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It was a great ZCON for me even though I no longer had a Z. Sold it about a year ago and later picked up a Z06 for daily driver/track duty. Have only done a handful of events so far but am really enjoying it, it’s a great great car. H2R was much more fun than I imagined looking at the vids and track map beforehand. much faster and I really fell in love with turn 9. Very fast right hand sweeper begging you to stay in it. Anywho, after my 3rd session Luis, Halo, Ali and myself were just hanging out with Steve when I thought to ask him if he wouldn’t mind taking me for a couple of laps in my Z06 to show me what it could do. His response was “you have a Z06?” Yes. “Is it track ready?” Yes but only race pads, everything stock including run flat street tires. “Ok, sure.” 
Stunned. I never thought he would say yes, I expected “im busy” or “im tired” etc. One thing that impressed me is that he is very humble, for a driver of his caliber he did not act like he knew it all. He asked me what I thought of the car, pros/cons, etc. He told me had driven a few Z06s before including the one for his R&T article and found them to be very powerful, good braking, and twitchy at the limit. He said you must be gentle with the throttle. He said that he liked “competitive mode” on the handling/traction program and asked me to set it up. Then as we had some time, I was racking my brain trying to remember questions I have always wanted to ask a famous pro driver, I could only think of these, I know some are stupid but all I could think of at the moment while trying to keep the conversation going…he is not a man of many words… 
How did he get started?
Go karts as a child, then fell out of racing for awhile, got back in with sports car later on and just kept doing well and got hired by teams eventually. What driving schools do you recommend?
Spring Mountain, Bondurant, Skip Barber. What did he think of Johnny O and his stint with the Corvette ALMS team?
Great driver, really nice guy, he is having great success. Not in touch with him though. 
What input did he have on the GTR?
A lot, spent a lot of time overseas helping them develop the braking and handling systems. What does he like about the GTR?
Stability at the limit. What would he change about the street going version of the GTR?
Bigger brakes, the V-spec brakes. But too expensive, around $10K to $20K no one will buy the car then. 
And then we were off to do a quick run with the red (advanced) group. During the warm up lap he waved a few cars by as he got comfortable. Half a lap later it was on! The best way to describe his driving style is just violent, he was either flat, in ABS, or sliding/drifting the entire time, at times just a few feet from other cars. It was hard enough hanging on and trying to keep an eye on his hands and feet to learn how a pro driver handles a car. I have always driven the car keeping the car in a state of understeer with occasional trail braking. Steve was on the throttle much earlier using it to bring the back around quicker and then staying in it doing quick 4 wheel drifts to trackout. I always thought you would need quick hands for this and his hands really move! from the time he lets off the brake to corner exit he and the car are in a dance of balance, power, and grip. it was just such a privilege to watch him work in person. I know I know useless without video/pics, but I had no camera and I wasn’t about to risk losing my iphone out the window. in the meantime he had passed all the cars he let by earlier plus more and it wasn’t until he started reeling in the GTR that I realized how fast he was going. 160 mph on a straight I could only manage 120 on. 20-30 mph faster than i was in the turns. he would gain on the GTR on the straights AND in the turns. he actually passed on the inside of a long left hand sweeper, turn 8, on the ragged edge of grip, all tires screaming, throttle modulating, steering wheel constantly moving. He then came up on Brian in his Lotus beast and passed him on the outside of turn 4 at which point he got black flagged because no one told the track chick it was Steve driving. a blonde moment. 
to brian's credit he was one of the fastest out there and was stuck behind a slower car when Steve passed him. during the cool down lap before coming in he even asked me why he got black flagged and I told him because he passed in a no passing zone. he just laughed. this is the pic of when he came in, she was pretty apologetic and told him he could stay out if he wanted, but he decided to pull in anyway. and of course my favorite shot... 
afterwards he told me that this Z06 for some reason felt very neutral to him and he said it was a lot of fun to drive due to the power. i told him i envied his ability to throttle steer and do it with such speed and agility, is that just from experience? he laughed and said yes. just an amazing experience, thanks to the ZCON SA crew for getting Millen out there and for putting on a great track day, and to Halo, Ali, Ash, and Mad Mike for grabbing the pics used in this post.
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17:02:57 10/02/09
