anybody can try, i want you to win

after work on thursday (that was yesterday? weird) i went home and packed up everything into the shoe. i headed off at around 18:30 to south haven, michigan for another gingerman event, this time with cvo.

i do not like driving to michigan, and this will probably be my last time doing so. maybe once more for grattan, but gingerman just isn't worth it anymore.

while driving up through michigan, i spotted a red miata with a rollbar and illinois plates, so i figured it was someone going to gman. he (trevor, cvo motorsports director) caught up with me and yelled out, "are you going to gingerman?" so i nodded and he said "cool, follow me" so i didn't have to remember which exit to take.

i finally got to the holiday inn and checked in, met the two dave's who had just pulled in, then swapped in my hawk ht10 track pads in the parking lot. i went out on the highway to bed them in and wow do they produce a lot of friction (and noise). while bedding them in they started producing sparks which was kind of neat since it was dark out. other drivers didn't like my repeated 100-10mph stops, though.

after that i filled up with gas and went back to my hotel room and finally fell asleep at around 2am.

... and then woke up at 6am this morning, showered, checked out, ate a doughnut and drank some milk for breakfast, and headed down to gingerman. i snagged a spot in one of the car ports next to the two dave's, registered, teched, had the drivers meeting, and then went out on the track. i got put into the advanced rungroup (C) which went out first in the morning. novice was group A and had instructors, group B and C didn't, and D was the instructor group.

my first session was complete crap; my tires weren't gripping at all and the car was turning like it was on a patch of ice. i would be in a turn and have the wheel turned where i wanted but the car would just keep plowing forward. i'd keep bringing the steering back a little bit more until it'd hook up, but it never would until i was practically straight again. it was doing that through every turn and i was getting so frustrated and pissed off. halfway through the session i exited the track and went back to the paddock because it just wasn't doing anything. i couldn't understand it because i was running the same tires at grattan and it was responding great. i let out a few pounds of pressure from the tires in hopes that they were just up too high.

my next session was better, but still really sloppy. the tires were squealing like crazy which they had never done before, so after that session i let out a little more air pressure.

then we had lunch, then i went out with dave in his r32. he drove a few laps and then we switched drivers, but right as we did, his low fuel light went on, so i did one or two hard laps while sitting way too far forward (we switched in the middle of the session and i didn't take a lot of time to adjust the seat or steering wheel). i did another easy one and then brought it in so he wouldn't run out of gas. his r32 felt pretty much like mine, except i couldn't heel-toe since he doesn't have an extended gas pedal cover like i do, and i couldn't brake nearly as hard/late. his tires felt a little more grippy than mine, but still made a lot of noise which i'm going to chalk up to the track surface (or me just being a bad driver all day?) since i couldn't heel-toe, i had to jump into a corner in-gear and brake, straighten out, then quickly downshift into the straight. not fast nor smooth, but hey.

for my next session, i was getting a bit more grip in certain corners but there were certain laps/turns where the car would just completely plow through the turn with no grip at all. i'd get so frustrated since i couldn't do anything while it was just sliding around and not responding to any steering inputs. eventually the tires were refusing braking inputs, too. the brakes would lock up the tires right away and the tires would just be skidding and hopping, trying to grab the track. eventually on one lap as i was going into turn 6, i came in hot and couldn't brake or steer for shit and just went straight off the track. i was sliding on the grass with the brake pedal planted and it felt like it wasn't slowing down at all. eventually i came to a stop and got back on the track. i got the customary black flag and came back in, but greg said they were about to give the checkered flag anyway so i should just go back to the paddock. luckily i got the whole session on video, so eventually i'll digitize it and put it up here.

after going off track and realizing that the tires were just taking a beating and not going to get any better, i decided to call it quits and pack up. the other daves were leaving, too, so i started my journey home at around 14:00. i was too tired/lazy to change back to the stock brake pads, so i had to drive home with the track pads on. they are ridiculously loud and obnoxious.

for some reason, as soon as i got onto the main highway, a sudden burst of exhaustion and sleepiness hits me and i can barely keep my eyes open. i'm driving down the highway while struggling to stay awake and i keep thinking, "i need to get off the road and rest" but none of the exits i pass show they have rest areas. i could keep my eyes open no longer, so i exited somewhere and while looking for somewhere to park to take a nap, i suddenly became alert again and could focus. i got back on the highway and was fine the whole way home.

there was a ton of traffic all the way home. it got worse and worse as i headed down michigan into indiana, and then into chicago. while on i90 in chicago, my low fuel light came on and i made the mistake of thinking i could hold out until i got out of the city to fill up. well that didn't work at all and i suddenly need to get gas as soon as possible. so i finagle my way through grid-locked traffic to get onto a city street and now i have to find a gas station in downtown chicago without running out of gas, during rush hour traffic. i keep driving down random one-way streets trying to find a gas station without getting hit by taxis and busses but i can't find one. eventually the estimated mileage-to-empty goes to 0 miles and the needle is way past the 0 mark on the fuel gauge. the car starts idling funny and making me panic that i'm going to run out of gas right there at the stop light.

eventually as i drove down all the streets i spotted a bp sign, so i had to make my way across a bunch of other one-way streets and do a few u-turns to get over to the gas station. i get there and it's completely full, but there's no way in hell that i'm going to go to another station, let alone find one.

so i sit there half on the street and half on their curb waiting for someone to leave so i can get some gas. 16.1 gallons later, i'm on my way to figure out how to get the hell out of the city and back on 90.

four and a half hours of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a friday evening, in a manual transmission car, with no air conditioning, with ridiculously loud squealing brakes, while it's 90 degrees and humid outside, is not fun. there was traffic all the way down 90, even down randall road. i got home at about 18:45.

of course, the first thing i want to do when i get home is take a shower since i'm all sweaty and have grease and dirt all over my arms. but no, i have to swap brake pads, because i can't keep driving on the track pads and doing so will get me all dirty, so i have to do this before taking a shower. so in my exhausted state, i swap the street pads back in and finally take a shower and relax. and now i'm hungry, but i am in no mood to get anywhere near my car anytime soon.