Canadian GA fun

[Kieran Lavin]

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 20:26:48 -0400, Frank Ewald wrote

> It hasn't started snowing yet, but my season is over. I enjoyed  

Our season isn't quite over yet but i've had a lot of fun this year and both 
learned a lot about my car as well as instructing others. 

I started the season in March with NASA's instructor training clinic.  They 
cancelled the first event due to snow!  Luckily for me because I wasn't going 
to be able to attend the first date on Friday because of work.  They changed 
the date to Sunday and I went up with Ray and Mark Schoenholz.  It was a 
training clinic where they just taught and made sure you were fit to 
instruct.  Unfortunately my car wasn't fit for track use and failed tech.  I 
forgot about the loose battery tray.  Last fall I had an alternator fail and 
in pulling the battery (it killed the battery) I stripped one of the battery 
tie-down bolts :(  Fortunately Ray let me borrow his Maxima for the training 
day and we loaded all of the stuff from his car into mine.

On May 3 we did an event at Pocono which was really foggy.  They didn't allow 
any cars on track until the fog let up nearly around noon.  It was a pretty 
fun day and I got to instruct a kid in an Integra.  He got faster and faster 
as the day went by.  I got a chance to take my FX out on track to see how it 
was.  There was a guy there in a Cadillac CTS-V who was a Navy pilot.  I hope 
he is better in the air than on the track.  He had a horrible line and just 
didn't know how to drive.  I instructed another guy for one session who 
reminded me a little of Borat.  The guy was eastern European with broken 
English and he was telling me how he wanted to do a bunch of more events with 
this group in preparation for racing.  He really wanted to and thought he had 
the talent to become a race car driver!  He told me about how he used to be a 
high level race car driver in his native country.  He was there in his wife's 
Toyota Avalon.  Unfortunately the kid I was instructing in the Integra blew 
his engine in the last session.  He was the fastest car out on track.  We 
were on pocono's east course and he was just entering the straightaway and 
went to shift into the next gear and the engine just blew.  He coasted to the 
end of the straight and that was it.  I laughed when I saw that he had a 2-
wheel dolly on the back of his Mom's minivan but that turned out to be a life-
saver no matter how cheesy it seemed!

On June 1 we had an event at Pocono North.  I invited a friend with an FX35 
to come up.  He came up and ran and had a blast.  I ran my SE-R for the first 
time of the year.  So I took the SE-R out and the suspension is definitely 
shot and the tires are like 5 year old azenis's.  The engine does this stupid 
oil temp overheating and the oil pressure drops but the car still runs real 
strong.  It was embarassing to go out in the instructor group because of my 
car.  All of the other instructors have these really fast cars.  Although I 
have comparable or maybe even more experience in some cases, putting a Z06 up 
against my car even with no oil issues and perfect suspension and race rubber 
and it would still not be a fair fight.  My final session on track I went out 
in front of Ray to just play around a bit.  He was bedding new brakes so he 
wasn't trying to get past me (his nx has a VE, his suspension isn't blown, 
and he has race rubber).  We did about 4 laps when my car got a horrible 
vibration on my driver side front.  I immediately thought of the axle that 
Ray brought over to my house the prior week.  It felt and sounded like it 
might be the axle and it was BAD!  I immediately slowed and almost went 
straight off the track because of the vibration.  I limped the car back to 
the pit and a friend suggested it might be my lugnuts.  I seriously doubted 
it because I've had that happen before but checked anyway and, sure enough, 
that's what it was.  This car just keeps taking a beating and keeps coming 
back for more.  What a stout car still running strong with 230k plus miles 
and several track days!  I instructed a guy with a 1999 Mustang SVT with all 
kinds of modifications pushing a claimed 850WHP.  The thing was sick.  He was 
easily keeping up with a brand new Porsche twin turbo and a Ford GT.  Every 
time entering the straight if he gave it more than 1/4 throttle the car would 
go sideways!

Our next event was PDA's Grand Slam weekend at Pocono July 18-20.  On 
Thursday night after work Ray and I went up to drop off our cars and his 
trailer and claim a garage spot.  Afterward we went out to dinner with a 
bunch of the other PDA folks.  Some of them left the restaurant a bit early 
and called back to report a Nissan GTR in the parking lot of a local hotel.  
Ray and I stopped on our way home in hopes that the car was being tracked for 
the weekend.  We saw the owners and they were doing a magazine article and 
were going to an abandoned airstrip the following day for 1/4 mile times... 
boring!  We tried to convince them to come to Pocono the next day but they 
declined saying their schedule was full.  It was a gorgeous red car and it 
had just rained so the water was all beeded up.  I hate red cars but this was 
one fine looking car in red!

On Friday they run all three infields so it is an incredibly busy day between 
instructing and driving.  I think I took my own car out for 1 session and 
that was all of the energy I had.  I started the day instructing a guy with a 
mid 90s Mustang.  After the first session another guy asked if I'd instruct 
his son since he just couldn't do it and it really wasn't a good idea 
anyway.  So I hopped in with his son and he hopped in with my Mustang 
student.  We came back in to find his father already there.  Turns out the 
Mustang had some issues.  It wound up being his fuel filter but he was having 
all kinds of issues that no one could properly diagnose at the track.  The 
explanation at the time seemed to be that the liner in his fuel cell had 
disintegrated and was clogging his fuel filter and/or screwing up his fuel 
pump.  The guy wound up being done after the 1st session.  I took a friend's 
student in a Porsche Targa 4.  Fun car and a real cool guy - totally not what 
you'd expect in a Porsche.

Saturday they do the double infield.  I was thrown in with a guy in a fairly 
new STi.  What a fun car!  No matter what this guy did, the car corrected 
with it's VDC and AWD.  It was a very forgiving car.  He was there the 
previous day and was really learning a lot and, more importantly, having 
fun.  By the end of the day he was probably one of the faster cars in his 
group despite having power disadvantages to some other cars.  I took my car 
out a few times and it is such a huge HP track that it was almost 
depressing.  I was "only" reaching 110MPH where I know I used to be able to 
hit 120 or so back a few years ago.  I still had some fun harassing 
other "faster" cars at times.

Sunday we wound up cancelling.  A week or two prior something else came up 
and Ray pointed out that we would also be there on Monday for a Miata club 
event so a day off might be a good thing... boy was he right!  It was a good 
time for some much needed rest and relaxation.  We recharged for Monday's 
event.

Monday we ran with the Miata club.  Many of the SE-R guys around here have 
already run with the Miata guys but this was my first time.  Although not 
nearly on the same scale as PDA, it was still a fairly well run event.  I 
instructed a Miata and an S2000.  The guy in the Miata was a pretty decent 
driver and had done this before.  By the 3rd session I signed him off to 
drive on his own as he was doing excellent.  It was the first event for the 
guy in the S2000.  He definitely improved over the course of the day.  The 
car was a good bit of fun as well just riding in it.  The SE-R really shined 
against the Miatas ;)  However, again in the instructor group there were some 
incredibly fast cars.  Race-prepped Mustangs and corvettes and turbo'd 
Miatas.  It just wasn't fair for my poor SE-R!

August 5th PDA was doing an event at the brand new NJ Motorsports Park 
Thunderbolt Raceway.  I had planned on being at the Jersey Shore the prior 
weekend so I just took an extra day off on Monday and did the event on 
Tuesday.  But driving down to the shore presented me with a bit of a 
quandry.  To take the FX and be comfortable on the way to the shore, while at 
the shore, on the way to the track, and on the way home from the track but 
sacrifice a fun car to drive on the track... or do I sacrifice all of the 
comfort for a fun ride on the track.  See the SE-R has no A/C and the rear 
defroster doesn't work and it has Falken Azenis on so it is no fun in the 
rain.  With luggage and two dogs with me on the way back from the track (I 
met my wife halfway to collect the luggage/dogs) the SE-R wouldn't be fun if 
it rained.  With my decision, I decided to flip a coin.  It came up SE-R.  I 
checked the weather forecast before leaving for the shore Saturday morning 
and there was no rain forecast through Tuesday evening so I should be good.  
I suffered through a LITTLE bit of rain Saturday morning on the way to the 
shore but that was it.  The track itself was very interesting.  All of the 
instructors were learning the track at the same time as the students.  We 
were having our own discussions (and arguments) about how to take certain 
turns.  I instructed a guy in a Miata and another guy in a Camaro.  Both were 
decent drivers and both improved over the course of the day.  Halfway through 
the day my student and I came onto the front straight to black and yellow 
flags.  We started heading for the pit but there was a wrecked car blocking 
the pit entrance.  A corvette had spun and hit the wall hard and was badly 
smushed.  At the end of the day however I first witnessed mental fatigue.  
Both students in back-to-back sessions were just driving stupidly.  They were 
both just plain worn out.  One of them I actually told him to pull off and 
told him that he was done for the day.  They were both totally pushing the 
car beyond it's means.  In the end it was a fun day at a new and exciting 
track.

August 23/24 PDA ran the south course.  I usually hate doing Sunday events 
because I like to relax before going back to work on Mondays and I just much 
prefer Saturday events.  Living closer to Pocono makes that easier and I was 
taking the next two weeks off anyway for vacation.  Saturday I went out with 
the same student from the Grand Slam weekend in his STi just to make sure he 
wasn't doing anything stupid.  He was fine and I signed him off to drive on 
his own.  In the beginner group, I was instructing an older guy with a BMW 
135.  What a fun car that was!  He started off as a pretty bad driver.  He 
wasn't really listening to me and was only picking up a corner or two at a 
time and throwing the previous corner that we had worked on out the window.  
By his fourth session though he was much better and understanding what he 
needed to be doing with the car even if he wasn't able to actually do it.  At 
the end of the day both the 135 student and the STi student asked if I'd like 
to drive their cars.  I took them both up on it and was amazed at both cars.  
The STi with stock everything was just amazing.  How confident you are 
driving the car and how forgiving the car is were just amazing.  As for the 
135 I was amazed at how fast that little car was.  I was totally not 
expecting it to accelerate like that even after having ridden in it all day!  
And the power was so linear... I was shocked.  What a fun little car that was.

On Sunday I passed off the 135 to another instructor since more instructors 
is usually better for varied opinions.  I saw him later in the day harassing 
Corvettes!  My beginner student was a Mazda 3.  The guy was just "into cars" 
and his girlfriend had given him a gift certificate to do the event as a 
birthday present... how cool is that!?!  He was a very down-to-earth kid.  He 
wasn't really there to be the fastest or the best driver.  He definitely 
improved over the course of the day.  My favorite moment was at one point on 
the banking when I was trying to explain to him where to brake and where to 
turn and, in the middle of me talking, he interrupts with "oooh a butterfly" 
as one passes across the windshield in front of us.  I nearly pissed my pants.

Our next event was back at Pocono on the north course this time.  It was 
another Saturday/Sunday (9/6 & 9/7) at Pocono's North course.  On Saturday a 
different FX friend was going to do the event.  Unfortunately as the event 
drew near the forecast got worse and worse.  On Friday evening they were 
calling for a hurricane coming up the coast to start dumping rain overnight 
and continuing through the day on Saturday.  When we got up Saturday morning 
it was overcast but no rain.  It looked like the forecasters had botched 
another one.  We each got in one session (I instructed my friend in the FX 
but wound up skipping my first session for other reasons) and then it started 
raining.  It rained hard most of the day.  There were only 15 cars there 
total.  Once the rain started, I was anxious to take my car out.  With the 
blown suspension and lack of any serious power, my car was now one of the 
better ones out there.  After lunch they allowed almost open track with 
everyone except the 4 beginners on track at the same time.  From what others 
were telling me, there was only an STi and an EVO that were faster than me... 
duh, AWD and more power.  They finally called it a day around 2 or 3 when 
there was 8" of standing water in some places.

Sunday was a much nicer day.  Since they called the event on Saturday, my 
friend with the FX requested to get another session in the morning.  PDA 
agreed and he stayed at my house Saturday night.  I caught a ride to the 
track with him Sunday morning and as we pulled in, I saw the back end of what 
I thought might be a GTR pulling into the tech line.  I saw Ray glued to the 
car so that confirmed that it was a GTR.  The GTR was in a more advanced 
group (3 out of 5) so he didn't require an instructor.  His first session 
out, Ray and I hopped in Ray's NX for some on-track fun.  On the banking, it 
was like Ray's NX was in reverse.  However, on the infield the GTR driver had 
a horrible line and Ray was able to reel him in!  The next session out Ray 
asked to ride with the owner and, when he started giving pointers, the owner 
asked if Ray wanted to drive... of course he did!

Our next event was at Watkins Glen on October 3-5.  Ray was going up to do an 
open track day on Friday as well as a friend (Cody) with his S14 with a DET.  
Since Cody isn't experienced enough to really be running in the open track, I 
offered to ride along to make sure he was ok.  Again it came down to a coin 
flip for which car to bring.  It came up FX this time.  A week later I still 
kind of wanted to bring the SE-R so I flipped again and it came up FX.  Ray 
made a valid argument that I probably should just leave the FX behind and 
ride up with him in his truck so I did.

Friday morning started off damp.  Halfway to lunch it started pouring.  Ray 
and Cody were the only cars on track for about an hour before lunch.  All 
morning I spent helping Cody learn the line and be smooth.  Right around 
lunchtime the rain let up and the sun actually came out.  The afternoon was 
spent getting faster and faster and applying what I helped Cody with in the 
morning.  There were a LOT more cars in the PM session.  Cody and I started 
looking at the speedometer and he was pegging the speedo on the back straight 
at an estimated 140-150.  I took out my camera phone in a true "don't try 
this at home" move and tried to get a picture so I could send it to Cody for 
shits and giggles.  As I was trying to take a picture the next lap around, we 
got passed by a Porsche cup car who had to have been going 170-180!!!  And 
yes, that's in MPH not KPH.  

Now we knew that the same GTR from Pocono's north course was going to be 
there on Sunday but what we didn't expect was another GTR showing up for 
Saturday!  There was a white one there running in the blue group.  In the 
beginner group I was assigned to instruct a kid in an older STi.  The first 
session out my communicator didn't seem to be working so I struggled with 
telling him where to turn, where to brake, and what he should be doing with 
the car.  Before going out he told me that he races bikes and he's crashed 
three times.  I thought to myself "I guess you don't learn from your mistakes 
then, huh?!"  Well, in an earlier session a guy in a Mini Cooper completely 
blanked out and went off the track and hit a wall at 90MPH.  That kind of 
freaked me out when this guy that I was instructing didn't want to hit the 
brakes and listen to me in the same turn!  Eventually I got through to him at 
the end of the session when I was able to tell him "told you so!"  His next 
three sessions were much less scary.  He was pretty fast and he had 
comparable modifications to another STi there which he was trying to keep up 
with.  The other car obviously had a better driver but my student kept TRYING 
to keep up.  Once the other car was out of sight, my student calmed down and 
drove much better.  The final session of the day I swapped with the 
instructor in the other STi who told me that it was a fun ride.  Both 
students were fairly ok to drive on their own so we swapped.  The kid I rode 
with was incredibly fast.  Sometimes PDA will put a student in the beginner 
group just because they've never been to a particular track although they 
have experience.  I figured that was the case with this kid because he had 
all of the principles down and knew how to drive.  It being the fourth 
session I figured he now had time to learn the track and he was really 
applying what he knew about driving cars.  I asked if it was just because 
he'd never run this track.  He replied that he'd never driven on a track 
period... first time EVER!  I guess he could tell how shocked I was by the 
complete silence so he explained that he plays video games a lot and he's 
pretty good at them.  I was even more shocked!  The final session of the day 
I asked the GTR driver if I could catch a ride with him.  He agreed but he 
was the first car out in the run group and I was in the last car coming off 
the track in the group ahead of him so we didn't meet up :(

Sunday we got to the track really late for reasons that I'll defer to Ray to 
explain.... but I wasn't assigned a beginner student.  I stood at pit out as 
they all pulled through and no one needed an instructor.  In the white group 
however, Ray had agreed to instruct another guy that was there with the white 
GTR owner.  As it turns out the GTR owner is the owner of a Nissan dealer on 
Long Island who also owns a performance shop.  The manager of the performance 
shop was there with his Acura Integra along with the owner of the 
shop/dealership in his GTR and his son in his red Lotus... all hauled in a 
toterhome and huge-ass trailer (we called it the mother ship)  Since I didn't 
have anyone in the green (very beginner) I took Ray's student in white.  He 
was ok to be driving on his own but it had been several years since he'd done 
an event and he didn't know the track.  It was more of a ride-along with some 
pointers than instructing.  The second session out of the day I was able to 
get in the GTR.  He didn't want to use the communicator so I just went for 
the ride.  What a ride it was!  I posted previously but the thing was just 
incredible.  The linear acceleration and the way it really pushed my head 
back into the headrest was incredible.  At one point my ears popped as he 
braked for the bus stop on the back straight down from about 147 to 80 or 
90.  I thought it was a fluke.  The next lap around it happened again.  And 
again the next lap... and again and again.  The g's were too much for my ears 
I guess and they kept popping!  Unfortunately for the Integra owner, his 
radiator busted after the second session.

The next event I did was 10/10 at the SE-R national convention in Las Vegas.  
Between Ray, my wife, and I we had two rental cars reserved.  A Volvo S80 for 
my wife to drive on the track (and for us for the rest of the weekend) and a 
G35/37 for Ray and I just for the track day.  When we checked in upon 
arrival, we wound up getting an M35 for the weekend cruiser.  The following 
night Ray and I went back to pick up the 1-day rental and tried upgrading to 
a vette or something else.  They only had a convertible vette which we 
weren't really sure of the track rules so we didn't want to chance it.  They 
tried "upgrading" us to a Navigator or an Escalade.  How do you politely turn 
that down?  In any case, we wound up with a G35 sedan.

Ray went out in the first (advanced) group and I figured I should go out and 
see the track if I was going to instruct so I took the G out in the 
intermediate group.  I hadn't even really seen a track map and they wanted to 
send me out first!  I asked if anyone behind me had ever been on the track so 
I could at least follow them.  Nope.  So I went out with an M5 on my tail.  
The first lap we both felt out the track.  The 2nd through the 5th laps I 
started to pull away from him.  All the while not having anyone in front of 
me to see the track as a follower or have any references on the track to be 
looking for.  Around the 5th lap he caught me and I let him by.  A lap or two 
later Kojima caught me in the dog car and I let him by.  The M5 slowed to let 
Kojima by and I caught back up to him.  Having followed him for a lap and 
Kojima for a lap or so, I now had a better understanding of the track and was 
able to stay with the M5 and be poised to pass.  He let me by a half lap 
later and I pulled away from him by the end of the session.  By the end of 
that session the brakes on the G were already "warped"

My wife went out in the M for 3 sessions and she had a blast.  By the 
afternoon there were few cars on track and a bunch (including rentals) had 
broken and were done for the day so we decided to open the track up; well, 
actually I decided that.  Our G was pretty much done.  Ray had spun it, I had 
spun it, and the brakes were just gone.  I was mentally and physically 
drained anyway so I wasn't going to be driving any car.  Then I took a 10 
minute nap and caught a second wind.  I also realized that we had prepaid for 
a full tank of gas in the G so we couldn't bring it back empty.  I checked 
and it had half tank.  I grabbed Wes Dumalski and we were off to have some 
more fun in the rental car.  We did several laps before I spun at turn 1.  
Funny thing is though that I kept it completely on the track... well, I 
dropped one wheel.  So we opted not to go back in and kept going.  I had a 
nice controlled drift going later before the ass end came around a little too 
much and I went sideways.  We did several more laps before I completely spun 
it again in turn 1.  This time I went way off the track as the two of us were 
giggling the whole way.  I told Wes that we were done (the gas light was on 
at this point anyway) and we pulled into the hot pit.  The guy at pit out was 
motioning for me to come over and I gave him the signal that we were done but 
he still motioned for me to go over.  I figured he wanted to yell at me.  
Nope, he checked the car and said we were good to go for more fun.  I told 
him I was done.  He told me to go out for more.  So Wes and I decided to go 
do a parade lap.

We still have two more events before our season is over.  We'll be at 
Monticello Motor Club on Friday October 24 and NJ Motorsports Park on 
Saturday/Sunday November 6 & 7.  

kieran