Petty instructors didn't like me :(

[MoparBoyy]

So during my second day at the road course during VOI I had a minor spin in the infield. I got in the throttle too early and the car spun, no big deal. I thought i did a great job saving it and keeping it going. But after that, I had a few of the instructors refuse to get in the car with me! Thankfully though, a couple of the younger (and in my opinion better) instructors where thrilled to ride and help me on the course.

I just found it funny. here's a video of my spin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuTwK4AfaCY

 

[InjectTheVenom]

So a memory bell starts ringing did you and your Canadian yellow opponent get to meet at some point during VOI? Can't recall seeing any arguments between you and Robert during the webheads meeting

 

[MoparBoyy]

So a memory bell starts ringing did you and your Canadian yellow opponent get to meet at some point during VOI? Can't recall seeing any arguments between you and Robert during the webheads meeting

I missed the bar meeting, but i did get to meet him. We should have swapped Wings for the day. lol

 

[Fatboy 18]

OK, So you spun it, Good recovery too in my book.
Surely this is the whole point of track / auto course days, to push the car in a safe environment (not on a road). This was your own car too?

No idea why the instructor got upset?
Wonder if it was something to do with there insurance obligations?


I got told off a few weeks ago on an Airfield course, I had to sprint down to a single cone, turn the car to the left and sprint back to another cone etc, etc .......I was a bit over enthusiastic and ended up trying to straighten out the car while still standing on the gas .......I had to stop as I could not see a thing after several donuts in different directions The instructors were not happy......But I was

Nadine thought it was really funny too

Anyway, thanks for posting, I enjoyed it

 

[InjectTheVenom]

I missed the bar meeting, but i did get to meet him. We should have swapped Wings for the day. lol

Dammit I was so hoping to see you two go against each other

 

[viper GTS-R]

LOL nice recovery!

--RS

 

[CEJ]

Wonder if the instructor had to swap out the Depends?

 

[VYPR BYT 94]

What a stick in the mudd... he should have thanked you for the thrill!

 

[TowDawg]

Unless he'd been coaching you about doing something specific wrong in that specific spot, over and over again, and you just weren't listening, then why would he get bent of shape? That's just dumb. It wasn't even a highspeed spin or close to hitting anything.

In my opinion, if you track your car and you never spin, you're not actually trying to get better. If you are pushing youself to improve, you WILL lose it at some point. And no, I don't mean go out and go wide open your first time and run into everything you see! I just mean that as you try to get faster and faster, at some point you will make a mistake and go over the limits. That's how you learn where they are.

Hell, when I went to take my sign-off ride with the master instructor to move up a level, the entire passenger side of my car was banged up pretty good. I joking told him to ignore the damage and that he was perfectly safe. He just looked at for a split-second and said, "Inside tire wall on turn 5. Been there before. I was actually there yesterday in my own car. You ready to go?"

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

They probably had visions of the instructor from Skip Barber who lost some toes in an accident at VOI in Ft. Worth......

 

[AFL in NJ]

When I went through that exact same section on my first lap, the cones weren't standing up and I went straight through without even attempting the turn....my instructor was not very pleased either, partly because I closed the gap on a yellow RT/10 ahead of me with my faux pas.

I believe if you want to mark a turn, put more cones up, not just 2 or 3 and stand them back up if they get knocked over.

Regards,
Aaron

 

[viper067]

I never really felt they provided enough time to get a feel for the track, they would take us out for 2 laps, then back in to wait...got to do that twice. Had a blast at autox and zmax, but the speedway was a letdown. Simply not enough time. Perhaps if we just did the oval to simplify the course ... But hey, how many people can say they've driven on Charlotte Motor Speedway.

 

[MoparBoyy]

I did 10-12 sessions at the speedway on Sunday, that was a good amount of track time

 

[SlayerLS1]

I had a small spin too...not even as dramatic as yours, and my instructor was calm about it. If it bothered him, he didn't show it.

 

[viper_itch]

Many of those instructors were from the SRT track experience. Not all were Petty.

 

[happy56]

I am finally glad to hear someone say something bad about last weekend. I too was disappointed in the lack of driving time on the roval. By Sunday I knew I hadn't broken it and new I had 600 miles to drive back home so I watched other people.
I was disappointed in the #s of vendors at a meet this big also. It was fun overall though.

 

[Allan]

I do not see what the problem is. If that happens EVERY time you go out, maybe you are an idiot, and you need to learn how to handle your Viper. But a spin like that once in a while is almost normal. -no harm done, why get upset? .....My best spin was early this season at Pueblo Motorsports Park on an open lapping day. I had a passenger and managed a 720 spin on track while coming out of a turn with too much speed. Very wild ride, never left the asphault, motor stalled. The hot girl riding in my car had a boyfriend there driving his "Evo". It burned him out that she got such an intense thrill ride in a Viper. Have been driving pretty clean since then though. .....I wonder what that Evo dude has been doing...

 

[Paul Hawker]

Video did not look like you were overdriving the car.

Any time you spin off the track it is a good idea to go back into the pits to give your car a once over. Make sure no tires had rock slices in the sidewalls, or have anything stuck underneath the car. Also gives the driver a chance to get focus back on driving, and shake off the effects of the spin.

Track cars spin all the time. Instructors are not surprised when it happens. They can usually see it coming before it happens due to driver technique.

Maybe there was something the instructor saw in your driving that made him concerned for his safety, and made a personal decision that the risk was greater than the reward.

Glad you found other instructors to go back out with you.

Sunday at VOI is always the day to get maximum track time. Most everybody has gotten their taste of the experience, and only the most enthusiastic go back for a 2nd go on Sunday.

Rarely much of a wait for Sunday track time, expect for around noon when the Petty guys had the track to give rides in the NASCAR race cars.

 

[Camfab]

Something that caught my eye in your video. The gap between your hood and the nose varies continually. Seems like excessive movement to me.

 

[Bonkers]

I'll jump on that bandwagon as well, the Roval was a huge dissappointment
for me as well. Road racing is my thing and I had zero intrest in going
back on Sunday. The instructors were nice enough, but there was an
atmosphere of "whatever you do, dont break the precious track" that
i couldnt quite shake off. Im glad i did it, but certainly wasnt tge highlight
of the trip like i thought it woukd be.

 

[DMan]

Looked to early on the turn-in on the prior turn, messed up the line on the spin turn, definitely no biggy. Every trackday I've done the rules are simple, more than 1 wheel on the dirt and you pit for a check, 2 spins and you're done for the day. Bikes are same way, off course or down once, you're checked out, twice and you're done. The ride-alongs didn't seem like instructors to me, seemed more like "marshalls", making sure nothing edgey happened. I know down the straight into turn 4 on the oval I would push 150+ and the 1st time in with a new guy they would be ease up, brake, brake ... um, diving into a banked turn at 150+ isn't a time to unsettle with late braking, unless you like the taste of wall. More like slight throttle lift and then roll on. So ... But I had fun, Sunday I had to do 20+ laps and had an a guy that would give me a couple extra laps, got him 3 times that day and I only had 3 different people the whole time.

Were you in the beginner group (green band)? Maybe they were extra sensitive on that group, but sounds like you just got a guy who shouldn't be riding along, especially if he didn't offer any feedback on the previous turn. But you did a good job regardless and hopefully had fun .. afterall, if you never spin, then you never pushed thru the edge so you never know where it is. Hec, even Ralph 360'ed on the autoX on Sunday. BTW, that guy can drive.

 

[MoparBoyy]

Were you in the beginner group (green band)? Maybe they were extra sensitive on that group, but sounds like you just got a guy who shouldn't be riding along, especially if he didn't offer any feedback on the previous turn. But you did a good job regardless and hopefully had fun .. afterall, if you never spin, then you never pushed thru the edge so you never know where it is. Hec, even Ralph 360'ed on the autoX on Sunday. BTW, that guy can drive.

The instructor said ZERO to me the whole time in the car.

Nope, I had a blue band (by mistake) I was supposed to be in the RED group. I have trackday'd bikes for 5 years and raced for 2. Even a Championship under my belt

 

[MTGTS]

Simply a case of tires that weren't up to temp yet. Don't know what all the fuss is about

 

[Next Phase]

I had a blast on the roval... Made me realize I need some better brakes.

Great time at VOI!!!

 

[TrackAire]

Wow, the guy got bent out of shape because of that spin?....no way he should have over-reacted on that.

When I did the SRT Experience at Laguna Seca a few years ago, they wouldn't let us drive the Viper, but took us out for a hot lap. My driver told me that the SRT Experience employees are employed by Petty. I asked him if he was trying to break into NASCAR and he said no, just a fulltime Petty employee doing the SRT Experience as his job.
As soon as we got into the car, it starts raining, hard enough to have the windshield wipers on. My instructer didn't seem to care, he attacked the course, getting the car sideways, loose, etc at speed...actually had me a bit worried since I wasn't expecting him to push the car with me in it that hard while it was raining. It was fantastic to see how a Viper can handle, even in the rain. The guy was a very good driver and fearless. I'll never forget how fast his hands moved that wheel...great learning experience and I didn't even drive the car.

I wish your instructor was more like my SRT Experience instructor....

Cheers,
George

 

[ACR steve]

I think some of you guys missed the bigpicture. The track we were on was not designed as a real road course. Thebanking was intense and being a racer for a long time I know how it could havebitten back in a major way if the rains were not pulled in a little bit. Iwould venture to say that 99% of everyone that participated was never on thatsteep of banking or even close to it. No one lost it in the banking and that’sa great thing because it would not have been a very nice experience. We didhave spins and we did have a possible totaled car but overall it was a verysafe weekend on a very fast track that wasn’t designed for our type of cars.The idea was that we all make it through a great weekend in the same conditionas we started. Being an instructor/race coach I can tell you the Petty guyswent out of their way to make sure we had a great safe time. Think about beingin the right seat during a fast lap in our cars ..... not for the faint hearted

As for track time ? Between all the venues on your given days and all the opentime on Sunday I think the track time was amazing.

 

[Dom426h]

+1 Steve

I'll ad that ive been a passenger on a road course three times. Once with Steve, Once with another experienced racer. Both were fast as ****. On both ridalongs i felt comfortable & safe because every thing that they did was predictable to me as every driver input mimicked the instincts that were going through my head.

The third ridalong was with someone who had only done a few trackdays and was obviously in need of some instruction. Even though he was much slower than Steve & the other guy, i felt uneasy for most of the ride. His braking points, turn-ins, throttle input, even shifting was all OFF. Overall the ride simply gave me a sense of danger... I also realized just how worse it could have been. My neighbor who instructed several years for the PCA back in the day has told me several stories of his "bad" students. Some of which would come out for one event with there supped up car(motor mods only) without any supporting handling mods. They just wanted to to show boat and attempt to prove something about their ego. Reckless...
My friend has seen some ***: Wrecks, People being air-lifted to hospitals

An instructor regularly puts his life in the hands of an inexperienced driver of which he may know nothing about as they usually meet the day of the event.
I give alot of credit to these guys and plan on being one some day

 

[Longdaddy]

From your comments both in the video and here, it is pretty obvious that it was your attitude, not your spin that made instructors hesitant to go out with you. your pride in "never stopping rolling", or "getting it going in the same direction" is misplaced, and your skill level is not something I would brag about on the internet.

Take this from an instructor who has been in a passenger seat of cars that spun and has had no problem going out with same drivers again, as long as they are on the track to learn, not to beat their overinflated ego drums.

 

[J&R3xV10]

They probably had visions of the instructor from Skip Barber who lost some toes in an accident at VOI in Ft. Worth......

I think that was Vegas VOI 9

 

[J&R3xV10]

I almost overshot the turn into the infield on my second lap and had to break almost to the point of locking up before I could turn in and all my instructor said was "thank you". I guess he was just happy I didn't spin there like so many others did. I think I was more nervous than he was but then he didnt know how old my breaks are.