Chesapeake Region
Colonial Challenge Cup DE/Track Day
James B Beavan III
While the Chesapeake region doesn’t directly host/sponsor any track-day events typically, we are fortunate that many other organizations host events at Summit Point Motorsports Park in West Virginia, which from my home is just 1 hour and 30 minutes away at a distance of 80-miles. Prior to this event in April 2021 my only previous experience with my Boxster S on the track was a July 2019 2-day DE hosted by PCA Potomac on the Shenandoah track. This 4/16/21 event was hosted by the charitable organization CCC which raises money for college scholarships. After the 2019 DE I had wanted to return to Summit Point to drive on the main track. With Ron Farb’s encouragement and knowing his buddies Chris and King were going; I signed up and did the required maintenance for a safe track day (brake fluid flush/oil change).
On the event morning I caught up to Ron on I-70 and we headed into Charlestown WV to fill up with gas, where we saw plenty of other folks doing the same thing prior to hitting the track. It was a mostly cloudy day with high’s in the upper 50’s, so pretty perfect weather for a track day. I was placed into the beginner group, while Ron and his RS5 were in intermediate and Chris (M4) and King (Mustang GT) were in the advanced group. Because the event was sponsored by Bentley, we all got cool number packs to put on our cars, which is so much better than ugly painters tape. After the drivers meeting they had an open track session where everyone could drive around up-to 50 mph to get a feel for the layout of the track. I opted to go out with an instructor for this and was the last car off the track before the actual full speed sessions began. In full disclosure, from 2006-2010 I tracked a ZX-6R and then GSX-R750, so I probably had ridden Summit Point Main 4 times prior on a motorcycle as well as 7 days on the Shenandoah track. During my motorcycle days I did around 16 track days before an accident ended the fun, a low-side at Shenandoah where I was run over by the bike behind me. I can say there is a big safety difference between driving a car in a DE and a motorcycle track day, the ambulance and tow trailer get used in every motorcycle event as there are numerous incidents. During my 3 car DE’s so far the only
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