I Made A Little Video From Track Attack

[MWoodsFL]

Great video, man !! Thanks for the work, and time you are taking with answers and information !!
You did a great job with the dialogue and edit !!
Marc

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[5.2 Symphony]

Thanks for the video. Wonderfully done.
I am a bit surprised that Ford chose this track for the school if the walls are such a problem. The goofy 180 degree turns one after the other in the infield aren’t doing anything to show off the capability of these cars and the lead-follow set-up is just the icing on the cake. Hopefully the new found friendships will make up for it.

 

[pilotgore]

Thanks for the video. Wonderfully done.
I am a bit surprised that Ford chose this track for the school if the walls are such a problem. The goofy 180 degree turns one after the other in the infield aren’t doing anything to show off the capability of these cars and the lead-follow set-up is just the icing on the cake. Hopefully the new found friendships will make up for it.

They actually walked us through the thought process of how they landed on Charlotte. (This is to the best of my memory) When the UT track owner died, the family basically didn’t want anything to do with it so they gave it to the city. The city couldn’t find a buyer for the track and they no longer wanted to pay the upkeep, so they decided to close it down. Ford Performance had a list of criteria for a new track such as:
1: Within ~45 min of an international airport with regular service in/out (For students and instructors to travel to the track.)
2. Plentiful hotels within 10 minute drive
3. A track willing to take them on, with an existing building or space available to build a building that FP could use.
4. Decent weather year round.

I wouldn’t say the walls are necessarily a problem, it’s just different than the last track. After being on that track, I’d say the roval is very complimentary to the gt350’s abilities.

Since you only have 60 min on track day one and most of the drivers have no prior experience, I see many more benefits to lead follow than letting guys go out by themselves. My preference would have been to have an instructor riding shotgun, but that would be super labor intensive when they have 20 students in a class.
My understanding is if you purchase the second day at Charlotte you get a lot more track time, without lead/follow, and you’re allowed to pass with a point by. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[Epiphany]

Was this really John Krasinski in disguise?

Fly in, buzz around the track, fly home. You are living the life my friend. A great accounting of your experience and rather easy to watch. Superb work.

 

[5.2 Symphony]

They actually walked us through the thought process of how they landed on Charlotte. (This is to the best of my memory) When the UT track owner died, the family basically didn’t want anything to do with it so they gave it to the city. The city couldn’t find a buyer for the track and they no longer wanted to pay the upkeep, so they decided to close it down. Ford Performance had a list of criteria for a new track such as:
1: Within ~45 min of an international airport with regular service in/out (For students and instructors to travel to the track.)
2. Plentiful hotels within 10 minute drive
3. A track willing to take them on, with an existing building or space available to build a building that FP could use.
4. Decent weather year round.

I wouldn’t say the walls are necessarily a problem, it’s just different than the last track. After being on that track, I’d say the roval is very complimentary to the gt350’s abilities.

Since you only have 60 min on track day one and most of the drivers have no prior experience, I see many more benefits to lead follow than letting guys go out by themselves. My preference would have been to have an instructor riding shotgun, but that would be super labor intensive when they have 20 students in a class.
My understanding is if you purchase the second day at Charlotte you get a lot more track time, without lead/follow, and you’re allowed to pass with a point by. Seems reasonable to me.

Having an instructor in the car would make a lot of sense if the point of the school is to teach drivers new things considering the wide range of abilities and comfort levels, but as you mentioned it would be much more labor intensive.

Considering the infield layout and the cost of the second day, I was not sold. As you mentioned in the video one can have a few (easily 2 double day track days with travel and hotel included) track days for the price of the second day.

 

[762Cat]

I got moved to OCT. The lead follow thing is disappointing and the fact they put all ability groups on track at the same time rather than spacing them like an HPDE does kinda sucks to. I saw that at Bondurant to where some folks had never been on track and experience levels varied widely. The 3day course there was much more robust, however, and plenty of non lead follow track time with point by passing. Great video though and I took away two very useful things.

1.) Based on how tame the driving is I'm not paying for the Insurance anymore. See no need now, so thank you for that.
2.) Great point on day 2!!! I was originally in the 2 day but when moving to OCT only 1 day was available. That money is better spent on a real track day. I'm so glad you said that. I'm only 2 hours away so I'll just take the 350 up to the Roval for an HPDE with JZILLA or one of the SCCA Track Night in America events.

Two questions.

1.) How is the parking situation at the Embassy Suites. I'll likely be driving the daily Hellcat but may take the 350. My cars are driven hard but garage kept. If the parking is sketch or the area is bad I'll take the truck.

2.) Do they spend a descent amount of time with heel toeing or is it sort of a quick deal since it's a mostly 3rd gear kinda track? Looks like there are opportunities for 2nd gear but probably irrelevant for the driving they are having you do.

Nice Cirrus BTW.

 

[ExtantPuzzle]

@pilotgore that's an awesome video, thank you for posting it! I was scheduled to be going this coming week, but now I'm in mid-August. I'll probably watch your video a dozen more times between now and then to keep the excitement going. Looks like you had a fantastic time!

 

[pilotgore]

Was this really John Krasinski in disguise?

Fly in, buzz around the track, fly home. You are living the life my friend. A great accounting of your experience and rather easy to watch. Superb work.

Thanks, glad you and so many others enjoyed it.

I got moved to OCT. The lead follow thing is disappointing and the fact they put all ability groups on track at the same time rather than spacing them like an HPDE does kinda sucks to. I saw that at Bondurant to where some folks had never been on track and experience levels varied widely. The 3day course there was much more robust, however, and plenty of non lead follow track time with point by passing. Great video though and I took away two very useful things.

1.) Based on how tame the driving is I'm not paying for the Insurance anymore. See no need now, so thank you for that.
2.) Great point on day 2!!! I was originally in the 2 day but when moving to OCT only 1 day was available. That money is better spent on a real track day. I'm so glad you said that. I'm only 2 hours away so I'll just take the 350 up to the Roval for an HPDE with JZILLA or one of the SCCA Track Night in America events.

Two questions.

1.) How is the parking situation at the Embassy Suites. I'll likely be driving the daily Hellcat but may take the 350. My cars are driven hard but garage kept. If the parking is sketch or the area is bad I'll take the truck.

2.) Do they spend a descent amount of time with heel toeing or is it sort of a quick deal since it's a mostly 3rd gear kinda track? Looks like there are opportunities for 2nd gear but probably irrelevant for the driving they are having you do.

Nice Cirrus BTW.

I have to say, the track personnel did a great job of spacing the 3 groups out so we wouldn't run into each other (especially in sessions 2 and 3). In fact, when I reference in the video that my instructor radios and said we can take it easy, we almost immediately picked up pace again. The track personnel radio'd the instructor in the group in front of us and told them to forego the driving order changup so they could up the pace and not slow us down. Since we did the car order changeup, it bought us more space. Even though I have 10 days of HPDE under my belt in 3 different cars over the last 12 months, I still found the experience challenging and fun, and I think 99% of participants will feel the same. You'll have a blast for sure!

I wasn't going to buy the insurance either. . . but it was so cheap and I had no idea what the track was going to be like so I went ahead and did it. If I had to do it over again, like you, I'd forego it.

For your questions:
1. It was a huge parking lot and the only thing in the immediate vicinity was hotels. It seems like a safe area and I wouldn't hesitate bringing any of my cars there and parking in the back of the lot. I stay at a lot of hiltons, and this was one of the nicer embassy suites out there.

2. You'll spend mayyyyyybe 15 minutes on heel toe. The instructors make it a point to say if you're not good at it or you'd rather not worry about it during track time, then dont sweat it and just do what you normally do. Most of the track is run in 3'rd gear. Coming out of the road course onto the oval in turn 1 you'll shift to 4, then back down to 3 before the first bus stop (in between oval turn 2 and 3). 4'th gear after that bus stop then back down to third at the second bus stop in between oval turn 4 and 1. You'll run the entire road course in 3. . . no problem.

Thanks, a friend of mine owns that one. I'm a corporate pilot and my usual bird is a CJ2, but I have 1,000 or so hours in cirrus's. Great airplanes!

@pilotgore that's an awesome video, thank you for posting it! I was scheduled to be going this coming week, but now I'm in mid-August. I'll probably watch your video a dozen more times between now and then to keep the excitement going. Looks like you had a fantastic time!

I had an amazing time, absolutely, and I guarantee you will to. Make sure you get there a little early and walk around the building exploring. Don't ask for permission, just go checkout the garage and workshop like I did. All the mechanics in the auto shop are super friendly and will be happy to talk to you. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I hope you have a blast when your track day comes around. Definitely stay in touch and let me know if you enjoy it. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to hit me up.

 

[Scooter MGee]

Nice video, thanks for sharing.

SIde note, my employer produces a lot of tube assemblies for Cirrus.....both prop and jet versions.

 

[762Cat]

@pilotgore awesome man. Thanks for the great info again. How's corporate flying affected by the COVID19? Still ok? I fly for a Legacy carrier that isn't United or American lol. It's brutal right now but we are the best positioned to take the hit at least. Hopefully in a few months things will be normal-ish and we can all have a great summer.

 

[pilotgore]

@pilotgore awesome man. Thanks for the great info again. How's corporate flying affected by the COVID19? Still ok? I fly for a Legacy carrier that isn't United or American lol. It's brutal right now but we are the best positioned to take the hit at least. Hopefully in a few months things will be normal-ish and we can all have a great summer.

At the onset of corona I was busy doing “rescue flights”, getting people from Florida back to the Midwest. Now, things have been completely dead so I used the opportunity to put the plane down for maintenance. I’m salaried and there’s still a pilot shortage so it’s not a huge deal. Next scheduled flight is in 2 weeks.

I anticipate in the next month when the infection numbers are coming down and sentiment begins to improve I’ll be super busy as everyone will want to get outta the house and not fly airlines (due to perceived risk of infection.)

Good to hear you guys are weathering the storm at Del....... I mean whatever legacy carrier you fly for

Seems like there are ALOT of people on this forum in the aviation world in one respect or another.

 

[ExtantPuzzle]

Had one question I had meant to ask @pilotgore -- you did all of that with your own GoPro, I imagine.

Do you mind sharing details about what model and how you mounted it at the various parts of the course? I've got a Hero 7 Black and would be interested in bringing it, if it didn't end up being too distracting trying to make sure it was set up properly/etc. I'm also a bit of a novice with the GoPro in general (only taken it snorkeling a few times), never used it for driving.

 

[LICobra]

PG....Excellent video, very informative, thanks for posting. Reminds me of the Bondurant school I attended many years ago.
Now I just hope I can do the track day this year.

 

[pilotgore]

Had one question I had meant to ask @pilotgore -- you did all of that with your own GoPro, I imagine.

Do you mind sharing details about what model and how you mounted it at the various parts of the course? I've got a Hero 7 Black and would be interested in bringing it, if it didn't end up being too distracting trying to make sure it was set up properly/etc. I'm also a bit of a novice with the GoPro in general (only taken it snorkeling a few times), never used it for driving.

I specifically bought a hero 7 black for racing. I intended to mount the GoPro on my
Helmet, but since I used their helmet that type of mount was out as it’s a sticky mount. They specifically say you can use any mount inside the car as long as it doesn’t need to be screwed in, or use anything sticky. Nothing is allowed outside.

I ended up using a suction cup mount that has a flexible 6” arm. I mounted it on the top
of the windshield, to the right of the rear view mirror (so it wouldn’t impede my vision while racing.) I believe I used linear shooting for driving, 1080p @30fps. In the classroom and while recording myself talking was wide angle (I’m fairly sure, may have been linear.).

I did as much as possible with my iPhone. Probably 90%of the footage not inside the car was done with my iPhone. In car 95% with GoPro.

I highly recommend testing whatever setup you plan to use before trying to use it for footage you actually want.

Another option may be a roll bar mount, but since you’ll have some interior and exterior visibility you may have some video auto-contrast issues. Also if using it at track attack, the communications box is mounted on the horizontal part of the roll bar behind your right shoulder, so you’d have to mount the GoPro on the angled bar which puts it closer to the ceiling.

Once it’s in the car you won’t have to remove it until the end of the day, since you’ll be in the same car all day. Just make sure wherever you put the camera, you can reach the buttons while your harness is on. I only took mine out during lunch so I could charge it up.

If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask. Hope this was helpful.

 

[pilotgore]

Had one question I had meant to ask @pilotgore -- you did all of that with your own GoPro, I imagine.

Do you mind sharing details about what model and how you mounted it at the various parts of the course? I've got a Hero 7 Black and would be interested in bringing it, if it didn't end up being too distracting trying to make sure it was set up properly/etc. I'm also a bit of a novice with the GoPro in general (only taken it snorkeling a few times), never used it for driving.

One more thing... make sure you have a large memory card so you don’t need to hassle with changing cards. I have a 128 gig Samsung card in that camera. For my 3 track sessions, some talking stuff, and some video of me flying, I used 78gigs... it goes fast. The last thing you want is to be on track and you either run out of battery or memory.