my first autosolo event
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:21 pm
Had an invite to the loughborough car club monthly Autosolo event at Bramcote barracks on Tuesday.
Well having driven the scoob an hour down the motorway with just enough fuel to get me to work thanks to my lovely wife :roll: completed a days work in the office, I then set off in search of V power before making my way to the event itself. Rolled into the shell garage having got a little lost on fumes filled up both car and me :lol: and set off for the barracks themselves.
I arrived at the barracks with it absolutley slinging it down to be met at the gates by a nice gentleman and lady and 2 matching sa80's. I was pointed to a yellow puma in the car park with "you with the rally people? If you are I think thats the person you need to talk to"
the nice lady in the puma gave me a pass and said follow him ( him being a stripped out 106 rallye). I followed the rallye to what at this point just looked like a army test area masquerading as a lake with the odd cone here and there.
Having never done an event like this and knowing nobody I was to say the least both nervous and starting to question what I was doing here. The cars that turned up next did nothing to help this feeling when 3 full rally preped mark 1 escorts turned up. As the field turned and after up I signed on (in the rain) a few people started to talk to me and showed me how the event worked. One of the drivers whilst walking the course gave me some pointers and gradually I started to feel a bit more at home.
I was warned a few times "the surface is like glass" and "I would be careful opening her up on this surface" and to be fair they werent wrong I had no grip and my first run I realised id be lucky to get into 2nd gear
. After 4 runs I was grinning from ear to ear, the car looked like it had been rallying and I hadnt a clue where id come. The runs felt good except for one where i clipped a cone and despite the weather had had a great evening.
After the event we headed off to the pub to chat and have some food etc and I found out at this point much to my surprise id actually come 3rd in class and 12 overall:-
http://www.loughboroughcarclub.co.uk/re ... July09.pdf
Suffice to say I will be going to the next one as for
Well having driven the scoob an hour down the motorway with just enough fuel to get me to work thanks to my lovely wife :roll: completed a days work in the office, I then set off in search of V power before making my way to the event itself. Rolled into the shell garage having got a little lost on fumes filled up both car and me :lol: and set off for the barracks themselves.
I arrived at the barracks with it absolutley slinging it down to be met at the gates by a nice gentleman and lady and 2 matching sa80's. I was pointed to a yellow puma in the car park with "you with the rally people? If you are I think thats the person you need to talk to"
the nice lady in the puma gave me a pass and said follow him ( him being a stripped out 106 rallye). I followed the rallye to what at this point just looked like a army test area masquerading as a lake with the odd cone here and there.
Having never done an event like this and knowing nobody I was to say the least both nervous and starting to question what I was doing here. The cars that turned up next did nothing to help this feeling when 3 full rally preped mark 1 escorts turned up. As the field turned and after up I signed on (in the rain) a few people started to talk to me and showed me how the event worked. One of the drivers whilst walking the course gave me some pointers and gradually I started to feel a bit more at home.
I was warned a few times "the surface is like glass" and "I would be careful opening her up on this surface" and to be fair they werent wrong I had no grip and my first run I realised id be lucky to get into 2nd gear
. After 4 runs I was grinning from ear to ear, the car looked like it had been rallying and I hadnt a clue where id come. The runs felt good except for one where i clipped a cone and despite the weather had had a great evening. After the event we headed off to the pub to chat and have some food etc and I found out at this point much to my surprise id actually come 3rd in class and 12 overall:-
http://www.loughboroughcarclub.co.uk/re ... July09.pdf
Suffice to say I will be going to the next one as for
