The adventures of Debbie the girl : racecar driver

[Ian c]

I just had a quick look at our print-out from the 3 sessions we have done upto now ..
We are both getting progressively quicker with our fastest laps
Great fun and highly addictive !!!

The electric place we go to puts print-outs for the racers on a counter after each session , so I have been keeping these .
There is a graph on there , but I don't know what it means .
It also has a time for each lap .
Interesting reading ... On our 3rd session there was a 4 car pile-up that had us both stopped behind it and that lap time and graphline went through the roof

[Ian c]

So this weekend I booked us both on our first autocross event .
San Diego pca at the Qualcomm stadium next Sunday

I have a bad back so no karting practice

[jb92563]

Originally Posted by Ian c

So this weekend I booked us both on our first autocross event .
San Diego pca at the Qualcomm stadium next Sunday

I have a bad back so no karting practice

I'm not going to be able to make it this time Ian, but I was looking forward to seeing this spectacle and meeting some new folks from the board.

My observation is that the San Diego group is a great bunch and friendly, but a little shy, so you'll have to make the effort to connect with them and break the ice.

I'll catch you at a future event soon...best of luck to you both.

[Ian c]

I met one of them yesterday .
A very nice man called roger who was rebuilding his boxster ready for this event and came to buy a part off us .
We both will hopefully have an Instructor too so shouldn't be that bad

There doesn't appear to be any Oc events for a while so we may be heading back to San Diego for their next one .

[jb92563]

Another thing of Note at the Auto-X is that if you are keen to race and want to get high in the points then the Class of your car is important as well.

There are the CC classes which most people race in and then theres the SS classes.

I found out that at the Tech Inspection they just lumped me in the SS class for my 986 "S" which turned out well.

There were only 4 cars in that class and I came in 3rd with a lousy time and the other guy being a DNF...BUT, because I finished in the top 3 I got much more points than if I had been in the CC class.

Just Saying its something to consider if your really into playing the game.

Times of course really determine your skill, and the SMILE on your face determines how much FUN you had.

My last race gave me a big smile because I finally felt like I had a good 1st run through the tricky cone slalom part, even though my times were lousy, timer failed to record properly on run 2 and I spun out on run 3, turn 1, figuring my 1st run was the best so just pushed it that much harder.

[Ian c]

I need to send an email about that .....

I wasn't sure on classes so just booked us both into the one at the top of the list .
I think it was ss1

Points are immaterial ...

[Ian c]

I now have a map .
Can anybody explain it please ?

[jb92563]

I missed your map post, so youll have run the course by now.

Did you have fun?

Give your rundown on how it went. Picturs.

How did race girl like it?

I'll be at the next months race for sure.

[Ian c]

So yesterday we took the c4 and boxster to San Diego for the autocross .

Obviously I am an awesome team chief and i had everything planned to perfection .
so I was still fitting the new wheels and tires where on the boxster about 7 hours before we had to set off , then rushing to the FedEx store to print our inspection sheets
But it seems i forget to check the so called "important" stuff .
The scruteneers overlooked the fact I had fitted nice new wheels and failed the boxster as I hadn't secured the battery

So we both shared the carrera .

We had an awesome time , and I'd like to thank the sd pca for being great hosts , and our instructors for having patience , a sense of humor , and a great deal of knowledge to pass on to us

Due to the carrera being a pdk launch car it was well specced by the factory .
But the car came with LSD , sportPASM , M030 etc so they all added up to put it in the cc11 class even though I only added 20 class-points for the gt3 cup-lip .
And THAT is my excuse for finishing bottom in class
( we are ignoring the fact my car is about 100 times more capable than my driving is )


The timing office put Debbie in the cc11L ladies class .

Which she won ...

Great ... She gets a medal , I get to pay for a new set of tires .... Typical !!!

Out of the 119 racers I was expecting us to come in 118 and 119 , but we both did well !!

I only got a"talking to" once too !!
First lap first corner spin-off , followed by another spin-off around the half-mile point

Remarkable considering I was expecting to get banned from San Diego and a bill for damaged cones

I didn't get any pictures , but did manage a few videos of Debbie driving .

Here she is at the start , and driving past me on the first strait
I think it gets around 70-80 mph before braking for the 90* left ?

[YOUTUBE]l7fiaSE7TEk&sns=em[/YOUTUBE]

7start - YouTube

7start - YouTube

[Ian c]

I just found some pictures online .
Photography by Greg Phillips and Ted Whitte from San Diego pca

[jb92563]

Glad you had a good time.

I'd stick to the cheaper tires and rims for awhile until you feel your skills getting to the point where it will really make adifference.

Im using Hankook V12's which are grippy enough, cheap and will last ~5 race days.

[Ian c]

Originally Posted by jb92563

Glad you had a good time.

I'd stick to the cheaper tires and rims for awhile until you feel your skills getting to the point where it will really make adifference.

Im using Hankook V12's which are grippy enough, cheap and will last ~5 race days.

These are cheap rims and tires .
The car needed new rears due to uneven wear and and annoying road noise .
I will eventually get her tires on the old stock rims , The new ones are just for show

I don't think there is anything happening now until October so I have plenty of time to get the boxster ready ....


I'll just puts the stock potenza on mine as the fronts are still good .

[Ian c]

Today I booked us onto the 3-day weekend performance driving school in San Diego in October .

None of the local pca chapters have an event listed before then , and she is desperate to do it again , so I also talked to the coordinator of the local bmw club and got permission to attend that at the el toro airbase in September .

In the meantime , she is customizing her helmet with the free martini porsche stickers that our local dealer has at the parts counter , and is practicing helmet wearing .....

[thstone]

Sounds like you're both progressing fine! Keep it up!

[jb92563]

Your gonna love the Performance Driving School and learn some neat tricks in keeping your car in control on wet soapy pavement.

Ever since that course I drive the car with total confidence and can take it to the edge of traction and over while fully in control.

Learning all the race type turning tactics on the Friday is priceless and will go a long way towards making you faster on the track.

Saturday you'll be driving in soapy wet short courses to illustrate various techniques.

Sunday you will be doing mini Auto-X.

I would also bring the Boxster as they will group you according to car type and you will learn that cars specific handling tricks.

It was funny to see the 911's group losing their tails all day long (Rear weighted and power) while the Boxsters just kept going faster and faster around the soapy oval and took a bit of practice to actually make them loose their tails.

My instructor actually had to grab the parking brake to make the tail end slide out as I had new Hankook V12's and they are really good in the wet.

Its better if you just use your regular worn tires for this course.

You are also going to hit a lot of cones during this course so bring some wide blue masking tape and do your front spoiler edges up to the back of the front tire well and that will keep things pristine. You will hit cones dead center as well so do the whole front bumper/spoiler

Heres our motley crew after fun weekend of throwing the cars around all over the track.
https://plus.google.com/photos/118388745157890389551/albums/5802160089589339377?banner=pwa

[ExRallyXer]

Originally Posted by jb92563

Glad you had a good time.

I'd stick to the cheaper tires and rims for awhile until you feel your skills getting to the point where it will really make adifference.

I'm using Hankook V12's which are grippy enough, cheap and will last ~5 race days.

Second on the Hankook Ventus V12s. Much more grip than the Michelin Pilot Super Sports I had on before.... and less than $500 for a set of four mounted and balanced from SD Tires in Escondido.

[Kenny Boxster]

Ian, very lucky girl. Bonus points she has a passion for cars.

[Ian c]

Thanks for the tips guys .
I have made a mental note to check prices on v12s ....... I think we will beekeeping the stock wheels for ax-ing ...

[Ian c]

After dropping the boxster at thepaintshop , we Went and did a couple of races karting earlier this evening .

We cannot find the printouts from our first 3 visits , so went onto the k1 website to check lap times .
It only told us her fastest lap from her first 3 races ... Progressively better each time .
But her first race today she dropped back around a second , then pulled it back in the second race to 27 seconds

The full printout tells a better story though ...
It gives the times of each lap , and the average over a 14 lap race ...

So the fact her best lap in the 5th was over a second faster than her best lap in her first is great ,
But the speed in the first race could not be sustained and could count as a fluke yet in her 5th race she beat it by a second EVERY LAP

So not just getting faster , but getting consistent AND consistently faster
Not counting the first lap due to standing start , and the second lap to get upto race speed , EVERY lap was in the 27 range ...

She wants to go again on Thursday , so I will try to keep the printouts for a thorough comparison


Does anybody on her go K1 karting ?
I still can't work out what the graph means ..

[jb92563]

I always thought it would be fun to go Karting but wondered if the electrics were good. It sure sounds like they could be on the expert setting.

I had been looking at Adams Track in Riverside as they have a nice long track and some fast gas karts.

I think would be fun for a bunch of us PCA racer type folks to go some time and meet / race and oogle our Porsches in the parking lot.

Hmmmm, maybe combine this with a group run through the Ortega twisties or somewhere on the way there.