I had only been to Silverstone as a spectator so I felt it prudent to book a test day before the race to familiarise myself with the circuit. As it had also been 6 months since my last and only drive in the BMWRDC club car, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to get reacquainted with the old girl too!Most test days run in sessions divided between open wheel (cars with exposed wheels like a formula 1 car) and closed wheel (saloon & sports cars). At Silverstone the closed wheel cars had 4x 45 minute sessions spread accross the day.
There are lots of other cars out on track from all sorts of disciplines at the same time. So along side me at Silverstone were cars as varied as a VW Polo race car to an amazing Sauber Mercedes Group C Le Man car from the early 1990's; that was once driven to international glory by a certain Michael Schumacher. When it went past (which it did frequently) the noise was terrifyingly loud... but I digress.The first two sessions of the day went very well. I started slowly, building up speed quite nicely. Everything was going to plan.
However it was not long until I learnt two very valuable lessons.
During the first two sessions I was struggling to get the first corner, Copse, quite right. It is a very fast right hander, taken almost flat-out. In all honesty I needed bigger balls. I was braking a bit too much and it was obvious it was quicker.I felt that if I just kept my foot in it could be taken flat in forth gear (about 100 mph). I spoke to Trevor (the car's owner) and he felt that maybe it could. Another driver who races in the Kumho championship in class D Paul Bellamy (for the record who hadn't been out on the circuit yet!) was sure it could.
So at the start of the 3rd session it was time to give it a go. I barrelled down the start straight kept my foot pinned to the floor and turned into Copse... what happened next happened so quickly I am not sure myself what happened... the car jinked a little one way then another and turned 180 degrees in a split second. Instinct made me stamp as hard as I could on the brakes and hold them down for all I was worth... I slid backwards in a cloud of dramatic tyre smoke straight into the gravel trap... and there I sat stranded. They stopped the session (not a good way to endear you to the other drivers) whilst a truck came to pull me out. Unfortunately I had hit the trap with such ferocity that I was buried really deep in the gravel. I had to suffer the indignity of being lifted by a crane onto the back of a low loader. Oh the shame!
Trevor and I (mostly Trevor if i'm honest) then had to spend the next 2 hours cleaning piles of gravel out of every nook and cranny on the car. This meant removing a fair bit of the front of the car and all the wheels, then lying on the ground pulling all the gravel out... sorry Trevor.
Also because I had stamped on the brakes locking the wheels and slid at god only knows what speed, I had completely flat spotted the almost new tyres right down to the canvas... I have to cover the cost of tyres as part of the hire agreement on the car, so as always seems the case with this motorsport malarky I was off with the credit card, this time to the on-track tyre fitters, to relive me of £350 for a set of new Kumho tyres.The two valuable lessons:
- Drive to your own limits and don't let anyone egg you on. (however well meaning)
- When you spin, don't lock the brakes... it's costly.
In hindsight it could have been much worse; I hadn't hit anything, the car wasn't badly damaged and I could race the next day.
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