First official trackday was a success!

So last Saturday I did my first official track day. I was driving a 99 Miata that was pretty much completely stock. Its got a Harddog rollbar, hardtop, ss clutch line, aftermarket wheels and an exhaust. I was running Hawk HPS pads and BFG Sportcomp2 tires.

This was with NASA so I was starting in HPDE1. Our group was of decent size, about 12 or so guys. Our first time out, I feel like I got up to speed pretty quick. The car was nice and easy to drive, with a pretty conservative alignment. I'd never had the car aligned since I bought it, and it was on stock suspension still. Tire wear had been good so I didnt see a reason to get it aligned.

However, on track the car seemed more prone to understeer than oversteer. I think I would prefer a little more neutral balance, so I'll be getting it aligned before my next track day. But here on my first outing I made my first and biggest mistake I would make all day.

I'd been pointed by and was attempting to make a pass in my underpowered little Miata on the straight. I got in front of the guy just in time to make the braking zone, my instructor was white knuckle gripping the dash. In my excitement, I went to downshift from 4th to 3rd, blipped the throttle with my heel and...for whatever reason, completely spaced putting the clutch in.

I felt the resistance of the gears and heard a nice little grind...ouch. Lucky for me, I'm not one to slam gears every time I shift, so it wasnt too rough.

Aside from that little incident, the day went flawlessly. My first two sessions were dry, but by my third we had some pretty heavy rain. Well luckily those Sportcomp2s are pretty awesome in the rain. By my last session, I was lapping everyone in my group!

At the end of the day, the instructor said he was really impressed and moved me straight up to HPDE2. My car even got me back home again after a full day of romping on it! So overall I was super happy and satisfied with how my car performed. It was a really great experience overall, and I improved so much so quickly. Can't wait to get out there again!

Cool, glad you had a fun, successful outing.

Look for some track day driving help in the next issue, too.

When someone gives you a point-by, and they don't lift, don't continue next to them into the braking zone. Especially as a novice.

You'll find this is a common problem with the Miata.

We ran into this this past weekend, we had my buddies WRL GP3 prepped Miata out the WRL's first Momentum school. I think many assumed the flat front airdam, low laying spoiler, cage, etc, meant it was fast in a straight line. I received more than 1 point by where it took the person a few to realize "It's a race car, but still a Miata, I need to lift"

If you continue to going to the track, this is something I ALWAYS bring up again in the morning driver's meeting.

"Guys if a tiny Miata is hounding you in the turns and you give a point-by, LIFT off the throttle."