Wide open Wednesday in the rain at UMC (Utah Motorsports Campus) | FerrariChat

Wide open Wednesday in the rain at UMC (Utah Motorsports Campus)

Discussion in 'Tracking & Driver Education' started by jag-oo-r, May 21, 2020.

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  1. jag-oo-r

    jag-oo-r Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    May 27, 2015
    423
    My older brother has been trying to get geared-up all winter long for his foray into tracking a car. He's been bit, and I've been encouraging it. He bought the wrong car, but it was enough to set the hook. The difficulty has been that due to Covid restrictions, there are no in-car instructions opportunities, and none of our local event-promoters allow first-timers without an In-Car instructor. (I'm an instructor for the PCA, and we're told that PCA national is working on a lead/follow curriculum, but it's not there yet)

    So, my local track has what they call "Wide Open Wednesday" or "WoW". Think autocross, on the track. You go out, make most of a lap, come in. Then do it again. So we got my brother all signed-up and ready. I spent some time helping him prep his car, bleeding brakes, battery-tie-down, torquing lugs, etc etc. because I want him to have good habits as he enters this sport. But to be honest, I didn't really take the event seriously myself. I didn't do any prep on my car, and in fact, I left the street tires/wheels on and the street brake-pads (which are low-dust ceramic. NOT a good choice for the track). I did not think we would be getting any heat into the tires or the brakes.... especially since it was supposed to rain on us the whole time.

    Well..... as it turns out, there were only about 8 of us in the group, so we were basically looping straight through the line and back out. I ended-up sitting out 2 laps for every 2 laps I did, so the brakes could cool.... which meant the tires were also cool by that time.... haha. Bad prep, for sure. Every single lap I was in "conserve the brakes" mode.


    But we had a good time anyway. ;-)
    Here's a quick video of his last lap. He asked me to follow him, instead of the other way around, so we could get some video of him.

    Oh, and this is in my baby-porsche.


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  2. Metastable

    Metastable Formula Junior

    Very nice vid. Looks like the West track.... I prefer the East track, but I have done more laps on the west. However all my laps were on 2 wheels. Tell him he needs to read the track backwards..... I.e. if it is a fast exit, get the braking done early.... if it is a slow exit.... brake late. Instruction will help him lots. Reading the track backwards also shows where you need to be for the entry to the next corner, so you know where to end up after finishing the corner being approached.

    Good thing about Miller is that there isn’t much to hit if you go off. Love the east track though... I just gelled with it. The Attitudes are the shnitz!
     
  3. jag-oo-r

    jag-oo-r Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    May 27, 2015
    423
    The east track is a "fun" track, but the west track rewards those who know what they're doing. And, those with bigger balls. Ben Bostrom crashed his sbk at "scream" (turn 4-ish) and was in a different zip code when he came down.

    I super-heated and delaminated a right/ front tire there last year.
    People ask if I'm not scared? I tell them "of what?" Once you've done it on a superbike, there's not much that'll make ya flinch in a car.


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  4. Metastable

    Metastable Formula Junior

    Nice blade..... I was chasing Tommy Aquino (RIP) on the east track.... good times. The west track I never quite figured it out. I need to get the R6 and my butt back down to Tooele.
     
  5. jag-oo-r

    jag-oo-r Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    May 27, 2015
    423
    Come on! Haha.
    My days on a bike are done. I'm not a guy who ever learned how to do that without becoming obsessed. So after decades of my wife humouring me, I chose to put up my spurs.

    I find that being involved with the PCA gives me enough track time in the car that I don't need to do tons more to satisfy the itch. For me, half the fun has always been building the bike / car anyway. And instructing newcomers is right up my lane.

    Oh, and that's actually Miguel duhamel's '05 FX championship winning bike. The photo was taken April '06. That was a fun ride for a day. To see what sort of equipment those guys had..... trail brake to the apex and felt every pebble in the asphalt through those forks..... yeah..... wicked cool.
     
  6. Metastable

    Metastable Formula Junior

    I am sure that bike was very well set up. Formula Extreme was an awesome series. Was your bike still 1000 cc? Honda were racing the RC51s back in those days in superbike.

    Funny thing is it looked very much like my CBR600RR.... except mine was mostly stock.

    BTW... still have those Techic gloves.... except in Orange, blue and black..... 4 pairs. Haha those things felt great.
     
  7. Metastable

    Metastable Formula Junior

    Kind of ironic we are talking about AMA Honda’s and 2005 today...... that was the year Nicky won his GP championship I believe he..... or maybe it was his first MotoGP win at Laguna... I cannot remember, but today is a sad day for all the wrong reasons.

    https://www.superbikeplanet.com/69-x3/
     
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