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Tag Archives: drifting

Prodrift Academy UK – Birmingham

19 Sunday May 2019

Posted by jamescaterracing in Technique, Uncategorized

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Tags

birmingham, drifting, experience, mx5, prodrift acadamy, skills, training

My race-widowed Fiancee bought me a voucher for some drift training as a Christmas present from Groupon.

I think it cost about £60 for a 3 hour experience, so I thought I’d go along for a bit of fun sliding a car around.

I was expecting a couple of downbeat ‘instructors’ and a slippery car park, much like you’re average skid-pan training facility. I soon discovered that the Prodrift Academy was far from that!

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When my confused sat-nav finally got me to the venue at Birmingham Wheels Raceway not far from the City Centre, I parked up and followed the email instructions to sign on in the, err, signing on hut, where they took a few details and the £8 weekend surcharge. I’d already paid the £15 damage waiver, because £15 is better than the bill for the car you’ve managed to put through the tyre wall upside-down!

From there it was a short walk to the skid-pan, where there was another porta-cabin which sold snacks and drinks, and a horde of instructors were hanging around chatting and watching some live drift championship racing.

I soon realised that this wasn’t some back-street set-up, and their instructors had a wealth of proper drifting experience at high level, and this could be a serious stepping-stone on the way to doing it in a championship.

The staff were all very friendly and upbeat and you could tell they were enjoying it as much as the customers!

We sat down for a briefing and Yo took us through the basics and what we could expect to get from the day, and then names were called out to jump in the cars with an instructor.

I should also note here that the tools of the day were Mazda MX5 NB’s with welded diffs – even better for me as it’s my daily road car!

They break down the art of drifting into a manageable way – the first step was simply to get us used to breaking traction at the rear using the handbrake on corner entry, and then catch it. First you get a demo as the instructor does it and talks, then you swap seats and go for it.

drift 1

Setting off I was instantly slewing sideways thanks to the diff and rainy track. How people ever drive them on the roads with a welded diff I will never know!

We only ever kept the car in first gear, but you still had plenty to think about. On queue, I pulled the hydraulic handbrake and the rear started to swing around. I instinctively caught it by counter steering and giving it a bit of throttle – which was wrong! What you have to do is pull the handbrake, then as the rear swings out pull the clutch in and let go of the steering wheel and let the car sort out the first part for you.

After a good few attempts to master that, the next thing was to then get control of the steering and get the power on to maintain the slide around the whole curve.

For this level we were only using one curve, so you had a better chance of mastering the technique without too much to think about. I found it relatively easy, but there was still a lot of polishing off to do. The instructors recognised I had some sort of skills already from my racing, and so were happy to teach to my level rather than as if I was a total novice.

After all, remember this beast of a drift I did during a race at Silverstone?

The rain finally eased off, but left the track wet, which I’m sure made things easier for everyone. I don’t know if they’d normally use a dry track or would wet it anyway to get the cars to move around more?

The final turn in the car was a quick competition, with all of us getting another few runs, but this time we had to drift the rear of the car out to touch a cone on the outside of the turn. Like a true drift event, bonus points were awarded for style, so a lairy angle and bouncing it off the rev limiter rewarded your fun if you weren’t quite up to clipping the cone! (I got 3rd, just in case you were wondering!)

Most people there were total novices and picked up enough to be enjoying themselves out there and I don’t think anyone was disappointed.

Of course, it was fun for me but also business. Any driving skill is good to help with racing, so naturally I was inspired to see the extra training Prodrift Academy offer with one to one training, and essentially training you up to fly free on your own drift career.

drift 2

Yo took me out for a quick demo of what the next stage would teach me, using left foot braking to change lines and how to transition the car through corners. I will, of course, be having a crack at some more in-depth training where he said they could tailor the skills more to something I could use on track to improve my lap times and car confidence.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the day – It’s a great present to get someone that’s fun and a little different, and they have a brilliant team there to help you enjoy it.

I’ll look forward to going back there soon!

Silverstone International – the view from #18 – Part 1

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

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Tags

drifting, formula vee, joovuu x, Primrose Hospice, problems, race report, silverstone international, UK

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I did my ARDS Race License test on the Silverstone International layout, and also had my first ever race there, and so it holds a special place in my heart.

Much as I love the track, however, it seems to hate me.

In that first race I burnt a piston the day before in testing, barely making the grid. Last year, on the next visit there, with friends and family watching, I managed one lap before and engine stud snapped in the casing and ended the weekend.

So as I pulled off the motorway in my faultless Honda Civic Sport on Saturday morning to find the revs doing their own crazy thing, I thought it might be a bit of an omen.

Glenn had been there from the night before to secure us space in the garage (after being made to wait outside the circuit until 7pm along with everyone else who’d turned up early), so we just had to get signed on, scrutineered, and then we were ready to go.

Qualifying

As soon as I blasted out on track I could see spray in my mirrors. It was coming from the carbs.

Finding it a little distracting as I watched to see if the car caught fire, I got some laps in at a fair pace, but funnily enough didn’t feel fully into it.

When I pulled into the pits just before the session finished, I found that fuel pouring out of the lines was matched by oil pouring out of the seal we’d replaced a few days before behind the flywheel.

The fuel was easy to sort, but it would be an engine out job for the seal.

With only a few hours until the race, we put a temporary fix in place to hope it held.

Despite this, I’d still got 3rd fastest out of the Class B cars, and would line up 19th and 22nd on the grid for the races.

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Race 1

After lining up in grid formation in the holding area, it seemed to catch a few drivers out when we got to the grid to find there was no green flag lap. I was included, but realised this was a full race start when the red lights lit up on the gantry, and when they flicked off I was ready and nailed yet another great start.

Unfortunately on the inside through the first turn I didn’t have anywhere to go, so after jumping a few rows forward I was a bit bulked, and also trying to keep the car in one piece so we could concentrate on fixing the oil problem.

That problem soon bit back, though, and I found the revs were rising but the car wasn’t going anywhere – the oil had got onto the clutch plates and was making it slip!

I dropped off the back of Jake Hockley and Andrew Cooper, and then a group of about 6 all flew past as I tried to get some power down onto Hanger Straight and I knew that was pretty much race over.

Pretty sure I knew what the problem was, and that we’d be replacing the clutch either way, I stopped trying to fight for position and instead concentrated on getting the clutch to grip by feathering the throttle. I decided to just bring the car home as best as I could for the points, and got down to avoiding James Harridges nosecone right on the exit of Stowe!

It also wasn’t affecting me around the corners, so I tried to carry as much speed as I could. When I was on my own for a few laps pressing on, I also pulled off a huge filthy great near-perfect drift when I lost the back end into Village.

The front was still pointing towards the corner exit so I kept the throttle on and powered it out, clipping a perfect late apex on opposite lock ending at the exit curb with a mild twitch.

Notice the fist pump at the end!

This save- ahem, I mean skilful drift, also kept me in prime position when I saw Martin Snarey spin up ahead.

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I signalled cheerily to show him which way I was gong to pass his stationary car, then battled the slipping clutch onto Hanger Straight, knowing he’d soon be back on my tail but thinking I might just get to the end of the race ahead!

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the white Sheane was filling my mirrors.

Ironically, it was at Village when he dived up the inside, pulling away down Hanger while I tried to feather the throttle to keep the bit of the engine inside the engine as the clutch slipped…

I chased hard through Stowe, and a small lock up into the left hander of the complex put me right back on Martin.

A good run through the rest of the complex, and the clutch biting for once meant I snuck alongside down the pit straight, and with the inside line there was no way I was braking first…

… And of course my bravery was rewarded by a beautiful pass… before the tail stepped out (which I caught!), came back again (Argh! I’m going off, then, am I?), opted to go straight onto the concrete run-off area still mid tank-slapper (Oh no – not in the gravel again!!!) before finally gathering it all back in line safely!

I bumped over the narrow strip of grass and followed the white of Martin again, on what I didn’t yet know was the last lap.

Despite the lively excursion, I was only about 10 car lengths behind, but lost a little more as the clutch slipped down Hanger yet again. I attacked Stowe hard and made most of the time back as Martin took a defensive tight line into the complex.

Taking the regular line I actually got alongside before the flick right, then tried to cut back inside for the fast right onto the pit straight.

I shot out of the slipstream halfway down the straight and fired past into the first turn – I got onto the Hanger Straight before I saw the first marshal waving, and realised I’d missed the chequered flag. What happened to the usual plethora of waved flags from every marshal post to signal the end of the race?

Unfortunately at Silverstone, the finish line is actually before the start line, and so my move had been in vain – I’d crossed the line less than 2 tenths of a second behind the Snarey kid.

Still, considering the clutch problem, I was happy with 8th place in B Class and 22nd overall out of the 32 who started.

I was even more happy that I’d been involved in a close scrap on track with my old sparring partner Martin – whatever else happens in your race, as long as you’re involved in a bit of a fight you come out feeling like a winner! Unless you get pipped to the line, of course…

But now I had to find out if we’d be able to make the second race the next day…

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