Driving

Back in June 2023, at LPR's Autocross #5 at Salinas Airport an interesting thing happened.

As I went into full brake at the finish of my first run, the drivers side headlight shot out of the car. I'm sure it gave the timing station quite a start as it bounced across the tarmac.

For a short period of time in 2021, I had two Porsche 911's. But, you can only drive one at a time and the 2013 is a lot faster...

So, the black 2001 996 went up for sale. I included some track wheels and tires in the sale. Due to the pandemic, it actually sold for slightly more than I bought it for. I held it for six years and put over 60k miles on it. Here's some shots.

Well, its the end of the season for me. My last days to participate were the 10/28-29/23 dates at the Salinas Airport. Car felt good and both days I felt like I was improving my line and dropping my times throughout both days. 

The location is smallish but it works. Below are a collection of photos taken by Gorilla Tornado, Craig Boyle and myself.

During a group buy from Apex, I bought a set of 19" forged wheels for the track. In early 2023, I finally got a set of Falken Azenis RT660's installed. I've put a few days of AutoX on them, but haven't got to the track yet. 

I participated in the Santa Barbara region track day at Laguna Seca. I was assigned to the blue group and had a great day. Got a new personal best by following a faster guy in a Cayman.

On occasion, you get asked about the number of track days when going out with a new group. This is a log of driving events from 2020 when I started doing more HPDE track days and the car used.

2020 Days
1011-1220 NASA Sonoma 2 day
0905-0620 GGR DE Laguna Seca 2 day
071920 Hooked On Driving Laguna Seca 1 day *

* Hooked on Driving 071920 - cleared to drive Solo at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
* Drove Solo with GGR per recommendation to CDI

I went with Hooked on Driving to Sonoma Raceway April 12th. Very windy and cold. Lots of downtime and black flagged sessions due to fluid leaks and a Corevette that hit the wall going out for a session. Got Covid at this event... even though I was vaxxed.

Session 1
I got out in front of the group and had lots of space in front of me. Session was black flagged due to fluid leak around the whole circuit.

Best lap: 2:04:73

Lynda bought me a set of new wheels for my 60th birthday.

After an exhaustive search (pandemic supply chain shortages), I ended up deciding to move the car to a 19" wheel from its default 20". This allows for more variety in options for tires. 

Here you can see them brand new with a set of Pirelli P Zero's on them. I hadn’t run any Pirelli’s before but they’ve seemed fine for daily driving and winter road conditions here in central California.