Daytona

Awesome... not in the over-used 90s way... more in the 'inspires awe' way. Not that IO'm a particularly big fan anymore. Sebring really is more of a 'hallowed' ground, glad I got to run it kind of place. Daytona? Well, I did watch NASCAR as a younger person... so it was cool to see the track I'd watched... but driving it? Well 110hp isn't really the weapon to have there. Especially when you have 8 cars on track, and 1 of them is the Altima Hybrid or a hopped up Camaro IROC w/ a blower and not enough brakes. I got caught on both of my sessions.

Whatever... I'm just glad I made it out of there alive, and with the car in one piece. I drove fairly conservatively. Unfortunately the IROC really caught me out (you'll recall that he was a thorn in my side at Sebring too), since he couldn't brake as hard as I could, and I got forced into an inside line and ended up have to cross over him. Then he got done w/ his lap and screwed me for the last part of the infield course and my entrance into the banking. I got video of the first session, but it looks like I ran out of battery on the second.

The banking is just freaky. I drove it at the top of 3rd and 80mph on the recon lap, and freaked myself out about how much right turning I had to do to stay up there. But when the flag dropped I just focused and tried to put as much speed in as possible, leaving it in 4th through the 30deg bit. The right steering was as bad at 100mph, but it was really odd to see nothing but a couple hundred feet ahead (i.e. the windscreen was filled with track) and less behind. It really felt like driving on one of those slot car loops. I eventually got comfortable enough to shift into 5th in the 30deg banking which pulled me up to about 107mph top speed.

Oh, and now I can now claim I've got a better Event/Wreck record at Daytona than Jon Wood! ;)