Sunday, April 17, 2011

[4/17/2011] HANSON School (DDT) Part 1

Event: HANSON International Driving School
Track: Mosport DDT - CCW w/ 2 kinks
Weather Conditions: +3°C, wet with mixed snow (!)

Today was 'shakedown' for the upcoming track season! I showed up bright and early at 8AM for registration. I checked the weather the night before and it said it was going to snow .. but looking at how clear the skies were, I figured weather network was j/k, right? :D



WRONG!! By the time class was over... conditions were absolutely RIDICULOUS. Blizzard in the middle of April WTF?



Well .. it turns out that this was a true blessing in disguise. The cold and wet conditions were PERFECT for learning the limits of my car simply because they came much quicker (and by some miracle, precipitation stopped during my runs). Combine that with an awesome instructor (Randy S.) and that's a recipe for a day of REAL learning ;)

By far the most useful excercise I went through today was on the Skid Pad. My car has always understeered and I've learnt to deal with it over the years by braking earlier. This excercise taught me that it was indeed possible to get my car into an oversteer situation if done properly. I hope the first few runs aren't too painful to watch :p



Part 2 with lapping footage still to come, I'm tired after a day of hard driving ...