First of all, I would like to thank Phil T. and Mike from Toronto-Subaru-Club for organizing and Wayne from Buffaloscooby for the spot.
For anyone who has any sort of competitive driving experience under their belt, you owe it to yourself to get out to a track day this summer. The experience is so much beyond anything autocross or performance driving on any back roads can supply.
Myself and Jarrod (modified WRX) left Getzville at 6:30, arriving at the gates in Cayuga around 8:30, after a slight mishap with directions. After air, car prep, tech, and some donuts (the sweet, peanutbuttery kind), we were split into three rather liberal 12-car run groups. First heat began a little after 9:30.
My first two laps were relaxed, in which I explored each turn. They marked apexes with cones which really helped, but I found that I had to adjust and apex some corners earlier because my car likes to push a bit. The next two laps were at 90% in order to explore braking points. It was a bit intimidating at first because at the end of the front straight (parallel to pit lane) I would see ~120 mph into a (wide, thank God) right hander which goes into another straight. All that practice with revmatching and heal and toe was very valuable yesterday and paid off especially at the end of straights where I needed to get from the top of 5th to mid 3rd while braking 100%.
The course itself cannot be described in words. I had the opportunity to take a BMW track school in China a few summers ago - my only other track experience, but it was on what could be considered a mid-sized go kart track. Cayuga was wide open, with safe runoff everywhere and much longer straights, where passing was allowed. The back section was very good for my gearing; I would reach redline in 3rd almost exactly where my brake points were. The Chicane was too much fun; I was able to shoot through it on the top of 4th and brake immediately after clearing (too many drivers were braking before or during the chicane, resulting in a rather close call; thank goodness my brakes weren’t faded yet that lap). The last corner throwing you into the front straight was also intimidating during my first heat because that is the only corner without a safe run off; instead I had a grey concrete barrier staring me in the face. The last corner really demanded a bit of trust in order to be powered through properly.
All in all, I had a blast. My tires were melted down to the bars by 1:30 in the afternoon and it started pouring buckets, so we decided to head home a bit early. I experienced brake fade on later laps of heats but allowed cool down periods of 20 – 30 minutes between runs. It was a rather comfortable day in Cayuga, ambient temperature around 75 with an overcast so all cars were performing well.
Videos coming as soon as I can get them off my analog Camcorder.
that sounds like an awesome experience!!