I've been doing track events and HPDEs on and off for the past few years while I've been building a purpose built track car. This past weekend I decided to go ahead and do the comp school and get my provisional license at the urging of a friend. I don't know why I waited so long. I had a BLAST on Sunday running in my first two races. I'm still fairly tenative in traffic, and I have a TON of things to learn, however I had the most fun on track that I've had in years. To those of you thinking about doing this, do it! There is absolutely no way to compare HPDEs with wheel-to-wheel racing. They're worlds apart, IMO.

If you're in Texas, we'd love to have you join HC. This past weekend we had 4 H2 cars. There is one H1 S2000 that races, but he wasn't there this past weekend. Another H2 ITR will be joining us next year (he raced last year, but skipped this season), and there are a couple of other H1 cars being built, I'm told.

Start of race 3:


Start of race 4:


Now this is a close finish (race 4)!

 

Great job

How was the comp school?

Was there anyone else in your HC class for the weekend races?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 117 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> There is absolutely no way to compare HPDEs with wheel-to-wheel racing.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

That is what I have been saying. W2W is amazing. I may not go W2W with a car, but I do go at it in my kart.

Good luck with the W2W.

m-


Modified by Mario_D at 9:41 AM 8/7/2007

 

welcome to HC!~

Nice Prelude!! is it H1 or H2?

 

The comp school was fine. I didn't have a passenger seat, so I'm sure I could have better feedback from having an instructor ride along. I'm hoping to have a passenger seat in the car soon so that I can do just that.

There were 4 of in H2. I'm in the white Prelude. There was a black Prelude, a Civic hatch, and an ITR.

One thing I found to be a HUGE learning aid was following the faster cars around the track. In the first race, I was able to catch the two front H2 cars, one a Prelude like mine, the other a Civic hatch with a B16. The Civic was basically driving the same line that I was, except for a few places, but he was carrying more speed. Following him helped me adjust my line for a bit faster corner speed, and also showed me some different braking points. I turned my fastest lap of the weekend by following him.

I still have a TON to learn, that's for sure. However, I'll be a fun learning experience!

 

Looks good. I think I know the guy in the white hatch and black prelude. If they are who I think they are, you can learn a lot from them (more from the blade lude though).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 577HondaPrelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">welcome to HC!~
Nice Prelude!! is it H1 or H2?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's H2 right now, but I have an H1 engine almost built, plus a few sets of 15x8s. However, the 15x8s won't do me much good with Toyos. I think in H1, the tire to run would be the 235/40/17 with a 17x8 wheel. I special ordered the 15x8s planning to use Hoosiers a long time ago, but that's another story all together.

 

HOLY ****! is that dave bowlin i see out on track and racin?!?!

117- on finally gettin out there. im in the process myself and can not wait!

 

Yes, the guy in the black Prelude is David R. He's a good friend of mine. David is faster than hell, and I just hope I can get that fast! I just met Mike (white hatch) this past weekend. He drives the friggin wheels off that hatch. I followed Mike around for 2 or 3 laps, as he was following David. Following those two really opened my eyes to how much I have to learn.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DavidR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks good. I think I know the guy in the white hatch and black prelude. If they are who I think they are, you can learn a lot from them (more from the blade lude though). </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lo-Buck EF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">HOLY ****! is that dave bowlin i see out on track and racin?!?!

117- on finally gettin out there. im in the process myself and can not wait!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yep, David Bowlin in the yellow ITR. SUPER nice guy, and great to talk to. He had a lot of tips for me as I was really nervous before my first qualification and race. Big to him, David R., and Mike for helping me out this weekend! Thanks to David R. for encouraging me all this time to get my license.

 

Great to see DavidNYC I mean TExas back out racing!

 

Thats cool. I would love to drive Texas Speedway.

 

Very nice! Congrads!

I'm hoping to do my first comp school next year, probably towards the end.

I feelya on the traffic thing. Traffic bothers me a bit too unless I'm going through it or on someones *** and I'm faster. If someone is way faster than me and on my ***, I don't worry about it much unless I know they drive like a asshat. But if they are just a little faster than me, I look in my mirrors to much and it is a distraction. I gotta work on that.. . I'm grp 2/3 Midwest style right now though. I got time.. .

Good luck man!

 

Nice to see Texas region is growing. Keep posting pictures and story. Cool to see racing in other regions.

 

The part that really made me nervous was the start of race 3 (my first race). The guy on grid put me in my qualifying position instead of putting me in the back like they normally do with comp school students. So I did as I was told and lined up. At the start (rolling start), everyone took off, and we went 3 wide into turn 1 (very fast left hander followed immediately by turn 2, which is another left hander) with me in the middle! I was really sweating at that point, and not just from the 95F heat and 90% humidity! I just made sure I gave at least 1 car width on the inside and watched the outside car to avoid any contact. Between turn 2 and turn 3 is a fairly short straight, so we stayed 3 wide all the way through 3, and then we started to fall into single file order after 3. My heart was racing! It was definitely a nail biter for me, but I made it through just fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Lo-Buck EF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">HOLY SH*T! is that dave bowlin i see out on track and racin?!?!

117- on finally gettin out there. im in the process myself and can not wait!</TD></TR></TABLE>


Yup I did a race. It has only been about 3 yrs. Down here they do four 20 min races. First race I qualified like 8 seconds off the pace!!! By the fourth race I was down to about 1.5-2 seconds. Mostly due to the help of the HC guys (DavidR, Mike, Billy). Hopefully, I can do a few more races in the future.

 

you have too many #'s Billy. 117, 71dsp, 27, etc. Hard to keep track of you!

Thanks for not using mine.