Harris Hills Road Course : August 2010
Article written by: Pete Herrera
Additional Photos by: Kevin Belanger on Picasa Web Album
Gallery 1
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This was, by far, the best San Antonio Camaro Club driving experience to date! Let me just say I think I can speak for everyone who attended today when I say this was a MUST REPEAT event!
The "DE," as they call it at Harris Hill Road was an incredible opportunity to push our cars close to their performance limits. I say "close" because after our first few laps around the track, we all soon learned that the limiting factor was not the car, but the driver...it is truly amazing to get a feel for what our 2010 Camaros can do, once you know what you're doing out there (we really only got a taste for how to do it right today). They say DE stands for Driving Education...I say it stands for Driving Experience. Wow, Wow, Wow, what a day!
It all started with six cars rallying at a Starbucks on I-35N at FM 3009 (the rest of our group met us up at the course). We departed Starbucks just after 6:30 AM and arrived at the Harris Hill Road Course right on time for registration at 7:15 AM. After a short briefing on the course, safety, and rules, we met our instructors and hit the course for a first few laps (sans helmet) with the instructors driving our cars to show us the line.
Then we went back to the briefing room for a quick review and some additional cautionary notes from the instructors. After the review we lined 'em up and hit the course again. With the instructor now in the passenger seat, we learned more about how to take the right line to enable us to go as fast as we could push the cars around the curves, bumps, hairpin turns and fleeting straightaways that make up the amazing Harris Hill Road Course (helmets were definitely required on these runs). In all, we got to do this three more times, hitting the track for 20-minute runs each time, alternating with the instructor group and another drivers' group to take breaks in between and let the cars cool down
Towards the end, a few non-Camaro cars managed to push a bit too hard, and we got to watch them go "off-track" and spinning into the grass (and then back into the paddock area for a quick inspection before heading back out). Fortunately, all of our Camaros came back pretty much the way we brought them, with two notable exceptions...(one minor event at the Starbucks, and a melted rear diffuser--you two know who you are!).
This was more fun than adult human beings should be allowed to have. I felt like I was getting away with something that I could get in trouble about, if caught! All I can say is, I didn't realize you can approach a hairpin turn at close to 90 mph, stand on the brakes, let off the brakes, crank the steering wheel over to make the car dive at the apex, then power out of it, while straightening out the wheel in the opposite direction from the way you want the car to go and still keep the car on the track and launching towards the next turn at 70 mph and climbing! Un-be-freakin-lievable! Imagine doing that for a full 20 minutes...THREE SEPARATE TIMES (yeah, I said it...)!!!
Our club was well represented, with the following members present:
Driving:
TAG UR IT (Doug and family)
PWND (Will)
racelvr24 (Suzanne)
Mystic Blue (Mel)
Mrs Synergy SATX (Debbie and kids)
Happy Pappy (Sam and family)
PncRedJwl2SS
In Support:
Atti2de (Chris)
Atti2dezWife (Stephanie)
Bada Bing (John and Jann)
CamaroSkooter (Justin)
Camaro Joker (Keith, and friend Cody)
Drigar (and son?) -- forgive my memory..forgot your first name--apologies
SummitSS (Darrell)
I think nearly everyone who came to watch and support us managed to get a ride-along on a high-speed run around the track, so we all got to taste the speed and feel the "g-forces." And who knew you could burn through an entire tank of gas in one day...?
Big thanks to Sondra and the instructors for putting on a fantastic, fun day for us!
Thanks also to Drigar and CamaroSkooter for capturing pics and video of the event. Watch this thread for those to be posted (hopefully soon!).
