MSR 5/15 - 5/16 with The Driver's Edge

[MoonieGT]

Anyone else going to MSR this weekend?

[Nails]

I'm on standby.

[miataspeedracer]

Should be nice and wet. You'll learn a lot!

[MoonieGT]

Like how much my top leaks...

[Nails]

Or how much an open diff sucks.

[OZMDD]

Any chance someone wants to give me their spot?? :)

[Nails]

Went today and it was very very crowded. I ran with the green group second session and it was one big clusterf***. Pulled into pits twice to get open air but could manage half a lap at best. Was hoping to get bumped into blue but there were no openings and no one would test drive me for yellow.


On the plus side, I saw Chris_S and his new Cosworth. Got a ride with a bit of slingshotting during the lunch break parade laps. Was very torquey and smooth; can't wait to get one in mine. Also met MINI-P and didn't realize he had a Miata for over a year now. I thought he was still tracking the Mini. Not just any Miata either, he has the silver one Goodwin had originally and then found it's way to Texas via ken o and trackdog.
Sweet car and he handles it well. Sorry that I didn't meet MoonieGT.

So I left Cresson around 2pm and caught up with the LSMC doing a fun run from Benbrook to Coyote Loco then back to Granbury for a drive-in movie, but I cut out after Coyote. Was a good day overall and I put about 350 miles on the car.

[OZMDD]

Nice!

[goofygrin]

Went today and it was very very crowded. I ran with the green group second session and it was one big clusterf***. Pulled into pits twice to get open air but could manage half a lap at best. Was hoping to get bumped into blue but there were no openings and no one would test drive me for yellow.

This is why I'm hesitant to recommend TDE (or Apex for that matter). I feel that the novice groups are oversold (and I know it's very hard to balance needing to get newbs in with running a safe event). The instruction is very good though.

[nealb]

This is why I'm hesitant to recommend TDE (or Apex for that matter). I feel that the novice groups are oversold (and I know it's very hard to balance needing to get newbs in with running a safe event). The instruction is very good though.

Apex will only sell sixteen novice slots while Drivers Edge sells more (about 30 the event I was at). That's the crowd on a 1.7 mile track. The crowd factor can get really bad if there are very timid drivers who never use mirrors. Texas Driving Experience only runs on the 2.5 mile track at TMS, and last Roval event was the largest ever with 24 cars in a session.

[Nails]

I went around the 3.1 mile one and a half times before pitting because someone wouldn't point. They not only got blue flagged and ignored it but they got black flagged too. I blame the instructors. I know novices are overwhelmed sometimes but the instructor should watch his mirror too and advise the driver to let them pass.

[altiain]

This is why I'm hesitant to recommend TDE (or Apex for that matter). I feel that the novice groups are oversold (and I know it's very hard to balance needing to get newbs in with running a safe event). The instruction is very good though.

Apex will only sell sixteen novice slots while Drivers Edge sells more (about 30 the event I was at). That's the crowd on a 1.7 mile track. The crowd factor can get really bad if there are very timid drivers who never use mirrors. Texas Driving Experience only runs on the 2.5 mile track at TMS, and last Roval event was the largest ever with 24 cars in a session.

Ditto what Neal said. Of all the local groups I've run/instructed with, Apex is by far the best at keeping traffic to a minimum at MSR.

[goofygrin]

I also preferred the Apex classroom instruction to TDE and the on-track drills (slalom, threshold braking) that TDE didn't do (I did both in the novice run groups on the 1.7 @ MSR, one CW one CCW).

[MoonieGT]

It was my first time to MSR and my first time with TDE. I was in the blue run group and only found traffic to be a problem in the first session of the day. After that traffic didn't seem to be an issue. I guess everyone shook the dust off and loosened up. As for instruction, there wasn't a whole lot of it. Maybe they assume you've already got a foundation under you if you're in the blue group? My instructor was very helpful though. He helped me find the line around the track. I'd deffinitely go back, but probably won't make it back out till the fall.

I thought my car did great. It's a '91 with 185k miles on it. Stock suspension, hawk hp+ pads, 15x7 wheels with yokohama s-drives. This combination was a lot of fun. The tires had pretty good grip for my first track day in my car. They felt very predictable and let me slide the car around the corners. I had no issues with the hawk pads either. I was really impressed with how my tired suspension worked. It was very soft, but I thought I was able to get through the track pretty well regardless. In five weeks I'll have enough $$ for a set of Tein Flexes and I can't wait to see how much better the car handles with a new setup.

[MINI-P]

My weekend was up and down. No fault of TDE. First thing Saturday morning I'm changing to my track tires and I jack up my back. Yeah, I'm old. I did the first two sessions and it got progressively worse so I bailed at about 1 o'clock. Spent the afternoon laying in bed with ice and ibuprofen. Sunday morning my alarm went off at 5:45 and I was still hurting so I decided not to go. Then around 8:30 it started feeling better I dropped my daughter off at church and headed out to the track.

I had a great time when I was on the track. Very little traffic and mostly courteous drivers. Only one dude in an e30 that boned me on two consecutive passing zones and then tried to give me a pass going up the hill after the hairpin. Then no pass in the next passing zone??? You'd think by the time you're in red group you'd know where the passing zones are.

It was great to meet you Michael (Nails), Sorry you had a bad experience.

If you want no traffic, do the ECR track days. I think there were maybe 30 cars total over all the run groups. There were 6-7 cars in the advance group. Don't know about their instruction as I didn't have an instructor there, but I did learn a lot talking to Brian Henderson between sessions.

[MINI-P]

Anyone know the dude in the NC that passes me here. That was an awesome save. You can hear me smugly tell my passenger "that happens all the time when you give someone a pass.", and the a few turns later...

http://www.youtube.com/user/durace2#p/a/u/1/mLZBafD5Oqs

Good times!

[Nails]

Anyone know the dude in the NC that passes me here. That was an awesome save. You can hear me smugly tell my passenger "that happens all the time when you give someone a pass.", and the a few turns later...

http://www.youtube.com/user/durace2#p/a/u/1/mLZBafD5Oqs

Good times!

If it's a nordic green NC in red group, that would be Monica aka equiraptor on the pointy board. I don't remember seeing any other NCs besides hers, mine, and Chris_S's red one. She's a good driver. Why didn't you take the early pit on the left? Any damage to your car it looked quite bumpy?

PS. I didn't have a bad experience, was just disappointed a bit in how TDE handled it.

[Chris S]

I had a great time despite traffic being a bit limiting at times. The Cosworth supercharger bumped up the fun factor several notches despite being limited by my OEM tires/wheels - can't wait to see what it's like w/ my NT01's!

The 3.1 mile layout is my favorite track in TX....so much fun, and very challenging/technical.

[Nails]

Yeah the 3.1 was main reason I tried to sign up for this event. Have to catch the next one.

Thanks for the ride in your car Chris, it has lots more torque than mine and I like the sound as the revs get over 5k.

MINI-P let me know when you're going to ECR again and I'll join you.

[MoonieGT]

Body Lean..JPGLook at that at that body roll!