My road racing writing began with a series of articles chronicling what it was like for me to get my competition racing license and take part in my first club races with my ’95 Cobra R. Since the vast majority of people that read this kind of online content are those that have interest in taking their Mustang to the race track or have already, but only occasionally, those articles found a lot readers.

With that in mind one of Mustang On Track’s first projects is to start the beginner process over again with a new driver.

Our 2008 Mustang On Track development driver is Alison Goodwin of Tampa, FL.

Alison is 23 and had driven her father’s Terminator Mustang at two SVTOA track weekends at the legendary Sebring International Raceway. That is where I met her.

Her interest in the Cobra R race car was intense and we decided that, if there was a way, we would find out just how good she could be in a race car.

With the help of Jim Pantas and his NASA-SE region Alison will take part in NASA HPDE ladder system working toward her competition license. Along the way those of you interested in doing the same will be able to follow her step by step thru the process.

In addition to full event recap of her experiences, she will be providing a blog for her own insight on her track experience. Her introductory blog entry is up already. Check it out along with a full spread of photos from her opening NASA HPDE 1 event at Carolina Motorsports Park.

This was one of the very first track events on the newly configured CMP course. Alison was paired with veteran Mustang driver and long time instructor James Ray. The idea is to progress thru the HPDE levels from 1 to 3 and be able to graduate to the NASA comp school which is the next step toward getting a NASA competition racing license.

For this task Alison began her journey in the same back Terminator that she had driven at Sebring. She is challenged because these track weekends are the only opportunities she has to drive a manual transmission vehicle. On the tight and twisty CMP this could create a real adventure.

In fact, Alison was fairly timid in her first sessions on the track. After the instructor decided to keep the car in 3^rd gear without shifting and after Alison requested more direction in where to brake, turn in and get back on the throttle, her laps dramatically increased.

These HPDE 1 weekends can be very busy. There are four or five track sessions along with several class room sessions each of the two days. In addition James took the wheel of Alison’s Mustang for a few laps in a separate session and also drove his ’07 Steeda Mustang with her as a passenger for several laps in another session.

You can do these HPDE weekends by yourself, but having a friend along to help can make things significantly less stressful. In this case, Alison’s father was on hand to take care of the car while she was in class. This included checking the tire air pressures before each session and doing a brake bleed after the first day as a precaution.

In the end instructor Ray had very nice things to say about Alison’s progress and suggested that by her next CMP event she might be ready to move up a step in the process. Between this first CMP experience and the next one on the schedule, though, is a visit in March to the daunting Road Atlanta course. With its elevation changes and signature downhill high speed corner onto the main straight, Road Atlanta will be her second new course in two months and very likely an experience she will never forget.

Sources

NASA-SE
Nasa-southeast.com