i just finished my first hpde and it was great, i drove my red and white crx # 22 My instructor was matt nicholas (sp) drives a red sentra. He was very cool, very calm but straight forward. My classroom instructor was Dan Unkefer (sp?) he was pretty cool too. knows his **** and both explained everything well. The nasa people were nice and very helpful, better then the scca stuff i've been to. My on track expiernces were awesome cept for the little things that went wrong. I came out of 14 and hit the gator strips and ripped the Lf fender lining out so i had to pit, then the 2nd session my throttle cable popped off the bracket on the manifold so i had to get towed in and by that time the session was done, after those 2 sessions, everything went great and i learned alot plus i got to go solo after 2 laps into the 2nd session on sunday. That was awesome. I met some cool people too and when i needed a hose clamp , cause mine fell off just before turn 13,(shhhh) one of the guys there hooked it up w/ another one and no more problems at all. All in all it was def. worth the money and if i had to pick between scca or nasa, i'd def. go w/ nasa. I'm already planning my next school and hoppe to see some familiar faces. Thanx nasa!

 

Glad you had a great time man, if you need any help with anything, let me know, I'm only 20 mins away....

 

 

Glad to hear you had fun, I was the guy talking with you and Matt after you got towed in. Hope to see you at are next event.

 

Nice to see a happy person!
You will have a cool-aid smile for a month or so

 

I was just curious how many SCCA DE events did you go to? Were you treated poorly? Which region? I am a SCCA member (well regional executive/pres.) and was the event chair at the Alabama Region's first DE (HPCCC) at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway. From what I was told by the entrants everbody had a great time and a grin on their faces (ok except for the guy who did three offs in one session and got talked to). If it is not fun then why do it. I know our region tries its best to make sure everybody has an enjoyable time. If you do then you come back.

I hope you don't judge a whole national organization from whatever DE exposure you got somewhere that was SCCA. By the way I instruct for BMWCCA, ITRCA, SCCA, and soon NASA so I am pretty familiar with different organizations/chapters. I have been an entrant to several PCA, Panoz, and Tracquest/Rennlist events. It all depends on your instructors and event staff. Me I love doing it. Great way to spend a weekend.
Barry H.

 

This is probably a result of running into a grumpy person, or someone who is less then kind to a newbie. I've seen it before and I expect I'll see it again. However I will not stop running with the SCCA because of a few bad apples. There are many more folks in the SCCA that are way cool! I hope I'm not one of the bad ones. 8)

Glad you had an excellent experience with NASA. I haven't been to any of there events to participate, just watch one of those Hyperfest thingies. They seem like they put on a great event.

 

Run...run...don't do another HPDE... it is worse than drugs !!! Soon it will swallow up all of your money... you will know the numbers and names of curves on racetracks better than streets in your own neighborhood...you will think about taking a perfectly good running car and turning into a race car... it is horrible...run for your life!



Glad you had a great time! NASA VA are really good people. I wouldn't have been so addicted to racing if it wasn't for their HPDE program. Definitely take your time and work your way through the novice program.

One suggestion, next time you go to a track event, walk around and find your instructor on the morning of the first day and hopefully he has a passenger seat. Go for a ride with him in the morning before you go out. This will teach you the correct line. The hard thing is that you may have a class at the same time the instructors are driving the track.

NASA... good people

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">matt nicholas </TD></TR></TABLE>
Nicholson

I like instructing autocrossers. They have good basic car control skills, they know an apex from their *******, and as soon as you smooth out the fast autox inputs, it's an *easy* weekend.

You did great Matt! See you at the track....

 

sounds like you had a great time. i did my first one last season and had a similar experience. and like others have said it will get addicting i know i am forever hooked. i was lucky to get good instrutors as well ( andy hope, don mock) and learned alot.

one thing for the futur i would say is that if you ever get an instructor that you just dont seem to gel with just get a different one. they wont be insulted and it could make your day much better with someone that you can be comfortable with.

misha

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MaddMatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">they know an apex from their *******</TD></TR></TABLE>

hahaha!

My NSX student was an autocrosser and had pretty good traction feel. He hung it way out in T1 and gathered it up without much drama.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
My NSX student was an autocrosser and had pretty good traction feel. He hung it way out in T1 and gathered it up without much drama.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Are you teaching Drifting techniques again Ryan?? hehe

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by litlekikr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i just finished my first hpde and it was great, i drove my red and white crx # 22 My instructor was matt nicholas (sp) drives a red sentra. He was very cool, very calm but straight forward. My classroom instructor was Dan Unkefer (sp?) he was pretty cool too. knows his **** and both explained everything well. The nasa people were nice and very helpful, better then the scca stuff i've been to. My on track expiernces were awesome cept for the little things that went wrong. I came out of 14 and hit the gator strips and ripped the Lf fender lining out so i had to pit, then the 2nd session my throttle cable popped off the bracket on the manifold so i had to get towed in and by that time the session was done, after those 2 sessions, everything went great and i learned alot plus i got to go solo after 2 laps into the 2nd session on sunday. That was awesome. I met some cool people too and when i needed a hose clamp , cause mine fell off just before turn 13,(shhhh) one of the guys there hooked it up w/ another one and no more problems at all. All in all it was def. worth the money and if i had to pick between scca or nasa, i'd def. go w/ nasa. I'm already planning my next school and hoppe to see some familiar faces. Thanx nasa! </TD></TR></TABLE>

which group were you in. I was in HPDE 1. The track was a lot of fun. My instructor Lyonel Kent was great and showed me a great line. Took a little while to understand where he was telling me to go thru 4-5-6-7 but once I figured it out worked great. Dan was the classroom instructor and in my opinion could have used much different teaching techniques. There were quite a few issues I would have explained differently. I also feel to be able to do a succesful classroom instruction he should know how the students are driving on track and what they are capable of. Overall NASA does a great job of organizing the event and making it safe. One thing I was very impressed with is throwing a red flag for practice for all the HPDE groups. Thats one thing I feel that is often overlooked by drivers on track.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Solracer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Are you teaching Drifting techniques again Ryan?? hehe</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok, so when you go into T1, you trail the brakes into the corner, jerk the wheel then lift. Thats right, lift. Excelllent!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by davidnyc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Run...run...don't do another HPDE... it is worse than drugs !!! Soon it will swallow up all of your money... you will know the numbers and names of curves on racetracks better than streets in your own neighborhood...you will think about taking a perfectly good running car and turning into a race car... it is horrible...run for your life!



NASA... good people </TD></TR></TABLE>

HA HA &gt; very true !!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ryan12321 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">One thing I was very impressed with is throwing a red flag for practice for all the HPDE groups. Thats one thing I feel that is often overlooked by drivers on track. </TD></TR></TABLE>

While I understand the theory behind throwing a false red-flag, I personally don't like them much (as an individual or an instructor). You do track stuff long enough and someone you know is going to hit something hard (or even you). Every time I see a red-flag, I wonder which one of my friends just hit a wall.

Even more dangerous, IMHO, is the possibility of getting complacient about them if you see them too often. Oh, another red-flag drill. Hohum. Kinda like the boy who cried wolf.

Do I have a compromise? No, not really. I've run with groups that do it both ways. One thing I think would be nice is to somehow let the instructors know (maybe in the meeting in the morning) that during Run-Time X, the Beginner group will get a red-flag drill. Then at least we know it's a drill, and can tell the student after we're stopped. I've had them wonder aloud who hit what as well.

NASA runs a good show. Glad the new guy had fun.

 

I didnt know they don't tell the instructors. That'd be a huge compalaint as well if I was instructing too. Last event I instructed at we were not told the flags and they kept throwing a debrit flag which was black flag since they didnt have one. I just told my student to keep on going but watch out for stuff on the track. The instructors should always be told what is going on in my opinion.

 

apexinghonda-I've never went to an scca school & drove but i've been to plenty of the events and they seem way more uptight then the nasa guys. I wasn't saying i wouldn't run w/ scca, i can't though due to a motor swap, just saying that i'd pick nasa over scca if i had to. My friend runs in ITC in the scca and he's kool as hell, helpsme out alot, i know ther's bad people in every group just nasa seems to haveless of them. I'd give an example but i won't. (he was pitted next to me and drove a nice *** bmw till his windshield got busted.)

david nyc-too late man, i was bitten long time ago w/ a ride along at summitpoint in a datsun 510, just know i finally have a dedicated car to play w/.

ryan 12321- i was driving a red and white crx w/ integra rims on it. big black # 22 on the side in duct tape. I agree though, it would have been nice if he knew how we were doing on the track then he could address specific issues, like when i broke and didn't know what to do. ha, you guys were passing me, i was so pissed sitting on the side of the track.

madmatt-hell yeah man, i'll def. be out there for the next one. And again,thanx alot, you made it real easy for me and after you showed me the line through 5-6-7, that was my favorite corner.

honda318dx-i'll def get ahold of u if i need something, thanx for being willing to help me out.

see you guys soon

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ryan12321 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I didnt know they don't tell the instructors. That'd be a huge compalaint as well if I was instructing too. Last event I instructed at we were not told the flags and they kept throwing a debrit flag which was black flag since they didnt have one. I just told my student to keep on going but watch out for stuff on the track. The instructors should always be told what is going on in my opinion.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually the reason they don't tell the instrcutors is that hey are supposed to be aware of the situation also, we had 2 cars blow through the red flag a turn 11 with instructors who said the did not see the flags either, which is not good either.

I also do agree with what Diane (r2x) is saying to about being complacent and woundering if anyone hit something because I had no clue the drill was coming since I spent most of the day outside of control.

The other funny story abotu this drill was after the first few laps I noticed that my left front tire was making more noise than usuall, I just asumed I was pushing it since it was my first time on track alone, when they flew the red flag, I just headed to the pits, after the awards party I came back and the tire was flat! I picked up a piece of metal some where on track and my tires was going flat while I was out there... so I was glad for this red flag drill .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ryan12321 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I didnt know they don't tell the instructors.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I can't speak for this season, but it hasn't been standard as part of the meeting before. I've actually gotten so the "Hot pulls?" and "Test red flags?" questions have become standard at meetings for me since every group seems to do things a little differently. Better to ask and know, then assume and be wrong.

 

glad you enjoyed....saw your car....sorry i didn't come say HI.....hopefully your car will be h1 someday!