More of that later.I arrived bleary eyed at Snetterton just before 7am. I had already visited the jet wash to remove the mud from the car after traversing the farm track top and from my house. Why the hell did I bother? I had met Simon and Mark from oop North the night before after receiving a fair few calls from the inbound pair, their sat nav on the blink all the way from Ron Kiddells in Essex. Mark was the new owner of Rons famous red 32 GTR and wanted to give the car a thorough work out. Brave man. After a swift half, I bid them farewell...............and toodled home for a few hours shut eye........if I could sleep.
So back to the track, I arrived expecting to get the garages reserved for those that had travelled the furthest and Mark and Simon were already there. It became clear that any hopes of reserving garages would rely as much upon peoples decency as it would my freshly prepared signs. Bugger! The weather was overcast but dry and I hoped that would be the case all day, giving the track a chance to lose some of the deeper puddles. As the car park started to fill, the weather worsened and the rain started to pour. Not for the first time Tyrells restaurant looked a whole lot more appetising than the murky Snetterton countryside with rain water actually running down the hill towards the bottom of the car park. The normal barrage of phone calls, texts for directions and general panic for about an hour subsided when the briefing started. At this point we still had about 13 guests to arrive
The briefing was, thankfully, brief and then the advanced group shuffled across (in fairness a few ran) across the sodden paddock to their cars or garages. This is when the fun started. Several owners had fitted their cars with Toyo 888's or similar. Mix this with standing water, plenty of Dutch courage and no shortage of power and things soon got messy. I knew it was time for me to return to the pits when the car had a major 'wobble' under braking between the Esses and I looked ahead to see Ron Kiddell making his way back on to the grey stuff after running wide and going into the mud. If Ron can't grip, I can't grip. With my tail between my legs I returned to the pits to see lots of us sheltering their like Tibetan monkeys. This adverse weather didn't slow Rocket Ronnie in his Porsche GT3 RS. He was simply flying :notworthy:
Hours passed, the weather improved, stories were exchanged about near misses, spinning and the angle of slides. Everyone was smiling and no-one was getting hurt. A few mechanical hiccups settled people down a bit and a session was lost through pure bad luck, other than that it was one of the best track days that I have ever attended run or organised in terms of etiquette and driving standards. I didn't think I was too bad behind the wheel but this event was very humbling. The names of the drivers read like a dream team for performance passionistas (my new word) like us. With seasoned racers, tuners, trackday regulars all jostling for position with guys that had never been on a circuit before. The potential for trouble was huge and yet everyone behaved impeccably. Well done to all involved for keeping yourselves and your cars intact.
On a personal note Duncan and I had paid for Ben Devlin, one of Mazdas Le Mans drivers for this year to give us one to one instruction. I have driven Snetterton so many times, to the point of boredom if I'm honest, so Ben and his instruction could make or break my interest in the circuit. Within two laps of sitting next to me studying my habits, procedures and techniques he has concluded that I am shit
No Ok, he didn't say that but he did suggest looking at the balance of the car under braking, the transition of weight forwards and backwards, wheel to wheel making me think more about how the car grips. Basic stuff but buried deep in my subconscience over too many laps doing the same thing and letting the bad habits get well rooted. I reckon in the three trips Ben took with me, he made me quicker, safer and made me work closer with the car, more sympathetic to its capabilities. I should add that he was a bloody good laugh too, encouraging me to push up to my limits as soon as he was confident I wasn't going to kill him. You would have thought that after me having a 300 yard tank slapper coming out of Sears that ended with both of us sailing off the track backwards at over 60mph would have put him off.............he laughed like a drain telling me I was so close to catching it!!Bulletpoints to stop everyone falling asleep
-Nice to meet a lot of genuinely like minded people, proof positive about what BigPower should be about
-Chuffed for Dan and Trev. Nice to see you two having fun
-Well done Ben. More confident all the time. Getting quicker and smoother
-Dunk. As much as it pains me to admit it, until I invest more in the car or take bigger risks than I'm prepared too, you Sir, are quicker than me.
-Bladey. You have the driving talent to match that gob of yours
Legendary car control-Mr Dening. A gentleman racer in the best tradition, was a pleasure to met you
-Passenger laps are scary. Kev, Gary and Ron Kiddell all conspired to show me how bad my nerves and brakes are. Good driving though guys. I think the EVO got more compliments as a car than any other. When you consider the machinery there that is pretty good going.
-Thanks to everyone to the last, for making the effort to get there and thank you all for driving with consideration for each other.
Two great events this year already. The karting was a resounding success and now this track day. Onwards and upwards guys :thumb:
:-D
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