Biggest trackday "moment"!!

[Furyblade_Lee]

Thought i'd share with you my biggest ever trackday "near miss" I had on Sunday, a true moment from disaster.... We were at Zolder doing back to back trackdays, Saturday VIPs and Sunday the public. All paid for by VAB, who are like the Belgian equivalent of the AA or RAC, even all the fuel we used!!! Nice. I picked up a lady passenger from the queue who told me she had been waitng 30 mins specifically for me as apparently I passed her when she was in an Atom, and subsequenty I had drifted the Villenuve chicane complex which I must do again for her or else!!!! Zolder are VERY strict on their 95db driveby limit, but you can hoon, drift and even fly through gravel traps and they don't bat an eyelid! So she got the full beans but embarrasingly at the Hospital bend (appropriately) on my relatively gentile outlap the tyres seemed to be cold and I slid wide through the gravel... Felt a bit of a twat, but she gave me a thumbs up! Then car felt ready so gave it beans for the start of the next lap (2.8 miles, takes just under 2 minutes as you have to lift off a bit for 2 trackday noise meters). Next time at the same corner I approached it flat in 3rd about 95mph over the blind left handed crest, and noticed 4 cars with brake lights on taking that bend in the distance perfectly normally. Shifed in 4th , lifted a bit past the noise meter, checked a gauge or two, then looked up at the corner again..... S@IT!!!!! 4 cars in exactly the same spot parked up, with a stationary spinner in front of them.... Still doing the wrong side of 80, stood on the brakes and silence.... No skidding, no smoke, and no decelleration. This is going to be horrific, and a. Red 911 RSR is first in line for a rude surprise. Came off the brakes and jinked to the right a bit then stood on them again, instantly throwing me into a 180 degree spin so I was now going in fuel tank first! Nice. Somehow I came to rest just a few feet behind him, backwards, in a cloud of thankfully tyre smoke! I looked at the passenger lady and the mentalist was smiling giving me the thumbs up again!! I honestly for a second though we were going to our fiery death there and then, and even the medical building ( hospital corner!) would not be able to save us.
It turns out a couple of laps earlier a Lancia Stratos blew it's engine oil all over the track just after the noise meter, and the marshalls did not realise for a few minutes. I had slid on it that opening lap, fortunatly going slower and just made a trip through the gravel. I also just missed my two mates in a Superlight R and GTM Libra make similar trips through the gravel trap. The Caterham especially made a spectacular effort apparently!!
Anyone else had a good "near miss"???

[AdamW]

I was going to post a near miss from last year's Birkett, but after reading that it sounds incredibly lame.

Did you pretend to your passenger that it was all intentional and that you always come to a stop in that fashion? I've a feeling she'd have believed it.

[Nash]

Deep respect. I assume the third lap was perfect

and you got her phone number

I have to say though don't think much of your chat up routine

...........Neil

[Furyblade_Lee]

The crazy thing is I came into the pits right away, we both got out and was informed it was oil from the Stratos and cement dust was going down. So I jupmed back in the car to pick up the next passenger and the lady reappeared and got back in! First class nutter. Nobody mentioned to any of us about going off. That's in stark contrast to my first and only spin at Brands, I accidently downshifted the sequential box into 1st not 2nd at a wet Druids hairpin, causing a harmless 360 spin which I just drove out of at about 20mph. The bollocking I recieved from the chief Marshall was first class, and in a pub scenario would have warranted a swift uppercut. You'd think he had caught me in bed with his wife and used the phrase " I think you ran out of talent" at least twice in the lecture. Most enjoyable.

[James]

Had a similer experiance at bedford on the GT track, had a instructor with me as i couldnt get the left right half way down the back straight quiet right.. all morning i had been attacking it in 4th about 85mph but the instructor informed me that i could do it in 5th no problem witht he right line even 110 maybe 120, so i though ok did a couple of brave laps to warm the car up, so i approach the chicane balls firmly in my throat and held 5th at 115mph screaming like a little bitch in my head... guess what, i made it out the other side! huuraah! so now approaching the very sharp hairpin left with alot more speed than i was used to and hmm no brakes! a quick panic and glance at the little runoff MASSIVE grass bank and speedo at 70mph with little or no brakes.... OK says clever me i yanked the handbrake up firmly and decided to go in backwards as the roll cage would protect me..... thank god i actually scrubbed off enough speed to stop about 2m short of the massive grass bank with a instructor that was so white he could have been dead!

what a awsome adrenalin rush but mad panick!, anyway got back to the pits whith metal on metal brakes and It was at that point i remembered why i had a set of new pads in my rucksack

[Furyblade_Lee]

Class James. That was a MASSIVE jump in entry speed....

You will be pleased to know that my mates 210bhp Superlight R was pretty much the fastest car there around the track. Only a Porsche GT2 and a couple of others were close. They (locals) told us a 2 minute lap would be good considering very busy and 2 noise meters we had to lift for. Every lap we did was 2 up with a passenger, so a few more seconds could have been gained, but Rob's Caterham did a 1.53 and I did a 1.57 over 2.5 miles. I was losing out to him after the lifts and sheer torque out of the 3 chicanes. That Caterham is a proper f***ing tool i can tell you, all Nitron'd up and carbon fibre everything. He even made his own carbon scuttle in his lounge!!! The big Porsche Belgium guys were timing us (unofficially) and asked us for rides!!! Their best lap was 1.54 in the GT2, and they had RS, RSR and Turbos there and they were lapping in 1.56-1.59. Quality track.

[James]

good to hear mate! my goal it to get mine to 190ftlb and 230bhp at the crank, should be interesting after that, quotes to get to that power are shocking!

Currently uploading said video clip to youtube, will post it up when it's done, quiet a funny thing really lol, yes the car is a 220+bhp Nova... no comments please it showed alot of car's and kit's up!


Still processing..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E7VVl4PTo8

[Nash]

Not had any real Trackday moments car wise but when I was racing karts a couple of us decided to do the IoM Manx GP as we fancied our chances in 250 National gearbox having done Le Mans 24 kart twice and finished a respectable 2nd in class in 2003. so in 2004 we did the above race.

I have to declare I have never in all my years of racing (which by 2003 represented over 15 years) been scared in a kart or felt in danger UNTIL I did the Manx GP in a 250 National. The race was £45 to enter and the grids are always full. Lots of classes from Prokarts to 250E (not on track at the same time I hasten to add). So why so scared I hear you say?

Well for a start its a street circuit around Peel. Which means it is vision blurringly bumpy Safety is straw bales and painted white kerbs and it is stomach kerningingly fast. I don't mean kit car fast or even single seater fast, I mean USS Enterprise fast and right on the edge of out of control.

I had no major issues during the weekend and remainded intact but I sold the gearbox kart on my return and vowed never to return to race.

Don't take my word for it check this out. This isn't me but its what get me to go some years later and it hadn't changed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf3cJRke ... re=related

Hold on.

...........Neil

[James]

That looks like fun

[Furyblade_Lee]

Nash , I have seen that on TV before, you must be 100% mental...

James, if you want me to find out what my mate has done to his engine I can. I know it has been 100% bulletproof and never broken down, including two 2,500 mile trips through the Alps and several trackdays. He has just refreshed it and added some sort of altitude meter to compensate for mountain passes, and had it balanced at that vibration place you mentioned. This was his first event since rebuilding it and even I noticed it was very smooth ( I drove it back on the road last year ). It's a DVA head he uses I know that, but I do know he is considering selling this 210bhp refreshed engine on to go another direction.