Ok, so Jacob officially loves the slides at the park. He can now go down them on his own. Right before he slides down, he gets a smirk on his face. Sarah says he's getting ready for the tummy tickling ride.
On a side note, he also likes to put a bucket on his head and wants you to knock on it. Should I be worried?
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
A Day at the Races
For my birthday this year, I got something completely different. Sarah, Ma, Pa, Bridget, and Greg got me a day at the Mid-Ohio Raceway driving race cars! It's that cool? The raceway had many different packages, including Teen Driving and Racetrack Lapping Program. So, we decided on the Advanced Defensive Driving School. I was nervous that this would just be a classroom based program, but we took a chance. (To view a video on the school, go to the site Mid-Ohio Racing and Select the pull down "The School" and go to "Video Clips". Then, select the "School" video.)
So, on March 24th, I woke up at the crack of dawn (6am) and left for my 3 hour drive. Apparently, the track is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Mennonites (buggies and all). Anyway, I got to the track and went into the classroom and waited. After a bit, the other 9 drivers showed up. Two were older than me, from Cincinnati. Two of them were ditsy girls who didn't even know how to drive a stick. I'm guessing that their dads paid for this course to make them better drivers. The rest of the drivers were wannabe race car drivers. The whole day, all they talked about was how cool their cars were and what kind of cars they thought were best and what cars they had driven and how fast they drove those cars. I think they all liked cars, just a little bit.
So, we met our instructors: Tommy Byrne (formula one racer), Adam Wright, and Dave Roush. They had all been or were currently race cars drivers. So, we introduced ourselves and talked about the cars we drove and any accidents that we had been involved with. The instructors were very easy to talk to and knew their stuff.
Then the classroom part started. It was quick and to the point. They didn't want to waste our time talking too much. More driving and less talk was the motto. Excellent. The one thing I did learn was tires. They are the most important feature on the car. Buy good tires.
Ok, we then went out and meet our cars: Acura TSX A-spec with some race mods and a roll cage and 5-point harness. Cool. Each person had their own car for the whole day. We drove out to the track and got setup for the slalom. They had setup a 12 cone slalom with a quick 90 degree turn at the end. We had to take off and get into second gear very quickly and then run the cones as fast as possible. Man, we were flying. We ran this for about 30 minutes. I think I did pretty well. I never knocked down a cone at least. Hmm, maybe I didn't go fast enough.
Then, we setup for our next task. Tommy jumped in my car and i got into the passenger seat, and he took off. I got up to 3rd gear at 60 mph in about 6 seconds going straight into a very tight turn. And, then, way too late for my tastes, he hit the brakes as hard as he could and turned into the curve to stop. It was then our turn. Let me tell you, it was very hard to go that fast and wait long enough to brake. We definitely tested the anti-locking brakes that day. It was a blast.
Our last task that morning was the skid car. The skid car was awesome! It was a Civic that had a structure around it that had four caster wheels sitting on the corners of the structure. Basically, it made the car feel like it was on ice. A drift car! Sliding around corners was so much fun! Some people were really bad and couldn't keep the car from doing 360s. It was fun to spin the car. Although, i don't think I could take a lot of the spinning too much. It gets you quite dizzy.
Lunchtime (boring, more driving please)
Then, they set up a quick tight course with many cones around the track. We just kept driving the course and getting faster and faster. This was the most fun we had on the track. Lots of tight turns and quick accelerations to about 50 mph.
More skid car.
Next, we did actually laps on the oval track. Got up to 70mph. This was a lot harder than it looked. We were a little scared because someone had slid off the track earlier and almost hit the wall. This would be bad. $5000 bad. (deductible)
And now we were at the end of the day. As a bonus, we got to drive one lap on the whole race track. Got up to 40mph. They made us take it easy :(
Day end. Oh well. I had a blast. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done.
P.S. Mom, Dad, Sarah, ... I want to be a race car driver. :)
So, on March 24th, I woke up at the crack of dawn (6am) and left for my 3 hour drive. Apparently, the track is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Mennonites (buggies and all). Anyway, I got to the track and went into the classroom and waited. After a bit, the other 9 drivers showed up. Two were older than me, from Cincinnati. Two of them were ditsy girls who didn't even know how to drive a stick. I'm guessing that their dads paid for this course to make them better drivers. The rest of the drivers were wannabe race car drivers. The whole day, all they talked about was how cool their cars were and what kind of cars they thought were best and what cars they had driven and how fast they drove those cars. I think they all liked cars, just a little bit.
So, we met our instructors: Tommy Byrne (formula one racer), Adam Wright, and Dave Roush. They had all been or were currently race cars drivers. So, we introduced ourselves and talked about the cars we drove and any accidents that we had been involved with. The instructors were very easy to talk to and knew their stuff.
Then the classroom part started. It was quick and to the point. They didn't want to waste our time talking too much. More driving and less talk was the motto. Excellent. The one thing I did learn was tires. They are the most important feature on the car. Buy good tires.
Ok, we then went out and meet our cars: Acura TSX A-spec with some race mods and a roll cage and 5-point harness. Cool. Each person had their own car for the whole day. We drove out to the track and got setup for the slalom. They had setup a 12 cone slalom with a quick 90 degree turn at the end. We had to take off and get into second gear very quickly and then run the cones as fast as possible. Man, we were flying. We ran this for about 30 minutes. I think I did pretty well. I never knocked down a cone at least. Hmm, maybe I didn't go fast enough.
Then, we setup for our next task. Tommy jumped in my car and i got into the passenger seat, and he took off. I got up to 3rd gear at 60 mph in about 6 seconds going straight into a very tight turn. And, then, way too late for my tastes, he hit the brakes as hard as he could and turned into the curve to stop. It was then our turn. Let me tell you, it was very hard to go that fast and wait long enough to brake. We definitely tested the anti-locking brakes that day. It was a blast.
Our last task that morning was the skid car. The skid car was awesome! It was a Civic that had a structure around it that had four caster wheels sitting on the corners of the structure. Basically, it made the car feel like it was on ice. A drift car! Sliding around corners was so much fun! Some people were really bad and couldn't keep the car from doing 360s. It was fun to spin the car. Although, i don't think I could take a lot of the spinning too much. It gets you quite dizzy.
Lunchtime (boring, more driving please)
Then, they set up a quick tight course with many cones around the track. We just kept driving the course and getting faster and faster. This was the most fun we had on the track. Lots of tight turns and quick accelerations to about 50 mph.
More skid car.
Next, we did actually laps on the oval track. Got up to 70mph. This was a lot harder than it looked. We were a little scared because someone had slid off the track earlier and almost hit the wall. This would be bad. $5000 bad. (deductible)
And now we were at the end of the day. As a bonus, we got to drive one lap on the whole race track. Got up to 40mph. They made us take it easy :(
Day end. Oh well. I had a blast. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done.
P.S. Mom, Dad, Sarah, ... I want to be a race car driver. :)
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