PIR (Phoenix International Raceway) - 11/27/99: NASA
Video and more pictures coming soon!
I called the hotline number at 480-961-3864 and talked to a guy on the phone about the event. The deal goes like this. If you're never ran with NASA before or if you've never ran at PIR you need to go through their driving school. The cost will add $50 to your entry fee of $125. You also need to be a member of their club to race with them which is another $25. The membership is good for one year from the date of purchase though so that's not too bad. Their events are usually just for fun and they don't do any time trials or award prizes for anyone but the race group. For them to consider your car a race car it needs to have at least a 6 point rollcage (bolt in or welded in), window net, and fire extinguisher. So it sounds like it won't take a lot to do actual wheel to wheel racing with this group. Usually the prizes are "NASA bucks" the guy informed me. He didn't explain what they were but I'd imagine that it's good for merchandise or entry fees???
So since I've got the racing fever from the weekend before out at Firebird I decide to fork out the $200. I leave the house real early so I can get a good spot at the track. When I get there I think I left just a little too early because it's pitch black, freezing cold, and I'm the first person out there. Then to top it off PIR is not a very easy track to figure out how to get to the infield, especially when it's dark outside and you've never been there before. After about 30 minutes of driving around I find an opening in the fence and I get on the track! I drive around the oval for a little trying to figure out where I am. I bet the guy in the street cleaner (preping the track) was wondering who the hell was driving around out there! I finally see another car enter through the same opening in the fence and I follow him. Luckily it's the registration guy and he tells me where to go. It ends up registration won't be opening for about another hour or so. It's about 30-40 degrees outside so I go back to my car and sit with the heater on until I can register.
So far the day wasn't going great, but I wouldn't consider it a bad day until what happened next. While I was looking for a place to park near the school group I ended up driving underneath a metal cable fence! It was a single cable hovering above the ground about waist level. This cable was no joke either. It was the heavy duty kind, with thick strands of metal twisted together as one solid unit measuring about 1-1.5" in diameter. It was attached to beefy metal posts sticking out of the pavement every 20' or so. Unfortunately the cable was well camouflaged since it was painted the same color as the building in the background. I saw the posts, but didn't notice the cable so I saw no reason why I couldn't drive between them... Even after it slammed against my windshield, nearly cracking it and scrapped along the top of the roof and down the back hatch glass I had no idea what happened. I was only going about 5 mph, but even at that speed it doesn't take long to travel about 6 feet. With the cable resting on the top of the rear glass and everyone looking (it was loud). I figured out what happened and all I could do was mumble four letter words. I was going to get out of the car but there was a guy standing nearby when it happened and said, "It's fine, just keep going!". Well it wasn't fine because when I pulled all the way out it scraped along the rear spoiler as well. Doh! Here's pictures of the windshield, roof and wing. (Note: The scratches wet sanded and buffed about 90% out).
Once it warmed up and things got flowing the school started up. It's about what I expected. The school treats you like you have no clue about anything on high performance driving. That's not too bad but the thing is, they don't teach you how to drive fast, they teach you how to drive safe (which is fine as well but somewhat misleading). The main thing that bothered me was they teach you to ONLY brake in a straight line and tell us that if you combine cornering and braking at the same time (i.e. trail braking) you'll spin which isn't completely true. They also didn't teach us the fastest line. Still though the school was helpful for teaching me the track and the things to look out for on this particular road course. Most of the turns are straight forward. The only things to know is that the pavement changes pitch in the middle of turn 1 which can upset the chassis if you're on the brakes and turning. Then turn 2 is a decreasing radius so you have to stay out really wide (unless you're defending a position during a race). The last tricky turn is turn 9. You just want to make sure you late apex that one and let the car drift all the way out to the wall to get the maximum speed on the oval and straight.
The first two groups really sucked. We had an instructor ride with us and critique our driving techniques. I didn't care for my first instructor, because I did not agree with the things he told me to do. For example he told me to early apex turn 9 so that I would be the first one into that turn and I could get a head start on the competition. My second instructor was really cool and he taught me some stuff about the track and things to look out for like how it's really bumpy on the far right hand side of the track going into 9. He said sometimes it better to be slightly to the middle of the lane to smooth out braking. Mostly the upsetting part of the school was that most people were chicken to drive fast on the track, and since passing was very limited I basically tailgated people at a slow pace constantly. By the 3rd group I went out solo and they opened up passing a little more. That made things more fun but it didn't prepare me for what happened next. My instructor gave me the okay to get bumped up into the advanced/intermediate group. This class was full of Porsches, Corvettes, BMWs, a Viper, NSX, and Mustang. There was also a few other slower cars out there but the fact was that all the drivers were very good and had quite a bit of experience. Prehaps the most adrenaline pumping thing about this group was the fact that passing was allowed anywhere on the track. The first person to pass me was an NSX that totally early apexed turn 2 and just about hit me in the process. That was my first wake up call that the people in this group don't mess around. From here on out I was very cautious. Still aggressive but cautious at the same time if that makes sense. Reviewing back over my in car video tape it appears my good lap times were in the 1:22's. I don't know if that's good or bad but I do know I was able to run about mid pack with this group with only 2 previous events. With more practice, experience and maybe a few more mods I should be able to easily hold my own in this group.
