TracQuest HPDE, Spring Mountain Raceway

Continuing the action-packed Vegas trip, Sunday & Monday were the TracQuest driver education event at Spring Mountain Motorsports Park in Pahrump, about an hour northeast of Las Vegas.

Sunday

I skipped the morning TBHL drive out to the Valley of Fire in favor of doing the full track day. Several TBHL folks caravanned out to Pahrump, among them Chris Brown in his Silver Boxster, Michael Lansky in his Speed Yellow Boxster S towing his self-built track trailer, and Patricia Overell in her Arena Red Boxster. Michael "Docta Boxsta" Saal was supposed to caravan with us in his SY S, but he was late for the meeting, so we figured we'd see him at the track.

Before leaving I checked out of the Monte Carlo, a day earlier, after realizing that there was no point in driving back to Vegas for the Sunday night stay. So I just booked a room in Pahrump. I think when I was making the reservations, I expected the distance between Las Vegas and Pahrump to be shorter, and of course didn't take into account the fact that I would be tired of driving.

It turned out that the Docta was late because his car had developed a power steering pump problem of some sort on Saturday, and he'd taken it in to Gaudin Porsche for repair. Although he missed the TracQuest event because of it, it wasn't too bad because his family were planning a five-day trip to Bryce Canyon starting Tuesday, so he was able to leave the car at Gaudin during the trip, taking the minivan with Elicia and little Jakey on the trip, and picking up the repaired Boxster on the way back. They still made it out to Pahrump for the two days, but without the Boxster.

The day on the track was great. I got instruction from Jim Richardson and also got to ride with Todd Serota. I think my ride with Todd, although very fast, was the first time as a passenger on track that I wasn't scared. Perhaps Todd is just very smooth, or maybe there's something about the 996 or the tight turns (and consequent lack of extremely high speed) of the track at Spring Mountain. I really noticed how fast Todd's heel-toe downshifts were, and I realized that I really need to start heel-toeing because I am definitely losing time on the heavy braking turn entries as I do all my braking, then downshift with throttle blip. It would be much better if I did the downshift with throttle blip while doing the braking. At least I'm pretty smooth via the throttle blip, so my downshifts don't unsettle the car when I do it in a turn. But on the tightest of corners after higher speed sections, I definitely lose time because I'm often coasting through the turn-in and trying to downshift and match revs and declutch as I approach the apex, and can't get on the throttle until all of this is done, which is sometimes after the apex! And that's really bad when the turn leads onto a long straight where every MPH of lost exit speed is a penalty grown and carried for a long distance. (Turn 11 at Thunderhill is my personal worst example of this, but turns 3, 4, 5, and 7 at Spring Mountain are similarly bad for me!)

It was very hot. A connector on Michael Lansky's power steering pump melted from overheating, so he had to give up after the morning sessions. He said he'd had the same problem before with his S. Was there a coincidence that both Michael Lansky's and Michael Saal's Speed Yellow Boxster S's both had power steering failures at Las Vegas?

Chris Brown was running on street tires and they were starting to blister. My two day-old sticky tires were starting to look fairly worn. This is tough track, especially when combined with the heat.

I improved my time down to 2:03.79.

A bunch of us met for dinner at what was supposedly the only good place in town, a small winery. They were happy to take our large group booking, but it turned out they were overwhelmed. The service was awful (repeated screwed up orders, things taking forever), the food was bad, and it was just a bad experience, other than the good conversation. Although there was one guy there who proudly told the story of the time he got arrested for leading a cop on a low-speed chase for an hour after being caught speeding. I think everyone was just sitting there in stunned silence as he rambled proudly on, recounting his moronic behavior in full psychopathic detail. What a complete idiot.

Monday

The second track day was similar to the first, with a slightly different mix of people, as some headed home and others joined after spending Sunday with the TBHL crowd. Steve "macsak" Kumasaka showed up and I gave him a ride for the last session of the day. Kevin C. was there in his Arctic Silver Boxster, one of his last track days before the arrival of his new S.

Karl Asseily's BMW M Coupe was running right in front of or right behind me for quite a few laps throughout the day. He seemed to drive really well and it was fun to chase or be chased. I think he tended to pull nearly a second a lap faster than me. His car was running on street tires but I think he said it has had some significant suspension and intake/exhaust mods.

I improved my time down to 2:03.17.

As we were packing up, the track owner Rupert Bragg-Smith took one of the school's Corvette's for a spin the paddock. That is, he did a handful of laps in full burnout mode, at full opposite lock with the car going sideways in a big circle around a couple of prepped M3's and their open trailers. When he stopped, he said, "I just wanted to show you the Corvette running circles around the BMW's."

Kevin and I caravanned all the way to Bakersfield. He'd had enough and stopped at a hotel for the night, while I continued on. At some point around 1 AM I realized I was getting way too drowsy, so I pulled into a rest area and took a nap, before continuing the last hour or two the rest of the way home.

It was a great way to squeeze 4 outstanding track days and one Boxster gathering day into just 6 days of time.

When I loaded the sticky tires onto the trailer, I noticed that they were toast! There was quite a bit of the steel belt cord showing, and the rest of the tire was worn down pretty much completely (and pretty evenly, too). This track is just brutal on tires. I think it's partially due to a fairly abrasive surface, plus a lot of heavy sideways force on the tires due to turns 1 and 2 at high speed, and turn 4 under full throttle. It's a good thing I brought brand new track tires with me, because my old set wouldn't have made it through!