Someone on another forum posted a pic in front of a rock with Palmer Motorsports Park carved in it. I had never heard of it and googled it. Opened in 2015. Turns out they had a Arrive 'N Drive HPDE ( High Performance Driving Experience). You just show up, rent their cars and use their helmets and communicators. Mary (wife) and I did the A&D on Friday.
Here is the entrance rock.
It is a 2.5 mile road course blasted into a Mountain top about 20 miles NE of Springfield Ma. It is owned by a Sugar Daddy. It was 32 million dollars just for the blasting! Its like a golf club only for car nuts. There are two membership levels: 15 and 25 K$ Initiation fee and 3-4k$ in annual dues. They use these Arrive N Drives as a loss leader to promote the sport.
There are a lot of elevation changes.
We were looking forward to a glorious fall foliage day on 9/29/23 like the pic above. On Tues, the forecast was blue sky and 62 degrees. Purf! One Wed, the forecast was .2" rain starting mid afternoon. Could be better but ok. On Wed, the forecast was .8" starting at noon. Half the day wrecked. On Thurs. the forecast was 1.8" starting at 7 am. On Fri at 7 am it was raining and the forecast was 2.3".
We arrived at 8:30 for a 9 am drivers meeting. This was the parking lot. It was the lightest rain of the day. Mary was NOT happy!
We went to the food tent and ordered egg and bacon sandwiches. We talked to the corner workers. They took enjoyment in telling us that the door window was removed for safety reasons, so rain would becoming in the windows. Yucko!
The most important subject was passing. The lead car owns the line, and you point out the window which side you want to be passed on, and then slow down slightly to be overtaken. I wasnt passed often but I did remember on snowmobiles you liked to be waved by quickly. Four times, I had guys come up on me quickly and waved them by on the next straight.
We were to do four 1/2 hr sessions in modified Mazda Miatas with Instructors in the passenger seats. Our Instructors were paid for with track time in their personal cars for the other half hour gap. The engines were stock, about 110 hp, but had upgraded tires, brakes, shocks and roll cage. Seats were deep form fitting fiberglass tubs.
Here are a few shots in the garage.
Six inches of water pooled in the entry road tunnel underneath the track.
The first session was really just learning which way the next corner was. We had the defrosters and windshield wipers on max. It took me about five laps to remember the corner order. There were deep puddles covering about of the quarter of the track entering both turns one and two which alter line selection. Hundreds of other hydro plane puddles everywhere. As if the rain wasnt enuff, most corners had extraordinarily late apexs or hidden apexs over blind hills.
Traction, or lack thereof, was immediately obvious. Too hot into a corner and you start understeering and head to the outside screwing up your line for the next two corners But the lack off grip soon became routine and you could deal with it. Both Mary and I were well matched to our instructors. Mine was a late 40s Software engineer who got into me being a Mech Eng writing control software for aircraft anti skid control systems. We bonded over the need for tire grip. Last half of the session was learning the best line. At Turn 7 around a downhill off to on camber turn, I added light brake and I blurted out over the communicator, " I felt the weight transfer that time as the front tire stuck. The Instructor said, " I am so pleased to here you say that". As instructed I was doimg light toe braking to put more weight on the front end to stop it from sliding out... and it worked!
Marys Instructor owned an IT Services Company for small business. If you are wondering what the common denominator is, it is to race cars, you need money, so you need a good job and a lot of track time both. Our Instructors were getting paid for in track time between our sessions. The Drivers meeting leader had 10,000 laps at Palmer. My Instructor had 8000 laps. Marys guy had 1000 laps. We put in ~40 laps on the day.
I thought Mary was going to refuse to go out for session 1. She came back from the first session with a big smile on her face I so knew we were good for the rest of the day. And water, for the most part, was not coming in the open windows.
During the half hour break, we heard crash stories from the instructors. The favorite was a guy who bought a McLaren Supercar and spun it on the front "straight" at 106 mph. Also, a guy was there today that had a NASCAR Cup car, which are notourisly finnicky and only made on lap in the rain. It was odd in that when he pulled down the track on-ramp, with his distinctive exhaust roar, everyone was drawn to the window to look. Clearly, a mating call for a certain class of men. The last time I saw this was a friend birthday party when someone started his Holden Chevy SS and all the men migrated mindlessly to the car.
During the first break, it started raining harder. The Turn 1 pond now covered half the track with water running across the entire track. The T2 pond now covered the entire track and was about an inch deep. The cars would jump about 6 inches usually to the left when going thru the ponds. My guy, Jeff, told me they usually try keep us within six inches of the optimal line but he would settle for +/- three feet today.
We focused on the T3, T4, T5 complex this session. It was unique in that the T4 exit was one of two "sacrificial" corners. You go slower thru the corner to set up the next one. This set you up for an optimal T5 exit to one of the few straights on the course.
I broke the rear end free a couple of time but caught it in time. Jeff told me I was connecting the lines in sequential corners much better. Mary spun out in T4. Mary drove into the grass to turn around but got stuck and had to back out. 😂. Mary had two perfect laps in a row on line. We missed the checkered flag for "pit out" and got an extra lap while all the flaggers black flagged us. Jeff waved to them.
Next up was lunch at the food tent. Natch, started raining harder. During the instructor session we lost an driver into a tire wall. He ran out of talent and only hurt his pride.
The T1 pond now covered the complete track and was about two inches deep and the T2 pond was about three inches deep. Exiting the pits we followed a Dodge Charger thru the T2 pond. He threw 8 ft high rooster tails out each side of the car and cleared a dry-ish path for us. Jeff and I immediately burst out laughing. For the rest of the run, Jeff kept mumbling "This is epic" and "I have never seen it this bad." And for a new wrinkle,the highest four corners were now fogged in.
I started "getting greedy" on corner exit by too much throttle too soon which resulted in me breaking the rear end free and losing pace. Jeff said it time too work on "track out" where you drift wide on corner exit. This involved straightening the car out sooner while simultaneously gently adding throttle. This helped alot. He also pointed out that we were right on the edge of side loading and I could manage it modulating the throttle to change the fore/ aft weight distribution. I tried it and it worked! Whoo hoo! Jeff said I had "nice gentle inputs". I said, being a dirt biker, no one had ever said that to me before.
During the Instructor session, there were two off track excursions and one car came back on the hook. More damaged pride.
It was raining even harder for the last session. T1 and T2 ponds completely covered the track and were about four inches deep. The highest eight corners were now fogged in. What next? ... lightening? More mumbling from Jeff. One time during thru the T1 pond, my car jumped about 18" to the left. Must not have hit straight. I just kept working on my new found weigh transfer skills and "track out" lines.
As we got out of the car, Jeff said I did great. He said he could tell during the second session where I found my confidence and started driving fast. I told him I was glad it was so wet as I would not have learned as much if it was dry. He agreed and said to come back when it was dry. We plan to. In spite of the rain, it was a lot of fun.
It rained 2.8" from 6 am to 6 pm. But we were both more confident driving home in the rain. The track was far more challenging.
Here is a five minute instruction vid for PMP. The track is unique and challenging
Watch for the orange cones at each corner signifying:
"Track In" (turn in from outer edge of track toward the apex),
" Apex" , ( close to the inside edge of the track)
"Track Out" ( should be at the outer edge and finished turning)
Sounds like a lot of fun. What's something like that cost?
One of our good friends is Martin from Monster Miata. They sell kits and also in house convert docile Miatas to monster V8s.
TM
$700 half day, $1100 full day
https://www.palmermotorsportspark.com/experiences.aspx?ID=div1
i did a track day in my dc2 integra there a few years ago...didnt like it that much as there is little run off should something go wrong.
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