A return to my favourite track (so far!)

(To skip the drivel and get to the photos, scroll to the bottom...)

Donington was the venue for my first-ever track day, and is still my favourite track. The day was baking hot and beautifully clear, and we had an "All MX5" session of about 30 cars, as well as about 8 of us in an open group up against the usual batch of Porsches, Imprezas, and of course Caterhams. Our old friend the rally-driving Sierra made a return in this group, but was put to shame in his powerslides by newcomers in a Porsche 911 and a Capri (see the photos below ;-)

I went to Donington determined to learn a better line and improve my cornering around the 'far side' of the track - McLeans and Coppice. I was also looking forward to the opportunity to follow Richard Foster around to learn from his experience at Donington. I was not disappointed!

Not having to learn the track, I was out of the blocks a lot faster this time, and got in 17.4 miles in every 20-minute session. The first session was still fairly slow as I re-familiarised myself with the exact details of each corner - but by the end of the second session I was up to speed and knew I was taking a much better line already through the corners I found most difficult last time. I was pleased to find that I kept up with most of the cars in the corners (with the exception mainly of about half of the caterhams) and it was only ont he straights that the massively powerful porsches rushed off into the distance!

My pit lane strategy seemed to work well, too - I got near the head of the queue to exit the pits, then let all the fast porsches and caterhams past on the warm-up lap, and in most sessions this left me with relatively empty track, in the gap between the cars that romped away ahead of me, and the cars that I could keep up with or outpace kept well behind me. I still had to watch for traffic behind, and had to pass a lot of back-markers, but I got enough free space to put in some uninterrupted laps.

I was impressed by the difference from my first day at Donington - My driving has become much smoother, helped by recently having learnt to 'heel and toe' (blipping the throttle while braking to match revs when changing down gears) and while I know I have a long way to go, I was definitely much faster around the lap this time, with the car feeling much more stable in cornering rather than bumping and sliding around with the tyres shrieking. I was really pleased in the 3rd session when I managed to queue up behind Richard and follow him around, and learn from him to improve my lines in the corners I found most difficult - and find that I was slightly faster than him in my favourite corner (Redgate). He claimed that this was because he had a passenger and I didn't.

In the next session, I started a short distance behind Richard, and managed to keep up with him, then sneakily passed him while he slowed to let a Caterham(?) through. With the little bit of extra power in my Mark2 I was able to pull out a small lead in the straights, and not lose too much in the corners, until one of his brake pads gave up the ghost and forced him to retire early to the pits for a new set of pads. He should have some interesting video of a couple of my mistakes though - I avoided a spin, but I had a couple of 'moments' ;-)

In the next session, I experienced serious brake fade for the first time - the brakes seemed less effective for several corners, but approaching the Esses chicane I braked from 100mph at the 100 yard marker and a lot less deceleration occurred than I was expecting. I realised I wouldn't make it through the chicane at 50mph, so I allowed the car to carry on straight ahead into the run-off area, which thankfully is all tarmac and gave me plenty of space to bring the car down to a more manageable speed. Not a scary incident, but it could have been a lot worse if it happened on any other corner! (although the chicane is the corner requiring the most braking on this circuit)

My final incident happened following the Sierra around Goddards - I exited the corner quite a bit faster than him, but he planted his foot heavily, and his rear stepped out to the right - he caught it, and fishtailed back to the left. Meanwhile I was unsure which side to nip past on to avoid being involved in his accident, so I dived to the very left side of the circuit to give him as much room as possible. By the time he gathered it all up, I was past (sigh of relief!), with a Silver porsche tailgating and looking irate that I was not moving over to let him past - but I was too busy avoiding the Sierra to worry about mere politeness!

All in all another fab day out. The 3rd session (with no MX5s in it) was stopped a lot for people falling off the circuit, but our 2 sessions ran very smoothly, and apart from a 3 porsches that seemed to be racing each other in our session, pretty well behaved. It was interesting to find that I was competitive with the other MX5s in my group, and was able to keep up with the Ariel Atom and even about half of the Caterhams (due to the drivers rather than the cars I suspect!). And it's quite satisfying to be able to leave most of the the powerful cars for dead in every corner, to make up for the way they rocket past on the straights!

I skipped the final session as my brake pads were getting pretty thin and I didn't want to push them too far - better to live and fight another day! I took the opportunity instead to try to get a few photos in. Once this session finished, 28 MX5s lined up on the starting grid for a photo shoot.

The day nicely finished off my brake pads (perhaps 3mm wear) and wore my tyres by less than 1mm on each corner. The wear was lighter and more even than on previous track days, which I believe is mostly down to my improved, smoother driving style (and only squealing the wheels for the occasional bit of fun! :-) so I was well pleased with my day's activities. Fuel 'economy' was 16.19 mpg for my 102.9 track miles (up from the previous Donington day at 13.32 mpg - most likely due to not having a passenger all day, and possibly helped by carrying more speed through corners and my high-flow air filter and exhaust?).

Here are some photos, which are far more interesting than reading any more of this drivel...

Jason Williams, August 27, 2001