I recently posted Gone Fishing using that phrase as a metaphor for my particular breakaway from the normal, everyday life. Here I use a much more accurate title.
Racing is most accurately described as a competition wherein one tries to go faster than another. I will not be in a competition, but rather just running the track as fast as this man and my GT50 machine care to go – which is a whole bunch faster than normal people would drive within their comfort zones.
I expect to get my ’87 Honda CRX around 115-120mph in the straight between TURN 15 and TURN 1, before braking hard for a corner likely to require me to be going 35-45 in order to remain on the pavement. That, folks, is my kind of FUN.
I don’t spend a penny on watching others DO stuff. No Superbowl trips, concerts, Olympics or other spectator sports. I don’t sit on cruise liner sardine cans watching the world over deck railing. I never enter Gestapo-controlled facilities to board airborne sausages packed with humans headed for other parts of the world. No golf, competitive shooting, horse hobby, power boating, new cars, or other ways folks have found to keep their household money supplies tight.
However, after 33 years of restraint, I am finally returning to the high-speed, road-course running that is an extreme joy to me. Tomorrow I pull out of my garage heading south to Utah Motorsports Complex for National Auto Sports Association’s March Madness.
I will attempt to record and publish one or more in-car videos as well as overviews of my weekend experience. Heck, I might share bits from the field while I’m on my epic vacation.
In the photo to the right my race mechanic friend is delivering my old Honda CRX with the nearly completed upgrades for street and track safety and performance. When Ford went road racing with a purpose, they named their new car the GT40 because it was a Grand Touring race car that was 40 inches tall. When I measured mine at 50 inches, its appropriate moniker became instantly apparent. It now is GT50.
All this to say that I will likely not be posting socio-political research and commentary for most of the next week. In fact, I may not watch any of that show during this vacation. It is moving so slowly now that I am likely to miss very little of significance.
TTFN
One of the High Performance Driving School (HPDS) instructors recorded the descriptive video below, if you are curious about what a track session entails. Interestingly, many full-coverage auto insurance policies cover any damage incurred at these driver education sessions. That gives you a measure of their relative safety.
