Driving on the Edge

Aimee and I just got back from my second (her first) Driver's Edge event. I'll link to her experience as soon as she writes it.

If you didn't catch my first experience, you can read it here. Most of that post is spent on trying to relate how intense high performance driving on a road course can be. This time was different. I wasn't white knuckled or cringing while barreling into a corner at high speed. Instead I was calm, relaxed, even joking with my instructor while driving... but, the difference is that this time the driving was faster and more "out of control" than before.

I wasn't really out of control of course, I never went off the track or anything. I guess I mean it looks (or would feel) out of control to someone looking at it from the outside. I was comfortable pushing the car past it's limits on practically every corner, which generally means a light, correctable skid. I had gotten past the exhilaration of going fast on a track and was relaxed enough to start feeling the car. I could feel when it was at its limits and I could choose to push it into a slide or back off. Which leads me to my next topic...

I think I figured out my driving style. I don't want to say "reckless" because that implies irresponsibility. Safety is always number one, especially when other cars are nearby. But when I feel it is "safe", I will almost always choose to kick the rear end out and correct for it. I think it's fun. :)

I had 6 major corrections this weekend. By major I mean I was sliding sideways, tires smoking, and I was going off track if I didn't do some pretty big counter steering. The trick to counter steering (IMO) is knowing when to stop it and turn the wheel back to normal. If you hold the counter steer too long, the car will swing around the other way fast and hard. The window of opportunity to stop the counter steer seems to be very very small.

Minor corrections (small skids, aka power induced oversteer) are a normality now... :) The trick is not using the entire track when exiting a corner. Give yourself some margin for error. If you do it right, you'll end up using the entire track anyway.

I have to say I had to best instructor. His name is Mason and he is awesome. I seriously don't think I could have improved this much without him. I really felt like I could understand and execute his instructions... but more importantly, he gave me confidence, which is what I really needed to take it to the next level. He made me feel completely at ease and good about myself, which in turn allowed me to relax, which in turn allowed me to concentrate on "feeling" the car and experimenting. Also, he was really fun. He'd say "awesome!" when I'd almost lose control or "let's do it!" when I'd get my sights on someone.

** NOTE: Please excuse my inaccurate terminology, potentially bad/incorrect advice or complete misunderstanding of a concept. I'm still very much a beginner and am still trying to make sense of all this racing stuff. :)

P.S. I'm solo approved (drive without an instructor) for the blue group! And my instructor said I can be in the yellow group if on a familiar track!! Wow, exciting! I just never really expected to make it to solo driving or the yellow group for that matter!