Palmersport 2010

As per usual, we had our annual visit to Bedford Autodrome to partake in a day of automotive hooning in a selection of fantastic cars on August 4th.

The format of the day is that folk are split into teams of around 20 and our group were to be the Piquet team. We couldn't help but notice that the Schumacher team contained a real F1 driver, in the guise of Martin Brundle and also his son Alex (current F3 racer). Quite a challenge! This was compounded by a forecast of showers, which made frequent visits throughout the day!

So, we headed off for our first event, which was to be the Caterham 7 on the twisty east circuit.

The first 7 headed out on a wet but drying track and a dryish line was becoming visible - I was in the second group and on my 2nd/3rd lap it started raining again so no fast time for me. Despite the rain, we all had some serious fun!

We then hit the South circuit which , new for 2010, hosts the BMW M3 GTP (4.2l V8) - In the wet it was a real challenge but was way better than the Jag XKR it replaced.

Then it was off to the North circuit for the Porches and Clio Cups. I was out in the first group in the 911's and by the end of the session there was the hint of a dry line - but my time was still 4 seconds away from a dry time - but as the rain stayed away each group were getting quicker and quicker - so much so that by the time I got into the Clio, it was almost dry, and I posted the fastest Clio lap of the day with a mid 58 second (I had only managed a 61 in the Porsche).

Just as we headed off for lunch the heavens opened and we were glad we were in a nice warm room eating some sublime food!

Post lunch, we headed for the off-road & Caterham pursuit area. The Caterham head to head is now a point scoring activity (which I lost to Craig Alsop who was on the dry side:-)) and the off road now includes some paint ball target shooting.

We then headed to the West circuit for the fast stuff - First it was the JP1 sports pototype - Thankfully the track was mostly dry and it was great to see the guys on their first Palmersport event getting out of the cars with "that" look on their faces……

We then had a quick blast in the karts before finishing the day in the Formula Jaguar - Big kudos to Dave Rooke who set the fastest time of the day in the FJ and beat the instructor's reference lap!


So then it was back for the prize giving. Despite Dave R setting the fastest time, the FJ prize went to Marin Brundle who was more consistent. His son Alex took the JP1 prize so it was looking bleak for us, but apart from the off-road and the Caterham Pursuit, we then took the rest with Andrew McDonad (Porsche), Me (Clio), Dave Rooke (Kart) and Craig Alsop (Caterham 7) taking the honours.

We also won the team prize and the biggest shock?

Driver of the Day standings:

1st David Rooke - Doctor and Crail Karter
2nd Dave Morgan - Company Director and Crail Karter
3rd Martin Brundle - Ex F1 Driver and BBC F1 pundit
4th David Joseph - IT Geek and Crail Karter
5th Andrew McDonald -IT Geek and occasional Crail Karter
6th Alex Brundle - Racing Driver (F3)

OK, the weather had an impact, but David R showed that he was the man to beat - Alex must be really pissed off! (He instructed at Palmersport for a year or 2!)

Of the guys new to Palmersport, Ryan Farley was the top dog managing a creditable 12th of the 60 attendees. But everyone had a great time and I know we'll be back next year!

Things look a bit more interesting over the coming weeks/months with the Britcar 24 hour in our trusty Integra (Oct 1-2-3) and the highlight of the year, the Monaco Kart Cup 2 weekends later :-)