NF Performance - Friday Night Track Night - August 23rd 2013

Done deal.

 

Get a job you bum!

 

My job is to schedule your jobs

 

Looking like Philippe is gonna be a few dollars short tonight.

 

SHUT YOUR MOUTH ESSE!

Why did you not schedule me any sleep today?

 

Haha, why is that?

 

Had a great time and it's a great layout, just wish I could of gone all 3 rounds, but coolant hose leaked.

Will definitely come next time, not sure about driving though, maybe just come watch

 

Watching is still fun too! It was pretty cool to finally see cars on a track in person.. Even though its not full out racing.. Still a blast to watch and talk with people!

 

Had a great time today. Thanks to nuke to scheduling it, everyone who worked the course, and the instructors! I learned a ton and had a blast.

It was good to meet some of you guys and say hi to those i haven't talked to in a while. Excited for the next one!

- Henry (swapped old school wagon)

 

No no no
Thanks to Derek and everybody else that helped make this event happen.

 

Ok i retract my thanks to nuke.

 

Cuz your evo don't keep up/

 

First time out with the evo around a track. Car needs tires/brakes/suspension. Power is there though.

Until then, I will be using the miata for these type of events.

 

Needz moar boostz

 

I had a great time last night. I HUGE thanks to all of the volunteers that set up and ran this event. As always a very well organized and run event. It is awesome to have a venue to learn more about your car and yourself in a fun, safe atmosphere. Everyone was safe and in control, which is the key to being able to continue to use DCTC like this.

Thanks again to NF (Derek) for putting this together and allowing us to have a place play!

 

Thanks for helping out again last night man.

Thanks to everyone. The event went well and I had a ton of fun.

 

My favorite car was the silver Yaris, that thing looked like a lot of fun to drive on this track. My favorite moment was when Nuke told us about Ko and how he reacted when he told him he was suppose to weave around the slalom cones for the third time, he face just dropped. I would have loved to see that face.

Thanks for coming out and enjoying a fantastic summer day with the community. I've been soo busy at these events and just can't seem to catch everyone to say HI so please don't be offended.

 

So what did you guys think of the last course layout? I have some idea's up my short sleeves. Want more? How about a Winter School?

 

Winter school in a big empty parking lot would be fun. (I don't know, but maybe Valley Fair would be willing to make a deal) I don't like the run offs at DCTC all that much.
I liked the track layout, highspeed autocross. My personal opinion, more elements can make for a better understanding of car control, weight transfer, etc. It will take away from the rush of flat out, but you can learn as much at slower speeds as with high speeds.
These events are always a blast! Good track layout, bad track layout, it's always good to push a little in a safe, fun atmosphere.

 

Remember all the bad publicity should be towards mr. Derek hehehee

It's always great to hear feedback and we welcome them so please feel free to pm or post them here. We try to come up with something fun, challenging, well balanced yet safe. Too much of something and they drivers get eye crazy from too busy. Not enough elements and then it's too fast. I always liked having a curve ball in there somewhere, the drivers that get it will learn to dance with it and the ones that don't will just have to pull their hair out and that's another good reason to keep your hari short lol

 

I liked what the bmw guys did in city streets on sat. Plus lets go the other way next time

 

I actually instructed Toua in the Yaris and he was the best driver that I instructed all day! Ok, I rode with Steve for a session too and he was doing really well...borderline too well...meaning he might be damn near passing me once my car is back. I got some work to do!

As far as course suggestions:

-I think the "gates" that were used on the concrete are basically just a maneuver to slow people down on the straightaway to the 55mph speed limit. Frankly, I think the gate setup is a bit useless...and after a couple cones are down, it remains a straightaway.
--Alternatively, that extremely grippy concrete makes a great space for a fast and fun salmon or walom (slalom with multiple cones at each turning point). Put some blocker cones on either side of the beginning to stop people from skipping the slalom and utilize it as a great teaching space for a slalom.

-The end of the straightaway by the parking lot can be dangerous as we observed. The quick turns after has different pavement camber throughout the turn and makes the turn challenging at high speeds and challenging for inexperienced drivers. I say either put some gates before that turn or make the turn a full left turn to the other section (instead of a slight left and then a slight right. SCCA PDX events normally use a full left).

-I'd like it if there were more opportunities to practice gear changes because for most cars, if you run that course properly, you would remain in second gear the whole time. I guess the challenge with this idea is that shifting into 3rd means exceeding 55mph in most cars.

-To Glen's point, adding some more gates (within/before/after a turn) in 1 or 2 sections to practice more technical handling (ie like autox) would be beneficial. Steve who is a very experienced and fast driver at PDX events at DCTC rode along with me during at autox at DCTC once and he about poo'ed his pants...even though my top speeds were much, much lower than PDX setups at DCTC.
--Here's a video from one of my autox's that shows how a tight course at DCTC can still be extremely fun and challenging...and may give you some additional ideas.
--Note the extra cone on the exit of the turn at 0:27 in the video to make the exit tighter.
--Also note quick slalom in the straight around 0:36 that still flows well
--Finally, note the additional cones near the apex at 0:59...makes the turn a bit wider.

I'm not saying to make the whole course tight like autox, but maybe one or two sections. Call it the autox section

 

I was just about to say "what the hell"

 

Great input. Now it's starting look like we may have some volunteers to help design as well as setup courses. Got Cha! Plz feel free to submit your entries to us and we'll be happy to review them with you. This will a lot of fun for you to see your ideas put to good use. We want to keep the ideas fresh. I just know that for a lot of the newbies they don't like having a lot of technical sections as they don't workout and their not really looking for a workout. But thats where we could have a phase 1 and phase 2 course layout, first half tight and technical. Then phase two we eleminate some cones to open it up a bit.

We also want to create an opportunity for experienced drivers who are looking to expand their driving by coaching others. I've found so many ways to become a much better and faster driver when I started Instructing others.

 

Winter driving, avoiding obstacles, car control/braking in an event of an accident/skid etc on ice/snow

Only thing I would suggest is lines/tennis balls etc around the course, Just like in the video games, so we can become better and faster around the track. Different color lines/balls to tell us when to brake and accelerate

 

Lol, good idea with the tennis balls, but every car's capability and driver capability are extremely different. That's the reason why the instructors are there though - to help you push into new limits.

Alternatively, I would support putting numbered signs in braking zones before big turns to practice experimenting with braking starting points....