Fair warning this thread is going to be a work in progress as I get videos uploaded and get time to write this up.
I try to do a few track days a year in my cars and on my bikes. But this past weekend was the first time I've been to the track since I bought my Model 3 Performance at the end of September. This event was at Inde Motorsports Ranch in Arizona. I've been here multiple times in cars and on bikes. But everytime in the past that I've been here we've run clockwise in the fast configuration. This time we ran counter clockwise in the non-fast configuration which adds 4 corners and takes away a straightaway. In the clockwise configuration most corners are off camber (I think there is 1 positive camber corner) increasing radius with a couple blind corner entries. Counter clockwise most turns are decreasing radius the camber is the same and there are about the same amount of blind entry corners but they are different corners.
There were 4 run groups doing 15 min sessions each. Normally with this organizer I'm in the 2nd group. The organizer assigns groups based on their personal knowledge of the drivers, the cars they are bringing and past experience. There were a lot of people in group one that overflowed into group 2. Pretty much all of group one was on slicks and most of group 2 was on performance / track tires. They underestimated the Tesla and I was on factory street tires so I was put in group 3. Since this was my first time going counter clockwise and driving the Model 3 Performance on track I figured this was the for the best. A side benefit was a few people asked to bump up or down out of group 3 so it had the least car's on track.
I took the first session pretty easy trying to figure out the car and relearn the track going the opposite direction. At first the car seemed a little unpredictable and disconnected when I was just driving at a slightly spirited pace. I wasn't trail braking into corners and wasn't powering out of them at first. The last couple laps in the first session I started pushing it a little more and noticed the more I pushed the car the better it felt. The first session going on track I waited and jumped into the back of the line to ensure I wouldn't hold anyone up and had room to back off if it was getting too congested. The first session the track manager went out and drove in the front for the sighting/ warmup lap. Somehow a guy in an S2000 spun out on the paced sighting lap. Well that guy ended up coming back on the track behind me. On the 3rd turn of the first lap the Subaru WRX in front of me turned in too hard hopped the curbing on the inside then overcorrected and ran off track on the outside. I caught up to a mustang and got held up a little because passing was only allowed when pointed by from the driver of the car ahead of you. As I was driving I could see the S2000 behind me going sideways and having tires dip off track almost every turn. He looked like he was driving above his means and I feared he might run into me coming off the straight so I let off and waved him by. Once he was ahead of me he slowed down without someone to follow but was still having trouble keeping the car on the track and being smooth. We caught up to another mustang but as we finished the lap they waved the checkered flag signaling the end of the season. I used about 17% battery that session.
Had about a 45 minute break before the next session and remembered I didn't turn on my Harry's Lap Timer app. So i started messing with that and realized I needed to update the app to load the track. About the time the update finished it was time to go back out.
To be continued... I gotta go do some stuff.
I try to do a few track days a year in my cars and on my bikes. But this past weekend was the first time I've been to the track since I bought my Model 3 Performance at the end of September. This event was at Inde Motorsports Ranch in Arizona. I've been here multiple times in cars and on bikes. But everytime in the past that I've been here we've run clockwise in the fast configuration. This time we ran counter clockwise in the non-fast configuration which adds 4 corners and takes away a straightaway. In the clockwise configuration most corners are off camber (I think there is 1 positive camber corner) increasing radius with a couple blind corner entries. Counter clockwise most turns are decreasing radius the camber is the same and there are about the same amount of blind entry corners but they are different corners.
There were 4 run groups doing 15 min sessions each. Normally with this organizer I'm in the 2nd group. The organizer assigns groups based on their personal knowledge of the drivers, the cars they are bringing and past experience. There were a lot of people in group one that overflowed into group 2. Pretty much all of group one was on slicks and most of group 2 was on performance / track tires. They underestimated the Tesla and I was on factory street tires so I was put in group 3. Since this was my first time going counter clockwise and driving the Model 3 Performance on track I figured this was the for the best. A side benefit was a few people asked to bump up or down out of group 3 so it had the least car's on track.
I took the first session pretty easy trying to figure out the car and relearn the track going the opposite direction. At first the car seemed a little unpredictable and disconnected when I was just driving at a slightly spirited pace. I wasn't trail braking into corners and wasn't powering out of them at first. The last couple laps in the first session I started pushing it a little more and noticed the more I pushed the car the better it felt. The first session going on track I waited and jumped into the back of the line to ensure I wouldn't hold anyone up and had room to back off if it was getting too congested. The first session the track manager went out and drove in the front for the sighting/ warmup lap. Somehow a guy in an S2000 spun out on the paced sighting lap. Well that guy ended up coming back on the track behind me. On the 3rd turn of the first lap the Subaru WRX in front of me turned in too hard hopped the curbing on the inside then overcorrected and ran off track on the outside. I caught up to a mustang and got held up a little because passing was only allowed when pointed by from the driver of the car ahead of you. As I was driving I could see the S2000 behind me going sideways and having tires dip off track almost every turn. He looked like he was driving above his means and I feared he might run into me coming off the straight so I let off and waved him by. Once he was ahead of me he slowed down without someone to follow but was still having trouble keeping the car on the track and being smooth. We caught up to another mustang but as we finished the lap they waved the checkered flag signaling the end of the season. I used about 17% battery that session.
Had about a 45 minute break before the next session and remembered I didn't turn on my Harry's Lap Timer app. So i started messing with that and realized I needed to update the app to load the track. About the time the update finished it was time to go back out.
To be continued... I gotta go do some stuff.
