First off, I'd like to thank all the guys at TM.net that made this possbile for me. More then a couple of you contributed some money as a "suprise track day" gift to me earlier in the year. Scott, Marc... thanks for getting that drive started, and a huge thanks to all of you that contributed to that gift. I don't know which of you did, but know that I am sincerly grateful that you all feel I am worthy of your friendship.

Starting from Friday (day 1).

Joe and Jeff got in town about 3am my time Firday morning and stayed that night in a hotel. That morning I went to the hotel to pick them up, grab some breakfast, and head back to my place to finish up with the cars and get them out to the track nice and early. Following breakfast, I noticed the passenger door of the BMW was not closed all the way, so I attempted to close it. After a few attempts, it finally closed and we continued on to my place. We changed the brake pads (BTW - Thanks Jeff for doing all the work) and chit-chatted. After picking my son up from school and his mother picking him up from my place a few hours later, then dropping the BMW and Datusn off at Sears Point, we all took off for the hour drive the the local indoor karting place. Jeff wanted to "get in the feel" of going fast before Saturday and Karting was on the books.

We had a pretty good time there at the karting place. Those little buggers just screamed and the track was slick enugh to have some nice drifts and counter-steer situations. I recall one instance with me followng Jeff and one other guy down the long straight... this guy went to pass Jeff, but Jeff had nothing of it and ended up snuffing this poor guy into the barrier. It was a wild accident with the guy burying himself under the plastic barriers that lined the course. I had to do some quick moves to not get caught up in it in fact. Funny as hell though, and later as we discussed it Jeff admitted to intentionally pushing him into the barrier. We went right back out for a second run in the karts and for some odd reason Jeff wasnt around. I saw Joe on the track, but not Jeff. Afterwards, it turned out that they black-flagged Jeff and "sent him home". Not for the wall incident actully, for something completely seperate in which they never did tell him. We still dont know why... oh well. Of course, we all laughed about it... Jeff got thrown out of a kiddy-karting place! LOL

On the drive home Joe and Jeff quickly learned that I can talk for hours, non stop, without a single breath. By the time we got back to my place we were all beat. Those karts are very tough to drive at speed, and my arms were limp noodles and my back hurt from the seat. The "old guys" were not in such pain, but the flight from the night before and minimal sleep was surely setting in. We all hit the sack and woke early for Saturday's HPDE event.

4 hours later we are up and heading to Denny's for a quick bite, followed my the 10 minute drive to Sears Point. We get there, suffer through the long "driver's meeting" and get the two cars tech'd. After all that, we still had a nice chunk of time before our first run at 10am. Again, my constant lip flapping made the time go by fast (for me at least) and we were soon on the pre-grid and getting ready to head out; Jeff in the BMW with his instructor, and me in the Datsun with Joe as passenger. NASA started the two groups (HPDE-1 and HPDE-2) seperate, though we were all on track at the same time. That left no real opprotunity for me and Jeff to go out nose to tail, but it wasnt a big deal. I went on track along with all the other "2" cars. Jeff followed soon after with the "1" cars. I took it easy and just tried not to get Joe giggling too much. He was having a blast and so was I considering that it was the first session which is usually very frustrating with everyone running so slow, and this held true in this session. Very slow, and VERY sloppey. When we pulled off the track 20 minutes later Jeff was already sitting in out paddock with a grim look on his face. He explained that the passenger door opened on his first hot lap while running down the main straight (that straight is a long left hand bend). The instructor was likely very uncomfortable... being in the passenger seat and all :) We tried for the next 2 hours to fix the door. While we "thought" we had it fixed enough for session #2, we all agreed it wasnt a 'sure thing' that it would stay closed so we parked the BMW for the day.

Tim and Joe in Turn 11

Session-2 was basically the same as 1. Joe and I went out and picked up the pace a slight amount. Again, nothing big, just having some fun and using up a bit more curbing on apex and track-out. One pucker-moment was when I nearly put two wheels off exiting turn-4 (off camber, down hill, tight right) at one point. Barely made it, but that's all that mattered. Another, in the same corner in fact, was when a VW rabbit spun in front of us. It was the first time I had a spinner in front of me in a real-life situation. To tell you the truth, it didnt take me by suprise at all. I did what came naturally; slow up and give him room to get his car stopped and then just continued on. That poor guy was scared out of his mind all day, but he did a great job keeping his spin from turning into much worse with the line of cars that he had behind him at the time. And another was a quick brake lockup entering... again, the same corner. It was nice to finally find the limit of those brakes... I had been going deeper and deeper each lap, and finaly found my brake marker :) At the very end of the session, as Joe and i got the checkered flag and ran up the hill to turn-2, I noticed the track had some dirt kicked up on it. I recall saying "looks like someone went off", and just at the very moment I saw the car off in Turn-2. Not just any car... a Porsche GT3 ($100,000+ value) into the tires. He went home of course... probably to get some OT work in to start paying for the damages (ouch!). The track was pretty greasy though, and not as easy to go fast. At one point, following a Vette thru turn-10, ( I was much faster), the Datsun went into a 4 wheel drift. Not sideways, but none of the tires were holding the track at all. It just took me well off line but nothing critical. Just goes to show how the weather was changing the track as the day progressed. There was one point where I was getting a "point by" by a red Mini in the braking zone of turn-11 (a non-passing zone). I didnt take him up on the offer of course and passed him on the front straight where it was allowed. Well afterwards I figured that situation out... the Mini was one of the instuctors, and the point by signal is very similar to the "follow me" signal. I mistook his "follow me" as a "pass me" (which I was lucky not to accept). I assume he wanted me to follow his because I was off the standard racing line (I was intentionally moved over one lane to the right due to my braking point being much later then everyone else's). Him and I spoke about it later and I let him know that I NOW know what he was trying to say and will pay closer attention in the next sessions. He was cool with that :)

Leading onto the main straight

After some heated debate with Jeff, I finally forced him into the Datsun for the 3rd and 4th sessions of the day. I stepped out to allow Jeff to get the track time in... which didnt bother me in the slightest. In fact, quite the opposite... I really enjoyed seeing my car on track in capable hands. It really gave me the opprotunity to see how the car reacts in certain corners... it was very cool. I was still pretty beat from those karts the night before and my fore-arms were hurting pretty badly with the further abuse I gave them from the Datsun (no power steering), so handing the car off was just fine by me. I spent an hour flapping my lips again, explain to Jeff just about every detail of the track and how the car will react to each corner. The car is a tough loose on entry and tight on exit... "brake here", "gas here" (which translated to "when you arent on the brakes, you are full throttle" in that car) and that sort of stuff. I got the sense that Jeff wasnt very pleased with his first real session, even though he was passing cars out there. He surely wasnt the slowest guy on the track, but it was obvious that he was learning the course and the car and not pushing any envelopes.

The final session of the day Jeff was picking up his pace. We all headed up to turn-3a (the highest part of the track) to get some photos and video of Jeff cresting over that turn. It was a pretty cool to see the car track through there, and you can see almost every other part of the track from up there too. I finally saw a smile from Jeff following that session and that made my day. By this time, the other instructors at the track were calling him the "doorman", all while Joe and I were calling him "black flag" from the karting track the night before.

Jeff "passing" a Cobra

That evening we just grabbed some dinner (free BBQ at the track), watched a quick movie to relax, and had some good old fashion conversation (I flapped my lips some more) before going to bed about midnight. We drove the BMW home earlier too so we didnt have to deal with it on sunday. We woke at 6am and headed back out to the track for a few more sessions with me behind the wheel. Again, suffered trough the initial driver's meeting and waited for our session at 10am. My usual deal is to get to pre-grid well in advance and get out on track first so get some clean laps. even though I did do this, the marshal lined me up in the wrong line and I ended up going out at the end of all the "2" cars... but at least in front of the "1" cars. As it turned out, this was a pretty cool thing. Most of the "2" runners are up to speed and were ahead of me. The "1" drivers were slower (of course) and were directly behind me.. making a full 2.6 miles between us before i started to cath them. Joe and I sped off for one of the funnest sessions Ive had (minus last year's final session with Scott) in HPDE. I chose not to enter pit lane at all when I got caught up in traffic, instead I was going for the passes a lot more. I was passing cars left and right and since they were all HPDE-2 drivers they knew how to drive a clean line and leave me room to pass... for the most part. I was passing 1-2 cars each time we came up to another passing zone and even getting in a couple completely open laps to "hot-lap" before more traffic. Joe was really enjoying this session, egging me on "go get that Porsche!" and laughing when I did just that and passed that very Porsche at the next opprotunity. I know a Porsche will kill my datsun any day with a desent driver behind the wheel, but all these guys were just pussy-footing around and I was having a great time passing them. I also started trying to launch Joe out of my passenger seat. Using a bit more curbing here and there and giving him a true feeling of "curb-smacking". It was a great session...

Jeff cresting turn 3a

Session-2 was Jeff's turn for a ride. With his knowledge of the Datsun from the previous day, I really wanted to show him the limits of the car, so made sure to get out on pre-grid before anyone else. This back fired on me as I hit traffic right away (lap #2) and was stuck in it for the full 20 minutes The "1" drivers were much harder to pass... not because they were fast, but because they were erratic... BAD BAD erratic. All over the place, very dangerous, and I wasnt going to make it worse by storming passed them in a location that they were not comfortable. I got by some of them to get a whole lap of "at speed" running in, but that was about it. I didnt feel satisfied with that run, as Jeff really didnt get to experience what Joe had both on Saturday and in the first session of Sunday. Though I did not see it, I knew another car spun in Turn-4 again as the track had dirt all over it. This time it was one of the Vette's who jumped off the gas at the wrong time and the rear became the front. Lesson learned, but that driver got a pretty good lashing in the post-session meeting... not for the spin, but for the ignoring of the black-flag that is issued any time you spin or even put a wheel off. Him... he just kept on driving... duh!

Jeff on the run down to turn-4

Session-3 was going to be our final run of the weekend. We chose to call it an early day due to fatigue and just plain too long of a wait between the 3rd and 4th sessions. Jeff was in the car as passenger again and this time I lined up to go out at the tail of the "2" field again, just as i did in session-1 with Joe. Again, this wored perfectly as I got just about the entire session to run at full speeds with only minimal traffic at the end of the session. This time I got to really show Jeff what this little Datsun is capable of. I really used up the curbing this time, and really tested my old brake markers in all corners. I got the brakes locked up again in Turn-4, but again not anything serious. I pushed my brake marker in turn-7 to the point that I finally over-shot the corner, but again it was easily managed into an "alternate line". Did the same thing in turn-11 where I moved my braking point by about 50 feet and really pushing it. The brakes didnt lock, but I was so heavily trail-braking there that by the time I began my turn-in with that much brake still applied... well, it just didnt turn in... another alternate line was created :) My pace on the front straight and heading thru T1 and into T2 had also picked up to the point that all my normal timing of the brakes, downshift, and back on the throttle had changed. Before, I was doing all these with distinct seperation (brake, then downshift, then turn-in and gas to the apex) but now it was all at the same time. It was a very nice feeling actually.... get that much business done in a half-second with one hand steering, the other shifting, one foot across both the brake and gas pedals, and the other on the clutch. I was a masterpeice and very gratifying. My speeds were picking up so much that I finally attempted what I had been telling Jeff and Joe all weekend was possible; "full throttle thru 3 and 3a". Oh yea... I did it, but nearly at a cost; I got the car into 3 (left) and hit my late apex to setup 3a (up-hill blind right at a crest which drops major altitude on exit on the run to T4) and hammered the throttle and didnt lift off. I tried to hit that inside curb but *just* missed which then put me on a slightly wider track out point which happened to be on the dirt on the other side of the exit curbing. HOLY COW! I though we were going for a ride in the dirt for sure, but I knew that letting of the trottle in that corner was a sure way to spin... so the hammer stayed to the floor. I must have had all 4 tires on that exit curbing and half of my left sides hanging over the edge into the dirt. Crazy (TM) stuff for sure, but very fun to have done it. We finally did get into traffic the last 2 laps, but by that time my tires, and my arms, were not up for any more abuse anyway. We cruised around before pulling off and calling it a day.

After the final session we all went up to the main grand stands to watch the PRC (Porsche Racing Challenge) race, which was pretty F'n sweet. We headed back to my place and watched the F1 qualifying and race together and did a little more lip flapping (if my lips were wings... I'd be a hummingbird) before bed. I personally had a fantastic weekend; Met Joe and Jeff, two guys I have very much looked forward to meeting over this past year. Great time at the track in a car that continues to amaze me. Learned even more about my ability and experienced many new things on the track (spinners, dirt, greasyness, brake lockup, etc). And I even got to flap my lips to the point of nearly passing out... Thanks to Joe and Jeff for coming out and making my weekend. I wish some of you others could have made it out too... maybe next year?

I know I will be asked this ("so how does it compare to sim-racing?") so I will answer now; It doesnt, plain and simple. I love sim-racing and all, but the smells, sounds, sights, and everything else around you on a real track is just overwhelming. The amount of feedback a car will give you is HUGE and the amount of energy it requires to drive at speed for even 20 minutes is equal to one of our 2.5 hour endurance races. And for all the GTR2 "tire haters"... If I could bolt my ES-100 street tires onto my GTR1 Porsche-RS... I'd be 5-10 seconds a lap faster. The feeling of grip you get in GTR2 is not only more accurate to real life, it is probably STILL too little grip. My street tires feel like GTR2... full "R" slicks... they must be like super-glue compared my ES-100's.

The "Doorman" at the line

Good pictures! It looks like fun.
How long is a lap and can you post some lap times from your both :-)

We are on our way back this morning....

Lap is 2.6 (?) miles in length with our cars (stock street vehicles) in the 2:10 - 2:30 lap time range. I will run the Z in roughly the 2:18 range, and that's about all it has. Other, more prepped cars, will run in the 0's, and a fully prepped production based car will hope to under 2minutes a lap.

I got some small video and more pics when i get back tonight.

Well??? More details!!!

Oh, and I can't believe y'all broke the door on the Bimmer!! My poor car....er, I mean Tim's poor car! :)

Tommy

More details to come...

Last night when we got back from the track we just ordered some pizzas and sat back to watch the F1 qualifying and race together. From there it was straight into bed as we were all tired.

Got some cool stories from the track on Sunday though... I will share once I get caught up on some other things first.

That was VERY cool Tim! I had a great time even though I was dog ass tired.
Was a treat to meet Jeff and Joe as well as your son "My Kid" ;-) and Emelda (sp?) ;-)
Tim is one straight up stand up fella. Making sure Jeff at least got some track time after the Door incident.
Personally I think the instructor broke it when he saw Jeff's Champ Car shirt. That or Jeff just scared the crap outa him and he broke it trying to get out.
I have some more pics of just various cars that I like. I'll upload them when I get time to edit them some. There was such a vast array of vehicle in attendance...really cool stuff!
Thanks Tim!
Terry

Wrote up a bunch more in my origianl post for those that like to read my jibberish

I will post my side of the story tomorrow but I had a blast and it was great to meet tim and terry, Dude awesome pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tim, thanks again for everything!!! Whata Host you are!!!!!

wish more of you cats could have made it. what a thrill! even though i only rode along w/ HRH, like tim says, the sights, the sounds, the smells, the umbrella girls (boobs in a can). had a great weekend - dont want to go back to work. was a real pleasure to meet tim in person and he was a terrific host. terry m is one of the nicest people you will ever met. he is also a stud lugging huge camara equipment and taking brilliant photos. the man is a pro.

i wish it was possible to spend more time meeting the guys here. i always thought this was a good group and having met tim and terry in person only confirmed that. maybe we can get a race to play gathering one of these days. what a terrific weekend (damn i am tired) and if any of you are ever going through the chicago area, please give me a heads up.

btw, tim can drive for real too! plus when you tell him to run down a porsche, he does it! one last thing: jeff can fix just about anything. if we had the part, he could have fixed the door also. he might not get along w/ officials at the go kart track, but not every one is perfect. LOL.

That Z sure looks fine Tim. Any more pics, and big ones, and I mean BIG. :) Interior, exterior and under the hood.

Vid would be nice too.