Participating in the Masami Meeting for the sixth time: Doing my best to use the front tire

This is my sixth time taking part in Masami Kageyama's driving lesson.

In May 2025, I once again found myself early in the morning near Tsukuba Circuit, filling up my car with gas, preparing for something.

This will be my sixth time participating in the Masami Meeting, where Masami Kageyama is the instructor.

This is the sixth time already.

It's gone by so quickly that I'm even surprised at myself, but I get so much out of the Masami Meetings that I really enjoy attending them every time.

The day began with over an hour of lectures, and no matter how many times I listen to the lectures, my level of understanding is always different.

This year marks the 22nd year of the Masami Meeting, and I think it's truly amazing that Kageyama has been speaking about this ``core aspect of mastering driving'' for 22 years.

I think that for anyone who has done some sporty driving, it's well worth listening to this at least once (or rather, it's better to listen to it multiple times).

On the other hand, for those who have never participated in sports driving or driving lessons, the content may seem like they "don't understand what is being said" after hearing it just once.

I have also participated in driving lessons in the past and listened to this lecture many times, and my understanding has finally deepened.

After completing the classroom lessons, the first step will be lessons at the Tsukuba Circuit Gymkhana course.

My Black Carrera in the pastThere were two brake failures.Therefore, always check for brake fluid leaks before starting the journey.

This time, the black CarreraThere was a motor failure in the active cooling air flapSince the car had been taken to a Porsche Centre, the brakes had been checked in advance, so I felt more at ease than usual, but I still decided to check it myself before driving it just to be sure.

The black Carrera has a lot of breakdowns (lol).

We check to make sure there are no signs of fluid leakage in this whitened area (this white fluid was specially applied so that we could visually check for fluid leakage ourselves).

At the Masami Meeting, before driving, yellow tape is wrapped around the 12 o'clock position on the steering wheel.

During this driving lesson, the yellow tape is a useful indicator to quickly check whether I am turning the steering wheel properly as instructed.

In a certain situation, when you turn the steering wheel, this yellow should be at the 12 o'clock position, but when I actually drove, if this yellow was exactly at the 12 o'clock position, I was happy and said "I did it!"

I have been taught many times in lectures that "it is important to do this" and I think "I see, I get it, I get it!", but when I actually run, I still can't put it into practice.

Still, I feel like I'm improving at least a little each time I participate.

After the morning driving lesson, it was time for lunch and we were given our lunch boxes. However, the lunch we were given this time had a black lid, which gave it a different feel than usual.

Maybe this lunch box has something different from usual?

I opened the lid with great anticipation, but the contents were the same as the usual Masami Meeting bento (lol).

*I'm not saying that I don't like this! I just expected it to be different from usual, and it was different.

After lunch we moved to TC1000, also located at Tsukuba Circuit.

We found a shady spot to rest until it was time for our riding time.

While I was cooling off in the shade, a bird dropped its droppings on me (lol), but I thought this would bring me good luck for the circuit race that followed, so I left it there as a prayer for safety.

I wiped it off after the ride!

Although it was still May, it was a very hot day with temperatures reaching 27-28 degrees during the ride.

At the previous Masami meeting, the TC1000's running time was43.498" was my best time, so my goal this time was to beat that time, but it looks like it's going to be difficult to achieve that time in such hot conditions...

By the way, my goal every time is to beat the lap time that my instructor, Masami Kageyama, sets while driving my black Carrera.

Of course, when Masami drives, I have the heavy burden of "me in the passenger seat," and it's not guaranteed that I'll be able to get a clear lap. He also teaches me a lot about how to drive, so I'm fully aware that the times will be completely different from when Kageyama drives alone in earnest.

Still, for me, "Masami's time in his black Carrera with me in it and teaching him" is a good goal (because if it was a time that Masami set when riding seriously on his own, there's no way I could catch up!).

Masami's time on this day in my black Carrera was:42.025" This time is fast for a base model Carrera that doesn't even have a sports crossover!

As expected.

So, on this day I tried my best again, but even though I tried to drive the corner after the hairpin in the same way as last time, which I had been taught last time and thought I had mastered, it didn't go well at all this time.

Later, when Masami came along for the ride and showed me how he ran around that corner again, I realized, "Wait a minute, that's a completely different line from last time!!"

So I asked Masami, "Last time, you told me how to go around this corner, so I did exactly that this time, but you took a completely different line this time, didn't you?" (←is this a complainer (lol)?), and he replied, "The temperature is different from last time, and the condition of the car (tires) is different, so I thought it would be better to drive around it like this in the current conditions."

Hmm, I see, that makes sense!!

Since the circumstances change every time, it's not possible for an idiot like me to just remember one thing and think, "If I follow this line, it'll be perfect."

It's a very obvious thing, but I didn't realize this during my first run and ended up running on the same line as I did in the cold December day.

Deep reflection.

After being shown how to run, such as "this is good for today," I try to run in that way.

In the end, I still wasn't very good at the corners after the hairpin, so I was no good at it at all, but I was still happy that I was able to set a time that I was satisfied with, considering the hot weather.

The best time of the day was43.558』.

I didn't reach my personal best time of 43.498, but considering the conditions on this hot day, I think I've improved since my last time. I'm happy.

It was a lot of fun that day as I was able to ride again with people I knew on social media.

It was really cool to see the GT3 RS coming up behind me with a tremendous noise and at what felt like the speed of sound!

When I see the coolness of those GT cars, I also want to try driving a GT4 RS, since I have one (lol), but for me, circuit driving is "to know how well I can understand my beloved black Carrera", so I will continue to do my best with the black Carrera ^^

Furthermore, on this day,Loopwheeler Type7 T-shirtI was also shown the doll and thought, "Wow, it's so nice! It's even cuter than it looks in the pictures!!"

Honestly, it was hundreds of times cuter and more beautiful in person than in the pictures on the web. I'm so jealous!!

Finally, here is a comparison of data taken using an app that a Porsche girl previously told me about.

The blue line on top is Masami Kageyama's, and the pink line on the bottom is mine.

*This app recorded times that were slightly faster than the times actually measured by the TC1000 measuring device, so it may not be completely accurate, but I found it very helpful.

And when I compared them, well, there are a lot of differences. They are too different (laughs). I even thought to myself, "What is this?" at my overly hesitant driving.

There's still a lot to learn (obviously).

Well, one of the important things we learned at the Masami Meeting is "how to use the front load."

It is not good if the rear tires wear down more after driving; unless all four tires are worn down, it is said that you are not using the full potential of the car and tires.

On this day, I also tried to put as much weight as possible on the front tire, and concentrated on somehow crushing the front tire, and practiced with that as my goal.

the result.

Because the TC1000 turns right, the left front tire is particularly under stress, which is why this happened to the left front tire.

Ah.

Well, I guess it was good that I could use the front tire a little bit.

However, Masami said that the part of my tire that had come off was on the outside, so I should have put more weight on the front tire to crush it...and used more of the center of the tire.

I thought I was braking hard enough to cramp my ankle many times, but it seemed like I was still "hesitant to brake," so I'll try harder next time.

This was another day of great learning.

Thank you to everyone who raced with us, the organisers and Masami Kageyama!

The black Carrera had the tires changed just 7 months ago, but now it's time to change them again!!

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

Masami Kageyama's Instagram account:https://www.instagram.com/masami_meeting/

Hironori Takeuchi's Instagram account:https://www.instagram.com/racers_fsw/

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