Wish me luck...
Posted by senninho
...for tomorrow, as i'll be taking part in the first round of the Uniroyal Funcup Scholarship at Croft.
Some of you older lot may remember that i took part in a similar competition in 2003, and got through to the semi final. Since then, i've acquired a driving licence, so i'll be hoping to go one step (or preferably two) further this time
Really looking forward to it. What i'm not looking forward to is the 5-hour trip there!
I'll report back on wednesday
Some of you older lot may remember that i took part in a similar competition in 2003, and got through to the semi final. Since then, i've acquired a driving licence, so i'll be hoping to go one step (or preferably two) further this time
Really looking forward to it. What i'm not looking forward to is the 5-hour trip there!
I'll report back on wednesday
Good luck!
Good luck!
As for the journey, feel for the rest of us who do live up here and have to travel south
As for the journey, feel for the rest of us who do live up here and have to travel south
Good luck mate, might have to pop down and watch if they're throwing the doors open...
good luck mate
Good Luck :D
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
good luck!
Thanks guys - just about to leave for the (long) drive up there. I'll post again tomorrow night to let you know how it went
5 hours isnt long mate. its a walk in the park.
takes me 3 days to get to the closest capital city, and i have co-driven it
and good luck!!
takes me 3 days to get to the closest capital city, and i have co-driven it
and good luck!!
That'll teach you for living in no mans land!
"takes me 3 days to get to the closest capital city,"
How many do you have :|
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"takes me 3 days to get to the closest capital city,"
How many do you have :|
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Use the search function...
one for each state.
thats 7... i think lol
thats 7... i think lol
Well, i'm back. Sorry i didn't post yesterday - was absolutely cream crackered.
The day started off a little badly when the satnav i'd borrowed insisted that the farm it had directed me to was Croft. This was soon rectified by ignoring it, and i was there on time.
In all, there were 20 of us there. Once we were signed in, and had had a briefing, they packed us into 5 road cars and showed us the track. The cars were (in ascending order of unsportiness:
- Vauxhall Astra 1.6.
- Peugeot 207.
- Kia Magentis (x2).
- Kia Picanto.
Hardly the fastest things ever to hit the track, but we were promised free rein to thrash them, the only condition being that if we spun, we were out.
At that point, we were split up into two groups. The first group had their track sessions, and my group had an autotest session in a Caterham Roadsport. The cours was a slalom, a spin (literally) around a single cone, a stop gate, another slalom, and a finish gate. I'd like to say i did well in this, but I managed to fluff the spinning around both times, and took a time penalty on the second run for making the car eat a cone.
After that, we sat around on the pit wall for an hour while the other group finished, then had lunch.
After lunch, it was our turn to go on track. We were split into twos, and given an instructor and car. I got the Astra, and my instructor was Paul Swift - son of Russ "Rover Display Team" Swift and professional display driver himself - a damn good coach and a top guy to boot.
We were given three 15-minute sessions to throw the car around the track and show our stuff, with constant feedback from the instructor. This was great fun, and Croft is a good track to do it on. At the end of the second session, Paul was massaging my ego in a major way - telling me i was 'already through' to the next round, and introducing me to another instructor as 'the little superstar'. How much of it was joking, i don't know, but it didn't exactly knock my confidence. The only thing i needed to work on was a tendancy to 'go for tenths that aren't there.'
After the 15-minute sessions, we had an assessment - one out lap, and two assessed fast laps. These went ok - Paul's only criticism was that i was 100% committed, but he asked for 90%. Tbh, i thought i was giving 90%, but that would explain why me driving at my version of 100% was resulting in mistakes.
After the track time ended, they took us back into the briefing room and thanked us all for coming, and basically said that we'd be hearing back from them within 2 weeks - fingers crossed, then!
Oh, and thanks to everyone that added words of support - sounds cliched, but it really did help to know that people wished me well
The day started off a little badly when the satnav i'd borrowed insisted that the farm it had directed me to was Croft. This was soon rectified by ignoring it, and i was there on time.
In all, there were 20 of us there. Once we were signed in, and had had a briefing, they packed us into 5 road cars and showed us the track. The cars were (in ascending order of unsportiness:
- Vauxhall Astra 1.6.
- Peugeot 207.
- Kia Magentis (x2).
- Kia Picanto.
Hardly the fastest things ever to hit the track, but we were promised free rein to thrash them, the only condition being that if we spun, we were out.
At that point, we were split up into two groups. The first group had their track sessions, and my group had an autotest session in a Caterham Roadsport. The cours was a slalom, a spin (literally) around a single cone, a stop gate, another slalom, and a finish gate. I'd like to say i did well in this, but I managed to fluff the spinning around both times, and took a time penalty on the second run for making the car eat a cone.
After that, we sat around on the pit wall for an hour while the other group finished, then had lunch.
After lunch, it was our turn to go on track. We were split into twos, and given an instructor and car. I got the Astra, and my instructor was Paul Swift - son of Russ "Rover Display Team" Swift and professional display driver himself - a damn good coach and a top guy to boot.
We were given three 15-minute sessions to throw the car around the track and show our stuff, with constant feedback from the instructor. This was great fun, and Croft is a good track to do it on. At the end of the second session, Paul was massaging my ego in a major way - telling me i was 'already through' to the next round, and introducing me to another instructor as 'the little superstar'. How much of it was joking, i don't know, but it didn't exactly knock my confidence. The only thing i needed to work on was a tendancy to 'go for tenths that aren't there.'
After the 15-minute sessions, we had an assessment - one out lap, and two assessed fast laps. These went ok - Paul's only criticism was that i was 100% committed, but he asked for 90%. Tbh, i thought i was giving 90%, but that would explain why me driving at my version of 100% was resulting in mistakes.
After the track time ended, they took us back into the briefing room and thanked us all for coming, and basically said that we'd be hearing back from them within 2 weeks - fingers crossed, then!
Oh, and thanks to everyone that added words of support - sounds cliched, but it really did help to know that people wished me well
wow, sounds like a blast, I saw the advert in Autosport.
Hope it goes well :D:D!
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
Hope it goes well :D:D!
"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL
Wow man, that sounds like alot of fun. i have my fingers crossed for you
Thanks again for the kind words. The other first round was yesterday, so it's now just a case of waiting. I'll let you guys know as soon as i hear from them
gareth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ Neil - where the hell do you live to be three
> days from (I'm guessing) Perth?????
Perth to adeliade is 3 days
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ Neil - where the hell do you live to be three
> days from (I'm guessing) Perth?????
Perth to adeliade is 3 days
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