The Road Atlanta Challenge (to me)

[pdub]

Getting geared up, mentally. Been there, done that. This won't mean a thing to anybody who hasn't run or at least seen that track, but....

The fastest part of it is at the end of the mile-long straightaway, going down the hill into Turn 10A. There's a transition there, off camber, I guess they call that Turn 9. It's not really a "turn." Just not a straight part. Just enough of a kink to make a rookie like me feel uncomfortable. But I've watched cars on videos go through there into 10A (before the braking zone) at 180 mph (Jimmy Johnson). But your ass makes your brain think that your car is going to fly off of the track right there, the physical sensation and the brain thoughts that follow it. When you are going your fastest for the whole lap.

120 is as fast as I ever went down that straightaway, backed off and holding it. There's a whole lot more there.

If you completely miss Turn 10A from lack of braking, there's a sand pit longer than a football field right there. Bounce around, be embarrassed, get towed out. Lack of braking is not Red's issue. It's a lack of courage, in that one part of the track. I'm going back. I'm going back to prove something to me and to Red.

[fast Ed]

Work up to it slowly, try to add a few mph every session on track. Sand traps can be scary too, wheels can dig in. Just remember that you want to drive it home too!


cheers
Ed

[pdub]

Work up to it slowly, try to add a few mph every session on track. Sand traps can be scary too, wheels can dig in. Just remember that you want to drive it home too!


cheers
Ed

Ed, I can't thank you enough (again) for telling me specifically what to get for that car. How's your track Mustang doing?

[pdub]

In my previous two days there at road Atlanta, I can just envision me running a whole lot faster than I did.

I can also envision me singing and playing music and maybe even dancing better than I can. I can dance like John Travolta on the inside but it just won't come out. It's all a vivid scene on the inside but it just won't come out in person. Because it can't. As old as I am, my reflexes are slower.....I would have never believed it about 40 years ago. But that long ago I would have never been able to afford it - the trying.

[Whelk]

Hopefully it's a whole lot dryer this time around.

[pdub]

Guys....I know I'm going off on a tangent here......

I watched my daddy die slow in a hospital bed. Before he got so sick that he couldn't do anything, my mama prohibited him from doing anything he wanted to do and he complied. Like, she made him quit going out in his fishing boat. Because what if he had a spell out on the lake in the boat....Mama probably thought she was protecting him, but she was preventing him from his best days at the end.

I think we should LIVE until we are dead. I'm going to drive fast on a fast race track. And then we are all going to party like there is no end at the Gear Head Inn.

[ratpatrol66]

Video or it didn't happen, no wait I remember where that got me last time. Seriously PEEWEE have fun. The tangent you went on is good advice for people to follow. Get out and have fun living before you dead!!!

[RockJustRock]

Is that the little valley they do the drifting in? If you lose it you can say you were trying out another sport....

[RockJustRock]

Whip a few donuts then back up the hill.

[pdub]

Is that the little valley the do the drifting in? If you lose it you can say you were trying out another sport....

Yep. That's the spot alright. I've only seen the hill part right there from the other direction. That makes it look real big. And I guess it is, but I don't see how it can be nearly as big as the drop going under the bridge down into Turn 12.

One of the other rookie guys I overheard talking at the end of the weekend said his greatest fear the whole time was somebody was going to be stopped sideways in front of him after he went under the bridge going down into 12. Because at that bridge you've got some great scenic scenery because you're at the highest point around but the drop is so steep you can't see pavement right there, not very far past the hood of the car.

[RockJustRock]

Just remember, the only way to discover how fast you can do a corner is to hit it a bit TOO fast, then back off a bit after you get back on the track and scrape the sod off your undercarriage. The next lesson is you can't take your friends for a ride like that, the extra weight will do you in and make you look stupid.

[pdub]

Just remember, the only way to discover how fast you can do a corner is to hit it a bit TOO fast, then back off a bit after you get back on the track and scrape the sod off your undercarriage. The next lesson is you can't take your friends for a ride like that, the extra weight will do you in and make you look stupid.

I like Fast Ed's strategy a little better....build up to it slowly. Because there, they have concrete walls. There's not a whole lot of places you can play in grass and not lose your ass (and/or your well-defined functional car). And I don't need any help looking stupid, at least not to folks who can really sure-nuff drive.

In all of the track-day organizations, I've done three organizations at three tracks a total of four times at this point.....they are all basically the same. Using my terms, (not theirs, they each have theirs and they're different): rookie, intermediate, fast. You really have to jump through hoops and prove yourself to a whole lot of folks to move up in class. They have exercises, like you and another car have to run laps side-by-side, and change lanes (inside-outside) every lap. Run whole laps like that, side by side to get used to not running the preferred line through the curves. It's all value-added and very expensive to do in the long haul.

They had a real race the weekend I was at Road Atlanta. NASA, one of the organizations. And they were racing, not just playing. I saw them go three wide through Turn 1 more than once. That's impossible. But they were doing it.

No, that's not what I'm after but that's got to be a boat pot of fun to be that good at it.

[RockJustRock]

Awww, c'mon PDub. The video clip I was looking for, last year rain broke out right as 2 cars started. They pitched 'em sideways and oopps there was no turn 10, they went straight. Now a street course, like Long Beach, those have concrete.

[pdub]

Awww, c'mon PDub. The video clip I was looking for, last year rain broke out right as 2 cars started. They pitched 'em sideways and oopps there was no turn 10, they went straight. Now a street course, like Long Beach, those have concrete.

I hope it DOES rain. They'll still run but most everybody in the whole joint says heck with that, it's raining. Red's got the setup for that especially, the tires and the brakes. I lapped cars in the rain. They were scared and tiptoeing and going slow a whole lot slower than I was going in the rain. I swear I think Red was faster in the rain than in the dry because I was passing folks...LAPPING folks. It sure felt like it. I was going slow a whole lot faster than they were going slow. That was huge fun.

[Jimbo17]

Many people can go fast down a straightaway but the person that learns how to go through the corners the fastest will come out ahead every time.

When you look at most NASCAR tracks they are two large corners contented by two straightaways. Many car are fast in a straight line but the teams who have figured out the chassis setup to get through the corners will win because they have figured out how to basically make the straightaways longer meaning the are able to get back on the gas sooner coming out of the corners.

A great training ground for learning how to drive is racing karts and understanding the science involved in driving through corners the right way so that you are not scrapping off speed by sliding your tires.

Jimbo

http://www.nostalgicracingdecals.com