On Track with Croc

[Blokko]

Met up with Mike (croc) last Friday at Donington Park track. Good to meet a USA7'er - looking forward to meeting more 7 owning folk when I get over to the States!

Didn't manage to get on track on the Friday (which was a good thing as it turned out). A week before the event there were 18 places available. When I came to book on the Monday morning all the slots had gone.

There was a lot of fast, expensive metal / carbon / fibreglass on track (Ferrari's, BAC Mono's, an Aston, some quick 7's) and the track etiquette wasn't the best. Several red flags for various incidents and (unusually for this track day organiser) there was a lot of queuing to get on track.

Here is one of the reasons behind one of the stoppages -


Here is a pic of Mike navigating Redgate -



In contrast Sunday at Anglesey was a great day (and this time I did get on track, albeit for only half a day due to work commitments).

Weather was great and there were only about 30 cars on track (all behaving well). Got a lot of track time in on this brilliant circuit. A lot of time was spent either chasing or leading Mike - both of which were good fun. Had to come in after a few laps as I had a bit of a problem with the expansion bottle top losing pressure and because my tyres lost grip once they reached a certain temperature (understeering out of Church at 90mph was 'interesting' to say the least).

Here are a couple of low res shots from Anglesey (Mike in background of the one shot)





So, a great weekend of track action. All being well I'll be joining some of you in 2015 on the New Jersey track weekend (in my own 7 if all goes to plan)....

[Croc]

It was good to meet you in person Steve!

Top days at Donington and Anglesey. While Donington did hold the British GP something like 10 years ago and is fairly well known, Angelsey is a small club circuit in the far north of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. Both make incredible use of terrain. While I looked at videos to familiarize myself with the layout in advance, nothing prepared me for the elevation changes that happen on those tracks.

For those wondering what happened to the poor Caterham gear lever above, that was the result of it suddenly becoming a "flappy paddle" gearbox while going from 5th to 6th diving downing into Craner Curves at 85-90mph. Steve was generous enough not to show the results of the "gardening" that resulted from my sudden surprise and confusion. Somehow all the gear lever retaining bolts had worked loose so the lever disconnected from gearbox. While I tried to limp to the pits in 6th gear I ran out of revs and had to be flat towed back for recover.

Give me to the weekend and I will upload photos of the astonishing Donington Collection of Formula One cars which has to be one of the most incredible auto collections I have ever seen in. I will also upload some circuit video and photos.

[yellowss7]

Come on Steve, post up the Gardening Pics.

[Croc]

Steve - you may as well tell everyone what I did to the poor instructor at Angelsey....

[Blokko]

Steve - you may as well tell everyone what I did to the poor instructor at Angelsey....

Okey dokey! So I decide to sneakily follow Mike out on track for his instructor session so that I could pick up his lines. We joined the circuit at The Banking hairpin, then it’s a short straight into Church - which is a long 90 degree right hander that you can carry a lot of speed through. The next ‘proper’ corner is Rocket, but between Church and Rocket the tarmac is never actually straight – a gentle right hand curve that sharpens a bit just at the point where you might want to think about hitting the anchors. At this stage (when I got things right) I was approaching the sharp left hander of Rocket at 110. Braking here is helped by the fact that there is a steep incline on the approach to Rocket, which enables you to scrub a lot of the speed that has built up.

Except on this first lap Mike didn’t manage to scrub enough speed and he watched the apex fly by as he headed towards the infield. Fortunately he managed to make the turn before running out of tarmac – thus saving the embarrassment of going grass cutting with an instructor on board J

[Taber10]

While Donington did hold the British GP something like 10 years ago and is fairly well known......

I'm very jealous, as I have only had one "low speed" circuit of Donington Park during the early '80s in a US Spec TR6. But I want to make a historical note: Donington hasn't hosted the British GP for quite some time, actually pre-war I believe. It did host the 1993 European GP, for which Senna is deservedly well-remembered. That was more than 10 years ago.... During that time frame, Brands Hatch and Silverstone shared hosting the British GP and alternately, the "world" GP or something similar. Donington was much more fun, in that club races, Formula Ford series, etc. were routinely held there from 1977 on.

Thanks for the pictures!

Taber

[Croc]

Taber you are quite correct on the year for the British GP. I had 2003 in my mind as the year when in fact it was 1993 as you point out. I remembered it being Ayrton Senna who won as I watched the race live but I guess it was a senior moment that led me to have a mental arithmetic failure.

[Croc]

Here are the photos from my recent Donington and Anglesey excursions. Donington is based in the East Midlands area of the UK – about 2 hours drive from Heathrow.

Given I arrived off a US flight early in the morning I stopped in first at the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon UK, about 1.5 hours drive from Heathrow. It celebrates the British motor industry which had extraordinary success until brought down by poor management, weak Governments and labor unions in the 1970s. The facility is superb with extensive sponsorship by Jaguar and Land Rover. If you want you can take a Land Rover or Range Rover on an off road test drive in a purpose built 4wd trail on the property. I had a great time testing a LR3!

In the museum, there is a spectacular collection of cars:



An original Jaguar XJ13 with its dashboard






Who remembers Bob Tulius?

[Croc]

An original Le Mans D Type and its interior:






A lovely Lotus 7 Series 3 although it had some Series 2 touches if you look carefully

[Croc]

Then it was cross country to Donington. The circuit maintains a museum which has the greatest collection of Formula 1 cars anywhere on Earth. I can only say they may be under estimating. I left a trail of drool, dribble, sweat, tears, pee and sperm all over this museum….absolutely amazing.