Went down to Moroso Motorsport park down by West Palm Beach on Saturday, for the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) HPDE open track event. Moroso has a 2.25 mile long track with two good long straight-aways and 10 corners.

I ran on the 255/40-17 Yoko ES-100s I drove down on, since it was my first event and I was there to learn rather than race.

There were over 20 cars in the "Green" group; the drivers with lower experience levels, and first timers having an instructor in the car. That was me, and I got a good guy with a lot of national SCCA championships under his belt in a modified Porsche. He drove the first 2 laps to show me the line, and was very impressed with the power and handling of the Evo.

Then I got to play... and after the first couple of laps I got serious about going faster. By the end of the session I was driving by the 3 BMW M3s out there, able to outaccelerate them in the straights and going deeper into the corners before braking, exiting with more speed, despite 2 of the 3 having race rubber and mods.

Passed several Porsches, despite their slightly better straightline power they were not taking the corners as well. The 2 Z06s had too much torque for me to keep up, cornering I was with them, only to watch them fade as it straightened out. The factory racer Ferrari Modena ate my lunch... but damn was it cool to watch.

Straightline I was seeing 120-125mph, corners were good with tire squeal from the ES100s, not nearly the grip my V700s gave for autocrossing. The stock brakes never faded, and never let me down.

The second round it rained... I drove like normal, with just a different line trying to stay on the drier patches. I passed every car out there, some multiple times. I had a new Carrera 4S behind me (AWD too, 315hp), he kept up on straightlines, and likely could have crept by, by I beat him through the corners and braking. He never passed, and faded back till I hit traffic and we both had to wait to pass. Then he'd fade slowly back again.

It was fun as hell, and I got aver 2 hours of seat time. Went through 2 tanks of gas. The ES100s show some wear, but are still over 3/4 tread.

Plan on going back in October to Sebring...

 

Thats the BEST mod you can ever do to your car, improve the driver.

 

I'm glad you went to learn how to drive your car in a safe environment. This is great! However, you just described why I only participated in one, and only one NASA event in my life.

You state that you went with an attitude to learn as opposed to race. I really hope your attitude does not change, no matter how many Driver Eds events you go to. If you want to race, participate in a race, not a drivers ed event. That was my problem with the NASA event I went to. Too many people thought they were out there to race each other as opposed to learning how to drive faster. I found the NASA event I went to too arrogant and too unsafe for my liking due to the "racing" attitude to the participants. BTW, I was in the middle group and it was about 3 years ago...

You even state that the Porsche could have crept by. In the events I participate in, if someone is behind you, you need to give them the passing signal. If they decide to pass, we let off the gas and let them by. They can choose not to pass as well and just follow you. There is no "creeping by" however. They either get a passing signal and pass with full control while you let off or they don't pass.

I prefer events where the "racing" attidude is not present. The event are a lot more fun and the risk of dumb mistakes is greatly minimized. Also, there are fewer trains of people as slower cars let other cars go by. There is no holding up everyone due to "racing" ,which was the in my NASA event.

If you want to try a different group in the future, try the BMW or Porsche Club Drivers Ed events, they are great.

 

xtnct, the only real "boy racer" incidents I saw were during the "Red" group, and they were limited to the last run of the day. In all the others everyone was pretty good about the passing signal. (except 1 BMW and 1 Porsche owner who would NOT let me go past... finally went into the pits to let em clear by, then reentered). I did not give the Porsche guy behind me the signal because I was leaving him, slowly and most noticeably in the curves. He only came close when I had gotten by traffic and had been slowed up for him to be behind me when we both were given the passing signal. Otherwise he started off close on the straights, then dropped back as laps progressed. He even commented afterwards to me that there was no way he could have passed, as I was taking too good a line through the corners for him to be able to close up.

 

That's great to hear. And I think most NASA events are run very well. If you have any intention of running a real race sometime the minor racing attitude their is nothing compared to outbraking someone into the corner with 100% detemination to pass. Even if you don't and are just out to learn and have a good time, you can have a lot more fun than at some whiny **** events where they **** and moan when you literally coast around the inside of corners passing people who over shot a corner and plowed out to the outside and scrubeed off crazy amounts of speed. If someone won't let you pass, you did the best thing, just pull off or slow down, let the car have a 45 sec cool down and get back to learning.

It's be great to hear about more owners experiences getting to the circuits!

 

NIce to hear about EVOs running the roadcourses, its were they belong. Im headed out to Watkins Glen on the 22-23 of this month. I can't wait as this will be my second school event. This is my first time out with NASA and I hope it will be a great experience. I had a similar experience down at Summit POint, passing all these high $$ high class sportscars. Its a total blast

Personally I can't emphasize enough how important it is to drive your EVO on a roadcourse, or any performance car for that matter. It brings you a totally different kind of respect for your car, it shows you the limits and virtues of the EVO. Time and time again I hear guys bragging about 1/4 mile racing without any clue as to the true performance of the EVO. Sure I've run my EVO on the 1/4 and have had a blast doing so, but it's a shame if you limit the car to straight away track racing.