Rockingham / Nurburgring / Spa Weekend

On Tuesday night Lindsay and I got back from a marathon motorsport weekend where we did 3 different tracks in 4 days! Unfortunately the weekend was pretty much wet the whole time but we still had fun!

Friday 2nd October

On Friday I was at work but Linzi wasn't which was good as I had a few errands for her! Whilst I was at work Linzi drove to Pristine Alloy Wheels in Milton Keynes. They had re-furbished 2 of our 19" wheels. The other 2 were in the car already.
After picking up the wheels and getting the guys at Pristine to get them in the car Linzi's next stop was a BMW garage to pick up some spare brake pads. The car said we only had 9000 miles left on the front pads which would most likely all get used up over 3 days of hard track use. Linzi also got some oil whilst she was there as the car was showing about half way between full and empty.

The next stop was supposed to be Bedford train station to pick me up from a train from St Pancras. She was running a bit late though so she went Straight to Dario's and Dario came to the station to pick me up in his daughter's IQ.

After a quick drink and a hello to Carrie Dario and I man handled all 4 of our 19" wheels into his trailer. He had already shifted quite a bit of stuff about (including his wheels) to clear the tyre rack. The wheels are heavy - about 25 - 30 kg each so moving them about isn't that easy. After getting the wheels on the rack it turned out that we couldn't close the trailer as they were too big.

This led to more shifting about - we had to take my wheels out and put Dario's wheels back into the rack. My wheels then went on a shelf. Later it turned out that wasn't a great idea as the top 2 wheels fell off onto the Radical. Fortunately there wasn't any lasting damage, just a mark on the paint.

Having finally sorted all we all went out for a very nice dinner. Linzi and I then continued to our hotel in Corby.

Saturday 3rd October

On Saturday we had a wet handling day at Rockingham. We had booked 2 slots so that Linzi could have a go as well as me. It was pretty cold and windy but we didn’t mind as we were in the car the whole time as I was in the first group and Linzi was in the second.

I had been to a similar session before. The format was pretty much the same: basalt tiles then kick plate then drifting.
On the basalt tiles and the kick plate we both tried the car with and without the traction control on. It really does make a huge difference! I did find the M3 much easier to control without the traction control than the Z4M was though.

When it came to the drifting I had some issues getting the back of the car to break away. The instructor said “it’ll definitely go this time as I’m going to yank on the handbrake” but it still didn’t! The next time I went around it did though and I was then able to de-stabilise the car by myself by using the handbrake. I did 1 really good drift and a couple of shorter ones – I was really pleased.

After Rockingham we set of for our hotel in Nurburg.

Sunday 4th October

Sunday morning saw us wake up at the new 3 start Linder hotel at Nurburg. We were very impressed with the hotel – comfy bed and a good shower but a bit cheaper than the the bigger brother: the 4 star Linder Congress and Motorsport Hotel.

We got up early and were at the track just after it opened at 8:00. We bought Linzi a 4 lap ticket as she had used all her laps that we bought already. We each did a sighting lap to see what the track was like and to warm the car up. Unfortunately the track was wet to start off with and didn’t really get any drier.
I also got a migraine in the morning that affects my vision so couldn’t do an driving – this is even more annoying as conditions were much better in the morning than after lunch when I recovered.

I did a total of 7 laps and Linzi did her 4. We left quite early at around 3:00 as it really started to tip down then.

We saw a few Ferraris, an AC Cobra and a very odd matt black 7 series. Pictures from the ring are here.

We got to our hotel in Spa at around 5:00 and soon met Dario, Phil and Koen for a meal. We had a pretty early night so that we’d be fresh for the track the next day.

Monday 5th October

It was another early morning on Monday so that we could get to the track for 7:30 when sign on started. The driver’s briefing wasn’t until 8:30 but it gave us a chance to get the Radical out of the trailer and get set up.

Linzi and I both did a sighting lap to start with and the track was wet. We each had a few goes during the morning and it looked like the track was drying out. In fact by lunch there was a definite dry line appearing.

Dario was trying out a new camera system that he had which produces some very good videos. We took one from the M3 in the morning:

There is a second part here and an in car shot here. Linzi also went out by herself and made a video here. The video quality is fantastic but we had a bit of trouble with the sound. On all of my videos the mic was turned up a bit too much so we got distortion. You can still hear the engine quite nicely in some places though. As my vide was taken before I had training my line isn’t as good as it was later in the weekend.

We went for an early lunch as I had training booked for 1:00 when the track re-opened. During lunch it started to rain again so when we got back the track was soaked.

My training session was pretty good. The instructor Kevin had an E46 M3 and seemed pretty interested in mine. He drove it after the session and described the gearbox and the car as mint :) During the session he told me that I was turning in too early which meant that I was exiting the corner with too much lock so that I couldn’t apply the power early enough. After thinking about this for a while it made perfect sense and I think improved my lines a lot.

It was wet for the rest of the day at Spa so we left at about 5 hoping that the weather would get better then next day.

Tuesday 6th October

Tuesday was much the same as Monday – WET. It was a real shame as I wanted to see how much I had learnt during the training and from my first visit to Spa. It was so wet though that the whole time you were driving so carefully as the car was about to slide. I had the car start sliding on me lots of times during the weekend but I managed to get control back each time – perhaps the wet handling day helped with this. Some of the time there was actually a river of water running over the track, one of the places was in the middle of the main straight!

At about 3:30 we decided to pack up and head home. This involved us putting the 19s back on the car. It’s ages since we had them on and the car looks great! Pristine did a fantastic job repairing the 2 damaged wheels.

There are some pictures from Spa here.

This was going to be the last track day we do this year but it is too long to wait till next year to get the car back on the track. Linzi and I are planning to book at least 1 more track day this year, probably in the UK as it makes it a lot cheaper.