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This was really something to see. The paddock was packed! There were Porsche race teams from all over the country. I saw New Jersey, Missouri, Virginia, Utah, California. The rigs were amazing -- $1 million each, some of them. Huge trucks w sleep quarters, kitchens, double-decker car ports, and they'd be pulling another trailer with the shop gear. They set up huge tents and awnings. Some teams had a 7+ easy ups placed together. Propane BBQ grills. I wish I took more pictures. Porsche Club racers from all over the country. Only 3 of us non-Porsches in attendance (all BMWs).

This was also something to do: Advanced DE. No beginners this time.

I confess I was a tad nervous.

New tires = different car

My car got some new shoes: Continental tires, which I'm told are actually made by Hoosier for the Continental-sponsored GT races. They're longer lasting than the Hoosier R6. The 275/30R18 square setup is what the M3 teams in GT class are running.

But with the square setup, different compound and slick tread, they're a whole different world from the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08s I have for street driving.

First time out I hit turn 3 and it was like I was on rails. I laughed out loud, giggling while driving the back straight.

But there the handling was a bit wobbly. Was this tramlining from the negative camber, square setup and new tires? I hit turn 4 and it wasn't so sticky. Turn 5 was fine but turn 6 was a mess. Finally I pitted out and went for the tire gauge.

The left front tire was down to 7 pounds!!!

I jacked up the car, pulled off the wheel and rolled it over to On-Site Tires, a full-service tire company set up there in a truck. (PCA is great in working to have tire service available on their track weekends.)

"My tire is flat. Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Groucho Marx supposedly said: I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.

In renewing my membership in the BMW Car Club of America (BMWCCA), I am reminded of Marx' quip.

I have been participating in High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) over the past summer, but because of the rules, I have not been able to participate in HPDE events sponsored by BMWCCA. And why? Because the BMWCCA deems my car "unsafe" as delivered from the factory.

And what is the exact nature of this safety problem? It isn't a hard top.

The only way that BMWCCA will allow me to participate in driver education events (not racing, mind you) is if I have an aftermarket roll cage installed — never mind my Z4 ragtop roadster comes with BMW factory roll hoops. Understand, this is for a driver education event, not racing.

I raised the issue of aftermarket roll cage requirements on the BMW forums and was promptly told that the death rate in convertible accidents was well documented. Perhaps my search skills aren't what they should be, but I could not find any solid data to locate the said documentation. The data I did find linked injuries to pre-seat belt era cars. The studies went on to suggest that seat belts were the significant factor in auto safety since the 1960s.

On the q.t., I was told by some BMW people that it had something to do with BMWCCA liability insurance.

At the same time, I was able to enter National Auto Sport of America (NASA) and Porsche Club of America (PCA) driver education events on some of the same tracks without being required to add an aftermarket cage in addition to the roll hoops.

In 1981 the National Meeting of the Society of Women Engineers, SWE, was held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. The theme was innovation for the future and leveraged Tomorrowland. There were about 700 of us, including a female astronaut, who attended meeting, gave papers, and exchanged stories of what it was like being a woman in a traditionally male field.

On the second morning of the convention, we had a breakfast keynote from none other than science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451. Many, if not most were eager to hear what he had to say. He came to the podium and, if memory serves, said:

Seven hundred engineers sitting in this one room and all of them women!? Talk about science fiction.

His audience burst into laughter and applause.

It's been almost 30 years to the day that Bradbury made that speech and women have gone from would-be astronauts to command pilots.

The Octane Chicks tee-shirts we handed out at the beginning of the day, which celebrate women, past and present, who went before and helped the rest of us understand that tracking is fun. Today there is a welcoming community of drivers who are glad to have us come out and participate. The majority of instructors were men who gave up their Saturday to help in organizing, running, and coaching this event.

The trailblazers continue to blaze the trail. While some of their names grace the backs of the tee-shirts we handed out, others are on the Ladies' Day program — the organizers of the Ladies Day event and the enthusiastic participants— and some are yet to be written; sisters, daughters, mothers, and new friends we made at the track.

I encounter a real black flag situation

The Rocky Mountain NASA events often feature a red flag surprise drill.

As a novice driver, these drills are helpful in re-enforcing the attention to dangerous situations and what to do about them.

In a recent Porsche Car Club event at High Plains Raceway near Byers, Colorado, it was just about the right time to pull flag drill — the end of the second day. That's usually when I do my on-board Contour camera GPS recording, so my camera more or less recorded the event.

As I was coming out of turn 4 and going into turn 5 ("Niagara"), the person at the corner station was vigorously waving the yellow flag. Just below the turn five bend, where the track drops toward turn six (Danny's Lesson) stood three cars, pretty much stopped across the course, essentially blocking the track. Rocks and dirt were smeared across the track going from left to right. Evidently, one of the cars had gone into the dirt.

Within moments they started to move. My instructor advised me to watch my "six" (behind me) in case someone did not respond to the yellow flag.

My instructor advised me that the rocks and dirt would have to be taken into account on the next lap.

Things more or less seemed normal until we reached the Prairie Corkscrew where a black flag was being waved. Was it for the car in front? Did it also include me? When in doubt, my instructor advised, go in. Exiting the track, I could see in the rear view that the everyone was coming in.

I suspect that inasmuch as we were in the green group, the least experienced group on the track that day, that they wanted to sweep the rocks off of Niagara, just in case. I don't know, but my instructor thought it was a good call.