[Lucky]

I see Tony mentioned the NASA event in the HPDC thread. As he said, I had a blast!

I ran in HPDE2, which is the rough equivalent of Blue in PCA. Most members of HPDE2 were experienced and knew the track, but there were some people that talked their way into group 2 that really should have started in group 1. Several incidents on Saturday took care of those that had put themselves in over their heads. Never fun to see. In addition to several spins a couple of cars had to go home on stretchers. Thankfully, there were no serious human injuries.

Part of the good fun was mixing it up with a wide variety of iron... WRXs, STIs, 350Zs, Vettes (including a Z06), Mustangs (including a Cobra with real rear suspension), Civics!!, Mini Cooper Ses, M3s, 325s, MR2s ... even an Impala SS with a column shift automatic. Out of the run group there were only a few fast car + fast driver combinations, so I got to do plenting of passing. Also the closing velocities on the straights were pretty interesting at times -- a couple of times I came upon a car going 30+ mph slower! And they usually waited for me to hit the brakes before giving a passing signal.

Cool thing is, these NASA people are regular old car guys and gals. Very approachable, and I enjoyed getting to know several of them over the weekend. Great bunch of folks. Most of the drivers of the big american iron came to chat between runs... I think they were surprised how fast an 18 year old Porsche with a small 6 can be!

Classroom discussion was far more advanced than what I've experienced in PCA so far... NASA is really oriented toward the racer, so they were encouraging us to think about and (carefully) experiment with trail braking and left foot braking. Needless to say, I learned a heck of a lot!

And just so one doesn't get too bored between runs, there was exciting wheel-to-wheel racing with a wide variety of cars on track. It was fun to watch the passing entering and exiting turn 10. Some of the race classes did standing starts, which required additional flaggers to stand on top of the pit wall and wave a yellow if someone stalled. I was a flagger for the "small bore" start... thankfully no one stalled, so it went unoticed that I barely knew what I was supposed to do!!

Late on Sunday, I went for a ride in a 350Z in HPDE3. Group 3 can pass anywhere with a signalled pass, so that was interesting. Anyway, the guy that took me for the ride was very fast & very smooth and his car was extremely well set up. Probably the smoothest trip I've ever experienced around SP. The only driver I have ridden with that smooth was Tony when he took me for a warp speed run around VIR!

Speaking of Tony, he was gracious enough to pretend I was helping him out as his "crew". Let me tell you, this is the guy to crew for... you don't have to do much of anything and you get a free lunch to boot! As always, Tony was fast, safe, and smooth and kicked butt.

Sorry for the long post... can you tell I had a good time with NASA? Would I run with them again? Absolutely. PCA is a good safe place to start and I'm glad I started there... NASA is a great place to push your skills to the next level when you are ready.

I think I'll do a mix of PCA and NASA next year to keep the learning curve pointed up.