Back from Gti International, what a great day, made so sad by a terrible end.
Towards the end of the afternoon an accident occured involing a Leon losing control and going throught the barriers at speed and into the watching croud injuring several people.
I won't speculate more about what happened, but wish all those involved a speedy recovery, and hope meaures are taken to stop something like that ever happening again.
I did 4 runs on the strip, and I'll be honest, I was AWFUL at it.
First run, against a mk1 golf 20vt, beat that, although absolutely LOADS of wheelspin in 1st, and second, and 3rd, complete fail. 14.75s
Second run, against a totally standard mk4 golf, beat that obviously, and a much better launch, but still far too much wheelspin in 1st and second
14.219s
Third run, against a big turbo Ibiza Tdi with about 250bhp / 6 million lbft
Got an OK start, then missed second some how
the soot chucker got ahead
finally got second, and was reeling him in, but it was too late, he beat me to the line
massive shame on me. Beaten by a tdi
14.41s
Fourth run, against a stage 2 golf ED30 I think it was, sadly it started raining in the que and it was slightly damp, I felt I got my best start, but being wet it wasn't enough. Not sure who won that one, was pretty dead level the whole way down.
14.35s
So, we established that I am crap at drag racing, but I'm not fussed, because if I'm honest, I found it pretty boring. The best bit by far was the corner at the far end of the strip!
So, sodd that, onto the handling course!
This was MUCH more my cup of tea!
Chatting to the bloke running it before having a go, he was telling me that they had managed sub 40s in their own golf race car the day before, but very few of the public got below 40s ever.
I went out for a few sighting laps, then did a timed run. First run, 40.1, DAMN, so close to the covetted 'sub 40'
Lined up, and had another crack at it.
Flat out on the second run, a lot more aggressive than before, went really well, and the final time was 39.8, but I clipped one cone, so got a 1s penalty and recorded 40.8.
******.
A bit of queing, then another try. Absolutely went for it, first lap went great, second lap was going well right up until the second to last corner, where I got a bit over excited and out braked myself and understeered my way into the last corner, lost a shed load of time, but kept it planted to the finish.
39.61 seconds, no cones hit. RESULT!
In car clip here:
GTI International Handling Course - Audi A3 1.8T - YouTube
Clip from Si Worker here:
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss214/nomis_worker/a1ed7c12.mp4
And Niki put a video on facebook but I don't think I can link that to here!
Absolutely cracking fun, and I went back later on to have another go, only to find that the FMX boys had moved a trailler, and the track had been changed to suit, so no more competetive times were being recorded. Such a shame, as ai really felt I could improve by a fair bit on my 39.61.
Went into the Eibach stand to look at others times, and to my surprise, I found I'd been the 3rd fastest of the whole weekend! absolutely over the moon with that
and SO pleased with how well the car had performed. Definitely confirmed that it's all about the corners for me
After that I took Reesy out for a few fun laps, messing around mostly, pulling the handbrake, sliding everywhere, and just generally gooning around. Still 39s on the slightly altered course (Just one apex moved 1m from the last), but a bit more lairy than the proper timed laps
Absolutely awesome day out, massive thanks to everyone who made it a great success, Aaron for his awesome COV stand and supplies, everyone from Audisport, and the incredible turn out for the Secret Seat Society who dwarfed every other club stand there!
Top day, but I think it's safe to say our thoughts are with all those involved in the accident.