Oulton Park 24th april

[Stu160]

Met Robin at the track for signing and to find out what he had decided to do.
We worked out three options
1. send Egor home on low loader and share 2cars between 3 at the track.
2.Play battery shuffle at the track then send egor home on low loader
3. play battery shuffle all day and all the way home.
We all agreed on 3, that way Robin could get the full track day and get back home without the hassle of getting
the car uplifted.
Worked out well as we all got full day at track with only 3 swaps of battery and made it home with another 4 swaps .
Oulton was brilliant, stayed dry all day , the track was very grippy, a varied group of cars made it interesting from ultra quick to
very slow .
My 1st time there and must rank up there with one of the best tracks, hope I can get back again this year.
Pete

SE at its very best

Stu

[Andy G]

Reminds me of frolic with Ali in the Shed.

Team Shed (the RLC & The Silver Shed) must have stopped 7 times just to get Charade that morning

Pleased you had a good day chaps - very envious!

[robin]

Yes, a huge thanks to Kev and Pete for supporting Egor and me with the battery shuffle.

We did 80 miles first stint, dry and daylight, easy. Second stint was 65 miles because there wasn't a well placed service station to do 80. Third stint was another 65-70 miles and this time in the dark and wet. The lights are very dim at this point and I'm resorting to shadowing Kev to increase my own visibility due to his glow-in-the-dark paintwork

The plan was to split at Hamilton with Kev and Pete heading off towards Stirling and me to Edinburgh. Kev volunteered to follow me on the M8 to make sure I made it, but then we got split up leaving the services and he missed the exit. It pissed it down on the M8 and the candle-lights were not helping matters. Turns out he made the second exit which gets you there too in the end so he had come across the M8 also but a mile or two back from me ... as it happened the battery held out and I made it home with enough juice to keep the candles on, but it was great to know there somebody there just in case

Anyway the track day was great - shame it didn't rain which I thought it might - but the khumos worked well enough in the dry, though I feel I have now had my money's worth out of them and it's time to get something new for Spa.

My only gripe about the day was the number of race teams obviously testing.

Cheers,
Robin

[H8OAG]

Very Jealous

Robin said: My only gripe about the day was the number of race teams obviously testing

Were they getting in your way and spoiling your lappery

[tut]

Good to see that you got the track day in regardless Robin. Three stage day, 1) get there, 2) get the track day in, the most important, 3) get home, least important.

A bugger and a bum clencher having to drive back at night though with no alternator, at least coming back from the Ring it was daylight and I had everything switched of and Rain X on the screen, and managed around 1.40 hours between charges.

tut

[robin]

I love a challenge. Sometimes it's fuel stop strategy, sometimes it's average speed to make the ferry, sometimes it's battery range under varying electrical loads (time integral of power vs. remaining battery capacity)

Iain, no I was getting in their way mostly (though the odd one did get in the way during their weird slow laps - don't know what they're up to but it's not looking the mirrors).

Cheers,
Robin

[rossybee]

Robin said: My only gripe about the day was the number of race teams obviously testing

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=25643

[robin]

In the special case of the ring I am afraid to say that the only solution is to eliminate public days and use it for track days instead. Even then, I had the opportunity to go on one later this year and elected not to due to cost and the possibility of wrecking the car ahead of Spa ... so perhaps I am just getting old

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

If I remember correctly when out with Sabine, she would overtake on either side in order not to be held up, and this must have been acceptable in the Ring Taxi.

However although we would not copy this, there are others that probably would. Ian Forrest did the same in my car at KH, although others afterwards thought it was me and wondered why I had not been black flagged.

tut

[robin]

Tut,

On a public day, the rules are those of the road, so (being in Germany) you are meant to keep right and overtake on the left. In particular this means that when approaching a left hand corner on the racing line you need to give way to somebody who's chucked it up the inside.

Of course you can do whatever you like and nobody cares, but when there is an accident those obeying the rules of the road are less likely to be found culpable .... unless they're British, French or Dutch, of course

Cheers,
Robin

[Scotty C]

reminds me of reading this last week.

http://bridgetogantry.com/2/index.php/h ... -easy-move

[rossybee]

Errr Scotty...

Robin said: My only gripe about the day was the number of race teams obviously testing

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=25643

[Scotty C]

I never clicked on you link sorry

[rossybee]

Out it pops