Past Events: Track Day at Portland Int'l Raceway - Aug 16, 2001
by Mark Balsiger
Well, I had one of those experiences that makes life worth living, or at least makes you realize how alive you really are. Last Thursday, our Z club teamed up with the BMW club for a driving school and race day at Portland International Raceway.
Here is how the day unfolded:
7:30 am Check in / waiver release (sign your life away) 8:00 am Vehicle/helmet inspection 8:30 am Driver's meeting 9:00 am Ground school for 1st time drivers 10:00 am Novice Race Session #01 11:30 am Novice Race Session #02 12:00 pm Lunch 2:30 pm Novice Race Session #03 3:00 pm Race Day over (for me)
Obviously, the day was packed with lots of other goings on, but the above is how the day progressed. In all honesty I was pretty tense during the entire Race Session #01. As the Novice Group was called to our cars and drove to the staging area my stomach was in knots. It was a totally surreal experience. I have never worn a race helmet before which added to the experience.
The pre-stage area is where you pick up an instructor who rides with you during the session and these guys were GREAT! Next, you proceed to the start line and the starter spaces the cars about 5 seconds apart. In our group there were about 25 cars on the course at a time. You start on the front straight and basically haul ass down the straight, into the first sets of turns, onto the back straight, into the final sets of turns, and finally back onto the front straight (the chicane was closed).
During the sessions the Z was awesome. It totally outperformed me. I never lost control of the car (unlike Mr. Ernst) nor did I push the car to its limits even when doing 130 in the front straight and 60-80 in the corners.
Each session I had a different instructor and each taught me different aspects of racing, driving and the course. Needless to say I got faster and more confident each session and improved my technique as the day progressed. (I still have a lot to learn.)
We only had one mishap all day and that happened when a driver in the Advanced group ran his $50,000 M Roadster into the tire wall at 80 mph. It closed the course for an hour while they tried to get the car off the wall.
We had about 100 cars racing and we were broken up by driver skill level:
Novice
Intermediate
Advanced
Race Car/High Performance
The cars ranged from a Lotus Elise to an old Datsun 510. We had 4 Z's out at the track (only 2 were racing) and $120,000 Porsches, $90,000 BMW's, Vipers, Corvettes and lots of M3's.
All in all, it was a great day. I learned a lot, the car performed great and I can't wait to do it again. I would encourage everyone to participate the next time you have the chance. It is a great way to improve your driving skills, meet other Z'ers and... oh yeah, you get to go really, really fast legally.
