Diary of a sprint season in a TF part1

It's a generational thing, I dont like being on a track in an FWD car, they go straight on in my experince, my nephew wont pull on his flameproofs if its a RWD chassis. I can see that 10/10ths in a TF is a bit harder work ,once the back has overtaken the front just easing off on the throttle wont save the day.
It will come to you as you press on without you even noticing.

CHeers your right about taking time

I knew id have to adapt but when your lagging behind its frustrating

FWD well depends on the set up and like anything you have to drive em right, in hard on the brakes get the rear moving and pull yourself out of it

not recommended for the road obviousley

and it doesnt work in a tf :oops:

off to the mg in the park do see you later

Dont seem to have time to get on here lately to give an update on the season just realised its nearly six weeks!

So here goes

after the last sprint frustration got the better of me it was an awful event in which the harder I tried the worse things got :bang:

So bit the bullet and went to over to bruntingthorpe to see "the DON" ! :drive:

by that I mean Don Palmer the handling guru www.donpalmer.co.uk/carcontrol.htm for some diagnosis


What an experience!, Bruntinghtorpe airfield to ourselves a full tank of fuel lots of space and some cones

we started off with simple figures of 8 with two slaloms, " go faster, go Faster faster..!.. " screeeech spin...... B*gger.

So then Don takes the wheel and oh my god! we are at every engle there is short of getting it on its roof !,talk about seeing your car dance!!

from there we pulled apart my steering technique, got into the detail of tyres and slip angles and why car behave as they do, these are things ive read about but its not the same as someone demonstrating the effects and then coaching you through it

By the end of the day I was swooping round slaloms sorting out the oversteer at will using two fingers(sounds wierd but part of the technique to learn sensitivity)

Don has coaching style he doesnt tell you what to do but helps you find the solution for yourself so you can apply it in all situations

Not a cheap day out and damn hard on the tyres (pick a wet day if you can) but if you want to learn to handle a car Obi Don Kenobi is the man to see!

Must admit I was sgtruggling to take everything in and remember it and there was always the doubt that I couldnt do it again in competition- emailed don "Dont worry its all in there just let it out" (he can be very yoda like)

So to British motorsport marshals club sprint the sunday after and.......

two whole seconds faster on a single lap :omg: and 1st place (my first) :woohoo:

Yesterday at the shenstone double lap sprint found another 2 seconds!, :bust:

Only came second this time but was beaten by 0.38 of a second, had one run which was within 0.17 of a second of the winning time except i hit the first corner cone and got a half second penalty.

Two events to go and a realistic chance of winning the class

So folks if you really want to learn to get the best from your car go and see" the DON" :broon:

1st place

:woohoo: Well done Lewis. :broon: Great write up. Thanks.

Yes understanding slip angles and getting to the point where exploiting them in a corner is as easy as riding a bike are two different things. IMHO once you can Drive a RWD car you would never go back. I have never really nailed a 4WD car. The only time I drove a chipped Evo 8 I was just pleased to get out alive with no damage to it.

Lewis :woohoo: That's fantastic news.

The price Don charges sounds high but to get the results you've had it sounds like it was well worth it.

Sounds like you are having great fun out there, I'm now in deep depression as I just looked into my trophy cabinet only to find that i'm even more depressed. I won the London home counties sprint championship in. Wait for it...............................................1993. That is nearly 20 years ago! Mind you it was in a formuld ford and most on my wins and FTD were at goodwood and lydden hill. Have a great season.

I want a go lol

PQD44 wrote: Lewis :woohoo: That's fantastic news.

The price Don charges sounds high but to get the results you've had it sounds like it was well worth it.

It is a lot (I just closed my eyes and wrote the cheque) but if you consider the need to hire bruntingthorpe as well its not unreasonable

compare it to other professional charges at an hourly rate and its not that out of line

trouble is we only scrathed the surface of wha there is to learn- he and Mark hales do a two day track course at anglesey i think its a small group (see the masterclass on the website which is about £2000

but youd probably learn more in those two days than years of thrashing around trying to work it out for yourself ( althoguh tyring woudl be fun)

Im not kidding myself here, Im still 2.5 seconds slower than I know the car can go on that circuit :pinch: -Im still a novice really

but its nice to be improving rather than standing still

Whiz wrote: I want a go lol

Never to soon to start the club is really looknig to encourage people into the sport

its very easy to get started

See my earlier posts in the thread about the intro day

If you want to try it or anyone else for that matter PM me and well get you started

All sounds great, look forward to seeing you again at a meet, when you are not to busy racing :whistle:

Whiz wrote: I want a go lol

Once you get out there you soon find it isnt as easy as it looks. On the plus side it's never boring. Sprints and hill climbs are not only a great way to start they allow you to compete at a tolerable cost. Grid entry fees are just stratopheric now £500 for 2 races anyone? You also have the track to your self, this avoids a £10K bill to rebuild you car when some clown runs you off the road, in a race or during practice which can be even more dangerous. The MGCC are trying hard to attact people as the costs and the continued squeeze on the incomes of peeps who work for a living by the gubbmint are killing the sport.