The only weekend Track Day at Mallory Park unsurprisingly attracted several Academy cars as it's the venue of our last race of the Championship season.
Saturday, 31st July saw no less than six of us turn up for an Open Pit Lane event run by Focused Events. Track Days are an excellent way to learn a circuit and Open Pit Lane means there are rarely any restrictions in the amount of time you can have on the circuit. The added bonus of a Track Day over a Test Day is that you can take a passenger - which means you can have instruction from a Pro Driver.
And so, on a damp morning, I took to the circuit for the first ever time and quickly started to enjoy the short trip round. The rain got heavier at the same time as someone had an engine problem and spilled oil round half the circuit on the racing line. The combination isn't a pleasant one...
So as it started to dry, I took my first session of instruction and immediately it paid off. Small alterations to the line, advice on braking and gearing meant I soon felt a lot quicker.
One the rain dried, I had a chat with Mike Linzey and we agreed to take each other out on the circuit. As Mike had his video camera with him, we captured our few laps in my car. The video is below and is courtesy of him and his company - Micrographix.
After lunch I got a few laps with Mike which was great fun. I've rarely been a passenger in an Academy car.
Later in the day, I had another session with the instructor and this helped further.
By the end of the day, I think I'd done about 150 laps of the circuit - certainly a good grounding for the race.
No comments:
Post a Comment