Ringing

On Wednesday I had my second visit of the year to Bedford Autodrome for "The Motorsport Sensation". There were 8 of us in our group :Me, Hugh, Chris, Keith, Jimmy, Phil, Sally and Paul. This was Keith's first visit, and as he's 6' 5", I was a bit worried that he'd find some of the cars a tight fit, but that was not the case. The British Superbike champion, Gregorio Lavilla and a number of his team mates were also there, which made for some good competition.

Bedford is a custom built site with, for this type of event, 4 separate tracks as well as the kart circuit and the 2 off road areas. We started in the karts on a wet circuit - It wasn't raining but had been overnight - There was no grip at all, and our times were way off the dry pace, but it was still fun. Then it was into the Clio Cup car on the west circuit. I bet your thinking "Clio - that's a bit slow/tame" - These are pukka race cars with a sequential gear box and loads of grip, even on a wet track. In fact, Keith reckoned it was the most fun to drive! Again, our times were pretty slow, but the track did dry a bit.

Next it was the FPA car - This isn't the full race car, but a tuned down version with only 200bhp - But it still weighs around 550kg, so it's very quick. As a guide, in the full race car I can manage mid 66 second laps, with the corporate car getting me round in just over 74 seconds in the dry. The best I saw on Wednesday was an 82.430 second lap - Young Chris managed to be just behind on an 82.500 which was a great lap!


Then it was on to my least favourite part of the day, but still great fun :-) At the off road area you have 3 laps in an Evo 8 Makkinen, that's been adapted to be rear wheel drive only. They also put "teflon tyres" on it and for good measure, soak the track - The circuit is an auto test type arena with cones and roundabouts - As I said not my cup of tea, but I tried hard and got the second quickest time of the day, which was a major surprise! Last time I was in this car I had it sideways everywhere, which looks good, but wasn't quick for me - This time I kept it neat and tidy, and was 4 seconds quicker.

Always my worst event is the off road course in the Nissan Path finder - It's tricky, but just doesn't float my boat. As usual, I was crap.

We then mmoved to the north circuit where the track was getting pretty dry with only a couple of damp patches left - There we had the Nissan 350Z and the JP1 sports prototype - I managed to set the quickest times of the day in both of these, but by my last lap in the Jaguar, the heavens had opened and we had rain of "biblical proportions". The staff decided that an early lunch was in order as the tracks had so much standing water that driving would be out of the question. I had been surprised that we hadn't gone for lunch after the off road stuff, but I guess the staff knew the weather was going to turn nasty, so they were reacting accordingly.

It was fairly obvious that we were going to have a shower interrupted afternoon, but we weren't prepared for what we got - We started the afternoon on the east circuit in the Caterham - The track started wet (it was still raining a bit) and got way worse as we got more torrential rain interspersed with hail - Then we had lightning (the real forked stuff) which meant disconnecting the intercom - I've never driven on/in so much water, but it was fantastic fun and a real chalenge just to stay on the tight and twisty circuit. It was amazing to see the huge grins on everyone's faces as they got back into the shelter of the hospitality suite.

By the time everyone in our group ( 8 of us and 10 others) had all been out in the Caterhams, the rain had stopped - So it was off to the final event of the day on the south circuit in the Jaguar JP1. For me, this circuit is the most demanding, with some really fast and tricky corners. It's worth going to the event just for this part of it. I was out in the first group and could feel the grip improving on every lap - so I was surprised that I finished up with the second fastest lap of the day! Hugh had been really nervous in the morning, but it was great to see him grow in confidence and really start to push - It was a similar story with Sally - She's had a tough year and it was great to see her grinning like a big kid :-) Then it was my turn at the end of day prize giving with me winning the driver of the day award.


So, despite the worst rain I've ever seen, including at home in Scotland, we had a totally superb day and we're already planning our first trip early in 2006.