Quote:
Originally Posted by GH85Carrera
Back when I was in my 20s I was driving my 914 as my daily driver and winning many autocrosses. I thought I was good. Then I did a track day with the Peachstate PCA and we drove Road Atlanta. I had done one session and felt like I was doing OK for a 95 HP street car. One instructor asked if I wanted any help, and he drove my car with me in it. On his first lap, he was two seconds faster than I was. He was 4 seconds faster after a few laps. I went out and tried his lines, and brake points, and I was faster than before, but never close to him. I knew then, I was not going to be a race car driver. I still have a blast on track. I would love to have a top pro drive my car with me in it, just to show me what my car can do. Not likely to ever happen. I still have fun, and that is all I really care about, and getting to drive it back home.
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Some years ago, before the tribe destroyed the track, Boris Said and his racing buddy showed up at Amago kart track. I was crewing and driving C-open kart - twin 135cc B-Bombs on methanol configured in direct drive. Boris et al. we're driving 125cc shifters. The C-open made mega power right out of the corner and pulled hard through the midrange, so it should have been no worries keeping up through the fast twisty section. While I drove a fast, smooth line, he just flicked and danced that kart down the track (basically just full throttle while whole time, scrubbing speed off with the tires, not the left foot) and distanced me. Very disheartening.
Then, in the pits, I found out why when he pitched his custom Trans Am race-ready helmet on the ground and stopped it bouncing on the tarmac like a basketball with his foot. I drove the kart like it belonged to someone else and couldn't pay for it, whereas he drove like it would be someone else's problem if it went kablamo.
You can see that today when an up and coming F1 shoe parks the car into the fence a couple of times. The pressure to not screw up causes more screw ups. The flip side to that potential, however, are people like Grosjean.