North Weald (15 December 2006)

This was my first activity day with LoT, and I was looking forward to doing a few timed runs. We started with the fast left hander, which basically involved going down a straight at the speed  you wanted to take the corner at, then turn in without braking and try not to cross the metal drain or spin. The fastest bend was in the region of 105mph, but I set off at at a conservative 60mph. That was too easy, so in my normal subtle way I decided to jump to 90mph. This was a bit trickier and a little scary on the narrow approach road. The end result was I spun it time after time, getting more and more frustrated that I couldn't anywhere near the fastest speed. Eventually I managed to get round without spinning, but was running a little wide. Andy Walsh then suggested the problem was that I was being to aggressive with the steering wheel, so I should try the next few attempts steering with one finger. This was rather scary going into a corner at a reasonable speed controlling the car with one finger, but I did it, and instantly went into a spin. And again... Eventually I managed not to spin, so thought I'd try with my hands on the wheel again. The end result? Another spin. At that point I gave up frustrated at my lack of progress and decided to have a go at the first sprint track that had been set up.

This was great fun right from the start. You can't beat timed laps for getting the adrenalin running! The first few laps were far too aggressive which meant that I was running wide round corners, and constantly locking the brakes. But once I stopped trying so hard my lap times tumbled, and I ended the morning with the fastest lap (23 seconds). I then went to lunch leaving a rather powerful Elise and a nippy Caterham trying to beat my lap.

Chris had been watching my laps and pointed out that I was being to hard on the brakes. He offered to take me round in his standard Elise, which I was happy to experience, as I'd never been in an Elise before. I have to say I was hugely impressed. The Elise felt quick and composed, even with its meagre 118bhp, though it was helped by some very good driving. Made my driving seem rather crude

When I got back from lunch the Elise had beaten me (with a 22.8, I think) and the Caterham had beaten that with a 22.5. I then spent the early part of the afternoon, trying to beat them. I managed to get a couple of 22.8s, but couldn't catch the Caterham. It was fun trying, though.

I had a few goes on the second sprint circuit, which was less technical and allowed smooth controlled drifts. I had a few goes at this but couldn't get to grips with it. The weather was getting worse and it looked as though it would rain, so I decided to save what was left of my tyres and head for home early. A superb day! Many thanks to all involved.

North Weald (19 January 2007)

David Crawley and I were the only Westfields to attend this event. Although the weather was good (for the time of year), the day got off to a poor start, with me stuck in a traffic jam on the M4. So I was twenty five minutes late meeting up with David and we both arrived half an hour late.

After a quick briefing we headed off to the fast bend training. As it says on the tin, this involves getting round a 90 degree left hand bend as fast as you can. Because it was still a little damp we all started off pretty slowly, at about 60mph. But it wasn’t long before confidence was up and cars were losing control in rapid succession. A bit of advice from the instructors helped, but the exercise made you realize that how much finesse is needed to get round bends fast.

After doing this for an hour or so we moved on to the first of the two coned sprint circuits that had been set up. Actually, we headed for the burger van for a cuppa tea and a chat. But after that we moved on to the first sprint circuit. This was a nice flowing circuit which allowed plenty of scope for drifting and power sliding. (Here’s a video of David trying a little too hard. Note the cruel laughter of the instructor as he spins)

After five or six goes at this (and after putting all of the Elises and Exiges to shame) David suggested we swap cars. Great! I’d never actually driven another Westy, and David’s Westfield (V6 2.8 litre windscreened car with decent brakes) would be very different from mine (a Vx powered, track-day focused, car with semi-slicks and an aeroscreen).

It took a couple of laps for us both to get used to each others’ cars, but on the third session we’d got to grips with them: too well in David’s case, as he beat the best lap I’d set in my car by ∙3 of a second. There was some dispute about this, but not what you’d expect. It was David who thought I had set a faster lap, and I who insisted that he had beaten my time.  What a decent lot us Westfield owners are! Anyway, I’m certain I was right, so I quietly vowed not to let him drive my car on the second circuit in case he beat my time again. On to the second circuit then...

This was a more varied circuit, which consisted of some tight, technical corners at the start, a long straight with a hairpin turn around a single cone at the bottom, then back up the straight finishing with the tight corners in reverse order. (Here’s the second half of David’s lap in my car.) Naturally my first question was: “what’s the fastest lap so far?”. It was 55∙0 seconds, set by a standard Elise. No problem we thought. But this turned out to be pretty impressive lap. David suffered from lack of grunt down the straight in his car, so couldn’t threaten this time in his car, and although I could get into the 55 second range I couldn’t beat it. More humiliation! Being beaten by a heavier, less powerful car. So I studiously watched the Elise driver’s lines to see where I was going wrong. This did the trick, as my next lap was fastest by some way (here’s the lap, and once again a Westfield had put those pesky Elises in their place.

David wandered over and suggested we swap cars again. “Of course!” I replied, instantly forgetting my earlier resolution. Damn! Luckily the darkening skies gave me an excuse to suggest that we had better head for home before the heavens opened. He’d only managed one lap in my car at that point, which wasn’t enough for him to get used to my car on that circuit (and beat me again). It was a close call though.