The best part about the offseason is that the season is, in fact, off. That leaves all kinds of would-be training time to enjoy the finer things in life, be it a round of golf, a trip to the hill for some pow sessions, or just relaxing with some records.

Relaxation was not the name of the game last week for me. I took a day off work and shot up to Thunderhill Raceway for a day of track driving in the Subaru. My friend from Loral, Bill, is a professional driving instructor and harassed me into going along for the day. I was eager to test out the WRX with the fairly minor mods I had made over the past months. It was the real deal, with helmets, taped headlights, and removal of everything not bolted down inside the car (even the spare tire!).

The track was awesome. Super technical, with 15 turns and lots of elevation change in a little over 2 miles. There were 3 'run groups' for the day, all based on the skill and experience level of the drivers. I was relegated to Group C since I am a noob. Bill is an A Group driver and his group contained a brand new Ferrari, Viper, heavily modded Evos, NSX's, and some Miatas that were not street legal. In fact, about half the drivers brought their cars on or in trailers. Big ballers.
After a few sessions, things really started to click. The car was drifting hard in every corner, but I figured out how to control it and it was FUN. In no time I was smoking much sportier and pricier cars...in a wagon yo! Riding in the passenger seat with Bill during the A Group runs was the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Going sideways at 90+ mph while passing slower cars had me clawing my fingernails into the door handle.

During the last C Group run of the day, I was smoking my fastest laps of the day. I was mastering heel-toe driving, where you operate the brake and throttle with the same foot while speed-downshifting. Coming off a triple pass on the start/finish straightaway, I found myself flying into Turn 1 at about 100mph. Turn 1 is a left handed sweeper with no banking. I braked coming in, kissed the apex at about 80mph, and accelerated out. The car was drifting really hard here, and fearing long walk/short plank situations, I lifted the throttle just a tad.


Aaa-whoops! The car was already on the limit, and I would have made it (according to copilot Bill) without intervention. Upsetting the balance of a car on the limit, much like a bicycle on a twisty descent or a hard crit corner, is fatal. In this case, just letting up a bit was enough to get the rear end loose. I tried to save it, and thought I had, but in the end we pulled two full 360 degree spins down the track at 70+ and went off into the dirt...sideways. The video that follows is not me, but is identical to what I did:



I was pretty scared of flipping the car at that point. Luckily we had slowed enough to avoid digging in too hard and rolling over. The big problem ended up being the windows, which had to be rolled down during driving sessions. Moving sideways through dirt at 30 mph + no windows = LOTS of dirt in the cabin. I just finished vacuuming for the 3rd time this weekend. There was even dirt in the CD player. One tire was flat from being rolled, which we fixed pretty quickly. The track guys closed the session with a BLACK FLAG... boooo.

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