I've made it to the track. Actually I made it to the track then left to go to the hotel. But I did go to the track.
I'm normally at the track, but I'm with the workers. What the teams and drivers do is sorta voodoo. Magically, they are all there with cars ready to go. Now I get to see how that all happens! The crew that I am with let me help out with setting up the trailers. I mostly just moved stuff around and put ice in the drinks coolers, but I was happy to be helping out the team. Additionally, I sat in the #39 car and got everything sorted out. The pedals had to be moved back toward the car so that I'm not having to struggle to give it full throttle. With the pedals closer, I will be more comfortable and have more control over the pressure I put on the pedals. I also put on a HANS device for the first time. My helmet also is back with a radio mic installed in the helmet. I can talk to the team while I'm driving!
In preparation, I had been playing a lot of iRacing.com. Its been a combination of things. I drove the Spec Racer Ford (SRF) in the rookie series to get used to driving the car with other cars on the track. The rookie series has MX5s and Solstices so I have the opportunity to pass cars that have different strengths than the SRF. This was mostly to practice the SRF, but also to practice starts.
I also ran the SRF at Laguna Seca in iRacing to learn the racing line. iRacing laser scans the tracks in the simulation, so they are very very accurate. A couple of things have changed at Laguna since iRacing scanned it, but its nothing of major consequence. Part of training with Laguna was to learn where you can and can't pass. Turn 2 is a pretty good spot, as are turns 11 and 5. Turns 4, 6, and 8 are probably areas where I don't want to be two-wide.
iRacing has helped me to learn some lessons that could be very expensive had I learned them on the track. For example. On the starts its best just to let everyone get settled down, even if that means losing some spots here and there. Once the field gets sorted out, then you can start racing and getting spots back. Its also not just enough to look at the car in front of you, but you have to look in front of them to see whats going on. Normally they might brake at a certain spot when the track is clear, but if something happens ahead of them, you are going to want to brake sooner. Simple, but its still a good lesson to learn where it costs nothing to repair a car.
Tomorrow, I'm on track first thing. I'm tired, so I'm off to get some sleep. The post of brief, and maybe a little disjointed. I'll post more tomorrow from Laguna Seca!
