Lisa Devlin's Racing Diary

Women's Global GT Series Try Outs

by Lisa Devlin

I'm on the plane on the way back from the try-outs at Road Atlanta for the Women's Global GT Series and, as promised, here's the run down. I got to Atlanta late Wednesday night so I could go to the track early Thursday morning and hopefully get a look before I got out there in the car.

Everyone was really nice and the instructor allowed me to go along on the introductory ride around. I had studied the Road Atlanta video daily as soon as I got it, so I felt at least familiar with the track, but being there is, of course, much different than watching.

On the ride around, the instructor gave us some more specific reference points and I was really looking forward to getting out there to drive. After the ride around, I just observed the on track activities to get familiar with what was happening. Overall, there was a very impressive group of women from all over the world and from all types of racing.

Friday morning came early. It started with an introduction by Lyn St. James about the series and what was going to happen next. As far as the on-track portion, one instructor had set a fast lap time in each car and that was the "base time" for that car. Our lap times were to be compared to that base time in order to get a true comparison of how we drove that car. I figured if I could get within 110% of the base time my first time out on the track, I'd be happy.

Jeff Purner then gave us an intro to the cars and the track. The try-out cars were the Panoz GT-RA cars that they use at the school at Road Atlanta and they come equipped with a stock Mustang 5.0L engine. For the weekend, they had set the rev limiter to 5200 rpm. If you haven't seen the cars, I think they're really cool and swoopy looking.

After the introduction, there was the ride around and then we were to go to the different stations of the try-out. There were basically three stations: on track/media interview; psychological/physical evaluation; and image/photo shoot. We had been divided into four groups and my group was scheduled to be on track after lunch.

I found a different instructor for the morning ride around and picked up some more pointers and additional reference points. When we got in from the ride around, we'd been regrouped. There was the threat of rain in the afternoon, so we'd been divided into three groups instead of four. My new group was on track first.

I was very happy with this development. No time to think, just get in the car and drive. We were to get 15 minutes of practice, followed by seven laps - a warm-up, five timed laps, and a cool-down. My car was waiting for me - with my name across the windshield - and John (another instructor) helped me get strapped in with enough padding so that I could see over the hood. John was great. He stayed with me until I went out on the track and filled me in some more about the car.

The car has a crate 5.0L Mustang engine with headers, a Tremec tranny, manual disk brakes, power steering and brand new Michelins. It also has a Pi dash system, so he showed me how that worked. He warned me that the tires would take a few laps to get warmed up, but after that they would work great, and that the brakes would need a lot of pressure so to get used to them before I really needed them. John's basic advice was to scrub the tires on the first lap and to take it easy for a few laps until everything got warmed up. I was just planning on taking it easy for a few laps getting used to the track and getting me warmed up!

The first couple of laps kept me busy scrubbing the tires, heating up the brakes, getting used to the car and learning the track. The car part was pretty easy - it was a lot like driving my 87 Mustang, but with good brakes and lots of torque. The Pi dash took a little getting used to, but by lap three I wasn't bumping the rev limiter much, and I actually found that I liked the dash a lot. I was also getting used to the Tremec, but was having some trouble with the heel/toe downshifting because I was having some trouble reaching the gas pedal with my foot hard on the brake.

Now it was time to start refining the braking points, turn-ins, apexes, acceleration points, exits and shifting points. By the end of practice, I was getting there, but still needed more time... a lot more time.

Practice was over and it was time to qualify. John came over and we did a little debrief while I waited to go. The first lap out, I just got the tires and brakes warm and got focused on my driving. I crested the hill at Turn 11, shifted into 4th and put my foot down going into Turn 12 under the green flag. Down the front straight, end of the pit wall, brake, downshift, follow the white line, turn in, accelerate smoothly up the hill, aim for the tree, smooth transition left, dial it in, brake in the straight line, turn left like you mean it over the berm of Turn 3, follow the curb left around 4, slight lift go right, down into the esses, smooth transition to the left then right up the hill, brake, hard left, get on the accelerator, let the car run out then relax down the straight towards 6, hard brake, smooth right, very hard brake, downshift, right at the end of the berm, put the left tire over the concrete patch, get on the accelerator... oops... the world started spinning, so I put both feet in and just hoped I stopped before I thudded.

I did eventually stop, resting up against the tires in front of the wall, facing in the right direction. I hadn't felt any big impact, so I tried to move off and found I was stuck in the mud. Great... as if spinning wasn't bad enough... this was really embarrassing.

The instructor at Turn 7 came over and we talked about what I'd done wrong while I waited for the rescue crew. They pulled me back on to the track and assessed the damage: checking bodywork, tires, steering and alignment. Nothing serious was apparent, so they sent me back to the pits, checking the steering and cleaning the mud off the tires on the way.

While I waited again to go qualify, I had plenty of time to go over Turn 7 in my mind - driving it perfectly in my mind over and over. The next time out everything went well. I was gaining more confidence through Turns 1-3 (the blind turns) and Turn 12 (blind, high speed, downhill). My shifting, braking and turning points were more consistent and I only missed one shift going into Turn 1 on the third lap of qualifying.

There were still a lot of places I could pick up time - I just needed some more seat time on that track. Once back in the pits, the media was immediately in my face for the interview. Microphones, video cameras, and photographers surrounded me as I got out of the car. John took my helmet and gloves and made the car disappear as I enjoyed the media assault. During all of this, I couldn't get the ear to ear grin off of my face from the thrill of driving.

When the media was done, I went to a debrief with Beau (another instructor), and then went to look at the car. I'd messed up some decals, cracked the front air dam and cracked the fiberglass housing on the right mirror. Overall, I got pretty lucky.

From there it was off to the image consulting and photo shoot. Here Chris measured me for a uniform, Rhonda did my hair and makeup, and then Bill did a photo shoot of me with my helmet and wearing the top of one of the team uniforms. While the driving part was, by far, the most fun - this was a lot of fun too. I could get used to being pampered like that!

After lunch, it was off to the psychological and physical evaluations, and finally off to pay for my souvenir - one slightly used right hand mirror from a Panoz GT-RA car.

Overall, it was a really great experience and I'm glad I did it. How did I do? I have no idea, but I felt I did my best. When I got my times, I found I had done very consistent times (except for the lap that I missed the shift) and my best time was 108% of the instructor's best time, so I had reached my driving goal. They will start notifying people of the results on February 4, so keep your fingers crossed and we'll see what happens.

To send a letter to Lisa, email to devlin@thunval.com

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