I'm driving Indy tomorrow

Well not AT Indy or IN the race, but coincidentally my wife bought me some laps in an Indy car and I'm scheduled for tomorrow @ 4:00. I'll be at TMS presuming the rains finally quit.

I'm thinking of turning the tables and putting her behind the wheel instead. Since she drove a series of hot laps in a Vette with an instructor she's been critiquing my driving and driving lines quite a bit.

<== jealous

I let my GF make a few passes at the strip a while back. Well worth the nail biting terror of watching the love of my life fly down a drag strip and me not be shifting her gears.

Sounds like a blast! We need tracks closer that aren't dirt, straight or mud pits.

Just got done looking into the Indycar driving school this morning. Don't know why I haven't done this yet. Maybe at Charlotte in August. More people need to do this. Not very expensive and the memories last a lifetime. http://www.andrettiracing.com/

There is one itty bitty issue.

It took me 2 years to be able to get a slot. I got this as a gift 2 Christmases ago. They have limited openings and available "race" dates.

It wasn't totally their fault, as I broke my ankle and couldn't drive or do anything strenuous with my accelerator foot for about 8 months.

Seriously, we want a report!

30 minutes ago I was driving 155.68 mph in an Indy car around TMS!

I'm going to be sore in the morning.

This is going to be a long post so for those Cliff notes type of people, Vini, Vidi, Vici. I came. I saw. I conquered. OK, the Latin probably lost me at least 3/4 of the people reading. I'll break it up into several posts to make it easier to follow.

I've got over 100 laps around the TMS oval in a variety of cars, and I'm not talking parade laps. I've got quite a few more in the full Roval (which includes the infield) and even more in the infield alone. So I thought I was golden, I'd hop in hit 200, awe everybody with my greatness and be carried off the track on everyone's back with shouts of my glory ringing in my ears.

It didn't quite happen that way.

This will be my first debriefing so things may come out a little chaotically but I'll try to give you my impressions.

From the sidelines everyone out there already driving looked slow which also fueled my flights of fantasy.

The cars were last gen and looked surprisingly dated. Pics to come later.

They gave us a one hour training session which I thought quite excessive, but then they proceeded to tell people that they were the only one in the car and they'd have to steer it. Basic right? But I kid you not and some people were surprised. A couple wanted to know if they were supposed to work the gas pedal and several didn't know what a clutch was or what it did. I began to get nervous.

I can't believe they let people like that in their cars. I can't believe they let people like that live. But since these people are allowed to breed THE HUMAN RACE IS DOOMED!

I was beginning to change my mind & think the training session ought to go on for days but I was willing to sit through it if it meant the other people on the track were going to be halfway prepared so I wouldn't die.

We broke and headed for the track to get yet another briefing on the same thing and the same people had the same questions for guy #2.

They give you a little vibrating gizmo on a lanyard like what they hand you at a restaurant to tell you when it's your turn to be seated. I headed off to the bathroom for my first pit stop sure that I wouldn't miss my time to run and just as I was beginning to do my business my lanyard went off. OF COURSE!

You know how hard it is to do your business when they put those life size pics of a pretty girl right in front of the urinal looking right into your eyes - yeah it was that tough. When you're in a hurry it seems things move in slow motion.

I had no time to get nervous, but then again why should I get nervous? I was still going to dazzle all those people. They'd probably give me an extra hour or 2 of track time just so I could show all those other guys how it was supposed to be done. It would be good for business.

I posed for all the obligatory family photos and then stepped out to the cars. They give you ear buds and a race radio plus you have your own personal controller to tell you what to do and when to do it. Totally unnecessary for me you understand but I was glad the other mere mortals had it so they could be warned to get out of my way.

I'm not svelte any more, but I'm not chunky either, but if I'd have been any bigger they'd have needed KY jelly to get me through the very tight top opening into the car. It opened up and became cozy once you were past the initial opening. It was never spacious but it's not any worse than a FF or a Skip Barber car.

The cockpit was rudimentary. There was a steering wheel, and pedals somewhere down there in the dark, and a steering wheel, and . . . oh yeah there was this itty bitty lever on the right hand side that disengaged the transmission and a steering wheel. Not much to it really. There were no gauges whatsoever.

The transmission was unlike any I've ever experienced before. It was a direct drive and to start the car you pulled the lever up to engage the transmission, pushed in the clutch and then they had a 4 wheeler push you up to speed. They counted down to 3 at which time you were to pop the clutch and hit the gas. But you had to be careful not to give it too much gas and burn out or they'd kick you off the track. Consequently a few people stalled it and they had to scream at you to give it more gas. I, of course, didn't stall. I did get a modicum of screaming to give it more gas, but well within the bounds of propriety and probably much less than everyone else. Of course!

The one thing I noticed as I pulled off was that my legs and feet were between the front suspension pieces. That's supposed to be bad right? If someone hit me or pushed me into the wall I could just see them spearing me. Why was I just now noticing that as I got going?

The steering was heavy and very direct. It had an extremely quick ratio so you had to work not to be darty. I was near picture perfect - of course.

They sent me off on the apron and led me around to the back straight and then let me exit the apron and enter and run on one of the first 2 lanes and only the first 2 lanes. You were never to get in the 3rd lane unless you were passing - upon pain of death.

You had to cross over the white line dividing the apron to enter the track and you'd have to also cross over the white lane to get to the apron at the end of your session, but they'd made such a big deal about not touching or crossing that white line when you were at speed and in the corners that several people didn't understand how they were going to get on & off the track because that little while line was everywhere. I honestly don't know how they can let people get into their expensive cars with all that expensive insurance. There really ought to be a test.

As I entered the track my vision and mind really began to focus on the track and the feel. The running commentary in my head that had been narrated by all 3 F1 announcers ceased. Things became real.

I no longer cared about accolades or the screaming crowds, I just wanted to do a good job - and not hit the wall!! TMS is nothing but a D shaped oval and I'd driven it many, many times in so many cars, but somehow the shape was getting all pushed out of shape in the Indy car - old version or not.

I'd never had to stay in the bottom 2 lanes before and this made the track seem different somehow. It wasn't helped by the fact that there was some slop in the left front suspension and as it would load or unload it would cause the car to dart slightly. This made those corners interesting.

With a little experimentation I found that if I lifted slightly just before the corner and slowed just enough that I could power on throughout the corner this loaded the suspension.

What I'd found in other cars was that the experience of going through those banked corners causes most people to slow down quite a bit. It made you feel you were going faster than you really were. One track day when in my S I looked down and realized that I was only going 90 mph through turns 3&4. But I wasn't the only one doing it. I was going with the rest of the pack. When I realized this and began to push myself through the corners I really made up a lot of time on the competition. Oh wait! There was no competition as this was on a HPDE.

I was determined not to do that today and actually didn't find I slowed much in the corners. Yes, I know that you don't have to slow down for those corners, but I'll blame it on the suspension movement and not wanting to embarrass myself or wreck someone else's car so I took it a little easier.

The cars are "chipped" and are limited to 5,000 rpm plus they had a remote kill switch for the terminally stoopid.

The idea was that your controller would assess your skill levels and raise your rpm limit commensurate with your skills which was supposed to take about 3 laps. You'll not be surprised to learn that before I entered lap 2 she told me to go as fast as I was comfortable. Somehow I took that as more of a punishment than a reward for my great skills.

I'll be honest and I took my unleashing as more of a goal rather than making an immediate leap into pole position.

These cars took a lot of concentration to drive well.

I've done Skip Barber, done an extended Nascar truck class here as well as numerous other classes like this on various tracks and I've raced. When someone doesn't know what to get me for Christmas or my birthday they buy me one of these classes. I had thought this was going to be the tamest experience I'd ever had on an oval track. I was wrong.

I knew it wasn't a race and I wasn't expecting to have to concentrate as much as I do when I've been racing, but this required my complete and undivided attention.

It was awesome and was a good way to stretch yourself. It was more like Skip Barber (notice the similarities of car types). While the Nascar classes were literally a joke. You drove cars set up for your granny that would ride around in the groove without any human interference. The steering was so slow that it felt like it was 4 turns lock to lock and the slop in the cars & steering made you think it was falling apart around you. But that's what it takes to put all those cars side by side. You've got to slow things down so a twitch doesn't send everyone tumbling. There was no comparison at all. The Nascar cars were something like you took your kiddies to for a birthday party, not someplace real racers visited.

By comparison these cars were tight and just about what you'd expect from a race car. A very nice package.

One of the people I met during the class had done the Nascar Experience twice the day before and felt he knew the track well. He got a very rude awakening in the Indy cars. It took so much of his concentration he said he didn't feel like he was nearly as fast, but he actually went faster. It wore him out.

Of course the Indy cars were the one he wanted to do again & again. When I turned him on to track days he decided he would have to go buy one. He'll probably show up here on GRM and I wouldn't be surprised to see him chime in on this thread.

As I got my nerve up I began to hit the rev limiter sooner and sooner out of the corners. My family said it appeared that no sooner had I disappeared into turn 1 that I reappeared out of turn 4.

It felt it too. The straights disappeared and it almost felt like one big circle. The only straight I felt was the much longer back straight. The front was just a series of 4 turns.

The clutch was harder than any clutch I've ever felt before and it seemed like a very hard brake pedal.

There was no dead pedal and no place for my left foot. I had to keep it up at an awkward angle to keep from resting it on the clutch. But I realized later that was probably why the clutch was so hard, so that you did have a place for your foot.

I never touched my brake while on the track except for the first time I passed a car. I almost ran up his tail pipes because he knew I was coming & lifted. The pucker factor was high. I don't know how many people I passed or how many laps I took. It seemed like the ride lasted only 8 seconds instead of 8 minutes. You were focused on the track. I love an open wheel car. Being able to see the front tires really helps you know what's going on.

I thought 8 minutes was nothing before I got in the car, but that's almost as long as Q3 in F1 and a lot happens in that 8 minutes.

They won't let you drive more than 8 minutes at a time and I see why. You need a few minutes to reflect and get centered again. They make you come in after 8 minutes and sit on the grid till it's your turn again. That's important to make people internalize what they've just experienced. In subsequent laps they'll raise your red line to 5,400 rpm which is almost 20 mph higher possible top speed.

If any of you go, buy the basic package and upgrade at the track. It's cheaper at the track. They have a ride along in a double car that's $129 online but if you just show up at one of their sessions they'll sell it to you for $99. You are behind the driver and your line of sight isn't so good, but if you've never done anything like this it would be a good way to get acclimated.

At the end of your run they tell you to lift the gas, cross the dreaded white line, get down on the apron and basically coast to the pit entrance. It seemed so slow I helped it along some which caused some screaming as I entered pit lane. They didn't have to worry, the new world champion had it all under control.

Well, except for one minor little thing. At an almost insignificant sign, that would be difficult to see even on a bicycle, you were supposed to push in the clutch and then push that transmission lever over until the transmission disengaged. I somehow missed seeing this 8.5" X 11" sign. It wasn't really my fault. If they'd have really wanted us to see it they should have made it billboard size in full neon.

I don't know what they were getting so upset about, I had it all under control. I didn't hit any one and no one got killed, but I did forget to disengage the transmission till I was pretty close to my grid spot.

So all in all this is the only short arrive & drive class I'd recommend for GRM type people. It was awesome.

Now to work those kinks out of my shoulders and try to figure out why I have a bruise on the ball of my left foot. The clutch wasn't that hard, was it?

carguy123 wrote: It's nothing but a D shaped oval and I'd driven it many, many times in so many cars, but somehow the shape was getting all pushed out of shape in the Indy car - old version or not.

I was at an MSCC meeting a few years back where Gerardo was telling all of us what it was like to move all the way up to driving an ALMS LMP2 car. He said the familiar tracks were the ones he found most challenging......He had to re-learn all his braking points because the the prototype cars can go so much deeper than a normal car before they brake, and still make the corner when they do it.

Great write up, BTW. Thanks for giving us all of the details.

Oh, one thing I learned while driving this car - I don't want to arm wrestle Danica Patrick. She'd beat me hands down!

Another thing I learned is that really wide tires coupled with a V8 behind you doesn't give you that light and lithe feel that I prefer.

So that's a good data point for my middie locost build.

Very cool. I got to ride in the 2 seater around Mid Ohio a couple of years ago, man what an eye opening experience.

How was the visibility in the 2 seater. It appeared that is was obstructed by the driver.

I had to tilt my head to one side to be able to see anything, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Rusted_Busted_Spit wrote: I had to tilt my head to one side to be able to see anything, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

No, this time you want to be in the drivers seat!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a bit more work, but definitely more rewarding.

The Indy car drive is the only class like this that I'd recommend, that is unless you can get a road course drive. I put my wife & daughter in Z06s on a road course and that was another that was worth the money.

It might not have been for me, that is unless I was considering buying a Vette, but it definitely got the juices flowing in my wife & daughter.

I had a similar experience at the Mario Andretti Experience at Las Vegas Motorsports Speedway a few years back. I could not believe the g's pulled in corners or the amount of arm strength needed to make it turn.

Same thing, I assumed I would be a rock star as soon as they let me loose. Humbling

In reply to carguy123:

I think I would need to start in something al little less intimidateing that an Indy car. Besides it was paid for by the Army.

I will see if I can find a pic.

Cone_Junky wrote: I had a similar experience at the Mario Andretti Experience at Las Vegas Motorsports Speedway a few years back. I could not believe the g's pulled in corners or the amount of arm strength needed to make it turn. Same thing, I assumed I would be a rock star as soon as they let me loose. Humbling

Yes, it definitely lets you know where you rank in the scale of Awesome!

BUT . . . I could definitely see myself getting good in a short while. It was just different than I expected. I'd never driven an Indy car and had always wanted to.