Track Day at NOLA Motorsports

"Slow4o" (Slow4o) 06/30/2014 at 16:26 • Filed to: None

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This past weekend I did an HPDE at NOLA Motorsports with NASA, and it was kick ass. Warning: this is long, but has car porn sprinkled throughout.

My father and I did this same event last year, and we decided to do it again this year. I brought my wife in a Mustang fully packed with 4 wheels, jack, jack stands, tool box, brake pads, impact wrench, and some other stuff. She was not amused at the lack of space, so I think if I keep doing this to her, I will get a trailer sooner than I thought haha. So early Saturday morning, my dad and I drive the 20 minutes from the French Quarter to the track (btw, that is one of the biggest selling points of NOLA Motorsports: you can stay in the French Quarter, eat and drink like a king, and still make it to a high quality track in 20 minutes time). We were both running in HPDE Group 1, since we never had been promoted within NASA. I actually met my dad's instructor outside the gate while we were waiting, he was driving a 2013 Boss 302, that had 6k miles that were all either on the track, or driving to the track.

After swapping brake pads and wheels, we were ready for our first session. I spent most of the first session re-learning the line, and absorbing as much as I could from my instructor. He reminded me to keep my eyes up, and to not jerk the wheel when down shifting, which is something I didn't realize I did until he told me. Even from this session, I could tell my car was fast with the Continental slicks on this track. They gave me a much larger advantage here than at COTA, which was the first track I ran the tires on.

One of the cars in my group was this RHD Skyline GT-R. I talked to the guy, and he said it had actually been in the states for a couple years, and had been titled in Florida. He had just rebuilt the motor on the car, and it was his first time on track, so he was really babying the car around. I don't blame him though, because the car was mint. I talked to him after, and he said he had so much fun he thinks he is going to sell the Skyline and buy a prepped Miata.

At grid during the second session, my instructor was nowhere to be found. I drove around looking for him, but couldn't find him. Instead, I asked one of the guys in charge to ride with me, and we headed out on track. This time, I made a conscious effort to keep my eyes up, looking through to the next corner. This small little mental note made a HUGE difference in my driving, and I drove what I thought to be the best session of my life up to that point. I was tearing the track up, and the new instructor in my car was having a blast, hooting and hollering through every turn. After about 2 laps, he told me I had no business being in Group 1, and that he thought I should be in Group 3!! He also gave me the best compliment I have ever received on my car: he asked me if I had a shop build the car for me, and was amazed when I said I had built it all myself.

After some delicious lunch at the kart track, we decided to check out the shop at NOLA, since they are now a licensed Porsche race shop. There were some amazing freaking cars in there, and those are the pictures I am sprinkling through this post.

After the second session, my instructor immediately moved me up to Group 2, where you get to run solo. I decided to stay in 2 for a bit before moving up to 3, and because I still got to run with my dad. So for the next session, I finally got to test out my Harry's Lap Timer app. For those that don't know, it is a GPS based app that has almost every track in the world mapped out, so you can get a pretty good sense of your lap times. The next session out, I decided to start getting closer and closer to the grip limit of my Continentals, since I hadn't even found it yet. I kept getting quicker and quicker through the esses, passing every car in my group I came up to, even though the only cars I had more horsepower than was probably 2 Miata's and a Integra Type-R.

After completing that session, I hopped in the car with my dad's instructor. This dude drove like a god damn maniac. He was pretty much in a controlled drift around the entire track, but he passed every car except for a TT prepped Viper! It was really astounding, considering every other good driver I had ridden with was mostly smooth, but this guy had constant see-sawing, with the rear of the car always stepping out. It really does go to show that different driving styles can be just as fast as one another. I also was really impressed with how good the car was at braking, so I made a mental note to try and brake later and later next time.

The last session I set out with the intent of braking hard and late. I started putting in some clean laps, and I noticed I had already dropped 2 seconds off my previous sessions time! I then decided to take the esses in 4th rather than 3rd, and after some more clean laps, I put in a 2:09, 3 seconds quicker than my best lap in the previous session. Soon after this though, I started smelling fuel. I pulled off into grid, and started looking around the car. Nothing seemed amiss though, so I went back out. I really didn't get a clean lap after this though, and my session ended. The rest of the trip consisted of packing up, heading back to New Orleans, eating at a mind-blowing restaurant called Doris, drinking a couple hurricanes at Pat O's, and not getting shot by the psychos that emptied two clips into the crowd while trying to shoot each other (which happened right near Pat O's 2 hours after we left). All in all it was a fantastic race weekend, and I hopefully will be going back with the Texas NASA region in September.

TL;DR: went to NOLA, ran around the track, my car is quicker than it has any right to be, I've improved as a driver, saw some pretty pretty cars, drank and ate like a king, didn't get shot.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:31

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MMmmm, that's sexy as fuck

Slow4o > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet 06/30/2014 at 16:31

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The paint was flawless, but they hadn't finished the interior yet haha. Still a lot of sound deadening needed to be scraped off.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:31

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Holy wow this is awesome, and I don't even like Ferrari that much.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:32

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Such a cool bumper

quarterlifecrisis > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:32

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Good work on the car porn. Serious question, how much track experience did you have before you went to the dedicated slicks?

Slow4o > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet 06/30/2014 at 16:32

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Yea, I believe it is also pretty close to the car I am going to take some laps in in Vegas during my trip there.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:33

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These hips don't lie.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:33

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Dat Martini, doh.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:34

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I so want to DD this girl right here, in front of her friends.

Anon > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:34

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I love the NOLA motosport park! I live up in Alexandria and visit there at least once a year. Even though I don't have a trackable car I still love to go and ride the carts!

Slow4o > quarterlifecrisis 06/30/2014 at 16:35

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I would say I had 12 or more track days, with maybe 4 or 5 with an instructor. I honestly went with the slicks because they were cheap!!! They are discontinued slicks from the Continental tire series, so they were $110 a piece. Honestly though, I had really reached my tire's limits before I got the slicks, and was told so by an instructor, so it isn't all hubris haha.

Slow4o > Anon 06/30/2014 at 16:36

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The karts are bonkers fun. When I was at LSU, I went and did their kart league on a Wednesday night, and that was a freaking blast even though I sucked haha

quarterlifecrisis > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 16:38

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Just was curious. I've not been able to get out nearly as much as I'd have liked, for a littany of reasons. I remember reading that they were from CTSCC... I run nearly the cheapest tires I can on my car, simply because as much as I drive, and as much of it is boring highway driving, there's no reason to blow money. However, I think the limits of a Kumho Ecsta may be lower than a PS2 or something of that sort...

Slow4o > quarterlifecrisis 06/30/2014 at 16:41

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Yea well that is the advantage of having 2 sets of wheels, you can run really cheap tires on your daily ones, and spend money on the race tires. Now, I can't tell what you run in your avatar, but if you can't fit that extra set in your car, it definitely makes things more difficult haha.

BKRM3 > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 18:14

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This looks like a fun event! I like the description with tons of track car porn sprinkled in. I'm going to try to remember to take more pictures at my next event (Summit Point at the end of July). For some reason I'm terrible at that. I guess it's because track events are so busy. Glad you had a fun, safe drive. Getting moved up to a faster group is always a great compliment!

Team6.1 > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 19:05

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"he thinks he is going to sell the Skyline and buy a prepped Miata." - I just died a little inside

quarterlifecrisis > Slow4o 06/30/2014 at 21:08

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C6. Soooooo, yeah, they aren't fitting. Unless I activate El Corvettamino mode, and decide the rear hatch is purely optional.

Slow4o > BKRM3 07/01/2014 at 08:25

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Thanks! Yea I tried to take more pictures this time compared to COTA, and having a long lunch break helped. And it helped that I had so many subjects around!

Slow4o > quarterlifecrisis 07/01/2014 at 08:25

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Haha well you could always get a little tire trailer!

quarterlifecrisis > Slow4o 07/01/2014 at 09:24

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There is that. Driving on tars with less grip certainly helps with honing the craft a bit.

Slow4o > quarterlifecrisis 07/01/2014 at 09:31

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For sure. It definitely allowed me to safely explore the limits of these slicks, since I know how to recover the car when it gets loose. It is definitely the best way to learn.