Attended my first Track Night event in the FiST yesterday, and man what a great event IMHO. It began when I walked away from my desk at 2pm on a Thursday, off to a good start! It was 104-degrees when I got there, and humid as the Amazon. Some threatening clouds rolled in and cooled it off a bit, and despite a delay for lightning, it never actually rained.
I ran in the intermediate group, mostly because I have seen true novices and wanted no part of having them slam into me. I had been on the North Track at Pitt Race years ago, but not the Full Course, so I was hesitant. Turned out to be perfect because the event is pretty relaxed and everyone was cool. I have enough experience to stay out of trouble and point people by, so almost no issues.
I say almost because I did get a blue flag, which I dispute because I never held anyone up. I was holding up some faster cars through the twisty bits, but you can only pass on the straights and as soon as we got to one, I gave the point. I got the flag in a non-passing zone before the straight, so IDK. I also missed the checker on the last session due to over-concentrating on not lifting in turn 16. High pucker factor there, I missed the flag, stuff happens.
I also got some friendly help from other racers. On the first session, I got the checker at the start/finish, so had a lap to go before I had to pull off. They never said this was a cool-down lap, so I was ON IT. The (much faster) BRZ in front of me put on their flashers and did not wave me by, a clear message of "hey dummy, the race is over, get off my butt". Message sheepishly received, thanks man!
From my NASA days, I am used to only pointing by on the Left. In a slower car, I usually get off the line a bit so as not to interrupt the passing car's rhythm. A nice Corvette driver pointed out that this is not ideal. Staying on the racing line and passing people by on whichever side is appropriate is the SCCA way and keeps your car predictable as someone is blowing by. Cool, no problem, hope I did it right the rest of the night.
So as a learning experience, it was great. No attitudes or A-holes. Even the officials who had to yell at me for missing the checker were funny and supportive, while still pointing out the safety concerns.
As for the fun factor, I drove my car as fast as I could on the track, what's not to love! I did the self-tech and driver's meeting which was great. I am meticulous when it comes to that stuff, so I had no worries. The FiST was an absolute blast! 2750 pounds brakes much later than I had the stones for, and I could pull up the hills pretty well. She was nice and stable at speed, in the corners, under braking...much goodness in that chassis. I was on Summer Tires, not slicks, but man are modern DOT tires something. For a stock car on street tires, I was very happy with my performance. No idea what a good lap time would be, I was in the 2:20 - 2:21 range by the stopwatch, and that was plenty fast for me.
My DOT-approved street tires, not sticky race compounds. Nod Nod, wink wink.
Oh, and GRM was very well represented with magazines, banners and such.
