Drivers School at Texas World Speedway

A weekend at

Performance Driving School
presented by
Precision Auto Sports

I didn't plan to participate in this event because I was worried about damaging my almost new A4. Initially, I thought it was going to be fender-to-fender racing with other novices like myself which brought images of body damage to mind. I was assured that this was not a race but rather a driving school. At the last minute I decided to attend, a decision I'll remember for a loooong time. This event offered the opportunity to put my car through it's paces, explore it's limits and cram my head full of information while an instructor rode shotgun to provide pointers on the correct way to drive, correct cornering technique, correct braking plus tons of other information I never expected. I'd participated in autocross in the past but had never actually had the opportunity to drive on a real race track at high speed. An absolutely thrilling experience. Each day of the 2 day event 4 runs were scheduled, offering 25 minutes of track time per run. Let me say that 25 minutes is a looong time. At the end of each run I was tired! I, and a bunch of other drivers, didn't run all the track runs. I ran 3 the first day and 2 the second. I have a new respect for professional race car drivers who spend hours on the track.

I hear there were about 65 cars in attendance. Lots of Porsche (including a couple of GT2 cars!!), lots of Audi, one Ferrari, some VWs and a spotted mix of others. 7 Audi A4 Quattros attended (6 1.8T and 1 30V).

I ran my SP8000s in this event. I was very surprised how little wear my tires suffered. Looking at them it's obvious from the outside tread they've been through more than normal street use but not anywhere near the way an autocross tears up tires.

Other interesting items... despite running full throttle and between 4800 and redline almost all the time for 25 minutes my coolant temp remained right where it always does, straight up. Oil temp ran just below the 240 notch the entire time. Some cooling system huh? Yes, Mobil 1 15w-50 too.

My friends... we have incredible, very capable cars! Both my instructors, after taking a few laps behind the wheel, commented that my car was nearly idiot proof it was so forgiving. I, however, proved them wrong with an incredibly stupid *gear change* in the middle of a drift in turn 2 on a damp track which resulted in an uneventful excursion off into the weeds.

I dunno *what* I was thinking... I downshifted into 3rd, my brain said "oh, shit" as the car began to have a slight hissy fit. My instructor calmly stated, "you shouldn't have done that" and suddenly I was mowing the lawn... I'll never do *THAT* again. : )

Now, on to the pictures. For ease of viewing, I've decided to put many pictures on each page so be patient while they load.

	Waiting in the garage for our chance to run some laps.
	One of the GT2 cars.
	The bad-boy Audi of the weekend. 400-450 hp on tap with a driver onboard who makes navigating TWS look like a leisurely walk in the park. I got a few hot laps in this beast as a passenger - WOW! The driver, Oscar, was also my instructor for day 2 of the school.
	The earlybirds get the good spots in the garages.
	Me making some passes through the slalom
	My best run was 66 mph. I'm told the slalom record at the track is 70 mph. That extra 4 mph is very hard to reach.




	Me coming into turn 3.