How to bite off more than you can chew

[pballance]

Thanks for all the support and comments. I was really surprised at myself and what happened. I would like to think I could have "putted" around the track and completed the school. My frame of mind at the time wouldn't even let me do that. Oh well, plenty of time to get things done.

FWIW, I have a track day scheduled at TGPR March 23. It is part of the Znationals and I couldn't pass up the price of $99.00 Hopefully that day will allow me to gain more confidence in the car. I also plan on doing some SEDIV time trials later this year. While I would like to think I already have the skills, the track day and TT should help me along as well.

Thanks again and while it was a hard decision for me to walk away it was the best decision I could have made at the time. Your support is making me even more comfortable that I made the right decision.

Thanks

Paul

[lateapex911]

Our first responsibilty is to our fellow rac ers, workers, friends and relatives. No matter what we do, we need to have confidence that, to a reasonable degree, we aren't knowingly entering into a situation that can harm others or ourselves. (I'll bust my car and myself up anyday.... before doing the same to someone else, though, given the option)

But, sometimes "doubt" or confidence can be a gray area. Discussing things with others is a good place to start. But when the issue involves the car, the best thing is to be methodical. Do the same thing every lap, changine one item of your driving in a careful way. Brake deeper, carry a bit more speed, etc. Note how the car rects. When you get it in the pits, first thing, grab your notebook, and write everything up. First, what is the car doing? Where? How? Then write down YOUR thoughts on YOUR performance. The good, the bad and the why's.

It's easy to overlook things, and writing them down helps bring sometimes overlooked things to the surface. Also, trends develop....Show the notes to your friends with more experience. You never know, they might just say..."Hey, look, your starting pressures are way too high...thats why all your notes say that you and the car are getting "nervous" later in the session".

And before going out, review the notes again, and make a "to do" list for the next session.

Once you can be comfprtable with doing this sort of self analysis, and the subsequent adjustments, you'll have a much better handle on what is and isn't "normal", and you'll be able to pinpoint it quickly.

And...once the car is settled, you can concentrate on the crazy unpredicatble parts of racing, without being distracted by car and similar issues. Divide and conquer.

[jmark]

Paul,

Here are some more well run HPDE events in the SE. I cut & pasted from their site.

"If you're still planning your 2007 track event calendar, I offer for your consideration the remaining events on the Triangle Z Club / Tarheel Sports Car Club schedule:

April 7th, 8th - VIR North Course HPDE & Time Trial (filling up very fast)
June 15th (Friday) - Roebling Road Lapping & Instructor Clinic
June 16th, 17th - Roebling Road HPDE & Time Trial
August 4th, 5th - Carolina Motorsports Park HPDE & Time Trial
October 6th, 7th - NC Speedway Rockingham HPDE & Time Trial

Registration links for all events, and two more upcoming tech days can be found here: www.tzcthscc.motorsportreg.com

Details on our events and time trial can be found here: www.timetrials.net

Hope to see you out there!! Stacy King"

[abreakey]

I second the Tarheel events (that is my home club). They put on fantastic events with great instruction. Thumbs up. Oh, they also run a Time Trial series each day of any event. Since your car is prepped for ITS, it is ready to go for that. It would be a great way to get some competition and practice going for quick laps without the stress of other cars being around you (non-wheel-to-wheel).

Perhaps I will see you at one of these events this year.

adamb

[pballance]

Thanks for the heads up guys. RR in June sounds like fun but my work schedule has me on the road from the 3rd week of May through the 3rd week of June in Cali, WV, and SC. D&^% work keeps getting in the way of fun.

Adam, I am really sorry I missed you at RR. I saw your car on track and in the paddock but somehow I didn't see you. Maybe at the NT in Huntsville, are you coming?

I am still trying to figure out which events I am going to attend. I am going to try the SEDIV events simply because they are close. NSS, TGPR, RR (well not so close), and maybe CMP. Just have to see what I can fit in.

Thanks again, see you guys soon.

[jake7140]

Great story Paul, and something for us all to remember. I had that feeling once coming back after a year without racing. Just felt "out of synch" after the first practice, couldn't get things clicking, jerky, doubting. What was I doing? Had I lost it? Seriously considered not qualifying, but decided to use it to get some feeling back if I could. Luckily, I was able to focus, and then felt better, things started clicking, and the rest of the weekend went well. Luckily, I had a solid car, so I was pretty sure it wasn't the car, just me.

But had I not gotten that "feeling" back, I would have checked out. Same thing with motorcycles. If you're not confident on a bike, get off now, because confidence is really dangerous on a bike.

And when you're doing a school, you NEED to have a good car and/or helpers to manage mechanicals for you. There's enough other stuff to learn and remember.

I also suggest doing Solo2 (open track), or HPDE days before doing a W2W school, or just to keep practiced. Solo 1 is OK for skills, but braking from 120 and turning with traffic for the first time is mentally quite a bit different. HPDE will let you kind of "ramp up" in a non-competitive way, and let you take a breather when you need to; do a fast lap or two, then scale back and focus on the line, etc., then go at it again, often with an experienced instructor to help you along.

PS: Is your car the yellow/black ITS Z from "papadugan" that was advertised about that time? I'm looking for a Z or 510 now, but not at that time.

[backformore]

Nothing new to add, only to state that I had the same experience with motorcycles. I had gotten out of cars and a friend of mine got me interested in motorcycles, primarily for track days, not racing. I bought a bike, did the school, and did a few track days. Running bikes is cheaper and the performance and the rush is MIND BOGGLING! Like you, however, I wasn't having fun because I could not get comfortable and could not get over the sense of real danger.

Once I had that realization, I put the bike and all my gear up for sale and looked forward to the time when I'd get back in a car.

That would be now and I am looking forward to getting back to wheel to wheel fun.

When you are ready, everyone will be glad to see you back.