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Short narration of a track session last year.
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Thumbs up. The grid marshal signals me with orange-gloved hands to move onto the track, so the blue car and I clutch out and roll onto Texas World Speedway one more time.

Driving down pit row, I check gauges and pile on the power until the tires are about to break loose. No point in spinning them here; it’s a little vulgar. I press and hold a button, and traction control goes into competition mode. I’m pleased I remember this, late in the day. I’m solo, having been signed off earlier. I’m pleased with that too.

The pit out worker has the GO sign up, so we continue to accelerate into turn 1. The sun is setting, and this will be the last run of the day. I feel it in my shoulders and neck, unused to the helmet, and in the car which is just a hair looser than it was this morning. Brakes a bit slower, heats up a bit faster. I resolve to take it easy, as I have to go back home and work is Monday and I have to have a car to drive then.

Still getting used to the tires. The slicks make my blue friend into a different car. It starts out greasy and gets stickier until it’s glued to the track. I accelerate into turn 1 hard, testing the limit of the tires. I find the edge fast, and the car begins to oversteer right, so I back off a bit for the apex, let the traction control fiddle with the rear end until it’s stable, and hit it hard on the way out, heating up the tires as we drift to track out.

As we brake for turn 3, I relax into the harness and try to feel the brakes come loose at threshold. They do, midway through the braking cycle, and I back off a bit as we heel-toe down to third gear. I hit the turn just right though, because at the apex, the car takes off with delusions of F1. The slicks are starting to bite early, and track out here has a few inches more asphalt on the left, which I use. I remind us that we will take it easy this run, but the blue car has other ideas.

On the short straight, I check mirrors, corners. John and John’s C5 ‘vert are right back there, and I know Steve told John how to pass me. Steve is my old instructor, and relentless. No flags at 4, so I set up for the turn. Another one nearly perfect. I braked a little early, but the tires are not quite there yet, and I’ve seen 4 eat folks that brake too late. There’s no one in front of me. No flags or warnings.

I roll into five and six like I learned, pushing hard and braking down to take the subtle left-left combination. There is a jolt, and a puff of white in my rear view at track out in six, as I drop a tire off into the dirt. For the last time, I think about backing off and driving like I need to go to work on Monday, but the blue car is roaring now, tires like superglue, and I nail the throttle all the way down and upshift to fourth at redline. In the straight, I open up distance on John and then I’m at seven.

Seven was my favorite turn early on, but it’s a deceptive bitch now. A very good driver in a race spec car ran off there earlier today at around 115 mph. It’s the second fastest turn on the course. As I enter the turn, I’m going 110, on my street suspension and used Victoracers.

I tap the brakes to set up and turn in, and time slows down to give me the best seat in the house. I can see everything: Setting sunlight on the leaves on the trees at the side of the track, John in my rear view, back a good way, the french-cut manicure job of the corner worker, her hand empty of flags for now, the HUD showing 105 MPH. I relax into the harness, as I’m committed. If I back off now, I’ll spin and get a lot closer to the trees. Pointed at the apex, I roll into the throttle, to hold the blue car on the line, and it sticks! drifting, drifting, going to drop a wheel off, I can see, all in slow motion.

There’s a small lurch when we hit track out, but the blue car and I are fast today, and we blast up the hill for eight leaving another puff of dust behind us. Backing off is forgotten, and we run hard for the braking zone in eight, because it’s the weekend, and because this is what we were made for and it’s going to be alright.

John didn’t catch up. My front tires were down to the cords when I put into the pits and started to change the blue car back into a daily driver. I left a lot of rubber out on the track.

The best part about going back to the pits was knowing that we had been able to recognize the apex of the day and hit it dead on.

Learning the language of a new sport is always fun, and this one has quite a cant associated. Here are some of the more common terms you may see (in no particular order):

Wheel to wheel: Racing, as opposed to HPDE.

HPDE: High Performance Driver Education. Going fast, but without timers or free passing.

Autocross: Also called “Solo” or “Solo II”. There are many rules for this, but basically, it’s a time trial, generally held at speeds that can be accommodated in a parking lot (no more than 80 MPH) on a course no more than a mile in length. Any longer, and it’s High Speed Auto Cross, and there are other rules. Characterized by driving around orange cones.

Time Trial: Trying for the best lap time on a track. One car runs at a time, so there’s no distractions or passing. Like a qualifying lap.

Grid: Where cars set up to go out on track. In a race, where you are in the grid (how close to the front) is determined by how fast you qualify.

Grid Marshal: The person who signals cars out on track, tells the corner workers what to do and disciplines drivers.

Paddock: Garage/camp/setup area, where cars park between run sessions.

Pits: Adjacent to the paddock, they are the transition are between the paddock and the racetrack.

Hot pits: Place where a car can pull off the racing surface and stop, for any number of reasons.

Flags: Flags are shown at corner stations to communiacte with drivers. For example, a yellow flag waved by a corner worker tells the drivers to slow down, cease passing and watch for trouble on the track ahead. The commonly used flags (and their meanings are: Yellow (caution), Red (safe stop offline and wait for instructions from the nearest corner worker), black (pointed; means something is wrong and you will pit at your next opportunity), blue and yellow (pointed; means people are waiting to pass you and you should let them around), white (last lap), checkered (end of session, commence cooldown lap, pit at next opportunity. In a race, it indicates the winner).

Corner Workers: People stationed at various points around the track that wave flags for various reasons. They are the method of communication between the grid marshall and the drivers. Spotting all the corner workers and being able to tell what they are wearing and so forth is a good test of situational awareness.

Overcooked: Went into a turn too hot. Generally means an off-track excursion or could be locking up the brakes going into a turn.

Too hot: Too fast for the track at a given point.

Rolling Chicane: A slow driver

Point-by: A passing signal. In HPDEs, where passing is at the discretion of the front car, these are very important. It’s given with your arm extended from the driver’s window with the index finger pointed left of the car or over the roof to the right of the car, meaning “pass me on the left” or “pass me on the right”. Even in racing, point bys are honored, though given mostly between cars from different divisions that are on the same track.

Loose condition: Rear of the car is going faster then the front, and may end up spinning the car.

Understeer: When you turn the wheel and the car “pushes” the front wheels in a straight line. Also called simply “pushing”.

Oversteer: When the rear of the car tries to pass the front. Often done deliberately to swing the rear of the car into a better position for the next turn.

Lift: Lifting the right foot off the throttle.

Weight transfer: Using the brakes, acceleration and steering to shift the weight of the car side to side and front to back.

Mechanical: A mechanical failure.

Sweeper: A gentle sweeping turn.

Carousel: a 180 degree turn.

Hairpin: A sharp 180 degree turn

Trail Braking: Braking as the car begins to turn. Generally, cars are braked in as straight a line as possible, but sometimes it’s necessary to “trail” the car into a turn because of the track geometry.

The Line: The best driving path through a course.

Braking zone: The point approaching a turn where you decelerate the car and change gears if necessary.

Turn-in: The point where you point the car towards the apex of a turn and cease braking.

Apex: The mid point of a turn.

Track-out: Where the car naturally flows as you leave the apex.

Late Apex: Displacing the apex of the turn downtrack.

Early Apex: Displacing the apex uptrack.

“Slow in, fast out”: Racer talk that means exit speed on a corner is more important than entry speed. Sir Stirling Moss said “It’s better to go in slow and come out fast then it is to go in fast and come out dead”.

Heel and Toe: Using the brake and throttle at the same time, while shifting. It’s used to match the speed of the engine to the wheels during downshifting so as to upset the car less. The name comes from using one’s heel to blip the throttle while one’s toes are on the brake.

Tapdancing: Swerving rapidly to avoid objects, generally debris, ontrack.

Offline: To drive off the fast line around the track. Often, a driver will go offline so that another faster one can pass, or if his car has broken.

Armco: Currugated steel crash barrier. You have probably seen it in the form of guardrails on the highway. Around racetracks, it’s called Armco.

Hot Track/Cold Track: When the track is “hot”, high speed traffic is on it. No one not participating in the event is allowed on the track while it’s hot.

Pyrometer: A device for checking tire temperature to determine alignment, tire pressure changes and wear.

Every weekend, all across the country, there are thousands of folks who pack up and head for the racetrack. They are not going to watch, but rather to learn how to drive better. Here’s a faq-like intro to this highly addicting sport:

Q: Is it dangerous?
A: I find driving to work in the morning more dangerous. Danger on a road is often directly proportional to how predictable the drivers around you are. On the track, I know where the cars in front of me are going to be, and the cars behind me know where I’ll be too, so we’re all pretty predictable. Predictable == safe. It’s possible to be a danger to yourself, but that’s true of any endeavor.

Q: Is it expensive to do?
A: In the beginning, no. Around $300 per weekend, plus the cost of a hotel room and food and fuel. I burn around 20 gallons of premium a day at the track, but when I started, it was more like 10. $500 or so is a pretty cheap weekend, as getaways go.

Q: Are you racing?
A: Nope. Racing means that there is a winner, and that passing on the track is unrestricted. It also generally means that the event is timed, and that normal car insurance will not cover you if you beef it. In the typical HPDE (High Performance Driving Event), passing is restricted to straightaways, and is always indicated by the car being passed. There are no timers, and no losers. Insurance generally covers the participants, though check your policy before you go.

Q: Can you pass other cars?
A: Yes. It works like this: If you are close behind another car, and clearly faster (it’s obvious most of the time), the driver in front is supposed to stick their arm out the window and indicate (by pointing) which side they want you to pass on. When you see that sign (called a “point by”), and you are in a passing zone, you’re clear to pass. The passee generally also lifts on the throttle, so the passing car has an easier time of it.

Q: If you’re not racing, what’s the point?
A: I think it’s different for everyone, but here are some reasons I’ve heard:
“I bought a new car, and it scared me because it’s faster than anything I’ve ever owned.”
“I want to be more confident behind the wheel, after my wreck”.
“I want my child to be as safe as possible on the road, and Driver’s Education wasn’t doing it”.
“I want to learn if I can go fast, because I might want to race one day”.
“I’m a paralyzed from the waist down, and this is a sport where that doesn’t matter”.
“It’s fun!”
“This car deserves to be on the track!”

Q: How does going around in circles teach you to drive better?
A: Ah, we don’t go in circles. Oval track driving is actually a good bit more dangerous than road course driving, because there is a wall on the outside if the track. The tracks we drive on are many turns, left and right, with elevation changes and so forth. Like a twisty country road, but paved. They are designed to be challenging to drive, and there is generally plenty of run-off space if you spin.

Q: How is this different from AutoCross?
A: Autocross (or “Solo” competition in SCCA) is a competition, basically a time trial where one car takes the track at a time, and speeds are relatively low. It’s possible to do AutoCross in any large paved place, and cones mark the course. HPDEs are not timed, and there are many cars on the course at a time. Speeds at HPDEs are also higher; AutoCross should not go over 80 MPH and the courses are under one mile in length (for low speed).

Q: How fast have you gone?
A: I get that one alot. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’ve never topped out the car, that’s for sure. My car tops out at 173 MPH. Every track is different, and some are faster than others. Speeds over 100 MPH are common. I’ve gone as fast as I could and keep the car under control given the conditions on the track.

Q: Do you run in the rain?
A: Yep. Rain is an excellent teaching tool. After all, you drive to work in the rain, right? So, if you drive on the track in the rain, you will be forced to drive more smoothly, and react calmly to sudden events, which will make you a safer driver on the street in bad weather. Cars are more stable on wet pavement than people realize, but only if you drive smooth.

Q: How does the school work?
A: Lots of different schools out there, and lots of different ways to teach, but I can tell you how The Driver’s Edge works. You drive your own car, so you can learn on a familiar platform. There are four “run sessions” per day, about 30 minutes each. You are grouped with drivers of similar skill in one of four “run groups”. Green is novice, Blue is intermediate, Yellow is advanced and Red is Expert. There is a fifth group, made up of instructors. There are classroom “chalk talks” between each run session, to talk over technique. You have an instructor in the car with you, telling you how to get the most out of your car and the track. The instructors will gladly drive your car if you want to see an example of what it can really do, and most of them have race cars that you can ride in to see how one of those works. The instructors are paid in track time. They come instruct, and get to run four or so sessions on the track for free. It’s a good deal if you have the level of skill needed to instruct.

Q: Do I need a modded car?
A: No. Most cars can move around a track MUCH faster than you’d think, and the physics of four wheels is the same, roughly, for all. You can run pump gas, as fuel at the track is notoriously expensive.

Q: What do I need to go do this?
A: The most important thing to bring is a good attitude. If you come ready to learn, you’re on the right track. Second is a tech-checked car. Nothing is more frustrating than to get to the event and miss a run session because of a mechanical. Make sure the car includes a helmet, or rent one at the track. Lastly, bring water. Driving this way dehydrates you. A dehydrated driver is an unsafe driver, as your brain simply doesn’t process as fast when it’s parched.