Black Friday Practice

Wow, it feels like it's been an eternity since I've been out racing with Jason. The timing is perfect - the Civic is back together, I have the weekend off from class and it's been a while since I've had a mental break. My friend Tony is coming down to play with us in his Maserati GranSport. I've been looking forward to this day for a while.

Tony and I meet at a nearby gas station at o dark 30, he fills up and we caravan out to the Auto Club Speedway for the practice event.




For November, the weather has turned out for us in a major way. The original forecast wasn't very optimistic, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. Everybody there seemed to have a really good time.

I know I really enjoyed myself, being able to be out for the entire day playing instead of working or doing homework. I spent the first part of the morning with Tony helping him. I had a hot lap in the Maserati also. His car has an amazing V8 sound (different from a Vette), lots of power but is hurt by the current tires on it. It is still a lot of fun to play with. I can't wait till better tires are on the car.





Then it's time to play with the Civic. It's soooo nice to back in my car again. It's the same and yet, it's different. The car now is looser in the back. It's very nice though, just a little loose and rotates when you lift in a very controlled manner. Very interesting. I'm not used to it, but it's interesting.

Towards the end of the day, Steve (from the PCA) offers me a drive in his beautiful 198x 911 that is on race tires. Oh what fun to be in a rear wheel drive vehicle. Lift mid turn and the car will rotate. Accelerate hard and the car also rotates (a little). I'm out getting the feel of the car and getting more comfortable with it when we come into the finish and the car goes around - hard. Hm, I was on the gas and fairly straight though in a transition at the time. Best guess is that a bump (it's bumpy there) unsettled the car because it never happened again and I was never in that same spot again.

After driving other cars, I have to say that our Civic is so easy to drive fast. Terence and Mike Yanase take the car out for a spin - literally for Terence and Mike locks up the tires (bumpity bump).

Here's a video of Terence so he will not forget the day:


To top it off, both Neelu and Bijan came out to play also. It made for a wonderful day.