During the weekend of Oct 2nd and 3rd, 1999, I had the opportunity to
attend the 1999 Carrera Classic, the driver's education weekend
event that the St. Louis region of the PCA hosts annually. 

For a course map, please see www.gatewayracing.com/track/map.htm.  For
information on my car, see www.starnet.net/~menelaos/951.html.

Before I get too caught up w/ telling this story, I need to state that
from an organizational standpoint, this was a good event.  Despite a
somewhat late start on Saturday, we got back to schedule quickly and the
operation was running very smoothly. The track now features "armco"-like
barriers at some of the road couse turns so that dirt and rocks are not
kicked up in the track when cars are clipping the corners tightly. 

I also want to note that the PCA region decided to make available the
opportunity for non DE participants ( people who normally would not be
able to drive on the track ) to get a feel of what the world looks like
while navigating the road course (at much reduced speeds, of course). 
These lunch-time track laps were named "$5 for the Fight", asking for
donation of $5 for 5 laps towards the the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
(ALS) research fund.  ALS is also known as the Lou Gehrig;s disease.  The
region raised over $600 of charity funds.

Overall, I have to say kudos to the volunteers and people responsible for
the event! 

With that out of the way...

It was my second attendance of a DE at this venue, the first time being a
in August of 1998.  I had mixed feelings while getting ready to attend the
event.  Part of me felt excited at the chance of driving the same track
and being able to gauge how my driving skills have improved.  Yet, I was
worried about getting over-confident and slamming the car on a wall.  I
was also curious if this was going to be a waste of time, that maybe I
should have opted for attending a DE at a different track I had never been
to before.  It turned out that a number of variables conspired together to
make this DE a very educational event. 

I prepared myself and my car as best as I could and headed for the track. 
I thought I remembered the track pretty well and reviewed the notes I had
made last year about turn-in points and how the car behaved.  As soon as I
put the car on the track though, I realized that this might as well have
been a totally new track as many many things were different. 

One major difference was that the weather was a lot cooler than it was on
either one of the two DEs I have attended before.  Thus, instead of the
80-90F temperatures that I was used to, we were driving at temperatures
between 50-65F w/ the sun playing hide and seek behind sometime quite
thick clouds. Things I had been taking for granted such as the nearly
instantaneous warming up of the tires and brakes was not there.  On the
2nd lap of the 2nd session on Saturday I locked up the front left wheel
while braking before turn 7.  I had never locked up a wheel before and I
was totally surpised that such a thing would happen on a track.  I believe
of lack of feedback from the cold brake pads had conspired w/ the lack of
traction from the cold tires. Eventually, I had to make a point of
dragging the brakes in the beginning of each session to warm them up as
otherwise I would find myself going into turns feeling as if I was heading
into a nasty surprise. 

The other difference was that in this second outing at Gateway I had tires
of totally different sizes and compound on the car (semi-bald Dunlop
SP8000s 225/50f, 245/45r vs no-name M+S H-rated 205/55f, 225/50r). I
expected that this would make quite a difference in the way the car
handled, but not to the degree it did.  For example, last year the car
used to understeer on turn 7 when I applied power, this year I could power
oversteer out of that corner easily.  I was also able to carry much more
speed throught many curves.

Finally, I had to deal w/ rain.  I had never driven at a DE event in rainy
conditions.  The rain, along w/ mud spread over parts of the track by spun
cars made me drive really defensively, I wanted to drive my car home and
not have to tow it to a body shop.

Saturday was the usual story that applies to the first day of a
DE for me.  Nothing worked right. I was taking some of the turns
correctly, but I had to learn the track all over again (even though I had
the track map memorized from last year) and everyone was passing me.  I
felt like a total rookie again, ( I had been placed in the
"advanced" rookie group ).  While I was getting the line better and
better
all the time, I was very slow.  Someone I know who had recently finished
the Skip Barber school told me that he had been watching me and commented
favorably on how he thought I was using the "racing" line, I just needed
to pick up the pace. I had no feel for the controlled power drifts and
slides, the car felt really different.  When I saw that one of the
cars in my group got its magic "solo" sticker while gridding for the last
session of the first day, I felt like I should just go home.  In addition
to that, the last two sessions were under rainy conditions, one session
driven w/ wipers and headlights on.  The rain, coupled w/ the lack of the
usual feel from the vehicle made those laps a bit scary for me, though I
did not have any close calls or bad slides. 

Thankfully, Sunday morning was warmer.  The behavior of the car changed
from Saturday's behavior and kept changing.  It was at this point that I
started figuring out what was going on and how the new variables thrown in
the equation were affecting my driving.  It was about time!  The warmer
temperatures were letting the tires warm up much faster.  This altered the
seat of the pants feel of the car and made me more comfortable about why
the car was feeling different to me, helping me adjust.  Not that it made
a big difference, but I started driving the car around in circles before
getting on the grid in an attempt to warm up the tires.  The increased
comfort factor due to understanding what was happening let me get back
into the groove again. 

Here, I have to make a quick parentesis.  My daily driver is a front wheel
drive car.  Even though I practice the braking and curve negotiation
skills developed during DEW's on the street w/ it, its dynamics are
completely different when I start pushing to the edge of the "envelope". I
had to a great degree forgotten how to drive a RWD car due to honing my
skills on a FWD for 3 1/2 months since the DEW at Road America.  I almost
feel like selling the daily driver and buying something w/ RWD or at least
quattro.  Currently, I am making a point of learning how to separate in my
mind the behavior of the two cars and of taking the 951 out weekly for a
good drive so I will not have to retrain myself like that.

So, having a better understanding of what I should watch for in the car's
feel, I proceeded in hauling rear end, at least as best as I could. On
some of the corners I had pretty much reached all the speed that I could
get to comfortably, thus I started working on other corners where I could
easily modify the line or reduce the amount of time spent braking.  It
worked, overall the laps felt a lot better and the speed increased
considerably.  At the end of the second session on Sunday I got the magic
sticker allowing me to drive solo around the track.

So, what speeds you ask?  Let see, at the banked curve, I started at about
60mph on early Saturday, got it close to 70mph before it rained and got it
to about 85mph on Sunday.  All these speeds are according to very quick
glances that I could take at the speedometer when I was scanning the
indicators.  I do not have an on-board camera yet.  As soon as I was
getting close to the exit of the banked
curve, I would start accelerating hard.  That may be a bit silly given the
track-out point I was using was someone's wheel and paint marks on the
wall.  Yet, the car felt stable as it was sliding towards the wall under
power and long before a close encounter w/ the wall was eminent, the track
would straighten out and I would be driving w/ the boost gauge close to or
at 2 accelerating to the brake point.  (there are no brake markers at
Gateway, you have to use something else to make your brake point)  At
least once I saw 120mph before reaching the brake point before turn 1.  I
was having a lot of fun "standing" on the accelerator right to the point I
had to begin braking. Then, I would get on the brakes, modulating them and
experimenting w/ how much speed I was dropping since if done properly one
can carry quite some speed through turn 1. 

So, brake down to 60-80mph, depending on how gutsy I felt, turn into 1,
straighten the car, heel-and-toe from 4th to 3rd gear and brake again to
40-50mph.  Power out of the curve being careful not to turn in too
quickly/sharply and pinch the curve too tightly as a result at 2.
Accelerate.  When I was getting it right, I was doing at least 65-70 going
into 3 w/ the boost coming on pretty well.  Hit the brakes a bit to scrub 
speed and get additional traction on the front tires, then take
3 and 4 fast w/ liberal throttle application, feeling the tail slide
around the corners.  Then position the car for turn 5, adjusting the line
for the water puddle right after the apex and accelerate towards it. 

Here, I would see other cars take a totally different line that I one I
have been shown by two different instructors.  Of course, those other cars
were not 944s and I was pretty confident in the line I was already using.
So, brake again midway in 6 and power out of it.  This was one of the
curves where I occasionally felt a bit like Sideways-Stephen, I could tell
the car was really sliding.  Yet, the exit speeds were improving, so I
stayed w/ this line, experimenting w/ it so that I would not spent too
much time going sideways, trying to get it better and better so I could
accelerate harder out of the curve.  Accelerate hard towards 7 w/ the
boost kicking in till what seemed like the last foot available and then
brake down to 40mph.  Turn into 7 and power through it carefully not to
cause either understeer by turning too sharply or oversteer by giving the
car too much power and onto to the banked curve again.  Upshift to the 4th
gear.

That was so much fun!  Coming out of 2, 5 and 6, there was enough of an
exit speed to get the engine to the heavy boost zone.  I love tearing up
the track like that and apparently it showed given the comments I received
in the paddock.  I did not spend too much energy concentrating on a single
corner till later on Sunday, I was mostly trying to improve the whole lap
and remove gross errors and time wasted coasting or braking.  The improved
consistency and generous application of the 951's power helped bridge some
of the gap created by the fact that most of other cars in my group were
using either really sticky street tires or real track tires.  (and yet Tom
Malloy was still passing me in his race-prepared g-Force R1 shod 924S :-) 
). 

Unfortunately, things had to come to an early end as a storm moved in to
the region.  First, the track was shut down due to lightning activity. 
Not too much later, it started raining hard enough to where the puddles of
standing water on the track were too big and the track closed for the
weekend.  Thus, many groups missed Sunday's last session.  It was good as
a mental challenge to me though because I was getting ready to go out of
the track under rainy conditions.  I was disappointed when the track
closed, I really wanted to try it.  This was quite a difference from
Saturday where I felt extremely uneasy to be on the wet track. 

To conclude, this was an excellent event.  I do not think I learned much
as far as braking or negotiating turns, but I learned a lot about how to
translate the car's feel.  I feel much better prepared to explore the
boundaries of the "envelope" the next time I am on the street or the
track. 

Last but not least, I need to mention the people factor that seems to
define many of the club members, making the event even more of a pleasure
to attend.  In the specific case, the weekend had started early on Friday
night as I met w/ lister John Wade and Tom Malloy from Tennessee for a
great dinner and terrific company at the St. Louis Brewery.  John had
responded to the message I had sent out to events@rennlist.org about the
DE.  I am very glad Tom and John were able to attend.

Does this sound like fun to you?  I hope to see you at the track!

P.S.  Next year, I hope to improve turns 1 and 6, I can probably drop
quite a few seconds on those two.  I do not think that my street tires are
limiting me yet, my driving skills are still the limiting factor.  

P.P.S  I need to buy safety harnesses.  I kept bracing myself against the
car's interior w/ my knees in the turns.