Single
Seater Driving Experience at Oulton
Park
Getting
to drive a single seater race car around the Oulton Park circuit
Date:
May 2003
Location: Oulton Park,
Cheshire
Vehicles: Audi TT, Single Seater
Author: Steve
This
experience day was a birthday present bought for me by my
Parents. As an avid petrol head I forever bore people to death
with my love of all things fast and noisy - yet up to this
point I had never driven anything on a track. I had owned
a few quick(ish) cars, and driven a few properly quick cars,
but had zero track experience. I'm guessing my parents were
stuck for something to buy me and so opted for something ideal.
 The
pack I was given gave me a race day card thing to wear round
my neck, a rough description of the event I had been bought,
and a few other random bits of paper. I opted to take my experience
day at Oulton Park as
it is fairly close to me, and it's a track I have been to
watch BTCC racing at. I booked my day in May - I wanted a
fair chance of decent weather, but couldn't wait until the
height of summer as I was to keen to rip up some tarmac.
After
months of waiting the day finally came round and I was as
excited as I remember being as a kid at Xmas. My session started
at 10am so we were up early...and luckily it was a dry sunny
day. My parents and a few mates were coming along to watch
so we bundled into a couple of cars and headed to the circuit.
As
we arrived we were greeted and I was directed to a room where
we were given a safety briefing. We were given descriptions
of the various flags and rules of the circuit, looking round
I could see people from all walks of life. A few people looked
like they had done this thing a good few times before, there
were a few petrol-addicted newbies like me, a couple of people
that looked like they really weren't fans of motorsport or
speed in general, and a worrying group of lads on a Stag Do.
Once
we had all been given the safety chat were split into two
groups to minimise the number of cars on the circuit at any
give time. I was in the first group so was directed to the
track to do some warm up laps in a race prepped Audi TT.
I
got into the car and the instructor introduced himself to
me. He showed me how to buckle myself into the 3 point harness,
and how to adjust the race seats. He explained that he was
going to let me do the first lap on my own, assess my strengths
and weaknesses, and then help me improve over a few laps.
Through the laps he noted and scored my driving skills so
I could measure how much I had improved through the day.
The
track had been marked with cones on the corners to indicate
breaking points, apex, and acceleration points. This made
learning the racing line
fairly simple, and is still a cornering technique I use today
on the road. After 5 laps we swapped over and he gave me a
demonstration of how it was done. I was amazed by how much
faster he could push the car through the corners. At the end
of the warm up he told me I had scored 76% and gave me my
score sheet. Not bad for a first attempt.
 We
then moved on to drive the
single seaters. I preferred this section as I felt
almost self-conscious with an instructor sat beside me yelling
instructions through my helmet. The single seaters were very
simple to operate. They had a digital speedo, rev counter
and lap timer on the steering wheel, an accelerator, brake,
clutch and 4 speed box. We were told not to over rev the engine,
and that they were speed limited to 100mph. We were also warned
that the clutches were unprogressive and tricky to master.
I
stalled a couple of times before I got going - the clutch
was like a switch - in, or out, with no in-between. But once
I was going I was flying round the track. The initial 100mph
limit which sounded quite good was becoming annoying on the
straights - the acceleration was very fast and I was bouncing
off the limiter. I wish they had raised the limit to 130mph...or
removed it all together.
The
single seaters were amazing in the corners - they remained
so balanced, you could fly through the bends without any worry
of loosing grip. The 10 laps of the course went by so quickly
- I was gutted when my turn had finished and I was signaled
into the pits. Once all the cars were off the track it was
the turn of the second group of people, including the Stag-do
lads I mentioned earlier. I waited in the pits to watch the
second group go round and I'm glad I did. One lad from the
stag group decided to undertake his friend on the pit straight.
There was no room for him to get past so he decided to overtake
on the grass. This caused him to loose traction mid-manouver
pushing him into his friend - and then pushing the two of
them into the pit wall at close to 100mph!
Bits
of car flew everywhere in a Formula-1-like highspeed crash.
The two guys made it out ok but the cars were destroyed -
a testament to the safety of the cars, and the stupidity of
some of the drivers. They were taken away to a meeting room
and yelled at for a while - I'm guessing insurance covered
the losses but it did turn a fun day into something more serious.
It highlighted the dangerous nature of all motor-sports and
the need for the initial saftey-briefing. It also explained
the 100mph limit.
Overall
this was one of the best presents I have ever been bought.
It could have only been made better by extending the number
of laps, and increasing the speed limiter!
This
was a Driving
Experience review by Steve
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