Driving Barber Motorsports Park For The First Time

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The first session of an HPDE weekend is always a bit slow and a few trains form as people get used to the track. Barber Motorsports Park is a fun track with a few technical sections and plenty of opportunity to pass, even for the novice group.

I got to start to push the car a bit in session 2 but still a few car trains to work through. You get a wide mix of skill set in the novice group so a good bit of focus ends up on the cars around you instead of driving your line. However, it is always fun to pass cars you shouldn’t be able to pass.

By the third session on Saturday I had a good handle on the line for my car and was able to start fine tuning a few of the tricker sections. Turn 1, turns 7&8 and turns 11&12 are the places you can pick up the most speed if you get them right.

It threatened to rain all day and session 4 ended up being the last session of the day as lightening killed session 5 when the skies opened up before we could get on track. I pulled into the pits a couple times to give myself some space as cars seemed to stack up more than they should in this session.

All in all, it was a good first day and first time driving Barber Motorsports Park. I am sure I will fall asleep driving the track over and over again in my head. Looking forward to Sunday when I get to do it all over again.

Driving School Day 2 At RRR

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The second day of Peachtree Chapter of the BMW CCA driving school was all about building on what you learned on day one and applying it consistently. The first session of day two is typically for getting back up to speed and making sure you remember your line through the track. I started to put down consistent laps in the 1:30 range when not stuck behind lap traffic.

A little wet to start the 2nd session, but the track stayed in pretty good shape for some nice laps. Got through some traffic early in the session and had a few clean laps without having to get around slower cars towards the end of group C’s time on the track.

With most people cutting out early because of the predicted rain it started to feel like we had the track to ourselves in the C group. When I hit every section just right I could get close to my fastest lap in the 1:28 range and was consistently lapping in less than 1:30.

My instructor pretty much left this session up to me and only gave me a few pointers after the fact. Despite filling up mid day, I still ran low on fuel and cut the last session short. Good thing, as the rain came in just as we got back to the paddock.

You are supposed to take it easy on the last session of the day but I couldn’t help myself. Roebling Road Raceway made for a fun weekend of hard driving and I look forward to my next visit.

1st Time At Roebling Road Raceway

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The M2s were out in full force this weekend at Roebling Road Raceway for the Peachtree Chapter of the BMW CCA driving school. We had several M2s, a M2 Comp and a M2 CS hit the track to drive the cars the way the were built to be driven. As a novice, I was put in the C group and assigned Frank Sommers as my instructor for the weekend. The first session out is all about learning the track.

One of my goals for the weekend was to learn how to steer the car with the throttle. In the 2nd session we started working on using the throttle mid turn to help rotate the car and build speed coming out of the turn.

The 3rd session started with a little rain which makes you a bit more cautious. The track had pretty good grip in most places but I had to adjust my line to avoid the puddles or slick patches on the track in a few sections.

The last session of the day produced my fastest lap of the weekend at 1:28 flat and just after I crossed the start finish line I “ran out” of gas. Not really, just not enough in the tank for any more hard driving, but plenty for a cool down lap and a trip to the gas station.

It was a great first day at Roebling Road Raceway and Frank had me really pushing the car and my skills to the limits!