Some fun laps around Atlanta Motor Speedway in a Spec Miata

Getting some track day seat time to stay sharp for my races...Great stuff on the NASCAR banking!

Details are in the video description.

Musings from the front of the HPDE pack

I'm now starting my second year of racing in Spec Miata. I look forward to this being another year of learning and shaving off a few more seconds per lap. 

 

I do miss the track days (DEs) that I did for six years. I worked and worked and worked and became one of the "fast" guys in the advanced group. That said, I had (relatively) high-powered cars - a ~275hp Nissan Altima and a 300hp Subaru WRX STI. They helped me fly around the track, especially down the straights! That's where a lot of the fast DE guys do well.

 

My DE lap times were "good"....nearly meeting the Spec Miata lap record at Road Atlanta. :) As I've been finding out the past year, however, driving a Spec Miata in the low 1:40s is *much* different that driving a Subaru STI in the same fashion. Much different ball game. 

 

That said I know that becoming a better racer will be no different than me becoming a good (or at least confident) DE driver. It's about seat time, programming, and doing all the right things over and over and over again - not unlike the advice I give my clients for running smart IT/information security programs in their businesses.  

I feel like I'm nowhere near as good of a driver now as I was in my DE days. Maybe I am. Regardless, it's a hit to the ego going from the front to the back of the pack. I'm not too concerned - I won't be there long.

There's something on the track! How an AWD Subaru STI can *still* spinout at Road Atlanta.

Here's an oldie but goodie: It's footage of what happens when another car drops fluid/oil on the track and you find out about it the hard way.

The off occurs in turn 6 after I pass the Porsche. For perspective, I'm doing 115mph in the straightaway before I go off and ~75mph in the turn when I start sliding. As you can see, like black ice, it catches you off guard!

The off isn't all though. Note the slight bump I get by the orange Lotus Elise in my rear view mirror when pulling back out onto the track. That pushed in the bumper for my STI...no real damage. The Elise, on the other hand, probably had $10K worth of damage. Why? After bumping me he proceeded to hit the concrete wall. :|

You can see a couple more cars going off but there were six or seven total. Perhaps the most entertaining portion of the video is when I state the obvious to the corner worker at the end of the clip.

My family STILL won't let me live down the comment...or the spin.

Enjoy!