My father Raymond passed away 15 years ago, but he still lives on in my brother and I. My brother chose a traditional set of life choices and succeeded handsomely...nice house, children and grandchildren, disposable income, all the things my father strove for (and all of which he achieved, sans the disposable income part - that slipped through his fingers based on a few bad choices). I was slightly less conventional...never planned, just took what came my way, liked to work but hated the politics required to climb the ladder, married late and had no kids. Very different from my brother and father, but happy and full nonetheless. But one thing we all share is an insanely unhealthy work ethic. It has brought me satisfaction, accomplishments, reasonably good income, and a not always healthy lifestyle.
Last week was another insanely busy week, because in addition to the usual flurry of sales and delivery related tasks that flow endlessly through my life as a Partner in a moderately small consulting firm, we had to produce a Proof-of-Concept script for the latest release of Microsoft's Project Server. With a Thursday morning departure to Fargo for the POC, I delivered the final version of the script to Kinko's for printing and binding at 4:15 am...another all-nighter that was sooooo much easier at 26 than 56. Anyway, it all went well, and after some additional meetings in Fargo on Friday, Dave (our Pres & CEO) and I headed to Brainerd.
A need for speed
Now Dawn, my wife, will claim that I collect speeding tickets at an alarming rate. And although I do drive fast, the vast majority of my tickets have been obtained out-of-state, a hazard of being a traveling consultant (5 hours or less and we drive to client sites) going through neighboring states in a BMW. That almost screams "Too busy to come back, they'll just pay the fine". Too true, and with the sharing of computer data between states it just leads to a less than pretty automotive "rap sheet". Anyway, we were headed to Brainerd for something not likely to get me ticketed - a Performance Driving School at Brainerd International Speedway sponsored by the Northstar Chapter of BMW CCA.
Totally, absolutely, unbelievably fun. We took Brandon and Dave's cars (an M3-346 and a 545), with Brandon & Dave sharing the M3 and Dave graciously letting me drive his 545. Amazing weekend top to bottom (except for being thrown out of the group bunk bed room to the "isolation chamber" of the king-size bed due to my deviated septum snurfling & snoring). The class was so-so, but the hands-on instruction was amazing. I hit the jackpot and was assigned to Duane Thompson, a long-time driver/instructor and past president of the club. We totally connected and his directions and coaching were phenomenal. I don't have a lot of fears around driving cars (another skill my father passed down to my brother and I), especially fast, so I started out pretty confident right out of the gate (though I was cognizant that I was driving my partner/friend/boss' car). Anyway, the speeds got higher, the lines got tighter and it just kept getting better and better.
Until my second run on Sunday....Bing...and the BMW display shone with an exclamation point in a triangle. Seeing as it's a bad idea to check your owner's manual at 130+ mph, I pulled into pit row and checked the car out. Everything looked great, and a guy from BMW Minnetonka checked the maintenance log and found it was just a maintenance notification. It seems that BMW has an algorithm built into the software that compresses the service interval if you're driving is aggressive. Apparently they consider 140 in the straightaway and 110 in the curves aggressive (Who knew?).
Anyway, we were cleared to go out for the next session and I was totally on my game. Duane said he'd just be quiet and tell me when I did something wrong and he barely made a peep (on my third lap I took Turn 4 a tiny bit early, but I told him I knew that before he could get it out of his mouth). So great to be having a blast, improving your skills and learning all at the same time. Unfortunately, Turn 5 on the next lap brought another Bing and a more alarming warning...Brake pads are below the minimum. No ifs on this one, so off the track again. A check by some of the instructors confirmed that the pad was thinner than the backing, so no more 545 on the track! Bummed but exhilirated by the weekend so far, I watched Dave drive in the last two sessions (he was seriously dominating out there) and got us packed for the inevitable end to the party. I should not have been surprised to go through the brakes I suppose, because Brandon had to go get a set of replacement pads by EOD Saturday. But the M3 was doing double duty (with Brandon running the B sets and Dave running the D sets), so I thought the 545 wouldn't wear them down so fast.
Either way, it doesn't matter. I had an absolutely incredible time and can't wait to do it again.Pics are available at BMW CCA Northstar Chapter Performance Driving School pics (I'm in car D3, the 545 and Dave/Brandon are in car B15/D15, the M3) . My mind hasn't been still all week with everything we've got going on, but when it does have an unoccupied moment, it's right back there, diving into Turn 1 at 110+, headed for the pebble line on the asphalt apron.
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