First skidpan: Oran Park, 17th Nov 2007

This was something entirely different to the track days i'd done before. I’ve never been a street hoon and so until this day, hadn’t really slid the car at all. I was quite nervous, just because so many people were watching. As it turns out, we were all in a similar boat and no-one was looking at me. All good.

The slalom scenario was a lot of fun, learning about weight transfer and what not. I stuffed up stacks of hand break turns, and went to the skidpan feeling a little demoralised. As soon as I got on the wet donut course, I felt good again. The car broke traction with ease, and after a few laps, I was minimising my spins and getting a good feel of what was involved.

The courses got progressively more elaborate, and so I routinely spun or understeered off the skidpan. As it turns out, I simply wasn’t being aggressive enough with the throttle. I went for a run with the old owner, Mitch, and things started to make a bit more sense. I pulled off a few skids before the day was out, and left feeling a bit more encouraged.

In hindsight, the locked diff certainly wasn't ideal for a newbie either. It required a bit more commitment than I was giving, and so it just made life hard for me until I had the guts to give it some stick.