Thursday 16 February 2017

Off For IVA

The car has been collected by Caterham today, as I've taken the 'easy option' and got Caterham to organise the IVA presentation, and so on... Not only that, I don't have the time to do it myself right now...
The Academy Car loaded onto the Caterham trailer going off for it's IVA presentation next week
The Academy Car loaded onto the Caterham trailer going off for it's IVA presentation next week
...Nor do I have the time to do the (fairly minor) race prep (post IVA), so I've asked Caterham to do this before they return the car to me early March...  Fingers crossed for an IVA pass!

Monday 13 February 2017

Another WET (Track Day) Weekend

With the ARDS day 'out of the way' and the weather looking like it was picking up, I decided to book a couple of track days for the weekend.  Rockingham was available on the Saturday, and Snetterton available on Sunday - perfect... Or at least I thought it would be!

I drove up to Rockingham on Friday evning and used the 'paddock facilities' to park the camper up for the night and get some kip... I woke up to a very cold and soaking wet Rockingham...  A few coffee's and the usual briefing later, and off it was for plenty of circuit pounding, but there wasn't a great deal of light...
There wasn't much daylight at Rockingham even at 10am when this picture was taken
There wasn't much daylight at Rockingham even at 10am when this picture was taken
There was also some 'rally-cross action' which I'd call 'exploring track limits' but I guess I just ran out of talent - on more than one occasion, I might add!
Is it exploring track limits or just running out of talent?!
Is it exploring track limits or just running out of talent?!
Here's a lap onboard where I managed to keep it on the grey stuff, to be fair it was extremely slippery - more so than the last time I was at Rockingham:-

I guess I can only put it down as good 'experience' - but, I am keen to get some track time in the dry...

I washed all the mud off the car (took a while!), packed up and headed off to Snetterton - again over-nighting in the camper, but this time I woke up to EVEN WORSE conditions... SNOW!
Snetteron was eventually cancelled due to snow
Snetteron was eventually cancelled due to snow
Needless to say it was extremely slippery even underfoot and Javelin (the track day organisers) wouldn't start the event, and decided to delayed the start until 11am, when they would review the track conditions... 11am came, and we got the expected announcement of 'all drivers to reception please' so I knew they would be cancelling the day and giving us a credit note - that's twice in six weeks that a Javelin day has been cancelled due to weather...

So I headed back with just the Rockingham experience under my belt for the weekend...

The car will be collected by Caterham South on Thursday for it's IVA at the end of this month, and then being returned to me early March.  Then it's pretty much full steam ahead with the first on-track event at the handling day on 17th March @ Donington Park.  Cool.

Thursday 9 February 2017

National B Race License Tests - ARDS Day

Yesterday was the first of many 'proper' events for this years Caterham Academy season... The ARDS day at Castle Combe circuit, where (so long as I didn't balls it up) I'd get approval for my National B race license... Sounds cool huh?

Well it was a cool day... Very cold in fact!  Arriving at 7:45am it was cold and wet, but the cafe was nice and warm... The cafe filled pretty quickly and it was the first time to familiarise myself with this years 'competition'...

As the each group of Academy Racers is twenty eight strong, the ARDS day was split into four sections and the racers were also split into four groups of seven drivers.

After a bit of an introduction and some agenda setting the clouds lifted and we were put into our groups... I was in the silver group and we started off at the skid pan where some super slippery silicone was mixed with water and then we were let loose in some old BMW 3 series...
BMW 3 Series on the Skid Pan at Castle Combe Circuit
BMW 3 Series on the Skid Pan at Castle Combe Circuit
We spent a good hour or so at the skid pan which was a good laugh, then headed back to the cafe for coffer prior to our next section...

The next section of our day was for Jennifer, Lucy and Darren to give us a talk and some demonstrations about how to convert our cars from road to race cars, and some helpful tips for strapping yourself in, info about decals, parts you needed to fit and so on - which was well timed, as this is something all competitors will need to be doing (if not done already) in the very near future!
Matt? and Darren using a six point harness and wrist straps on Jennifer Mouratsing
Matt? and Darren using a six point harness and wrist straps on Jennifer Mouratsing
Lunch was included too, and trying to keep 'race-trim' I went for the stuffed red peppers with a MASSIVE side plate of chips!  Perfect - it was lovely!

After lunch we headed over to the classroom to re-watch the ARDS DVD we'd been sent... After the DVD one of the instructions talked us through the circuit, lines braking points and so on, before we were sent off to the cars for a couple of sighting laps...
ARDS instructor briefing us on the lines and braking points of Castle Combe Circuit
ARDS instructor briefing us on the lines and braking points of Castle Combe Circuit
Five ford fiestas were lined up with race instructors, ready to take us for our sighting laps... 
Five ford fiestas were lined up with race instructors, ready to take us for our sighting laps
Five ford fiestas were lined up with race instructors, ready to take us for our sighting laps
Sighting laps completed, it was time for the drivers to take turns to show we had the competence to race a car round the circuit - with one caveat - spin off, you fail instantly...

Even though I like the wet conditions, I still felt nervous as a dreaded spin of death and the day would be over... So I drove round like an OAP (well I'm not far off!), and got that bit out of the way successfully...  Next up was the medical and then the written test paper.

Medical was fine, a touch of high blood pressure (but everyone's results were higher than usual - not sure if that was due to the excitement of the day or the cold weather)...

Time to sit the test paper - it was a 10 minute multiple choice test, which required 100% correct answers to pass... Get just one wrong and it was a fail... So again, nervously I ticked the boxes I assumed were correct, read and re-read my answers and handed the test paper in.

Luckily, I didn't get any answers wrong and, I passed - yay!  I now have a National B race license (well I don't actually have the card yet) but as they say "it's in the post"

This coming weekend is more seat time... Rockingham ISSC on Saturday, and by the looks of the entrant list there will be a few Academy drivers there, then moving on to Snetterton 300 on Sunday...

Thursday 2 February 2017

I'm 40 - Time for a Mid Life Crisis

Yup, I'm there... I'm now 'officially' allowed to have the mid-life crisis I've been having for the last two / three (maybe more!) years... I turned 40 today...

Aside from moving on a decade, and being 'one step closer to a bus-pass' there were a few benefits to turning 40...  Below are a couple of them:-

This lovely handmade Caterham Birthday card which was handmade by Liz Hawkins, all in the right colour with all the details too - a really cool gift... You can contact her on s6crafting@gmail.com if you'd like your own card...
Handmade Caterham 40th Birthday Card
Handmade Caterham 40th Birthday Card
A handmade Caterham Nosecone and Tyre 40th birthday cake:-
Handmade 40th Birthday Cake
Handmade 40th Birthday Cake
A hat...
And oh... access to a 'few' track days :-)

Next up is the ARDS day at Castle Coombe Circuit on 8th Feb.