The amazing summer-like weather we are having continued, just in time for Barry's first track day at Goodwood.
I'd only booked half a day because Goodwood is expensive and the afternoon sold out very quickly, so we had the morning booked. There were a few of us going from the Surrey Porkers group and we met up at 7am in Petworth centre:
Arriving at the circuit, an iconic shot of us all in the famous (are they?) Goodwood paddocks:
Registration and noise tests done ok, out for the first 15 minute session:
I had a passenger, one of the group who was not there to go on track and was taking pictures and videos. The first session was fairly slow as I got used to the track. I had done a few hours on the simulator where I crashed a lot - fortunately, it is much easier in real life. Each session only had 10 cars at a time on track and with such a short session, we rarely caught or were caught by anyone else, so you just had time to sort out your lines - my best time was 1:56.
In between sessions, had a look at the competition - a beautiful sounding Aston was quick as hell:
There were a couple of Atoms and Beemers that were quick but nothing else too excessive:
My 2nd session was much of the same and much quicker - a best of 1:49, so a good 7 seconds improvement.
Session 3 was my best - a reasonable 1:46 being my best time of the day and I was actually a second slower in session 4, the final session before lunch (which was very nice, as you might expect from Goodwood).
I was glad I hadn't paid for a full day - my brakes were starting to feel a bit soft and I felt I had 'done' the track. I didn't want to risk pushing harder just to gain another second on my lap time.
Below is some video of the last session:
Overall, it was huge fun - 120mph down the back straight and the lovely flat 6 wail past the pits which sounded awesome to me - I hope others noticed and appreciated it.
Barry did incredibly well - brakes were starting to go off in the last session and were not really up to a track (I was braking much earlier than a couple of the more track-oriented cars, as you'd expect) but it was perfect for just having fun. Suspension was really good for a road car - a little bit of roll but not bad at all. Nothing broke or fell off - great result, great day.
Having said that, on the drive home, there was a new noise from the rear brakes which sounds like maybe a warped brake pad/disc or maybe just a build-up of brake dust - I'll see if it is still there next time.
I had a great day BUT I'm not in a desperate rush to do more track days - they're fun but ultimately, you're driving round and round in a circle on the same 2 mile stretch of road. I much prefer a road trip with 100+ miles of unknown road ahead of me.
