I am no longer a track day virgin. Funny thing was I was watching a repeat of TG on the telly the night before and they were doing a report on the track day phenomenon.
Up to the point when I arrived I still wasnt sure it was such a good idea. My mind was spinning with the endless crash/flatbed/towed home scenarios. Thankfully none of this came to pass.
Being a typical bloke I didn't sign up online before hand and just expected to be able to sign on the day.
I got to the track for about twenty past nine (with Judge behind me) and was admiring the pair of Lightening Fighter jets standing towards the near end of the field. -> http://www.photo-restorations.co.uk/...onrearview.jpg
Bruntingthorpe is a big place and you can see why those airplanes were flown there - as the runway is pretty damn long...
http://www.bigthunder.co.uk/circuit.html
After the briefing I managed to get a cancellation slot and paid my £100. The staff were really great and very approachable. I got onto the track for my familiarisation lap. The paddock and pit lie halfway down the tower side of the airfield, where there was an additional karting track behind the pit. The track was run clockwise. I gingerly followed the leader around for the first couple of attempts - just to get my bearings. Once this was done - I came back in, put the old helmet on and set out for real.
Turn one is a fast sweeping left hander, which later I was doing over 110mph through! There is a lot of run off space and you can run the corners nice and wide in places. This end of the field is dominated by a retired 747 Jumbo that sits amist turns 2,3 (first chicane) and 4
Turn 2, another sweeping right is slightly slower, 3rd gear - feathering to the apex and then pushing on to the short straight before first shicane. Those that have played GT3 or 4 on the PS2 would have recognised the apex cones, sitting just behind the curbs on this fast shicane. Setting it up you drift in the brakes towards the start of the shicane, in 3rd - towards a set of lonesome tyres, covered in white PVC, dab a little harder on the brakes once more then left, right, left. If you get the first part right you can almost go straight on through it. Fabulous!! Then like the follow-through on Top Gear - you run hard towards the apex of turn 4 running wide and returning back to face the really tricky chicane at turn 5.
This chicane - made of cones - is nasty. You steam at it 4th for as long as you dare - stand on the brakes - get 2nd whilst initialisng the first right jink - clip down towards the outer wall of cones finally turning around a left. I found the FWD was a pain to get around this. If you overload leaving the chicane into the back straight (turn 6) then you end up spinning the wheels a lot.
At the end of the back straight (top right hand corner of circuit map) I was doing about 110 mph in 4th - there was a coned right hander (turn 7) shortly followed by a fast left (turn 8) then right (turn 9) - not quite a chicane - all done in 3rd. You come off deep into a short straight near the Lightenings and then pull right - turn 10 into the start/finish. With the FWD you again have to be careful not to feed the power too early as the understeer at that point was horrendous. Still I used power a plenty to bring her round and point her back at turn 1 - as fast as you dare!
I had a great day - I even under went some formal coaching from "Rocky"
He said my skills were good and much of the things I learnt were about the lines coming into corners and setting the car up properly. You get a great buzz from nailing the line and getting the power back down as early as possible. I only had one slight sketchy moment - the likes of which should be evident from the Video - coming soon.
Anyway enjoy the photos. There are plans afoot to go to Anglesey soon.
http://www.bigredvolvos.co.uk/galler...e_airfield.htm
Bookmarks