Track Day with the Track Pirates
March 25 was the first open track day and NASA HPDE (High Performance Driver Education) of the year. I had originally planned on doing nothing that glorious day, but Zane gave me an invite to come out so I packed up my gear and headed out. Turns out it was a better idea than whatever I would have ended up doing.
I got out there as HPDE group was in pre-grid and getting a warning from the starter about potential slick spots on the track. I said whats up to Zane, Fernando (to be here by known as Nando, because I hate ABBA), Brent, Biggie (provider of Lap Battle), Sally (from Wyoming, not a pirate) and Todd (pirate).
The HPDE session went off, the race group session went off, I ran for the first time in months to position myself for the next HPDE session which went off nicely, and then it was time for the lunch break. I spent some of the lunch break ogling a pair of high dollar exotics, ogling the Air Power Racing stable, and buying a $5 pretzel. Track food is expensive…
With pretzel in hand I climbed into Zane’s truck and we headed to the lounge and watched a little bit of JDM Option. It’s not the nicest lounge, but it’s got everything a track rat needs: a lift, tools, a fridge, TV, couches, an Xbox and a massive wall of tires.
The lunch break ended before we could get deep into the JDM Option DVD, but why watch a DVD when you’re at a world class race track? Exactly, so out we went: them to drive and me to shoot photos After more clean sessions we headed back to the garage, where one of the neighbors opened his garage to play with some of his toys: a Lamborghini Gallardo and a supercharged first generation Viper huffing nitrous oxide!
All in all it was a good day. A big thanks to the Pirates for letting me hang out. You’ll definitely be seeing more of them on CAM in the future.
-Michael Chandler
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