Brands hatch 27th July
Discussion
Went to the Easy-track evening session yesterday. Session was cut short to start with due to some foul up or other.
Always nice to be there but they had booked in 47 cars!! that combiined with the number of red flags made it a most disjointed evening. Didn't really affect us too much as we were there for some charity runs with Tiff Needell driving our SR3 which allowed us to push in at the front of the line waiting to go on track.
Apologies to any PH's who were there and wondered why we got special treatment. Couple of chaps had paid a SIGNIFICANT amount of money to SPARKS for the rides. It's all in a good cause.
Anyone know what happened to the Renault Spider? Looked nice, but broke quite early on and we didn't get a chance to find out what happened.
Always nice to be there but they had booked in 47 cars!! that combiined with the number of red flags made it a most disjointed evening. Didn't really affect us too much as we were there for some charity runs with Tiff Needell driving our SR3 which allowed us to push in at the front of the line waiting to go on track.
Apologies to any PH's who were there and wondered why we got special treatment. Couple of chaps had paid a SIGNIFICANT amount of money to SPARKS for the rides. It's all in a good cause.
Anyone know what happened to the Renault Spider? Looked nice, but broke quite early on and we didn't get a chance to find out what happened.
mattdaniels said:
silverthorn2151 said:
they had booked in 47 cars!!
I *think* (not 100% certain on this) that the MSV limit of number of cars on track on an Indy circuit trackday is 36 cars. Imagine that!!!Silver Astra
Oh we had a good evening too. There was a big difference in speed, but that doesn't normally matter too much. What does is the huge gulf in awareness and ability. I only did a few warm up laps before handing over to Tiff for the charity stuff.
That meant I had more time to watch what was going on on track. To be frank I thought there was far too much close driving going on. I suspect that some less experienced drivers would have been pooping themselves at times. In particular the entry into Paddock looked very hairy at times with some braking very early and using very strange lines. I was certain that there was an accident waiting to happen! No one wants that on a track day. I don't know how many they were letting on track but they said at the briefing that as time was cut short they would let more out.
One of our guests had his 360cs there and Tiff took him out in that. We managed to embarrass Tiff by getting him black flagged. (we had forgotten to noise test the Ferrari!)
Silver Astra? Did you pick up a black flag towards the end? Plenty didn't who should have. We got the chequered flag at the end of an extended ducks and drakes run (car broken down on pit lane entrance) and a couple of cars then sailed past the pits to do another lap. Either they ignored the flag or missed it. Either way they should have been spoken to, but suspect they weren't.
Clearly if you have a quicker car the responsibility is yours and passing should be by invitation. Too much red mist last night was in evidence.
Didn't count how many red flags there were but at a guess 6 or 7?? One might think that was too many in 2 hours.
47 cars in an open pit lane 2 hour session at Brands Indy......tooooo many!
That meant I had more time to watch what was going on on track. To be frank I thought there was far too much close driving going on. I suspect that some less experienced drivers would have been pooping themselves at times. In particular the entry into Paddock looked very hairy at times with some braking very early and using very strange lines. I was certain that there was an accident waiting to happen! No one wants that on a track day. I don't know how many they were letting on track but they said at the briefing that as time was cut short they would let more out.
One of our guests had his 360cs there and Tiff took him out in that. We managed to embarrass Tiff by getting him black flagged. (we had forgotten to noise test the Ferrari!)
Silver Astra? Did you pick up a black flag towards the end? Plenty didn't who should have. We got the chequered flag at the end of an extended ducks and drakes run (car broken down on pit lane entrance) and a couple of cars then sailed past the pits to do another lap. Either they ignored the flag or missed it. Either way they should have been spoken to, but suspect they weren't.
Clearly if you have a quicker car the responsibility is yours and passing should be by invitation. Too much red mist last night was in evidence.
Didn't count how many red flags there were but at a guess 6 or 7?? One might think that was too many in 2 hours.
47 cars in an open pit lane 2 hour session at Brands Indy......tooooo many!
silverthorn2151 said:
Oh we had a good evening too. There was a big difference in speed, but that doesn't normally matter too much. What does is the huge gulf in awareness and ability. I only did a few warm up laps before handing over to Tiff for the charity stuff.
That meant I had more time to watch what was going on on track. To be frank I thought there was far too much close driving going on. I suspect that some less experienced drivers would have been pooping themselves at times. In particular the entry into Paddock looked very hairy at times with some braking very early and using very strange lines. I was certain that there was an accident waiting to happen! No one wants that on a track day. I don't know how many they were letting on track but they said at the briefing that as time was cut short they would let more out.
One of our guests had his 360cs there and Tiff took him out in that. We managed to embarrass Tiff by getting him black flagged. (we had forgotten to noise test the Ferrari!)
Silver Astra? Did you pick up a black flag towards the end? Plenty didn't who should have. We got the chequered flag at the end of an extended ducks and drakes run (car broken down on pit lane entrance) and a couple of cars then sailed past the pits to do another lap. Either they ignored the flag or missed it. Either way they should have been spoken to, but suspect they weren't.
Clearly if you have a quicker car the responsibility is yours and passing should be by invitation. Too much red mist last night was in evidence.
Didn't count how many red flags there were but at a guess 6 or 7?? One might think that was too many in 2 hours.
47 cars in an open pit lane 2 hour session at Brands Indy......tooooo many!
I can see your point, but it's also down to the drivers to stay on the tarmack. Most red flags happened within the first 2 laps after the track reopened.That meant I had more time to watch what was going on on track. To be frank I thought there was far too much close driving going on. I suspect that some less experienced drivers would have been pooping themselves at times. In particular the entry into Paddock looked very hairy at times with some braking very early and using very strange lines. I was certain that there was an accident waiting to happen! No one wants that on a track day. I don't know how many they were letting on track but they said at the briefing that as time was cut short they would let more out.
One of our guests had his 360cs there and Tiff took him out in that. We managed to embarrass Tiff by getting him black flagged. (we had forgotten to noise test the Ferrari!)
Silver Astra? Did you pick up a black flag towards the end? Plenty didn't who should have. We got the chequered flag at the end of an extended ducks and drakes run (car broken down on pit lane entrance) and a couple of cars then sailed past the pits to do another lap. Either they ignored the flag or missed it. Either way they should have been spoken to, but suspect they weren't.
Clearly if you have a quicker car the responsibility is yours and passing should be by invitation. Too much red mist last night was in evidence.
Didn't count how many red flags there were but at a guess 6 or 7?? One might think that was too many in 2 hours.
47 cars in an open pit lane 2 hour session at Brands Indy......tooooo many!
I did get a black flag at the end, the driver of the Cossie blamed me for his spin towards the end!!!!!!!!!!!
Bo
silverthorn2151 said:
There was a big difference in speed, but that doesn't normally matter too much. What does is the huge gulf in awareness and ability.
IMHO Brands and Paddock Hill Bend specifically really highlights differences in car/driver experience and ability and in an open pitlane format can be a recipe for incident. You'll have people who are braking way early, long before the rise up to the service road on the left, and struggling to work out where to turn in on the blind crest, and people with experience and grip who can brake late and hit the right apex but get baulked by one of the less experienced/early brakers. Committing to PHB and then having to back out half way through is a tricky situation to deal with. It just highlights the need for good observation and awareness even more. Better to spot the car ahead that is braking early and back off accordingly on the pit straight then barrel into PHB and close up at warp factor 9 against a novice with nowhere to go. It's not a race after all. But unfortunately as I say, the place does seem to attrack the idiots and there tend to be stoppages at some point.Edited by mattdaniels on Tuesday 28th July 18:46
mattdaniels said:
I've said it once, I've said it a gazillion times; I like Brands, it's my local circuit, but for some reason it does seem to attract lunatics, idiots and nutters. Doesn't matter who the TDO is, it seems that its a rare thing to have a completely incident free day there.
You are not wrong, what is the point of going of track on an outlap?Gassing Station | Track Days | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff