My car. Definitely not my hat. :headscratch:

It was an amazing few days. It started out pretty rough when I left at 2 am on Thurs morning and got to T-Hill about 1. I felt pretty loopy on track (including a spin) and my car definitely wasn't working well on the worn tires on an unfamiliar track. Seeing the whole group up there was outstanding. The last time we were all together was in ID when we thought we were losing our friend to cancer so this trip was really uplifting.

I had brought a new set of tires and on Friday everyone lent a hand in getting the car out of the trailer, the wheels off and the tires mounted.

On Sat when I got to Sonoma my confidence was not high. I felt like a S**show at T Hill and my wife had called the night before to tell me our pet was at the emergency vet.

I got my head squared away and got on track. The first session I was running with HPDE 2&3 combined so there was some really slow traffic and passing was only allowed on the straights. I had been swinging wide on turn 9 looking at a possible spot to pass. When we did our driver debrief the instructor called me out saying I had some issues with my line. That actually helped as it pissed me off and I told him don't worry I will clean that up next session.

The next session was only HPDE3 and was open passing on the entire track so I came out determined for redemption. When I came in for the debrief the instructor called me out again. This time it was (in his French accent) " where is my orange Cobra? I was watching you closely again. I like what I see. Very nice."

At that point I still felt motivated but also relaxed. I told Morgan, the instructor, That my goal was to get signed off for comp school so I could race in AI. He told me "from what I see that should not be a problem. Come talk to me at the end of the day". The last session was with HPDE 3&4. Surprisingly some of the drivers in 4 were actually kinda squarely but some were dam fast. That session was awesome. I found myself stalking a C7 Vette for a couple of laps as he kept leaving me on the straights even when I thought I had him passed out of the corners. Finally I laid back and got a good run on him out of 10 and blocked him in 11 and gapped him After that. Later that lap a pair of Radicals caught and passed me out of the carousel and then I found a new GT350R on me. After a lap of fighting to stay ahead of him he got me coming into 7. Then I chased him for a couple of laps as he and I worked through some slower traffic. The session was a rush. It was really a taste of what I want to do; race not time trial, actually run wheel to wheel with no passing restrictions.

When I went to the final driver debrief the instructor signed me off into HPDE4 and said he saw no reason I shouldn't sign up for comp check out.

I left the track having accomplished what I wanted. I can now check out for my comp license and start planning on running as a rookie in AI next year.

Now I need to get myself some more consistent seat time. My last time out was last August at the Mini Nats. I only have 10 track days under my belt in my car so I need to change that. I also need to do some basic tuning on my car. I have yet to even check the alignment specs and for Sat sessions I set my tire pressure and just checked and reset it once without temp readings. I need to put some effort into getting the car to work a little better on corner entry and see if I can find a little more overall grip.

AI ran races on Sat and my times would have put me in second or third to last place. About 4 seconds off third and forth and 10 seconds off the best laps of the winning car.

I felt great on track but I have some work to do on me and the car.

Soooo, what you're saying is, it (you) didn't suck. Nice!

I guess I hadn't realized the process of running up through HPDE to get a comp license, makes sense though. So one more check out and you're literally off to the races?

80 cars on track...good gawd! What did the AI field look like? I watch and support the E30 class in the NW and 35 cars on grid seems like a good amount.

Nice recovery on the weekend, something to be said for a guy that can tune out the noise and get focused on what needs to be done. Hope your pet (I'm guessing a pot belly pig) made a full recovery from the weekend as well.

Thanks for the update, you know I'm rootin for you! :theresa:

:cheers: :flag2: :thumbsup:

Rob did a fantastic job at Sonoma! We all watched in the stands as he progressed.... and that's the best part of all of this --- getting better.... learning... and doing it with friends!

Just generally a stellar week!

The 405 on Friday evening at 5.

Yeah, NASA was abit of a cluster. Cars were green, making a full lap at speed, while 20 or more cars were on track stopped, waiting to take off. Intimidated the hell out of me, had to be more then 80 in one session.

Glad that you had a good time! Keep it up :thumbsup:

Rightfully so they don't want people on track in open passing situations who shouldn't be there.

They run multiple classes on track at the same time. Think about LeMams and the different cars racing different classes on track at once. There were too many cars on track to get a clean lap but at the same time working through traffic is more fun than time trailing anyway.

The top AI guys looked FAST. The winner and second place guy both posted sub 1:50 time in traffic.

Thanks for the support I appreciate it. It means a lot.

Now get yourself a clapped out race car and come out there with me.

Or get yourself a really nice race car -- just buy my '07 Mustang..... after I fix the "throwing belts" issue..... An easy fix.

As well built and detailed as the 07 is, right meow I'm more of a clapped out kind of guy. Lol

I'll get to the point where I can spend 35k+ on a toy, just not there yet. I tell ya what though, that car on a real race site for sale is closer to $45-50k.....just sayin.

:flag2: :thumbsup: