The first step of a journey.

Well it's been quite some time since I've posted on this blog. I should note, that after I made the post displaying the method of transferring valve springs, I realized that I was very far behind schedule in terms of making my car ready for the competition license test. Well, after a LOT of work, my car was finally ready. I wound up finishing the safety items, and stickers last minute, up until 3 am the night before I had to leave for the test weekend.

The license test was great. I passed, and had a totally great time. There were so many requirements, and evaluations to determine if the prospective competition school students could handle the pressures of wheel to wheel racing. The schedule is as such to put you in a mindset of constant stress and pressure. You start going to classes, and doing drills from 7 am until 6 pm, both in the car, and in the classroom.

One of the tests that we had pass on track was driving a 8/10ths (meaning, you are driving at 80% of your peak driving ability.) for 30 minutes, SIDE by SIDE with another competition school student the ENTIRE way around the track with less than 3' between you both. You could imagine driving side by side with your friend on a highway with speeds of around 120 mph, while turning, and maintaining less than a 3' gap between the two of you.

...and to top it off, you have an evaluator (a race instructor) behind you both, trying to squeeze his car between the two of you. We were told "If I can (the evaluator) squeeze my car between the two of you, we will FAIL you!

I was successful with this test, but man, it gave me a new respect for the space between two cars at high speed!

After that test, we had a "Mock" race. I did OK, however after a long day, my concentration started to slack, and around 15:00 of this video, I just missed my critical turn in point and just decided to drive the car off the track.

Regardless, I am now a licensed NASA (National Auto Sport Association) pro-racer.

...and it feels pretty cool.




First race report to come soon.

sander.