Monday, May 14, 2012

Second event!

Wow, what a weekend that was! Friday, I went to Abingdon airfield to spend some time at a track day with a group of academy buddies. Originally we thought it would be a group of about 5 of us, but in the end 10+ academy guys thought this was a good place to go before an event! With so many of us there, at any given time there were 5 of us out on the track, which did mean... we had little races... little snaps of competition :-D. I don't think the organizers noticed though... they didn't say anything anyway. As a group, Tristan, Scott, Tom, Andrew, and myself, had organized to have an instructor there to get us a little bit further ahead in our driving skill. This was great, Steve knows his stuff and we all improved drastically throughout the day. After a great day blasting around Abingdon, we all packed up and made the two hour drive to Curborough.

After pitching my tent, and getting things ready for the night (finding my food), the group of us campers spent the evening hanging out and pushing trailers and RVs out of the mud.
Friday evening:
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My humble abode:
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Early morning start for me, not out of choice, but it did get a bit bright inside the tent, and the birds seemed eager for the whole world to be awake with them, at 4:30 in the morning. After an interesting and helpful track walk, that reinforced what a group of us had talked about while walking the track the night before, it was time to do the last couple of things to the car and start the day!

Ricks picture of my car and tent... slightly better than the one I managed!
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Being # 117, I was out for my first practice run not long after 9AM, and only 17th off the line. I can say from some very first hand experience, getting all four wheels to leave the track, and the ground, is not the fastest way to go around Curborough! After my "accident", I settled into very consistent run times, and ended up 7th in my group with a 66.7 as my fastest timed lap. I am very happy with this, as it keeps me within striking distance of the podium in the championship points. I know there is more speed to be found, and am now pretty sure my trip off on the very first run put a hole (however small) in my confidence. I'm happy with how the day went, and stayed upbeat for pretty much the whole day, and now sit here, writing this, thinking about how to fix it for next time. A little bit more instruction on how to handle my mental state, with some practice in the car, and I think I'm sorted.

And, of course, the video! No damage to the car, a few aches and pains for my shoulder, but nothing that wont stop me racing!


It was a fantastic day, I learnt tons about the capabilities of the car, and learnt massive amounts about myself, and how things affect my driving. At aintree I got angry, and my driving went south fast, but even with my air time (I wonder if I get milage points for that...), because I stayed upbeat, my driving didn't suffer because of it. Although, as mentioned, it did suffer from a hit in confidence from the trip skywards.

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During lunch, a group of 4 cars were picked to go out on track for a rolling photoshoot, mine was one of them. They all turned out fantastic, but my personal favorites are these. More from the day can be found here: http://www.rick-wilson.net/Academy/2012/Curborough/22955561_wHdmxm#!i=1844852694&k=DR9k7Cx and here: http://www.rachelhorganphotography.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=10082#page=1

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Videos of runs 2, 3, and 4, are on their way!

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