Racer X

For the uninitiated, the average everyday Joe Schmoe who drives a crappy econobox to work everyday who can't appreciate what is going on at speed, consider this photo. The car is going through a turn at speed (around 100mph or so). The driver has just finished a brief moment of braking, and downshifted from 4th to 3rd, and is squeezing the accelerator down. The car is also still quite light, the tires barely gripping the track surface, as the approach to the turn is uphill, and curved. Also, as the accelerator is squeezed more and more, the lateral acceleration of the car increases, and centrifical force is trying to force the car off to the driver's right. What the viewer does not see is that the track ahead has a double right hand turn, a short chute, and then a left hand turn that goes back uphill (track elevation change over 1 lap is about 300 feet at this track). To be fast, the driver has to treat this turn, the double right, and the left all as one smooth and fluid turn so there is the most momentum possible available to climb the steep hill on the exit of the left turn. A delicate dance on 4 tires (sometimes 3) as the speed increases. Get the whole thing right, make the very latest apex possible on the left hander and the car launches up the hill. Get it wrong and the rear snaps around and the car backs into the earth bank on driver's left going up the hill. Not pretty.

Carrying the right front around the turn. Stiff car.

Carrying the inside front tire around the turn.

Hangin' it out a bit.

Leading Frank McKinnon (the Mustang) and Larry Miller in the other Z through turn 3A at SIR.

Lapping an MR2 during the race.

The guy in the SAAB had a 2000 Roadster, which he sold to someone who shipped it to Japan. He had the SAAB as a daily driver, put a cage in it and then gave us fits. He was very fast and a great race driver.