alwaysinboost
03-31-2008, 10:59 AM
I did Pocono with PDA this past Sunday for the very first time and had a blast. They seem to be a well organized group of people and I'm looking forward to doing more events with them.
This HPDE was an 'open track' event, which meant we got LOTS of track time, 4.5 hours worth to be exact. :mrgreen: This is really the only way to roll, I don't know how I'm going to go back to a measly 1-2 hours per day HPDE schedule (like that really isn't enough time). Nothing like spending more time on track then you do driving to and from the event. :banana:
As I said, this was my first event @ Pocono with PDA, but it was also only my third time doing an HPDE. I've only been to Shenandoah which makes this particular Pocono layout look like the kiddy playground at McDonalds. :lol: Not to take anything away from the track or how it was run, but IMO its not nearly as technical as Shenandoah was. On a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being the easiest and 10 being the hardest, I'd give this Pocono layout a 4 and Shenandoah an 8.5 for difficulty. Now, I'm not saying I mastered the course by any stretch, but it only took a couple of laps to figure out where things were, where as Shendoah took me a couple sessions.
What made the day very interesting was the fact that this open track event was supposed to be for level 3 & 4 drivers, but I'm only level 1. :eek: Needless to say I was a little nervous. ok, I was a lot nervous. I don't know much except for the fact that I'm a newb, which is why I'm still only level 1. As a newb I'm only allowed to pass cars on certain straights and only with a point by from the driver. These people however were way past that skill level, so they pass anywhere they can. it felt like I was doing wheel to wheel racing as I'm pointing by people all over the place. My lack of skills were apperent as I was passed in my EVO by a Jeep SRT8 on track with a passenger. I was happy to find out it was Kyle, from the speed TV series The Setup, behind the wheel so I didn't feel so bad. Still though, as I was pointing by people I was studing their line trying to learn what I could from them.
Even though I didn't get an instructor I still feel like I learned a lot. By the way the car reacted to my inputs I could tell when I'm doing something wrong wasn't on the right line. I don't remember ever noticing that @ Shenandoah before. And in the same sense I could tell when I did something right, because it all of a sudden it would feel like I wasn't driving fast or fighting the car to go where I wanted it to. It was an awesome feeling. :supz: By the last session of the day I could tell I picked up a lot of speed in some areas. I started out doing the infield in 3rd gear the whole time and ended the day being in 4th gear most of the time in the infield and being able to use 5th on the long banked back straight and just touching 125ish before slaming the brakes on for the right handed dog leg.
Unfortunatly my homemade camera mount didn't pass TECH inspection, so I have no footage of the days activity, but I will be fixing that this week.
This HPDE was an 'open track' event, which meant we got LOTS of track time, 4.5 hours worth to be exact. :mrgreen: This is really the only way to roll, I don't know how I'm going to go back to a measly 1-2 hours per day HPDE schedule (like that really isn't enough time). Nothing like spending more time on track then you do driving to and from the event. :banana:
As I said, this was my first event @ Pocono with PDA, but it was also only my third time doing an HPDE. I've only been to Shenandoah which makes this particular Pocono layout look like the kiddy playground at McDonalds. :lol: Not to take anything away from the track or how it was run, but IMO its not nearly as technical as Shenandoah was. On a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being the easiest and 10 being the hardest, I'd give this Pocono layout a 4 and Shenandoah an 8.5 for difficulty. Now, I'm not saying I mastered the course by any stretch, but it only took a couple of laps to figure out where things were, where as Shendoah took me a couple sessions.
What made the day very interesting was the fact that this open track event was supposed to be for level 3 & 4 drivers, but I'm only level 1. :eek: Needless to say I was a little nervous. ok, I was a lot nervous. I don't know much except for the fact that I'm a newb, which is why I'm still only level 1. As a newb I'm only allowed to pass cars on certain straights and only with a point by from the driver. These people however were way past that skill level, so they pass anywhere they can. it felt like I was doing wheel to wheel racing as I'm pointing by people all over the place. My lack of skills were apperent as I was passed in my EVO by a Jeep SRT8 on track with a passenger. I was happy to find out it was Kyle, from the speed TV series The Setup, behind the wheel so I didn't feel so bad. Still though, as I was pointing by people I was studing their line trying to learn what I could from them.
Even though I didn't get an instructor I still feel like I learned a lot. By the way the car reacted to my inputs I could tell when I'm doing something wrong wasn't on the right line. I don't remember ever noticing that @ Shenandoah before. And in the same sense I could tell when I did something right, because it all of a sudden it would feel like I wasn't driving fast or fighting the car to go where I wanted it to. It was an awesome feeling. :supz: By the last session of the day I could tell I picked up a lot of speed in some areas. I started out doing the infield in 3rd gear the whole time and ended the day being in 4th gear most of the time in the infield and being able to use 5th on the long banked back straight and just touching 125ish before slaming the brakes on for the right handed dog leg.
Unfortunatly my homemade camera mount didn't pass TECH inspection, so I have no footage of the days activity, but I will be fixing that this week.