26th April 2005

School report... MAC Sprint Driving School, Curborough Sprint Course, 26th April 2005. The weather forecast was ominous, the day started early and grey, but dry. I got myself all packed up and headed off in the direction of Curborough Sprint Course, providing some sort of entertainment for the black country rush hour traffic ("noice car mayte"). The first mistake of the day was when I stopped for petrol, and dozed off whilst filling up, and put far too much petrol in it - d'oh, lesson number one... I arrived at the track, parked up in my place in the paddock, and unpacked all the gumpf from my car. A cursory glance under the bonnet and check the oil level, it'll probably all be fine! First thing is a briefing from the organisers and instructors, where we are talking though some of the basic of sprinting, how it works, what equipment is required, etc. We are also talked through the track and the ideal line. Our instructors for the day are all experienced speed eventers and current top hillclimb championship runners. With this out of the way, we take our cars down to the startline collecting area. We are split into smaller groups and walk the course with one of the instructors, looking at the line etc. For the morning session, we have cones placed at the corner apexes, which will be removed for the afternoon runs. We will be getting four observed runs in the morning and afternoon sessions, with feedback on each from three observers/instructors who are bravely standing around the track. Next is a group run around the track following the instructor (in a road car), which seemed pretty pointless as they just took the opportunity to go too fast, which wouldn't really give someone who hadn't driven the track before much of a chance to see what it looks like. The weather has brightened up a bit for the runs, so away we go. My first run was really just feeling my way in and getting used to the suggested line. Unfortunately no timing today, so we don't really have much to compare our runs with, but the observers should provide some useful feedback on lines. Second run felt a little better, though I don't seem have the knack of getting it off the line... "you get quite a bit of wheelspin off the line don't you" ;-) Third and fourth runs go much better I think, and I'm starting to push it a bit more - some nice controlled gentle tailslide out of the top hairpin, although on number four I did have to get out of it a little bit as the grass/bank was coming at me a bit quick. Back to the paddock now, and each of the instructors come over and go through the runs with us. My feedback was generally not bad, although there was definite room for improvement in the smoothness of my line. After a lunch break, it was to be the same routine again, but the final run would be a double-lapper - also the cones marking apexes were now gone. My fifth run was great, my best run of the day. With the cones gone I think I was less focussed on meeting the exact apex point, and so my line was instantly smoothed out. Shortly after getting back to the start area, the rain started. It wasn't heavy, but enough to dampen things down, so my next run was splendidly greasy, and I soon found I had stunningly little grip off the line. Once on the move it wasn't so bad, but I was quite tentative and definite short-shifting. We then had another round of feedback, which confirmed what I thought about the first afternoon run, and that my first wet run wasn't too bad. As this point it rained more heavily for a while, but there was a bit of a break in the runs and I sat under my brolly in the car staying mostly dry. The rain eased for my seventh run, but the track was more properly wet this time. It was actually easier to drive wet than greasy damp, and I think I probably went just as quickly, but still not trying any heroics. Final run and the rain had stopped falling but it was still a bit wet. As I pulled up to the line, the marshall said "don't do what he's just done, and forget to turn right", meaning it was a double-lapper. Apart from being a bit heavy on the throttle out of Molehill and having a look towards the grass, I had another good lap, probably my best wet lap... except I was so concentrated I did do what he just did, and forgot it was a double-lapper! I returned to the paddock somewhat annoyed with myself, but there was nothing I could do about it now. Won't make that mistake again in a hurry. So that was it. It was an interesting and enjoyable day. Shame about the rain in the afternoon, as I think I would have been going quicker judging by my fifth run. We were given a mark on three of our runs, and some random calculation turns the marks from the observers into a %age. Top score was 82%, low score was 54%, I got 72%. We were also given a couple of photos which had been taken of us during the morning runs, which was nice. It was a good day. Would I recommend it? Maybe if you were a total virgin to these things and wanted to get into sprinting. Having driven Curborough before, it was great to get the advice from the observers, but the number of cars (compared to a test day) meant a bit of a lack of runs and extra hanging around between runs. I'd certainly like to get back there for a test day to put it into practice a bit more...

©2002-2009 David Hackett