2023 - Caterham Track Day at Zandvoort and Zolder Circuits - Track Day Reports

Zandvoort and Zolder Circuit Track Days

In June 2023 I had the chance to do two track days – one at Zandvoort, in The Netherlands and one at Zolder, in Belgium.

The days were run by Lotus On Track UK. Their philosophy, like Lotus Cars, is to restrict participation to light, nimble, agile cars that are all about handling. They are specific in blocking heavy cars (e.g., Mustang, etc.) but allow non-Lotus cars like Caterhams, Porsche 911/Cayman, Renault Alpine. They also refuse to accept drivers with race licenses. This tones down the aggressive passing that seems to happen on UK track days when the race teams turn up for testing.

This was my first time running my Caterham 420R with the Lotus on Track group and I enjoyed it. No red flags or frequent stoppages from people (or Ginettas) spraying off into the gravel traps when they run out of talent. Their calendar of track days is extensive and covers UK and Europe which helps fitting things into my calendar.

The one aspect of running with this group is that several circuits they run at (e.g., Zandvoort, Spa-Francorchamps, Dijon-Prenois, etc.), require a cage be fitted to Caterhams. Given this requirement is on all the great circuits I like driving, I bought a roll cage and had it fitted to my car.

Zandvoort Circuit

The origins of this circuit date back to WW2 when in the immediate aftermath, the original race circuit was partly laid out on roads, built by the Germans, during their occupation. The circuit is laid out in amongst the sand dunes, allowing the track to undulate across the terrain.

It has a fearsome reputation for deaths over the years and the safety has been considerably upgraded. Even so, run off is marginal in places, there are gravel traps right next to the curbing, and a lot of concrete walls to which potential for impact is close.

The circuit was remodeled in 2019/20 as part of the upgrading for a new F1 contract. Several of the corners were modified to incorporate significant banking – turns 1, 3 and 14.

Turn 3 is of considerable note, as it the most banking I have seen on any track anywhere. It is tight plus high (think 2 stories high). NASCAR has banking but it is not particularly tight on a corner, being a large oval. This is NASCAR oval type banking but in a very tight hairpin. It also has dual level of differing camber, like the Karussel at the Ring which creates some interesting handling effects as you dive into the banking. For sheer craziness, you can also belt into the corner and stay on the upper level which then just sweeps you around at high G’s. My neck was feeling the strain by the end of the day.

Turn 14 feels like running a banked oval track but in reverse – reminding me of my time in the Mustang on Charlotte Motor Speedway where you were looking upwards to see where you were going.

Call this a real old school circuit. You were conscious that if you got it wrong there would be painful and/or expensive consequences.

Plenty of Lotus cars to admire in the pits.

TFL Racing were doing the usual support for me, having brought my car from the UK to Europe for the two events.

No official photographer but some on track photos collected from a variety of people over the course of the day. Credit to Edward Westerberg of International 7 Network for some on track photos of me.

The character of the track suits a Se7en brilliantly. The undulating layout plus lots of tight turns, some with favorable camber, really suit a momentum style of driving. While the Porsche GT3s could be incredibly rapid, there really was only one decent area to put down any power advantage – along the main straight and maybe a little out the back of the circuit between turns 10 and 11. A Caterham 620R driver noted that he found it challenging to haul in my Caterham 420R anywhere other than along the main straight, which really speaks to how hard it is to put the power down as the car is never really moving in a straight line at any point.

My overall assessment is that this is one of my top five racetracks I have run at, the others being Spa-Francorchamps, Mt Panorama, Portimao and Dijon-Prenois. I will be coming back to Zandvoort in 2024.

At the end of the Zandvoort day, it was on to Zolder Circuit in Belgium. A quick overnight at Hotel De Pits (recommended), located right next to the circuit, then day 2 of the track day adventure began.

Zolder Circuit

This hosted the Belgian F1 GP for ten years when Spa-Francorchamps was out of action. It is sadly known for where Gilles Villeneuve lost his life in a crash. The track dates to the 1960s and is very much out of the spotlight today although it remains a well-known track for GT, DTM, and Touring Car events.

It has an unusual technical character. First half is fast and free flowing. The second half is highly technical with three lots of chicanes and a hairpin. There are a lot of subtleties to learn to be quick on this circuit. Minor tweaks to your line can have a big difference to lap time over the course of a lap. For example, getting turn 1 wrong will impact your speed all the way until the braking zone for turn 5.

Some images of the circuit to help visualize some of the corners. This is turn 1 - a fast 90 degree left. This presented me with a challenge. My 420R has the 5 speed Miata/MX5 gearbox. I found the ratios were just not compatible with the corners. Third was too high - select it and you ran out of revs by turn 3 with no place to shift or short shift. I ended up going into turn 1 with 4th gear and holding it all the way through to braking zone at turn 5. Not ideal as it felt like I was lugging it at 4-5000rpm. Chatting with a local expert validated that this was the right choice.

This is the hump immediately after the turn 5 chicane.

Last chicane leading onto the pit straight plus a piece of the pit entry road.

The main straight along the front of the pits.

The catch with this circuit is it is very strict on noise. Each car had to have a transponder mounted in the car so that the monitoring system could identify the offending car. First is a warning. Second is you are going home for the day. Measurement is 98db drive by with sensors at four points around the circuit. If you are within a second of another car, then the system cannot work out which car caused the noise break. Cars were being black flagged for noise all the time forcing them to come in for a chat. One Caterham 620R that I was running with was thrown off with a 98.1db reading. Another 420R with the 6-speed gear box was black flagged.

This is somewhat concerning as all the Caterhams I run with have the additional track day silencer package. Standard muffler unit down the side of the Caterham. The pipe then extends through the wheel arch to under the rear end where a second silencer is installed. I have the same set up and this allows me to do 92db days at a variety of UK tracks. It’s a bit hard to understand the Zolder 15-foot distant drive-by noise failures at 98db when you pass 92db static tail pipe test at 4 or 5000rpm at UK circuits. However, there is no arguing or appeals if you are called out.

I was being supported again by TFL Racing. Everyone who was at Zandvoort made the trek down to Zolder to make it a two day event.

The track suited a se7en or for that matter a Lotus as it put a premium on nimbleness. I had the chance to follow a locally based pro, Cameron Hawes, in a Caterham for a few laps as he was instructing one of the TFL-supported cars. It was interesting to feel how seemingly minor adjustments in your driving lines could have magnified results on corner exit speed.

One of the Caterham 620Rs took aggressively to cutting the corners and going over some curbs. The predictable result saw him loose his second silencer. In his words "the car got really loud all of a sudden!". Naturally he had a noise problem pretty quickly.

Great race circuit and worth driving. I loved the series of first 4 corners as it provided a great challenge to get the sequence right to maximize speed.

Links

TFL Racing

https://www.tflracing.co.uk/

Lotus On Track

Lotus on Track - The track day club run by, and for Lotus enthusiasts (lotus-on-track.com)

Zandvoort Circuit

Circuit Zandvoort | Home of the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix

Zolder Circuit

The Funfastic Circuit! - Circuit Zolder : Circuit Zolder (circuit-zolder.be)

Hotel De Pits

Hotels :: The Lodge Group - Hotels, Brasseries and Party Halls (lodge-hotels.be)

Cameron Hawes