I went to Auto Club Speedway on Sunday and had a really nice day. I have never been to ACS with gutted interior, roll cage and aero. Big surprise------the aero is incredible there!
ACS has always been my Achilles heel track. My first track day ever on any track was at ACS in Jan. 2012, and I was overwhelmed the whole time. The facility itself with the huge grand stands is daunting, the bank is scary to look at, Turn 1 is quite a mind job----going from max speed on the banked straight into a banked turn takes quite a bit of nerves---which I didn't have at the time. I was super slow. These kinds of feelings stick with you. Also, the biggest technical issue I ever had at any track happened at ACS a couple years ago. I was going down the front straight and I felt a thump and the RPM's dropped to zero while going 130 mph. I had to coast into the infield and get towed back to the pits. Ultimately, it turned out that I had simply blown a fuse, so EAS fixed it in 2 seconds (phew). And the only time I have ever instructed anywhere was at ACS. I had been asked to instruct at some private event. I had my choice of people to go with. I wanted it to be mellow since I don't particularly enjoy riding shotgun on track. I got into a guy's Z3 thinking it will be mellow……well, we get on the oval and he punches the gas and this Z3 took off like a rocket, faster than my supercharged M3……I'm like, What the Hell? It turned out this guy had a a prototype project engine in this Z3---a supercharged older Corvette engine……I could not have picked a worse car to get in. And prior to yesterday, my fastest lap time was---uh not so fast. So, the point is, ACS has just been a thorn in my side.
When I pulled into the track yesterday morning, I could still remember those pangs of anxiety that I felt on my first track day in 2012. But now, with a lot more experience under my belt, I was really curious how my caged and aero car would feel. The question was: could I tune out my personal baggage and focus on driving?
The day started on a curious note because the transponder guy gave me transponder marked as #13. hehe I'm not superstitious, but c'mon…really? Ok, lucky #13 it is at ACS! Also, it was a cloudy moody misty morning and you'd be coming down the front straight and water would mist onto the windshield and that's never a fantastic feeling at 150 mph. I'm telling ya----ACS is just a thorn in my side.
After all the tracks I've visited, I've learned that ACS is not really my favorite kind of track---the oval is just scary and parts of the infield are very poorly paved--especially near the end of the infield section----man, you are BOUNCING around those last corners. As a result, I don't go very often. Let's say I have around 100 track days under my belt…..I've only been to ACS 4 or 5 times. Yesterday's visit was the first visit in almost 2 years.
So, the day started on some ok-condition R1S tires that had 10 heat cycles. I was pretty tentative. This was my first time at ACS running DSC-off. That was definitely a mind job for me. I started off with a 1:52.5. The 2nd session, I was sitting in traffic and didn't get a clean lap. After the second session, I checked out my tires and one was cording…dang. These tires had been abused in the Bowl at Chuckwalla, in Turn 2 and 8 at Big Willow, along with some hard 1:49 laps at Buttonwillow. But this was cording sooner than I expected. I wasn't massively surprised to see them cording once subjected to the oval---just disappointed. I had a fresh set of Hankook TD's with me. So, I put the TD's on and boy did the day take a dramatic turn for the better! The clouds stopped spitting and on my first session with them, I drove a 1:47.6. The second session a 1:47.3. The third and last session I drove a 1:46.6 and 1:46.9. I just kept getting faster and faster and building more and more confidence. I had to cut the day short at 1PM because I needed to get back home. I wish I had a couple more sessions to see where I would have topped out. Figuring out the optimal braking zones could definitely use more work. Just better braking might get me into the 45's-----although I have to confess I'm not in a rush to go back.
Anyway, it ended up being a personally satisfying day---more than most. I was very surprised to be able to drop into the 1:46's---dropping 7.5 seconds off my previous best. I think my personal baggage made it a sweeter outcome for me. I finally was able to leave my fear of this track behind and just settled into focusing on working out the various challenges it presents. The biggest thing I walked away with yesterday is really seeing that I am a much more confident driver than I ever was in the past. I know that sort of just makes sense---you drive more, you get more confident. But you don't get these moments very often, and it's interesting to experience them.
Oh yeah, and one more weird thing that has never happened anywhere else: in Turn 4, my suction cup mount holding my Harry's Lap Timer came off. And it happened on my fast lap of the day! I had to catch the damn thing in the middle of a turn, put it in my lap, keep driving, and then shove it over to the passenger side because I couldn't drive with it in my lap. haha! C'mon---what IS it with that place!!??