38D
02-18-2017, 09:44 AM
Just back from the 3 day Advanced Road Racing course at Bondurant. I have been doing track days since 1997 and racing (Porsche Club, HSR, etc) since 2005, but this was my first ever course like this. There were a total of 4 students with 2 instructors for the class, so you got a lot of 1:1 instruction. 2 of us were in the ACREs, and 2 were in TA2.0s.
Arrival & Day 1
Day 1 started with a heel/toe exercise. Basically the instructors would have you accelerate down the straight, do a 3rd to 2nd downshift with a heel/toe, brake, and then repeat. Given that this was the advanced class, everyone could already do a decent heel/toe.
Next up was the small oval. This exercise was to get some basics of downshifting, braking, turn in, apex/mid corner and track out. Given how short the oval is, you did a lot of laps in a very short period of time. It was exhausting! While its not something that was terribly useful, it did get my mind back into a driving mood after not having done any event for 18 months.
Right before lunch was the Bondurant main track. This is a very tight, mostly 2nd gear, some 3rd gear course. We did a ride around first with the instructor, and then some lead/follow, with the instructors in Challenger 392 SRTs, and us n our car. The track is short, 1.6 miles, but has a ton of turns (a very "busy" track). Once the instructor liked what you were doing, he would point you by for open track. The rest of the day was open track, with various laps of solo, ride alongs as well as having the instructor drive. I tend to learn best from the right seat, so riding with my instructor was most helpful to shake the rust off and get back up to speed.
Day 2
Day 2 started with a brief visit to the skid pad, with the special skid car. Took a few laps to get used to driving such a goofy setup, but eventually was straight forward. Then back to more open track at the Main track. Right before lunch we headed over to the east track (aka Wild Horse Pass, aka Firebird). This is a "real" track with higher speed corners, though overall its still a pretty slow track with a max speed of ~115 and avg speed of ~75. But it is still a decent little track. Session started out the same with us riding with our instructor, now in a Hellcat, followed by lead/follow, then open track. The instructor used an AIM solo to collect data and then review after a bit.
Day 3
The last day started with more laps at the east track and data analysis. I had to leave at noon, but the afternoon was to be some racecraft session such as passing, offline driving, etc. Given I've raced quite a lot, I was fine missing this. By the end of the day I ran a best of a 58.9, while my instructor managed a 58.3 but with me in the car. Given I hadn't turned a lap since fall 2015, I was happy with this. With more time in the car and experience at the track, 57s are definitely within reach.
Overall impression
While I bought my ACRE last year, I have yet to drive it in anger. So getting some seat time in an ACR was the main reason I signed up for this class. All of my HPDE & Racing experience from the last 20 years is in lower power / lower weight cars, like my 92 Porsche 964 cup (~265hp and 2500lbs). And I've never driven anything with an aero.
From the car point of view, all I can say is holy crap, the ACR is freaking awesome! It actually took me much less time than I expected to get used to having 645hp, and by the end of the course I was thinking that another 100hp would be nice. The power is very linear, and unless you try to break traction on purpose, the rear sticks incredibly well. And the cornering speeds of the car are just awesome. And its so predictable, tossable even. The CCBs are crazy good, with zero fade even after many, many laps.
As for the school, I feel it was worth every penny. You get a ton of track time, to the point I would pit just to rest. And the individualized instruction is great. Based on what I saw, there is a big difference between this class and the Grand Prix class, which appeared more crowded with less experienced drivers. The instructors (Mike & Nick) were both great as well. Even and experienced racer would get something out of this course IMO. They also keep the car running great. I got an entire set of fresh Kuhmos on Day 3 and new brake pads as well. So you aren't driving around on used up tires and brakes.
Video of my fast lap
https://vimeo.com/204467694
23078
23077
Arrival & Day 1
Day 1 started with a heel/toe exercise. Basically the instructors would have you accelerate down the straight, do a 3rd to 2nd downshift with a heel/toe, brake, and then repeat. Given that this was the advanced class, everyone could already do a decent heel/toe.
Next up was the small oval. This exercise was to get some basics of downshifting, braking, turn in, apex/mid corner and track out. Given how short the oval is, you did a lot of laps in a very short period of time. It was exhausting! While its not something that was terribly useful, it did get my mind back into a driving mood after not having done any event for 18 months.
Right before lunch was the Bondurant main track. This is a very tight, mostly 2nd gear, some 3rd gear course. We did a ride around first with the instructor, and then some lead/follow, with the instructors in Challenger 392 SRTs, and us n our car. The track is short, 1.6 miles, but has a ton of turns (a very "busy" track). Once the instructor liked what you were doing, he would point you by for open track. The rest of the day was open track, with various laps of solo, ride alongs as well as having the instructor drive. I tend to learn best from the right seat, so riding with my instructor was most helpful to shake the rust off and get back up to speed.
Day 2
Day 2 started with a brief visit to the skid pad, with the special skid car. Took a few laps to get used to driving such a goofy setup, but eventually was straight forward. Then back to more open track at the Main track. Right before lunch we headed over to the east track (aka Wild Horse Pass, aka Firebird). This is a "real" track with higher speed corners, though overall its still a pretty slow track with a max speed of ~115 and avg speed of ~75. But it is still a decent little track. Session started out the same with us riding with our instructor, now in a Hellcat, followed by lead/follow, then open track. The instructor used an AIM solo to collect data and then review after a bit.
Day 3
The last day started with more laps at the east track and data analysis. I had to leave at noon, but the afternoon was to be some racecraft session such as passing, offline driving, etc. Given I've raced quite a lot, I was fine missing this. By the end of the day I ran a best of a 58.9, while my instructor managed a 58.3 but with me in the car. Given I hadn't turned a lap since fall 2015, I was happy with this. With more time in the car and experience at the track, 57s are definitely within reach.
Overall impression
While I bought my ACRE last year, I have yet to drive it in anger. So getting some seat time in an ACR was the main reason I signed up for this class. All of my HPDE & Racing experience from the last 20 years is in lower power / lower weight cars, like my 92 Porsche 964 cup (~265hp and 2500lbs). And I've never driven anything with an aero.
From the car point of view, all I can say is holy crap, the ACR is freaking awesome! It actually took me much less time than I expected to get used to having 645hp, and by the end of the course I was thinking that another 100hp would be nice. The power is very linear, and unless you try to break traction on purpose, the rear sticks incredibly well. And the cornering speeds of the car are just awesome. And its so predictable, tossable even. The CCBs are crazy good, with zero fade even after many, many laps.
As for the school, I feel it was worth every penny. You get a ton of track time, to the point I would pit just to rest. And the individualized instruction is great. Based on what I saw, there is a big difference between this class and the Grand Prix class, which appeared more crowded with less experienced drivers. The instructors (Mike & Nick) were both great as well. Even and experienced racer would get something out of this course IMO. They also keep the car running great. I got an entire set of fresh Kuhmos on Day 3 and new brake pads as well. So you aren't driving around on used up tires and brakes.
Video of my fast lap
https://vimeo.com/204467694
23078
23077