First time tracking, ever!

[macalot]

Let me start with this was my first ever track day. I suspect I am one of the few here that had their first ever track day in the beast better known as our beloved Z/28.
Now that my adrenaline has finally dropped to somewhat normal levels I will give a few observations, in no particular order.
I didn’t figure the first day would be that intense. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Road courses are not for the faint of heart. That was the best, and I mean best, $250 I’ve ever spent. I’m signed up for the next class in May.
No video/pictures, and if there were I’m sure there would be a long thread here on everything I was doing wrong. My main downfall according to the instructor was trying to watch/acknowledge the corner workers while busy with everything else. That will be my main goal next lesson. Safety is paramount.
Things like early apexing one turn, and late apexing another, kept happening as well. But as time went on I did start to judge these better. Turn 7 is a blind downhill turn, which I finally starting entering properly. Of course hitting turns 5 and 6 properly is key to turn 7. That is a rough nut to crack to be sure. Practice makes perfect.
I know the brakes are killer in our cars, but I didn’t really know how insane they are until the instructor kept saying, go go go(and we are already doing 111mph heading into the essentially 180 turn), when I thought he’d be saying brake brake brake! I’m super glad I took the advice here to burnish my brakes a second time, as the first time most likely wasn’t enough. The brakes felt great the whole time. I don’t know if I was smelling my brakes, or others, but did smell it at times.
At times, we would exit the track and come back on to get rid of the traffic so that I’d be able to run the line my car needs to be on…. which was somewhat different at certain points than most of the other cars.
I only had to point by one car a few times in my three 25 minute sesssions, a 2015 BMW M4, which was a new car for a somewhat experienced track guy… and a nice BMW guy to boot!
The long straight was exhilarating everytime, trying to brake later and later for turn 1. Turns 8 and 9 are high speed, hanging on to all you can give them. There were times I had to use all the track in this section as my line was wrong. Some trying/exciting moments to be sure, but a good learning experience. The instructor was pleased with my starting to pick up the line as early as I did. His final comments were:
"As your speed increases in the future, braking will become even more important (sheesh not sure how much faster I want to go, but I’m game!) Keep learning the line. See you in May, then you put on those original tires, come back and see what the car can really do.”
Truly an amazing experience.

The best thing I remember is my instructor saying “Stay on that Mustangs ass, he’ll have to let you pass.” I now know that staying on someones butt on the track is alot different than on the road. It is a bit un-nerving to be that close at the speeds we were at. Needless to say I did do a fair amount of passing. Top speed reached, that I was able to safely see was 126mph…. I don’t think I looked at the dash 2 times the whole day, which is 2 times more than I was supposed to I understand.
Side note:
The head instructor runs a 2012 GTR3 RS, he came up to me and said that he had seriously contemplated buying a Z/28… he just had the wheel bearings replaced on his GTR at a cost of $7,000. Ouch!
My instructor said afterwards that the head instructor was totally impressed with my car, even with a newbie at the wheel. He particularly enjoyed the sound of a V-8 doing it’s thing. I’d bet he will be buying a Z/28 at some point.
You know you are having a blast when you are getting 3.4 miles to the gallon!!!
So the Saga begins!

[Dropspeed]

Sounds like you had fun, but you didn't mention what track?

I assume Beaverun?

I disagree with not looking at the dash. You should do a very quick scan of the gauges for warning lights during the session. I do it on the straights. I also set my dash to display the tire pressure because I can tell when the tires are warm as the PSI comes up and I can also tell when I push the car too hard by the pressures. (1LE/not Z/28 so your pressure increases will vary)

[macalot]

Originally Posted by Dropspeed

Sounds like you had fun, but you didn't mention what track?

I assume Beaverun?

I disagree with not looking at the dash. You should do a very quick scan of the gauges for warning lights during the session. I do it on the straights. I also set my dash to display the tire pressure because I can tell when the tires are warm as the PSI comes up and I can also tell when I push the car too hard by the pressures. (1LE/not Z/28 so your pressure increases will vary)

Yes BeaveRun, but was bought around 4 years ago and is now called PittRace. They are getting ready to pave the new South Track in the near future.
I agree about scanning the dash, i figure it had more to do with being the first track day and keeping the eyes up and down the course.
Thanks for the input.

[Z Beast]

Bitten by the track bug...

[Stephen12ZL1]

very nice...glad to hear you enjoyed tracking your Z/28. It is an awesome track car! Did you use PTM modes? I used PTM3 and it honestly didn't slow me down that much and kept my stupidity in check...lol! I will bump it up to PTM 4 or PTM 5 next time for sure.

[macalot]

Originally Posted by Stephen12ZL1

very nice...glad to hear you enjoyed tracking your Z/28. It is an awesome track car! Did you use PTM modes? I used PTM3 and it honestly didn't slow me down that much and kept my stupidity in check...lol! I will bump it up to PTM 4 or PTM 5 next time for sure.

Was in PTM3. I believe I'll stay in PTM 3 for awhile.

[serviceguy]

Nice write up...enjoyed reading it

[backtotintops]

Originally Posted by serviceguy

Nice write up...enjoyed reading it

+1

[Bigtime53]

Originally Posted by serviceguy

Nice write up...enjoyed reading it

Me too!!

[KaBoom1701]

Originally Posted by macalot

Let me start with this was my first ever track day. I suspect I am one of the few here that had their first ever track day in the beast better known as our beloved Z/28.
Now that my adrenaline has finally dropped to somewhat normal levels I will give a few observations, in no particular order.
I didn’t figure the first day would be that intense. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Road courses are not for the faint of heart. That was the best, and I mean best, $250 I’ve ever spent. I’m signed up for the next class in May.
No video/pictures, and if there were I’m sure there would be a long thread here on everything I was doing wrong. My main downfall according to the instructor was trying to watch/acknowledge the corner workers while busy with everything else. That will be my main goal next lesson. Safety is paramount.
Things like early apexing one turn, and late apexing another, kept happening as well. But as time went on I did start to judge these better. Turn 7 is a blind downhill turn, which I finally starting entering properly. Of course hitting turns 5 and 6 properly is key to turn 7. That is a rough nut to crack to be sure. Practice makes perfect.
I know the brakes are killer in our cars, but I didn’t really know how insane they are until the instructor kept saying, go go go(and we are already doing 111mph heading into the essentially 180 turn), when I thought he’d be saying brake brake brake! I’m super glad I took the advice here to burnish my brakes a second time, as the first time most likely wasn’t enough. The brakes felt great the whole time. I don’t know if I was smelling my brakes, or others, but did smell it at times.
At times, we would exit the track and come back on to get rid of the traffic so that I’d be able to run the line my car needs to be on…. which was somewhat different at certain points than most of the other cars.
I only had to point by one car a few times in my three 25 minute sesssions, a 2015 BMW M4, which was a new car for a somewhat experienced track guy… and a nice BMW guy to boot!
The long straight was exhilarating everytime, trying to brake later and later for turn 1. Turns 8 and 9 are high speed, hanging on to all you can give them. There were times I had to use all the track in this section as my line was wrong. Some trying/exciting moments to be sure, but a good learning experience. The instructor was pleased with my starting to pick up the line as early as I did. His final comments were:
"As your speed increases in the future, braking will become even more important (sheesh not sure how much faster I want to go, but I’m game!) Keep learning the line. See you in May, then you put on those original tires, come back and see what the car can really do.”
Truly an amazing experience.

The best thing I remember is my instructor saying “Stay on that Mustangs ass, he’ll have to let you pass.” I now know that staying on someones butt on the track is alot different than on the road. It is a bit un-nerving to be that close at the speeds we were at. Needless to say I did do a fair amount of passing. Top speed reached, that I was able to safely see was 126mph…. I don’t think I looked at the dash 2 times the whole day, which is 2 times more than I was supposed to I understand.
Side note:
The head instructor runs a 2012 GTR3 RS, he came up to me and said that he had seriously contemplated buying a Z/28… he just had the wheel bearings replaced on his GTR at a cost of $7,000. Ouch!
My instructor said afterwards that the head instructor was totally impressed with my car, even with a newbie at the wheel. He particularly enjoyed the sound of a V-8 doing it’s thing. I’d bet he will be buying a Z/28 at some point.
You know you are having a blast when you are getting 3.4 miles to the gallon!!!
So the Saga begins!

Awesome.

Glad you enjoyed it. And another track whore is born!. lol

[Ryzer]

Great write up! Enjoyed reading it as well.

[MiniBig]

Originally Posted by Ryzer

Great write up! Enjoyed reading it as well.

+1

[mrshanes]

Nice write up. I too experienced my first track day at PittRace last year in my ZL1. What a blast! Wish it wasn't so far for me or I'd go more often. I'm looking at going to the PDE event on 6/26. I see a Z/28 registered. Is that you? If so are you doing group 1 or 2? My instructor moved me to group 2 last year on my first day after learning the line and quickly figuring out that my car was simply better than the others. Kept getting hung up in traffic and with only 2 places to pass, it became a problem. For a Corvette racer, he sure was impressed with the car. Kept telling me it had more in it, but it was up to me on how far I wanted to push it. It's hard to believe you can brake so late and still take the turns at those speeds. I was in awe the entire 2 hour drive home. I can only imagine the Z/28 is way better. I haven't been back since last fall, but I think I'll register in group 2 this time just to avoid some of the congestion on the track.

[macalot]

Originally Posted by mrshanes

Nice write up. I too experienced my first track day at PittRace last year in my ZL1. What a blast! Wish it wasn't so far for me or I'd go more often. I'm looking at going to the PDE event on 6/26. I see a Z/28 registered. Is that you? If so are you doing group 1 or 2? My instructor moved me to group 2 last year on my first day after learning the line and quickly figuring out that my car was simply better than the others. Kept getting hung up in traffic and with only 2 places to pass, it became a problem. For a Corvette racer, he sure was impressed with the car. Kept telling me it had more in it, but it was up to me on how far I wanted to push it. It's hard to believe you can brake so late and still take the turns at those speeds. I was in awe the entire 2 hour drive home. I can only imagine the Z/28 is way better. I haven't been back since last fall, but I think I'll register in group 2 this time just to avoid some of the congestion on the track.

I had my second day at the track May 22 in group 2. Wasn't nearly as overwhelming, it still was still challenging though. I had a great instructor who was happy with my progress. Seems track time is what I need the most, hehe. My line became smoother and yes running in group 2 eliminated all the traffic jams. Most passing/being passed was by singles or an occasional 2, I didn't have to exit the track and return to get clear like I did in group 1.
My instructor's group 1 driver was in a ZL1... he did comment about the brakes being different and he wasn't sure if I was using more pedal pressure than the ZL1 was. I replied I believe I could have braked a lot later than he wanted me to and that I wasn't really using much pedal pressure very often. Guess what I'm working on next track day!
He also gave my a ride in his Lotus for a few hot laps around the track. Nimble I must say and lots of fun.
Yes, I am registered for June 26th Group 2. I'd say you better get signed up soon, as the wait list starts around 32 applicants it seems. FWIW, You can get a refund from PittRace if you cancel before 48 hrs of the date.
Looking forward to meeting you if you do decide to come!