Test Days are Awesome

Over the past dozen, or so, years I've been heavily involved in organizing the test days the Calgary Sports Car Club has held. When we started them, it was initially so I could do some testing myself, but I never got a good chance to run the day as a whole as a competitor... until yesterday.

Cost me $250 for a day of testing as much as I could. No more than a two or three minute wait on the start line all day - except when we were doing marshal movements. I easily got 70km of stage distance in the day and ran with 5 different co-drivers (focusing on 2 for most of the day.) Shaved 2.5 sec/km from the third pass of the day to the last and knew where I was leaving more on the table. Most importantly... got to feeling HUGELY comfortable with the car and was able to get through the entire stage with barely more than a 1/4 turn of the steering wheel.

Gave a handful of volunteer rides, and that just solidified the benefit of having good notes being delivered by a good co-driver. I didn't time the runs but even though I had been through the stage 10 time by then, there was more hesitation in some corners for sure.

This test day will make me faster and safer at PFR... now we just need to work on getting more power (legally) out of the car. I really don't understand why newbies aren't hitting these days as hard as they can!

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First Rally attended (2000), First Rally competed in (2001)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Driver (8), Co-Driver (47), Drivers (19)
Clerk (29), Steward (1), Official (17), Volunteer (5)
WRC Spectator (1), WRC Photographer (6), WRC Observer (4)
Rallies attended (120) Countries attended rallies in (11)
Last Updated, May30, 2022

if it wasn't for dust in the cab i woulda ran till my engine blew up. so much fun for the dollar. my guess is alotta people like to go for the w hence saving bucks up for rally. im happy to improve.

Really got some redemption and confirmation i'm terrible on snow and ice. my co driver was having problems keeping hos wits the first couple go rounds but luckily my ocd nature had memorized the corners since my off fest.
onto rmr regional!

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All bridges burnt, island life is beauty

The heck with the newbies. Some of us old guys would love if something like this were available sensibly close.

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Don Kennedy

Don, we've been putting a few together at VIR and in fact have been lacking cars. There's a chance another one will be held right before STPR. I ll inform you of future test days...

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rally gods would turn in their graves if they ever knew Lada's were now part of EU rallying!!!

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imnotcrazy
The heck with the newbies. Some of us old guys would love if something like this were available sensibly close.

Don, there were none happening locally to me when I started driving, so I found out what it would take to make them happen and did it!

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First Rally attended (2000), First Rally competed in (2001)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Driver (8), Co-Driver (47), Drivers (19)
Clerk (29), Steward (1), Official (17), Volunteer (5)
WRC Spectator (1), WRC Photographer (6), WRC Observer (4)
Rallies attended (120) Countries attended rallies in (11)
Last Updated, May30, 2022

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turoc
Don, we've been putting a few together at VIR and in fact have been lacking cars. There's a chance another one will be held right before STPR. I ll inform you of future test days...

VIR, 400 miles away, 7 hour tow, 2 motel nights. Not going to happen for me.

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Don Kennedy

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Not Trolling

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imnotcrazy
The heck with the newbies. Some of us old guys would love if something like this were available sensibly close.

Don, there were none happening locally to me when I started driving, so I found out what it would take to make them happen and did it!

When I retire (12 working days left), it will be one of the things I will have on MY honey do list, not her honey do list.

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Don Kennedy

NASA Rally Sport has an insurance package specifically for test days the introduced last year: http://www.nasarallysport.com/d734/rally-test-day

I organized a test day in Southern California the last two years before the rally season starts and like you said it's a great opportunity to get seat time, and figure out what is going to break on your car before going to a full rally. It's also a good opportunity for drivers and co-drivers to practice together. Plus, it can act as a training day for HAMs too!

You can even swap co-drivers, or try out each other's cars, as long as everyone is registered and has their rally license and membership. Same safety requirements as a full rally.

Don, There have also been Two in the last year on the ESPR road.

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Enablers, All of you.