Huge fun again at Donington!!

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

It has started to become an annual event for us in Derby & Notts to do a trackday our two so a bunch of us had booked the Opentrack Donington GP evening for the 1st September. 

 

We were all nervously weather watching all weekend as it looked like rain, thankfully we needn't have worried as we had amazing weather!

 

Sadly @Steve Bosworth @Naranja_Al and @Glynn Walters couldn't make it so we ended up with five cars with 5 different engines.....

 

@Tim Coles in his 280+bhp ecoboost engined SEIW

@Nick Mucklow in his 185bhp Duratec Silva Striker. Nick had taken Glynn's spot at the last minute.

@DanDB in his 200bhp Zetec SEIW

@ben1975 in his 180bhp R1 MNR Vortex

Myself in the MegaS2000 

 

We also had a load of spectators, including Tony, Rachael, Iain, Hedley, Tim's son, and Jonny (my brother in law who had come for his first track experience). Great to see you all, and thanks for cheering us on!

 

Waiting for the briefing, we were all surprised and delighted to see @Simon Waterfall Syman84 who had brought one of his BMW race cars for a shakedown before the next round at Croft this weekend. Simon has graduated from the Sprint Series, through MX5 racing and now is a multiple race winner in the BRSCC BMW 1 Series Supercup, I was looking forward to seeing the car on track!

 

After the sighting laps, we sat out the first 10 mins and were amazed that there were no red flags.... time to get out on track!

 

With Jonny strapped in my passenger seat, we all headed out slowly building up our pace.

 

We spotted Ben on the grass at one point, thankfully was fine and had pulled off due to a sticky throttle. Thankfully, he made it back to the garage and was seconds to sort (debris under the pedal).

 

Having a look at laptimes, I was pleased to see I'd managed to get into the 1m54's with two 16 stone blokes on board and a lot of traffic to pass. I'd been a little worried how Jonny would find the experience but he absolutely loved it, getting out of the car with rhe biggest of grins!

 

My last (and first) time on the GP circuit two weeks ago had seen me get down to 1m52.6 running solo and felt I could improve on that... so I went out for a run without a passenger to really wring it's neck! A few laps later I headed in to check my times and was so pleased to see I'd managed a 1m50.5, much, much better. I think im going to need some tuition to get much quicker than that....

 

I had been running with and passing a couple of race winning Ginettas (a G40 from the 750MC roadsports and a stunning 60's G4R that has had many class wins in the HSCC and CSCC). The G4R in particular was amazingly fast and consistent, taking beautifully clean lines, he had far more talent than me!

 

The other guys had also been charging round, getting in very quick laps in the 1m56 to 2m0 range, we had a great atmosphere in the garage 😂

 

Heading back out with Jonny riding shotgun again, we had only just got to Redgate when I saw Simon in the BMW 1 Series looming in the mirrors! I pulled aside to let him by, then set about chasing him down the Craners. It was amazing fun following him for a couple of laps, a fabulous opportunity for someone of my meagre talents to watch a pukka race driver's lines and braking points up close. We had a bit of traffic on occasion but were pushing hard when the track was clear. The memories of chasing him down the Craners at over 100mph, throwing the cars through the Foggy Esses, and then sideways trail braking into the hairpin are truly bucket list stuff 👌

 

Back in the pits and still buzzing, we were all comparing laptimes. Ben who had been lapping in the 1m56 bracket was pulling my leg about my Racechrono app being about 5 seconds optimistic vs his far more expensive AIM Solo he has fitted to the bike engined MNR 😂. Challenge accepted, we went out in tandem so he could follow me round and either prove or disprove the myth!

 

With Ben clamped to the FW rear end, we charged round for a brilliant couple of laps through a bit of traffic before he got over enthusiastic on the power exiting from the Melbourne hairpin and had a harmless low speed spin.... it looked brilliant in the mirrors 😂

 

In the garage, we compared times and he had managed his personal best. My Racechrono app had me at 1m51.88, with his AIM Solo registering his lap at 1m51.79, result! It is amazing how closely matched his light bike engined car is to my heavier car engine over a lap.

 

Nick, Dan and Tim had also been charging around, making the most of the fading light. Tim had swapped his new wheels/tyres for the R888R's he'd all but worn out on the hairpins of the Alps trip (his son had brought them in his daily), these were totally destroyed by the end of the day 😂

 

It was a fantastic evening, all cars ran faultlessly and everyone was safe, and all had a great time. Track etiquette was generally pretty good and we only had one red flag (the G40 had a gravel trap excursion).

 

As always, you get some fantastic photos as a memento, here's a few I've downloaded and edited.

 

Simon and Dan at the Old Hairpin

 

Dan chasing Nick through Coppice

 

Tim proudly displaying the 2024 Alps Peaky Blatters stickers on the side heading up from Mcleans

 

 

Ben chasing me down the Craners on our 1m51.8 lap.

 

Chasing down the beautiful (and very fast!!) Ginetta G4R through the Old Hairpin

 

Heading down the Craners

 

Using up the last of the sunshine!

 

Simon looking focused!

 

Tim and Dan at Coppice

 

Nick pushing hard at the hairpin

 

 

[Mathew Vernon - Membership Secretary]

Sounds like you had a great evening.

And this photo is 🥰

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

It was awesome fun!

 

The original photo looked like this, still beautiful but needed a bit of editing to get the full effect.

 

[Philb65]

Great write up and photos!

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

Good to see Ford vs. Honda continues after our 2024 Alps trip! 

 

Equally great to read @Tim Coles slicks are still serving him. Could he get round the tight curves without a three point turn at Donnington? 😉

 

What were Tim's lap times?

 

 

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

19 minutes ago, Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO said:

Good to see Ford vs. Honda continues after our 2024 Alps trip! 

 

Equally great to read @Tim Coles slicks are still serving him. Could he get round the tight curves without a three point turn at Donnington? 😉

 

What were Tim's lap times?

 

 

 

Haha, yes he did make it round apart from a little spin at the Esses 😂

 

I think Tim was in the high 1m50's in the end but it's hard driving on canvas instead of rubber 😂😂

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

2 minutes ago, Rob Hunter - Club Secretary said:

 

Haha, yes he did make it round apart from a little spin at the Esses 😂

 

I think Tim was in the high 1m50's in the end but it's hard driving on canvas instead of rubber 😂😂

I'm glad you've represented Team Honda so well 😉 

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

42 minutes ago, Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO said:

I'm glad you've represented Team Honda so well 😉 

Yep, Honda remains the fastest 😂

[Naranja_Al]

29 minutes ago, Rob Hunter - Club Secretary said:

Yep, Honda remains the fastest 😂

Calling @Mole to restore the balance of power in Ford’s favour….🤣