Doune last weekend was a 2 day event, practice on sat and competition runs on sun, unfortunately sun was forecast as hellish weather, lots of rain . . . so sat was the day to try . . .
My objective for the year was to beat every PB if conditions allowed . . .
We trailered the caterham down on Friday night, had a blether with the aberdeen loons and went home for a curry and some vino . . . I had been thinking about Doune and how to drive it for the latter half of the week . . . and decided that I didn't need to walk up the track . . . my brain knew what to do . . .
We turn up on Saturday AM, and the weather is perfect, warm enough for grip, cool enough for power . . . time to have a bacon roll, some coffee, warm the engine up and suit up . . .
I don't remember driving the hill . . . you do it by feel and memory, you don't really see where you are going at all . . . I only ever remember places I can go faster . . . first practice run is sub 50 seconds . . . an absolutely impossible time for me last year . . . but my brain upgrade over the winter deals with it perfectly . . . I can easily go faster . . .
Practice 2 and I try harder where required . . . new PB . . . 49.12 . . . not a lot faster, but one run today to go before the weather breaks . . .
I catch some sleep in the trailer over lunch break . . .
Final run of the day I extend my braking points deep into the corners and trust the car to stick on the fast turns . . . it does . . . it's awesome . . . easy to drive and fast as f**k, it's like an extension of your nervous system, 100% feedback, 100% reactive, completely controlled . . . new PB again of 48.81 . . . 0.6 seconds faster than last year - that is a lot at Doune at that pace - try it . . . also as fast as Lawrence went . . . he'd be as pleased as I am and he'll know just how difficult and important it is . . . never go slower . . . weekend's objecive achieved . . . chatting to Katrina at Doune that day theres not a lot that needs to be said . . . great to see her . . .
We have a drink and BBQ until the early hours, talk sh1te with all the real fast guys and sleep, under the gazeebo, in a tent, in the hellish pishing rain outside . . .
I'm up at 0700 to walk the track, no need in the dry but in the wet you need to know where the standing water is, the ACB10's don't clear enough water for safe driving . . . it's horizontal rain and flooding the track . . .
It's a long, long day as people go off . . . the barriers get repaired . . . the usual stuff . . .
3 runs during the day in the wet each time . . . I get down to 51.57 . . . an easy win and way ahead of my targets . . . but it's survival mode rather than strategy . . . a different skill . . .
A class win is the result . . . but the PB the day before is the real prize . . .
Doune is awesome if you can deal with it (and not everybody can) . . . I can . . . There is no equal . . . I want a faster car
Fd
) but for some reason it doesn't register with me as a new PB. The single seater Jedi has gone quicker and leads the class from me by 0.3 seconds.
