouin

Awesome..felt the same during my first track days...totally addicted.

Here's one of the most informative posts I've ever read, & this will keep you occupied until your next hpde

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...e-learned.html

FruiTay

I've been reading that! Perfect for someone like me. I am definitely following the advice on that thread.