OK, so I'm going to post every day now until we're caught up. There it is, written in pixels, unbreakable.

Last Sunday (well, a week ago yesterday, so two Sunday's ago), we went to the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point, by the old way of naming things) for a half-day driving school. They outfitted us with slick-o driving suits, helmets, and a little driving physics. Then, zoom zoom, off we go.

Our first track session involved getting in a line and following the pace car. The pace car, a white mustang, just visible here, drove around the track, picking the correct line through each turn and straight-away. Our job was to follow the pace car *exactly*. Since it was a little drizzly and misty that morning, we had to stay on the pace car's line or suffer the consequences. The consequences, as some of our classmates found out (just couldn't follow directions, could they?) were a "little thingy", so defined as a spin where you don't make contact with anything.

So the pace car chose the "line" and we followed like little zippy fast ducks. Since, as I mentioned, the track was wet, we started out on the "wet line", which is a little higher through the turns. The "dry line" right down low (here and here), which we got to follow later as the track dried up, is very slippery when wet due to deposited rubber and oil.

After our first track session, we piled into an SUV driven by one of the instructors. He took us around the track again showing us where to accelerate and where to brake and why to stay off the dry line when the track is wet. To show us that, he had us get out in one of the turns and just shuffle our feet along the track in the dry line. It was literally as slippery as ice.

After one more follow the pace car and one more short lecture, we were back in the cars for solo sessions (no pace car). We weren't allowed to pass each other, but, since they spaced us out at intervals of several hundred yars, the situation didn't present itself anyway. This was our fastest and funnest session yet.

The cars we drove were open-wheel formula cars. They had about 125 HP, which might not sound like much, but the car itself weighs about the same as a heavy motorcycle, so that works out to be plenty fast enough. We got going to about 100 MPH on the fastest part of the track, which seemed like plenty fast enough. It was kinda like sitting in a very very fast bathtub. It was a whole lot of fun and we learned a lot about driving bathtubs. I found it interesting how cerebral racecar driving really is. There's a lot of physics you have to keep in mind to avoid "thingies" and "demolition" (a thingy with an unhappy ending). I wonder if it'd be more interesting to watch racing on tv now?
- posted by Colin @ 9:53 AM