Several years ago, I was racing at Roebling Road, a club track near Savannah, GA. The track is made up of a long front straight, and then a bunch of big, sweeping turns. I don’t think most people would say it’s a difficult track. In fact, once you find your rhythm, it a fun track to drive. But for me, learning the track and finding my rhythm were easier said than done.
During practice for an SCCA ECR endurance race at Roebling Road, I made one mistake after another. I just coudn’t get the track clear in my mind. After three or four laps of mistake after mistake after mistake, I pulled the car into the pits, and got out, angry and frustrated. My co-driver asked what the problem was, and I told him, “You can take it out. I can’t find my way around out there and I’m afraid I’m going to wreck the car.”
In that respect, Circuit of the Americas reminds me of Roebling Road. I had a horrible time learning the track. In fact, I still don’t feel very comfortable with several of the turns. I swear, there were times during practice I wanted to stop the car and ask for directions.
Even so, I won race #1 at COTA. I qualified 6th and, as with most Forza races, there was a big, chaotic bottleneck in turn one at the start, including making contact with one or two other cars, but things sorted themselves out fairly quickly.
Although there was still contact in this race, I felt like I was more patient and made fewer mistakes. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t impatient or didn’t make any mistakes. I was just more patient and made fewer mistakes than in previous races. I’d like to get even better in future races.
Next Race: Circuit of the Americas – Race #2