Things didn’t get off to a flying start. When arriving at Thoresby I’d somehow ended up driving in on the actual track rather than using the more traditional road to the car park. I only realised when I got to a load of cones and hay bales that marked out the first corner called “Kiosk”
Having managed to find my way onto the correct road and ultimately to the car park and met Peter (complete with new trailer) unloading the Westie.
Thoresby Park is a very pretty place to visit, its large Hall is surrounded by grounds containing deer, sheep and today a whole load of different race cars.
As it was slightly damp the Westie wasn’t happy about starting up, but a quick push later saw us heading off towards the paddock to Sign On.
Signing on, Scrutineering and Drivers Briefing
Were all pretty uneventful. The most useful part of the Drivers Briefing outlined the procedure once you had completed your run. Thoresby like Shesley wasn’t a circuit so it meant you had to wait at the end while the other competitors finished their runs before being allowed back to the paddock.
Practice Runs
The 1035m long course was narrow and dusty and in places through the trees looked more like a rally stage than a sprint course. The corners and chicanes were marked out by hay bales and oil drums. Some oil drums had a tennis ball on top of them, clipping them and knocking off the tennis ball resulting in a 0.5sec penalty.
My biggest worry was the second right hander called “Fiveways” It was in fact a island on the road where 5 road all met up (Hence the name) Watching videos of runs from previous years it wasn't obvious which was the correct exit to use and Id heard that many people end up going down the wrong one on the day.
Practice 1 time 65.49
Taking my first Practice very slowly I successfully found the correct exit and got to the end. But now had a different worry, that being just how narrow the entrance and exit to the chicanes were.
On the second practice I was much more aggressive, even though I was braking way too early for the second chicane (The aptly named Chicane 2)
Practice 2 time 59.44
Time Runs
Thanks to the speedy organisation of those running the day, we ended up with three timed runs which turned out to be a good thing for me.
On my first Timed I attempted to get back some of the time I was losing at the second chicane. When I got there I left my braking till later, much later in fact and arrived going far too fast. Having just managed to get through the first part of the chicane ok there was no way I was going to go through the final part without hitting the large oil barrel square on. With Peter selling the car now was not the time to break it so I choose not to attempt the corner instead going straight on across the grass. This was the first time this season I have posted a “Fail”
Sprint 1 time Fail
Ave Speed N.A.
My second run has initially red flagged as someone had gone off in front of me. On the re-run I managed to get round all the corners successfully but was now breaking even earlier for the chicane than before. It probably looked like I was stopping to let someone cross the road.
Sprint 2 time 61.34
Ave Speed 60.74 mph
For my final run I had decided that if I could get a run in under 60secs I would be happy. The whole run felt better but clearly I wasn't going to master Chicane 2 today. I braked too early again and sadly just missed out on getting under the 60 sec mark.
Sprint 3 time 60.07
Ave Speed 62.03 mph
However at least I didn’t pick up any penalties and lots of other competitors went off on what was quite a dusty course. Some of them destroying hay bales and oil drums along the way. Peter himself did exactly what I did on his second Timed Run.
Sadly the camera is dead and looks likely to remain dead until a replacement arrives, so again there is no in-car video footage.
Class E Novice Championship
To see the current Championship Points standings, click here.
Lessons learned for next time
To go faster brake later, but not too late!
For a summary of the entire WSCC 2007 Speed Series season click here