NASA HPDE at Infineon Raceway cont.

NASA HPDE at Infineon Raceway

After getting the subie, I decided I had to attempt to everything possible with this car in terms of competitive motorsport (on my budget). Two months after buying it, I quickly learned that I needed to re-learn how to drive as the AWD system reacted very differently to throttle and brake at the threshold of grip. I signed up for my first "High-Performance Driving Event" (HPDE) sponsored by NASA and held at Infineon Raceway. The day of the event, it's pouring rain, and showered frequently through the day. After the first meeting, we were assigned our volunteer instructors. His first question: "uggggh what kind of car do you have?"he said nervously, while eyeing the sky and the now partially muddy (read: slicker than snot) track. "WRX" I replied happily. "Thank GOD!!" was his reply. He was a Kiwi and avid racer of his near M3 spec E36 Bimmer. He knew the track well, and gave me tons of advice. As it turns out, it was great that it was wet, as you can learn things at slower speeds on a wet track. My confidence went up bunches that day. My recommendation though is to avoid Infineon - it's not a forgiving track with very little runoff, and NASA runs a "loose" event with not a lot of discipline. One M5 went into the barrier trunk first and was allowed to continue, this after being warned of passing in no passing zones (he passed me on the outside of turn 6!). Much was learned and I was really thankful for taking the course!

How it all got started

In September of 2001, I bought a brand new Subaru Impreza WRX. I had never driven in one, but riding in my friend Jon's convinced me that I needed to trade in my 328is ASAP for my own personal rally car. I know I said I hadn't driven one, but I had driven the WRX STi in Gran Turismo 3 on my Playstation2, and I knew it couldn't suck. From there I started searching for info about rallies, I started watching the WRC on SpeedVision and reading all the websites I could find. Then in December, I see a post on i-Club (now called the NASIOC) for a Bay Area Four Seasons rally. This was a TSD rally for Subaru's, run by a local rallyist and a new WRX owner. The first event was really hard, I remember going home dog tired after spending the entire day confused out of my mind. My good friend Rudy who volunteered to be my navigator was even more tired and frustrated. But oddly it was fun. I came back for all four events and took second in the series.