Brand Hatch Grand Prix Circuit 1998
I did my first trackday at Brands Hatch on the GP circuit, oh boy what a laugh.
The day was sunny but cold so I had the roof down, when we first got there the track was still wet from overnight rain but the bikes who went out first soon dried it out, there was also about half a dozen other Elise's there. We were divided into 4 groups; bikes, expert, experienced and novice (me), that's also the order we ran in.
In my first session I took it easy as I'd never been to a track day before, except for a half day racing experience at Thruxton. We were supposed to follow the pace car to learn the lines but there were some REAL novices out there that didn't have a clue! In the end I just tried to follow the dry line that had developed, unfortunately our session was cut short by some idiot who put his car in the kitty litter on the 3rd lap right at the back of the circuit.
In the second session an Elise driver from the experienced group came out with me to show me the lines, this really helped boost my confidence as before I was just making it up as I went along! I then went out with him for his third session and got shown what the car can really do!
In my third session I took out one of the bikers that loved my car, he couldn't believe how grippy it was and I was driving a lot slower that the experienced group!
In my fourth and last session I took out another Elise owner who loved the sound of my BBR exhaust, quite a few people commented on the great sound of the exhaust as I floored it down Brabham Straight taking it up to 6500 rpm, I thought it was great too <g>. Next time I'll let someone else drive it so that I can hear it from the pit wall :-)
All in all an excellent day out, and the lessons learned... well I was starting to get the hang of the correct lines through the corners by the end of the day, but I never got anywhere near the limits of the car, one of my fellow LDC members clocked my best lap time as 2 mins, 12 secs, but I've got no idea how fast the big boys in Elise's were going, probably just under 2 mins.
When all is said and done I've still got heaps to learn but I can't wait till the next track day :)
My best memory of the day, rocketing past a Porsche 911 down Brabham Straight, flat out, he'd got the line through Clark Curve all wrong, hehehehe...
