Riding with The Champ
by John MontgomeryLast fall the FLU Atlanta Chapter and the Georgia Alfa Romeo Club joined forces to rent the "Little Talladega" 1.2 mile road race track for a Saturday time trial event. The repaved 9 turn road course is near the famous Alabama high speed oval. Near the end of the day I was invited by three time SCCA Solo II National Champion Steve Hoelscher for a few demonstration laps. I jumped at the chance to ride with the Champ.
I donned my helmet and buckled into passenger side of the title winning car, while Steve revved the 1500cc fuel injected motor and waited for the starter marshal's green flag. We pulled out on to the course and ran a warm up lap, which was quicker than my fastest time of day. Steve showed me the line and braking points as we finished the lap… Then all hell broke loose.
Steve hustled the car down the front straight and ran flat out into turn
one, the 270 degree carrousel. I have spun at this turn more than once, my
mind is now racing and thinking, "This is too fast, far too fast, far too
fast, damn there goes my braking point. It's not physically possible to turn
the car in now…, we're cooked". All of a sudden, beyond the very last second,
Steve nails the brakes. The car seems to be grabbed like a F-14 fighter plane
landing on a carrier hanger deck. Violent "G" loads are transferred to my
seat harness. Staying calm, I shouted, "I did not know an X 1/9 could do
that". "Yes", Steve answers, "I am running standard Fiat calipers with
"Green stuff" soft rear brake pads. "No cross drilled rotors?" "No, it's just
Fiat standard issue rotors." Turn after turn Steve drills the X 1/9 at full
song into the deepest possible point of the racetrack's corners, flicks the
steering wheel and cuts the apex with razor accuracy , then powers out of the
turn to the next bend.
Then we come to turn six, the fastest turn on the track at the end of the back straight. Turn six is a super fast sweeper right turn and must me executed perfectly as the car carries all it's speed through the back straight. Over the day one can learn to take this turn faster and faster as the car runs wide left to achieve the widest possible arc. Steve gets a good run off turn five and runs forth gear up to redline as we approach the flat sweeping bend. To our left, the edge of the road, a few precious feet of Alabama field and then an ominous drainage ditch that a many less talented racers have unexpectedly visited. The X 1/9 enters the turn at about 80 MPH, gravity and inertia pull the car toward the ditch. All of a sudden the Hoosier racing tires break loose and the X 1/9 seems to step off the pavement with no margin to recover. In an instant Steve flicks the steering wheel in opposite lock left to bring the rear end back in line, never lifting his foot from the accelerator. Damn, what a move... No way I'd have the balls to do that. I would have lifted and joined the hapless others in the ditch. The car hurtles down to turn seven, a 90 degree right-hander. The brakes collar the car down like a dog that's run out of chain, while the Hoosiers bite the pavement to haul the car down just before the apex. We finish the laps and pull into the staging area once again and I get out with little to say. Give me a few minutes, OK?
Steve not only showed me the line of the track, but the line between a real racer and a wannabe. I guess I'm not a racer.