NutDriver Racing   Carl

Introduction

On Friday, November 21, 2003, The Nuts attended our third High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) event. As with our first two HPDEs, this one was organized by Turn One Motorsports at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, South Carolina. This time we took the ITS Celica. Since we'd been signed off to “solo” on our previous HPDE event, we didn't need a seat and harness on the passenger side this time.

We want to thank Silvia Patterson and Joe Hooker and all of the other great people at Turn One Motorsports. In addition to putting on a great event, they went out of their way to accommodate our needs.

Getting There

After the “Weekend From Hell” back in July, and Righty's later trouble with NutHauler II, we've replaced both of the original NutHaulers. First, Righty got a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 with the “Work Truck” package. A couple of weeks later, Lefty got a 2000 Dodge Ram 1500. NutHauler I has been donated to the National Kidney Foundation and NutHauler II is up for sale.

So, we avoided problems with the hauling equipment this time. Unfortunately, Righty had a bit of trouble while getting the trucks loaded and ended up pretty banged up. At first we thought his wrist and thumb were broken. That turned out not to be the case, but they still hurt like the dickens throughout the weekend, along with a pretty mean abrasion on his back.

Other than that, the haul itself was a breeze. We took both of the new NutHaulers just so we'd be prepared if anything went wrong, but it didn't.

At the Track

Since we'd both been “soloed” at previous events, we were both able to save a little money and run without instructors. The sessions were all uneventful, though we did waste a couple of the old, mostly worn-out tires we had. That's no big deal, though, since we knew they were almost dead, anyway. Righty did have one shed about half of its tread rubber during one session, but we had spares and were able to swap them around and get back on track without losing too much time.

The front-wheel drive Celica was quite a bit different to drive than the rear-wheel drive RX-7, and we spent a couple of sessions just getting used to it. It was especially a big difference for Lefty, since he's been driving exclusively rear-wheel drive vehicles for a number of years.

Conclusion

The Celica performed well for us this weekend, but' it's painfully obvious that it's not competitive in the ITS classification that SCCA has given it. We'll probably use it to get through license school then put it up for sale. We're seriously thinking about replacing it with an F-500 car.

Next stop, SCCA double license school at Roebling Roads in February and NASA license school soon after.

Photos

If the window net is up, Righty is driving, otherwise Lefty is driving.

Thanks!

NutDriver Racing would like to extend thanks to the following people and organizations for helping to make this a very enjoyable and educational experience:
Joe Hooker
Silvia Patterson

We sure hope we haven't forgotten anyone. If we have, please let us know and we'll get you listed. We'd include links to our instructors, but we can't find their web pages, so far. :-(

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