Racing Sports Cars

Well, it seems that I've found a completely new way to burn money I don't have.



A young friend who works in the automotive business, who drives an older BMW, and who's been lusting after my Z3, told me that there was a practise session last Sunday at the Bremerton Motorsports race track, which is one of the abandoned runways at the Bremerton airport. I've flown over it many times, looking down on the events transpiring, but had never been in the gate until Sunday.

Got there bright and early in the morning, registered in the novice class, and walked the line, looking at the broad array of vehicles. Everything and everybody was represented. It was very cool.

Had the driver's meeting, where we got the safety briefing. Had the tech inspection, where I removed all the extraneous gear, except for the Starbucks cup, and got ready to run.

Walked the course, twice, eavesdropping on the other drivers as they discussed the best line, the best braking techniques, the tire pressures and all those things that I'd been vaguely aware of but had never integrated.

Began to really regret losing the soft leather BMW glove that I had dropped out the door of the car some months ago, and which I've not yet replaced....

Walked way out onto the track sides and became a course worker, watching the first grid of cars work their way through the cones. Found out how easy it is to be distracted, and how simple it might be for a course worker to be killed. Watched some cool cone runovers, watched some spinouts, watched some fine driving.

Then it was my turn.

Sat at the start, took a deep breath, visualized the first five gates, stomped on the gas, stomped on the brakes, swerved and skidded, missed all the cones, didn't miss any of the gates and posted a pathetic 78 seconds when the big boys were running 65's. But it got better from there, to 75, then 70, then mid sixties and down. Meanwhile, the big boys were running high 50's, so I was still a consistent five to eight seconds slow. However, that's just fine with me, as I was learning all the time.

And, I sat in the sun, had some fun, burned some rubber off my new tires, felt like a true participant, and it didn't cost much at all.

I'll be back....