Second skidpan: Oran Park, 30th March 2008

A lot of the nervousness was gone this time around – both because of the people I knew, and also knowing what to expect. I got whacked in the newbie group again (fine by me), and so off we went to my dreaded slalom. I had a good old time fanging through the cones, but it meant my entry speed was a bit beyond my ability for the handbrake turns. I ended up on the grass again, and started to get a bit of a sinking feeling.

I got talking to a great bloke named Kirk about his R31 Skyline drift pig. He told me about how he got into drifting and some techniques, and took me for a run. It got me keen again, which was good.

I struggled early on the skidpan again, but it was about this time that the penny dropped as to what my problem was. Aaron MacGill (instructor) said to me as I left the pan after a run “use less wheel mate – you’re getting all tangled up on the countersteer because you’ve got way too much wheel lock – use the throttle to get the tail out”.

For some reason it made sense all of a sudden. When the tail wouldn’t kick out because I was too gentle on the throttle, I was trying to steer it into oversteer – never going to happen. Then, when I finally did break traction, the amount of lock was sending me around in circles instantly. From then on, I concentrated on small but firm steering movements, and plenty of revs. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and I started holding some slides together.

Each time I left the pan to line up, I’d go for a bit of a fang down the strip trying to choko, but also doing a hand brake turn at the end. Practice makes perfect, right? By the end of the day I was nailing some hand brake turns too, so bring on the slalom at the next ‘pan day I say.

After my skidpan tyres for the rear were down to the canvas, I decided that because they were due for a change anyway, I would torture my road tyres a bit before coming home. I soon discovered that these required a lot more “commitment” to break traction than the skinny standard tyres I’d been using all day. Again I struggled with the understeer until finally I grew some balls and started giving the SR a flogging. The grippy tyres were great fun to slide on – harder to get sliding, but more stable once the slide got going.