Third time participating in the Masami Meeting: Tsukuba Circuit TC1000

Morning program: Tsukuba Circuit Gymkhana course

I participated in the ``Masami Meeting'' @ Tsukuba Circuit twice in 2023.

Masami Meeting is a driving lesson taught by professional racing driver Masami Kageyama.

Since it's Kageyama Masami, it's a Masami meeting.

...I don't think I need to explain it to you (lol).

I was excited from the beginning of the year to participate in all lessons held in 2024 as long as the dates fit my schedule, but when I checked the website to see if this year's schedule had been announced soon, I was surprised to find that the first lesson was already being held the day after I checked.

Oh no, I didn't notice!!

So, I missed the first event right away, but I managed to participate in the second event in June.

The morning program includes classroom instruction at the Tsukuba Circuit Gymkhana course and oval driving lessons.

Oh yeah.

That morning, as I was getting into my car to head to Tsukuba Circuit, I noticed a Porsche bear in the back seat.

I usually drive a Cabriolet, but I had completely forgotten that the other day I had temporarily moved it to a black Carrera.

I didn't have time to go back home to park it, so I had no choice but to fasten his seat belt and have him spend the day with me.

The first thing in the morning is a one-hour lecture.

I wrote about this last time, but the Masami Meetings have really in-depth classroom content.

What's so intense about it is that, for example, if you imagine an explanation of the circuit going around Tsukuba Circuit, explaining all the various points like "This is how it is, this corner is like this, and the next point is like this," then the long lecture of just over an hour would make sense.

But, that's not the case.

Kageyama's lecture was something like "an hour long explanation focusing on just the first corner."

*This is just an analogy, so please don't misunderstand that I am not really talking about how to tackle the first corner of a circuit.

However, he spends an hour each time explaining to us the "most important parts" of driving fast on the circuit, and he teaches us about them seriously and with great enthusiasm.

This year marks the 21st year since Kageyama started giving driving lessons, and I think it's really amazing that he has continued to speak so passionately about this most important aspect for those 21 years.

However, Kageyama says that the things he talks about are things he still wants to continue learning, which is why he still passionately speaks about those important points over and over again, even after all these years.

For me, I understood it more deeply the second time I was taught by him than the first time, and now, having been taught by him for the third time, I feel like my range of understanding (the way of understanding?) has expanded even further.

This means that while I might feel like I understand about 80% of what I'm being taught while listening to you, in reality I might have understood about 20% the first time, 25% the second time, and maybe only now have I finally understood 30% (lol).

Well, in any case, I myself make things extremely simply, so when I listen to the explanation and I think "I see," the more I understand, the more I start to think "Wow, maybe I can get a really good time today," and for no apparent reason I find myself "feeling like I can do what I've been taught."

...But in reality, I can't do it at all, so when I try to practice it later, I end up thinking, "It's no good" (laughs).

So, I will take on this morning's driving lesson (oval) with a better understanding of what I have learned this time and remembering my mistakes from last time.

Not only at Masami Meetings, but whenever I take part in any driving lesson, I try not to waste a single minute or second, I try my best to do what I can, ask for anything I can learn, ask questions and practice if there is something I don't understand, and just try my best.

It's not easy to practice driving a car (environment), and it costs a fair amount of money to take lessons and drive on a circuit, so it's better to take advantage of each opportunity and get what you can at the time... That's what Kageyama-san told me again ^^

BeforeThat's what Kageyama-san told me during my Porsche driving lesson (PTX)Since then, I have become more serious about not wasting each and every practice session.

In the oval driving lesson at the gymkhana track, the instructors first give a demonstration run. The instructors on this day were Masami Kageyama and Hironori Takeuchi.

After that, you will practice driving by putting what you have learned into practice, and then you will have a ride along (someone else will be driving) along the way.

By having someone drive, I can clearly see the differences between me and them, or in other words, the areas where I am not good at all.

I understand, I understand, I should understand, but when I'm back in the driver's seat, I find myself acting without really understanding what's going on.

However, on this day I focused on one thing that I had not been able to do last time: "put the yellow in this position" (sorry, I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about), and made it my sole goal to turn the steering wheel firmly.

I believe that if all the previous actions are not done fairly well, then you will never (shouldn't) reach the yellow position at the specified location, so I want to be able to set easy-to-understand goals as much as possible, where you can clearly see what you need to do.

I believe that once I become able to do that, the way other parts of my body work will surely change as well, and that this will lead to something new.

Well, I'm not sure if I can actually connect with the people I have (lol), but I just need to do what I can, one thing at a time!!

Even so, we were blessed with really good weather that day, and it was so hot under the sunlight that it felt like midsummer.

While waiting for my turn to run, I watched the other participants run, but I found a small shaded spot created by some trees in the corner of the parking lot, as shown in the photo above, and watched from there.

However, Kageyama-san and the other staff members were standing the whole time in the blazing sun with no shade at all.

It's true that he usually races in a racing suit without air conditioning in the heat, so his physical strength is probably greater than I would imagine, and Kageyama said "It's fine!", but it was still so hot that it made me worried.

Maybe after driving the black Carrera on the oval twice?

As the staff member handed me the walkie-talkie, he suddenly looked towards the back seat and said, "Um, there's a Porsche in the back..."

I thought, "Eh?" and when I looked, it was a bear!! I was totally groggy. Sorry, am I drunk?

I thought it would be fine as long as I didn't fly away, so I only wore the seat belt around my waist because I thought it would be uncomfortable, but I realized I should have followed the instructions properly after all.

It looked like he was in a bit of pain around his neck, but from this point on, he was properly fastened to the seat belt in the correct way as a 3-point seat belt. *Just to be on the safe side, there is no way to not use the seat belt correctly when using it on a human.

As for whether I was satisfied with the learning from this morning's practice, I feel like I understood a little more than last time, so I'd say it's good.

It's strange, but there are times when you finally understand something after running it many times.

If I were to look at myself now in a few years, I might think, "Nah, you don't understand anything at all," but I still want to do my best, since all I can do is do what I understand now, little by little.

After the morning program, it's time for lunch.

Lunch boxes are provided for lunch. The lunch boxes prepared at Masami Meetings are always like a kid's lunch for adults, and the staff call them "naughty lunch boxes" ^^

Hamburg steak, fried shrimp, fried chicken, wieners, rolled omelette, ginger pork, chicken, shumai, kushikatsu, and a large serving of rice. This is much more filling than it looks.

After filling our stomachs, we moved from the Gymkhana course to the TC1000 course, also at Tsukuba Circuit.

The afternoon program will include racing the TC1000 (with time measurement).

My previous best time on the TC1000 was 44.005. This was recorded on a Porsche 911 (991.2) base model Carrera without sports crossover, with Yokohama Advan sports tires.

My goal this time is to shave 0.006 seconds off my previous record and get into the 43 second range, even if just by the last minute.

But still, I wonder why cars look so much cooler when they're in the pits.

My beloved black Carrera looked even cooler now, and when I was alone with no one else around, I found myself moaning in ecstasy (I'm a pervert) and saying, "It's so cool, isn't it?"

That's right, I checked before the morning lesson, and also before riding the TC1000 to see if there were any front brake fluid leaks.

The brakes on my black Carrera have failed twice in the past, and it turns out that the last time the problem was caused by a gradual leak of brake fluid, so I had them take care to check for brake fluid leaks.

Click here for details:Porsche 911 black Carrera (991.2) returned from brake failure repair

Of course, if it's been repaired properly there shouldn't be any problems, but it always hurts to check.

There were no leaks this day either. The brakes were working fine and no problems were reported.

After completing a thorough safety check, it was time to ride the TC1000 for the first time in a long while.

However, on this day, there was one big change within myself as I was racing on the circuit.

I always get really nervous before a drive, but usually once I start, I get so excited and adrenaline rushing that I think, "Wow, the Carrera sounds amazing! Driving in a Porsche is so much fun!" But this time it was different.

I still felt the same tension before the run, but even after I started running, I couldn't stop feeling a strange excitement, and I felt anxious the whole time.

I don't know what I was feeling anxious about, but I just felt like I was constantly scared. I was so nervous that I couldn't push myself at all for the first few laps.

I wondered if my concerns about the brakes were a factor, but I had it properly serviced, there were no fluid leaks, and I didn't experience any brake problems that day, so I don't think that's the case.

But, for some reason, I found myself extremely scared of something.

Is this because of my age? Am I getting older? This is bad, if I keep going like this I'll get less and less able to run!!

After completing the first of three 20-minute runs, I felt deeply remorseful about my performance, as I was not at all satisfied with it.

Before the second run, Kageyama was with me and drove the black Carrera, but even then I couldn't help but complain to him, "I'm really nervous today for some reason..."

It's hard to say that, isn't it? (laughs) Sorry.

However, Kageyama kindly asked me, "Is that so?" as we started our run.

Once he started running it was amazing as expected. I was full of anxiety after the first run, but after Kageyama's running experience it was like I was given an adrenaline rush. I gradually started to feel more positive, like "Oh, I have to run more properly too," and I could feel my weak and timid self fading.

I wonder if I look a little younger?

It was the same the last time when Takeuchi-san drove for us, but even when Kageyama-san drove the next corner after the hairpin, which I just couldn't figure out, the view I saw was completely different from when I was driving myself.

It's not just the line you're taking, but even the direction the car is heading in that's so different that I really don't understand that corner at all.

However, I was told that it's difficult to fully understand the corner unless you drive it a lot, so I hope I can understand it little by little as well.

Now, with my adrenaline pumping nicely, I entered the second run, but this time I got greedy and thought "Okay, I can do it somehow to get a time under 43 seconds!", and looking back now I think I ended up running too hard, which was my bad style.

I don't have much experience driving on circuits up until now, but I have driven on them a few times (Fuji, Sodegaura, Tsukuba), and perhaps because I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat, I have never gone off the course.

But on this day, perhaps because I was too sloppy at the beginning and I was trying to make up for it, I ended up going off the course for the first time.

Luckily I was able to get back on my own when the car wasn't there, but it was my first time doing something like that so I was really nervous.

I drove so aggressively that even the dashcam thought I had an accident and stopped recording (lol).

Looking back, I wonder why I was being so hasty and forceful, but I think my desire to improve my time (from last time) outweighed my desire to put into practice what I had been taught and run carefully, so I thought that if I was aggressive, I would be able to improve my time.

The first one was so weak that it was a complete failure, so I guess they were a bit forceful in trying to make up for it with the second one.

After the second run, I reflected on my performance and thought back on what I had learned.

And the last third run. For the third run, I tried running while chanting a spell-like phrase that Kageyama-san taught me (what's that? (lol)).

He really was muttering spells out loud inside his helmet at every corner... And since he was panting while driving on the circuit, he was constantly chanting spells while panting, which was just extremely suspicious (laughs).

But!

This spell strategy was very effective, and when I actually tried running while repeating out loud what I had been taught, there were many times when what I was saying out loud did not match what I was running, and each time that happened I was able to realize, "Ah, I'm not doing it right."

This spell strategy worked very well for me, so I'll try to incorporate it next time.

The spell also helped me realize what I am not good at, so I hope I can make use of what I have learned this time next time.

so!

This time was... uuuh, my time last time (44.005) was not surpassed.44.638" It was way slower than the 43 second mark.

The conditions were hotter than the last time I ran, and some people said that the time was not so much a slower time as it was a slower situation. However, Mr. Kageyama, who was riding with me in my Carrera, said,42.293』.

Moreover, this was all while he was teaching me various things, and there was also the additional weight of Kageyama-san added to the mix.

Even in those conditions, Kageyama was able to achieve a time in the 42 second range in my black Carrera, so there's no excuse for my time...

I'll just do my best next time.

At the end of the Masami Meeting, there is a commemorative photo shoot (※I am not included in the photo), and the black Carrera was included in the photo, so I was able to bring the black Carrera onto the course after all the driving was finished.

It was a great opportunity to take a picture of my car in a place like this.

Finally, Kageyama and Takeuchi gave some more talks, and the program for the day came to a close.

It was another day where I learned a lot, and when I think about the fact that the older I get the more I'll start to feel fear, I wonder if the time I'll be able to enjoy circuit racing will be short (how old-fashioned that sounds), so I've decided to continue enjoying racing as much as I can whenever I have the chance.

But it's still fun to hear the sound of the black Carrera racing on the circuit and to throttle it fully and brake fully.

Thank you again for this very meaningful and educational time.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the next day my whole body was sore (lol).

Particularly bad was my left calf (it wasn't a bucket seat so I had to brace myself with my left foot quite hard) and my right buttock (I stomped really hard on the brake)!

Masami Meeting Official Website:Masami Kageyama Driving School: Masami Meeting

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◆Driving school: Second Tsukuba TC1000 run by participating in Masami Meeting
◆Participated in Masami Meeting, a driving school hosted by Masami Kageyama