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Race report: Mallory Park Sept 27th
Mon 28 Sep 2009 3:44pm
Ok this is kinda brief because I'm still knackered after getting home sometime around midnight last night 
Qualifying:
Well this started slowly as I had new brake pads to bed in, so I did 8 or so slow laps trying to let people past whenever possible before doing a couple of fast ones. The pedals then felt kinda squidgy and I wasn't getting as much braking force as I was hoping. After another few slow laps the pedal firmed up and things improved again, but then I noticed a car on its roof in the esses - that didn't look like fun! Lots of yellows out everywhere so I gave up hope of getting another fast lap in and just plodded around continuing to work on the brakes. But the yellows went away and I got a enother couple of quick ones in before the chequered flag.
Ended up qualifying 11th, which was not as high as I'd hoped but I knew I hadn't braked properly for the hairpin and there was a lot more speed could be taken through the esses and into Gerrards. Have to see how it goes for the race...
Race 1:
Started well (albeit with 20 mins of fuel for a 15 minute race!) and made up a few places, got into a nice rhythm (sp?) and was running ok until I spotted the slippery surface flag on the way into Gerrards. I thought 'ahh it'll be fine' until I got about 3/4 of the way around and had a strange gliding sideways moment. That was definitely not fine. It got even less fine as I realised, just holding the car straight, that the guy in front had sensibly slowed down and that I was about to go into the back of him without really having enough grip or stability to brake.
Somehow we didn't collide but that kindof knocked it out of me - the rest of the race was enjoyable but I wasn't fast, especially around Gerrards, and I didn't take account of the returning grip as the oil got taken up by all the cars driving over it.
Ended up finishing 9th when the red flag came out. Frankly there had been so many incidents and so much going on I was just glad to have finished the race in one piece - but it would have been nice to have finished higher up!
I'd also boiled the brake fluid again and had a long squidgy brake pedal.
Here's the video:
http://www.vimeo.com/6786156
Race 2:
Started 8th on the grid as someone ahead of me had retired, I'd also bled the brakes (again) between races and the pedal was feeling a bit better. Got a good start and first couple of laps, making up a few places. However as the race progressed - while it was pretty clean - I wasn't showing stellar pace and wasn't making up any more places.
But I had some really enjoyable laps battling with #40 Top Marques - we were side by side a number of times and swapped places a couple of times. A few times I'd outbraked him on the outside into the hairpin but couldn't make enough of it to get past. Next time round I tried the inside insteadbut couldn't make it stick. A bit of contact made my presence known, but apart from painting his alloy a nice dark blue there was no real damage.
The field gradually spread out through the race and I ended up finishing 7th. A little disappointed, but the brakes held out much better this time and it was a really enjoyable race.
Video here:
http://www.vimeo.com/6786187
Overall:
I'd not expected great results, never having been to the circuit befor and having to take it easy in qualifying to bed in the brakes. As it happened I didn't get great results - but this was some of the best, closest and most dramatic racing I've had yet - very exciting!!
Race Report: Cadwell Park
Mon 29 Jun 2009 9:13pm
Wow, Ok I've been waiting to drive Cadwell ever since I first heard of it. Our own little mini-Nurburgring in the English countryside. I went to the 'ring about 18 months ago for a day and loved it, so I was very much looking forward to coming here - and the idea of racing...very excited!
I'd booked in a day of testing; its a technical circuit and there was no way I was going to go straight into qualifying cold...
So I'm there at 7:30am on the Saturday morning getting ready for testing. Even the road to Cadwell is fun...albeit not so much when there's a trailer behind. It's foggy though, so the first session is delayed. I put the old standard wheels and the old Toyo R888's back on for testing; no point using up the race rubber practising.
I get out on track soon after 10am, just taking it easy to warm the car up (and myself!). Wow. This is the most heavenly circuit ever!
I make 2 sessions before lunch and one after before switching onto the race rubber. I noticed I'd completely trashed one of the tyres - but the car was feeling really good and I was LOVING the circuit. The complex of corners through the trees toward the end of the lap are unreal, and the speed you can enter the gooseneck at are terrifying and exhilarating. And at the end of the pit straight; the fast left-hander up the hill followed by the tightening right-handers - very very fun! It's also very narrow; only 2 cars wide really for much of the track. This is in stark contrast to places like Silverstone where you could almost go five abreast if you were nuts...
I always thought I would prefer the more technical tracks; from sim racing and games I liked the need to join corners together into a rhythm to get the speed; somehow that worked for me better than 'simpler' setups (med-fast corners I'm crap at, for example... like T1 at Silverstone).
For the last two sessions I felt I'd got the hang of it and switched back to the lightweight wheels and Silverstone [race] tyres; to get used to the slight differences ready for racing tomorrow. This was the first time I'd run the two tyres back to back and the difference was quite profound; the Silverstones felt softer, greasier and more slippery - suddenly I much preferred the Toyos (the opposite reaction to what I'd had at the beginning of the season). But after the first session I'd got to grips with it and was lapping comfortably again.
A happy day's testing, and even just from that experience this is a place I want to come back to!
Right, onwards to race day. Signon at 9:15 this time; much later than usual and a welcome change! The extinguisher and ignition cutout pulls had half-seized so I'd spent a long time packing them with grease and adjusting them to make sure they worked - I was a bit worried about scrutineering; the ignition pull still needed a very hard tug to get it to work... ...I'll be replacing these (again!) before the next race. Thankfully everything went fine, car was passed ok and we were clear and ready for qualifying!
Qually started shortly after 11am, I'd got to assembly reasonably quickly so was the 9th car or so to get out there. I knew I wanted some clear track to get a decent time; and with lap times near the 2 minute mark there wouldn't be many opportunities in the 15 minute session we get. I was looking through the cars ahead to see who I needed to pass to get clear traffic - although really I was intending to keep it slow for the first 4 laps or so to dial in to the car again and get some clear air.
But of course that never happened; we got let out on track and I was at 8 10ths already; in the first couple of laps I passed a few of those that went out in front of me while the others had disappeared out of sight ahead. After 2 laps I was clear and went for it; got 2 decent laps down (1 minor mistake in each) before running into some traffic and losing time on a couple. However I had noticed an orange car staying about the same distance ahead. Orange means Stoner Racing and therefore either Gassman, Lockwood or Ross Stoner. All of which are quick. Them being visible ahead still was a good sign. Or actually maybe not as they slowed down and went into the pits...
I got one more decent lap as the checquered flag came out and headed in to see what happened. I felt good about the car and the clear laps so was hoping for 4th-5th or thereabouts....I was then astounded to find out I'd qualified 2nd; only Gassman in front! Woohoo a first-row start, very exciting!
For race 1 we were first up after lunch. I was getting pretty nervous as I pulled into assembly and - for the first time - took up position facing into the circuit entry lane instead of lined up around the edge. Time for some severe self-advice; (1) don't be cautious on the first lap because you always lose places, (2) don't bin it!
After a time we headed for the grid and warmup lap time. 2nd on the grid meant exactly side-by-side with Gassman, him on the inside for the first corner. It was a weird sight seeing all 20 other cars line up behind us. A sight I'd like to see again sometime...
After the warmup lap the 5 second board comes up and my heart is beating pretty quick. Lights go out and I get a good start - I'm actually shocked to see I've beaten Gassman off the line and he's fallen into place behind me. I'm leading the race!!
On with the job at hand; we fly up the first left-hander and around the two right handers onto the straight. He's still behind me and making no moves. This feels good. Right, don't be slow, you're always slow on the first lap. We're heading toward Park now at the end of the straight and its pretty bleak here but my braking point from yesterday was a small ridge in the track with some tyre marks on it. I miss it and brake hard, but trail a bit too much into the corner and lose the back. Almost save it but not quite and oooh the grass is bumpy. I slide around a bit before making contact with the wall ass-first while watching every single other car pass by. Strangely the only thoughts in my mind at this point are "is the car damaged?" and "how many of them are laughing? I would be...". I'm writing this now with a grin :)
But, the car is undamaged and pointing vaguely in the right direction so I'm off again toward the tarmac. Must. Make. Up. Places. So I'm full pelt through the gooseneck chasing down Jess and a few other cars I can't make out. I just about make it past Jess before the mountain before losing it again on entry and doing a but more grass-cutting. I rejoin again on the mountain and plough on...this time remembering that I have grass on the tyres and need to take it easy for a bit!
Last place never felt so bad...how can I start so well and cock up so badly!
But I'm back on the track and back up to speed, over the next few laps I'm back on form with only one other mistake of substance (running wide, I think at Park again). Through the rest of the race I keep coming across pairs and triplets of cars and making moves past them.
One particularly fun moment was coming up behind the #7 Martini car - he was closely following The Moose and I met them coming up the mountain. Had to brake going up the mountain to avoid hitting them and then made a cheeky attempt at passing on the right entering the Hall Bends (in the trees). This didn't end so well; hitting a nasty kerb and trading a bit of paint before making it past on the pit straight.
I ended the race 8th, nearly into 7th place but not quite (by 0.18 seconds!). Very extremely annoyed with myself for messing up the first lap so badly - but at the same time it made it a fun race for me trying to fight back up the field.
So onwards to Race 2 and I'm determined not to make the same mistake again. I'm starting from 8th this time after the earlier battle back up the field. As we're sitting in assembly I can hear the commentators talking through the field and apparently I should be 'watched' because of said battle...no pressure then...
Looking at the grid for race 2 I've got all three Stoner cars and Sarah on the first two rows - I'll be lucky to get past them. Three other cars between me and them; two in front and one on my left. Again I was fortunate with a good start and gained 2 places to sixth straight off the bat. Unfortunately I can already hear the video device beeping that it's got no power so no video of this race!
Thankfully also no major incidents - after a while in 5th I catch Lockey in the Gulf coloured car and take 4th, but very soon I can see Jason Jesse in the Sheriff car behind me...even though he started 9 places back in 17th. I also see an orange car slow down, peel off and park. I thought it was Gassman at the time but found out later it was Stoner.
So I'm in 4th and I've got the cops on my tail. Very close on my tail now. Somehow I manage to keep him here for a good few laps as I watch my fuel gauge drop lower and lower and the orange warning light spend more and more of its time illuminated with each passing light. Never before have I wanted a checquered flag so much...
Jason is still behind me and now Lockey's starting to get closer behind as well. I can just see Sarah in front but she's way ahead and I'm not catching her.
A couple of laps I see Jason closing very very close behind me going downhill into Mansfield after the gooseneck, and then the next time I look behind me first and see him shift to the left to make a move. As if automatically I then stuff my braking and change down to early and he disappears from my rear-view mirror, the corner is his...
I follow him up the mountain shaking fists and swearing, through the Hall bends we go, around Barn and out onto the pit straight to the chequered flag. Finished in 5th place. Dripping in sweat.
Awesome race though. I know I'd been cautious to avoid coming off (especially at Park again!), but didn't have to have let Jason through then, if only I could have held it 1/2 a lap more...
Ah well, I'm happy with the day's events; qualifying 2nd is a first for me - as is leading the race, if only for 1/2 a lap...
Our 2nd visit to Snetterton is next up - but I for one will be spending the next 12 months looking forward to coming back to Cadwell...
What a day :)
And here's the video for race 1:
MR2 Series; Cadwell 2009, race 1; #11 Shane Wright from Shane Wright on Vimeo.
Race Report: Silverstone
Mon 29 Jun 2009 8:40pm
Ok Silverstone isn't that far for me (2 hours) so I decided to drive on the morning and save on accomodation costs - so left home at 6am, found the rain at 6am and arrived at 7am in torrential rain!
This was going to be a good one; I'm not normally a fan of Silverstone because its massive, flat and boring - but with 30 cars registered it should be exciting...and it is the Home Of British Motorsport after all.
I've never driven here before (only the Southern circuit, which doesn't share any tarmac with the National configuration) - but I'd spent a little while practising in iRacing so I had a reasonable idea of the lines and how to take it.
It was so wet, so very very wet that even venturing outside the car to look at unloading the trailer meant certain saturation! But after much umming and aahhing about whether there would indeed be any racing today it started to ease and we started to get unloaded.
The start of qualifying was delayed by 40 minutes until 10:40am - apparently they have a phone line direct to the weather gods and knew exactly when it would stop... ...so, come 10:40 and we're sitting in assembly waiting to go out and qualify. Silverstone is massive so we're sat there in two rows and they just throw us out; no gaps between us or anything.
So I pottered slowly for a lap or two on the greasiest circuit I've ever been on; cars were spinning everywhere. I tried to keep slow and steady and just find some clear space. Eventually I got some and made a few clean laps without sliding too much.
I thought I'd been pretty slow, but was pleased afterwards to find out everyone else had been too and I was in 6th for the race! I like the wet!
By Race 1, in the early afternoon, it was a dry track in glorious sunshine. I got a good start from 6th but lost a few places on the first lap being too conservative in braking...I'm always too conservative in the opening laps. I made a couple back up but the race was red flagged (ended) on lap 9 after a large shunt involving 3 cars. I finished in 6th place.
For race 2, started in 6th again (based on the finishing position from race 1) - another good start but dropped a couple of places on the first lap (again). This time I fought them back though, made a couple of really satisfying passes and the race ended after the full 12 laps with me in 6th place again!
A good day all in all - I was certainly happy to have done better than the poor show at Pembrey, happy that the car ran well, and happy to have got a decent enough result at a circuit I'd not been to before.
Next stop Cadwell - the circuit of my dreams!
Preparing for Silverstone
Sat 06 Jun 2009 9:52pm
Well, its the Silverstone races tomorrow - although I'm only entering the MR2 for this one (not the Nippon as well).
I was going to write a fair bunch about the process of preparing for it but, well, the mechanics of getting it ready took longer than expected and I'm now knackered...so it'll have to wait.
So what wanted doing...well there's always a bit to do between races; if only to check the car over and make sure everything's in order; check fluid levels, spanner-check wheel nuts, etc - but this time there was a bit more...
First was to repair the accident damage from Pembrey; the front left-hand wing was pretty dented after hitting Neil while outbraking myself for T1. So this was prised to be slightly more in shape and resprayed to cover all the scraping and marks. There's no point really going for it cosmetically mid-season - making it pretty again can wait until the Winter.
However the impact had bent the wing into the pop-up headlight mount and into the bonnet slightly, so all that needed straightening out and 'readjusting' so the headlights could still pop up easily. Headlights are needed for scrutineering so this all has to work fine!
I'd also discovered at Pembrey that the ARB droplinks (the bars that join the anti-roll bar to the struts/suspension) weren't....right. So they've been replaced on all four corners with MR2 standard parts. This was more than a little fiddly at the front where the top ends of the links mount into a small rectangular bracket with not enough room to get a spanner in properly. Got it done in the end though :)
I also fitted the new lightweight BBS wheels - with shiny new wheel nuts. This should save me a good 20kg in weight and take me a good chunk closer to the 1050kb weight limit. Still pretty overwight though...ahem...
Finally, I had been getting some pretty dodgy tyre wear on the NSR at Pembrey - so I realigned the rears to be nice and square. This was the first time I'd done it myself, and I did it with the aid of a curtain pole, some duct tape and a ruler. Hi tech eh! It looks pretty damn straight....but we'll see the results tomorrow in the races...
The brakes feel a little squidgy again - not sure if the fluid is partially boiled and aerated, or if the pads are glazed from not having time to bed in properly at Pembrey, or something more serious.... but I've got 3.5 hours between qually and the first race tomorrow so there's more than enough time to sort anything out at the circuit.
Well, I'm writing this in bed at home, before setting off for Silverstone at 5am tomorrow morning. Time to stop typing and get some sleep.
Race report to follow in a few days...
Games to Relax by
Sun 24 May 2009 3:33am
Not really in the spirit of this site - but I've been playing a lot of PS3 games recently (ok so that's one reason why there's been fewer updates than I'd hoped here...).
Have just discovered Flower - and my God its great! The perfect relaxing game - but not so far removed there's no point to it (e.g .Fl0w where you just swim about). And best of all...there are trophies! It's only a few quid on PSN....highly recommended...
Otherwise, its back to the Rock Band addiction...
(and, during daylight hours, preparing for Silverstone's racing in 2 weeks time; by then I need all four wheels to be aligned to point in the same direction, and to repair the crash damage! More posts in due course...)
Race Report: Pembrey
Mon 18 May 2009 7:51pm
So, I've been threatening to myself to post more here, and make more of a general real-and-virtual motorsport site out of it, so having just got back from racing at Pembrey I've written up the trials and tribulations of the last few days.
This was my 2nd race weekend of the year - following on from Snetterton in April where I was happy with a 6th place finish in each of the two races, from 25 runners.
In the planning stages I’d been looking forward to Pembrey; 3 days on track in testing, qualifying and racing, and I'd spent a bit of time and money tarting up and improving the car. A full day’s testing, 3 qually sessions and 6 [extra long] races. Awesome! However through a combination of events and mishaps this wasn’t quite to be...
(this may come across overly negative – but it isn’t meant to – the racing I did do was bloody good fun, and to be honest was nice close racing that was thrilling to be a part of!)
Friday testing:
The day starts ok, treading very slowly in the first session to get the front brakes bedded in. But 4 laps or so in the car suddenly gets very very wobbly around the rear. I slow down even more and crawl back to the pits, on the last corner there’s a large crunch and suddenly the car’s on 3 wheels - oh fk – on the brakes gently to put the weight forward and steer it carefully into the grass.
Wait to be recovered as a nice Welsh chap (serious accent!) pulls up in his fire car. Get out the car and look underneath the offending near-side-rear wheel. There’s smoke coming out from around the edges and underneath there’s large metal shavings wrapped around everything. The wheel is at a very crooked angle. This doesn’t look good.
So, I get my first ride-of-shame back to the pits and a miserable few minutes waiting to have the car carried and craned back to my trailer and awaiting tools. Turns out the bearing had collapsed, ripping the end off the drive shaft and separating the brake disk from the rest of the hub. Literally the wheel had fallen off!.
So I (well, we!) set about repairing it. After most of the day, and much help from everybody we got a brake disc donated from another MR2 that was renewing theirs, got a drive shaft from Adam’s spares truck, a replacement hub I already had, and new brake pads (more EBC Greens) from the Stoners. Also freed up the seized callipers and got everything running smoothly again (thanks Alec!).
I’d like to dedicate this paragraph to everyone who helped get me running again, much appreciated!
Got back out on track for the last session at 4:25pm for 20 minutes of exploring the fast non-braking bits and lots of gentle brake to try to bed them in at both ends of the car.
Saturday:
Right, two qualifying sessions this morning before the racing starts in the afternoon. First up is Nippon qualifying – so I take it easy on the brakes for the first few laps, try to get a bit more bedding in done. Then a couple of swifter laps and I end up qualifying in XX of YY – not wonderful but happy enough considering I’m not really pushing the car.
Now for the MR2 qually – feeling a bit more confident now so I’m going for it right from the out lap. Confident enough to try grass-driving I thought as I put a wheel off and span into the infield. Kept it pointing the right way though and took it vaguely easy for the rest of the lap.
2 laps later and I’m trying to get past some people to put a decent time down, end up on the inside braking for the hairpin at turn 1. Of course I’ve only done about 4 laps of actual braking so completely outbrake myself and enter the corner on the inside, still going in a straight line and drive straight into my good friend Neil. I felt bad enough for this already – but at the time I thought I’d hit Sarah who’s husband had yesterday given much time and tools to helping get me back on the track! But, I’d only (!) hit Neil’s, on this his 2nd ever race weekend. Damnit. He pulled out of that session, but thankfully I’d buried my bonnet in his rear quarter panel instead of his rear wheels so with some hammering and tank tape he was back out later for the races.
After the incident I went a bit slow for a while to make sure the car was ok, then I kept my head down for the rest of qualifying and just concentrated on staying on the black stuff. Think this was generally a messy qualifying for everyone; there’s incidents everywhere in the video (hopefully posted somewhere soon).
Got back into the pits to inspect the damage, was a bit more than I’d thought (to both mine and Neil’s cars – his especially – sorry again!). Missed the first Nippon race while re-sculpting my front wing with a hammer to stop it rubbing on the tyre in bump, and just made sure it was all safe and ok.
After being concerned with weird tyre wear on the NSR I, just before the race, noticed on the advice of a few others that the rear toe is uneven; too much toe in on the NSR. Started playing with it but ran out of time before Race 1...
Right, so the first race of the day is MR2. Conditions are largely dry and the field is full; 27 runners. Turns out I’m starting in 12th! Got a good start and made a few places. Managed to stay fairly incident free through the race, but let a few people through. Wasn’t feeling particularly fast though, ended up 10th. Certainly not up to my hopes and expectations for the weekend, but its a finish so can’t be too unhappy I suppose.
Back into the pits after the race and see the Nippon guys already lining up for their Race 2 – leap out of the car, get it fuelled and then get back into assembly to go out for the next race! This is a bit of a rush....
Ok race 2 – starting near the back of the grid in XX with two MR2 Mk1 cars behind me and a couple in front as well. At least 2 are from the series so should be a similar spec to mine, the rest are Nippon only so are likely a lot lighter. Got an ok start, but driving pretty conservatively by this point. Then fell to last place and just hung at the back and slowly dropped farther and farther back through the race, ending up 12 seconds behind the next guy. Ok so the car isn’t exactly to GT150 spec (its 150kg too heavy for a start!) but I wasn’t really happy with that. The results sheet says my fastest lap was 0.5sec slower than my fastest in the MR2 race.
Sunday:
A disastrous start as I didn’t even arrive at the circuit until the afternoon! I missed the morning practise, the last Nippon race and the 2nd MR2 race.
This wasn’t so much of a problem per se, but it meant I was going out for the final race with a pretty unknown car setup, having played with the toe a bit and come to the [joint] conclusion that both rear wheels were fairly out.
But, got fuelled up and went to assembly to get gridded. Then it the rain came! We got two green flag laps to get warmed up, put a bit of a dry line down and get a feel for the conditions. I’m starting almost at the back of the grid for this race as for some reason my name’s not on the list! No idea why; maybe lack of decent qualifying laps (ahem!), maybe because I wasn’t there for the earlier practise/race.
So we kick off and I get an ok start again. Definitely intending to take it easy in this race in the unknown conditions and unknown car behaviour.
However that conservative sentiment lastest all of 5 seconds and soon I was throwing it into the corners with a fair amount of sideways action. The oversteer was horrific, felt like a spongey rear-end on ice – but after the race I found most others were having the same issues!.
I made a few good places up but struggled to find decent passing opportunities – still feeling a bit uncertain about the edges of the car’s handling.
Geraint made an awesome pass against me in Dibeni, forcing me wide – I swore a lot in that corner but he got through cleanly and we both survived. I then spent a long time on his tail.
A little later on I made a great exit from Brooklands and took a couple of people along the Speedway Straight and through Woodlands. Unfortunately I then ended up at Honda with a little too much momentum and couldn’t keep it straight on the throttle.
As the back went round I started to point the wrong way on the track and suddenly became very conscious of the cars behind me that I’d just passed – who was going to hit me first? But as I span I saw a white car behind me also pointing in a very silly direction. At that point I realised I’d forgotten the golden rule and put both feet in! But this wasn’t in time to stop the engine stalling so by the time I’d wrestled the car back to pointing in the right direction (past the corner and still on the black stuff, thankfully) I was angrily swearing and turning the key trying to restart the engine. Eventually got it fired up and got back up to speed.
The rest of the race was largely uneventful, but with some nice close racing trying to get past Geraint again. Ended up finishing 16th. I suppose from starting near the back that’s ok but to be honest I was hoping for much much better this weekend.
Onwards...
Well, next up its Silverstone in 3 weeks time. I don’t think I’ll be doing the Nippon there because I can’t see a result other than coming last until I can lose enough weight from the car that I need to be carrying ballast for the MR2 series. I also half-feel that 2 races is quite enough for one day and the hour or two between them is nice for just relaxing and taking in the experience. Also need to keep an eye on budget – so will probably do Silverstone all in one day to save on T&S costs.
In the meantime, the car needs fully realigning to reduce the oversteer a touch (not too much, I hate an understeering car) and to get rid of the nasty tyre wear on the NSR. Much more preparation before races needed methinks!
Otherwise, I just need to make sure I properly know the circuit – otherwise, as I found out with Pembrey, I’m still experimenting with lines and braking points during the races!
A disappointing weekend, but I’m all the more enthused for the next one so it can’t be all bad. Posting of images and video to follow!
That's a bit more like it!
Sat 21 Feb 2009 5:55pm
Right, we've fixed up a bunch of the site so it understands changes made by the TDOs to their events calendars in the last few months, and we've updated with a bunch of 2009 dates...so now around 500 in total are listed.
As yet we've not got anything for Javelin or Circuit Days - they will follow, along with some events for a few smaller organisers.
2009 track days
Fri 19 Dec 2008 4:08pm
I've updated the parsers to cope with 2009, so we've a few events listed for 2009 now - although many of the organisers haven't publised dates beyond March yet.
There are a few others that want fixing/updating - so I'll post again here once the list is complete again. At the same time I'm working on some measure to improve the quality; both in being able to automatically list events that have 'unusual' descriptions on the organisers' sites, and in being able to remove events that have been cancelled! Again, I'll post here when all that is done.
General update
Sun 21 Sep 2008 2:57pm
Right, its been a while!
Not a lot of changes on the site recently, but got a couple online now; see the new Circuit Maps page. All the circuit info pages now link to their location in Google Maps for easy directions (NB the location goes straight to the paddock/car park; not just where the postcode would send you!!)....and coming soon, "Car Porn", yeah!
Also we've got some updates to the feeds driving the Track Day Calendar coming soon - and the addition of events from BHP Trackdays.
But, mostly the reason for the slow progress here is my total addiction to iRacing. If you haven't tried it yet then DO IT. Oh, and if you subscribe, why not do your favourite track day site a favour and put me@shanewright.co.uk down as the nice guy who referred you ;)
Also, I've finally bought a race car - but more on that later!
Bye for now...
Site updates!
Mon 19 May 2008 7:14pm
Ok, so site development has been a little slow recently, mostly due to holidays (yay) and work (also yay).
But the site has progressed a little; some more content here and there, along with some layout/styling fixes.
The track day calendar has also been improved; partly the page layout to make it a bit more concise - but also it 'de-dupes' track days; so if we know about a day from both the original organiser (e.g. Focused Events) and from a reseller (e.g. Track Days) then we'll only list it by the actual organiser, in this case Focused Events. If we don't know the original organiser then the reseller's version will be listed. Clear? Good.
Coming soon...the cool stuff. More updates over the next few days...
Ex-Noble-Owner. Booooo!
Wed 16 Apr 2008 9:30pm
I am now officially an ex-Noble-owner - the geekmobile v2 was taken away by a nice chap from up North.
I feel kinda sad.
I also feel kinda excited - v3 will be something different. Something more practical, in a kind of racing kindof way. Currently I'm thinking along the lines of a Fisher Fury to race in the 750MC's RGB Class C series. Why? Well they're quick, most are already road legal - which means they're also track day legal, which means loadsa fun! Only downside is the high maintenance / short lifetime of the bike engine - but I suppose they're not expensive...
Otherwise its Caterham Roadsports B. Or maybe something else, dunno yet!
As it may be clear by now (if you've read this far!), my criteria are... eligible for circuit racing, legal for track days, (preferably) road legal as well, and something that feels....raw I suppose. Oh, and I don't have time to build my own car.
And relatively cheap. It must be cheap.
Ok thats enough ranting for now. One day maybe I'll get comments/replies working on here so y'all can tell me the error of my ways. In the meantime if you've a burning desire to point me at your chosen class you can always contact me directly.
Oh, and coming soon on the site (this site!): interactive Google Maps for easy finding how far circuits are to you, an interactive Track Day Finder ("get me something this weekend inside 100 miles of me! preferably open pit"), and maybe some reviews/ratings of different circuits. Yum.
Added feed from Focused Events
Mon 31 Mar 2008 11:48pm
Today we've added organiser information and track day event calendar for Focused Events track days. These now make up part of the overall site calendar and will be updated automatically - enjoy!
Added another event feed
Sun 09 Mar 2008 12:55am
Added a track day event feed for MotorSport Vision's Car and Bike days - so loads more events listed for their circuits: Brand Hatch, Snetterton, Oulton Park, Bedford Autodrome, and Cadwell Park.
Site Updates
Tue 04 Mar 2008 12:15am
Ok a couple of random site updates now; firstly most tracks now have at least one game/sim listed to be able to play them in (although more to come!)
Also, we've added entries for Lydden, Woodbridge and Barkston Heath circuits, so events organised at them now appear in the track day calendar.
Coming soon; event feeds from Circuit Days and from various circuits themselves.
Welcome to CircuitJunkie!
Sat 01 Mar 2008 12:55am
Ok so the site's not finished yet (caveat in place first, eh!) - but what we're trying to do here is to put together a decent track day calendar site combining all the events from all the organisers.
This means instead of hunting round every separate web site, or asking the world in another post on Pistonheads, you can just check one place here and decide where/when to get your next track fix!
Also, being of the slightly geeky persuasion, what we also do here is list up a bunch of games (SIMs damnit!) you can practise each circuit on. We'll concentrate on the realism-focused ones like GTR2, rFactor and GT Legends - rubbish like Need for Speed or Test Drive: Unlimited will not be listed. Middle-of-the-road games like Gran Turismo 4 and Forza shouldn't really be on here, but because they're popular (and 'cos they ship with the Nordschleife) we'll list 'em!
So far we've got track day listings up for some of the larger organisers including Bookatrack, Trackdays.co.uk, Javelin, and Gold Track. Circuit Days is coming soon!
We also list circuit-organised days - but currently only events at Goodwood and Thruxton.
So, go check out the calendar and see what's happening. New event sources will be announced here as soon as we get them working!
We would also like your feedback - if there's anything you want to see on the site then tell us about it.
Have fun,
Shane
