Five things I learned from my first track day instruction session at the Wallerfield International Raceway (SuperStreet IRS Event).
It’s what we’ve all dreamed about. Putting our super awesome fast car on the track, and showing off our super awesome driving skills, honed on the north coast road, M2 Ring Road, Camden Road, Western Main Road, Lady Young Road and anywhere else we could.
That was the assumption anyway. Since the instructional driving school was included in the $400 for the day, I decided why not. Plus I would get to impress my instructor for my session, Mr. Gordon Gonsalves. So here, in no particular order, are the five top things I discovered after twenty minutes with Mr. Gonsalves:
1) My eight out of ten driving skills were really about two out of ten. After a few impressive laps, Mr. Gonsalves took the wheel of my totally unfamiliar car with an unfamiliar shift pattern, and showed me how horribly off my ‘racing’ lines were.
2) It’s not as easy as it looks to nail those racing lines. At the end of the session, with Mr. Gonsalves taking the wheel for a second time, I was still turning in too early and consistently missed the double apex.
3) No matter how well you think your car is prepared, a street car will not survive ten hard laps at Wallerfield, or even five. Your brakes WILL fade, and the pedal will fall flat to the floor as you approach the bottom corner in third, at 5,000rpm. You will also want to keep an eye on your oil pressure and coolant temperature. If you don’t have them, invest in good gauges.
4) Leave your ego at home. There is no shame in recognizing how much you need to improve. There is only shame in doing something really stupid on track because you got carried away with your own magnificence.
5) If you’ve done it right, you will finish your session a far better driver than when you started. Having said that, you will still suck as a race driver, but maybe 50% less.
$400 is a ridiculously small sum to pay for a few laps on a proper track, with an accomplished racing driver showing you how badly you need to come back for more sessions. It doesn’t matter how great a street driver you are. It will be some of the best money you will ever spend. Just be prepared to spend some more to bring your car up to standard!
Words and Photo by Kevin Singh.
