Day four: Back to Colorado for High Plains Raceway

Today we ran at our "home track," High Plains Raceway (HPR) near Deer Trail, CO. Doug and I had high hopes of moving back up in the standings by dint of our "home field advantage." I knew when I signed up for One Lap that it would be hard to try to go fast on cold tires on a track I've never driven before, but I didn't grasp HOW hard this challenge would be until I tried it (and failed pretty miserably) at Autobahn South course on day one.

HPR has very recently been mostly repaved, and the darker-colored, smoother-texture asphalt is substantially grippier than the previous surface. Our 315/30-18 Falken Azenis RT615K+ work well on this surface, and once we got used to their howling around the corners and their loud roaring/growling noises under hard braking (very disconcerting until we realized it was normal/okay), Doug and I pushed hard—this is what comes from knowing exactly where the track goes, and having done hundreds and hundreds of laps on it previously—today and were both 5th overall in the morning and afternoon session.

We decided to change it up and have Doug drive first today. He got out of the car after his three fast laps and was quietly but obviously happy with his experience and performance. When I went out to drive after lunch, I knew exactly what Doug had felt: that it feels friggin' GREAT to push hard, stay (mostly) on the right line, and be close to the limits of grip everywhere, as opposed to what we experienced at the other tracks: being lost, getting confused and being on the wrong line, missing our apexes, and braking way too early for almost every feature.

Anyway, after HPR today, Team Panda Express / CAUTION ASIAN DRIVER is in 8th place overall, having put up faster times than our worthy competition in Andy Hollis in his McLaren 720S, the Gas Monkey Garage Nissan GTR, and the Porsche 911 Turbo S of Scott and Angel (their car's vanity plate: "FLAT OUT" lol):

Here's am awesome picture that veteran pro motorsports photog Rupert Berrington took of me on-track at HPR... it's just SUCH a good shot. Decades of experience + skill & knowledge + super expensive equipment = WIN:

And here's a great pic Scott D. grabbed of The Panda Express on the highway just before sunset heading south somewhere in Texas...

We're now driving our longest transit leg—about 730 miles—down to Cresson, TX, for three different configurations of Motorsport Ranch. 

Along the way, we encountered a LOT of law enforcement vehicles... A few of us got pulled over, bit so far not us—we've been careful, using the Waze app, respecting the Escort radar detector's alerts of Ka band signals, and keeping our speeds fairly close to the speed limits even on the open highway (and speeding near or within the small Texas cities we're driving through is a very bad idea). 

At one point we encountered a hellacious dust and wind storm... it was so far at one point the windshield was completely "light browned out" ... some other drivers on the highway elected to stop entirely.. .I didn't want to do that for fear of getting rear-ended. In fact, I could have done that to them, as their flashing hazard tail lights only appeared to me in the swirling mist from around 100 feet away. 

We'll arrive at our hotel at about 1am, watch some videos of the track layouts we'll be driving tomorrow, get about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, and head out to Cresson bright and early to get out track walking in before driving... the track walks are VERY helpful in trying wrap your head around the course you will be trying to be fast on with zero full-speed familiarization.