Trackday French Style
Discussion
Hi. I recently joined the forum as I'm back in the UK after many years in Europe and the U.S.
I used to live in Belgium and did a lot of trackdays around France, Belgium and NL, as well as the 'Ring most summer weekends.
I thought I'd give you a story that might amuse some of you of a trackday I did a couple of times with a French Porsche club at Croix-en-Ternois, a small circuit near Arras in Northern France,
The morning session was normal enough, with open pit lane lapping. Lunch, included in the price, was a big meal of excellent French food served with lots of red wine.
Everyone was very friendly even though no one spoke a word of English and I don't speak much French.
Right after lunch the organisers started marshalling cars into groups, broadly based on horsepower. When it was our group's turn they lined us up on the starting grid on the track. They then flagged us off at 5 seconds intervals, to avoid first corner carnage, for a 6 lap race. I managed to fight my way from last place on the grid up to second, and it was a great laugh.
After all the races were done it was back to normal lapping. The whole day had a great atmosphere and good fun was had by all.
I wonder what UK track day organisers would make of this?
I used to live in Belgium and did a lot of trackdays around France, Belgium and NL, as well as the 'Ring most summer weekends.
I thought I'd give you a story that might amuse some of you of a trackday I did a couple of times with a French Porsche club at Croix-en-Ternois, a small circuit near Arras in Northern France,
The morning session was normal enough, with open pit lane lapping. Lunch, included in the price, was a big meal of excellent French food served with lots of red wine.
Everyone was very friendly even though no one spoke a word of English and I don't speak much French.Right after lunch the organisers started marshalling cars into groups, broadly based on horsepower. When it was our group's turn they lined us up on the starting grid on the track. They then flagged us off at 5 seconds intervals, to avoid first corner carnage, for a 6 lap race. I managed to fight my way from last place on the grid up to second, and it was a great laugh.
After all the races were done it was back to normal lapping. The whole day had a great atmosphere and good fun was had by all.
I wonder what UK track day organisers would make of this?
Amazing really. All the stuff we have to do in the UK, ofen because we're told it is due to European elfin safety regs, seems to be unheard of in Europe.
Melindi
www.goldtrack.co.uk
Melindi
www.goldtrack.co.uk
Birdthom said:
Was it a phatgixer track day? 
Phack me! Sounds a bit dodgy with the wine etc, but I like the French. They let their teenagers be teenagers, understand personal freedoms and love and live life to the full. As do the Italians.Brits. We have to saved from ourselves! Thank the Lord there are self appointed people to tell us off and set our standards.
Otherwise it could be bedlam, like that nihilistic trackday in France. I bet there was carnage. I bet the insurance company wouldn't have liked it. I bet newcomers came off the circuit crying. Hey, I even bet some miscreants had their headlamps ablaze, the rotters!Or perhaps they didn't. Perhaps they decided how to enjoy themselves and respected eachother and weren't treated like "naughty" iconveniences (nee customers). Imagine that...
I think it sounds great actually, but (in the same way as cigarettes and the nurburgring) I'm not sure it's necessarily a good idea...
Anyway - I happen to rather like this country and think we're pretty well catered for in terms of track days compared to most countries, so STOP CARPING!!!
Anyway - I happen to rather like this country and think we're pretty well catered for in terms of track days compared to most countries, so STOP CARPING!!!
so english!I love the French:
www.thedailymash.co.uk
FRENCH TRADER WAS FORCED TO WORK 30 HOURS A WEEK
FRIENDS of rogue trader Jerome Kerviel last night blamed his $7 billion losses on unbearable levels of stress brought on by a punishing 30 hour week.
Kerviel hid his November losses in a batch of wonderfully fresh croissants. Kerviel was known to start work as early as nine in the morning and still be at his desk at five or even five-thirty, often with just an hour and a half for lunch.
One colleague said: "He was, how you say, une workaholique. I have a family and a mistress so I would leave the office at around 2pm at the latest, if I wasn't on strike.
"But Jerome was tied to that desk. One day I came back to the office at 3pm because I had forgotten my stupid little hat, and there he was, fast asleep on the photocopier.
"At first I assumed he had been having sex with it, but then I remembered he'd been working for almost six hours."
As the losses mounted, Kerviel tried to conceal his bad trades by covering them with an intense red wine sauce, later switching to delicate pastry horns.
At one point he managed to dispose of dozens of transactions by hiding them inside vol-au-vent cases and staging a fake reception.
Last night a spokesman for Sócíété Générálé denied that Kerviel was overworked, insisting he lost the money after betting that the French were about to stop being rude, lazy, arrogant bastards.
www.thedailymash.co.uk
FRENCH TRADER WAS FORCED TO WORK 30 HOURS A WEEK
FRIENDS of rogue trader Jerome Kerviel last night blamed his $7 billion losses on unbearable levels of stress brought on by a punishing 30 hour week.
Kerviel hid his November losses in a batch of wonderfully fresh croissants. Kerviel was known to start work as early as nine in the morning and still be at his desk at five or even five-thirty, often with just an hour and a half for lunch.
One colleague said: "He was, how you say, une workaholique. I have a family and a mistress so I would leave the office at around 2pm at the latest, if I wasn't on strike.
"But Jerome was tied to that desk. One day I came back to the office at 3pm because I had forgotten my stupid little hat, and there he was, fast asleep on the photocopier.
"At first I assumed he had been having sex with it, but then I remembered he'd been working for almost six hours."
As the losses mounted, Kerviel tried to conceal his bad trades by covering them with an intense red wine sauce, later switching to delicate pastry horns.
At one point he managed to dispose of dozens of transactions by hiding them inside vol-au-vent cases and staging a fake reception.
Last night a spokesman for Sócíété Générálé denied that Kerviel was overworked, insisting he lost the money after betting that the French were about to stop being rude, lazy, arrogant bastards.
French trackdays are usually very good value as they are organised by clubs, but definitely not as well organised as the professional UK. The big lunch is normal, but usually without any wine. If you fancy having a go then www.trackdays.fr is the place to look, but you will need some French to get by.
Some really crazy things are allowed to happen, principally simultaneous drifting and lapping. My worst experience was arriving at a blind corner as one M3 sets up his slide and seems he is going to T bone me in the side and another has already lost it and is stationary across the track
C’ est la vie!!
Some really crazy things are allowed to happen, principally simultaneous drifting and lapping. My worst experience was arriving at a blind corner as one M3 sets up his slide and seems he is going to T bone me in the side and another has already lost it and is stationary across the track
C’ est la vie!!
The Germans have some good ideas too! At work there we have taken to going to a kart "track and bar" outside Frankfurt. So yes they have a *superb* 1km indoor circuit together with a bar. You drink German beer and go karting. How cool is that?
Last week they had a new thing. Out on track, racing away and the lights go out. Pitch black for about 15 seconds. Complete mayhem. Anyway the lights come back on and off we go again. Happened 4 or 5 times in a 20 min race.
When we got back in (2nd grrrr), I asked a German colleague whether it had been covered in the german briefing (the only bit of the briefing I actually got was about having to tuck my cardy into my jeans ffs!) and he said no.
We asked and found out that it was just electrical problems! It was fine, a load of drunk germans (and me) karters flat out in the dark.
It redefines blind-mans-buff!
Bert
Last week they had a new thing. Out on track, racing away and the lights go out. Pitch black for about 15 seconds. Complete mayhem. Anyway the lights come back on and off we go again. Happened 4 or 5 times in a 20 min race.
When we got back in (2nd grrrr), I asked a German colleague whether it had been covered in the german briefing (the only bit of the briefing I actually got was about having to tuck my cardy into my jeans ffs!) and he said no.
We asked and found out that it was just electrical problems! It was fine, a load of drunk germans (and me) karters flat out in the dark.
It redefines blind-mans-buff!
Bert
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