Bondurant Advanced Road Racing Adventure 10/31/95 Eric Jacobsen Day 2 (Part 2 of 2). This is part two of the sequel to last year's account of my experience in the four day Gran Prix Road Racing course at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. On Sunday I arrived a little bit early so I could raid the equipment room for a good fire suit. There's a fair number of people milling around in the lobby for a one-day highway survival class. Apparently there are also three DPS (AZ HP) officers here for a different one-day class. By the time I get through chatting with a few folks and being distracted by a couple of other interesting things, I discover that Keith has beaten me to the equipment room. No matter though, I'm taller and thinner than he is, so we're not really competing for suits. We both pick out suits and change in the locker room. I have my own gloves and driving shoes, and Keith mentions that he wishes he had brought gloves, too (since that's about the only thing the equipment room doesn't have). Besides my racing gloves, I keep a pair of batting gloves in my helmet bag that I use at autocross events and Malibu Gran Prix. I'm more than happy to lend them out, since my hands got some nasty blisters last year when I drove the Formula Fords. They seem to fit Keith fine and about the time the glove situation stabilizes Mike shows up to start class. After some general discussion about our goals for the day, preparation, etc., Mike says that despite herculean efforts on his part, he was unable to get an alternate track, or even to get the carousel opened up for us to use. Even attempts to rent another tractor to move the concrete barriers failed. He is very apologetic, since Keith is a little miffed about the whole thing, and understandably so since he had been promised to drive on another track. I don't really care too much, since I'm not bored with the Bondurant track and figure there's still plenty I can learn out there. A different track would be nice, but certainly not necessary. Mike offers that we can reverse direction on the track if we want, which creates an entirely different course, or, if we want, they'll pull out one of the ProSearch cars and let us drive that for a while. Keith seems interested in the ProSearch car, so that looks like the way we'll go. For now we'll start in the Formula Fords, with some familiarization time in the paddock area and then a little time on the handling oval so Mike can get a handle on how we're doing. We head out to the shop area where three FFs have been pulled out for Keith, Mike, and myself. There's always an issue about who's going to fit into which car, and after some initial confusion we finally get strapped into cars that fit us. Mike has neck collars and arm straps for us, but eventually abandons the arm strap plan (although I'm not quite sure why). The neck collar, to my surprise, is very comfortable and not restricive at all. It does limit lateral head movement and I can certainly see where this could save a lot of neck stress in an impact. Once we're situated in the cars Mike has us head to the paddock. Mike has us running as hard as we can from on end of the paddock to the other. There are some light poles in a line on the east edge, and we're running from the farthest pole to the farthest pole. You can get fourth gear for a little bit before turning around the pole, and I'm keeping it in second during the turnaround. The FFs are a lot easier for me to heel-toe shift, since with the straight-cut gears and the teeny amount of clutch travel needed I can make a shift happen very quickly. Upshifts are especially quick, since the shifter throw is very short and you don't really need to use the clutch. I tap the clutch a little just to make the shift smoother, and to keep it a habit as well. I've been following Keith, as usual, but after a few laps Mike flags him over to talk a little bit. I keep tearing around the poles getting used to the FF again. A few laps later it's my turn to talk to Mike. He suggests I drop to first gear going around the pole just to help warm up to the car more quickly and see if it feels any better for me. I try it a few times and the added throttle sensitivity going around the poles makes the car a lot twitchier. I guess when I want twitchy, (which I do, sometimes,) I'll use first gear, but second is a lot smoother and I hit third and fourth gear just as quickly. A little later Mike flags me over again, and says to head over to the handling oval and run it in second gear. On the handling oval I start using the usual reference points, but the FF accelerates quite bit faster than the Mustangs. The first couple of laps are kind of sloppy, but then I start getting in the groove again. Keith joins me on the oval and we're both running about a half-lap apart. Mike flags me into the pit area and says I'm turning in on the constant-radius corner a little too early. After a half-dozen laps turning a little later, which does get me out of the corner faster, Mike flags me over again. "Go ahead on out to the track and run the same course you were running yesterday," he says. Really? "Over the hill, too?" I ask. "Sure." Wow. I had thought he'd warm us up on the Lake Loop first, but I head out to run the extended course we ran the previous day. The first few laps I take it fairly easy, warming up the brakes and tires and getting used to the FF at speed again. I start using the same braking points as in the Mustang, but the FF is so much lighter I can easily move most of them up. Over the hill into turn four I'm braking too early and wind up taking the corner much more slowly than I could. For some reason I have a hard time getting myself to move this braking reference up. The rest of the course is coming along allright, though. I'm lifting a little going into turn six and then short shifting into fourth gear, which is what Mike had suggested we do initially. The last turn onto the front straight is kind of fun and when I hit it just right I hardly have to lift at all. This gives me a decent shot onto the straight and I'm easily in fourth gear going by the flag tower. It takes a few laps to get into the groove through one, two, and three, but after a while I'm buzzing through there pretty decently. Keith has come onto the course also, and after many laps I'm catching up with him. We run together for a while and he's not straightening out the backstretch as much as I am, although it doesn't seem to be costing him much time. As usual, I'm keeping it in second through the tight turns at eleven and twelve, although the only way I can tell Keith is dropping to first is that he's a little more loose through those turns. After running together for a while I drop into the pit lane to give us about a half-lap spacing before heading back onto the course. The more laps we go the quicker it seems to get as I work on line, technique, etc. After what seems like an awfully long time Mike gives us the last lap signal. I run a cool down lap and then bring it in. Getting unstrapped I realize I'm a little tired and my back is getting beaten up by the top lip of the seat. A break will be a good thing. The nerves in my hands feel like springs vibrating every time I move my fingers. It's kind of cool, so I wiggle my fingers a lot, both to get the blood circulating and to feel the spring effect. Keith and I both hit the water supply and Mike is corralling us for a debriefing. He thinks we're doing fairly well, and will run lead-follow with us next session. He'll follow for a few laps to see our line, etc., and then come around and let us follow him. I bring up that I'm driving turn four much too slowly, although I can't exactly pinpoint my problem. After a little more coaching on how we can pick up a little speed here and there, the conversation lapses into a bit of a bull session. This is okay, though, since it's probably a good idea to get relaxed a bit before heading back out. Keith heads back onto the track while Mike is suiting up, and I follow a short time later. The break helped and I'm a little more relaxed than I was at the end of the last session. The seat is still thumping my back, but it is easy to ignore after a lap or so as my focus tunes in on driving. After a little while I can see ahead of me that Mike is following Keith. I'm working on braking a lot lighter going into four, but I still wind up taking the corner fairly slowly. Eventually Keith and Mike finish their lead-follow and Mike is behind me. I run a few fairly clean laps, still trying to carry more speed into four. On one lap Mike easily gets by me on the inside of turn four, clearly making the point that I am, in fact, rather slow there. I tuck in behind him and we pick up a bit more speed. He's carrying more speed through ten, and doesn't lift going into two as much as I have been. This gives even more speed over the hill. He's braking later than I have been going into four, and I don't seem to have much trouble following. He's a lot quicker coming out of four and up through five and six. I'm having no trouble keeping up, and I'm getting fourth gear going into five instead of short shifting through six, so we're going quite a bit quicker than I was before. Wow. This is really helping. Again, we carry a fair amount of speed through ten, and he's letting the car drift through the corners a bit to turn better. Several laps of this and I'm completely converted to driving Mike's way, which is clearly a lot quicker than what I was doing before. Mike pulls off and I continue on by myself, with plenty of new stuff to practice. On most of the course I'm carrying a lot more speed, thanks to Mike showing the way, but for some reason I start braking early into four again, and that corner slows down. It must be the entry speed that has me a little nervous. Coming out of three you still have a lot of speed left over from the front straight, and the little shot down the hill provides some additional acceleration into four. Four is a one-hundred-eighty degree turn, so you're pretty much looking at tire barrier and fence when approaching it. Some psychological barrier is keeping me from carrying speed into the approach, and I can't quite get past it. There's a decent escape route to the left with a lot of gravel trap and a fair amount of runoff area. Despite this knowledge I still drive slow through four. Not as slow as I had been, but still a lot slower than I know I can. Mike's under the flag tower giving me the last lap sign, so I run a cool down lap and come into the pit area. The springs are gone from my hands now, but my back is feeling the effects of the seat beating against me to the tune of the 1600cc motor running full bore. My legs are a little stiff, too. Apparently my arthritis doesn't like the vibration very much, either. We all get water under the tent in the pit area, and Mike gives us some feedback from the lead-follow session. Although I did pick up quite a bit of speed, I'm still slow through four. Mostly I'll concentrate on honing the areas where I've picked up speed, and also try braking later into four again. For the moment we'll take a break and get rested, then Mike will do lead-follows with us again near the end of the next session. This time I'm the first guy back on the track. A lap or so to get warmed up and I'm trying my new tricks already. Turn ten is much faster now, and also a little more fun. I can make the turn onto the straight most of the time by jusst barely lifting. If I don't hit it quite right I have to lift a little more, which slows down the acceleration on the straight. I'm running turns one, two, and three more quickly, although I have to be careful with the line through three to keep it on the pavement going into the Maricopa oval. A couple of times I have to use the curb on the exit of three, which I don't like very much. If I move my line going into three to the left a little it seems to go better. On the top of the hill there's a white X painted on the pavement, and I'm using that as a reference. It's still hard to delay braking into four, although I am managing better than before. Eventually I catch up with Keith, and he's braking later than I do into four. Following him I don't seem to have a problem, just like when I was braking later following Mike. Hmmm. I follow Keith for several laps and then pull into the pit area to give us a half-lap spacing again. After a while I notice Mike is back on the track, following Keith around. A little while later he's behind me, and I try to run the cleanest, fastest laps I can. On about the third lap with Mike behind me I hose my line through two a little bit. Going over the hill through three it occurs to me I'm travelling sideways and then the realization comes that I am spinning. I catch on to all of this at about the time the car is going through ninety- degrees. Amazingly it doesn't seem to bother me at all, and I have enough presence of mind to get on the clutch and brake. I'm along for the ride now, and I'm trying to focus on what I should do with the steering. About this time gravel and dirt starts flying around me and the car slows down quite a bit. I'd turned three-fourths of the way around when I went in the gravel and it turned most of the rest of the way around going through the dirt. Finally it is just rolling along forward very slowly, pointing toward the center of the Maricopa oval. The engine has quit and there is so much dust in the air I can barely see past the tires. I stop the car and wait for the dust to clear. There's about an inch and a half of gravel around my feet in the bottom of the car, and the top of the right sidepod inside the car is covered with gravel. I've got a fine coat of dust all over me as well as a smattering of gravel. As the dust clears I can see Mike rolling up to my right and I give him a thumbs up to let him know I'm okay. Since it appears everything is in one piece, I try to restart the car but the starter won't turn over. Mike unstraps and we try to push start it, but it is not cooperating. Oh, well. I ride back to the pit area on the sidepod of Mike's car, and we leave the gravel wagon for the mechanics to retrieve. My timing is pretty good, since it is about time to break for lunch anyway. After some air and water under the tent in the pit, Mike asks me what went wrong. I say, "Well, I was going to ask you." Although I vividly rember the trip down the hill and into the gravel, I don't really remember actually going over the top of the hill. Mike says I was too far to the left going over the hill, and that my car was completely to the left of the white X. Gotta have some part of the car over the X to be on line. Mike asks if I lifted going through three, which certainly would have contributed to a spin, but I think I can say that is something I did not do. While we're chatting about this, one of the Grand Marquis cruisers used for police training goes by with my car attached to the bumper hitch. Clever retrieval system. Today I brought a lunch with me, so I eat on the patio. It's a nice day and I'm pretty tired from the morning track sessions, and still a little tense from looping my way down the hill. Mostly I'm just disappointed with myself for letting it happen, but I'm better for the experience, too. It doesn't take long to consume the sack lunch, and I decide to see if the slot car track is still set up in the museum. Nope. Oh, well. About this time I hear the Indy Lights car that's been testing all morning tearing around the Firebird west track. The back of the shop area has a really good view of FB west, so I take a walk around back to watch the testing for a little while. There's a clear area that looks down on the south end of FB west, and on the way there I walk through the parking area just southwest of the shop and museum. Here there are a couple of rows of Bondurant Mustangs, several skid cars in varying configurations, a few of the Grand Marquis sedans used for the law enforcement programs, and two cars with severe body work problems. The body-integrity-challenged cars are apparently the ones that are used for the anti-terrorist course. One has a heavy steel plate front bumper and actually attempts to ram the other, which is driven by the trainee. At some point the "bad guys" in the ramming car are shooting at the other car with paintball guns in an effort to assassinate whoever happens to be the charge of the trainee. Much to my disappointment, I've never had the opportunity to see one of these sessions in progress. Judging by the shape of the sheetmetal on these cars, though, it must be a helluva time. Near these mangled beasts I found two Bondurant Mustangs with "send to crusher" written on the rear quarter window. All of the Mustangs have a utilization designation on the rear quarter window, indicating that they are to be used for the advanced classes (ARR), the Gran Prix course (GP), or whatever. My guess is that these two are not marked to be given to Capt. Picard's paramour and ship's doctor, but to be sacrificed to the God's of Recycling. The Indy Lights car is buzzing around FB west again, so I find a perch on the edge of the embankment and watch for a while. After a while the car pulls in the pit area for what appears to be an extended period of time. The back of the Bondurant Formula Ford shop area is near where I am, and I can see Jethro, the FF warden/mechanic there working on my car. I met Jethro a few years ago when I participated in one of Bondurant's Lap the Oval events at PIR. It was the first time I had ever driven a FF, and as I was getting settled in the cockpit Jethro came by to check my belts. "These are a little too loose," he said, grabbing the straps. "You want these babies TIGHT!", and he gave the straps a couple of good yanks. He nearly squeezed out some of my internal organs in the process, but I was certainly snug in the belts. I realized that the tighter you're strapped in the car the better you can feel what's going on, and you're safer as well. Since then I've always made sure to pull the straps as tight as I possibly could. I wander over and ask if there's any serious damage to the car. It's in good shape other than the dirt and rocks, and just needs to be cleaned out. That's good news, since the insurance for the advanced classes has a three-thousand dollar deductable. One of the Mustangs has been running laps so I head over to the tent in the pit area. Just as I get there the young fella that's been running it back and forth between the track and the shop brings it into the pit area and stops. I ask if he's been working on the brake setup for the Mustangs, and he is. It turns out he's responsible for setting up the cars for the advanced classes. The current problem is due to a change in compound made by the supplier of the front pads. The rear brakes are the stock Ford Mustang GT issue, but the front brakes are from a Cobra with performance compound pads. With the new compound pads on the front, the brakes never seem to get up to temperature and the rears wind up doing all the work (as I experienced yesterday). Even with the brake bias set all the way to the front the rear pads are burning. Wow. The only thing they've been able to get to work is to go back to the old pad compound. This is a pretty interesting lesson in car setup. We chat about the situation for a while and he offers to show me examples of the rear pad damage they're seeing. We head to the shop and extricate several examples of toasted pads from the discard barrel. Some are badly burned just on the end of the pad, but a couple are seriously charred about a third of the way up the pad. This is what I was smelling yesterday morning, probably even one of these exact pads. We walk back to the pit tent and chat for quite a while. One of the things that comes up is that the engines in the Mustangs and the SHOs are completely stock, and many of the Mustangs wind up seeing forty-thousand miles of student abuse on the track and paddock with no real problems. The SHOs are the same; keep the oil changed and run 'em hard. (This is particularly interesting to me, since I just bought an SHO.) I mention that I saw a couple of the Mustangs behind the shop marked for the crusher, and ask what has to happen to a car to get it designated that way. Most of the time it is because the front subframe starts to separate from the unibody. Well, I suppose that's a pretty good reason. I can just imagine coming through turn three at full tilt and have the front suspension decide to do its own thing all of a sudden. A little later Mike and Keith show up and we get ready for the afternoon sessions. One of the ProSearch Mustangs is out for us to drive, and Mike wants Keith to drive it first, which is fine by me. I'll be driving the FF while Keith is playing with the ProSearch. Mike wants Keith to drive the east end of the Lake Loop track rather than the modified approach we've been driving. I mention that since Keith is driving that route I probably ought to also, or we could potentially meet in an unpleasant manner coming onto the front straight. Right. We'll all drive the Lake Loop approach to the front straight until we put the ProSearch away. About this time Jethro brings my car back to the pit area and when he stops a bunch of gravel falls out onto the pavement. Most of the gravel has been cleaned out of the car, but it looks like he left just enough to remind me what happened. Oh, well. Keith is strapping into the ProSearch so I get ready in the FF. I get to the track first and spend a few laps getting warmed up again. I'm trying not to let turn three intimidate me, but I want to be careful, also. For a half-dozen laps or so I take it pretty easy through turn three until I can get comfortable with it again. A bit later I see Keith is ahead of me in the ProSearch Mustang. I'm catching up pretty quickly, and it isn't very long at all until I've caught up. The FF seems to be quite a bit quicker around the track than the ProSearch, and it's pretty easy to stay with him. I pull into the pit and wait until we have a half-lap or so between us, and then pull back onto the track. It doesn't seem like long until I've caught up with Keith again. I decide to follow him around a bit and in a few places I have to back off quite a bit to keep space between us. Coming onto the front straight I back off quite a bit so we'll have plenty of clearance between us going through turns two and three. At one point going through turn four he doesn't quite make the turn and goes off the course into the dirt. Just like yesterday, he keeps it rolling. I back off enough that he can get back on the track in front of me, although I probably should have just gone on. Keith pulls off at the pit entrance so I have the track to myself. I've gotten enough confidence back that I'm taking turns two and three nearly as fast as I was before my little excursion down the hill. I'm lifting going into turn one more than I need to, but it lets me set up a line through turns two and three a lot more accurately. Keith is back on the track, only now in the FF. There's a pretty good distance between us, but I catch up gradually. Mike is giving me the last lap signal, so I run a cool down lap and bring the car in. It turns out Keith went off the track because the power steering belt went away somewhere between turns three and four. The belt has been replaced and now it's my turn to drive the ProSearch. I'm a little hesitant, because I'm pretty adapted to the FF right now, and I'm also a little tired. I figure that this is probably my only chance to drive the ProSearch, and I'll be kicking myself forever if I don't, so after a break for water and air, I climb into the ProSearch. The interior is stripped, the seat is the hard, no-nonsense, shell type, and the biggest thing different that I notice is the reduction in forward visibility from the raised hood. This car has a 380hp 351cid engine instead of the stock 305 in the other Mustangs, and the hood has quite a lump in the middle to accommodate the larger engine. The dash is more fitting to a race car with a large tach in the middle and an array of round gauges to the right. Mike talks me through starting the car and goes over the instrumentation with me. The gauges all have tape markers on them designating normal operating regions, and they're all oriented so if the needles are pointing straight up things are okay. Mike says to keep an eye on the water temperature, and turns me loose. This is a far cry from the FF. I run a warm up lap and the next time around coming into turn four I almost forget to move my braking point back for the heavier car. Compared to the FF this thing is an absolute pig. I don't think it really handles much different than the other Mustangs, but the extra horsepower does give a lot of accelleration on the straights. Several places through the back stretch where I'd have one of the other Mustangs floored I have to back off to keep it on the track. Part of this is due to the extra power and part due to my trying to take it easy with this car. If I'd gotten in this after driving the other Mustangs for a while, I'd be a lot more willing to test my limits in it than I am having just gotten out of the FF. I run a half-dozen laps or so and then bring it in the pit area for a break and to retrieve the FF. I can tell I'm getting a bit worn from the track time, and my back is really getting sore. My knees are starting to succumb to the effects of the arthritis from the vibration, and my hips aren't doing so well either. I'm taking breaks that are a little longer to try to compensate, but the real way to get away from the pain is to get back on the track. After a lap or two my concentration is completely on the driving and you could saw off one of my limbs and I wouldn't notice. This time I do take a decent break and get plenty of water and some rest. Mike says he's going to join us on the track for some more lead-follow work. This will be good as it will probably allow me to pick up some speed again. I've still been taking it easy through two and three, and now since I'm getting tired toward the end of the day it is getting harder for me to pick up my speed on my own. Keith has come in, too, and now we'll be able to drive the extended course we were driving earlier, with the quick left-hander onto the Bondurant front straight from the Firebird drag track runoff. When I go to strap in the FF again I see some more gravel has fallen out onto the ground around it. Must've shaken loose when I parked. I take my time strapping in and it is mentally a lot more comfortable for me to be in this car than the ProSearch. A few easy warm up laps and then I'm trying to push my limits again. I'm managing to get a more speed through two and three, probably back up to what I was doing before lunch. I'm still having a heckuva time trying to brake later into turn four, though. After several laps Mike is in a FF catching up with Keith. I'm not a long way behind and in three or four laps we're running pretty much together. The left-hand kink we're taking in turn twelve to get back to the front straight has some gravel inside that is getting disturbed when we (mostly Keith and I) cut the corner a little too tightly. At some point somebody must have gotten quite a bit off and pulled a golf-ball size rock onto the course. My next time through it hit the bottom of my car (since the FF's ride pretty low) and sounded like a shotgun going off. It surprised me a bit just because it was a lot louder than I thought it would be. I pull into the pit area to get some separation again and then head back onto the course. A while later I see Mike parked on the far side of the Maricopa oval, which means he's done working with Keith and is waiting for me. He follows me for several laps, and although my line is pretty decent and I don't make a lot of mistakes, I'm not running full tilt just from the fatigue of the day. When we swap so I can follow him, I find it pretty easy to keep up, even though he picks up the pace noticeably from what I was driving. He lets it drift in some corners more than I do, and since he doesn't seem to gain any distance on me I figure I'll keep doing those turns like I have been. Through turn three over the hill, though, he starts the turn earlier than I do to set up a high-speed drift through the corner. In doing so he winds up with the car aligned for the turn exit much more easily, and it is more comfortable doing this at a higher speed. I find it much easier to be on line at the exit of three (which is kind of narrow), and as such it feels safer, too. It's also kind of fun. Just like in the earlier session, I don't have any trouble following Mike into a much later braking zone approaching turn four. In fact, he's braking later than the last lead-follow session, and we're really getting through four much more quickly. As before, I pick up a lot of speed just by following Mike for a few laps, and it is invigorating enough that I forget my aches and fatigue for a while. Mike heads for the pit area so I'm on my own again. I manage to keep up a lot of the speed I picked up from the lead-follow, but wind up braking early into turn four again. Damn. I'm doing better there, but not as good as I should. Despite being tired, I'm pretty enthusiastic about the improved technique I've just picked up, and it helps me find enough energy to keep up the pace. After several fast laps I start backing off a little as I feel the fatigue coming back. Fortunately, Mike gives us the last lap signal, which ends our track time for the weekend. Back in the classroom, Mike gives us some more pointers and general assessments of our technique, etc. He has also timed us during the morning and afternoon sessions. In the morning Keith was averaging 1:05:99, with a fast lap of 1:05:47, and was within one second on the eight laps timed. I had a morning average of 1:02:694, with a fast lap of 1:02:18, and an eight-tenths second spread. We were both running fairly consistently, and the 2.5 second advantage I had explained why I seemed to be catching up with him so often. In the afternoon Keith averaged 1:04.43, with a 1:04:15 fast lap, while I averaged 1:01:61 with a 1:01:36 fast lap. We both managed to pick up about a second from the morning to the afternoon sessions. If I'd figured out how to make myself brake later into turn four I'm guessing I could have picked up a few tenths there, and I'm hoping Mike timed us when I had gotten back up to speed through turns two and three. In any case, we all had a pretty good time and I managed to learn quite a bit in the process. Mike hands out our plaques and graduation certificates, and we're done for the day. Keith returns my batting gloves while I'm trying to clean all the white fly casualties off of my helmet. I am pretty much exhausted. My back is really sore from the FF seat pounding against me and the arthritis in my knees and hips is taking the opportunity to let me know this sort of treatment is not appreciated. You know you really had a good time when you can hardly move afterward. In the days following the course, I had a blood test as part of some work to find my continuing internal problems, and got a call indicating my CPK count was extremely high. The nurse didn't seem to know what that implied, other than a normal high was around 225 and mine was 591. A retest was ordered about a month later, with normal results. I later found out that bruised muscles generate an enzyme that increases the CPK count, and if I had experienced any bruising it would explain the results of the first test. Well, my back was seriously black and blue from the pounding I got in the FF seat, and I had some bruises around my knees and shins from the framework. The back bruises took over a week to clear up. Now I REALLY know I had a good time.