AUTO TRACKDAY MONTHLY, LLC
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA

The organizers call us over for the mandatory drivers’ meeting.  They run through the plan for the day.  The “Green” group will begin their day at 9 a.m. doing class time and their first run on the track will begin at 10 a.m.  That will be followed by 3 more runs during the balance of the day of 30 minutes each.  The rules are reviewed.  Passing only in the straights and only after a point by.  The driver being passed stays on the driving line so there is no confusion about who is going where.  A corner worker reviews the flag rules.  At the end of the meeting we are paired off with our instructors.  Bob has 2 students for the day.  Me in the green group and another guy in the blue or intermediate group.  Bob, like me, is also a Boxster driver.  They try to match drivers up by the type of car they have.  Bob will be familiar with how my Boxster will handle on track. Introductions are made and we are interviewed briefly.  Any prior experience?  Goals for the day?  The last thing Bob tells me is to pick him up where his car is parked for my run group.  Oh, and yeah, “let’s have fun today.”  But before we begin, Bob runs off to drive in the instructors’ run group.  They are re-conning the track for debris and driving conditions.  Green group folks head off to the classroom session led by the chief instructor. In the classroom, there is a review of vehicle dynamics.  We are reminded that our cars are attached to the ground through 4 little contact patches about the size of a fist.  Those contact patches determine the total amount of grip available.  If you use 50% of the total grip for braking and 60% for turning, well you have exceeded the grip available.  And if you do this, going for a spin is in your immediate future.  We will be focusing on learning the driving line, the fastest way around the track, and learning to use the controls of the car. If you can learn the line and how to shuffle steer, you will have accomplished a lot in your first two-day event. After class it is time to saddle up.  The butterflies, they are a-fluttering.  I struggle to put on the helmet and get it strapped.  My hands are shaking.  I head over to pick up Bob.  He is going to drive my car for the first lap or two for demonstration of the line and to make sure it is in good operating condition.  He takes it easy and narrates what he is doing all the way.  Brake now, turn in, hit the apex, track out, unwind the wheel and feed in the throttle.  It is my turn, the moment of reckoning.  Will I make it?  Will I embarrass myself?  What will Bob think?  Will I be disinvited from the party?  What do I do first?  Will I remember the line?  Will my peers blow my doors off? smoothly and consistently.  During my second or third session Bob asks, well screams over at me, “Let me know when you are ready to go faster.”  We are driving with the windows open and full helmets and it is not easy to hear.  After another lap or 2 I am in a groove and feeling good.  Bob gives a sort of shrug as if to ask, what are you waiting for?  I figure he has confidence in me or else he wouldn’t have invited me to go faster.  I bite the bullet and tell him I am ready.  Bob launched into the best coaching I have ever had.  He is intense now.  He is yelling and giving me clear hand signals.  A clenched fist pulled down in front of his face while exhorting me to “brake hard.”  “Turn in, apex, track out, full throttle, brake hard.”  We go like that for 2 full laps.  Bob is talking me through a lap at true speed and it is amazing.  I did not know the car could do it.  I did not know I could do it. The feelings of exhilaration and exhaustion mingle together at the end of the weekend.  Goodbyes are offered but the newbies do not want to leave.  People bench race and tell their war stories.  There is a warm feel of camaraderie and new friendships are found.  Conversations are punctuated with the telltale hand gestures of 2 cars following each other into and out of a turn.  You know.  One hand following the other as if to represent the cars in line on track.  We all do it. We cannot help it. The relaxed but tired feeling lasts for a couple of days.  Snippets of laps are recalled and replayed in the mind’s eye.  Did I pass anyone?  Did anyone pass me?  At this point I am hooked.  I am addicted.  I cannot wait to come back and give it another go.  I have tested myself.  My experience of myself has permanently changed.  I cannot say how.  I just know. The wait between events became too much to bare and so I took up kart racing.  I became the John Smith Subs Night Karting Series track champion at Moroso in 2005.  I have driven trackday events at Homestead, the Firm and Sebring, in addition to PBIR.  Along the way I have met professional racers Shane Lewis, Guy Cosmo, Guy Smith, Walter Borhen, Bert and Brian Frisselle, Peter Argetsinger and Kevin Buckler.  Buckler showed up at a PCA event the weekend after he won the 24 Hours of Daytona outright in a Porsche GT3-RS, beating out the Daytona Prototypes in their first year of development.  Very cool.  The car still had all the tire rubber marks all over it from Daytona.  I have signed the same wall at Chicanes in Sebring as Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, AJ Foyt and Paul Newman.  I have made good friends and enjoyed the tailgating atmosphere in the paddock areas waiting for that next run group.  My wife and I now participate together in track days.  After the Boxster, I drove a 911 and a 350Z.  They were all street legal but lightly modified track cars.  My wife and I share our current track car; a Mitsubishi Evolution X MR.  It is an awesome vehicle with a dual clutch transmission, magnesium shifter paddles, all-wheel drive, active yaw control, Brembo brakes, Eibach springs on Bilstein struts, BBS wheels and Recaro seats.  Dare I say it?  I think the Evo is the best handling and fastest of the track cars I have driven.  It is a blast to drive and it handles our marital double stinting without a problem.  One long time racer we met said of the Evo, “Between the dual clutch tranny and the AWD, it’s almost like cheating.” I suppose it is controversial to be driving a two-pedal, but it is definitely faster to flick the paddles than to push in the clutch, heel and toe downshift and then row the stick.