A couple weekends ago I took my '89 Corvette to my first track day. It was at Nelson Ledges Road Course in Garrettsville, OH, just a few miles from where I live. The event was hosted by Reed Kryder and his team KRYDERACING. My dad came along with me as my "crew" and moral support. We brought a couple extra wheels, a few tools, a jack, and some water and snacks.
Nelson Ledges is not a very long or complex course, but it is known for being very fast. The straightaways are short, but most of the turns are wide and taken at generous speed, giving it one of the highest average speeds of any road course.
There was a nice mix of cars there, ranging from bone stock ones like mine to sponsored race-prepped cars. Some notable sightings were:
- Recent model Toyota Supra race car, which looked like the fastest car there, it was zoomin
- Toyota Camry race car which did not look as fast
- Dodge Durango Hellcat, which is an absurd vehicle which looks absurd on a track
- Tesla Model S
- BMW E36 race car with a Chevy LS engine, which was amazingly quiet
- an '03-'05 Honda Accord covered in decals of E. Honda from Street Fighter
and a team with a 1st gen Dodge Neon race car who were parked across from us in the paddock, which sadly broke down before the fourth session.
There were four groups running that day: advanced, intermediate, novice, and test & tune, and each group got to run four sessions about 20 minutes each. Being a first-timer, I of course joined the novice group.
The first session, the novice group also included intermediate drivers who were first-timers at Nelson Ledges. Reed led us on a few paced laps and then let us go. I immediately had a C8 Corvette and other cars way faster than me passing me like I was sitting still. After a couple laps I got flagged into the pit and told that I needed to point out my window for faster cars to pass me. This confused me because in the briefing beforehand we were told that this wasn't a point-by setup, and slower cars could just hang to the outside on the straightaways for faster cars to pass. Anyway I did as I was told and there was no more issue.
I felt completely out of my depth. I had never driven my Vette anywhere in the vicinity of "hard" before, and had no idea what its limits were. I was terrified of spinning out, sliding on the wet outfield grass and crashing into the tire barriers. I took the turns very cautiously and slowly, let off the accelerator well early, wandered around the track trying to remember the racing lines as they had been explained to us. Each lap I gradually tried to increase my speeds into and through the turns by a couple MPH. I had no ego and all caution and was perfectly happy to let everyone pass me while I figured out what the hell I was doing.
Second session I started to push my speed through the straightaways a bit; down the back straight I could get up to 106 before letting off to enter the kink. I still had trouble finding lines through the turns, especially around the oak tree and the carousel.
Third session we started to get a sprinkling of rain. We weren't treading water but I still drove more cautiously. One lap I entered the oak tree curve a little too wide and hung my right side wheels off the track, but thankfully I was able to recover.
By the final session, the rain had long since let up and the track was dry again, and I decided to push my comfort zone. I used the cars ahead of me to pace myself, trying to follow their lines, figure out where they were braking and trying to keep up with them. I was still a slow one on the track but I was feeling a bit more confident, and by the last lap I had turned my best time, 1:31.06.
Here's a video of my final session. Sorry for the terrible angle which is 90% sun visor when I look left. My homemade helmet cam mount didn't work as well as I hoped it would.
At the end of the day my nerves were still too keyed up to tell if I even had fun, and I thought that would be enough track experience for me for a long time. But after having time to rest and reflect on the day, thinking about how I drove and what I could improve, I would like to go back and see if I can improve my time. I also want to try autocrossing soon, to test the Vette's handling a bit harder.
Anyone else have any high-performance driving stories? Road racing, drag racing, track days, autocross, rallying?
Nelson Ledges is not a very long or complex course, but it is known for being very fast. The straightaways are short, but most of the turns are wide and taken at generous speed, giving it one of the highest average speeds of any road course.
There was a nice mix of cars there, ranging from bone stock ones like mine to sponsored race-prepped cars. Some notable sightings were:
- Recent model Toyota Supra race car, which looked like the fastest car there, it was zoomin
- Toyota Camry race car which did not look as fast
- Dodge Durango Hellcat, which is an absurd vehicle which looks absurd on a track
- Tesla Model S
- BMW E36 race car with a Chevy LS engine, which was amazingly quiet
- an '03-'05 Honda Accord covered in decals of E. Honda from Street Fighter
and a team with a 1st gen Dodge Neon race car who were parked across from us in the paddock, which sadly broke down before the fourth session.
There were four groups running that day: advanced, intermediate, novice, and test & tune, and each group got to run four sessions about 20 minutes each. Being a first-timer, I of course joined the novice group.
The first session, the novice group also included intermediate drivers who were first-timers at Nelson Ledges. Reed led us on a few paced laps and then let us go. I immediately had a C8 Corvette and other cars way faster than me passing me like I was sitting still. After a couple laps I got flagged into the pit and told that I needed to point out my window for faster cars to pass me. This confused me because in the briefing beforehand we were told that this wasn't a point-by setup, and slower cars could just hang to the outside on the straightaways for faster cars to pass. Anyway I did as I was told and there was no more issue.
I felt completely out of my depth. I had never driven my Vette anywhere in the vicinity of "hard" before, and had no idea what its limits were. I was terrified of spinning out, sliding on the wet outfield grass and crashing into the tire barriers. I took the turns very cautiously and slowly, let off the accelerator well early, wandered around the track trying to remember the racing lines as they had been explained to us. Each lap I gradually tried to increase my speeds into and through the turns by a couple MPH. I had no ego and all caution and was perfectly happy to let everyone pass me while I figured out what the hell I was doing.
Second session I started to push my speed through the straightaways a bit; down the back straight I could get up to 106 before letting off to enter the kink. I still had trouble finding lines through the turns, especially around the oak tree and the carousel.
Third session we started to get a sprinkling of rain. We weren't treading water but I still drove more cautiously. One lap I entered the oak tree curve a little too wide and hung my right side wheels off the track, but thankfully I was able to recover.
By the final session, the rain had long since let up and the track was dry again, and I decided to push my comfort zone. I used the cars ahead of me to pace myself, trying to follow their lines, figure out where they were braking and trying to keep up with them. I was still a slow one on the track but I was feeling a bit more confident, and by the last lap I had turned my best time, 1:31.06.
Here's a video of my final session. Sorry for the terrible angle which is 90% sun visor when I look left. My homemade helmet cam mount didn't work as well as I hoped it would.
At the end of the day my nerves were still too keyed up to tell if I even had fun, and I thought that would be enough track experience for me for a long time. But after having time to rest and reflect on the day, thinking about how I drove and what I could improve, I would like to go back and see if I can improve my time. I also want to try autocrossing soon, to test the Vette's handling a bit harder.
Anyone else have any high-performance driving stories? Road racing, drag racing, track days, autocross, rallying?
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