Anybody that has known me a while can tell you I’m a bit obsessed with Gran Turismo. Ever since I received GT2 for Christmas in 1999, I’ve been an avid enthusiast of the game, only upgrading my consoles when a new version of Gran Turismo is released. Needless to say when I was invited to an event that was comprised of two of my favorite leisure activities track driving and Gran Turismo I jumped at the opportunity.
The premise was simple; invite journalists out to Streets of Willow Springs for two days of driving and gaming. Along the way we would all receive practice and instruction from professionals on-track and practice on the racing simulator. After a day of honing our skills we would be set loose in identically prepared spec Toyota Yaris hatchbacks out on the track and back indoors we would be piloting similarly modified virtual versions of the cars. The journalist with the lowest combined lap times would be determined the winner.
When we arrived at the track early in the morning of our first day I was excited to get out in a car as soon as possible. However, as with any track day, there would be a driver’s meeting first and in this case additional training for those not so acquainted with performance driving. Luckily the guys from Fast Lane Racing School were on-hand to help give some much-needed pointers. As it turned out, it was the first time most of the journalists on-hand would be driving on a racetrack so far my odds were looking pretty good.
With our briefing completed it was time to suit up and get out on track, but not before taking a ride along with the instructors. Two medium-paced laps around the track and we were off to hop into our ex-Celebrity Gran Prix of Long Beach Toyota Celicas. They put us out in the Celicas for our practice sessions to prevent premature wear on the Yaris, which was an especially good idea for my group where two out of the five contestants had never even driven a manual car before (one would eventually destroy a transmission by the end of the day).
Fortunately for me, I have driven these Celicas once before, on different tires, and I have also driven Streets several times, but in a different configuration. In what I can only presume was an effort to keep speeds down, we ran approximately half the track to start out. In my first session, I quickly realized that the brake pads were a little more aggressive than the tires were, and locked up several times going up hill into turn two. This resulted in some pretty nice flat spots that were only exaggerated under heavy cornering loads.
After our first lapping session we headed indoors to allow everyone to familiarize themselves with Gran Turismo, for me it was time to learn the limits of the Yaris in-game. Since the game allows users to thoroughly modify the cars Chris Hinojosa-Miranda from Gran Turismo was able to prepare our in-game counterparts very closely to the cars we would be driving tomorrow. The experience in game would now help two-fold for the event tomorrow, both in preparing for the game and getting a decent idea of what to expect on-track in the Yaris.
With the gaming portion completed the next portion of our Race School included two activities on the skid pad, both in the dry and wet. For the dry exercise we went out with the instructors and drove around a constant-radius circle while they explained how to find the limit and throttle-steer the cars. In the wet, we were asked to do e-brake initiated 180s as well as reverse 180s commonly referred to as J-turns. The idea was to educate everyone on how to control the car in over-the-limit situations and everyone in my group went through with no major incidents.
After experiencing the sensation of finding the limit and exceeding it we were set loose again on the track, but this time we were running a slightly longer, but still incomplete, configuration. In my first session on the new track instructor Raul Moreno hopped into the car and pointed out a few of my mistakes and drilled the turn-in points into my mind. He also pointed out that I have a habit of leaving my hand on the shifter too long, which I need to shake. As the day went on my line improved but my tires got much worse.
With about five minutes left in my final session and heading down the straight in the fastest section of the track, I heard a loud clunk accompanied by a symphony of smaller clunks, dings and bangs coming from the passenger side of the car. Great, the tire let go don’t panic just bring the car to a halt safely. Easing off the gas and slowly applying the brakes I gently and safely deposited the car on the shoulder of turn two and waited for the session to be checkered. When the safety truck arrived they confirmed my suspicion and I limped the car back into the pits.
After the practice day was over I was feeling pretty good about my performance. I knew Peter Tarach, from Modified magazine, would likely be faster than me on-track but I had over two seconds advantage on the field in Gran Turismo. Things were starting to look pretty good and I was really excited to get out in the Yaris’ to sort them out. They lacked the power of the Celica but offered a shorter wheelbase, a lower curb weight and eliminated my main enemy of day one: tires. The Goodyear Eagle RS DOT race tires were sure to be a better match for the Carbotech XP8 pads.
During dinner the night before the competition, the event’s celebrities arrived; all members of the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) family. The patriarch of the group whose name the team goes by is, of course, Joe Gibbs. If the name sounds familiar it’s probably either because he’s won three National championships in both the NFL as the Head Coach of the Washington Redskins and in NASCAR as the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. Accompanying him was a portion of JGR including: sons JD and Coy, Motocross Riders Davi Millsaps and Justin Brayton and young rising NASCAR talent Joey sliced bread Logano. The last three we found out would be joining our contest setting pro times to beat.
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Which way to the gym?
I think it’s over there.
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