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Category: Motorsports

Open track day is mission of discovery

Clarkston, Mich. -- The odometer on the new car said I'd babied it through 2,000 miles of break-in driving. It was time we got to know each other more intimately.

It looks nice in the driveway, and it's enjoyable cruising back and forth to work. But Open Track Day at Waterford Hills Race Course just north of Detroit Sunday provided the perfect opportunity to discover what I'd paid for.

If you own a race horse, take it to the track.

Check out the video about the adventure made by Detroit News photographer Steve Perez

For every look of stunned disbelief I got from normal folks when I told them I planned to push my new car and myself to our limits on a real race course, I got paid back Sunday with welcoming smiles and nods of approval from real car people at this historic road racing circuit in the rolling hills of Northern Oakland County.

"I tell my friends to come out here. You put all this money and time into your cars and then you do crazy things on the roads," said Oleg Zmiyov, 24. "You come here and you push your car, maybe a little too much, but that's OK because you really get it out of your system. You find your limits and your car's. When it's over, I'm so calm on the road. I have a feeling of respect for my car and want to take care of it for the next time."

Zmiyov, of Center Line, learned high performance driving at the Skip Barber Racing School. He's very fast, but he's not rich. He works in a grocery store. His investment is in his daily driver, a silver 2003 Nissan 350Z.

Oleg loves his Z

And he had a lot of auto-romantic company. There were beautiful new daily drivers finally living up to their potential, old sports cars reliving days gone by, classic Detroit Mustangs and Camaros, real race cars including a few open wheelers, $1,000 track day throw-aways, and home-built inventions that fit no recognized racing category. It truely is a case of run-what-you-brung.

Robert Kroll of Almont brought his 1991 Mazda RX 7 with a 350 Chevrolet truck engine tucked neatly into the former living space of a tiny Wankel rotary. The V8's first spark plugs are even with the new adjustable coil-over shocks, making the car powerful and surprisingly nimble.

Aric Streeter of South Lyon was blazingly fast in his Yamaha R1 superbike engined 1960 Mini Cooper. It was right-hand drive, but this wasn't Mr. Bean's car. It does zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds. Streeter assembled parts for two years. He bought the body from a guy in New Zeeland for $2,000, then paid $2,800 to have it shipped here.

"I built it because I love small lightweight cars," Streeter said. "It is one heck of a driver's car."

Herb Adams, Pontiac's racing engineer from the zenith of the '60s and '70s pony car participation in SCCA's Trans Am series, was wheeling around the track in his Passion Motors prototype supercar called a Contessa.

Thrills come cheap or expensive

A few pits spaces away, Joseph Rippolone of Grosse Pointe admired his baby -- a 2005 Ford GT. Oh, and it's not just the 803rd copy of Ford's greatest street car anymore. Not since Walsh Motor Sports of Wixom tweaked the suspension and pushed the supercharged engine over the 700 horsepower mark.

Rippolone isn't the type to be satisfied driving a $200,000 exotic back and forth to the golf course. He had come to Waterford to play with his toy because he too admits to having been seduced by the sirens of the public road.

To keep anyone from thinking they can copycat this act, I won't say which Michigan Interstate provided the unpoliced straightaway where Rippolone and his musclebound beauty topped 200 mph. I suppose that's what we deserve for laying off 100 Michigan State Police troopers.

"This car is a reflection of the love of cars," said Rippolone, whose sense of Ford motor sports history dating back to Barney Oldfield is reflected in his license plate, 999WINS. "This car wasn't built to be in a museum. It was meant to be driven."

If you have the desire, an approved helmet, $150 and a car that can pass a basic safety inspection, you can drive at an open track day. Instruction in your own car from a competition licensed driver is available -- free. Loaned tools, advise and know-how flows from others in the pits as readily as good natured ribbing.

"I hope they don't charge you by the pound for all the gravel you took," a buddy told Aaron Johnston as the West Bloomfield resident jacked up his Mitsubishi Evo to repair its broken bodywork and scoop out mounds of pea-gravel.

Johnston had plunged his daily driver off the end of the track's fastest straightaway without causing any damage. But, trying to get back to the track, he got stuck in a gravel trap designed to slow a true runaway. The session I was in got stopped early to pull Johston's car out of harm's way.

"I feel so stupid," Johnston cursed himself. "I killed the session for the rest of you."

But how did it happen? "I hit 100 on the straight," Johnston said with a well deserved ear-to-ear grin. But, getting the magic number took him too deep into the braking zone and he couldn't slow enough to attempt the sharp right-hander at the end of the straight.

This isn't racing, the track officials kept insisting. You don't pass without the driver ahead of you pointing out his or her window to motion you by, always on the right and only in certain safe zones. You don't compete against anyone but yourself at track days. Unlike a public road, when you make a mistake on a race course there is usually plenty of runoff space.

There is risk

At last October's track day at Waterford a teen-ager in his father's turbocharged SRT Neon lost control on the pit straight ahead of me. I watched him slam head-on into the wall. Although an ambulance took the young man away, he was OK. The car was totaled and uninsured. The insurance loophole that previously kept street cars covered at these events -- that this isn't a race because there is no competitive passing -- has been closed by many insurers, according to the New York Times.

The trick still is restraint, even at 100 miles per hour. I saw 97 miles per hour on my speedometer on that same backstretch. And, I almost spun out on a tight left-hander on the other side of the course because I still have a lot to learn about the appropriate application of my new car's impressive horsepower.

I learned a lot from my new dance partner on Sunday. I have confidence that I am better prepared to maneuver around the madness that happens on Metro Detroit's expressways. But, I'm looking forward to learning more in August at Waterford Hills' next open track day about my car's potential at its impressive and otherwise illegal limits.