BensonHsu.com

Well I went to Buttonwillow last weekend for Drift Day Pro… an event meant to train Drift Day instructors. It was a really uncomfortable feeling for me to drive on that old familiar track… after a year of parking lot style courses, I’ve learned to let go of my inhibitions and push really hard. Well, even though I don’t go off course very often in those parking lot style courses, even while pushing really really hard, I couldn’t seem to get over the fact that the Buttonwillow course had dirt and rocks surrounding it. I felt really confined on the road course, and I held back A LOT. Even on my parade lap, I acted like I normally would… analyzing the course and figuring out where I wanted to initiate, in what gear and in what speed… but when it came to driving on the track, I didn’t do it. We even did time trials to see how our grip driving skills were, and I did horribly. I was in the slowest 5 of the group of instructors. I sat with Taka and that quickly knocked some sense back into me… it taught me what it feels like to grip drive on the edge of the car’s ability to adhere to the ground… it was very much like my old days at touge… late braking deep into the corner and the highest possible speed, either braking or accelerating as hard as you can with not very much in between… after that I drove a lot harder, but still not as hard as I ususally would in a course designed like that. I want to go back… I regret not going at it like I normally would. But it’s another barrier that I need to learn to defeat… I’m also going to attend more auto-x events and road racing events. If I could control a car like Taka can… I could do anything in a car.