Beechmont Porsche (my dealer) sponsors a PCA Club Race at Putnam Park Road Course in west-central Indiana each year. It's located about 15 minutes closer in travel time from my home in Cincinnati than is the Mid-Ohio race track. During a routine visit to the dealer, I was approached about the possibility of my Carrera GT serving as the pace car for their sponsored Club Race event. I, of course, said that I would be very interested. The event organizers contacted me with the details and offered lots of lapping time as an inducement. My track time would be during a simultaneously held DE event that was limited to a smaller-than-normal number of advanced students due to track schedule sharing with the race sessions.

So I went, and here is my report:

Waiting for the 0730 DE drivers meeting to start. The DE students would be assigned to run groups that mixed their cars in with practicing race cars of approximately the same speed (lap time) potential. No passing in the corners. No passing the the "straight" (ha-ha) between 9 and 10. The overtaken car has the responsibility to "point-by" the overtaking car to pass on the indicated side. No "point", no pass. Watch your damn mirrors!

Whoa! This is, indeed, an advanced-level DE. No instructors.



After the drivers meeting, I ask the track boss in what run group he might classify me. He looks up, and without any discernible pause says, "I'll put you in the "red" group. Is that OK with you?" I ask what sort of cars are in that group. He says, "That's with the GT cars ... you'll be fine".

I'm not so sure about that. I've never even seen the track before, much less lapped it. It's beginning to rain a little. I'll be in the fastest run group with some REALLY fast race cars and pro or semi-pro drivers. The thought of a slimy track under those conditions makes me a wee bit nervous.

I decide to wait out the rain and skip the first session. That gives me an opportunity to check out what sort of cars are in the "red" run group, and who might be driving them. Check out the red sticker on the windshield of the white GT3 Cup car next to where I parked.



See any tread on those tires? Hey, those are Michelin slicks! The driver (whose suit matched my car) is David Schardt of World Challenge podium-finishing fame. I know he's fast and his car sure looks fast. I'm really beginning to wonder whether I'm in the correct group.

I decide to ask Dave's engineer dad (Jim Schardt: racer for four decades) what kind of cornering g-forces he expects from the GT3 Cup car. He tells me that he had some instruments connected to it one time and couldn't seem to get more than 1.25 g, or so. I tell him that some had measured my car at that kind of side force on its stock tires and his eye brows arch up for a second. His face then slowly dissolves into a mischievous grin and he says,"Well, ... there's one way to find out!"

Oh, well, the sun's out now ... let's go play in traffic.



During my first track session, I have to learn which way the track is going to turn next. I more or less drive in the middle of the track if I don't have a car to follow, from which I can learn the general concept of "the line". I get much better as the laps begin to accumulate.

This brings up a deficiency in track assimilation if one is driving a Carrera GT on an unfamiliar track in a nearly over-ones-head speed group: It's too easy to keep out of the other drivers' way by only using the throttle. The CGT has LOTS of throttle! Since the CGT doesn't have racing slicks as standard equipment, I find it's possible to be out-cornered by almost anything with numbers on its doors. I come to a siege-like stand-off with a number of cars whose headlights I can suck out down the long straight, yet they can completely catch up after a few fast corners. Putnam is turning out to be a "handling track". More accurately, Putnam is an available-side-force track. Horse power, alone, won't cure any tire stickiness or driver limitations here.

Some of the cars are blindingly faster in the corners and also have only 5 pounds for each horsey to carry around. Like this one:



I can follow these really fast cars down the start-finish straight and not give up any ground. As they enter the first turn at a speed that I haven't been able to yet stomach, they slip away a bit. As soon as they tear through Turn 2, I wonder, "Where did they go? I was right behind them only a second back!" Now, they're braking to enter Turn 4 as I'm fighting for enough traction to fully accelerate out of the exit of Turn 3. OMG, they're fast!

Well, my CGT is pretty damn fast compared to street cars that anyone has at the DE. But, compared to the full-tilt race wagons that are out with me in the "red" run group, the CGT (with yours truly at the wheel) is solidly middle-of-the-pack. I decide the problem is one part tires and two parts driver

I get better and better as time goes by. I get really good at checking my mirrors! Then, OMG, what is this behind me? WTF can that be? A clapped out C4 Corvette from the local junk yard? He's got his nose up a really impolite place on my backside. What is Ronnie C6Z going to say?



I sidle over to this Walmart Special after the track session gets the checkered flag and chat up the driver. It turns out to be the famous (around western Indiana DEs, anyhow) Bobby Young. This ain't no street car. It's got a juiced up ZZ4 crate motor (I was suspicious of the flames belching from the exhausts on down-shifts) and runs on "cast off" Hoosier slicks that roll out the back of the Hoosier/Michelin race tire service rig when their paying customers are through with them. They'll mount them on his rims for a few dollars per wheel. This crafty old hippie is thrifty! He also claims to have put over 35,000 track miles on this beater.

I decide not to worry about Ronnie anymore. This Corvette's secret is one part motor, one part tires, and two parts driver.

To be continued .....