Brands Hatch 12th Feb Easytrack
Discussion
Can't see a thread about this so I'm starting one...
Really good day, well organised by Easytrack. Good mixture of cars from BMW 316s and slower to a handful of race cars (Clio Cup, pair of Ginettas, some from Caterham series, three E30s, and a Lotus Elise). I think it's the biggest variety of cars I'v seen at a track day.
We turned up, the whole of Brand Hatch was covered in a deep fog and it was snowing. "Bad news guys, delayed start." Suited us fine as there had been an accident on the M25 around jct8 with a 7 car pile up, we were about 200 metres behind this when the police stopped the traffic. Not sure why they stopped the traffic in fact, all the cars involved looked to have light dings, nothing serious.
Anyway, there we were expecting a 10am start when they got on the PA system and said sighting laps were about to start. Car had flat battery so joined for the last few sighting laps.
Snow was coming down til about 10am, rain too, and so the track was pretty wet. I was in a Caterham R500 with Avon CR500s and it seemed to have about the least grip out there, I was pulling over and letting everyone by. The section from Surtees on to the pit straight had been resurfaced recently, so the tarmac was still dark and not cured... this was incredibly slipper. I was getting big rear end moments at 4k rpm in 3rd, where there is not a huge amount of torque.
There was a dry line starting to emerge about lunchtime, which was 12.30 to 1.30. In the afternoon the speeds got up and the Caterham was starting to overtake rather than be overtaken. I never really "got" Paddock Hill, always found I would arrive there and think I could have carried more speed in. The car was grounding out there with a passenger, after looking in the mirror and seeing sparks a few times I decided to relax my approach to that corner. The track as a whole is actually very difficult to get just right - Druids is a late braking haven, but never felt I nailed it. Was following one of the Ginettas into Paddock Hill, for them to lock all four wheels, just slither round the corner with lots of spark on the gradient change, good stuff to watch!
Two bigger incidents, one was a track-prepped Z3 that went off at Druids on their second or third lap, hit the barrier quite hard and needed the tractor to get them out. Minor incident of a red Saxo going past me and proceeding to skid across the grass at the next corner, scary how little grip wet grass has, other bigger incident was the yellow Caterham that mashed the barrier between Paddock Hill and Druids, I guess this was pretty much a full 360 spin, didn't see it. Talking of the yellow Caterham, if you are reading, sorry that I messed up when trying to let you through, I was running out of fuel and started indicating before Graham Hill, but then planting throttle from Druids found the fuel pump had nothing to pump, hence I just messed you up a bit - sorry.
By about 3pm quite a few people had gone home and there were really just the more serious cars there, mainly track-only kit. Think the chequered flag came down about 4.30pm, by which time we were packing up the car.
I did some stats out of interest for the R500:
- 168 miles total covered in the day (take out say 5 miles for two sighting laps and two petrol visits)
- 163 track miles
- 136 laps
- 52 litres of fuel
- 14.7mpg (which I think is excellent, same as my road car in normal use!)
I now have a very sore neck.. just on the left side, and I've got a feeling I will be suffering more tomorrow.
All in all a very good day, started off a bit scared of the track but ended up really enjoying the day.
Really good day, well organised by Easytrack. Good mixture of cars from BMW 316s and slower to a handful of race cars (Clio Cup, pair of Ginettas, some from Caterham series, three E30s, and a Lotus Elise). I think it's the biggest variety of cars I'v seen at a track day.
We turned up, the whole of Brand Hatch was covered in a deep fog and it was snowing. "Bad news guys, delayed start." Suited us fine as there had been an accident on the M25 around jct8 with a 7 car pile up, we were about 200 metres behind this when the police stopped the traffic. Not sure why they stopped the traffic in fact, all the cars involved looked to have light dings, nothing serious.
Anyway, there we were expecting a 10am start when they got on the PA system and said sighting laps were about to start. Car had flat battery so joined for the last few sighting laps.
Snow was coming down til about 10am, rain too, and so the track was pretty wet. I was in a Caterham R500 with Avon CR500s and it seemed to have about the least grip out there, I was pulling over and letting everyone by. The section from Surtees on to the pit straight had been resurfaced recently, so the tarmac was still dark and not cured... this was incredibly slipper. I was getting big rear end moments at 4k rpm in 3rd, where there is not a huge amount of torque.
There was a dry line starting to emerge about lunchtime, which was 12.30 to 1.30. In the afternoon the speeds got up and the Caterham was starting to overtake rather than be overtaken. I never really "got" Paddock Hill, always found I would arrive there and think I could have carried more speed in. The car was grounding out there with a passenger, after looking in the mirror and seeing sparks a few times I decided to relax my approach to that corner. The track as a whole is actually very difficult to get just right - Druids is a late braking haven, but never felt I nailed it. Was following one of the Ginettas into Paddock Hill, for them to lock all four wheels, just slither round the corner with lots of spark on the gradient change, good stuff to watch!
Two bigger incidents, one was a track-prepped Z3 that went off at Druids on their second or third lap, hit the barrier quite hard and needed the tractor to get them out. Minor incident of a red Saxo going past me and proceeding to skid across the grass at the next corner, scary how little grip wet grass has, other bigger incident was the yellow Caterham that mashed the barrier between Paddock Hill and Druids, I guess this was pretty much a full 360 spin, didn't see it. Talking of the yellow Caterham, if you are reading, sorry that I messed up when trying to let you through, I was running out of fuel and started indicating before Graham Hill, but then planting throttle from Druids found the fuel pump had nothing to pump, hence I just messed you up a bit - sorry.
By about 3pm quite a few people had gone home and there were really just the more serious cars there, mainly track-only kit. Think the chequered flag came down about 4.30pm, by which time we were packing up the car.
I did some stats out of interest for the R500:
- 168 miles total covered in the day (take out say 5 miles for two sighting laps and two petrol visits)
- 163 track miles
- 136 laps
- 52 litres of fuel
- 14.7mpg (which I think is excellent, same as my road car in normal use!)
I now have a very sore neck.. just on the left side, and I've got a feeling I will be suffering more tomorrow.
All in all a very good day, started off a bit scared of the track but ended up really enjoying the day.
Hi Ed, I was there in the aluminium and black Roadsport who really was letting everything past!
There were quite a few race cars there which was intimidating at first (I am relatively new to this) but the day went very well and it wasn't a problem - in fact may have made it better as they could get past faster!
Morning was wet and miserable - but the afternoon was a big improvement. I had some good coaching late morning afternoon which really helped! I'm there next Saturday too, although with MSV this time - I hope it is a good as today was.
I forgot to pop in to see the photographer before I left - do you know who it was?
There were quite a few race cars there which was intimidating at first (I am relatively new to this) but the day went very well and it wasn't a problem - in fact may have made it better as they could get past faster!
Morning was wet and miserable - but the afternoon was a big improvement. I had some good coaching late morning afternoon which really helped! I'm there next Saturday too, although with MSV this time - I hope it is a good as today was.
I forgot to pop in to see the photographer before I left - do you know who it was?
number2 said:
There were quite a few race cars there which was intimidating at first (I am relatively new to this) but the day went very well and it wasn't a problem - in fact may have made it better as they could get past faster!
Yep, there were quite a few race cars there but everyone seemed to be fairly good at getting out of the way quickly. Except maybe the E30s. Gassing Station | Track Days | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff