stuart wrote:
I'd welcome some feedback from Malcom Edeson on this. Let me see if I can rouse his interest.
I wasn't there on this day but have been on 100s of trackdays and have had similar experiences, albeit quite rare. I don't think it's a trend, I really do think that you occasionally get days like this. The reasons for it aren't particularly linked to number of novices although I do feel it can be linked to the strength and quality of the briefing which, if you are a novice is your FIRST ever trackday briefing and very much sets the tone of the day. I have sometimes seen it, on a mixed day, where novices are asked to hang on at the end of the briefing where the rules for overtaking are doubly stressed.
I think you are more likely to get frustrations where you have a wide range of car performances. What I do know from experience is the faster you are able to lap a circuit the more you are going to run into frustrations as you are simply going to come accross more cars, plus those cars are not fully "tuned into" exactly how fast you are able to drive, how late you can brake, how much speed you can carry through corners. Obviously a novice in a slow car is going to be even less able and consequently can be a bigger source of frustration. In general I find novices really takes on board what is said in the briefing and are on the whole, very diligent when checking the mirrors and making way for faster cars. Also, they are generally easier to get past.
There are those however, irrespective of how many days they do, who are simply fairly obliveous to whats going on behind them. Whats more they are driving at a reasonable pace and are therefore more difficult to pass.
I'd be interested to hear views on the strength/quality of the briefing? I have done Javelin days before, they are a good operator and normally do have a "club" type feel to their days as they get lots of regular driver, but this day seems to have attracted a lot of new drivers.
It really doesn't take a lot of poor ettiquette drivers to effect a day, especially when you get one who has 2-3 cars behind him all of whom want to get past.
I think it is quite common, especially with operators like javelin/easytrack/circuit days etc. (and even bookatrack) who mainly run openpitlane days to make them open to all experience levels although when I've heard the question asked "who's on their first trackday" I rarely see more than 6-10 hand go up. As I said though, I don't think it's necessarily a novice driver issue.
Although Snett looks like a good track for overtaking there is only really the 2 long straights. I would never advise overtaking at Coram, even on the exit and run down to Russell it's quite hard to let a car by and be able to see it unless you slow down significantly. On the exit of Russell being very low speed it can take even a much more powerful car half the length of the straight to get level and, unless you get an indicator it can be a bit tricky to get past before the car in front starts easing over to the left for Riches.
So, what could be done? I like Jonny's (Bookatracks) rule of allowing the chasing car to flash it's lights if having been held up for a few corners, just a flash, not a manic on/off, on/off. I really do think most "mobile roadblocks" are caused by lack of observation rather than ettiquette. From the BaT days I've done it doesn't seem to be abused although thats an obvious potential problem.
Another idea that we've talked about at LoT and I think we ran one day like it was to have a openpitlane mixed ability day but the first 2 hours were run in 30 min sessions, split by novice/inter, inter/adv. It doesn't particularly "harm" anyone, the bulk of the day is still opl but it allows everyone to get up to speed a bit more easily and you do tend to find that, although opl, the day does sem to alternate to a degrree between the faster more experienced guys and the less experienced guys.
NOISE : I think someone said they had noise issues where they hadn't before. It's worth noting that sound is measured higher the colder the temperature. Certainly there can be 2-3 dbs between a mild day and a very cold day like Sunday.
I do know that there is a big demand for what might be a termed an "advanced drivers" trackday. Typical requests are "no need to attend a briefing", "overtake either side" which is basically what RMAs Paddock club offer. Goldtrack have a similar day coming up in March where overtaking rules are relaxed, only advanced/experienced Silv GP drivers are supposed to be allowed. You do still need to attend a briefing. A similar day was planned by openTrack at Oulton but MSV would not allow the relaxed overtaking rules.
I don't think the "trackday license" thing would ever have worked, again attendance at a number of days is no marker for how "good" a trackday driver you are.
It's hard to think of what else would help. You could just look out for days that specified inter/adv only, but people lie and again it's not just about experience. What perhaps would be prudent for a TDO is to restrict the number of novices allowed on an "open to all" day, say no more than 10% but in this economic climate I am sure they will not turn anyone away.
MSV do seem to want to differenciate between novices and more experienced trackday drivers in that they do market a number of their days as NOVICE ONLY, am not sure if these are policed more strictly but it seems that they are the only TDO specificaly marketing to novices, at least in an opl format.
In summary I think it was just a bad day, anyone in a moderate powered car and of moderate skill would probably not had too bad a day but for the more experienced, quicker driver in a more poweful car you are gonna catch these rogue drivers much more often and end up having the frustration that you did.
As most of you guys are Snett regulars I assume you have done Javelin days before, any problems in the past? What about MSV days, how do they compare?
Malcolm
