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

DE/Track Day(cont’d)

For the beginner group you are paired with an instructor and are only allowed to pass when the car in front of you points to their right to go around them. This greatly adds to the safety of the event and all participants. Everyone wears a helmet and drives with the windows down, just like at Autocross. On my first session after a few laps I was stuck behind a Honda Civic that wouldn’t give me the pass signal. When I got to the main straight I went around the Civic and my instructor was yelling NO, NO, NO, NO! From that I learned that you need to get within 1car length of the car you wish to pass and then they are supposed to let you by. By late in the day I got pretty good as sitting a few feet off of people’s rear bumpers waiting for the “go” move. I also decided that for the 3-4 cars faster than me that I would quickly wave them past so as to not pressure me or hold them up, as driving fast is all about being smooth and staying in rhythm.

DE/Track Day(cont’d)

CCC ran larger than normal group sizes, with 25+ cars on the track for each 20-minute session. Overall the extra cars didn’t bother me, it just gave me more cars I could pass. By the time I finished the 3rd of 4 sessions my instructor gave me the green light to drive solo. Since my car is a manual it took me a while to figure out the best gear for turn 1 while also being smooth. Early in the day I was using 2nd, but later was running 3rd gear before finally feeling comfortable blasting out of that turn in 2nd before upshifting to 3rd. Even on the main straight doing 135 mph or so, I rarely shifted out of 4th gear and the Boxster loved being pushed hard. Ron had said to fuel up prior to the 4th session, I didn’t believe him but by the end my gas light was on. The car’s trip meter only goes as low as 9 mpg, so hard to say what the actual fuel economy was over 4 20minute sessions plus a 10-minute preview session. I had enough gas to make it to Charlestown for a fill-up prior to heading home. However, while the crew headed home I stayed to enjoy CCC’s after-party. Unfortunately they didn’t have any BBQ, so I just enjoyed a few beers and some chips while listening to the music and awards show. When I was leaving the Summit Point parking lot that Friday night there were many big trucks/ campers and car trailers coming in to get ready for a big weekend race event.