Rolled to the track at 7am and what do I see? About 10 big rigs with paddock setups, multiple Formula Renault open wheel racers, Dodge Viper Competition Coupes, NASCAR Stock Cars, and street cars, too.

Got matched up with a student and his co-driver wanting to get signed off to race a BMW 2002 in the Enduro event.

Tracked my M3, too, with transponder to get some lap times. Turned a 1:56 around the 2.25 mile course. Did seven 20-minute sessions, fiddled with shock settings and tire pressures to dial out some oversteer after dialing in -3 deg camber up front.

Two more days of this (Sat and Sun) are gonna be awesome!! :alright

Some pics.

The paddock as I left this afternoon . . .

Paddock Pt 2

My ride

Darren's E46

One of the Viper Competition Coupes. Tom, the owner, raced the previous Viper model before getting this one last month. He wa spending today sorting out some setups for the racing tomorrow and Sunday.

Another shot

Big Diffuser

Detroit Iron

Italian near-classic

Viper GTS Coupe

Originally posted by Phantom
Italian near-classic
That's Tom Cruise's car from Rain Man.

Formula Renault (www.Fran-Am.com) racers put up a grid of 15 cars. 2.0 liter Fours with 180bhp, turning 1:36 laps!!

How did the VUE and Sable fare on the track?

I cant stop looking at the pics of that Viper...

Beautiful classic Z

Hey Phantom,

I will be out there tomorrow morning in my M3. Are the covered pits open on a first come first serve basis, like at PIR?

Thanks,

Z Pt 2

Originally posted by GNALUZU
Hey Phantom,

I will be out there tomorrow morning in my M3. Are the covered pits open on a first come first serve basis, like at PIR?

Thanks,
Yes, First Come, First Serve. I recommend the covered bays on the West side of the paddock. Those on the North side of the paddock get constant sun from the low sun angle during Fall and Winter.



That Z deserves a third pic . . .:buttrock

M Coupe. One of the BMWCCA Club Race contenders. Gonna be plenty of juicy action this weekend!!!!!

Great, thanks for the info. I'll take a look for your car when I get there. I will be in a Carbon Black M3 with an arrogant personalized plate (it is pretty much the only arrogant thing I do, so I went all out). You should be able to figure it out. Stop by and say hello.

Adam

This 928 handled pretty well. We were about evenly matched in the last session. I had about 220lbs of extra ballast, though, in the form of my bud, Ted, who rode his motorcycle out to turn some laps with me.

Adam,

I'll definitely look for ya!


Formula Renault in action . . .

Renault leaving the pit.

The Renaults had practice, qualifying, and a race today. Will do the same for Saturday and Sunday.

The race featured some carnage. First turn collisions, two cars disabled, had to be craned off the track. First lap, more cars came together. The grid did 5 laps under yellow behind the safety car while the track was cleared. After that there was good wheel-to-wheel racing to the finish. 30-minute race. Attrition was kinda high, though. All in all about 6 cars had to be craned out before I went out for my final street car session.

Adam, my name is Kelly. See ya tomorrow!!
---------------------
I worked with 2 additional students. Steve drove all the way out from El Paso in his Lancer Evolution for the weekend.

Sharp car, the yellow one. Carried his track tires/wheels in the back seat/trunk with him and changed them at the track. He's signed up for the Novice Driving School. Has a great attitude. Enjoyed coaching him.

Formula Renault gridding for their practice session . ..

Originally posted by Crazy Dave
I cant stop looking at the pics of that Viper...

I know what ya mean!!! I had to take more than one pic!!!!



Some NASCAR iron . . .

Good Ol' American V-8

The NASCAR guys are a local team, based in Scottsdale. Running in the Winston West division. Rick, one of the drivers, started out just doing trackdays with ASRA, progressed well, then got picked up as a driver for the Triton Realty team just this past season.

He manages a Fletcher Auto Parts/Service and offers tires to ASRA members at cost plus 10%!!!!:eek: :eek:

I'll have more pics from tomorrow/Sunday. Wanna photo some of the other Viper Competition Coupes!!!

Wow, that is a smokin' deal. Which Fletcher Auto Parts/Service does he work at?

Chandler Rd near 48th St, in Ahwatukee.

I was out there a couple weekends ago and watched the fran-am's.. they sound friggen sweet! I need that kinda power to weight ratio!

Hey, I was just saying that to another guy at the track today, how those fran-ams sound so good!:buttrock

Not stupid loud, either!!

They cost about $30 grand. I say we pitch in, do a group buy, and field a team!!

I might be out there for the hpde day coming up. Not sure if my work will need me terribly or not yet though.

Kelly,

Thanks again for all of your instruction, today was a great day at the track. I went over most of my interior with a damp cloth and that picked up most of the dirt.

I noticed on my way home that my brakes don't feel the same as the used to. It almost seems like I can feel some sort of rubbing under hard braking. Do you think that there are deposits on my rotors or something?

Adam,

Again, you did very well!! One of my easiest and most enjoyable students to date. Good job dodging those blowing tumbleweeds!! Leather cleaner followed by leather treatment will have your interior better than new. Takes me about 20 minutes to do mine.

About the braking: that's normal. The rubbing sensation should go away after a day of street driving with normal braking to remove any deposits. (Almost sounds like a doctor's advice)

Track was slicker today with the cooler temps and windy conditions blowing dust over the surface. I turned a 2:00 in the morning, then improved to a 1:59.181

E30 M3. I was just able to edge him in corner speed, about 1/2 second per lap faster. I only had a slight edge accelerating down the straights, too. Impressive car!

This 628i had just come from the shoe store

:D

This was one FASSSSSST 914. Out-accelerated even E46 M3s on the straights, and had awesome corner speed in the turns with it's light weight

Badging might explain the horsepower, and the tread width explains the corner speed!!

Alfa wuz there

About five E46 M3s were in attendance. Here's one . . .

Some vintage cars in the closed-wheel race group. This gentleman drives his car to the races and then competes!!

Closed Wheel Race Group on the Grid

Ford Focus mating ritual

M3 making a statement

Adam's car in the foreground, mine in the background. He did extremely well, had a good attitude, and learned very quickly.

M Coupe business office

Renault Colors

Formula Renault on the grid (20 of them!!)

Renault Grid again

Street Viper

Street Viper Pt 2

Street Viper in your face

Street Viper sunning

Remember him?

Viper rear

Pt 2

White 911

Racing E36

Closer

Because it's functional!

Renault Pitted

Black one driven very well by Adam. The Laguna Seca blue E46 (driver named Darren) and I were very close while lapping. I had superior corner speed and technique, he had superior acceleration.

I nursed my brake pads to make them last one more day, so Darren could hang with me as long as I was easy on my brakes. We had an awesome time lapping together. I turned 4 laps leading him, then gave him the point-by to pass me so I could follow for 4 more laps.

The smile I'm wearing right now will last me all week, and we're back on the track again tomorrow!!!

Also, my new brake pads arrived via UPS today. Thanks MRob and MPact Motorsports!!!!

The red device attached to my grill is a transponder for recording lap times.

Bench racing

:D :D

Talked with the owner for a few minutes and asked about the motor, suspension, etc while clicking more pics . . .

Car started as a 328i. Has had several different motors. Currently has an M3 3.0 motor, race prepped. Aftermarket front air dam for more airflow to the engine compartment. Racing fuel cell. Totally revamped suspension.

Pic of the fuel cell . . .

Yours truly, rounding Turn 15

and the Dakar Yellow M3 spun in front of me after I caught him and pressured on the next lap.

Driver had a big ego, reluctant to give a point-by, overdrove the car in an effort to keep me behind him. Got on the power too early exiting Turn 3, power-on oversteer with his RMS supercharged 280+ hp.

He lifted, the rear swung the other direction, he over-corrected, rear swung back, over-corrected again, and he became a high-speed merry-go-round.

All this happened with him 2 car-lengths ahead of me. At the first indication of his oversteer, rear tires laying down two wide black swaths of rubber, I eased off and watched the show, all the time figuring out which direction his fish-tailing and eventual spin would take him, and which direction I should go to avoid him.

Finally, he came to rest mid-track, and I eased around to the left and continued lapping.

Illustrates some very important points
- leave your ego at home when you go to the track
- speed around the track is determined far more by driver ability than horsepower output
- a trackday is not a race. Not trophies, no cash purse, no lap records. Give the guy behind you a point-by.

Sweet NSX

Another View

Hmmmm, not a stock motor, by any means . . .

Engine compartment

GTS

Racer

and another

Motor Work

Overall, had an outstanding weekend. Nailed down the setup for the Bilstein PSS9 coilovers that I installed earlier

(Front shocks set on "3", rears on "5", cold tire pressures 36psi Front, 34 psi Rear, -3deg front camber, -1 deg rear camber)

Neutral handling, four-wheel drifts were the norm, easily throttle-steered.

I signed my lady friend up for the 20-minute introductory lap session with her Corolla. She had an absolute blast!! As the instructor I led her car and three other cars around the track for 8 laps. The other cars in the group included one E36 M3, one Lotus 7, and a C5 Vette!!!

She held her own, too!! Those tiny tires were squealing all the way around the track!!!

Awesome pics!!!

I saw that silver E36 being trailered around on the 101 last weekend I think it was.

awesome! man, i really wanted to go down and watch (especially those open wheel renaults), but had to fix most of my suspension this weekend becuz of a curb bash the other week :( . found out i tweaked my front subframe.....so i gotta replace that before the 'ol e21 sees the track.

Someone on one of my other message boards asked me for my thoughts on AMP. I thought that I would post them here as well.

AMP is a really nice facility. The track is very open, with plenty of run off room (which is nice since I had an off track excursion).

The course is large, about 2.25 miles with 16 turns. One great thing about it is that there are 4 passing areas. I think that this track is hard on brakes because there are multiple places to hit the triple digits and then have to slow down pretty quickly for the turn.

Obviously with 16 turns there is a learning curve, but overall I enjoyed the track. The majority of the turns are late apexs, so it is pretty safe, just don't get on the gas too soon when coming out of the turn.

Honestly though, I still prefer PIR. It may be shorter, but there is something about taking that banked part of the oval at over 100mph that is just flat out awesome.

I would definitely go back out to AMP again. It is a nice area and you can leave the pits at anytime because they are not in the middle of the track. There is a gas station and fast food restaurants around also, so that is definitely an advantage over PIR.


My spin wasn't that bad. My car was pretty filthy from all of the other sessions. That morning was extremely windy. There were tumbleweeds, the size of small children, blowing across the track. Sometimes the dust was moving so fast that you couldn't see the pavement on the track. I actually had to lower my visor on my helmet a couple times.

As for my spin, it was the last run session of the day, and almost at the end of that.

I was making my way around turn 12, which I had been nearly perfect on all day. That turn leads onto the last straight away (passing zone) of the track. The car in front of me gave me the point by. I got a little too agressive and gave it way to much gave before I completely exited the turn.

I started to lose the rear end, and almost saved it. i was so close to having control, and then I lost it again. I spun counter clockwise into the dirt and the only thought going through my head was "in a spin, both feet in". I planted my foot on the brake, but I couldn't find my clutch peddle. Then I realized that I don't have a clutch peddle (darn SMG). I guess I didn't get onto the brake quick enough because I ended up back on the track, facing the wrong way. To make things worse, there were three cars coming around turn 12. Luckily they all saw the big cloud of dirt and there was no incident.

Later, in the pits, one of the instructors came up to me and said that he was the one driving the car that pointed me by. He said that he watched the entire thing in his rear view mirror, and thought that I was doing really well trying to save the car. Then he saw the dust, and then he saw my car facing the wrong way.

He felt bad, but I wasn't his fault at all. I was being over agressive and should have just waited another second or two before going open on the throttle.

I am actually glad that I spun my car. it was the first time that I lost control of it, and what better place to do it than at a track where there is nothing to hit.

The car isn't too dirty, just a lot of dust in places that I don't have the time to try and get it out of. Besides, I needed a good excuse to get my car fully detailed. I am using a company that is mobile so they are coming to my house to do it. They even bring their own water in their truck. I'll let you know how they do.

Paddock Pt 2

My ride

Darren's E46 M3

One of the Viper Competition Coupes. Tom, the owner, raced the previous Viper model before getting this one last month. He wa spending today sorting out some setups for the racing tomorrow and Sunday.

Another shot

Big Diffuser

Detroit Iron

Italian near-classic. Ferrari 308GTS

Viper GTS Coupe

Formula Renault (www.Fran-Am.com) racers put up a grid of 15 cars. 2.0 liter Fours with 180bhp, turning 1:36 laps!! (I turned a best lap time of 1:56 in my M3)

Beautiful classic Z

Z Pt 2

Z Pt 3

M Coupe. One of the BMWCCA Club Race contenders. Gonna be plenty of juicy action this weekend!!!!!

This 928 handled pretty well. We were about evenly matched in the last session. I had about 220lbs of extra ballast, though, in the form of my bud, Ted, who rode his motorcycle out to turn some laps with me.

Adam,

I'll definitely look for ya!


Formula Renault in action . . .

Renault leaving the pit.

The Renaults had practice, qualifying, and a race today. Will do the same for Saturday and Sunday.

The race featured some carnage. First turn collisions, two cars disabled, had to be craned off the track. First lap, more cars came together. The grid did 5 laps under yellow behind the safety car while the track was cleared. After that there was good wheel-to-wheel racing to the finish. 30-minute race. Attrition was kinda high, though. All in all about 6 cars had to be craned out before I went out for my final street car session.

I worked with 2 additional students. Steve drove all the way out from El Paso in his Lancer Evolution for the weekend.

Sharp car, the yellow one. Carried his track tires/wheels in the back seat/trunk with him and changed them at the track. He's signed up for the Novice Driving School. Has a great attitude. Enjoyed coaching him.