Croc

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.

Paul in his Birkin showing his stamina by being out in the last session of the day.

Des is having fun in his Crossflow Caterham - first time on track.

Life is better with bling.

Paul Blake Tom Des me

Showing some cars. Jim Tom Charles Vlad Graham