HOME > HOBBIES > PORSCHE 911 > TRACK > GINGERMAN 2
Quick Search:

Greg's Dark Blue 911

Gingerman Raceway - November 6, 1999

It's late in the season and starting to get cold but we had to get out to the track one last time for the year. This event at Gingerman Raceway was sponsored by Speed Trial USA. Being November in Michigan it was pretty cold. We weren't fortunate enough to get some of the unusually warm weather we had the previous week.

Lily came along again this time driving my 1999 Boxster as well as Jason in his 1999 Boxster with brand spanking new Yokohama A032Rs. Shawn also joined us as the only other person I knew previously that attended. Once again I was driving the 911 with the Bridgestone S0-2s on it. I'm still running Pagid pads which had almost 50% of the pad left even after several events.

My lap times improved considerably this time. I was doing better than my previous fastest lap at this track on all laps I didn't ecnounter any traffic on. Most of my laps were in the 1:48 to 1:50 range with my best being 1:48.40. Jason was really flying this time with many laps in the 1:45 to 1:46 range, with his best lap an astounding 1:43.28! I'm sure it's the tires! I timed Lily with a stopwatch during one of her sessions and her times were in the 2:02 to 2:09 range with her best lap being 2:02.50. I'm sure she had some faster laps during one of the later sessions.

I went on a few laps with Jason behind the wheel of his Boxster and the difference in the handling was astounding! The car gripped amazingly well! He was able to pull quite a bit more speed through the corners and the car felt stable at all times. I need to upgrade to these tires in my 911!

Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

A couple nice cars. Ray's '95 C4 and an '82 930.

Another shot of Ray's car, which I rode in for a couple frightening laps.

A shot of our little group of cars parked along the side.

When I grow up I wanna be just like Shawn.

A close-up of Shawn's 944 Turbo.

We met several great people that day, including Michael Goldwater who took these wonderful pictures of our group around the paddock and on the track! I'm thankful he allowed me to post these here as they are great pictures.
Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

Here's the whole gang hanging out between sessions.

Lily on the track just past corner 1.

Greg on the track just past corner 1.

I now see why my handling sucks. Look at all that body roll!

Great shot of Jeremy in his RS America braking into corner 1.

Another shot of Jeremy. I can't tell where this was..

Group portrait: Jeremy, Lily, Jason, Me and Mike.

Shot of Lily and myself.

Lily driving my Boxster through the pits.

I didn't take too many pictures of cars around the paddock, but I did catch a few shots of cars in the Intermediate run group as they passed the flag station on the main straight. Please drop me a line if any of these pictures are of your car.
Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

Here's Jason in his Boxster.

Lily in my Boxster.

Here's a shot of the very fast 930.

An Audi A4?

A white Neon.

A red Neon.

The camera did remain in the car most of the day so I caught some pictures of me passing other cars, and plenty of shots of other cars passing me. *SIGH* I also did catch a couple shots of cars running off the track. There were more cars doing "off track excursions" at this event than I've ever seen before!
Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

Oh look, there's Lily!

And now I'm passing Lily.

Then here's Jason passing me! Grrrr.

I'm hoping this Neon will allow me to pass at the next straight.

Passing a bright red Miata.

An RX-7 pointing me to pass.

And here's Shawn passing me like I'm standing still!
Here is some in-car video of me taking a lap around Gingerman. I chose this one because my line was pretty good and it was the middle of the day so the lighting was pretty good.

QuickTime Movie - Approx. 8.2M
RealVideo - 56K modem or faster stream (1 minute 54 seconds)


And finally, even though my friend John didn't come to this event, someone else stepped up to the plate to make things "interesting." In this case a Saturn lost it in corner 9 and slid off the track sideways. Once on the grass the wheels caught some dirt and the car flipped a couple times. The car was pretty messed up and the driver and passenger were shaken up and were taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

Besides this car, I saw several cars lose it and run off into the grass. Luckily the rest of them managed to go off straight and were able to just drive back onto the track with no damage.

Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

Here is the Saturn just after it was driven back to the paddock.

Jason checking out the damage.

A close-up view of the driver side which seemed to take the brunt of the impact.

A view of the driver side from the back.

There was another driver meeting after lunch where we got a stern lecture on driving safely.

Jason and others huddled around the car listening to the driver meeting.

Here's an Integra going off the track in corner 5.

The Integra did come to a stop safely.

Here's a shot of a Saturn going off right in front of me in turn 1.
I did get most of the Saturn going off on video. Watch the car get loose just past the turn and go off straight into the grass.

QuickTime Movie - Approx. 800K
RealVideo - 56K modem or faster stream (12 seconds)