My short introduction

[lz2lps]

To be a race car driver or fighter pilot was my dream when I was young. Thinking back in time, I think the first time I ever watched racing was at a summer camp in the early 90's, when the bigger guys tuned to an F1 race. Of course Aerton Senna was the man of the day and it was great fun to watch.

Due to health issues I didn't had a chance going to an air force military school, and lets be honest maths is not my strongest side. So I grew up and ended at a Technical University, studying Computer Science. I still do not know if this is what I am meant to do, and there are periods like now, when I just quit my job and spend 3-4 months on my own, not thinking about it. But I guess this job made it possible to at least touch to my dream.

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Although I got my driving license when I was 17 (my mother and father paid the course for my birthday), I can't say that I had much experience until 4 years ago. Due to some “uknown” for me reason, my parents doubted my capabilities (I understand if I ruined the garage as one of my colleagues, or parked my brand new car with two wheel on the garage wall). Me and my brother were given the “privilege” to drive the family Moskvitch 412 and then the Renault 19 only on out of town roads. I still remember when we were stopping at the end of the highway, before one the Bulgarian's main cities - Varna. I admit that at times I felt anger for someone underestimating my capabilities, but probably can understand their point of view. Big and unknown city, unknown streets, and believe me driving in Bulgaria has nothing to do for example with driving in LA, San Francisco or San Diego. I am still scared only from the though in driving in the Capital Sofia, or even Varna.

Well, i guess this was one of the reasons that you can not get me out of the car now. I just feel at home when driving and nothing makes me more calm. When I was in USA i used to drive during the nights at tough times.

After getting my Master Degree of Computer Science, at the Technical University in Varna, me and my twin brother went in the Army, which back then was mandatory. For guys that had university degree, it was 6 months, otherwise 9.



During my last army days, I am sitting in front of the computer and thinking how to spend our (mine and my brother's) hard earned money from the job we had before that, and "Eurika" there are enough for a rice car. For some reason, i liked Honda, so it was "love" at first sight. I went, saw, bought - all in one morning - '94 Honda Civic Coupe (manufactured in USA). I didn't had an idea what will do with the car, where I will drive it. I haven't heard for race tracks in Bulgaria. Drove it 5-6 months, and in one sunny March day, me and my brother left for sunny Southern California for training in the company we worked for (if you had anything to do with loans in WAMU, IHE, ... there is a chance that in the background it went through the Loan Originating System or Broker Portal i was working on ).

Being a Honda "fan", the Integra Type-R was one of the dream cars. Well, Type-Rs are not that many in USA and darn expensive, so next in line was Acura Integra GSR. The idea of buying such car was a month before actually buying it, but some circumstances delayed the process with 1 month. My brother decided to do some laundry, but oh surprise, our passports and I-94s (something you are given when entering USA, on which is written how long you can stay. If lost, bad...) were in one of the shirts . Well hopes of extending the stay at this month vanished, as well as the thought of buying the car.

After that, I decided to take the risk and stay, with the hope that somehow things can come to their places, and the wait time for an answer about an extension of the stay usually takes 3-4 months, during which period I am still legal in USA. Although I didn't know if i am going to stay more than 2 weeks, I said to my self "The hell, this is only money (arround $7000), i have the chance to drive the car (and many people can only dream about this)". So again, mine and my brother's money were going to be well spent

Meanwhile, my brother returned to Bulgaria (you know, the chance of me staying and dealing with the visa problems was 50/50. Fortunately i have twin brother, and with him the chances went to 100 If something goes wrong with my status, his will be not affected, and vice versa). Well, long story short, almost 3 years went and I have seen my brother twice, for a few days. It is hard to live 25 years, 24/7 together, and now only using IM from time to time, but well... life goes on. Fortunately he is now in USA and working hard to stay there.

So one day, me and my brother (he was leaving after few days) decided to buy the car. I don't need to mention that this one too was bought in the matter of seeing it for 30 minutes The day before we went to buy it, i filled the necessary online forms for an insurance (and there are not many companies that give insurance to drivers with foreign driving license). After i payed cash for the car, i connected my laptop to the wireless network of the place and actually purchased the policy. Then printed some temporary prove of it and back to the place we were staying (Irvine, CA).

Well, for a long time I enjoyed this moment and driving the car. 6 months to rely to other people to drive you anywhere, 6-7 people with different opinion and only one company van (Nissan Quest - 3.5L). And as you know it is hard to be in USA without a car .

Fuel in the blood, in a country with race tracks everywhere - in one moment, part of the dream became reality.

I started to visit the Autocross competitions, organised at the parking lot of California Speedway. It was 1 our trip from where I lived for 11 months. I was quite surprised by the attitude of the people there. From the first time i set foot on the track, there were people that introduced me to the sport. I was explained the rules, rode in many of the cars, without knowing anybody and anybody knowing me. With help from people at the events, i was improving my driving every time.

Meanwhile, I was searching for real race tracks. The autocross was really helpful for my concentration - it teaches you one of the most important principle - look as far ahead as possible, or you will kill the poor cones

At first it looks somewhat scary, but fortunately i didn't hit many cones (this picture is named Sean Nightmare). Unfortunately I am not in the Lotus, but was at this event.


So, i found a race track, not too far - 110 miles in one direction (or 2 hours driving). The name of the track is Willow Springs. This is what i needed - i guess i was in heaven. Smell of fuel, rubber, gorgeous noise from all kinds of engines - music for the ears. I am coming to this track every time possible There were periods when I woke up 5 in the morning, drove 2 hours to the track and then 2 hours back. The same thing happened on the next day. No more boring weekends, when I am wondering what to do.

Before going to USA, I found really interesting DVD - Drift Bible by Keiichi Tsuchiya. Actually, I think this was the first video I watched, where techniques were described in details. I guess this was the first thing that actually triggered my interest in the details of racecar driving. Pure perfection and car control. Yes, I know that it is not the fastest way around the track, but still requires lots of skills and shares many of the techniques and physics (wait, physics does not care about that ).

In one of my visits to Willow Springs, at the drift track there was I camera crew, which was shooting something. So i joined them with my camera, having no idea what were they doing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR8oThmaZ_A

After some time, i found that actually this was Tanner Foust (Formula D driver and champion).

I guess the rain from the shredding tires, from which i was hit while standing 2 meters from the fence somehow managed to find its path to my eyes and completely blur my mind

But somehow, only watching the guys have fun was only annoying me. What was the point of only watching someone having fun. I needed to take measures. My birthday is coming, there is still few dollars left (sausages, 10 for $1 became my "favorite", the rest for fuel and tires). Race School is the ultimate way to drive on a real race track in a real race car.

I think it was at this point, when i found about the Skip Barber Racing school. Unfortunately i could not afford it, so tried to find another alternative. Though, already owned "Going Faster - Mastering the Art of Race Driving", which opened my eyes about the wonderful world of driving cars on the limit.

The first time, I visited Willow Springs, i saw that there is Race School (Fast Lane) there, which at this day held place at "Street of Willow". This is a video from this first time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6I9kUr-iBo

I still wet my pants watching and listening to the Toyota accelerating I think they use the same cars for the celebrities in the Long Beach GP, which i was lucky enough to visit.

$450, one day, why not. 60 miles on a real race track, not bad. I needed tires, so purchased Falken Azenis 615. $75 a piece. From Texas to California with courier, and they left them in front of the house . Lucky enough, it is not Bulgaria and I found them in one piece, when i returned from the office.

So, it was 18 Nov 2006, early in the morning and I was waiting in front of the still locked gates of Willow Spring International Raceway, waiting to learn and drive. Some theory in the morning, nothing new from what I already knew (from Going Faster and the little experience in autocross), but it was interesting to listen, and the material was taught in an interesting manner, with some funny stories. After the lunch we headed to the race track.

We were divided into 3 groups, and each of the groups went to train particular thing. One was training heel & toe, the second at the "circle of traction", where we were shown what happens at the limit (the same thing is in the Going Faster DVD), and the third at the drift track, to train 180 spins.

I was in the group that first trained Heel & Toe. The instructor demonstrated to each of us the technique, and then it was our turn. I already had started training it while driving everyday, so it was a matter of polishing it. There was a course setup at the parking lot, near Streets of Willow, and it looked like that:



Around 270 meters, at both ends with cones. Accelerate, heel & toe, turn around the cones and back.The image is logged with my DriftBox, that i bought before the school. I love gadgets, so this was my first data logging system.

The second exercise was at the skidpad. Looked something like this:



Experienced what is lift off oversteer, controlling the radius with the throttle.

The third exercise was at the wet drift track. One of the exercises there was to use the handbrake for 180 degree spin while countersteering. After the car stops, you should tell in which directions the wheels are pointing, and they better be straight ahead . The second exercise was driving in reverse gear, and with the help of the brakes doing 180 and continuing the forward motion without interruption. The funny thing is, that there is used Nissan, with an automatic gearbox, and the instructor was switching to neutral and then back to Drive

The last and most exciting thing for this day was to go to the race track. Well, the first day was at "Streets of Willow" (next days i think they used the big track), but what a fun. The course graph looked like this:


The first few laps was "Follow the Leader" (that is the instructor). Every lap we were changing positions, so each one of us could be right behind the instructor. Then we were given a "Go" to put the pedal to the metal . Most of the other students were driving the school cars - Toyota GTS (the same as on the video i posted above). They had roll cages, tuned exhaust system and suspension, proper seats and pedals. There were couple of us, that were driving their own cars. One Ford GT and Shelby 500. I was in my Acura Integra GSR, completely stock, with new tires.

Well, I wasn't doing bad, for 1-2 laps was behind the guy with the Ford GT ($150 000 car). After the session he asked me if I had any experience before, but what can I say - two autocrosses and some racing simulations on the computer). I was able to keep up with the school Toyota cars in the corners, but on the straight was lacking speed. So i decided to go in the pits and wait there and find a free "window" in front of me.

Then one of the instructors (female one) asked if she can ride with me... well, i couldn't say NO She gave me few advices, but most of the time was enjoying the ride, as well i was enjoying the driving - what a blast. I was flying over the chicanes, and I will never forget what she told me - "You are really enjoying it, don't you?". Yep, if she only knew how right she was. My only goal was to have fun.

After that I talked with another instructor, who was driving Honda Integra Type-R at NASA. Probably he also saw something positive in my driving, so he explained me how i can participate.

This day i did 3 or 4 sessions, and unfortunately it was time to go home, as I only paid for one day high performance school. I was given the certificate and the group photo:



After this school, i went to few autocrosses (El Toro and California Speedway):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO_VlfQ8t6k

Unfortunately, the time came to leave the racer's heaven and return back on Earth... that is needed to go back to Bulgaria. It is not pleasant when you have to leave good friends, to limit you favorite activities (not that much race tracks in Bulgaria) - i learned tons of stuff, thanks to people who even didn't know me, but still helped me learn.

I still have fun here in Bulgaria though. Karting tracks, open track days, amateur events... Last year bought better Data Logging system (DASH2 + DL1 from Race Technology), and when I have time and desire play with it. It helped me improve my double clutch heal and toe and see many of the mistakes that I make, and most importantly in a way that i can see them graphically. Not sure if i learn better from pictures or not.

That is me in the green Civic. Hopefully my driving improved from back then

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9VJCzbHbg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8_48fCZbU0

Helped me to be more consistent too:


Bought another 2 project cars and now left them to my father to deal with them Will see if any of them will hit the road at all.

Nowadays sometimes fire iRacing and drive "Test" sessions, browse forums and try to be valuable (as per Einstein's lessons in my previous thread ). Also translate from English to Bulgarian interesting books and articles that can be helpful for other people that want to know how and why stuff and driving techniques work. I guess when i have the time and money will go to few track days to keep the fire.

Well, this is with "couple" of words why i am interested in the art of driving. I may not be good or considered real car junkie, but this is the hobby that doesn't let go and I am enjoying it at my free time, or when I have the energy to do it.

P.S. I adapted most of the text from something I wrote 1 year ago, in a hotel room in downtown Copenhagen, Denmark.