Noobrider
New member
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2013
- Messages
- 425
a mixed bag of day...on the one hand a great track day and tons of track time and the weather was great - on the down side, son crashed the Pumesta and did a fair bit of damage.
Stephengreen popped round with his lad and I took them both round, was good to meet them both top guys very enthusiastic about their Puma.
Had a young mentally handicapped lad become my number one fan...he loved the car and his dad asked me if there was any chance I could do a quick lap with him. I totally agreed and hats off to Javelin...he was 15 but his birthday was on Sunday - they allowed him to go and gave him the passenger pass free as a birthday present.
I lost my USB extension so had to mount the camera close enough to the cig lighter as I only had a small cable and a borrowed plug...had a quick look at some footage and its not the best angle but at least there is some footage so I'll check my lap times later.
The day started very foggy and this delayed the sighting laps, the track didn't open until around 10am. There was a lot of red flags, some bad crashes and some very poor driving standards On the first session after about 3 or 4 laps I passed an FRP that had spun off at the hairpin, only to be red flagged on the same lap because a little red Puma had spun down the hill at Mansfield and rear ended the barrier. It was very greasy to start but a dry line and eventually a dry track appeared. The sun came out and it was verm hot in the car.
Just before lunch, Nathan was coming round Chris curves over taking a young novice who decided to drift into his path, squeezed onto the grass he bacame a passenger at 90mph and did well to handbrake it to take a sideswipe into the tyre wall. The once pristine Pumesta was now a real mess.
Using the jack and some wood blocks...tiewraps and tape...he got the car straight enough to continue tracking for the full afternoon session. Its going to need new headlight front wing and rear quarter plus paint and few other bits to get back to its former glory and will be off track for a while but its not dead.
I let my track virgin friend have a drive after lunch and he scared the bejesus out of me...no idea about racing lines, braking turning or accelerating.... but he was happy he'd had a go. towards the end of the day got to have a couple of go's on my own with no passengers and it gave me at least an extra 10mph.
I had virtually run out of fuel though and 40 miles to the nearest petrol station on our way home with the yellow light on - getting lost in the dark was nail biting, but she made it.
Finally with 2 miles to go to get home we got pulled by the cops....for jumping an amber light...with the Pumesta minus one headlight he was following me for safety and the lights changed just as he went through. Luckily the cops were friendly enough and sympathised with his bad luck of the day and we were sent on our way with a wave.
Hell of a day...375 miles there back and on track....5am start and an 8pm finish....knackered but fulfilled.
Oh, and I forgot the wheel nuts for the propellors with the semi slicks on so had to run on the Toyo's....but I'll let Stephengreen fill you in on how good they were...one day I'll get to try semi slicks lol
Stephengreen popped round with his lad and I took them both round, was good to meet them both top guys very enthusiastic about their Puma.
Had a young mentally handicapped lad become my number one fan...he loved the car and his dad asked me if there was any chance I could do a quick lap with him. I totally agreed and hats off to Javelin...he was 15 but his birthday was on Sunday - they allowed him to go and gave him the passenger pass free as a birthday present.
I lost my USB extension so had to mount the camera close enough to the cig lighter as I only had a small cable and a borrowed plug...had a quick look at some footage and its not the best angle but at least there is some footage so I'll check my lap times later.
The day started very foggy and this delayed the sighting laps, the track didn't open until around 10am. There was a lot of red flags, some bad crashes and some very poor driving standards On the first session after about 3 or 4 laps I passed an FRP that had spun off at the hairpin, only to be red flagged on the same lap because a little red Puma had spun down the hill at Mansfield and rear ended the barrier. It was very greasy to start but a dry line and eventually a dry track appeared. The sun came out and it was verm hot in the car.
Just before lunch, Nathan was coming round Chris curves over taking a young novice who decided to drift into his path, squeezed onto the grass he bacame a passenger at 90mph and did well to handbrake it to take a sideswipe into the tyre wall. The once pristine Pumesta was now a real mess.
Using the jack and some wood blocks...tiewraps and tape...he got the car straight enough to continue tracking for the full afternoon session. Its going to need new headlight front wing and rear quarter plus paint and few other bits to get back to its former glory and will be off track for a while but its not dead.
I let my track virgin friend have a drive after lunch and he scared the bejesus out of me...no idea about racing lines, braking turning or accelerating.... but he was happy he'd had a go. towards the end of the day got to have a couple of go's on my own with no passengers and it gave me at least an extra 10mph.
I had virtually run out of fuel though and 40 miles to the nearest petrol station on our way home with the yellow light on - getting lost in the dark was nail biting, but she made it.
Finally with 2 miles to go to get home we got pulled by the cops....for jumping an amber light...with the Pumesta minus one headlight he was following me for safety and the lights changed just as he went through. Luckily the cops were friendly enough and sympathised with his bad luck of the day and we were sent on our way with a wave.
Hell of a day...375 miles there back and on track....5am start and an 8pm finish....knackered but fulfilled.
Oh, and I forgot the wheel nuts for the propellors with the semi slicks on so had to run on the Toyo's....but I'll let Stephengreen fill you in on how good they were...one day I'll get to try semi slicks lol