All photograph credit: Cryptic Photowekrs (Danny R.)
On April 30 th 2016 I had the pleasure of attending the NASCC race school put on by our local sports car club here in Alberta. This will have been the second time I have completed this course which allows you to apply for an FIA sanctioned wheel to wheel road race license. The course is held at Castrol Raceway which is a very technical track that allows lower horsepower cars to compete based on their handling characteristics rather than just raw horsepower.
Regardless of a drivers skill level this course had something for everyone. It progressed from basic slalom skills to threshold baking, trailbraking, passing and all the flag identifications skills necessary to compete safely on the track. I consider myself to have a moderate amount of driving experience in the amateur motorsports realm, given this, I believe that there is always something you can take away from a third party giving you feedback. I always keep in mind that the top tier drivers around the world all have driving coaches for a reason.
Two years ago I decided to buy a car to move towards competing in amateur time attack. My weapon of choice? A Mitsubishi Evolution 4 GSR of course! My first issue at hand? Having come from the Hotrod/ ¼ mile world I needed to brush up on my driving skills while being able to work out the suspension set-up on my car under track conditions. How would I be able to do this without spending a pile of money on track days which only give you about 40 minutes of on track time? This course was perfect!
My estimate is that this course actually gives you approximately 4 hours of on track time in 20-40 minute sessions over 2 days. Many of those sessions are at wide open throttle, passing cars that you outdrive in the process. This allows you to fiddle with tire pressure as well as suspension set up over the allotted lunch time and at night between the two days.
Last year I was able to iron out braking issues, dial in my coilover dampening and swaybar settings. This year I was able to settle on a good tire choice and test out a new torsion differential I installed. I was also able to settle on a brake pad choice that would allow decent braking characteristics under track conditions. As a bonus I received some solid advice from a driving coach who at one time held several class lap records at Castrol.
The coaches that were supplied to me over the two days were great and recognized that I was able to demonstrate some of the skills that they were teaching early on. Due to this I was given a lot of latitude to practice my driving lines and get used to the full road course in all its glory.
I can’t stress enough the massive value this course offers to a perspective racer. The course happens early in the season, you get enough track time to really dial in your car, and then you have the rest of the summer to push your set-up.
I was lucky enough to find this course and use it effectively to prepare my car for the 2016 Time Attack season. My car and my teammates car are dialed in and we are excited to post results from the Boxer Battle in Saskatoon as well as the two day time attack series in August put on by Track Junkies.
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