Palmersport

We had our annual trip to the Palmersport day a couple of weeks ago and yet again, we had a fantastic day. Every year you wonder how the day could be improved upon, and yet they manage it.....

Our team of 20 were to be the Senna team and out first activity was the Caterham 7 on the East circuit. With all the rain we've been having, we fully expected at least some bad weather, but it stayed dry all day - however, the circuit still had some damp patches from the previous day's downpour, which made the first couple of laps, on sicks, interesting. These cars have now got 170bhp and are awesome - I usually do well in these and I maintained my form with a 48.44, which would top the timesheets at the end of the day.

Then it was off to the west circuit to drive the really quick stuff. First, it was the Formula Jaguar, a 270bhp V6 in a modified FPA chassis with a paddle shift. What a car! I got lucky, and managed to get past the 2 in front of me really quickly, and then had 6 or 7 laps where I could really push. Even when I caught some other cars, the blue flags were quickly waved and off I went - I really got to grips with the new complex and doubted I could go much quicker. The new dash system doesn't show a lap time but I was pretty sure I'd gone a fair bit quicker than last month, when I got within 1.2sec of the instructor time. I later found out that they had not been able to get my lap time from the on-board computer - didn't happen to anyone else :-)

Anyway, next it was out in the 2 seater JP1 sports prototype - the same engine and gearbox as the Formula Jaguar, but with a 2 seater Le Mans type config. My instructor was with a guy I used to race against, Niki Faulkner, so he pretty much let me do what I wanted, but still pointed out where I could tidy things up - Again I managed the quickest time of the day with a 78.42.

Next up were the karts, and I did an unplanned bit of off roading at the first corner, as the brakes were almost no-existant, but that's the way it goes sometimes, and I still ended up 7th quickest with a 29.94 - my slowest ever time on the kart circuit.

Before lunch we headed off to the South circuit for a run in the Jaguar XKR - A 420bhp supercharged luxury saloon. I've never really got on with this car, as it has a really intrusive traction control and this time was just the same. It really is a case of less is more in the XKR, but despite being pretty slow, I still enjoyed it (28th).

Then it was lunch, and they put on a magnificent seafood buffet - lobster, salmon, prawns, followed by a tasty fruity thing. Great grub!

But no rest for the wicked, so it was straight over to the North circuit for the Clio Cup car and the Porsche JP3. Despite being totally different, the lap times these cars achieve are pretty close. For me it was the 205bhp, front wheel drive Clio first. I was out with Andrew Foster, a current FPA driver, who was really good at subtley pointing out the weak areas and helping me post a 59.86, fastest of the day.

It was then into the Porsche JP3, a 320bhp rear wheel drive car - pretty much the oposite of the Clio, and requiring a very different driving style. I like this car and managed a 57.95, 2nd quickest of the day and only a tenth off of the best time.

By now we were all pretty knackered as we headed off for my least favourite part of the day, the off road course. I was crap, finishing 51st (of 52!), but I managed a 3-0 victory over Chris Mcmahon in the Caterham head to head.

We managed to win the team prize, and me, Paul Healy, Dave Morgan and Chris McMahon all managed to win one of the trophies, with Dave Morgan also taking the overall Driver of the Day.

As an aside to the day, Paul Healy and I went to Raceland to take part in one of the open GP's that we started racing in back in '04. We had a lot of fun and i'm proud to say that I now hold the lap record at Raceland with a 59.72 - The first person to break a minute in the Sodi kart :-) (Which they've had for 3 years!)