Just got home.
It was a good day. The weather was great if not a little windy but it wouldn't be Snetterton without the wind.
I will do a full write up later as I am knackered at the moment.
I will just say thank you to Alain, Harry and Julian for their help today. It would have been impossible without you guys. :thumb:
Car enthusiasts day at Snetterton 9th May 2009 (Saturday)
-
ginger ninja
- Posts: 409
- Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:31 pm
- Location: Norwich
- Contact:
Good day out today and happy to help out 
, luckly there was four of us as it would have been a little difficult to do this with any less.
As Nik said it was a bit windy at times but weather could have been a lot worse although I have a sun burnt forehead :oops:
Although I must amit that before the event started we had to have a go around the course ( just for test purposes)
and I had one lap, never done this before and completed the course in 39.2 seconds and I beat the police driver :lol: :lol:
Also may thanks to Donna (my wife) for supplying us all with coffee.
It was such a shame that this was the same day as lakenheath and I rearly wanted to go there but as I have spent about
, luckly there was four of us as it would have been a little difficult to do this with any less.As Nik said it was a bit windy at times but weather could have been a lot worse although I have a sun burnt forehead :oops:
Although I must amit that before the event started we had to have a go around the course ( just for test purposes)
and I had one lap, never done this before and completed the course in 39.2 seconds and I beat the police driver :lol: :lol: Also may thanks to Donna (my wife) for supplying us all with coffee.
It was such a shame that this was the same day as lakenheath and I rearly wanted to go there but as I have spent about
Julian.
Race dynamix Time Attack Sponsor.
Race dynamix Time Attack Sponsor.
Right, time for the report.
The day started with me getting up at 6am so that I could take my wife to work so that I could take the GTR as she won't drive the Primera.
I then waited until about 8.45 before I decided I would leave a bit early so that I could stop on the way to get the car washed by the hand car wash guys. They did a good job to be honest and it saved me doing it
We (my son Michael and I) arrived at Snetterton at about 10:10 to find Alain walking accross to the skid pan with the banner in hand. We were then aproached by Gary, the oficer in charge of the event, who said to us, "so what are you doing then?" After being told by Stu that he believed that the police had a layout for the auto test all worked out. Not to much of a problem other than the fact that we then had to try and sort out a layout for the track before we could do anything else. By this time Harry had arrived so Alain, Harry and myself worked out a track layout using the whole of the skid pan.
We had decided to keep it quite tight and technical as this would even things out a bit between the cars with the power and those with more handling and control. This seemed to work qite well as you will see by the final results later on. We did get some very positive remarks about the layout of the track. Phew. ( I have kept the route plan if it is of any interest for the autotest on the 20th. If we can get permission to use the skid pan that is)
Soon enough Julian arrived and helped out too, and then shorty after his good lady and the boys turned up too.
The "Sarge" came across to have a chat about what we had done and seemed quite impressed which made us feel qite good Then "The Stag" (the name the police had given to their driver) came over in the new police STI and had a couple of test runs with Alain in the pax seat to give him some instruction. 
Needless to say, Alain is now known as the official BP police instructor . We tweeked the design slightly whilst the Stag was doing his runs and then he did an unofficial timed lap and managed to do a benchmark time of 41.78 seconds.
We were pretty much all set up and then we were asked to move our cars out of the way of the road way so we decided that we would have a quick "test" run each. Harry achieved a very reasonable time within 1 tenth of the Stags taime and then Julian proceeded to smash it by doing a 39.2. Which only left me to embaress myself by doing a 43
Of course I immediately proceeded with the excuses "It has a wheel bearing issue"
So, All set up and ready to go and the time was now about 12.30 and we were then told that we would not be starting until about 1.30 so we decided we would go and get some lunch while we had the opportunity.
The Fire and Rescue crew then did a demo of cutting someone out of a car whiched caused us to be a bit later to start but only about 10 minutes so no problem. As we stood watching the demo we turned round to see a guy in a red honda had taken it upon himself to start going round the autotest track. We decided to go and have a chat Alain explained to the guy that we had not yet started and that the whole point of it was to get a timed lap so what was he doing going round with no one there to time him :thumb:
We ended up getting started at about 1.45 and things were running pretty smoothly. Alain was taking the drivers details as they lined up and writing their times down after their lap, Harry was at the reversing box and Julian manned the stop box and I was doing the timing. At this stage the times were on average between 42 and 45 seconds.
At around 2:30 one of the officers brought the Stags car up to the track and the Stag was escorted over by a few other officers. As is tradition, The Stag was dressed in a race suit with crash helmet and dark visor already on. The Stag set off on his "official" timed lap and managed a time of 40.44 so it was not much quicker than the average but it was quicker none the less.
Very soon after however things were starting to hot up and the times were dropping. before long the Stags time had been beaten and things were getting quite competetive.
There were all types of vehicle taking part, from mini's to dodge trucks and all in between including a certain "project" hot rod that attended our meets a short time ago.
The standard of driving was actually quite good which I don't mind saying did surprise us somewhat. There were very few people hitting the cones until one delightful young chap who had borrowed his mates 206 TD decided he would wipe out the cones in the first corner and then proceeded to drive like a complete **** for the rest of the lap (I assume the red mist had decended ) He arrived at the stop box sideways to Julians surprise and then went on to nail it through the last corner and come into the finish box at such a speed and angle that I had to literally jump out of the way to avoid being mown down whilst he skidded to a stop about 3 feet past the spot where I was originally standing. Which I might add was about 2 feet outside the cones of the finish box. I however showed great retraint and didn't drag him out through the window and kick him to death
So the event continued smoothly and without a hitch until we finished at 4.15.
We then went over to Tyrrells to tally up and sort out who had won the 3 catagories. 1l to 1.4l, 1.5l to 2l and over 2l.
As we were trying to tot it all up two of the officers came in and said that they needed the results at the podium to do the presentation. Unfotunately this did cause us to rush and make a couple of mistakes on the results. Not to worry though as it is all sorted now thanks to Jamie at the circuit for stumping up another couple of prizes. :thumb:
So the "Official" final results (after we had put it right) were
1l to 1.4l class Jonathan Clark in a 1l Mini 38.03 seconds
1.5l to 2l Francouis Hern 1.8l Golf Gti 38.28 seconds
(not our own TK in his Pulsar as originally stated, sorry Trev)
over 2l Casey Chau New shape STI 38.19 seconds
(not Matthew Blyth in his BMW 330C, Sorry Matthew)
So the overall winner was obviously Jonathan Clark in his lovely little caged and stripped 1l mini.
The errors were corrected and the "original" winners get to keep their prize and the actual winners have also recieved their prizes too. Crisis averted, Phew.
All in all the day went without drama (my near death experience aside :-# )
So much so that officer Gary thanked us all for running the autotest (and Stu for organising the manpower) and has asked us if we would like to help out again with another one in September if he can persuade the circuit management to let him do it again. I beleive that next time the event will be more widely advertised as I think that was the problem with this one, lack of advertising.
Thanks again to Alain, Harry and Julian for your help as this wouldn't have been possible with any less people.
Thanks also to Donna, Julians good lady for supplying the teas and coffees and letting me know when Harry had his hand up to indicate a penalty and I was not looking. and the young'uns for helping to pick up the tennis balls and cones.
Cheers Guys :thumb:
The day started with me getting up at 6am so that I could take my wife to work so that I could take the GTR as she won't drive the Primera
. I then waited until about 8.45 before I decided I would leave a bit early so that I could stop on the way to get the car washed by the hand car wash guys. They did a good job to be honest and it saved me doing it
We (my son Michael and I) arrived at Snetterton at about 10:10 to find Alain walking accross to the skid pan with the banner in hand. We were then aproached by Gary, the oficer in charge of the event, who said to us, "so what are you doing then?" After being told by Stu that he believed that the police had a layout for the auto test all worked out. Not to much of a problem other than the fact that we then had to try and sort out a layout for the track before we could do anything else. By this time Harry had arrived so Alain, Harry and myself worked out a track layout using the whole of the skid pan.
We had decided to keep it quite tight and technical as this would even things out a bit between the cars with the power and those with more handling and control. This seemed to work qite well as you will see by the final results later on. We did get some very positive remarks about the layout of the track. Phew. ( I have kept the route plan if it is of any interest for the autotest on the 20th. If we can get permission to use the skid pan that is)
Soon enough Julian arrived and helped out too, and then shorty after his good lady and the boys turned up too.
The "Sarge" came across to have a chat about what we had done and seemed quite impressed which made us feel qite good
Then "The Stag" (the name the police had given to their driver) came over in the new police STI and had a couple of test runs with Alain in the pax seat to give him some instruction. Needless to say, Alain is now known as the official BP police instructor . We tweeked the design slightly whilst the Stag was doing his runs and then he did an unofficial timed lap and managed to do a benchmark time of 41.78 seconds. We were pretty much all set up and then we were asked to move our cars out of the way of the road way so we decided that we would have a quick "test" run each. Harry achieved a very reasonable time within 1 tenth of the Stags taime and then Julian proceeded to smash it by doing a 39.2. Which only left me to embaress myself by doing a 43
Of course I immediately proceeded with the excuses "It has a wheel bearing issue" So, All set up and ready to go and the time was now about 12.30 and we were then told that we would not be starting until about 1.30 so we decided we would go and get some lunch while we had the opportunity.
The Fire and Rescue crew then did a demo of cutting someone out of a car whiched caused us to be a bit later to start but only about 10 minutes so no problem. As we stood watching the demo we turned round to see a guy in a red honda had taken it upon himself to start going round the autotest track. We decided to go and have a chat
Alain explained to the guy that we had not yet started and that the whole point of it was to get a timed lap so what was he doing going round with no one there to time him :thumb: We ended up getting started at about 1.45 and things were running pretty smoothly. Alain was taking the drivers details as they lined up and writing their times down after their lap, Harry was at the reversing box and Julian manned the stop box and I was doing the timing. At this stage the times were on average between 42 and 45 seconds.
At around 2:30 one of the officers brought the Stags car up to the track and the Stag was escorted over by a few other officers. As is tradition, The Stag was dressed in a race suit with crash helmet and dark visor already on. The Stag set off on his "official" timed lap and managed a time of 40.44 so it was not much quicker than the average but it was quicker none the less.
Very soon after however things were starting to hot up and the times were dropping. before long the Stags time had been beaten and things were getting quite competetive.
There were all types of vehicle taking part, from mini's to dodge trucks and all in between including a certain "project" hot rod that attended our meets a short time ago.
The standard of driving was actually quite good which I don't mind saying did surprise us somewhat. There were very few people hitting the cones until one delightful young chap who had borrowed his mates 206 TD decided he would wipe out the cones in the first corner and then proceeded to drive like a complete **** for the rest of the lap (I assume the red mist had decended ) He arrived at the stop box sideways to Julians surprise and then went on to nail it through the last corner and come into the finish box at such a speed and angle that I had to literally jump out of the way to avoid being mown down whilst he skidded to a stop about 3 feet past the spot where I was originally standing. Which I might add was about 2 feet outside the cones of the finish box. I however showed great retraint and didn't drag him out through the window and kick him to death
So the event continued smoothly and without a hitch until we finished at 4.15.
We then went over to Tyrrells to tally up and sort out who had won the 3 catagories. 1l to 1.4l, 1.5l to 2l and over 2l.
As we were trying to tot it all up two of the officers came in and said that they needed the results at the podium to do the presentation. Unfotunately this did cause us to rush and make a couple of mistakes on the results. Not to worry though as it is all sorted now thanks to Jamie at the circuit for stumping up another couple of prizes. :thumb:
So the "Official" final results (after we had put it right) were
1l to 1.4l class Jonathan Clark in a 1l Mini 38.03 seconds
1.5l to 2l Francouis Hern 1.8l Golf Gti 38.28 seconds
(not our own TK in his Pulsar as originally stated, sorry Trev)
over 2l Casey Chau New shape STI 38.19 seconds
(not Matthew Blyth in his BMW 330C, Sorry Matthew)
So the overall winner was obviously Jonathan Clark in his lovely little caged and stripped 1l mini.
The errors were corrected and the "original"
winners get to keep their prize and the actual winners have also recieved their prizes too. Crisis averted, Phew.All in all the day went without drama (my near death experience aside :-# )
So much so that officer Gary thanked us all for running the autotest (and Stu for organising the manpower) and has asked us if we would like to help out again with another one in September if he can persuade the circuit management to let him do it again. I beleive that next time the event will be more widely advertised as I think that was the problem with this one, lack of advertising.
Thanks again to Alain, Harry and Julian for your help as this wouldn't have been possible with any less people.
Thanks also to Donna, Julians good lady for supplying the teas and coffees and letting me know when Harry had his hand up to indicate a penalty and I was not looking.
and the young'uns for helping to pick up the tennis balls and cones.Cheers Guys :thumb:
I may be getting older but I REFUSE to grow up
Yes, well done guys. It must have been a very tiring day for you.
Unfortunately, i was tied up on my trade stand all day, but could see some of the Autotest. I really wante to have a go in the Metro but i had left that at home. I had a reasonable day considering the amount of people that attended.
The event could have been advertised more and been more busy, but it seems they will do another one so hopefully it will be bigger. The Autotest saved the day really. It was extremely popular with a decent que all afternoon.
I have to take the oportunity today to get the other side of my face and neck sunburnt lol.
Eddy
Unfortunately, i was tied up on my trade stand all day, but could see some of the Autotest. I really wante to have a go in the Metro but i had left that at home. I had a reasonable day considering the amount of people that attended.
The event could have been advertised more and been more busy, but it seems they will do another one so hopefully it will be bigger. The Autotest saved the day really. It was extremely popular with a decent que all afternoon.
I have to take the oportunity today to get the other side of my face and neck sunburnt lol.
Eddy
Authorised trader. Bespoke & direct fit exhaust/induction solutions, silicone hose specialist, Millers oils, Whiteline, EBC + much more. Find me at http://www.fast-eddys.biz
330hp Pulsar Gti-r, 153hp Metro and 185hp Smart Car!
330hp Pulsar Gti-r, 153hp Metro and 185hp Smart Car!