Autosports track day: Wakefield, 24th May 2008

After posting a 1:13.8 at the track day a month ago, I was keen to prove to myself that it wasn’t a fluke and consistently lap in the 1:13’s.

The weather was perfect – about 17 degrees and clear. No excuses for a dud time then. First session out I did a 1:13.6 (new PB), and a string of mid-high 1:13’s for the rest of the day. I was positively chuffed.

I also had a wonderful opportunity to get a bit of free advice from a pro named John Boston. He currently works as a motoring journalist, and has raced in all sorts of categories over the years. Needless to say, I learnt a LOT with him in the passenger seat. He gave me tips on braking, fine tuned my lines a bit, and gave me some good encouragement.

Now, I wouldn’t be trying hard enough if I didn’t leave the circuit at some stage during the day, right? Well not necessarily, but that’s what happened. The first turn at Wakefield park is a gentle right hand kink coming off the straight. It may be gentle, but it’s still a turn when you approach at about 170+km/h. I’d been testing my braking points, and trying to work out how late I can leave it to get a smooth run through turn two (a 90degree right hander about another 200m down the track). I got on the brakes too late and too hard. Combined with the little bit of steering I still had applied, the back end got very unstable and I started to spin. I tried to catch it, but couldn’t recover in time. I went to the kitty litter off turn two backwards (see pic), but didn’t get bogged – which was nice b/c they have to stop the session to retrieve you if that happens and people don’t appreciate losing track time b/c of your mistakes. I did a gentle in lap off the racing line trying to get all the stones out of the wheel arches and pulled in to see if there was any damage. There were no visible signs of damage or funny noises from the car, so a cheap lesson in car stability really!

On a side note, Autosports (the organiser) did a great job of running the day. It really was excellent. I liked the format too – short sessions (10min) means things don’t have as much chance to overheat, and you’re not waiting an hour in between sessions either. Great stuff.