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ST Octane Academy 2018 Registration OPEN

Messages
66
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49
Location
South Weber
#41
Having spent many a season as either a course marshal or a participant on track days (motorcycle and car) I have never seen a clockwise run in any configuration. The blue outline is referred to as the East course, the orange West. The East and West configuration are the most used and when I did the Octane Academy it was on East. With the red connector (south side of track leading into the attitudes) used it's Perimeter and if you add the additional connector between East and West at the north side (front straight) of the track it is the full configuration which is rarely run by any event.
 


anticon

Active member
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Location
Sherwood
#42
Ran a quick google search on why races are typically run counter-clockwise. I thought it was interesting. https://www.livescience.com/32442-why-are-races-run-counterclockwise.html

"It's believed to be easier for righties, who make up the majority of world population, to run in a counterclockwise motion. Putting their right foot forward and leaning into a turn feels more comfortable and provides more power and balance than the reverse direction, say physicists.

That's not the whole story though, since other animals like dogs and horses — with no hands to speak of — run their races that way too. Even NASCAR uses the convention, and those guys are just sitting on their butts.

Going counterclockwise just looks more natural, with runners passing the observer in the way most people, and especially the folks in charge of track and field regulations, read and organize chronological time (that's left-to-right, if you're in need of a visual). Needing to choose one for the sake of standardizing international competitions, counterclockwise got the collective nod."
 


Messages
56
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3
Location
Bakersfield
#44
Good stuff.

Mine is coming up soon but I really don't know how to heel toe downshift at all. Is that going to affect me severely?
 


XanRules

Active member
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239
Location
Portland
#47
Anyone not able to make an earlier date and wanna go in October instead? My friends' band needs a bass player for their fall tour but my Octane Academy date is dead in the middle of their tour schedule.
 


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anticon

Active member
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Sherwood
#48
I'm heading out on Sunday for the Monday driving day. I can't wait! The weather is looking a little hot; low of 64 F and high of 94 F. At least it will be dry.
 


Messages
56
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3
Location
Bakersfield
#49
I'm heading out on Sunday for the Monday driving day. I can't wait! The weather is looking a little hot; low of 64 F and high of 94 F. At least it will be dry.
Nice! Have fun! You're driving from Sherwood OR? That's a 12 hour drive. Damn son, and I thought my 10 hour drive was a lot but I enjoyed the peacefulness of driving alone. Hope you have fun! It's great!
 


XR650R

2000 Post Club
Premium Account
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Eerie
#50
Nice! Have fun! You're driving from Sherwood OR? That's a 12 hour drive. Damn son, and I thought my 10 hour drive was a lot but I enjoyed the peacefulness of driving alone. Hope you have fun! It's great!
Yeah, I love a nice road trip, too. Clears the head.
 


anticon

Active member
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602
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Location
Sherwood
#51
Nice! Have fun! You're driving from Sherwood OR? That's a 12 hour drive. Damn son, and I thought my 10 hour drive was a lot but I enjoyed the peacefulness of driving alone. Hope you have fun! It's great!
Ha, I've done that drive before, not in one day though. I'm flying out and renting a car. I thought about finding a fun car on turo.com, but wound up with just a cheap rental.
 


Messages
56
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3
Location
Bakersfield
#52
Ha, I've done that drive before, not in one day though. I'm flying out and renting a car. I thought about finding a fun car on turo.com, but wound up with just a cheap rental.
Oh okay, haha. I think there was only two in my group that drove there. Everyone else flew in.
 


anticon

Active member
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602
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Location
Sherwood
#54
I just got back from the Academy yesterday. It was an awesome experience and highly recommend it. It is a shame it will not be available once these cars are discontinued. I guess the 350GT will have to be the next one, the instructor joked about an Edge ST course too.

I showed up a day early and hung out around the complex. I watched some of the RS autocross stuff, some off-road racing, some of the Octane Academy afternoon track session, and did some karting. The karting was a little underwhelming but got me a little more prepped for the next day. My only high-speed cornering/racing experience is virtual as a long time Gran Turismo player, and some windy roads where I live.

We ran the track stuff in the morning. We started in the class room, then a van ride around the east track to get acquainted, then we did lead follow in the Focus and Fiesta, then I got to go without an instructor first, then an instructor got in and coached me through some laps. The instructor pretty much said I was braking to late, and that the tires should just "moan" and not squeal so much in corners, but I think they were just trying to save their tires and brakes a little. I think I had the lines down fairly well (except the third corner from the straight), and kept the speed up in the Fiesta. Then we got to ride with the instructor who showed me how hard to really brake and a little about how to get the back end to come around by lifting the throttle in a corner. You pretty much stay in the 3rd the whole track, there are a couple straights I would hit the rev limiter long enough before a braking zone to want to shift to 4th briefly.

I got a chance to drive the Focus and am glad I bought the Fiesta. Other than the shifter being higher and a little tighter and the extra power, I felt the Fiesta was just a lot more fun, nimble, agile, tight, etc. The Focus just felt more loose in general, the seats didn't hug me as much, the suspension and steering weren't as tight, etc. But it definitely got on it a lot faster out of the corners which was a nice feeling. But I kind of like to think of myself as a purest anyway and want to get the most efficient line and carry the most speed as possible and not rely on the additional power anyway.

I bought the insurance and was kind of glad I had it, I am risk averse and it helped my piece of mind. The one time I really came loose out of a corner I had images running through my head of needing it. I felt I was pushing pretty hard and had some times I wasn't sure I would be able to stay off the gravel. There was plenty of evidence of people losing control on the track, but I think only one person in our group went off road. I also got a little close to a bumper under braking during the lead follow. My fastest time around the track was somewhere around 2:04. Below two minutes would be ideal for sure in a Fiesta. I didn't look at the tires, but somebody said they were the all-seasons and not the summer tires. The Fiestas had wilwood brake kits, and most likely a RMM, everything else felt pretty stock minus the roll cage and hydraulic e-brake handle sticking up next to the steering wheel.

After lunch, the second half of the day was training on the autocross course, including the figure 8, 180 turn, and 90 degree parking slide in the autocross section, then onto practice laps on the full course, and one timed lap.

I am pretty sure I got the fastest time in the autocross portion of the day with a 53.454. The next closest was 54.2 something. However, I screwed up the last slide into the parking box maneuver and only got two wheels in the box. I think I had a pretty good run minus that, except I came in to hot on the first set of barrels on the figure 8 section and had all the traction control systems working to make that turn.

The last thing I did was the skidcar which was fun and I learned a little, but I still will probably just try to avoid road conditions that lead to severe understeer or oversteer.

I had a great time, I can't wait for my next opportunity for some track time.
 


Messages
45
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39
Location
Seattle
#55
Just got back from mine this weekend... Lots of fun, but also very useful... Learned a lot!
Are you by any chance John from the June 3 session? If so, it was great to meet you. The day was amazing, wasn't it? I wanted to keep lapping in the FiST for hours--not enough track laps! Guess I'm going to have to hit the track with my car.
 


Messages
26
Likes
12
Location
Los Angeles
#56
Yep, good to meet u out there. I like to practice some of that stuff more on mu own...but just not in my ST!
Are you by any chance John from the June 3 session? If so, it was great to meet you. The day was amazing, wasn't it? I wanted to keep lapping in the FiST for hours--not enough track laps! Guess I'm going to have to hit the track with my car.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 


anticon

Active member
Messages
602
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525
Location
Sherwood
#58
They time your laps on the track now? Didn't when I went last year.
I was using an app to track my times. The school doesn't track times, but it would be nice if they did.

Here is a video of one of my runs on the UrbanX course.

[video=youtube;o2kVB1zaONA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kVB1zaONA[/video]
 


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Messages
45
Likes
39
Location
Seattle
#59
It would have been great if they could have recorded our lap times, but given the logistics of managing the groups, drivers, ridealongs, etc., that would be a lot to ask. Wish I'd thought to informally time my own laps, just to get a rough idea.

During my day at the Octane Academy, I was disappointingly erratic at many of the exercises, being especially flummoxed by the handbrake turns, showing no consistency and fighting a hard-to-control impulse to push in the clutch pedal. I far preferred the track lapping to the urban autocross exercises and competition. I don't know if my times on the track were on the good side, but the highlight of the day was in the final open-lapping session (with no instructor) when in a FiST I caught a Focus ST in about three laps that I couldn't see at all when I entered the track. Chasing him down was the most fun I had all day...and that's saying a lot.

Then I rode with an instructor after my laps were over, and realized how painfully SLOW I was in comparison. But now I've got the track day bug...
 


anticon

Active member
Messages
602
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525
Location
Sherwood
#60
It would have been great if they could have recorded our lap times, but given the logistics of managing the groups, drivers, ridealongs, etc., that would be a lot to ask. Wish I'd thought to informally time my own laps, just to get a rough idea.

During my day at the Octane Academy, I was disappointingly erratic at many of the exercises, being especially flummoxed by the handbrake turns, showing no consistency and fighting a hard-to-control impulse to push in the clutch pedal. I far preferred the track lapping to the urban autocross exercises and competition. I don't know if my times on the track were on the good side, but the highlight of the day was in the final open-lapping session (with no instructor) when in a FiST I caught a Focus ST in about three laps that I couldn't see at all when I entered the track. Chasing him down was the most fun I had all day...and that's saying a lot.

Then I rode with an instructor after my laps were over, and realized how painfully SLOW I was in comparison. But now I've got the track day bug...
I totally agree on those handbrake maneuvers, the 180 was easy enough but the parking box required more coordination than I apparently have. I got it right about half the time. It went like this; quickly slow down from 40-50 mph but not too soon, to 15-20 mph, left hand at 3-oclock on steering wheel, right hand on hydraulic brake handle, pay attention to location of first cones, hard turn on steering wheel as far as you can go to the left, then at almost the same instant pull the e-brake (hard), then once the back end starts to come around push in clutch and wait until the car is where you want to be, and hit the brakes. Any of that out of order or at the wrong time could potentially ruin the maneuver. I can't play guitar and sing at the same time either, figures...
 


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