Just got back from Bondurant Day 2 and we had an even better day than yesterday. Day 2 started off with running the "Maricopa Oval" that we ran yesterday. It consists of one constant-radius and one increasing radius corner. This time, we dowshifted to 2nd in the increasing radius corner instead of staying in 3rd gear like yesterday. This was great practice with the driving fundamentals with lots of repetition to work on fine-tuning the skills. After the Copa, we headed to the skidpad for the world's most fun toys -
skidcars. Bondurant fits Cadillac CTS-Vs with the hydraulic skidcar rig for some great RWD understeer and oversteer training. We ended with some figure 8 rally laps with the instructor varying the rear load in each corner - quite good car control and looking-ahead training. Next was full ABS panic stops and brake-in-turn training. After lunch, we headed to the Bondurant road coarse for our first on-track sessions. After an hour of classroom, riding, and lead-follow, we were let loose on the track with trackday-like rules for overtaking. The road coarse is extremely fun with a good combination of stead-state, transient, high-speed, and low-speed corners. Bob designed it himself for driving training so of course it's good.
Best part of the day was sitting on the Bondurant HQ patio talking with Emerson Fittipaldi. He told some old-school war stories and talked to us about his transition from driving road coarses to ovals. He couldn't be a nicer guy and loved to talk racing. While we were on the road coarse, Bob and Emerson took a ZR1 on course and ripped of hot-laps. Bob is 71 and Emerson is 63 and they both still have it...big-time. Towards the end of the session, I caught and followed Bob in the ZR1 playing lead-follow with Pietro Fittipaldi. This is not something I will soon forget.
Me with Bob and Emerson
Now back to Bondurant for a shifter kart class....(updated) and now it is moved to Saturday night due to rain.
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