I sure do miss Connecticut. I got to the track about 30min early and decided to take a drive around. Is this New England or what. Welcome to Lime Rock Race Track and headquarters for Skip Barber Racing School. Not surprisingly there were some pretty awesome cars in the parking lot. Here is a picture of my favorite. A '67 Vette convertible 427. The first morning I met my 14 other classmates, the instructors, a helmet with my name on it, and the cars. Every single person there could hardly contain their excitement. Here the senior instructor, Walt, goes through the car with all of the students. To even be elibible to be an instructor at Skip Barber Racing School you must have or have had a successful racing career. Walt was sponsored by factory Mazda for several years and won their first championship in an RX-7 race car. We each shared a car with another student. Here I am in my car, the fast and furious #2. My partner Jeff and I liked the yellow nose cone as the rest of the pack would know it's us about to pass them. Unfortunately my sneakers were too wide to work the pedals properly and I had to buy racing shoes. Even worse blue was the only option in my size. Let's just say I won't be wearing these out to the clubs.  Here is an example of our breaking exercise. They wanted us to come down the straight at 70mph or so and lock up the breaks. Then they wanted us to do it again and pull back just before lock up. It's called threshold breaking and they would call you a wuss if you didn't break hard enough. Breaking harder and later than the others is a significant factor in winning races. In addition they had us spin the cars on purpose and lose control so we would see what it was like. Then they taught us h to control spins and even use a slide to help you go faster through a turn.
We also had to double clutch when we shifted as these cars didn't have synchros to help the transmission match the wheel and engine speed. This was tough to learn. I ended up getting some inside information from one of the pros and I didn't use the clutch at all during the racing. I found out that if you work the gas properly you can shift smoothly and more efficiently without a clutch. I was able to get a hang of this and only used the clutch to start and stop.
My favorite quote from the instructors, "Drive 'em like you stole 'em."   Here is one of the two women who were in the class. This is actually my partner's girlfriend Hillary. As you can see she didn't hold back at all. She literally drove with no fear. An early morning start with the fog still hovering over the track and the fields. The instructors have a great technique for discipline. The wild man in our group, Jerry, failed to pit on a checkered flag. When he came back around the instructors duct taped a cone to his head and made him take a lap. The best thing about the Skip Barber schools is that they very quickly get you to the point where you can go full out. On our third day they actually had us simulate real pace car starts. Here is a shot of the group coming off a green flag start, trying to pass each other, and heading into a sharp right turn.
They also let us full on race in the afternoon with some restrictions on passing. Passing is the most dangerous part of the race in open wheel cars. If the wheels touch you will be flipped up side down.  A picture of our whole group! Every single person there had a blast. Three days is a lot of racing. We would go out to dinner every night then go back to our respective hotels to crash. Running on adrenaline all day is exhausting.
Unfortunately I won't be able to show you the best part. For the final afternoon of racing they had special video cameras attached to the top of our roll bars. I was the second fastest car in the group and my video has lots of footage of me passing cars. It was so much fun that once I passed all the cars in front if me and was alone, I would intentionally pit and wait for traffic then go out and attack them. I've got footage of me chasing down two cars and passing them both at the same time down the straight. I've also got footage of me spinning out at about 80mph as a result of me experimenting and breaking too late off the main straight while trying to catch the fastest guy in the group.
The senior instructor Walt pulled me aside and suggested I get into some amature races. He said I wasn't making many mistakes and with practice I could win some races. Unfortunately hobbie racing done properly costs about $40k per year (and that's not even owning your own car). It's fun to think about, but, I've got other goals for the moment.
This is one of the best things I've ever done!!!!! (gee, how many times have I said that on this trip?) |
