tso:
The farmer:
Started my "racing career" late, but love it. I'm not one of the gocart boys, since I've spent my youth playing tennis and when relaxing, doing other sports as much as possible. The part I like most with racing is that,since I started late on a very low level, my learning curve is quit steep. And even if I'm working hard and are committed, I have realized that there will be a lot of guys quicker then me around a track. (Including, I'm sure, a bunch of you) but that is fine. I just want to explore my potential.
Some of the Porsche officials here in Sweden is trying to convince me that I should pursue this further and maybe start thinking about participating in the Swedish carrera cup. I don't at all feel confident about this, but rather a bit suspicious. I beat a couple of carrera cup drivers on a ice track,but that's not to be compared to racing in my world.
Not at all very experienced with slicks, just tryed it during my two RSR Ccourses. So, when at LM24, some of the instructors from Hockenheim jumped me and told me about this new thing and said I really should sign up, I told them that I wasn't sure I'm at that level yet, They then told me that the level 1 is a very perfect next step in order to find out exactly where I stand regarding driving skills with a racing car. And heck, they are right!
Can't think of a better way to really find out than to have the best guys (incl. Webber . I'm not sure about Timo, but I know MB is going to be there) asses your skills?!
Thats why I signed up for this Expensive? Sure! Worth it? Let's find out!
And you know, when you at the end summarize your life, I fully believe that the things you might regret is the things you didn't do rather than the things you did
Not bad for a farmer
For me the bottom line is to go and do it, irrespective of the level. With regards to whether this is a too high level, I believe that with the right mindset we can learn from even a level to high. It took me some years to find the courage, but since then I have had some fantastic experiences and frankly I have come further than I even dreamed about back then.
I did not look at the Porsche program in details, but my view is that if you have the speed, you must go racing. Forget about trackdays etc, most of us can hit a good lap in such conditions, but with the competitors pushing around you, it is another game.
Keep the experience shared with us and enjoy !!!
I can only confirm what TSO said. I started a long time ago with trackways, first with my Mitsubishi Evo VI TM then switching to RWD with my E46 M3. As I felt the M3 too soft and heavy, I was looking into getting a M3 CSL which I finally did. With that car I drove with Sportauto on the N'Ring, did the Swiss license course in Hockenheim and also did drift trainings. Back then I didn't have any coaching in the car, the first time was in 2010 with Frank Stippler at the Ring. That helped me a lot. Since I got to know the owner of Black Falcon personally while he was still competing in the VLN actively and winning more than 20 races, he convinced me to start racing. We agreed if I don't lose more than 30 seconds in my first RCN race in a lowly BMW 325 per lap, mind I never drove on slicks before, I would take it more seriously. I managed to do it and it was a great experience. As I suffered a disc prolapse (second one) in August 2010 I had to kind of restart and April 2011 we drove at Spa with a BMW 330i (V5 VLN car) and I only lost 2 seconds to him per lap so I competed the whole VLN and RCN after summer that year. Unfortunately (or not, depending on how you look at things) at the same time the VLN overall winner and V5 class winners were driving the same car in the same team. It really made me realize that I didn't have such a high risk appetite, especially on the Ring, neither the talent compared to them. They regularly fought for the wins whereas I drove around 5 places. With the benefit of hindsight that wasn't too shabby as the class was hotly contested. Nevertheless I kind of caused some frustration. After that season I only drove sporadically but this culminated in the overall victory 2012 at a RCN races with a BMW M3 CSL, first time a production car did the overall victory and not only class victory.
In 2011 I also bought my first Porsche, a 911 GT3RS Mk1, and at the beginning I really struggled with the driving dynamics coming from BMW. Also not having PSM/ESC kind of added to the cause. Through a lot of coaching with various drivers like Daniel Schwerfeld, Markus Geddlich and various Black Falcon drivers on various tracks like Spa, Hockenheim and RBR, using data recording I got the hang of it. I even renewed my racing license Int D and did the whole Porsche Sportscup event in Spa including Sprint and Endurance last year in a Cayman GT4 CS together with my mate and we got 3 times 6 place and once 4 places. I will do it again this year, again in the Cayman. I also regularly do a warmup in Portimao, this year I drove 3 full days there, with the Cayman as a warmup and then 991 Cups, last years and this years and also a SP7 Cup with wide body. We even had Christian Engelhardt, Gabriele Piana and Manuel Metzger as reference.
For me nowadays the biggest differences to the pros are the fast corners where I frankly don't have big enough balls. In the technical sections I'm almost as fast.
It boils down to 3 things IMHO, it's proper coaching, a lot of seat time (also with different cards) and your own mental mindset, being relaxed and confident.
Just be aware, once the bugs bites there is no escape, only money and time is a limiting factor.
Enjoy
Mike
https://youtu.be/irjIb1L1Vjk