1st track day

[Lauren 2259]

And don't forget there is a fair amount of gravel at Donington. 

[VAD17 479]

All right then - on the list for August . Will look at hotels closer to the date.

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[VAD17 479]

Silverstone GP track day got cancelled today due to snow - that's 2nd day out of 3 so far this year. What's doing on? I have not seen much snow in nearly 20 yrs I've been here and now exactly on days I was planning to go on track...

[Lauren 2259]

3 hours ago, VAD17 said:

Silverstone GP track day got cancelled today due to snow - that's 2nd day out of 3 so far this year. What's doing on? I have not seen much snow in nearly 20 yrs I've been here and now exactly on days I was planning to go on track...

It's just how it goes. It's rare that it happens but it is possible, so it's just down to probability nothing else. 

[Deacon 1357]

5 hours ago, VAD17 said:

Silverstone GP track day got cancelled today due to snow - that's 2nd day out of 3 so far this year. What's doing on? I have not seen much snow in nearly 20 yrs I've been here and now exactly on days I was planning to go on track...

Join us at the Bedford day on April 9th?

[VAD17 479]

Join us at the Bedford day on April 9th?

Thanks. Would love to.

But I am off to Brands next Monday and then Snetterton on Tuesday April 17th.

Need to aim for a weekend date now. Will do April 14th at Bedford as I owe a day to a frend of mine either at Silverstone or Bedford.

Hopefully should be no snow in April.

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[VAD17 479]

Right, hopefully now snow on Monday... off to Brands Hatch,

then Bedford again and then Snetteron and that's probably it until the end of spring (apart from going on track @ Japfest, or not - anyway I have an option to).

Considering I have credit from Opentrack from Silverstone to use, I will try couple evening track days over summer (Bedford and Brands are close so I can even go to work in the morning or try working from home for 1/2 day) and then Thuxton was on my "wish list" as well.

Too much choice, want at least to try few more tracks and then see which ones I like more for a more regular outings.

In the meantime had to update insurance with Morris - replace 2 cancelled track days (Brands & Silverstone), book couple more days and also change dates/ TDOs due to credit from Opentrack. Surprisingly smooth and easy (Justin Everitt from Morris even gave me his personal number while on holidays so I can call him and tell than I want to policies rolled into one, and its nice to be able to deal with the same (real!) person I got my first track day insurance from). And at the end I got my average track day insurance price to below £50 per day! May need to do few more days to see if I can get it even cheaper . I have reduced max to £20k as suggested through so this would have helped as well.

But overall its the average track day price getting a bit more reasonable now...

[Lauren 2259]

Don't go on track at Japfest. Best advice I can give. 

[VAD17 479]

Don't go on track at Japfest. Best advice I can give. 

Probably right, not much lost...

Will do a track day at Silly in the autumn then! It was fun last year, really enjoyed it, particularly towards the end of the day with fewer cars on track.

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[Paul 442]

Going on track at Japfest, TRAX or similar is just asking for trouble.

[VAD17 479]

Ok, finally managed to get a dry (and even sunny) track day with no snow at Brands Hatch.

This was a novice sessioned day format with 5 sessions (2x 20mins + 3x15mins) and 2 "classroom" events during the day. It was also shared with novice bikes (in different groups through the day)

I must admit I like the open pit lane format more, as even in a wet day we did 8 sessions altogether (although last couple were barely 10-12min long, but the rest were nearly all 20min each).

Instructions were not particularly worth it considering my 1st instructor session got red flagged due to M3 spinning off Paddock Hill bend and instructor was late for 2nd one (not an issue with open pit lane format, but was annoying to miss 2-3 mins out of 15). Still helpful though considering the cones were set probably for different cars and I ended up braking later and turning in nearly whole car length later on some corners, it was also helpful to be guided during first couple laps as some racing lines for me/ GT86 were way inside the edge of the track.

Had a decent variety of cars, from usual Clios (respect to them, one lapped me twice in 20min session ), Catterhams (both fast and very very slow), Porsches and even Ariel Atom. Unlike my Bedford day when I was pretty much slowest, here on occasion it was difficult to get through the crowd, particularly considering that track itself is very short. Credit to marshals they did their best flashing blue to slow cars, myself including, although I got stuck behind Cayman GTS who just did not want to let me pass on straights (and its not difficult in such a car) and I was not confident enough to get really close in corners to carry out enough speed on exist to overtake it - got me nearly 2 laps to finally manage overtaking him on the inside exit from the Graham Hill bend.

Change in elevations was a whole new experience for me (after flat Bedford and Silly) and very enjoyable, particularly Paddock Hill - Druids - Graham Hill, although I was taking Druids way too slow considering I could not pick that much speed up towards Druids. I generally found 1st (into Paddock Hill) and last (Clearways-Clark combo) challenging and could not get my lines right and got fairly slow exits as a result. Only by the end of the day I managed to "get" exit from Clearways allowing me to go over 100mph on Brabham (you cant believe how annoying it was getting consistently to 98-99 before braking towards 1st corner). I was not timing myself, but Laptimer was showing 1:07-1:09 average lap, 1:10-1:12 when it was in traffic and my best one was 1:06:01. At least average lap times when I did sessions on my own were relatively consistent (within 2-3 seconds) even if I slowed down a bit to less faster cars pass.

Managed to forget to switch Go Pro off after 2nd session, so not much video footage to play with, will see next weekend after Easter holidays.

Overall, good track - I probably like Bedford and Silverstone more as after 15 laps it was genuinely mentally tiring to do more. I wish the track itself was longer, but GP days are so bloody expensive.

I will do it again in August, but will try an evening - 1/2 day at work, then off to track. Its 2.5hrs of track time, so should be good for (say) 4 sessions. Although I can see Branch Hatch can become quite busy and potentially uncomfortable unless one confident enough to hold on the line against some mild bullying.

[Lauren 2259]

Glad you enjoyed it. Brands Indy is just too short IMO, feels too much like you're going round in circles. Not done a day there for a very long time and never in the GT86. I did race there in 2004 though which I think may be the last time I drove it, crashing out spectacularly! IIRC in a stock RX8 I was doing 59's or so. But practice and all that of course. Brands GP would be well worth doing, but it's very expensive. 

[VAD17 479]

Managed to get 2 track days in as many weeks "in lieu" of 2 days cancelled due to winter.

(1) Bedford again on April 14th

Had a good family friend with me for his first track day (instead of cancelled Silverstone), so Bedford with lots of run off and close to North London was perfect.

Had couple sessions with instructor, played with Tiens set-up for a few shorter sessions and most of the afternoon ended up chatting and drinking coffee/ eating chocolate. More like a social rather than a track day, but considering it was first properly warm spring weekend it felt great to be out all day enjoying yourselves and few sessions on track.

Palmers got our their Formula 3000 for hot laps @ £35 and despite good weather it we had I think only around 45 cars (with few extra drivers and quite a few giving passenger laps).

Definitely need more practice getting gears right though. On the long straights I rarely got to 5th and in manual ended up barely going over 100mph (in auto its 110ish).

(2) Snetterton on April 17th

Managed to get a day off work to try mid-week track day at Snetterton.

Its a long way from South London: morning took me nearly 2 1/2 hrs (with quick re-fuel stop) but full 3hrs on the way back in the evening. Certainly not a day trip (unlike Brands, Silverstone or Bedford that I can easily do in a day). 

But the track itself is very enjoyable - decent run off in the areas where you may need it (Wilson, Agostini), track is long enough to be interesting (not like Brands where after 15 laps my head starts to spin) and the combination of corners and straights of different length make it quite interesting and challenging, certainly 1st time for an inexperience track day driver.

I found Brundle and Nelson somewhat tricky and think this is the corner combination I almost never got right in the entire day, always ended up going too slow towards the Bombhole.

But then Coram is just fantastic - my favourite part of any circuits I've been at so far - going at 75 mph you can feel that adding couple more mphs your car will start to slide and then braking into Murrays and getting the line and exit speed right into Senna straight makes a massive difference. Then Riches that you can take in 4th at speed (it took me good part of whole day to be brave enough to do it though) before properly braking for Wilson. I could not get Wilson right most of the time, with too narrow exit not using all tarmac and meaning the car was at its grip limit at rather lower speed turning in too sharply.

Tried both auto and manual. In manual most of the track is in 3rd or 4th, few corners times like Wilson going down to 2nd and Bently straight occasionally to 5th.

Harry laptimer showed best lap at 2:42, although I only properly put it for 2 sessions and think I afternoon was probably better. Well, next time will aim for 2:30ish.

A bit more details in my blog 

now with video from Snetterton

I have already booked few track days in August (will tray Castle Combe and evening session at Brands), but its too long to wait...  need to find some time and company for end of May or June...

[Sighe98 13]

Your Snetterton video looks like great fun, glad to hear you've been out enjoying the car like I remember you saying you wanted to back at Forge last year! It's good to see it from an 86 point of view to, I'm so used to seeing everything from a Mazda's eye aha! I'm racing at Snetterton this weekend so should be interesting. I've heard lots about coram so I'm keen to see it for myself, it's good to hear you liked it though!!! 

It would be good to do a Bedford day with you and some of the others, I know a few of the 86's near me are keen to go on track but worried about making mistakes which is why Bedford is great to learn on. 

[VAD17 479]

Thank you.

Bedford is very good to start with for a novice. I would definitely recommend as a 1st or 2nd track day. Although its long and takes few sessions to get used to (and 2 long straights get a bit boring after a while in 200hp car).

I have got a few mid week days reserved of work this year, so would be up for a "GT 86 track day" at Bedford (or may be even Donny where I can drive up to late evening and stay close overnight).

Snetterton is also ok for a novice. Even though it has walls and tyre posts in few places, I felt that couple ares where you can make a mistake (like car in front of me at Murrays) are fairly forgiving with enough run off.

I would definitely like to do it again, but its just much further than Bedford, Brands or Silverstone for me.

I have Castle Combe on the list next. Booked for August when my family is away .

Your Snetterton video looks like great fun, glad to hear you've been out enjoying the car like I remember you saying you wanted to back at Forge last year! It's good to see it from an 86 point of view to, I'm so used to seeing everything from a Mazda's eye aha! I'm racing at Snetterton this weekend so should be interesting. I've heard lots about coram so I'm keen to see it for myself, it's good to hear you liked it though!!! 
It would be good to do a Bedford day with you and some of the others, I know a few of the 86's near me are keen to go on track but worried about making mistakes which is why Bedford is great to learn on. 

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[Sighe98 13]

Yeah it would be great for them to do having never done one before! We'll have to look into organising something. Shame the Silverstone day was cancelled with Book a track as I would've been there with you. We were going to use it as a test day with some friends and their cars. 

Lots of tracks now have space which is good, especially when racing as it keeps the repair costs lower! You'll love Combe but beware of avon rise as it'll bite you if you mess around to much while going over it. The hundreds of YouTube crash videos will prove that! The trick is to brake after it but you may need to work up to that, you'll defo be able to see how the K-Sports work there!! 

[VAD17 479]

Opentrack has a day at Silly in November. I am planning on taking it as last track day for 2018, not too keen on December...

Btw - good luck with the race!!!

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