joe ascoli

[brucesallen]

Hooray! Today's publication of Ross Bentley's Speed Secrets Weekly is an article about COM written by Joe. Very nice!

[offcamber09]

Nice props given to COMSCC.
Sign up for the weekly speed secrets email. It's cheap and loaded with cool info.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=1scv26 ... QF3hqjcjVQ


Mar 24 (1 day ago)

to me
Image

Hi Scott. There is no form of motorsport that I don’t like. Sure, there are some that I like more than others, but it doesn’t matter whether it's run on dirt or pavement; goes in circles, straight lines or wiggly paths; is against the clock or another vehicle; on two or four wheels… it’s all good to me. I know some people have their own form of the sport that they love, and they don’t stray far from it. That’s okay. But I will always recommend that people give other forms of the sport a try, whether as a participant or a spectator.

Joe Ascoli sent me the article below because of his passion for Time Attack, a form of motorsport that I’ve not tried myself – yet. If you’re looking for a new or different challenge for your driving, consider a Time Attack event. Over the past couple of years, I’ve spoken to many drivers who rave about the fun versus investment (time and money) that Time Attack provides. I know for a fact that it will be a great learning challenge. And if you get to hang around with people as enthusiastic as Joe, that can’t be a bad thing.

Enjoy Joe’s article, and say hello to him when you participate in your first or next Time Attack event.
My Time Attack Addiction
by Joe Ascoli
I was inspired from a young age by my all-time favorite movie from 1968, Herbie the Love Bug, so it just makes sense that what started off as a love for toy cars and racing ended up becoming an addiction that I never want to break free of.
Image
I've only been running Time Attack for the past two years, but I love it! And after having a very successful two seasons (setting some track records all over the East Coast), I figured it would be interesting to take a step back and share some things I’ve learned about this form of motorsport. Time Attack is all about getting on track easily, working on improving your driving with a race car or street car, and start running competitively for low costs!

I had only a few Autocross days under my belt when I started Time Attack, and had heard some say that it isn't racing because you’re not competing wheel-to-wheel. But let's face it. Whatever gets you driving spiritedly behind the wheel is a form of racing in one way or another, whether it’s against another competitor or the clock.

Soon after I’d started autocrossing, I found I wanted to get on a real road course. A lot of people will agree with me when I say that every boy’s dream is to be a race car driver, and mine was no different. I couldn't wait to get out on track! I researched my local HPDE organizations and signed up for my first track day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with COMSCC. A lot of people will recognize this track from NASCAR, but they also have a really fun road course that incorporates some of the NASCAR oval!

With my first event quickly approaching, I did everything I could to prepare myself. I watched videos of other drivers running the track configuration at NHMS I’d be driving, studied the track map, made sure I had a list of everything I needed to bring, and everything I wanted to bring, just in case. It was a lot of work, but it was also very fun and exciting getting everything prepared.

The event quickly came, and I couldn't have been more nervous. Excited, but nervous. I let my instructor drive my car first, just to get a visual for the track, and get a feeling for the car at speed and my surroundings. A few laps later, I was in the driver’s seat barreling down the straightaway, and taking corners faster than I ever thought possible. After a day’s worth of sessions riding with an instructor, I was able to get signed off to drive solo for the rest of the weekend, and even got the chance to run in my first Time Attack the next day! I couldn't have been more thrilled!

Throughout the weekend, I remembered what my instructor had taught me, and remembered to be smooth and calm, using all my visual points that I had learned. Slowly, I was able to increase speed, and soon enough, I was laying down some pretty impressive lap times.

The Time Attack day came, and to say I was excited is an understatement. You have three laps to show what you’ve learned, with the main focus being safety. Spin, or go off, and you are disqualified. This was something I did NOT want to happen at my first Time Attack, so I made sure to keep it within means. Those three laps went by very fast (no pun intended), and before I knew it, I was accepting my 1st-in-class trophy! This is where my addiction began. Three laps to show what you've got - it was awesome! And the fact that I was able to compete on my very first weekend shocked me. But all it took was attentive listening, applying what I was learning, and proving that I could be safe behind the wheel with other drivers on track.

Time Attack is quickly growing across the U.S., with events popping up all over. There are a few different variations of the rules; some organizations, such as COMSCC, give you three laps to lay down a fast time. Other organizations, such as Global Time Attack, NASA, and NARRA, give you full sessions to lay down that quick lap.

Regardless of whom you choose to run with, you will need some experience to be able to compete in Time Attack. This is as easy as researching your local HPDE organizer and signing up for a track day. You'll go through some steps: driving with an instructor, and classroom lessons/session reviews. The key is to pay attention and LISTEN. Always, and I mean always, listen to your instructor. If he/she tells you to do something, focus on what they told you, and do it the next time around. Not only will you improve, but you will also make your instructor very happy! You have an instructor for a reason: to keep you and everyone else who is on track with you safe. Safety is key, and if you cannot prove that you can be safe behind the wheel, you'll never make it to your goal of running Time Attack.

With that said, after spending some time with an instructor, and proving that you can apply what you've learned and can follow instructions, you will be signed off to run solo. This doesn't mean you're free; this means you need to prove you can be alone in the car without causing trouble. Once you can prove this, you will be allowed to run your first Time Attack event! And don't think you need a race car to be able to compete; that's the joy of having different classes ranging from Enthusiast (street cars with street tires) to full-blown race cars set up to run one lap.

Time Attack is all about running that perfect lap. It's driver and machine versus the clock, and every fraction of a second matters. Mess up one corner, and there goes your entire lap. Hit traffic during your hot lap? Look ahead and pass safely or throw away the lap. You only have a few sessions to find that ONE lap, so make them count.

Many drivers think that the progression from HPDE events to road racing is too big a gap for them to take on – at least, from a financial perspective. Time Attack is not as expensive as road racing, because usually you don’t put as many miles on your car, and often your car doesn’t need as many modifications to be competitive as in road racing. It’s the perfect form of motorsport for me, and I encourage you to try it.

To some, it's a hobby. To me, it's what I love, what I think about day in and day out, what I dream about, and what I do. I’m constantly tweaking and tuning the car to find just another tenth at the next event. It's an addiction!

So you want to get into a fun, competitive, event with your car, but don't want to break the bank while doing so? Research your local HPDE organizers and see who has a Time Trial/Time Attack program. Sign up, prep your car, grab an instructor, and get started! Remember to be safe, and you, too, could be out there chasing time on your first weekend!

- Joe Ascoli

Facebook: Joe-Ascoli-Racing

Twitter: @joeascoli
Past Issues
Past issues of Speed Secrets Weekly are available by clicking here.
Sharing

If you want others to enjoy what you get from Speed Secrets Weekly, go ahead and forward this one issue to them and suggest they sign up for themselves by going to speedsecretsweekly.com.

But don't get in the habit of sharing it because that's against the copyright rules - plus, it would be a big pain in the butt to do that every week. Let them work for it!

ISSUE #99
"We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn’t that much money to be made." - Richard Petty
Image

Focus on what you love.
There was a point in my racing career where I got far too caught up in chasing the goal, and I lost track of why I was chasing it in the first place. If the old saying about the journey being more important than the destination is accurate, I’d completely forgotten it. All that mattered to me was making it to the top – whatever that was at the time.

I worked so hard at finding sponsorship to fund my racing, focused so much on supporting my sponsors, and worried about what would happened if I didn’t have a sponsor for the following season that I stopped enjoying why I had started racing. I wasn’t having the kind of fun that I had when I began. And a funny thing happened (actually, it wasn’t that funny at all): my performance behind the wheel suffered. I didn’t drive as well as I had when I simply drove for the fun of it.

I can distinctly remember the day in 1994, when I was racing Indy cars, that I realized what was happening. I knew that I couldn’t keep hanging on a financial thread, and after three years of trying to put together a competitive program in Indy cars, the likelihood of Roger Penske hiring me for the following season was less than slim. Then it hit me: I was racing an Indy car! Something I’d dreamt of since I was a little kid, I was actually doing. Even though my car was uncompetitive (at that time, teams purchased new cars every year, and there were new engine developments at least every year; I was driving a two-year-old chassis and my engine was at least four generations old, almost 100 horsepower down on a competitive unit), the sheer act of driving an Indy car was incredible. I was racing with guys named Unser, Andretti, Fittipaldi, Rahal, and Mansell. How bad could this be?!

So, while the competitor in me was frustrated by not being able to afford to push my uncompetitive car to the limit, for fear that I’d break it and not be able to make it to the next race – which I had signed a contract with a sponsor to be at – I started to appreciate where I was. Out of the thousands, or even millions of people who want to race Indy cars, I had actually made it there. And even my uncompetitive Indy car was a blast to drive. Eight hundred horsepower in a 1500-pound car that could generate 4.5 gs through a turn will always be the most fun thing I’ve ever done, or will likely ever do.

And a funny thing happened (and this was actually kinda funny): my driving performance improved. The more I focused on the fun I was having, the better I drove. While that still didn’t lead to Penske offering me a contract, a couple of IMSA sports car teams did. And that led to many years of getting paid to drive, not having to worry about sponsorship. All I had to do was enjoy driving. Of course I never would have said this to my team owners during those years, but I would have driven for nothing, I was having so much fun. In fact, it almost seemed that the more I focused on the fun I was having, the more I got paid to drive.

If you’re on a path to the top, keep this mind. And even if you’re not trying to make a career as a professional race driver, keep it in mind. There are times, at all levels of motorsport, when it can get frustrating, you can get discouraged, and you might wonder why you’re bothering. Think about the pure enjoyment you have while behind the wheel of your car. Smile. Relax. Drive well. Have fun.
Image
But Wait, There's More...
I don’t need to remind you that the only thing connecting your car to the track are your four tires. And there is not a successful driver in the world who doesn’t understand how to make their tires work for them. Many of these successful drivers have a very deep technical knowledge about tires – from how they're made to how they grip the track; from how chassis setup impacts their traction to how to store and prepare them. I strongly believe that the better you understand how your tires work, the faster you’ll be.

That’s the reason I’m hosting a webinar with Paul Haney called Get Smart About Tires & Drive Faster. Paul is the author of the book The Racing & High Performance Tire. Not only does he know more about tires than most people in motorsport, he knows how to communicate what he knows.

We’re doing the webinar over four evenings, beginning next Monday, March 30th. That session will be followed by one on Tuesday, March 31st, Monday, April 6th, and Tuesday, April 7th. Each session will be 90 minutes in length, with approximately 60 minutes set aside for Paul’s presentation, and then 30 minutes for Q&A – running from 8:30 to 10:00pm Eastern/5:30-7:00pm Pacific.

You can learn more and register by going to speedsecrets.com/webinar. Registration will close this coming Saturday, and we’re getting close to our maximum number of participants, so sign up now if you want to get in.

And yes, we will be recording each session. The recordings will be made available to registered participants after each session, so if you can’t make it to one or two (or want to go back and review them), you won’t miss a thing.
What do you think of SSW?
Join the conversation on the DriverCoach Facebook page & let me (and others) know what you think of Speed Secrets Weekly.
Got a Question?
If you have a question that you'd like answered in Speed Secrets Weekly, send me an email at ross@speedsecretsweekly.com.