Thursday, May 6, 2010

One Lap of America Round 8 - NJMP

I had come to NJMP a few weeks prior to instruct for a NASA/PDA driving school with Scott Barton from MyTrackSchedule.com, using his Porsche 911 and Mini Cooper S so that I could learn the track. I had found it very easy to pick up, but there were 3 tricks that I thought I could use to my advantage. Knowing how fast the blind Turn 1 is, the line over the blind Turn 5, and the line in the Light bulb turn that leads onto the front straight.


Scott met us in the morning as we were getting unloaded and ready. With our morning procedure becoming pretty well defined, things went smoothly and I got ready to go. The Corvette ZR-1 of Ron and Patrick Adee was back from its mid-week hiatus to rejoin us at NJMP. They resumed their position in the first run group and I led the second run group. I was glad I didn’t go out in the first group, because I could see them all kicking up a cloud of dust as they drove around. Either dust or pollen was all over the track and I was more than willing to let them clear the racing line.

The Lightning track was a lot of fun and our car handled it very well. It seemed to be doing everything right. I did a 1:13.4 and my total time was good for 4th overall, only 0.17 seconds off that of the ZR-1!


We got some lunch at the Wawa in town (they really need to have these throughout the rest of the country!) and relaxed at the track for a bit. NJMP is a nice place to do that because it’s all shiny and new, made to look like an old Air Force base. In fact, there is a municipal airport right next door that was used as the first defensive air base in America. The grounds vehicles are even green Jeep Wranglers, decaled up like MP's (Motorsports Patrol)!



In my afternoon run, I pushed harder in a couple braking zones (before the blind Turn 5 and into the Light bulb) and carried a bit more speed out of the Light bulb so that I was actually coming out in 4th gear, rather than up-shifting on, or before, track-out. The results were good enough to drop 2 seconds off my total time, but not enough to best the ZR-1. Or the Z06, for that matter, since Danny Popp had returned to the wheel. I ended up with 5th place in the afternoon, but the day’s results had moved us up to 5th overall!



I found that, despite knowing the track, my times behind the wheel were intensifying. Maybe it was precisely because I DID know the track, and was therefore pushing the limits a bit more. Whatever the reason, I was in need of some decompression after my 2nd run. I walked off for a half-hour to just watch some of the other cars by myself.

Upon my return, I helped Kevin and Scott finish packing before we then returned to our suite so that Kevin could change some driveline fluids before we continued. While they were doing that, I took care of some sponsorship business and reviewed the in-car video. We both grabbed showers before hitting the road. I have to thank Scott of MyTrackSchedule.com for the hundredth time for providing the suite!


Due to conducting the maintenance on the car, were departed late enough to encounter plenty of rush hour traffic in Jersey before finally getting out. With warm temperatures, no A/C, rough roads, and idiotic drivers, we couldn’t escape fast enough. The mountains in Pennsylvania were a nice change, but we had gotten to the point of simply wanting to get to Ohio. While we had plans to stay with our friend, Tim Smith, we opted for a cheap hotel rather than the extra hour of round trip driving to his house and then Nelson Ledges in the morning.

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