Michael A Riley

Ok so I finally went on my Ron fellows driving school class in Nevada these last few days, and I must say that although it started out very anti-climatic, by the end I was hooked on track driving. What a blast, and that place, instructors, etc are all great!

I have a '15 z06, M7, carbon fiber side skirts and front splitter. The whole time at spring mountain I got to be in a Z06 that was pretty identical to mine. I never scraped, rubbed, bottomed out, etc in any way. The worst thing that happened was a couple of times when taking a turn really fast, tires squealed just slightly...but again nothing hit the ground. (The instructor never bottomed or scraped either on my demo laps....and man was he flying. There was so much force in that z06 all I could do was let the seat hold me in place, and hold on! The guy after me lost his lunch in his z06 demo laps...damn these things can move, and STILL hold the road). I think I've got more car than I'll ever use, even on a track.)

My question is will this vary depending upon the track? The closest track to me is about two hours away, Hallet near Tulsa. I'd love to go out and have some fun, but a little uneasy about tearing up my new z06. How do you track guys get over this anxiety? And do you drive your z's to the track, or haul them in?

Anybody on this forum familiar with Hallet near Tulsa?

Obviously there are recommended track preparations that I'd follow if this comes to fruition, but any other recommendations about tracking your z, without beating the crap out of it or wearing it out?

OnPoint

Hey Michael,

I've run Hallet several times. It's a fairly nice track. It is a bit shorter/tighter than some tracks - and tighter than SM course. If you go into it understanding that, and understanding your speeds will be lower, you should be fine. Take a good portion of the first day just to learn the track.

There are some nice, off-camber turns that are interior turns - i.e. if you screw up you'll just mow the infield lawn, so to speak, which will teach you the discipline of feather into throttle on those off camber turns. But the 2 straights have walls in fairly close proximity at the end of them, so respect the straights and don't get too greedy, too early hot ******* for speed on the straights (I witnessed a very nice - and very expensive Porsche - get totaled smashing into the west wall doing that).

Michael A Riley

Thanks for the input. I've been looking at hallet's website this morning and really trying to decide.. It'd be a lot of fun for sure.

Yeah we focused a lot on steady breaking, not turning towards the apex too soon, etc at spring mountain. I'm almost leaning towards a non competition track rental day at Hallet, just to get used to the track, and then see how it goes from there.

OnPoint

Go for it. It's a pretty decent track. Just a heads-up, you won't be very close to fuel - so expect to pay some bucks for track purchased fuel. Otherwise, you'll be looking at making a drive for fuel which will take away track time.

Track rentals aren't that expensive there - especially with a decent sized group going.

Michael A Riley

Yeah I noticed, track rental rates are really low.

I travel to Stillwater (60 miles or so west of Tulsa) pretty regularly and know what you mean about the lack of decent fuel stations. It's pretty rural through there.

2nd Childhood

I have run Hallett a couple of times when I had a Porsche GT3 RS. It has been a couple of years, but at that time, the track did sell fuel through credit card only pumps. Fun track. I would recommend getting the track alignment. As a fairly new track driver, you can have plenty of fun on the Super Sport tires. Monitor tire pressures. You may want to get one of the CG (?) seat belt locks that keep the shoulder belt tight during sessions. No need to trailer the car. Get one of the tow hooks for the front of the car. Upgrade your brake fluid before heading out for the track (Castrol SRF is one recommendation). This upgrade is suggested in the owners manual along with changing the oil to the recommended track oil rating.

rikhek

I've well over 10,000 track miles around Hallett in both full on race cars and street cars. Here's a summary of my first day in the C7Z there:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ng-c7-z06.html

Here's the racing line:

Rick