NNJR Watkins Glen I May 8-10, 1998

Steve's First Track Event

PCA's Northern New Jersey Region hosted a three day Driver's Ed event at Watkin's Glen during the Mother's Day weekend this year. As a result of the holiday and the weather forecast, turnout was rather low - not that I knew that or would have cared. This was my first time on a track, and I was just about walking on air with anticipation.

With all the rain the first day, everyone was glad to have a spot in the garage.

With lots of rain in the forecast, a lot of people canceled their plans, skipped the first day, or left their cars on their trailers. As a result just about everybody managed to squeeze into a garage space. When I got up to the paddock close to 7:30 - not realizing how monumentally late this was at such a lightly attended event - I started prowling around looking for an open spot in the garage. I found one at the back on the staging side - and found out later that my garage mate was Paul Dudley, the only other NER member at the event. The picture at right has him showing off the cords he discovered in his track tires the morning of Day 3...

Having a low turnout for this event was actually wonderful good luck for me. My introduction would be to somewhat adverse conditions - steady light rain with running water on the track - so it would only get better from here, and I wouldn't be alarmed by rain at future events. Plus, with a low turnout I wasn't so worried about people spinning on a crowded track and getting in harm's way. At least, this is what I was telling myself as we prepped our cars before the drivers meeting.

Day One

Staging in the rain for an early run group on Day 1.

The first day it rained steadily through the morning, with occasional bursts in the afternoon. I was very glad I'd thought to bring rain gear, because even though you have excellent professional flaggers at the Glen, you still have a work assignment and likely as not you'll be running around. I just wish I'd brought the heavy duty rain suit rather than a jacket and hat... Soaked blue jeans are no fun to move around in.

That rain gear wasn't really necessary the second day, as we had little rain and even some sun in the late morning and early afternoon. It was nice to see the difference a dry track can make... It also gave me a better opportunity to take some photos while I was working Pit Out.

This was my first track event, but I really liked working Pit Out. It was a little nerve wracking being the the only person there sometimes, trying not to think about what might happen if you sent someone out at the wrong time. Fortunately since I was in the Green run group, I was handling the Red/Black run group. They didn't exactly need me there, but they tolerated me with good grace when I did hold someone up.

The view along the front straight from Pit Out.

Day Two

On the other hand, working Pit Out the second day gave me a chance to take some photos of the cars going by. They appear sprinkled through the rest of this page, just to break things up. It was interesting to watch how the Red/Black group took Turn 1. I didn't follow what they were doing all of the time, and I wasn't about to try any of it, but it was certainly exhilirating to listen to them as they came into the heavy braking zone at the end of the straightaway!

The first day let me get used to the track layout and some of the basic differences in track driving versus street driving. It's one thing to read about it, and altogether another to actually follow your line in traffic going up through the Esses. So I tried to get the basics down, check my mirrors, and got very used to giving the passing signal to other cars. I knew that the Turbos and six-cylinder cars had more power, but on the street it was rarely that much of an issue. Here, I was plagued by people wanting to get around my relatively underpowered car at only 190 HP...

A 911 growls and snarls its way to the end of the front straight.

But then again, I caught a couple of people too. Turned out I did a fairly good job of getting through the Esses, and some people don't right away. I had trouble with the off-camber left at Turn 9, but by the end of Day 2 I would regularly find myself crawling up some 911 or 944T's tailpipe halfway through the Esses and hoping he'd give me the pass (and a lift) quickly when we hit the back straight. I never expected to be frustrated by my car, but it's painful to realize you just don't have the muscle to get by people when you really want to.

But I did get to pass people a few times, and mostly got used to that experience -- though I had a bad moment when someone gave me the signal very late on the back straight and I had to enter the Inner Loop from off the line. I did it, and even managed to get through the Loop fairly well, but I didn't like it. No more than I liked it when a 944 Turbo passed me on the heel of The Boot without waiting for a signal - we'd only just gotten out of the turn, I hadn't even had a chance to take a hand off the wheel! Not good manners for the Green/Yellow run group...

The biggest problem I remember having was ignoring what the driver in front of me was doing. I found it very hard to drive my own line, and to lose the street habits of going off the throttle whenever someone in front of me lifted or hit the brakes. I also found myself with only one hand on the steering wheel a lot more often than I should have, usually in those situations. More street habits to lose.

Charlie Boyer's 914 at the end of the front straight.

My instructor for this weekend was Charlie Boyer, and I consider myself lucky. Charlie is an excellent driver and a good instructor, and definitely knows how to get around the track the best way possible. The highlight of the weekend, if I could possibly pick one, would be when I got a ride in Charlie's car. I payed as much attention as I could to what he was doing, but it was hard to stay focused on any one thing as we tore around that track.

At this time Charlie's 914 had a modified 4 cylinder displacing 2.4 liters (I think) and putting out about 160HP. Despite this, we were passing 993s and Turbos in some spots. I got a taste for what it feels like to be at the limits of adhesion on this ride, and in more than one corner I could feel the car skipping to the outside of the turn as we got through it as fast as possible. Intense! I think that grin was stuck on my face well into the following week.

During the last session of the day, my brake pad wear indicator came on. We only had a few minutes left, so I stayed out for another lap and the cool-down under checker. When I got back into the garage and got a wheel off, I discovered that I was down to the backing plate on my front pads!

These were Metal Master (aka Repco) pads, and I'd blown through them in two days, one of them wet and therefore a lot cooler for the brakes. Some people apparently take the approach of buying a set of these pads for each dry track day, since they are very cheap compared to OEM or various racing compound pads. But the way I figure it, what happens on the day when the temperature is extreme, or you find yourself suddenly having to ask a lot more of your brakes than you had expected, and these things just vaporize on you? Thanks, I'll stick with at least the OEM Jurid or Textar pads for now.

A 914 club racer screams into the braking zone before The Ninety.

Thus began my first introduction to the spirit of comaraderie that brings these Porsche nuts together. Paul Dudley had spare pads, but didn't think they'd fit my calipers. I made an announcement over the PA and got one response, but the woman in question had a later 944 Turbo with four piston calipers - those pads definitely wouldn't fit. Paul suggested that we take a run down to an autoparts store in Horseheads or Elmira and see if they had anything. Not content to give directions, Paul drove me down there himself. After failing in our quest we went and joined the rest of the NNJR gang at a local restaurant for dinner.

Day Three

The final day on the schedule started off in heavy rain, and that's where it ended. I believe the photo below was from tech inspection that day, but at the drivers meeting it was determined that only a handful of people were really dedicated to going out in those conditions, and the forecast wasn't promising. The organizers made the right choice in not sending nearly 20 corner workers out in that mess so that a half dozen people could lap the track at 40-50 mph. It was still disappointing, but I agreed with the decision.

Actually, that's Charlie Boyer again on the left working as a tech inspector.

While all of this was going on, I had taken out one of my newly bare brake pad backing plates and compared it to Paul's spare pads. It turns out that my 944S still used the same caliper as the pre-85½ cars, and Paul gladly loaned me a pair so that I could make it home without abusing my brake rotors. All he would let me do was return the pad - it wasn't as if I'd be taking a significant amount of material off the pad getting home, but still. At some point I hope to at least buy him a beer.

Before I packed my camera I took some photos of this 944 Turbo club racer that seemed to be passing everybody the previous day.

That was the end of my first DE event. I dawdled while packing up my track box and loading everything back into the car. I didn't really want it to be over. Several folks were staying for Metro New York's DE session the following day, but I hadn't taken that day off or signed up. So I waved to the one or two folks who were still around, closed and locked the garage door to our bay, and began the long, wet journey home.