Sports Land Yamanashi 08/07/05

Had to be at SLY around 7:30 so it was a pretty early morning leaving Tokyo at 5:30. If the entrance to the course was anything to go by, this was going to be one tiny circuit. Still, good, goods in small parcels as my mum used to say.

Aki-san had organized a great day for us under the guidance of one Sunako-san who is a GT driver here in Japan. We started the day with some elementary exercises, practicing braking and a one corner attack and then getting feedback on how we did. It was great to review this. I found the one corner attack pretty hard as when you are out of rhythm its hard to just line up and attack it each time from a standing start. That was very interesting and I wanted a little more practice but I think we probably had too many cars on the track at once lined up so it was hard to get the most out of the time.

After this we need a free run where Sunako-san watched from the outside and then gave us feedback later in class. His comments for me were that I was too consistent and didn't try enough variations to see if something else would work better. I didn't quiet understand the relevance of this at the time, but later in the day when he drove my car, I saw how he tried different things each time to get the most out of it - changing gears in different sports etc.

When Sunako-san drove my car, I was impressed again how a pro can pivot the car where I couldn't. I decided to ask him later how he did that but one of the other things I noticed was how he changed down in the 1st. I never thought that was an option but I guess when you think about it, it is just a lower gear after all. Mentally it seems, I'd always just associated 1st gear with starting the car off. Another lock unlocked!

When that in mind I went back out on the track and experimented some more, trying 1st gear etc. All of a sudden, the car pivoted around the bends just like it had done for him. I must have attacked quite a few fast laps after that and with it, my rear tires started to lose more and more grip as I was using them more and more to rotate the car. It was super fun and I got a little carried away perhaps as rounding the chicane, the back went way out and left me skidding backwards and sideways towards the pit wall. Luckily enough, the tires took off most of the speed and I stopped in time. Whew.

Next session, I'm currently uploading as a video. Hopefully, available soon. Next session I broke into the 43s time frame which was pretty decent I think. I tried just doing a lap or two and then taking some time out to let the tires recover. I probably could have gone faster around the first corner/second corner section but the car always felt a little light there.

I learned lots during the day and realized why I always seem to have trouble when I leave the car in 3rd going into the hairpin at Fuji. Thanks Aki!