Well, now you guys deleted your post and now people are probably saying WTF...I'll leave this here anyway...
No Les...Not offended at all, just busy prepping my car to finish the painting before the next NASA event so I didn't respond this morning.
My theory about going fast is I only go as fast as I feel comfortable at any given time and always consider the risk vs reward I'm willing to take.
Am I the fastest guy out there, not by any means. Am I the slowest, nope. There are many times within laps when I'm pushing harder for a killer time that I find myself puckering up saying to myself Oh Shit, slow the F down Jim, your on the verge of out of control and I reel it back in by slowing down some and regrouping. Again, it goes back to what you feel comfortable with, and in your mind, is going any further worth the risk that you personally are willing to take. I can't afford to crash my car so my keep my ego in check at all times on track. I have no problem pointing anyone by, faster or slower....We all know you can crash your car just as easily going slow, going faster just makes shit happen quicker and whatever you hit, you hit harder. In the racing I do, I do it as a hobby and a club sport. There's no money to be made, it's all about having fun and bettering your abilities all the time. Win or lose, a great day is when you and your car go home in one piece.
This is my 5th year in TT Big Bore. The 1st year I got my ass handed to me. But I kept learning by following faster drivers as long as I could keep up and being coached by better drivers after such a long layoff. In 2011 I finished the season 6th in TTR. In 2012, I finished 4th in TTR & 5th in TTU and won the season championship in the UMS Time Attack Series in TA-C (Unlimited). In 2013 I concentrated only on TTU and finished 3rd for the season. This year, 2014, I am leading the points in TTU and as long as I run our last event in October and finish both days for points, I will win the NASA-AZ TTU regional championship for the 2014 season. (yahoo, I get a sought after NASA-AZ Regional Championship Jacket ;-) Once again, I'm sure not the fastest, but I never give up or quit. I'm doing it by being consistent, always starting, always finishing and a lot of pure tenacity in between no matter what happens.....and a whole lot of support by sponsors, friends and family !
As for my instructing. I started out racing and instructing many years ago, 1978 in SCCA. I quit racing and instructing in 1990. Kids.....I went back to racing 8 years ago doing some Redline TA's and misc events here and there. Then I started with NASA-AZ 6 years ago doing all events/series wise. I became an instructor with NASA my 2nd year back. I drove mostly DE 3-4 and taught students in DE1 & 2 for the next year, until Tage, our Regional Director told me that was enough, I was going to fast in DE4 continually and it was time to move up. So I moved to TTU. I continued to instruct students and 3 years ago was asked to be the Asst DE2 leader in addition to instructing DE1 students so I the I could coach and conduct lead/follow sessions and conduct downloads so DE2 drivers could improve their skills and move up to DE3. Which is what I still do for the most part. I was also promoted to a Senior Instructor status and now also teach prospective instructors how to become instructors as well when there is a need. Then there's all the check rides I do so drivers can move up into different classes. In fact, I will be working with Nick Frunzi in our upcoming NASA-AZ event to help him make the transition from DE4 to TT3, run TTU myself, and will still have a DE 1 student, and work with DE2 as well here and there. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time on track during our events
...There's not an event that goes by that I'm not teaching a DE1 student, Supervising DE2 or coaching somebody in the DE classes at our NASA events. I instruct for NASA-AZ, NASA-SoCal, PCA, Extreme Speed and now Speed Ventures. I love to instruct, I enjoy seeing drivers get better and the pride they feel when things start falling together in their minds and they start to understand the whole concept of being on track, both in safety and what it really takes to go faster. I find it very gratifying.
I instruct the same way I drive in competition, you only go as fast as you (and mostly I) feel comfortable until I know you have total car control and understand the physics of what we're doing and have the concept of racing lines and safety before I let anyone start really picking up the speed if I'm in the car with you. The key to a good instructor is communication, making sure a student understands the content of the discussions we have before and after sessions, and as the instructor, being able to slow down or stop situations before they get out of hand. I've taught hundreds of students and its been an adventure to say the least. I've seen a lot, experience a lot and its been a blast. My students & I always have fun together and my students always come away better drivers than they were before which is probably why I am continually requested as an instructor at events I'm involved in. To me, instructing is not about how fast you go, it's about doing it right and better at any speed that matters. If you can't do it right going slow, you sure in the hell won't do anything right by going faster other than crashing faster.
Anyway, enough of my babbling. At least now you know how I approach racing and instructing
This is going to be a fun event. Its going to my first time being out on track with many of you and I am really looking forward to just spending a casual track day with everyone, doing some ride alongs and finally meeting many of you.
I am really looking forward to this. Most of my track days are never relaxing since I'm competing 90% of the time along with instructing.
Didn't even think of it that way.:redface:
