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And, hey, they seem to headed north of town, towards the Gainesville Raceway on County Road 225. You're right on both counts. They have been attracted by a Porsche event, Brumos U., a one day school at the raceway's road course. But that's not why we're joining them later in the day. That's for drag racing at the multiple-sport facility. You see, there will be a Happy Hour for the students, during which they will be able to go down the storied quarter mile just like their drag racing cousins. We'll get to that in a minute, but first have basic instructions from executive general manager Don Robertson and a couple of the drivers on their trips down the strip, but first, what's this Brumos U all about? Sports car ace Hurley Haywood, of Brumos Motorcars in Jacksonville, came up with the format. Buy a Porsche from his dealership and you gain admission to Brumos U, a name shortened from Brumos University in deference to the state Board of Regents. That's a one-day session -- not a racing school, Haywood says -- in which the owner gets acquainted with his or her new Porsche, including at least three trips around the road course, plus a couple of classroom sessions.
Yeah, Porsches on the drag strip, believe it. Here's facility and operations manager Ricky Robinette on the track scrapper and wife Cheryl getting the strip ready. Not only with there be Porsches shortly, but the facility is rented for the evening by an investment group, whose guests, including one with a red Ferrari, will also use the strip and dining room. "This machine cost us around $60,000, but it's worth every penny," Robinette says as he steers the scrapper, sweeper combination back on the strip.
Now, here come those Porsches from the road course, lined up single file and the drivers are directed into staging lane 2 and the drivers are called up behind the Christmas Tree for a "drivers meeting" with raceway's Robertson.
As he has the class step out to the Christmas Tree, he goes over the pre-stage, stage and green light process. We won't go into that in great detail, because you already know it, but Robertson makes a point to describe the lights sequence. "When you get into this area you want to slow down and roll up real easy." He pinpoints the beams that trigger pre-stage and then stage and then turns to the lights. "You'll see three amber lights count down when you are staged, then the green. Now, don't wait for the green, but count down, one, two and go on the third amber light. "If you wait for the green, you're late."
"So then later, when you're at a cocktail party, you can say 'well, my 60 foot time was good, but at half track it laid over a bit,' just like a veteran."
Okay, fire them up. Plan is let them all get three or more runs in, no winners or losers, but all winners. Cheryl does the honors of bringing the Porsches to stage, two-by-two, as she will possibly do again tonight with the investment group. Things go ever so smooth as pair after pair go down the strip and then come back on the return road in front of the pit stands for another "race." The beautiful automobiles put 90 plus mile per hour runs down the track and as the afternoon wears on we will talk to a couple of drivers as they finish.
"I really looked forward to this, just to see how fast I could get going," he says. Was the first time you 'drag raced' or even street raced? "Yeah, at least it's the first time I could admit to," said Keener, who has a long history of going fast, however. "I am a commercial pilot with Delta Airlines and before that I was in the Air Force and flew an F-16." What was the toughest part of the drag session, after having to make all the curves and corners of the road course? "The toughest part (and accomplished racers may also agree) of the drag session was coming off the line." As with the NHRA sport, there were several ladies taking part. One was Deborah Warwick, of St. Augustine. All of these participants were from the state of Florida, but sessions many times include residents of other states, from as far away as California. Warwick, who owns a wildlife sanctuary at her home town, wasn't aware of the Happy Hour session when she first heard of the opportunity for she and her Cayman, but what was her reaction? "It was the first time I ever got to do anything like this," she smiled. "I would reall would like to do the whole thing again, but this is probably a once in a lifetime thing for me." What was the most exciting part of the drag race segment? "Just being able to floor it and go as fast as I wanted to and not worry about cops or safety. My time slips showed my best speed of the three runs was 93 mph." Her reaction time? We won't mention that, but it was in keeping with a first-timer. As were the others. But shoot, what was YOUR very first reaction time? Indeed, did you say 'one, two, go' with those three amber lights as Robertson stressed?
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