Marham Trackday write up

[steveVR6]

Firstly before I start, I would like to apologise for the lack of photos, as my camera had a hissy fit!!

Got the car loaded on the trailer the night before, so was ready to go bright and early. Got to Thickthorn services for 6.15am , and met up with the rest of the band of merry men, who then went in convoy to Marham. Arrived around 7.30am in very misty and cold condition. The briefing kept getting postponed until the weather cleared and the first group stated at 9.30am. The day was spilt into 2 groups, with 1/2 hour sessions each. This was my first airfield trackday, so was very different using cones for braking points and apexes, especially when cars kept clipping them!! With the first session over and a check over the car to see what wear was done to the tyres, not too bad.

A few spinners in the morning, mentioning no names (jungle jim :-D ) and lunch was soon upon us. Once stomachs and petrol tanks were full, the afternoons sessions started. Took a few passengers out with me in the afternoon (sorry if i frightened anyone :oops: ) and the afternoon just got better. Seemed like less cars on track, so wasn't so conjested. Had a few tussles with some supercars, who were quick in a striaghtline, but when they came to a corner, jumped on their brakes and held eveyone up!!

All in all a very good day. The weather got hot (too hot) the track got quicker, and no major incidents for anyone. The only thing that pi$$ed me off, were the RS focus club, who all drove like a load of tossers :x .

Nice to meet up with the other members of BP, and may there be more trackdays like this one to come :-D
My Missus would like to thank Ian for taking her around in a comfortable car, as she finds my driving aggresive!!!!!!!!!!!!! :x

[Ian200sx]

Your car is great, really had a great time. Thanks for taking me out, really wish i could drive as "aggresive" as you, bet my car's glad i'm not though :-D

cheers

[jungle-jim]

nice to meet you steve ( and everyone else!! ), and thanks for letting me stash my crap in your truck.

i hope you found the

[James Breadvan]

I'm having to go late tomorrow as have fecked my tyres and am going to try and find somewhere open and have got my size .

In our group everybody was pretty good at getting out of the way.

Nice car Ian was impressed with the Skyline.

I cleaned my disks up with that spray, thanks whoever suggested that. It worked, sort of.

Good to meet everyone, when's the next one(after tomorrow that is)?

[Gerry H]

Another great RAF track day. They just get better. Met and chatted with a few familiar faces and compared notes. There was some nice machinery present but driving abilities, or capabilities was very varied.

The day just got hotter and hotter as did my oil temps. causing a bit of concern when the reached 136oC I thought it best to call it a day at 4:15.

The car held up well though despite what sounds like a blown exhaust gasket, on the headers, I think.

Met a few first timers who were really enjoying their track experience and wanted more. I suggested they visit here, if that's their true intention. I'm sure they'll be welcome. One guy who's just bought an Impreza Type RA, a white one :-D and another guy who wanted something just to thrash round a track, so got himself a BM 535

At the briefing, the Flight Lieutenant asked that we offer a pax ride to the RAF people who'd given up their weekend to help out. I ended up taking a young lad from the burger tent and one of the photographers. I think they enjoyed the experience :-D

I had the video camera mounted for most of the day, but when I got home and checked it, there's only 8 minutes of footage and half of that was under yellows. All the good stuff, I thought was there from later in the day, was missing.

Anyway, enough prattling but would like to say a big thank you. Firstly to the RAF, for organising a superb track and day and to the BP management for getting us in.

Gerry

[Rnash2002]

Was a very good track day,was good to meet some more people from this site aswell,have to agree with steve thought about the RS focus club guys,didnt take any notice about the driver briefing,got my own back though on one of the sessions :twisted:.
Will defo be doing this again,and might be turing the Brick into a track car

[Ben]

Boys, I wish I'd gone now - not sure my tyres would have like it - and i'm sure I couldn't have persuaded Jo to let me use her MR2

[Bazzer]

the RS focus club guys,didnt take any notice about the driver briefing,got my own back though on one of the sessions :twisted:.

Neither did the two Sierra RS Cossie's. It was clearly mentioned in the brief that if your holding up somebody in the corners then let them past.

Apart from that it was a fantastic event and very well run.

[M J P]

I decided to have a shared drive for the day with my brother which in itself was a bit nerve wracking!!!

We went out on the first session and after a few easy laps increased the speed and started trying to find the best lines through the bends.

Everything was going OK until I approached the bend before the main runway on completely the wrong line and started to feel the car losing a lot of grip....



After this we decided to tone it down a touch and get a bit more used to the track and the different surfaces.

I had started the day with about 4mm on the front pads having realized the night before that they were the thing that had been nagging me for the last two weeks. :oops: Knowing that they wouldn't last the day we tried to keep lapping to a minimum.

The track itself was the best of the three airfields that I have driven and everything was going fine. Then just before lunch the engine warning light came on while my brother was on track. He came back into the paddock looking very guilty and said that it had come on without any unusual noises or feel to the engine.
We tried an ecu reset to see it it would cure the problem but it would not go :x

After about half an hour it was time for lunch so I decided to take a nice slow drive to refuel. The car felt fine... It drove just as it always does and by the time I arrived back on base I had decided to give it another try on track. Everything was fine but towards the end of the day the car was struggling to make the top speeds/acceleration that it had earlier in the day.

I just had one more thing to do.... I had promised Scooby Glyn a pax lap earlier in the day and decided to make that my last outing. After a couple of laps I could hear a lot of noise coming from the front pads....Time to call it a day.

Pulled back into the paddock to find metal on metal and that was the end of our track fun.


In all a bloody good day apart from the above mentioned and the idiots who were either posing in their supercars or the twats who thought that etiquette was how fast you could overtake on bends. :x

Tried to pop over and speak to the others that were there but you were either on track or away from your cars! (Was hoping for some pax laps in the "Slag").

Maybe next time......


Matt AKA "Mr Scooby man" :lol:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... 4284509525

[jungle-jim]

excellent vids mate.

so it was you that left the tractor trails in the grass!!! he he he

looks like you had trouble with that black celica too!! :x

i was a bit disapointed i only took one person out, you should have sat on the car until i came back lol

if i wasn't driving, i was drinking or eating!! pmsl

i believe they do another one near the end of the year?

well worth the money

i had no brake fade at all

that right hander at the end of the back straight, i was entering it at 110mph going down to 85mph for the left hander and down to 30mph for that hairpin left.

roll on the next event ( where ever it may be? )