Brands Hatch GP 19th Aug

[Andrew]

Have booked onto this one with want2race. It's a birthday present / bucket list thing from my family. It's an expensive day, but there aren't many on the GP circuit. Also the noise is a bit tight, so I'm not expecting throngs of fellow trackdayers. Has to be done at least once though.. and I'm running out of time. 😉 

 

https://www.want2race.co.uk/trackdays/19th-august-2021--track-day--2021-08-19

 

Brands GP circuit

Thursday 19 Aug

Open pitlane

101db static 92db drive by

£595 

[TAFKARM]

We're not made of money @Andrew

 

Have  a great day! GP looks awesome.

[Andrew]

1 hour ago, Rush Motorsport said:

We're not made of money @Andrew

 

Have  a great day! GP looks awesome.

 

Thanks Russ. Yes, I realise it's a pricey one, but the circuit does look pretty dam awesome. 🙂 Oddly, I've never driven Silverstone either, but it doesn't have the same appeal.. a bit like a faster wider Croft? 😉 

 

My only experience of Brands to date, is three laps in a Westy S2000 (Duratec with a sequential box) during a kit car show some years ago. Jim Bickley at the helm. 

 

It was 2006!

 

 

 

[Simon Waterfall Syman84]

definatly on the bucket list, but not this year.

 

donnington gp is also a good one but ticked that one off in the westy and an SR3 radical

[TAFKARM]

Silverstone is like a slightly wider, flatter, less interesting, Tesco car park. Don’t bother. 

[Andrew]

25 minutes ago, Simon Waterfall Syman84 said:

definatly on the bucket list, but not this year.

 

donnington gp is also a good one but ticked that one off in the westy and an SR3 radical

 

Donny's one of my favourites, but I'm not a fan of the GP loop.. much prefer the national circuit.

 

Don't leave your bucket list until you're ancient like I did Simon. 😉 

[Andrew]

Well, .. ticked off Brands GP yesterday.. what a track that is! 👍

 

Neither my son Pete, nor I had ever driven Brands before, and the paddock was full of intimidating "racy" type cars. It was being run by Want2race, so plenty of Ginnettas and a Caterhams. Ginettas are usually a recipe for red flags, but I think we got off lightly.. no more than three or four though the day.

 

Anyway, I knew which way the corners went, and the sighting laps didn't really help much with lines, but after the first session, I found my feet .. up to a point. It has to be said, my son found his feet sooner! We run a data logger, and he was quicker in his first session than I was in my last one! ..I put it down to the 30 plus years gap in age. 😚

 

The GP extension has some really fast corners.. the one at the end of the straight in particular took some bravery. It's a fast right hander at the end of a fast straight.. (Hawthorns) my car was topping 118mph and I found it hard to gauge how much to dab the brakes before turning into the bend.. always felt I could go faster. Pete was turning into it at about 90 and I was a touch slower.

       There's of course Paddock hill bend. That's a pretty dam awesome piece of tarmac! 😎 .. and the hairpin, not too slow and fairly blind until your right on top of it, and the blind right hander over the rise out the back (Sheen curve), followed by a well banked left hander.. (Stirlings) it's just superb!

 

Pete has decided to elevate it above Cadwell in his "best circuit" list, I would agree it's right up there. Well worth the price imo. Want2race seemed to run a good day. They have a sin bin system if anyone is naughty, and I'm not sure if it's down to them.. probably the MSV staff, but I've never seen so many blue lights and flags being used.. there were no excuses for holding up faster cars. There were also only 55 cars entered, which made for a  fair amount of clear track, particularly late in the afternoon.

 

We were parked up next to a couple of Caterham racers, so had a bit of paddock tuition / craic. I had a pax lap with one of them.. holy moly! Helped with my lines on a couple of corners. 

 

The day wasn't without niggles. The car developed a bit of a missfire mid afternoon. We tried a few things but never got it sorted, and it didn't really spoil the day. A bit of finger trouble on the Gopro again, recording one session as a gazillion stills! 😉 .. oh and the logger died for some reason before the end of play.

 

A few pics from the day, and I'll get some video sorted at some point.

 

 

 

[Simon Waterfall Syman84]

sounds like a great day @Andrew one day when I'm feeling flush or......... 4 and 0 in the not to distant future so you never know, but it has to be up there with Spa, Nurburgring etc. we are quite spoilt on this tiny island for great tracks.

 

hope you didnt do this one there and back in the day 

[Andrew]

1 hour ago, Simon Waterfall Syman84 said:

hope you didnt do this one there and back in the day 

 

Four and a half hour trip.. stayed in a Premier and drove back after the event. Back in just after ten last night.. buzzing! 🙂

 

Yea, big 4 0 is a good excuse Simon.. and I could be tempted into a twice in a life time event. 😉 

 

 

[Kingster]

56 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Four and a half hour trip

That's not too bad to get all the way darn sarf 👍

[Mole]

Andrew I must have missed your original post otherwise might have joined you..not too far from here..

I did a Ferrari owners day there twenty years ago and managed to blag some passenger rides with a young lad in an old 308.. we were pushing and over taking all the newer models.. absolutely loved the track..

Done donnington with want2race and the young guy running it was really friendly and helpful..

 

Glad you had fun!

[Andrew]

54 minutes ago, Mole said:

Andrew I must have missed your original post otherwise might have joined you..not too far from here..

I did a Ferrari owners day there twenty years ago and managed to blag some passenger rides with a young lad in an old 308.. we were pushing and over taking all the newer models.. absolutely loved the track..

Done donnington with want2race and the young guy running it was really friendly and helpful..

 

Glad you had fun!

 

You'd have loved it Martyn.. you'd have used a ton of fuel though. We took a full tank plus two 20L jerry cans, went out for another 20L at lunch time, and had to eek it out towards the end. Could easily have gone through another 20 I reckon. Lots of full throttle!, very heavy on fuel, but light on brakes.  

[TAFKARM]

I found that on the Koeniggsegg owners club day I did.

[Mole]

Sounds like that's a day for the the future then!

[Andrew]

First video:

An early session, son Pete at the helm ..