Just had a load of fun on a "Sprint" track day. This was for members only of Shenstone and District Car Club at Curbourough Sprint Course, so apologies but couldn't invite anyone else !

Curborough Sprint Course and Shenstone & District Car Club

Sprinting for those that aren't familiar with this form of motorsport is timed indidual runs over a technically challenging circuit. i.e. you are on your own and there is no danger of someone else crashing into you The track day today was just a fun non-timed version of this form of competition. The only rules are that it is road legal, you have to arrive by road, no trailered cars, sign on for insurance purposes and pass a noise test.

There were a wide variety of cars from a standard Meganne to full rally spec Mark 2 Escorts.

My daughter came along and we went around 6 times in total. In the damp conditions the main problem was avoiding wheel spin, had a few moments where the back end flicked out a bit on the tight twisty bits, but not too much and was able to put my foot down on the finishing straight. On the early runs there was wheel spin at all speeds accelerating down the straight and as the track dried out was able to accelerate harder with more confidence.

I Reached about 80 MPH but it felt a lot faster !

Loads of fun, I will definitely be doing this again !

 

Air her out my friend. Can't wait for good weather to do the same.

 

Hey Paul - nice one, I had not realised you had planned to sprint the SRT! Expect the temptation was too much! Bet you are definitely ready for those new rear tyres now!

 

That definitely sounds like a lot of fun!

 

Are you doing what we call an "autocross" in the States? gary

 

I'm not brave enough to actually compete in it ! I know from my rallying days that no matter how much I say i will take it easy once the lights go green the adrenalin takes over ! I decided to see what the track day was like and as a low key version I decided I could keep myself under control .

I was very surprised how tricky it was in the damp and the amount of times I lost traction and had wheel spin on the straight and turns and the difficulty of blind double apex bends and the blind crest before the braking zone on a "double lapper" going from full acceleration at around 80 to full braking and a hairpin right. Unlike normal roads that are designed to be safe, the course is designed to be tricky and difficult, and it was ! Of course Steve you have some experience from the "intro to sprinting" day that we did in 2009

Still plan to buy a second car of some type to compete in but won't be an SRT unfortunately the budget doesn't go that far But I am open to advertising CICCI and UK Crossfires on whatever car I get

 

I don't think so Gary, not sure, over here an Autocross is a temporary course laid out with cones/bollards and you reverse into "garages", and do various tricky manouvers. Sprinting is more like circuit racing but only one car goes out at a time and does either one, two or three laps on their own against the clock. There is a version up steep hills naturally called "hill climbing". Hill climbing is supposed to be the oldest form of motorosport where rich folk who bought the first cars a hundred years ago would see how far up a hill they could get. Shelsley Walsh hill climb not far from me is reputedly the oldest motorsport venue in the world.

Here are a couple of videos of sprinting ( not my car ), you get everything at a sprint from ordinary family cars to ex F1 and 8 liter single seaters !!
Videos at or of Curborough Sprint Course

I live less than a mile from Curborough

A picture of me in my previous Crossfire on an "intro to sprinting day" is here :

57 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

56 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

58 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Some general pictures of other cars.

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