Spent all day Saturday at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL. New track for me to learn and a nice change of scenery from Putnam Park. Ran the 1.46mi North course for the bulk of the trackday, followed by evening lapping on the full 3.56mi 20 turn Full course.
On the way up Friday night we drove through some pretty nasty weather (so bad at one point that I had to stop on I-65 and wait it out because the little Miata was being blown around on the highway and actually getting quite twitchy. Once the rain started coming down in buckets I decided it was safer to pull over and wait it out a bit rather than risk being blown off the interstate and into a ditch.
Saturday morning there was still quite a few patches of standing water on the track, not the most ideal conditions to go out and learn a new course. It’s one thing trying to learn a full wet line if the course is completely wet, but just a few narrow streams of water in a few select corners made it a bit difficult to learn a good line. Had a few “oh sh*t” moments in the first session, in this particular clip I had 2 in the same corner (corner 4, video starts before corner 1 and goes for a full lap).
Anyway the course dried out a bit by the second session and I was able to start to get towards a better line. Someone drops a wheel on the inside of turn 1 and drops a nice big ol patch of mud right at the apex of 1, causing everyone to shift their approach into 1 and 2 by a few feet. Towards the end of the 2nd session the full course black flag comes out, immediately followed by the checkers. We pull into the paddock and head straight towards the viewing area for turn 2. Lotus Exige has gone off and had a side-on impact with the tire wall, he got onto the mud at the apex of 1 and lost it, spun and ended up sideways into the tire wall.
Here in the 3rd session I start out doing a bit of lead + follow w/ my instructor, working on my lines. Approach turn 1 in 4th gear, a slight touch on the brakes at the [2] marker before turning in and setting up for turn 2. Down two gears to 2nd, late apex and power out towards turn 3. Lift at [1] and turn in, late apex to set up for turn 4. Not running too wide on the exit of 4 to set up for turn 5. A quick blast down the straight, up to 4th gear before hitting the brakes hard at [2.25], down to 3rd and a late turn-in for corner 6. Another blast down the straight, up a gear before hitting the brakes at [2] for corner 7. Another late turn-in corner to set up for the final two corners of the lap, taken as one corner with decreasing radius:
In the final 1hr session of the North track it is open track so all drivers are on at the same time, here on the approach to turn 1. In this picture you can see the fast moving air above the soft top is actually generating some lift, enough to make it ‘balloon’ down the straights. My instructor thinks I could drop a second a lap if I went top down instead, calling my rag-top a ‘parachute’
On the approach to turn 1 in the North course at Autobahn Country Club
I decide to come in about 10 mins from the end of the session to get some water and rest before the full course running. A few minutes later the black flag comes out once again, this time the casualty is a beautiful 2001 metallic blue M5. Prognosis in the pitlane is pretty terminal, there is coolant and oil all over the right side of the engine. What a shame, a really nice guy too.
Finally in the 1.5hr open track full course running I start out following my instructor for the first couple of laps, learning the south track that I have not much reference for except for a few youtube videos. This time I opt to run the car with the top down so the sounds picked up from the camera are muffled by the wind noise. 8-10 laps into it and I’m starting to figure out a line and pick out my braking points. Come in, have a drink and wait for the course to clear out a bit. End off the day with a 35 min session with plenty of open track, really start to get into a rhythm around the 3.56mi track towards the end. Shame the memory card on the camera ran out 8 mins into the session though
By the time I got into a good rhythm around the full course the memory card had already maxed out. Call it a day with about 10 mins left of tracktime as I am dead tired by then (4.5hrs total track time in 1 day is a slight bit much for me as I knew I still had to make the 2.5hr drive back home). Quite a productive day!
Keeping track of entry costs for the season: another $300 for this event putting the season total up to $655 so far.
Got to run at Gingerman Raceway for the first time yesterday afternoon for their mid-week test’n'tune. The sessions were run on the newly revisied 2.21mi circuit. Test’n'tunes are run Tue/Wed/Thurs from 5:30pm-8:30pm with the track time split amongst three run groups. Overall a really great way to spend an afternoon, just a shame its so far away otherwise I’d probably go much more often!
