This is long, I know. But I wrote it up for my car event blog that I keep for myself, so I just crossposted.
Summary: 3 days, 400 miles there, 400 miles back. 200+ miles / 4.75 hours seat time. Ate BMWs, a Lambo and some Subbies alive. Feeling great.
Day 0
We had planned to leave Thursday at noon, but unfortunately, due to some wheel circumstances, we didn’t leave until about 2:30pm. The drive to New Hampshire was pretty uneventful… all 400 miles/8 hours of it. I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Without a Paddle, listened to a few CD’s and some local radio stations to keep me entertained.
I also got great gas mileage on the way there.
The scenery was nice, but just a little late for any spectacular fall colors. There was, however, a gorgeous full moon out that night.
At around 10pm we arrived at our friend Luke’s fathers business, where he has a heated garage, so that we could swap my regular day/autocross brake pads (Hawk HP+) to the pads I was going to use at the track (Hawk Blues).
Thankfully, changing brake pads on the Boxster is a piece of cake, and we were done with that in about 30-45 minutes max.
From there we headed straight to our hotel, which was about another hour and a half drive, putting us in at about midnight. We went promptly to bed to get as much rest as we could for Friday.
Day 1
Friday was a beautiful day, sunny with a high of 59. Could have been a little warmer for my taste, but I still can’t complain. I was so nervous that morning that I felt like I was going to throw up, especially once we arrived at the track. Grandstands, garages, everything official just really put it into perspective for me: This is IT. This is real driving. Am I good enough to keep myself on the road, or am I going to go into a wall? It really tests your sense of confidence in your abilities.
My assigned instructor was Winn Perry, Luke’s father, who drives a Boxster himself. He’s been doing this for years, and as I found out later Day 2, a PHENOMENAL driver. He was extremely patient with me, and talked my confidence up tremendously from the start of the event to the finish.
We started the day with preparing the cars: taking out everything loose, taping on numbers, tire pressures, etc. The event began at 9:00, and I started out in a classroom session (there would be two over the course of the day). It was definitely instructional in that it taught some specific procedures for NHIS (pit out line, passing rules, etc.) They also covered some basics about the line, braking zones, and such. I already previously knew all of these concepts, but it was of course good to listen to them again in the context of a faster-speed event. Before long class was over and I was out standing next to my car.
A number of people came over to introduce themselves; club racers, other students, and instructors alike. The feel of camaraderie was so great, that I was already feeling a little less nervous.
Then my time on the track came up! The first couple laps around were parade only, letting my tires warm up, picking out corner workers and getting used to the layout of the track. Winn drove my car for these laps, letting me get a feel for how she handles, and where the “Boxster appropriate” line was. It was amazing to see how different the lines were in certain corners for me versus some of the other vehicles. Since I have such great rotation (hello oversteer!) I can use it to my advantage to set up a little better and get on the power sooner through certain turns better than other, more heavier vehicles. At one point, I realized that there was a red Audi behind me that I should probably let pass, but every time we got to a passing zone, he would back WAY off, and make it appear that he didn’t want to pass. Several times I was given the passing flag, but Winn kept saying it wasn’t worth giving the point by because he was making it clear he didn’t want to pass. At the end of the session, the instructor in the red Audi gave us a “talking to” about letting people pass, and Winn gently reminded him that if they wanted to pass, they would get the point by when I felt comfortable with the probability of them passing us safely and in a timely manner. It was a small butting of heads that generally didn’t make me feel great my first time out (considering I found out it had created quite a train behind me). After the session I searched out the driver of the Audi and apologized to him for any miscommunication that occurred while we were out there, and he was extremely understanding. He said he didn’t have a clue what was going on out there either, and his instructor kept saying to pass but he didn’t feel ready to. We cleared it all up, and passing went by much smoother the rest of the day. By the end of the day I was CRANKING through that track. I was feeling so confident, and was getting a great deal of praise from people who had been watching me.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted…all that adrenaline can take a lot out of you! After the event finished at 5pm we made an hour drive back down to the Boston area to meet up with our friend Luke, and help him get some new tires for his dad mounted. We then had a very hearty meal at Outback and crashed by about midnight, looking forward to the next day.
Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures this day because my camera battery died 
Day 2
I was definitely not looking forward to today’s conditions. Rainy, but thankfully a tad warmer than the day before. Rainy just seems to make everything a production. And here I was just starting to really feel comfortable on the track, but now am faced with completely different track conditions.
Prepping for the day.
We had a classroom session about the rain line, which seemed to basically be altering parts of the line to try and find more grip, and then it was time for my group to go out.
I again let Winn drive first, as I really needed to feel the car and the track out before I felt comfortable and safe behind the wheel. He took the car out and tossed her around a bit (well within control, but showing me the limits and possibilities that she had). Then I took control and we had a blast! The only “incident” to speak of was I might have possibly spun coming into turn 12. Yeah…it was a section where I had absolutely no problems with over the last two days, but then suddenly I just gave it a little too much abrupt throttle and she came around on me. However, I can safely say I didn’t touch a blade of grass or any wall, and there was no traffic around me which made it “better” as well.
I got a little talking to by control that consisted of them acting like douchebags and telling me I should have come into the pits immediately (even though I couldn’t MAKE it into the pits because I was already past the first pit cone, and would have had to go in reverse to make it). It made me feel really bad about the situation at first, but as Winn said “I am NOT encouraging spinning…but you had that well under control, it was a small error that was only amplified by the rain, and you did it in an area that was completely safe. Everyone has to spin at some point, and I would be more worried about you driving under the limit if you DIDN’T spin at all over the three days.” And Dave and Luke were very supportive (even proud?) that I had been pushing that hard.
Dave was hauling, as usual. This is him coming out of turn 3, about to eat that poor BMW.
Apparently I suck at taking pictures of moving vehicles. This is Dave coming into turn 3.
You can barely see him, but this is a pic of Dave coming onto the front straight while I waited in grid to check his tire temps.
This is my instructor, Winn, coming into and through turn 3.
Myself in turn 3 (there were good, close stands at turn 3, haha)
At the end of a session
We celebrated with a seafood dinner and the biggest lobster I’ve ever seen in my life…and then called it bedtime by about 9:30pm (much more appropriate than the night before!). I knew I was going to need a lot of sleep to not only make it through Day 3, but then also the 8 hour drive home right afterwards.
Day 3
Back to sunshine, but hello wind. I think the actual temperature was a high of 55, but with the wind, it felt like the low 40’s, if not high 30’s. This, combined with the rain from the day before, meant a very cold and unaccommodating track. Thankfully, there were several groups that went before I did, so there was at least some rubber on the ground. I was much happier being back on dry surface, but it took me a session to get back to the point that I was driving at on Day 1. However, I did IMMEDIATELY see an increase in my technique due to the controlled driving I had to exhibit while in the rain. Turn 3, which had been plaguing me from the start, suddenly became much more fluid and consistent, leading to much FASTER and more technically controlled.
It was about now that I started to pull on EVERYONE in my group. I still had to let some people pass because of more horsepower in the straights, but it was plainly obvious that I was out driving them, because I would catch them at every turn. At one point Winn went to check to see if he was allowed to solo me in my group, but being that it is the beginners group (and every region is a little different) they said they would feel better if he continued to ride with me. It certainly wasn’t a big deal, but I was very proud that he felt I was capable of going out by myself. By the end of the day, he even said he would have put in a request to bump me up to the next group, but since this was the first real track I had ever been on, he wanted to make sure I could carry over everything I had learned to a different track safely and competently. Again, this made me very proud to know he felt my abilities were up to par with the next group up.
Pre-griding/getting some pre-track time instruction.
Here I am heading into grid…the Lambo in front of me was soon surpassed 
Here I am coming into the front straight.
In the middle of the day, I did have one…slightly upsetting incident. One of the club racers there was hosting a fundraising event for FANN, which is apparently a foundation for families dealing with food allergies. The idea was that the parents made a donation, and the kid could ride in one of the club racer or instructors vehicles for two parade laps around the track. This was all fine and dandy (I was still getting my time on the track), except for the fact that at one point they had parked this club racers car where Dave normally parks (ala, right beside me) and gathered all the kids and parents around for a picture. I walked up to find PARENTS PUTTING THEIR KIDS ON MY HOOD TO SIT. WTF?! I nearly lost it. Sure, by now my car was very dirty, and it’s not the most expensive vehicle in the world (hell, it was sitting next to a Ferrari and a Lambo), but no matter WHAT the vehicle, you don’t encourage your kids to sit on someone else’s property like that. Needless to say I made a few angry barks at them to get their brats off my car, and then made them part down the middle of the group so I could get out (some truck had parked behind me, and there was a trailer on one side of me and the club racer’s car on the other, so to get out I HAD to go right through the middle of their gathering of about 150 people).
One of these things is not like the others…
The end of the day rolled around and we packed up all of our stuff to head out. By the time we actually left it was about 6:30pm, had an hour drive down to Boston to drop some tires/wheels off with Luke, and then about an 8 hour drive from there home. We got in this morning at around 3:30am.
Have fun and I’ll be curious to hear your report on the various pads when you get back.
