The SCCA Precision Driving Experience held at Gateway Speedway (St. Louis) last weekend was my first trial on a real track. This was a driving school type set-up with an instructor riding along for all but my last run. I think there were about 50 total cars running in 4 separate groups based on prior experience. The runs lasted about 20 minutes each and we got 5-6 during the day. It was incredible fun learning to push this car to its limits and seeing all of the other cars set up and killing it at speeds from 40-160 mph. By the end of the day, I was able to hold off lots of the far more powerful cars before eventually giving them the signal to pass. Nothing was timed and it wasn't considered a "race". Most of the advanced class guys used this as a testing day for the races coming up.

I learned the the G on street tires is reliable and powerful enough to get me started, but is no match for anything with R-compound tires. The brakes start to fade at the end of each run and better swaybars would help. My car is lowered on 350Z springs with a plenenum spacer as the only mods.

The instruction was good and really built on what I learned at the autocross school I attended there last July. I HIGHLY recommend taking part if you ever get the chance. Enough talk, here are the pics-

The Paddock

 

awesome, need more pics though. i wish they had a track day when i lived up there. i only ran the strip once. you should definitely get a set of sway bars if you enjoy pushing your car - best handling mod hands down.

 

The best type of racing bar none