So did I pay a ton of money to get to drive with Skip Barber instructors? Did I buy a ticket fly out to spend time at the speedway? Did I get a family present of a fun driving experience? NOPE. This was completely free, because of my involvement in the Tire Rack Street Survival School. Michelin, who is a major sponsor of the schools, as a way to increase their sponsorship and support of the program wanted to thank us volunteer school coordinators... and of course promote their new Premier All Season tire by asking all of us to help test the tires.
MICHELIN PREMIER A/S TESTING
I guess now I am officially in Motorsports, as we were considered expert tire testers. They must of heard about that one FTD I had in my SpecV 5 years ago in Grand Rapids. HA. It was a ton of fun hanging out with SCCA, BMW Club and Porsche Club members from all over the country.
This video of their Pilot Demo, is similar to what we got to do: Pilot Sport A/S
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Pretty cool video huh? We got to do wet braking tests, wet slalom, wet autocross course and push the tires. We were driving identical Cadillac CTS cars, each time we drove cars in sets of three, one with a 50% worn Michelin Premier A/S, and the other two with competitor tires. We ran them one after the other so you could really compare them. The results were impressive, and I can honestly say that man that tire is IMPRESSIVE. I wasn't paid to say that, well maybe a free airplane ticket... but I would tell the difference and these things are serious.
It was great because we were also being coached on driving by Skip Barber instructors on our laps. I also got instruction time from one of the Michelin Tire Testers (Sarah Robinson). Track time with one of them, muy very pricey so thank you Michelin! Man they have cool jobs, driving cool cars around the country on different tracks. That must be the life...
Here is their official tire video: Premier A/S
Photos I posted (Facebook): Michelin Demo Day
As part of their thank you to us for being there they treated us to some Karting from CalSpeed Karting. We did an Enduro format, and randomly paired us. We had over 20 teams so it was a full field. I drove second in our team of four, and when I hoped in we were in 11th place, and I was able to move us up to 9th so I felt good about that and I ran really consistent times. If you haven't been karting, you need to do it, it reminds me I need to take Novali soon!
SATURDAY TIRE RACK STREET SURVIVAL
We were asked to stay through Saturday and volunteer for one of the first schools of the year, and one of the first on the new curriculum. I really liked being a part of a school that I didn't run, so I was on chill mode and just mingled with all the families. Someone called me the methodical mingler... and I might have to keep using that. I love talking to parents about the day and what we were going to teach their students.
I had a great student, in a killer set up BMW, it was her dads old "fun car" that he occasionally tracked that became hers. She had some good experience behind the wheel before, but she still learned a lot, and got a lot more confidence handling under and oversteer. We got dizzy on the skidpad, she hit a few cone walls and really increased her confidence handling her car on the edge... and it was hard getting that little thing on the edge!
I did a lot of tweeting on the events, got retweeted by Michelin a couple times, and picked up a few more followers. It was a fun event and I made a ton of new friends, especially in the Porsche Club world, I really like that crew and they really tried talking me into joining... maybe someday, someday...
After all the fun... I had to get a quick dinner, catch my shuttle and head off to my red eye flight home...