So you're on a family holiday and you've also entered a driving competition to win a fully funded season in a Ginetta G40 as part of the GRDC Championship. Then you find out that you've qualified to take part in Stage 2 which not only happens to occur while you're on holiday, but also on your wife's birthday!
So you get up at 6:30am, pack your race kit and leave Center Parcs for the Ginetta test track at Blyton Park Driving Centre on what appeared to be a slightly damp morning. The journey to the circuit was around 50 minutes on the Thursday morning and as I approached the race track, while it wasn't raining, the ground certainly wasn't getting any less wet.
Pulling up to the car park I was just behind the Want2Race race truck and as the mechanics began unloading the cars, I went to sign on, grab a brew and listen to the briefing. The drivers names were called in the running order and no surprises that I was out first, I'd mentioned to the organisers about holidays and birthdays and they had, as promised, got me out first so that I could get back.
Of course running first means that you're out first, with no idea of the circuit conditions; having only driven these cars in the dry, I wasn't sure what to expect. Pulling out onto the circuit, I was advised to give the brakes a couple of stamps to get a feel for the level of grip and I have to say that I was surprised at how much pressure could be applied before locking the wheels.
The pressure really starts to ramp up in this stage of the competition though, with one specific rule called out a number of times:
If you spin, you're in!
This doesn't mean you're in the next round, rather, you're in the bin. This was playing on my mind enough after my adventure at Donnington Park and that was a dry track in the blistering sunshine, let alone on a damp and greasy track one bleak Thursday morning.
As we got up to speed it was easy to see why at least two of my competitors would be leaving early, the car was lighting up at the rear in third and with little in the way of downforce there was a heavy reliance on mechanical grip though the corners.
The first session went well, I started to learn the circuit and having never driven it before I knew I wasn't going to be flying straight away. What I really struggled with however was trusting where there would be grip, the conditions were changing all the time from wet to dry(ish) and then another bout of drizzle the make things slippy again.
Confidence growing, I could see that I was starting to catch the car in front, not that it's a race but it's good to know you're consistent; that didn't stop me taking too much out of an apex and clipping a foam block, perhaps I was getting too confident. Before long though it was back into the pits and first session done. I'd made it without a spin and had reasonable speed, as Matthew said "you're half way through, only another session to survive"...
As we were running ahead of time, the organisers decided to run my second session before lunch. I was happy about this as everyone else had been saying the track was drying up nicely with grip improving. Jumping in for the session, we'd swapped instructors and I was now sat alongside Max Coates, an experienced instructor who's spent a lot of time in Ginettas.
Heading back out on the track, my aim was to pick up where I left off and while the track was dry in places, corner entry still felt like it had the potential to bite hard. There was more than one occasion where it felt like I was going to run off the circuit and annoyingly I reverted to type, turning aggresively and making other mistakes like coming off the brakes too soon or turning too early, all of which had the potential to send me into a spin and out of the competition.
This session was going to prove really tricky, not only did I want to show further progression, but also learn the circuit in case I'm invited back for stage 3. The weather had other ideas however, no more than 3 laps in to my second session the drizzle started again with sporadic increases in rainfall, making it exceptionally difficult to predict where the grip was going to be.
A few laps later and everting to type nearly cost me a spin on the exit of "Bunga Bunga" when the rear of the car stepped away from me while applying power on corner exit. Fortunately I noticed it early and managed to catch the slide with an armful of opposite lock and a lift on the throttle to avoid pitching the car into a full blown spin. It's safe to say this really knocked my confidence in the car and I know it's something I need to build on in the wet.
It was a frustrating way to end the day as I had wanted to achieve so much, though I now know the circuit layout, rough racing lines and gear selections, so definately something to build from, if I make it to stage 3 that is!
