Guys
I just provisionally booked Cadwell with J5 for Sun 7th Nov…
How do you fancy making it our exiges.com outing for 2004… ??
you know it makes sense…
I want to book but don’t know yet, as I will be on the 11-12 Seloc 'Ring trip.
So I will be sown south 28-29-30 for the mapping seeeion at Emeralds.
Would have to be at least 6-7 for Cadwell and then 10-11-12-13 for the 'Ring trip…
But I will try…
Doing Mallory Park on the 7th.
Well, booked.
Let’s see how it turns out.
Gotta be in Holland that weekend now … so no can do anything … damn it
okay 2 excuses… anybody else up for this ??.. come on… i haven’t had an exiges.com day THIS YEAR !!
I think i may be on my own… unless Uldis car is ready and he thinks it’ll be okay this close to his 'ring trip…
Mike - I am racing at Donington on Sat 6th, so will be buggered. I am sharing Matts car in the endurance race at the Britcar meet, as my car may not be finished by then. As an alternative, why not come down to us to watch/help in the pits on the Saturday, stay somewhere sat. p.m., have a beer/curry, then make your way to Cadwell sun a.m.?? Autoroute says 1 and a half hours fron Donny to Cadwell.
OR
We all stay over fri pm near Donny - B&B near Edwards???, do the race thing Saturday, then you bugger off nearer Cadwell Sat pm??
Russ
That sounds like a possibility… esp if i am coming down on my own because of all you slackers round here…
even if i don’t make it, then the offer is well and trully appreciated.
Well folks
I AM DEFINATELY GOING TO THIS… on my own, by the look of things…
Well, there are still some S_E ers that are on the provisional list… so maybe somebody to talk to/share the experience with… otherwise i’ll have to make new friends and who knows, maybe i’ll buy a Honda…
Rox,
Still no chance of getting to Donny the day before?
Russ
There is still a chance… i haven’t quite worked out my travelling arrangements.
I’d defo like to come an see yoo racing… but it is a bit further down and prolly means me coming down on Friday instead of Saturday
You know there is a chance Rox, if everything works ok I’ll be there on my way back from down south.
(but haven’t paid yet, already have money on the Ring and you never know what might happen, already had to sell the place on the last two trackdays)
Uldis
I don’t know how J5 runs it when he gets close to an event and still has plenty space - in terms of selling the space - but at the mo’ there looks to be plenty space…
Here’s hoping your car is “a” okay… and your up for this circuit…
Russ
I won’t make Donny… Friday is the 5th of November - Guy Fawkes… - I have two 4 year olds and am going away for the rest of the weekend so i couldn’t do it, i doubt i could make it for race time if i leave on Saturday… so hopefully next time…
cheers and have a good-un… awerabest… don’t take any matches with you…
rox
Ok Rox, no worries, maybe next time.
Guys,
I won’t definitely be able to make it to Cadwell this time. In ficat, I won’t be able to make it to the mapping session on the 5th.
Engine assembly is slower than expected. Lots of tiny things to do. Including creating new heat shields because the originals don’t fit with the EBD.
Phil, are you reading this? won’t be there on the 5th.
Now I’m shooting to be at Emerald on the 9th and continue on my trip to the Ring.
(just on the phone with Emerald, Bernard S. is booked on the 9th, let’s hope he’s willing to swap places with me)
No luck, won’t be mapping on the 9th.
Good day Rox? (although I guess you may still be making your way home)
Ian
IDG
The track is fantastic, if a bit scary… especially at this time of year in the wet with quite a lot of tree sap and leaves around they have cleared some trees away on the approach to the Hairpin around Hall Curves (for those familiar with the cct.) and this makes it seem a bit more open in that area… but not by much
Anyway, i found myself at B&B/Pub in a village called Tetford and Tennyson (a poet of some massive repute for those of us that didn’t know that )used to write there - at a seat and table that still exists today in the main bar - among other things he apparently wrote a poem called The Lotos Eaters … ha, how apt…
Tennyson was born and brought up in Somersby house nearby and I got chatting to the current gardener - well none of you lot were there to keep me company were you… - who it transpired used to be the Works Manager for Quaife Gearboxes before he retired fairly recently it seems as he told me lots of stories one of which involved the supply of gearboxes to the Japanese to feed the Skyline with… .
Another guy at the bar was a local GP and raced vintage motorcycles (mostly Triumphs like the Dominator i think ) and has spent many a cold wintry day on medical duties at Cadwell - not so much now as he used to, but his most recent one was not long ago for a Vintage race where a Lagonda Rapier (if my memory serves) had a major off at the top of Park Straight, coming together with the marshall post and resulting very sadly in the fatality of the driver and injury of the marshall. This served to bring a very stark warning to me about how dangerous the sport/Cadwell can be… i just wouldn’t think that fatalities would occur at Vintage racing days…
The Pub owner was also on hand to chat about some of his projects - pretty interesting especially when he took me to his workshop to see a kit-car he is two years into building (he had built a Caterham a few years prior but sold it before he finished it) It was a Lotus Se7en type affair with 2.0 Ford Cross-Flow power and came from a company i’d never heard of (Leguello or something like that)… in his workshop were also an MG and a biggish motorbike.
So with that cocktail and over a few beers I ended up getting to bed about 1am … not quite what i’d planned after a 7 hour drive down there… got lost on that confounded motorway network around A1/M1/M62/M18/M181/M180… grrrr… not happy and it was dark and miserable and foggy…
Early rise at 07:00, hearty breakfast… dodgy weather - but hopefully it’ll clear - low mist and wet !!! Up to the track, sign on and safety brief in time for 09:00 start – J5 is just great at that job… … mmmmm… maybe have to hold off… visibility not that great… nah tell you what… sighting laps behind pace car and then we’ll see how it goes - yeh… that’ll do.
So it cleared not too bad but never stopped drizzling and i did a 45min session from about 10:00 till 10:45 - pretty slippy and I frequently locked fronts at the Hairpin - A048’s didn’t provide much in the way of traction for my skills so I basically took it easy the whole way round.
After a half hour break I went out again for another 45 mins where it was almost sort of drying out up the back of the cct where its more open (around the ‘club’ cct) - but still the drizzle (Sma’ we call it in Ayrshire) never went away and the clouds were always really low on the track.
around 12:30 adam998 showed up to cheer me on. His car looks excellent - most of you will know it from its previous owner… He’s already started tweaking it . I needed fuel so off we popped to Horncastle.
When we got back, I made my biggest mistake of the day… we went for something to eat… well it was Lunch time and we were hungry… but what i should have done was go back on track because at 13:30ish they closed the track becuase visibility was zero on account of the pea soup … we waited around for about an hour but it just got worse…
So unfortunately, games-a-bogey about 3hours early and I have another 6-7 hour drive in front of me… originally intended staying another night… but now… mmm…
Ahh well all in one piece and no car-casualties AFAIK.
Cars wise the day was mostly Caterfields, a couple of Scoobievos a couple of S1 elises and an S2 elise which was going very well (I think it was a 135 ??) and an S2 exige which went very very well on its Goodyear Eagles and 15" rims all-round… he had fantastic grip and i couldn’t stay with him at all… well not with out risking my neck, and it wasn’t the day for that…
So for me a good enough trip all in, but not a great success as far as track experience or time… certainly not enough to compensate the 14 hour return drive, because due to the weather we only got a half day session… but i guess that’s how it goes sometimes… unfortunatly for me its always a risk but i’m still pissed off a wee bit, maybe i need to move closer to civilisation… nah then it’d be 7 hours eery time i wanted to roam in the wilds of Scotland… sacrifices… choices choices…
Rox
Very many thanks for your most interesting report. Really sorry to hear that the weather b*ggered things up - always possible at this time of the year!
I’ve only driven Cadwell once, & it is a fantastic curcuit