Instructing with Auto Interests – Nelson’s Ledges OH

What a great weekend! Instructing with AutoInterests was a wonderful experience to wrap up their 2018 season at Nelson Ledges Road Course. The new track surface is quick! It was an oddly nice experience NOT driving my racecar and getting to relax and socialize a little more (don’t tell my racecar).

On Saturday, I had a student with amazing natural talent on Saturday who had never been on a track before, didn’t own a car, didn’t regularly drive a manual trans but that just absorbed, corrected, and impressed the entire day. I tried to convince her to come back on Sunday but schedules just didn’t permit it. Hopefully she keeps up with it in the future!

On Sunday, I had an eager to learn student who was excited to push his new supercharger build. He was another first timer novice that built good speed by the end of the day. We built a great dialogue on how to communicate with hand signals, audio through our chatterbox, and listening to the car’s feedback while we worked. He was self-aware about needing to work on some on-track awareness and I commended him for recognizing his need to work there. He was in a fast car for the first time on a very fast track. He made great progress and I look forward to seeing him grow next year!

It was great to run in Eric‘s car and watch him go just as fast on street tires as he did on slicks. I’m excited to see him in HPDE4 with NASA Great Lakes very soon. His car was a blast to drive, and I appreciate him giving me the opportunity to wheel around in it for a session.

I had the opportunity to stretch my daily 335xi’s turbos, which was a blast and very scary! I only did a few laps since I didn’t want to push my daily too much. It’s 2,000 pounds heavier than my race car, had OEM suspension, wheels, brakes, and tires. The 335 is in great shape, but the difference between light and race prepped vs. a heavy and well maintained street car was eye opening. I was still able to turn 1:25 lap times, which I was more than happy with. 132mph in the back stretch was very fun!

We also did some data logging on a fresh turbo NC build. The car was super well sorted and we didn’t have to do much other than check tire pressures. I was able to give the driver some coaching, which was pretty rewarding. I really enjoyed getting to help multiple people over the weekend!

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