Let's hear you stories about the Summit school

Jeez, its been three days since the WDCR School at Summit Point and not one story.

I guess that I will start. It was a very low subsciption school, 52 cars registered and 49 actually showed. For the first time I instructed in the Group 3 (ITA, ITS, HP,GP, FP, EP, AS,GT,SPO,SPU and what ever else did not fit anywhere else). It was a lot of fun, the group chief kept everyone entertained with inane banter and the students kept the instructors entertained with the on-track antics.

I had a student with an ITA RX7, he had never driven his car before the school and had never driven Summit Point. He did have a very positive attitude and wanted to learn. We spent most of Saturday learning the racing line around Summit Point and how to be predictable. Sunday brought more work on the line with lots of attention on the "what if" scenarios that occur in wheel to wheel racing. When I made the grid for the five lap race at the end of the school it was for maximum instructor entertainment with the slow guys up front and the fast guys at the back. Needless to say there was a lot of passing. Because the EP Elva broke an axle in the last session my student was on the pole for the first of the practice starts.

All in all it was a blast. I had a huge amount of fun, and cannot wait for the Spring school.

cheers
"dangerous" dave (Chris Fox called me this all weekend, though I am not sure why) :D parker
wdcr ITC#97

Dave from the students point of view I can say the school can be somewhat intense. I did have a great time though. I spent most of Friday afternoon taking care of the last remaining issues I had with the car and got it up to the track. The chalk talk was great but the cold weather was not that great.

Saturday was just that, me learning to push the racing line even harder then I ever have at SP and to learn to trust the car and its handling abilities on the edge. Turn by turn I started to peg it and pick up momentum which once I found it felt great!!!! But I have to say Saturday wears down the student very quickly. From track to debriefing and back to the track I admit that come my last Saturday session I was mentally fatigued beyong belief and was happy when the day was over.

Sunday was great, the weather improved somewhat even if it was cold and I have to say I really felt comfortable from that point on. I spent most of Saturday out on my own and not in a lot of traffic and it showed on Sunday's sessions as was gridding later to keep traffic around me. I learned learned a whole lot in that traffic and trying to pass equal cars.

The 5 lap race and everything I learned about the start from my instructor paid off in the end. I took advantage of every mistake and 2 car wide hole people made and by the final start I found myself in 4th place with 7 spec miatas in the group and only one in the 2nd place location.

I cannot thank my instructor Bill Radford enough for everything he pointed out. It hink the only other advice I could have used was shift points for my car. But with Bill racing a 2002 he really had no idea what gear I should have been in and where. I experimented a little but not enough as I was already busy enough keeping focus.

Actually duking it out with SM's all the way down through the carausel was fun (yes I know that wont happen again.)

All in all I watched the little bit of video I have from in car and I know where I can improve my speeds and possibly change my shift points. I cannot wait for March for my second school!!! By then I should have also figured out why the car was not turning in like it was in the first day. I have either something very loose in the rear of the car or a soft shock in the rear. But the car made it through unharmed and winter maintinence will take care of the remaining handling issues.

So there is my story....

Hi Guys. I've got a good story for you about the school. I hadn't been to one in I don't know how long (family, mostly) but I'd forgotten how much fun they can be.
I went up on Sat to give Doug Kinser a hand at his 2nd school since he was one of the guys lying under my car when I had a trans problem a couple years ago (Peter Doane and Jerry Condon were the others, if you can imagine them fitting under there) and I'd promised to help him out when he decided to go racing. Doug had driven with me to his house in Hershey, PA for a flywheel and then helped put the thing in the next morning, so I owed him BIG TIME. He brought one of Brian Duka's ITA MR2s to the school. Turns out he's quite the racer.
I took my camcorder along and did a documentary style shoot of the day when we weren't working on the car. First session went fine. 2nd session not so good. The belt was loose due to the alternator being loose, so it overheated going into turn 1. He wisely nursed it around to the pull off at three and luckily didn't blow it up. It was an easy fix and we had him ready to go by the next session (hey, it's a Toyota). Anyway, I shot him in turn 3 and in the carousel and he was very smooth and consistent, turning 35s and 36s. He was also very heads up about traffic and flags. In the afternoon session I shot him in 10, again looking good. Unfortunately, he lost 4th gear during that session and was understandably very frustrated. We fooled around with the cables and linkage, but couldn't determine the problem. He was ready to go to Hershey, PA to get another trans, but I explained that it's a school, not a race weekend, and he needed to focus on getting signed off. The car was fine except for 4th gear, and it's geared lower that my MR2. I gave him a little pep talk on the grid and I told him to just go out there and work around it. He went out there in the last session and turned 4 33s in a row!
I couldn't make it up on Sunday, but Doug got the driver award in GT, which was the group he was running in, for some reason. I sent him a DVD of the tape and teased him that he needs to have more respect for his elders. I mean it's taken me 10 years to get down to the 33's, and that's on a good day, all planets properly lined up! I gave him all my set up info. WHAT WAS I THINKING???
Looks like we'll have another MR2 and some serious competition next year. I'll have to pick it up a bit, but the older I get...
The "Not A Quitter" Award went to Dave Fitzgerald in an ITB BMW 2002. He lost it in the chute and rolled it on Saturday. He was OK. The car, not so good, but drivable. He hung in there and got well into Sunday until it quit on him and he had to retire. But he hung in there. I like that.
AJ

Yes Dave very much deserved the Perceverance award for his weekend. After loosing it in the chute and having a slow roll the crew got his car back on track with only missing one session. Unfortunatly the roll cracked his radiator and he had to pull off early. Luckilly he brought a spare and they had that in. Sunday morning he was out and catching me quite quickly and then dissapeared. It turned out the radiator cap was causing him to overheat.

I never saw him in the next session but he said it went well and I was happy for him. At that point he was just trying to turn laps, work on the line and regain confidence in the car. The following session we went out and he was in grid behind me. Being on toyos I didnt charge out to the first turn like he and he got infront of me. At that point I figured it was game on down the chute and we started out battle. 2 laps later he started to missfire in the carusel and I was still battling to get past him. By turn 10 he had no power :( and I went by him.

The crew tried everything they could to get spark back into the car but he had to miss the 5 lap race and he had pole for the first practice start and was much faster then the laptimes they used to determine position.

I know he has a lot of work ahead of him this winter to get the car good and ready for March, but I hope to help him as much as I can and see him in March paddocked next to me.

I can tell this is an addiction for me, I swore I had multiple dreams of being in the car last night.

Talk about a BUSY weekend!! I was there to support 2 cars - James's Golf AND Dave's 2002. I'd had a fairly minor hand in both cars - helping James with motor mounts several months ago and helping Dave shake down any car issues at MARRS 10.

All looked good until the 2nd session on Saturday when Dave lost it coming down the chute - it looked like the rear got loose, he overcorrected and the car shot backwards into the grass, hitting the tirewall just before it terminated. The car then did a very slow rollover and came to rest on its wheels. The LR was crunched fairly badly but the rest of the car wasn't really that bad, all things considered. Back in the paddock, Tech allowed us to remove the decklid, tape in the windscreen (the top left corner had come loose during the rollover) and we pulled the rear quarter as straight as possible and beat the quarter panel so that the fender lip didn't interfere with the tire.

Once Dave got the car back on track, it became evident that the radiator had taken a shot during the roll which shortened his session. B/c of the time required to change the radiator, we opted to try and repair the radiator for his last session and change the radiator later. Unfortunately the repair failed and Dave had ANOTHER short session :angry:

OTOH, James' car ran relatively well - he experienced a few issues with the car pulling to one side or another during deceleration and braking. The car also had a rather large oil leak that we eventually traced to the dipstick - apparently the car has some sort of a windage tray which keeps the dipstick from fully seating. As a result, the crankcase was overfull AND the opening for the dipstick was a convenient crankcase vent!! Since that wasn't an easy fix, we opted to create a "gasket" of racers tape and tape the whole assembly shut. Voila, no more oil all over the engine compartment :happy204: By the end of the weekend, James' car was starting to pull significantly when he depressed the clutch and the car would skate a bit during turn-in before it settled. He was able to work around the issues given the amount of time to diagnose and remedy the issues.

The best session of the day was on Sunday when James and Dave were going at it - Dave in front and James chasing. Unfortunately it was during that session that Dave's car decided to cease providing electricity to the ignition system. We were unable to locate the source of the problem and Dave was forced to sit out the practice starts and the 5-lap race :bash_1_:

The races themselves were more than amusing - James did quite well in traffic and looked very confident. He shut the door on one car in turn one that was clearly BEHIND him - very predictable and definitive :figo: As AJ mentioned, Doug also did an awesome job in the group 3 (Big Snore) race. Even without 4th gear, he managed to stay in the fight, looking confident and predictable unlike some of the other cars who would rocket past the field in the braking zone for turn 1, only to aim towards the worker on the access road in a bid to avoid the infamous gravel traps.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the participants, especially Dave for perservering thru adversity (see, the car doesn't have to look good in order for you to drive it fast - in fact, the uglier the car, the wider the berth you are provided). James and Doug - awesome driving in the races. I look forward to racing with y'all in '06. :OLA:

Okay- here's my story. I got lucky enough to pull a great instructor- Dave to be exact. I had a freshly built racecar (ITA RX7) with no tracktime, which happened to exactly match my own on track experience. To complicate matters I was in one of the slowest car in my group so I was in almost everyone else's way. Dave did a great job pounding the line into me while getting my confidence level up. I had a great weekend- felt safe the entire time (yea I know I was still not going fast enough) and really learned the importance of the line. I know it must have have been frustrating for the faster cars having to lap me so much.

As for the first practice start Dave told me they set up the grid for maximum instructor entertainment- I know that is not the actual motivation but it is a good byproduct. Through the tire smoke and sliding cars I could not tell if there was enough track left in turn one for me to drive around the outside of...I chickened out and drove off into the greass instead of risking my car getting crunched between two AS cars- one ahead that had lost it, and the other was inside of me with the left front wheel locked and sliding. Dave- was there enough room? Next time I hope Dave lets me take the inside line like I wanted :)

I am really looking forward to the next school. I hope to put it all together and drop my lap times a lot.

Kevin Bailey
#36 ITA RX7

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Originally posted by kbailey@Nov 6 2005, 10:38 PM
Okay- here's my story. I got lucky enough to pull a great instructor- Dave to be exact.

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Fortunately you have all winter to unlearn everything that Dave "taught" you ;) I'm sure he didn't tell you the other fact about ITA RX7s - the fact that they make AWESOME brake pads for VWs :D

I don't care for ITA grouped with Big Snore b/c even if you have a fast ITA car, you're still spending half your time looking in the mirrors as the GT1s "sneak up on you" in a blink.

Congrats on your first school!!

Kevin
Thanks for the thumbs up. Please remember to refer to me by my "proper" name which is "dangerous" dave. :023:

You had a good first school, I am sure that the second school will be even better.


Matthew,
I am positive that the first thing Kevin will ask for in his second school is a better instructor. :P

cheers
"dangerous" dave parker
wdcr ITC->HP #97

My story was that I got to be in the car when my student ran his fastest laps of the weekend.. He was handicaped with an ITB Volvo that just had no go and was having difficulty learning the track (had never run Summit before) so I borrowed a street Miata from a friend for the instructor ride-arounds. I think his best time during ride arounds on crappy street rubber on Sunday afternoon was probably about 5 seconds better than he did in the Volvo! But we got him on line.. Now the scary thing is that I'm thinking of buying a Miata for a track car.. Wouldn't have borrowed the damned thing if I had known that was gonna happen! They're great little cars.. When you turn the wheel, the car just turns.. You don't have to take up the slack in the steering as you anticipate turn-in like in an RX-7..