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It was with a lot of interest and some trepidation when I attended the Ground School 10/09/2009 at the Infineon Raceway to prepare for the student race day on 10/10/2009. I've heard many things about Infineon and even though having fun was stressed so was the seriousness of the course. Our cars were teched and stickered that night and we got a drive around the track to help familiarize us with the course but I can tell you it looks entirely different from the windshield of your car going fast than it does from the window of a Suburban going 15 mph. Still the tips and suggestions that were made came in handy the next day and were much appreciated by all. Race day is a whole new experience and to top off the stomach butterflies the students were on the track first. My morning instructor, Andrew Forrest, took me around the track twice to familiarize me with the course and then turned the car, and his well being, over to me. I can't say enough about the instructors, who get in a car with a total stranger, who's driving history they know nothing about, and keep their wits about them while flying down the track with said total stranger and coach them through every turn. Although I was there to find out more about my cars' handling I was a little disappointed that so many people passed me and a couple even lapped me. Andrew sensed my let down and strapped me in his spec Boxster and took me out on his next run and watching him drive through the apex's really put it all together for me and on my next morning run I hit most of them just right picking up speed and having fewer cars pass me. Thank you Andrew for the ride and putting it all together for me that morning. My afternoon instructor Litko Chan went over my morning progress and we discussed my goals. After my first afternoon laps, in which I was now passing cars, some of them much faster than mine, Litko had fine tuned entrances, apex's and exits so I had picked up a lot of confidence in my car, myself and my speed around the course. After my first laps of the morning I was in the habit of lining my car up on the grid in the last positions because so many cars had lapped me and I didn't want to slow them down, but when I went to the grid for my last afternoon run Litko told me to get up in the front "you're faster than these cars so get up there." He set a higher goal for me on those final runs showing the value of having a teacher who knows what he is doing and I didn't disappoint him or myself as only one car passed me and I had a blast finally knowing what I was capable of and what my 986 was capable of. I'm sure my Boxster has more talent than I do and has some qualities about it that I've yet to uncover but I can't say enough about how exhilarating it was to drive a car so wonderfully engineered that I can drive it to the market, then put a number on it and drive it at high speed on the track without any modification. I had planned on taking more photo's but we had a very fast day and I was only able to break away for enough time to capture Chris Zang coming into turn 11.
