Monday 14th July 2014

Caterham Academy 2014: Rockingham

Well this race had to go better than Oulton, didn't it?

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Even before the Oulton Park debacle, I knew testing at Rockingham would be a wise idea. It seems ages ago that I was checking track and test day dates off on the website: June 21? N24 weekend. July 4? LM Classic. The Friday before the race? Required in the office. Oh.

And a dab of oppo for the crowds. Ahem

Of course I expect no sympathy for having too many cool work commitments to drive a Caterham more, but attempting a circuit for the first time with 15 minutes to qualify is really rather daunting. At least this time the rain had held off so Rockingham was greasy rather than the submerged like Oulton Park.

Rockingham's a great circuit. I'd previously been a little dismissive of it, but how wrong you can be! It's fast, even in a 125hp Caterham, the first corner is a brilliant challenge and there's a great combination of quick and slow turns throughout. The Kirby hairpin, followed by the fast Gracelands left and then the Tarzan hairpin is brilliant fun, even if I never did quite do it justice. Gracelands is far more of a challenge than it looks as the exit isn't visible in turn in and the apex is late. In qualifying the Caterham's inside wheel was spinning up as the surface and grip fluctuated. The kerbs are lethal.

Matt gets stuck in and comes out the other side!

Anyway, even with what transpired as wimpishly early braking points I'd qualified seventh. Still a fair chunk of time behind the fastest guys but (I thought) not a bad effort for my first laps on the circuit.

I made it through the first corner! Of all the places to go after that terrifying spin, Rockingham's 100mph to 40mph hairpin wasn't ideal. But the start was pretty good and I made it through without any drama. Phew.

A couple of laps were spent dicing with Don and Martin, switching position corner after corner. It was superb fun. We weren't the fastest but it didn't matter. It was the thrill and excitement of competition and it was fantastic. Then I made a couple of errors and they just started to edge away. Brands Hatch is next and I'm absolutely testing there.

The race finished early because of two cars beached in the gravel with not enough time left to deploy the safety car. I'd finished eighth which, given the circumstances, I'm really chuffed with. Hopefully we get the full 15 minutes at Brands and I can be a little further up the field after some practice. Can't wait!

[Pics: SnappyRacers.com, video here. There are a few mistakes, just so you know.]

 

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Caterham Academy 2014 - Game on!
Caterham Academy 2014 - Handling day
Caterham Academy 2014 - Test day
Caterham Academy 2014 - Aintree Sprint
Caterham Academy 2014 - Blyton Sprint
Caterham Academy 2014 - Oulton Park

 

[Turbobanana]

I echo your comments that Rockingham is great fun: I was lucky enough to win a VXR Trackday there 4 years ago, courtesy of PH, and had a ball throwing VXR8s around in the wet.

Only red flag of the day was when a certain, very tall Vauxhall BTCC driver (at the time) planted an Astra in the gravel.

[Mafioso]

Nice driving but you did seem to be really losing out in the straights. Was that because most of the slow (2nd gear corners?) were taken in 3rd?