Anyone gonna do a story/writeup of the day? Would be interested to see what the structure of it is, etc. I'll be keen if another one is organised also.
This is what I posted on another forum:
"Right starting at the beginning...
The day started wet and the track was drying very slowly, even by the end of the day there were still a few slippy spots to be wary off. First up were the Caterhams on the East circuit and I really couldn't get on with it. Think it was down to a combination of a very slippy track, a very tight circuit and a 'safe' setup on the cars, I was just getting understeer into virtually every corner and had a couple of offs (understeered off the road once and had a little spin). Most sessions of the day were timed and as we were there as part of a group of 15 from another forum there was a certain element of competition. I spent most of my session caught up in traffic and only got a clear track ahead for my last 3 laps, every one was an improvement on the last but I never felt like I got a representative lap in. Due to mechanical issues with one of the cars Vix was running slightly out of sync and found herself last out with the track to herself and posted the fastest time of our group
Next up was Porsches and Clios on the North circuit, I think the aim here was to give us the chance to experience front and rear wheel drive on the same circuit back-to-back so we could appreciate the differences. With us having to do two cars in one session there wasn't really a lot of time in each. I was in the Clio first and found it good fun, it really inspired confidence and you could properly chuck it about. The Porsche was a little disappointing, not sure why but most of the group seemed to have a similar opinion with comments along the lines of "Underpowered", "Crappy Tiptronic 'box" and "it felt a bit numb and detached".
Then we moved on to the South circuit for the BMW M3. This sounded awesome, was great fun to drive plus we seemed to get a good length run in them I think they we're universally popular with everyone. Although I enjoyed driving it I wasn't particularly fast in it, I think it was down to the instructor basically giving too much advice. He was talking me through every corner to the extent that I never really had time to think and take in what I was doing and what was coming next. Vix was faster than me in the BMWs and even overtook me at one point
After a quick lunch break we had a relatively sedate introduction to the afternoon activities. First up was offroading and the Caterham sprint. Sensing a rivalry between me and Vix the organiser put us up first in the Caterham sprint (A short head to head autotest tyre course). Was good fun and a resounding 3-0 victory for me, posting second fastest time of our group. Then we went around a short off road course in a Landy, was OK but not really my thing and a little dull, plenty of climbs, steep decents and driving through water though if you like that sort of thing, there were also hanging tennis ball targets (accuracy was required as you had to hit them dead centre on a target stuck to the windscreen) and a pair of log rails to drive along. Nearly got a perfect score on this, just missed dead centre on one of the tennis balls.
Next we headed over to the West circuit for karting, JP-LMs and Formula Jaguar single seaters. We karted first, was just me Vix and one other (who had a history of racing 2-stroke gearbox karts) on track for our sub-group. I really enjoyed the karting session, and spent most of it chasing down the other guy before he let me through then he followed me for the rest of the session. I set the fastest lap time in our group and 3rd fastest time of the day. Then we went out in the JP-LM. This thing was awesome, so much grip and the track was finally drying enough to make the most of it. The instructor was also very good, he just gave very short clear instruction on when to brake, when to turn in and when to change gear to allow me to gain confidence in the car, this was basically a training session before we were let loose in the single seaters which share the same powertrain. As you'd expect the single seater wasn't too different but being in the car by myself made a big difference, I knew I wasn't being as brave as I had been in the LM but I still enjoyed it thouroughly.
Finally we went back to the hospitality area for prizegiving, there were prizes for fastest time of the day in all cars bar the single seater (these weren't competitive but we did get a printout with some data traces and a time at the end od the day.). As we'd done most of the timed stuff in the morning we weren't expecting anything and we were proved right as all of the individual prizes went to other groups. Each group did have a "Driver of the day" award though, I managed to take this award for our team and finish second overall which I was rather surprised by!
Overall a great day and although a little expensive it's well worth doing if you get the chance, I'd quite like to go again just to try everything on a completely dry track now!"
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