I recently took my 2012 Boss 302 to my first track day at Eagle Canyon Raceway in Denton, Texas. To say I was excited about the event would be an understatement. Putting the Boss 302 into the environment that Ford made it for was something I was very much looking forward to. This was my first road course experience in the Boss 302 and the first time I had ever been on a road course. I previously ran the Boss 302 at an Autocross and that was as far as my performance driving experience went with my Boss.

The ECR facility is very nice; if you ever have the chance to attend an event there, I highly recommend it. Being a guy used to autocross events, I am used to having to stand on the course working between my sessions and having to be in the heat all day. ECR has a giant covered patio to keep the sun off you and if you get too hot, they have a cafeteria with air conditioning. That AC is a huge deal when you are talking about a track event in the Texas summer heat. The event kicked off with a drivers meeting for novices and each novice was assigned an instructor that was with us in the car at all times.

All of the instructors at ECR are serious racers and most of them race competitively in the Porsche Spec Boxter series around the country. These guys know the track and racing on a road course very well. All of the drivers in the novice group were warned going into the event to watch for brake fade, and drivers of Mustangs were specifically warned to watch for understeer as well. The temperatures at the track started at the upper 80’s and by the end of the event that afternoon ambient temperatures were near the 100-degree mark so it was a very hot and humid day.

For the first two laps of my first session, my instructor drove my car around the track to give me an idea of what the track looked like and to get a rough idea of what the car will do. The instructor told me he wasn’t going to push the car and would only go about 60% so the brakes wouldn’t fade. Off we went for a couple laps and after the first few corners my instructor commented a few times about how good the Brembo brakes on the Boss 302 felt and how neutral the car was in handling. I had the dampers set at five all the way around and the tires at 41 psi hot as recommended in the track supplement for the car.

Soon after those first few corners, the instructor was barreling around the course at speeds that left me grabbing for something to hold onto in the car. His 60% was much better than my 100% effort on my first outing. After a few laps, we pulled off the track and swapped seats for my first turn at the wheel. I know many people worry about taking their Mustangs to a road course out of fear that they will slide into a wall or crash. I never worried about that in the Boss 302 with the instructor sitting beside me. If I started carrying too much speed, he would warn me and tell me I need to slow down sooner.

The big difference between racing on a road course and on an autocross course is that you have time to feel and hear what the car is doing on a road course. On the autocross going into a corner too hot simply meant a spin or massive understeer. On the road course I could hear the tires squeal or feel the car understeer and back out in time to avert any disaster. I never had an issue with the Boss 302 on the road course.

The brakes held up through the entire event with only a slight amount of fade when I forgot to turn off the traction control. I ran the event with the car in sport mode for the most part. The car never wavered from right in the middle of the heat scale no matter how hot it got on the track. My in car temperature gauge was reading 105 to 110 on the grid. I never had time to look down when on the course. The track at ECR is a varied mix of technical corners and a few high-speed straights. The fastest straight was good for about 115 MPH in fourth gear in the Boss 302.

I don’t consider myself to be a particularly good driver, I will give credit to the car and my instructor for the fact that not once for the entire day did I have to let off and wave anyone by. In fact, we once started a good two minutes behind the pack and ended up passing most of the field before the session was over. The Boss 302 is a very easy car to drive fast. There is no drama to driving the car, it hooks up, and if you get off the throttle too fast, it stays planted. I never felt like the car was on the verge of spinning or was out of control. If you watch the videos with this story you will see a few times I pushed too hard and the car understeered, but for the most part, it hooked, was planted, and just plain went.

My car has the Recaro seats and the torsen differential option. My instructor commented that the seats were very good in the car, and they were. I never felt like my lower body or mid-back was sliding around. I did have to use my hands and arms to keep my upper body in the seats. I came away with sore arms and blisters starting on my palms at the end of the day. Some of that was certainly me holding too tightly and getting too tense behind the wheel. I would like to have more shoulder support though.

All day the only real issue I had with the car was in the last session. Coming onto the front straight the clutch pedal was spongy feeling and didn’t want to fully disengage making the 3 to 4 shift nearly impossible. It happened only on that corner to straight section. By time, I coasted a bit, found the gear, and made a few more turns the clutch was working fine again. I did run the car with the factory fluid in the brake system and the clutch shares that same fluid. I wonder since the car is fine now and was fine after a short cool down on track if the fluid was simply getting too hot to work correctly. I have since changed to high temperature DOT 4 fluid and hope the hit the track in a few weeks again to see if the same issue arises. I had a blast at ECR and I will certainly be back.