5/26/17
I left my house at 4:20 AM to drive to Buttowillow Raceway Park located on the 5 north of Bakersfield. I had signed up for a high performance drivers education (HPDE) event sponsored by the Los Angeles and CCCR Regions of the Porsche Club of America (PCA). As my Cayman GTS ate up the miles, my nervousness increased, and I kept asking myself, “What was I thinking when I signed up for this?” In reality, I am not a racer. Nor am I a fast driver. Nor do I have the need for speed. Yet there I was pulling into the Buttonwillow parking lot.
The ride to Buttonwillow was not without issues. As I was driving up the Grapevine, it was tough going. There were lots of trucks. There was lots of mist, enough to make me use my wipers for miles. There were lots of times I really had to focus to keep my eyelids up.
The night before, I had decided to eat breakfast on the road, and I located a McDonald’s somewhere near Lebec, just past the top of the Grapevine, as that was about halfway to Buttonwillow. As I was
driving, Lebec came and went, and I never saw the exit for the McDonald’s. Oh well. I figured I would find another one, and I did, right near the 5 and 99 split. So at about 5:45 AM I pulled off the 5 and made my way to McDonald’s, expecting it to be just about empty. It wasn’t. There was a bus parked in the lot and hordes of teenagers were inside of McDonald’s, making it an absolute zoo. Apparently, this was the end of their grad night celebration, and I was just lucky enough to arrive right after them. As I was a little tired anyway, I stayed in the car and took a short nap.
I woke feeling refreshed and noting that the teenagers were beginning to leave McDonald’s. I went in, ordered, got my food, and went back to my car, planning to eat as I drove. I decided to set the Nav for Buttonwillow to see how much farther I had to go, and as I was exiting the parking lot, I looked at the Nav and realized I was in the McDonalds I located the night before, though it was nowhere near Lebec. Feeling sheepish, I got back on the 5 and proceeded to Buttonwillow with a short stop for gas a few miles from my final destination.
As I entered the parking lot at Buttonwillow, I kept reminding myself that I have a modicum of track experience. I took a class about three years ago which was given at the Streets of Willow track, near Mojave. It was fun, but in terms of learning it was pretty useless because I did not receive enough instruction and spent most of the day driving around by myself, making the same mistakes lap after lap. Two years ago I spent two days at Porsche Sport Driving School at Barber Motorsport Park in Birmingham Alabama. I had a blast and learned a lot about weight distribution and transfer and car handling, though my learning may not have been as great as I thought at the time, as I was following the line set by the instructors on each lap. I had a feeling today would be different, as I would be driving without a leader to follow and my skills as a lemming would not be useful in the least.
I parked my car and made my way to check in. Thankfully, I saw Randy, one of my PCA LA friends, and he walked me thru the check-in and set up process, which was a good thing because I was
essentially clueless. In theory I was prepared. I had taken care of the requisite car inspection at Marc’s shop, which resulted in a new set of front brake pads, a couple of weeks earlier. Thanks to my PCA friend, Jason, I had learned which direction we were going to drive on the track and had watched YouTube videos to get a feel for the track layout. Thanks to discussions with others, I had brought a roll of blue painter’s tape to mark numbers and protect some areas from rock chips and debris. I was a little taken aback when the check in volunteer asked me for my driver’s log book. I just looked at him and said, “What log book?” I felt a sense of relief once the volunteer went on to tell me that they were giving them out to those who needed them.
With check in finished and log book in hand, Randy helped me tape my car. My number was “8,” so I had to create the number “8” on the hood and on each door with the painter’s tape. Once that was done, I put tape on more random places because that is what everyone else was doing.
It takes an unbelievable amount of work and planning to put on a HPDE event. All sorts of volunteers, from event organizers to corner workers to instructors, are required. Run groups, meaning those cars on the track at the same time, are created to ensure that newbies are not mixing it up with experienced drivers. There were four run groups the day I was there, and each run group had four lapping sessions spread out over the day. The schedule was planned to the minute because track time is a scarce commodity. I was a proud member of the White group, meaning I was expected to be slow and I was required to have an instructor sitting in the passenger seat when I was on the track, which was a blessing to me.
Soon it was time for the drivers meeting, which consisted of lots of discussion about the track, the direction we were going to be driving (clockwise), rules, regulations, flags, passing zones, etc., etc., etc. Yes it was dry and boring, but it was absolutely necessary. The main purpose of the meeting was to ensure that all drivers were on the same page and to ensure that we all understood how to get thru the day safely, something I was very happy about. Depending on the run group, there were various passing zones on the track. I paid particular attention to this because I was confident I would need to know what to do when another car wanted to pass me. I assumed I would have no need to pass anyone. I was right.
My instructor, Loren, a fellow PCA Los Angeles Region member, was amazing. I had met him before at a PCA Los Angeles dinner event to generate interest for the track day. The dinner was sponsored by the PCA Los Angeles Region, and they spared no expense as they held it at a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor. Obviously, I did not go to the event for the pizza. I went to get a better understanding of the tack day. The main benefit was speaking to the various instructors that were there. Loren talked a lot to me about the track, his philosophy while on it, and the fun he has had learning to drive around it. He stressed smoothness and precision, and his thoughts resonated with me. I was fortunate that he was my instructor.
My first lap was sketchy at best. Apparently being a lemming at Barber had not prepared me for solo a leaderless trip around the track. While I did not take too many risks, I was way off the line most of the way around, despite a steady stream of instructions from Loren, who was gracious enough keep his comments positive. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I did catch his right foot moving towards the floorboard on multiple occasions as we made our way around the track.
In total, I drove about 80 miles on the track, and I improved throughout the day. As I did, my speeds improved, too, though speed was not my main goal. I was actually really good on two or three of the more technical portions of the course. For a couple of these sequences this had more to do with Loren’s teaching, which included hand drawn pictures to illustrate where I needed to be than it had to do with my ability, though there was one sequence I just had an instinctive feel for and nailed it just about every time around. What was really eye opening for me was how hard it was to stay focused for an entire lap, let alone a 25 minute lapping session. As a result, I was way less than spectacular on some of the less technical portions, and more than once I wanted to head off onto a coned off section of the track. I could not believe how mentally challenging this experience was. I have no idea how professional race drivers do this for hours. Clearly, I need to learn how to maintain my focus for longer periods of time before I do this again.
I do not have the desire to be really competitive on the track. My goals were to enjoy the experience and to learn. Thankfully, I do not see them changing any time soon. Others have far different goals
and desires, up to and including wheel to wheel racing. I could clearly see how the pursuit of speed can cost thousands of dollars. There were many track cars there, having been towed from various parts of California. There were also highly modified cars that were still street legal but not meant to be driven on the street. Lots of money had been spent on these vehicles, way more than I want to think about.
Of course, part of the reason I am skeptical about the cost to improve cars for the track is that I already have an amazing track car, at least by my standards. I do not think it would be a misstatement to say my car will always be a better track car than I am a track driver. My mid-engine Cayman GTS is just a spectacular car to drive on the track, and for an all around road and track driving experience, my Cayman is hard to beat. Sure, its brakes could be beefed up and sure it could have better tires and maybe a retuning ……
As I shortened the lifespan of my reasonably new tires and new brake pads during the day, I realized that I had no reason to have been nervous that morning. I experienced a freedom on the track that cannot be duplicated on a freeway, a street or a back road. I have pushed it a bit and have had wonderful times on the canyon twisties, but those roads still have yellow lines, opposing traffic, limited forward visibility, bicycles, and steep drop-offs. Paradoxically, I learned that the race track is a much safer environment and a lot more fun.
Afterwards, everyone wanted to know how fast I went. The simple answer was I do not know. My attention and focus needed to be way up the track not directly in front of my car and definitely not on my dashboard. Everything came at me faster on the track than on the road. Looking down at the speedometer would have been a bad idea at best and a horrible idea at worst. I did catch a glimpse of the speedometer on a couple of turns and noted that I was in the mid 70s which meant I was going significantly faster on the straights, though the speed in the turns was much more exciting.
So I had a successful day. I met my goals. I had a great time. I learned where to position my car on every part of the track without being a lemming. I drove safely at high speed for long periods of tim
e, which warped my perception of it dramatically. Several times when I was driving home I thought we were just crawling along and could not understand why everyone was driving so slowly. When I looked down at my speedometer, I was surprised to see I was going well over 80 miles per hour. Ironically, as I noted how close together each car was and I watched the antics of the other drivers, I felt much less safe on the road than I had all day on the track.