A Good Time Was Had By All

I spent the July 7-8 weekend with the Peachtree chapter of the BMW Car Club of America (BMWCCA) at Road Atlanta..

Kiddies, I gotta tell you I haven’t had as good a time by myself since I was teenager.

I don’t think I can tell you about it without some show and tell. Here’s a youtube video lapping the track.
You can also follow along on the track map.

If you can stand it, I’ll talk us through a lap. My experience and description may vary from what you see for two reasons. I think this driver is far more experienced than I am and I had a lot more horsepower. More HP is not necessarily a good thing.

The video starts at the Start/Finish line on the front straight. By the time you get to the end of the straight and turn one, you had better have the basic lesson down pat. Break, Turn in, Apex, Go.

If you survive turn 1, get back towards the center of the road for turn 2. Two is almost a giveaway at the speeds I could get. You better do it right because of three.

Oh three, I don’t know how to tell you but the map has to be just plain wrong. Has to be. Check it out at 0:27 into the video. If 3 isn’t nearly a 90 degree right hander, I’ll, I’ll, I don’t know what but I’m not going to give this up. Way too much fun.

Back towards the center of the road for turn 4. The hard part of 4 is getting there at the right place after 3. Hope you do because it is the set-up for the Esses.

Not a clue why but the Esses are the part I do best. Run hard coming out of 4, drive them as a straightaway, brake a bit into the last Ess to set up for 5.

Five, left at good speed and keep turning left after the turn is over to get ready for 6. (Oh yeah, and to get out of the way of those who did 5 better or have even more speed.)

Six and Seven look identical on the map. Not a chance. Six has banking, 7 is flat. It makes a ton of difference.

After 7 is the back straight. Check the video starting about 1:15 into it. Ignore turns 8 and 9. At my kind of speeds, they’re not worth mentioning.

This is the part of the track where I learned the most about myself. My car, a BMW 550i, will do 130 mph and more down the straight. I can’t make myself drop over the edge of the hill, 1:40 into the video, at more than 130 and 120 is far more comfortable. That’s even knowing I can come to a complete stop before the turn if I want.

That’s turn 10A at the bottom of the hill. Take it a bit slower than flat out so you can hit 10B optimally. Gotta do B right so you can get up the hill on the gas and into 11.

Oh 11, Anybody else have a gut check moment or three with a blind drop into an off camber high-speed turn? You can see how blind it is at about 1:55 in the video.

How drop away is it? That little shack on the left is a flag person building and pit road is right there. But you can’t see the lane even that close to it.

Down the hill accelerating. Get so far left you’re in the paint stripes for the runoff (2:01 in the vid) before turning even more to the right for

Turn 12. Turn into the apex, hit the gas and go, go, go past the start/finish and under the Pirelli bridge as fast as you can for the front straight and another lap.

I’m sure others with more or less horsepower and more (there can’t be many with less) driving skill had a different view of the track. I’d love to read your experiences. Please comment with a link.

A final thought. If you’ve got a kid who thinks they’re a hot shoe, enroll them in a course like this at a track near you. They may come away still thinking they’re F1 material but now they’ll know how little they really do know. It will make them safer even if it doesn’t slow them down.