Croc

Or you can miss the apex. Once, twice....? Oh its ok...just a late apex from Charlie.

A sequence of how to do Turn 5 by Simon in Tom's Caterham. Lots of favorable camber. Slightly early turn in to get your left front into that dip between the curb/kerb and the track and then push through with throttle. Crisp apex and power out.

Charlie exiting Turn 4 with the characteristic loaded up suspension in a high speed corner. Just wish he would let the car track out left more... ....like I do so as to reduce the risk of a rear end snapping out under load as you add more speed. Des and I still playing follow the leader drill in Turn 5.

We had a ton of quality time on Saturday. Due to a combined red/white group we ended up with 30 minutes sessions with a maximum of 2.5 hours driving time, which is a lot. Des (blue early model Caterham) was on his first exploration into driving cars on track. The NJMP Drivers Club program has an introductory program which is excellent for having a gentle progressive development into you being able to drive on track. Initially it is green group paced sessions (follow the instructor in a pace car) plus classroom. It keeps the speeds down while you learn the basics. This is what Des launched into on Friday. By end of first session Saturday he was keeping up so was graduated into the sevens group with a "mentor" - me. The two of us did a follow the leader drill. He would follow me then we would swap so I could see what he was doing and provide feedback on lines after the session. The Thunderbolt track is not an easy track. It is technical. It requires a decent amount of time in seat here to understand some of its unusual characteristics. Below Des is doing a follow of me, with Jim coming up behind to pass both of us. Later we have swapped for Des to lead and set pace, while Blake has come up behind and is about to pass both of us in the next sequence of corners (and no Blake you should not have dived down the inside of Des on Turn 12 - give the guy some learning room!). The idea is to control speed to a consistent pace and learn the lines and braking points. I recommend sticking the car in one gear to remove a variable that is a distraction from the more critical item - lines and, in a passing group, track awareness of what is happening around you - other cars, flags, ground hogs, weather, Simon, etc. Speed naturally flows from getting the lines right. Then you re-introduce the gear change once you have a comfort level. The learning curve is very steep but we want to keep you AND the car safe. There is a lot to learn. You do not need a lot of horsepower to do this. Des' early model Caterham with its cross flow engine has all of 95hp at the rear wheels, yet was was punting along quite quickly as we have seen with other crossflows in the past. Limit braking, keep the momentum and they are very quickly little cars even with minimal horsepower. Perfect car to learn in as lower hp cars are MUCH easier to drive quickly around a track than high hp cars. He still went off at Turn 3 and at the Devil (thats ok - everyone goes off there eventually - more than once, twice,...). Simon was borrowing Tom's cars since his was terminally out of action. I can tell by the black helmet it is Simon. Car is nicely loaded up on suspension through the very fast Turn 4 right hand sweeper. Paul looking lonely in Turn 4.

Charles chasing a Formula Ford in his 420R Vlad starting to exit Turn 5. Notice his left front wing has been removed. It broke in a previous session and was removed timely to protect the wing from damage.

The next series of photos was taken by Dom who is a NJMP Drivers Club Member and was briefly around for one of the sessions to take some photos from the stands at the Turn 4/5 area. Paul exiting Turn 4 Vlad in the braking zone for Turn 5 lefthander Jim in the braking zone for Turn 5. You can see how he had loaded the weight onto the front wheels ready for turn in.

Some random shots from yesterday

Groundhog alert here. Late yesterday two cars blenderized a ground hog that strayed on to the track just past the hump on the back straight. When you run windows down on track yes blood and guts can come into the cockpit of a 911. Oops. 😬

We have a new player today - Charles (or he could be a Charlie?). I think it is a Rover K Series ex-UK car? May still have its plastic head dowels? Wonder how the head gasket is? Love the gold minilite wheels!

For @IamScotticus some trailer porn

Yes misty.

Foggy start to the day here. This is looking over the entry to the NJ Devil section of the track. Rain probability starts to shoot up around 3pm area. I suspect most of us will be done for the day and packing up by then.

Turn 5 - a good amount of curb/kerb can be taken on the apex here. Jim in his Caterham can be see far left exiting the NJ Devil part of the track.

Paul at turn 5. If you look at the far left you can see Charlie exiting turn 5 but just above him looking small, is Vlad exiting the NJ Devil part of the track and about to head under the bridge to the main straight. Graham in his Locost. Charlie and I playing follow the leader but as it is late in the session, we have swapped places so I can see his lines and give him feedback afterwards in the classroom where they have a large track map. These follow the leader sessions are useful as the track does have a couple of spots where if you get it wrong the consequences are large. Immediately below you can see the large skid marks rotating right off the circuit into the wall. Turn 4 is dauntingly fast right sweeper. It plays mind games by looking very very tight and narrow. Yet as you get past the apex it actually opens out a lot. There is a ton of room on exit. Most newer drivers to NJMP tend to follow the mind and try to constrain the exit by staying right thinking there is not much room to track out left then get back for the turn 5 left immediately after. All this does is raise a big risk you break the rear loose and end up in the right hand wall - follow the skid marks. What they do not realize is you can track out fully left, come back halfway to middle of track and make turn 5 easily. Turning into Turn 5 from middle of track or far right of the track does not change the average corner speed as the track has favorable camber in the left half of turn 5 turn in. Best cornering is to not compromise Turn 4 to carry the max speed then do Turn 5 at the same speed as everyone else. Um Charlie...you missed the apex....?

Tom continuing from the photo above by turn into turn 5 - a slow left hander. Jim in his Caterham in the braking zone area for turn 5. Vlad in the same area Charlie and I in Turn 5. I prefer an earlier turn in here to gain the advantage of favorable camber at the entry point. Easy enough to rotate the car from the early turn in with the right a good boot of throttle.

Here on the exit of Turn 4 - very fast left sweeper. Paul in his Birkin. Charlie and I playing follow the leader drill. Tom in his Rover K series Caterham

Lining up to go out on track we have: - Blake in his ex-310 now 420+ Caterham - Paul in his Zetec Birkin - Vlad in his Zetec Caterham - Jim in his Zetec Caterham - Graham in his Locost - Charles (or it Charlie? Having two C's in your sevens group is difficult to contend with!) in his new 420R just pushing into line in front of some poor Formula Ford driver - bully! We shared the group with a couple of Formula Fords and a Radical. All were great to drive with and caused no issues with traffic. Like a se7en they are not slow in the corner either.

Caterham on BAT https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-caterham-7-3/

Paul in his Birkin keeping it nicely tidy and clean here

To help Charlie with his new Caterham 420R by getting used to it on track, he an I were playing follow the leader. Tom and I do it regularly for those to better understand a faster and safer line. It starts off with someone following me then midway through the session we swap so I can follow and then give feedback with a walkback on the big track map in the classroom. The pace I set is carefully intended to be modest to focus on lines. I am driving by rear vision mirror when doing this to keep an eye on the person following to make sure I am not pushing too hard for them. Charlie and I are still doing follow the leader drill but Blake is running some nicely fast laps and has got in the middle of us and was to pass me two corners later. Tom in the yellow K series brings up the rear. Of course on 10 inch slicks he corners on rails!

Posting some of @Bombardius videos with annotations. Looks like the out lap on an afternoon session. Jim, Tom, Simon (in Tom's orange car) and Vlad coming out of Turn 4 into Turn 5. Vlad you missed the apex? Nope still missing it Vlad... Blake is catching Paul here for an overtake shortly.

@Bombardius and @wdb It was great to meet you both and chat. Very much appeciate the photos. Will load on here and annotate so people know who is who.

Dinner was a happily boistrous affair last night at the NJMP Clubhouse. NJMP Founder Don Fauerbach joined us for cocktail hour to say hello.

Yes its Simon's. @simon450 could you pitch in please with an ID. Its a nifty piece of kit - quite a clever design.

As usual some drivers are fashionably slow….errr…I mean late.