I should finally relate my experience, i have been meaning to, but have been quite busy since then.
The day started like any other skippy school at RA, show up to the building at the entrance, sign in, and say hi to StevieD. There was another class already in session in the classroom when we got there, a half day intro to racing I believe. Once they finished in the class room, we filed in and took our seats. As Ed said about half, maybe more had no prior racing experience. StevieD was our teacher for the class, a class act as always. went over the basics like this was a normal intro to racing school. We talked line, weight transfer, etc. Then Pierre got up and addressed us. He was curious about our experience levels. He seemed very nervous, this was the first time he had taken one of his cars away from the home track in Vegas. He explained that this track was brutal on the cars and if an actual F1 race was held at RA, the cars would all be destroyed ( I guess they are more fragile than Champ cars
) He said he would go and watch us and make his decision on if we were to be able to drive the F1 car.
We then went out to do the intro in the school cars. I forgot how much fun they are, the H pattern is always fun to drive. We split into three groups, I was in Steve Welk's group, we then played follow the leader at slowly increasing speeds. After we finally got up to speed, we were done. A good time was had by all. Everyone did well, no one spun or had any problems that I saw. Once done we headed to Siebkens for lunch, an unexpected treat.
When we got back to the track Pierre had his real briefing with us. He explained about the car and not to touch any of the buttons on the steering wheel. He explained that 1st gear was disabled, and that to start they would push the car and then yell to us, we were to then drop the clutch and he engine would start. HE then went over the track layout. They had set up "braking points" using cone gates. These were to act in two ways, first to show you were to start braking and second to "guide" you on the proper line. There would be spotters out on the course and you if didn't obey the brake points thy would ask you to stop and have a chat with the guys in the pits. We would NOT, I repeat NOT be using the Kink
, instead we would come out of the carousel and pull to the right of the track, jump on the brakes, take a hard left, then immediately back right and then you are pointed straight down the back straight. Although I understand the reasoning, it destroys the flow of the track in my eyes. Since this was the short-course, we would be using haybale as the last corner before the pits. I think this corner scared him more than any other as there is a retaining wall not far from the track and if you were to go off you might hit it!
He proceeded to draw a MASSIVE wall at the corner and then wrote "DO NOT HIT" to illustrate his point.
We then went back own to the track where they rolled the car out. Very impressive. The car had the grooved slicks we are used to nowadays, even had ARROWS on the sidewall of the Bridgestones. To start the car they used 2 full diving tanks. ( 3000psi ) hooked to an massive air wretch that fit into the back of the car. It made one hell of a racket. They went through the first tank just to get the oil pressure up. then the second to start the car. The first driver had to warm up the car, basically sit with the car in neutral and keep the revs at 4K for ~2minutes. There was a bit of a delay between drivers, so much so that the skippy testers were out in between our runs. ( the nationals race was that weekend )
The first driver spun going into corner 1 ( 5 on the full track ) on his first pass. Sounded like he jabbed the throttle while still turning. Luckily he managed to not hit the wall. I believe he spun again on his last lap at the top oh the hill at 6. Besides that it was pretty quiet. Most guys took the car out with a ton of respect and treated it nice, thus it didn't bite them. Pierre wanted the least experienced drivers in the car first. He kept calling it an "experience"; we were going to experience a formula1 car, 700HP in such a light car is frightening, we shouldn't push to hard, etc.
I talked to him as the 4th guy went out and he sid he was nervous for me to go out since i had racing experience and that RA was my home track and thus I felt like I knew it. I proposed that I just go last because I wanted to do an additional lap or two. I don't think he wanted me to do more than the allotted laps, but agreed. I hung around saw a few National drivers i knew and chatted while waiting for my drive.
It was finally my turn, DFL in the car. I hoped that the tyres and brakes would be up to temp, they weren't. They strapped me in, toggled the steering buttons and started to push. As they pushed, they yelled to go, I dropped the clutch and it was running. a quick stab brought the revs up and i was at the first corner, turned in and rolled on the power. (A few people were trying to go full throttle as fast as they could, this would invariably lead to the traction control kicking in and the car bogging.) Up the hill toward 6, tapped the up shift lever with my finger into 3rd gear. Pretty impressive power up the hill. I broke a little later that the cones, the brakes worked well, but not nearly as well as I was expecting, still was slowed down more than needed for the corner. Then power up to the brake-gate for 7, i tried moderate brakes then turned and rolled on the power thru the apex and on to the hurrydowns... "Hey this is fun..." hard on the brakes into 8 then full throttle up to the carousel.
The carousel is my favorite corner on the whole track. in a skippy car you can play with the angle of attack through the corner. So i wanted to see if I had any under steer with the F1 car... NOPE. It was amazingl fast, almost scary fast. It pulled and I shifted through the corner and the front stuck right where i pointed it. Coming out of the carousel I had to remember to dive to the right and brake for the kink chicane. It is very strange to not drive that part of the track as i know it. So, hard on the brakes, still not to temp, but working well it seemed, then the left and right complex. As I exited the corner I was in i believe 2nd gear pointed down the back straight. "Okay" I thought, "lets see what this will really do..." I grabbed 3rd and went WOT. the sound from the intake above my head was deafening, I hit the rev limiter before i realized i had left. I grabbed 4th gear and it felt like my brain was still at the kink, while I was a third of the way down the straight. I clicked into 5th and the power was never ending. then I see the brake-gate for canada, hard on the brakes and several clicks on the paddle and the car is almost at a standstill. My brain having only just caught up to me as i hit the brake, was now 1000ft in front of me.
I turned, power through up to the missing bridge and braking points for haybale.
What a freaking lap!
The next few laps were more of the same, but the back straight I was ready for, I was able to be cognisant enough to up shift just before the red line. I tried to brake later and accelerate harder each lap. The car seemed like it was on rails and couldn't do anything wrong. I finished my 4th and final lap and continued on to my 5th. At this point I was starting to get comfortable in the car and figured I had my 4 laps in, so I would try to actually push on this lap. I did great until the exit of the carousel. I had but myself in "race" mode and was doing a flying lap... I forgot that I had to take the chicane at the kink until the last second. I darted to the right to make the gate and jumped very hard on the brakes. Then instead of turning in while rolling off the brakes I just turned. dumb move... the car eagerly swapped ends. I kept it on the track, even managed to put the clutch in and keep the motor running. However I had agreed with Pierre if at anytime I lost control of the car I would stop and wait for them to com check everything out. So i hit the kill switch and waited. While I waited I admired my beautiful, almost perfect X of tyre rubber on the pavement, nice and wide tyre marks, a deep black colour. I was pleased at how pretty they were, but not so pleased I made them. A few minutes later they showed up and I explained what happened, they gave me a push start and I got to take the kink, at a very reduced rate of speed since I as just accelerating. I did go WOT down the back straight one last time tho.
After I came in, we went back up and had a debrief in the classroom. Pierre was noticeably more relaxed and joking around with all of us.
I had a headache from the sound of the intake for the next 3 days... best headache ever!
Here is a link to my pictures from the event
I only wish I had video of my run.
It was an amazing day at the track, They said they were planning on going back to RA in the Spring. Revere, I think you would enjoy this, especially at RA.
All in all an absolute blast!
Quote:
Originally Posted by F1Edman
The last guy spun too, out of sight of the rest of us, probably because he knew the course too well, and was the best driver of the group and so was pushing much harder than the rest of us (ahem…..Sterling? Sorry to rat you out).
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Like I said, I left some pretty tyre tracks!