Lane Scheideman

This is a submission to the Photo Friday gallery.

A couple weeks ago my Audi dealership (Sunset Imports) held a track day at Portland International Raceway for their customers. They invited anyone who had bought a new Audi or Porsche from them within the past year to take part in a half-day driving course to learn more about their new cars. We took part in both Autocross, fairly low-speed, curvy driving in a cone track (top image), and full-speed driving on the PIR track (bottom image).

To be able to drive at full speed on the PIR track has been a dream of mine for a long time, and up until I took part in this event, I thought the closest I’d ever get to realizing it, would be to drive in the Christmas light display held there every year.

My A3 was amazing out on the track. The little 2.0L-Turbo engine held up great to the test I gave it on the track. During one session, there was a Porsche Cayman in front of me that I was about two laps from passing because I was much better in the corners than he was, even though he could blow me away on the straights. My top speed out on the course was either 115 or 120; I’m not too sure because I couldn’t afford a lot of time to look down at the instrument display. My brakes work real well too. It is pretty tough on them to slow down from 110 to 20 in about 500 feet when entering the Festival Curves.

Needless to say, this was one of those “time of my life” events. Thank you Sunset Imports.

p.s. The above pictures were taken by a representative from Sunset Imports.