Sept 11, 2004 - NASA HPDE at Infineon
Pictures of this track day

I had been waiting to get back on the track since February of 2004 and was glad to be back, this time more prepared and with a one person "team" to assist me in between sessions (thanks Leslie for all the help). Our weekend began on Friday afternoon (Sept 10th), with last minute packing and preparing. We arrived at Infineon Raceway at 8:30pm and found a location that would be near the tech station, pre-grid, bathrooms, driver's lounge, and the main concession stand. Luckily, someone was nice enough to leave us a double-wide spot in perfect location near all of these items. We set up our paddock area, parked the car, and headed off to get some R&R before waking early to get back to the track at 6am.

Saturday morning, (6am) - We arrive back at the track, and unpacked the rest of the tools, food and drinks, and chairs for the day. We had one hour to grab a quick bite to eat, run through a final "morning of" checklist, and get to tech inspection. After the tech inspection, there was a small window of time before the driver's meeting (which always seems to last 3 hours, though only lasting about 45 minutes).

8:30am - My first session of the day was scheduled for 9am. In my previous HPDE event, I learned that if you want some clean laps without traffic, you can only accomplish this by being first in line on pre-grid. I made sure to get to pre-grid at least 30 minutes ahead of time for each of my sessions. It helped that our paddock was only 100 feet from pre-grid of course. Again, we went through another checklist during this time to make sure I, the driver, was prepared; helmet on and tight? gloves on? radio check? strapped in tight? mirrors need adjustment? and that type of stuff. Afterwards I had some time to relax, close my eyes, and go over the track layout from memory as I hadn't been on this track in 7 months and this weekend there was a slight change in configuration since my last visit. At 9am, my group was directed on to the track to begin our first session of the day.

Session 1 - Due to the configuration change, we were led onto the track via a pace car. Personally, I liked this idea as I could get to see the change before coming at it "at speed". As the pace car pulled off, I sped up and led the group up the hill into turn-2 for the first time. As I did, I was immediately reminded that I was on cold and dirty tires as the car pushed badly around turn-1 and in the braking zone for turn-2. I kept the car on course with nothing more then the reminder, but a wise lesson to remember for next time. Even with the recon lap, I still managed to get the car slightly side-ways in that newly configured turn-7 as well, but nothing that I was concerned about. The first half of the session went very well, leading the group of 30 or so cars for a few laps and eventually allowing the faster cars past as they approached. This gave me a good 5 laps of clean track before I began catching up to the other cars on track. I entered pit lane a few times to find gaps in traffic and had a good solid session in the cool morning.

Session 2 - There was a 4-hour gap between sessions 1 and 2. In my mind this was great as I got to go explore the paddock area, get some lunch, go for a hike up the track, and even get some "down time" before the next session. The only problem with this large of a gap between sessions is it allows the lack of sleep and utter exhaustion to catch up to you, and it sure seemed to do just that to the majority of my group. Session 2 was a test of patience. Even though I led the field onto the track again, by the middle of our second lap on track I was into heavy traffic and was unable to lay out any laps without being held up heavily. Thanks to a friend who was also at the track this weekend, I was able to use a transponder to record some lap times in this session. Though I'm not concerned with running quick times, I wanted to see some consistency out of my driving. To no avail, of course, my lap times ranged from 2:05's to 2:18's due to the traffic and everyone's lack of point-by's. The 2:05 would stand to be my quickest lap of the day, and the tires made it very clear that they were not appreciative at all.

Session 3 - Only 90 minutes after session 2, I was having to get right back onto the track. Not an easy thing to do; trying to re-hydrate, checklists, drivers meeting, and get to pre-grid 30 minutes ahead of the time posted. I didn't make it of course, and had to start my session deep in the field. I didn't want to feel frustrated like I was in session 2 so I had decided to just run some consistent laps in the 2:10 range and just focus on my line and hitting all my marks. When the session was complete, I parked in my paddock and reviewed the lap times which ranged from 2:09's to 2:11's. Not only did I get the chance to run constantly, the entire field picked up the pace and I was no longer a "fast" car on the track as I had been in the first 2 sessions.

Session 4 - Late in the day (5pm) and tired, I was not going to be going for any 05 lap times again. I had talked with the lead instructor prior and arranged a lead/follow drive during this session so he could determine if I could be advanced to the next stage in my licensing process. Again, my focus was on hitting all my marks, using up all the road and curbing, and not abusing the car or myself. The session was flawless (mostly) with some passing, being passed, and some great laps. I began altering my line in a few turns as I was picking up more speed through certain areas of the track. Turn-4 had been a thorn in my side since Feb, but I now hit my apex and track-out points every lap. In turn-8a I was not using all the track available to me, now I do every lap. Turn-10 is not only fast (about 100mph for me) it is a very tough entry as the car is off-weight from turn-9 and under light braking all while staring straight into a concrete wall only a few feet off the track. It is startling, to say the least, when you are entering this turn and you can feel that the rear of the car is at that "edge"... very close to the point of loss of grip and wanting to turn around... it makes your heart jump for sure.

Conclusion - Overall, I was extremely pleased with the day. The car did perfectly with no brake fade and good power (with a few power-slides to boot) even in the 90+ temperatures of Sonoma during the mid-day. Though the track was crowded, the final two sessions were just how they should be, fast and courteous. At the end of the day, I had gotten four hours of sleep, been at the track for over 12 hours, and been in the car at speed for 80 minutes combined. NASA supplied all drivers with a BBQ meal and drinks as we all sat to chat about the day's happenings. My friend who loaned me his transponder and helmet was awarded with his provisional competition license at mid day and raced in his first NASA race by afternoon. I was signed off to advance into the next group of HPDE which will put me into a group in which everyone is very experienced.

Sunshine, Racing, BBQ, Women.... it was a good day!