Donington Park Trackday Report: 09-11-08

[trackdaynova]

"guess whose back.... back again...."

Slightly different setup to the usual, we usually all convoy to a trackday together but this time nothing was organised and people just come and went as and when they wanted to.

Up and out by 06:45, to get to Donington Park for 07:30am, and bagged myself pit number 25, got in there nice and early, turned the lights up, got the tools out, camping chairs, and the like.

Meanwhile nova ian & his mate Coxy turned up in their free Renault 21 Turbo that they trailered to the track to have a bit of fun with, and they dropped it off at the scrapyard on the way back home.

Signed on as driver, Shell as passenger and had drivers briefing whilst Steve (LiquidPug) turned up and also stuck his name down for a bit of passenger lovin'.

Did the usual, and siting laps started at 9am, to which I went out on as it'd been since May since I was last at Donny Was uber uber greasy from all the rain on the Saturday night, so I stayed on the Rainsports that I drove to the track on.

It was open pit, so we could go out and come in as often or as little as we liked, although it was rather busy again like it was at Cadwell, and due to the rain there were plenty of red-lights, so people were getting greedy, so once out on track, they'd stay out for ages and not come in - which could cause queues in the pit lane.

Anyhoo, my first outing was with Steve as passenger, on the Rainsports, dry line was appearing pretty rapidly due to the sun being out, and alot of cars being on the track, so we were proper shifting considering on crappy tyres (for a dry track). The lap before I was going to tell Steve we were heading into a cool down lap, heading down Starkies at top of fourth gear, pushing 110mph or so, and BANG... clatter... clatter... bang... clatter... with a constant gdgdgdgdbdgddn as the wheels rotated... A.R.S.E, nearside CV joint decided to explode again, yup, the brand new one Me & James (The Count) fitted at Cadwell two weeks prior... so we drove 1wd into the pits, and we knew what we needed to do...

In the pits, whipped the NSF wheel off, trying to change a CV joint whilst everything was red red hot wasn't fun , well, it was fun, but it bladdy hurt at the same time... so we got the spare out, and fitted that... knowing that that was the last I had on me, I didn't have anymore spares...

Ian suggested it'd be a good idea to raise the car just to reduce the angle of the passenger shaft, only if it was for the day, as we had no spares - so we did, 10mins later with an uber cool 'Snap On' gun, we were 20mm higher allround.

Second outing with a slightly raised height was with Daz, and it'd started raining again, so obviously stayed on my Rainsports, did around 12 laps altogether before coming in, nothing to report on this session, apart from on my second drive by of the pit lane, all the guys watching me had realised that I had lost my rear window , unbeknown to us in the car, we hadn't a clue. We did however get rather fed up of the flashing yellow light just after the Old Hairpin in the middle of the track, meant you couldn't overtake as there was an obstacle, and we were getting PO'd the fact it was there... only when we came in from the pits, did we realise that we'd lost my rear screen somwhere, and that 'obstacle' was my rear window rubber

Once in the pits - lunch time broke where over the tannoy came "kkkchhh errrm if you have lost a rear windscreen, it is at the end of the pit lane where it can be collected, along with the rubber kkkccchhh" to which we all laughed, and I didn't want to go and collect it and own up to the fact it'd fell out, I'd sooner drive without one

chris_gsi & Jen went and collected it for me and whilst I was aiding to putting my CV boot back on (as it'd come off on the second outing) the other peeps were putting my rear window back in the rubber, and back in the car once it was in, they decided it'd be a good idea to put some 10bhp 6" bright orange gaffer tape on it, to be sure it wouldn't fall out again...

trackdaynova: "ffs, i can't even deny it was me, the first time around now!"
chris_gsi: "yeah you can, just say you wanted to be sure the same didnt happen to you"

So I went out with Michelle sporting my new bright orange car bra (yes, my bonnet was bladdy flexing again), orange visor on my helmet, and orange rear screen surround, and this was the outing where I was pulling my fastest laps of the day, as it was slowly drying up - but I was on my damn Rainsports, so after the session, I came in, put my 888s on, got back in the queue... and it started raining! grrr

So I did my first ever solo-outing in my car, with 888s, and it was pishing it down, good and proper, the Craner curves were like a river! Had much much much fun, moreso than with a passenger in the car for some reason, I suppose it was because I could push even harder, as if I did get it wrong, its only me in the car. I managed my best manouvre ever, I got it sideways at the top of Craner curves, slid sideways all the way down facing 90 degrees left, managed to feed the steering back in, slam it into second, and roll into the Old Hairpin corner, quite gracefully, which is when my Facet pump was being noisey, and I knew I had to refuel.

Came in from the uber wet session, wanting to go back out again, but there was a red light from an RX7 being in the gravel pit, and the red lights stayed on for around 45mins... by which time it was 3pm, and over the tannoy they said if the rain doesn't stop, they'd have to cut the day short due to safety, as the Craner Curves started to have major running water down it.

So we packed up, and drove home. Excellent day all in, and for those that don't read my WIP, I'd like to say another thank you to:

Count Vaux Alot & Danni
nova ian & Kat
chris_gsi & Jen
Liquid Pug & m17tty
andy bishop & mrs andy bishop
karl rowntree & mrs karl rowntree

[trackdaynova]

So a session consisting of 7 laps including a warm up, and cool down looked like this on the data logger / gps, consistant lines throughout


Here are the main 5 fast'ish laps, you can see the throughout the corners & the speed


My fastest lap of yesterday, 88secs as you can see on the X axis, and the Speed in MPH on the Y axis, shows that my top speed down Starkies is 114.5mph, which isn't particulary fast, in the dry we touch 128mph ish but I was obviously braking much much sooner for Goddards, than I usually would.
Interesting stuff, none the less

[Adam]

As always, cracking report.
Even just reading it makes it seem like you were there :D

[Spudly]

Spot on report, extremely well written out

I must get my ass into gear to come spectate sometime it sounds like ace fun!

[dhdev (Oli)]

Nice write up Olz, still loving the rear window incident

[trackdaynova]

Videos have now been uploaded, I've upped the quality to 1.4kbps and viewable @ 760px, also with my new wide angle lens, you can see more of the cockpit, steering, shiftlights etc

Passenger: Steve Clay... CV explosion again
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z99M4GwngFc

Passenger: Michelle Hewitt... fastest laps
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ioBHkR06s

Passenger: None... Solo run... longest slide down Craners... EVAR
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVsa1s6RjQ

[Riggy]

excellent as always olz, bit miffed about the cv again but hmmm..

[Cle]

I love your track reports

[Ernie]

Dar would be proud of your slide mate.
You failed as there was no ar5e at the end tho .
Good track report.

[dhdev (Oli)]

Loving the vids Olz! You should enter into D1, the drift angle you got through craner curves was mighty impressive
Video number two does make me want a Radical though. He matched you on the warm up lap, then absolutely fooked off on lap two, and you're lapping relatively fast in the first place!!!