Ryan setup a private track day for a few of us at the end of February. It was a gamble since february is typically snowboarding season more than track season, but that's also why you can get TH for reasonably cheap. I'm glad we got lucky with unseasonably warm weather.
Dragan nicely drove my car there the previous day, and I flew in that morning. Perfect weather, uneventful flight:
The first day, 3 of us took the skid pad with Ric McCormick to learn or relearn the basics.
this is how you get out of a spec miata :)
skid pad work.
It's hard to say how much I learned/fixed that first day, although I do think learning left foot braking was definitely a very good thing.
Unfortunately, I had just gotten a pretty potent cold 2 days prior. I did my best to take care of the cold, and I was almost ok the first day. That night though, I was so congested that I didn't sleep well, making day #2, the actual track day, much harder.
Drivers Meeting
Also unfortunately, I had some new, not as good tires, so I just won't know how much better I did after Ric's advise. Also, my driving was clearly uneven, likely due to the cold and lack of available concentration. All that said, I do think I was a bit faster, and I'd love to go back with my usual Pzero Corsas to see what lap time I get now.
In the morning, I had a pretty interesting off, due to getting too close to the right side and dropping a wheel under braking (you can skip to 3:45 for the conclusion. If you can't scroll to that offset, click on the youtube icon on the lower right, and try again in the real youtube interface).
After that, I realized that my brakes were misbehaving after 4 laps or so, and even though I was getting a very hard pedal instead of a spongy pedal, I figured I must have boiled the brake fluid. While checking everything, Arnaud pointed out that my rear pads were very low, and they were. They don't wear as quickly, but it was clear that between the fluid problem and the pad replacement which takes close to an hour, and my feeling more tired and sick, it was just best to call it a day.
I flew home ok, and then just rested for the rest of the day.
Here's a short video of my greaser landing at PAO (albeit a bit long, since I was very light and floated longer as a result):
