Nestled deep within the Bedford countryside is RAF Thurleigh, a former Royal Air Drive station used all through the Second World Struggle by British and American bombers. Following the struggle it helped within the improvement of quite a few planes, together with the Harrier and Bristol Brabazon. Whereas the airfield closed in 1997, it’s now dwelling to automobiles which might be no much less noisy and no much less attention-grabbing – racing vehicles.
Bedford Autodrome, because it’s now identified, is dwelling to PalmerSport – a trackday expertise launched by ex-Method 1 driver Jonathan Palmer. Calling itself “the world’s biggest driving occasion”, it presents friends the possibility to get behind the wheel of all kinds of vehicles to push the boundaries in an occasion like no different.
Your author attended the occasion in July, and the day began with breakfast. There have been eight of us within the group, six of whom have been work colleagues and one other man on his personal, all of us barely nervous and excited concerning the day forward. We have been launched to our host and professional driver who could be taking care of us (we had Steve Morris, a former Method Ford racer), watched a briefing that includes F1’s personal Martin Brundle, grabbed a balaclava and identify tag, after which it was outdoors right into a minibus to be shuttled to our first occasions – Land Rover Defenders and Caterham Pursuit.
In contrast to the remainder of the day these components are extra about precision than outright pace, testing your potential to position the automobile the place it must be. They’re a reminder that, whereas quick is enjoyable, accuracy and automobile management will win the day.
As soon as everybody had completed the 2 occasions it was again to the shuttle and onto our subsequent half – the JP-LM. The Le Mans-style automobile provided us our first expertise of downforce, and runs on the 1.85-mile West Circuit. This style of grip and pace would additionally assist to organize us for the upcoming ‘F3000’.
Not solely was the JP-LM our first automobile with downforce, it was the primary with an teacher at pace. Realizing that race automobile engines are a lot too loud to shout over, PalmerSport has geared up their vehicles with two-way radios to attach driver and teacher. The teacher got here by way of loud and clear, teaching me by way of every nook, although my microphone was scarcely used – I used to be a lot too centered on little issues like not crashing (although I did handle a “whoops, sorry” once I utterly blew a nook).
The JP-LM was Jeffries’ first style of a downforce automobile, and has a second seat for an teacher to journey alongside
Photograph by: PalmerSport
With the 0.24 Hours of Bedford over it was again to fundamentals with karts, earlier than shifting onto the primary occasion – the F3000. Its lineage might be traced again to the Van Diemen Method Palmer Audi chassis, quite than the F1 feeder sequence of the Eighties-2000s, but it surely has been extensively developed and upgraded. This was the automobile that I signed up for, and it got here with one other Brundle briefing.
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Whereas the educational video lined all the things you’d count on – learn how to drive it, security, racing strains and so forth – it ended with an illustration of what occurs if you happen to don’t abide by these security directions. An ominous warning from Brundle was adopted by onboard footage displaying a former visitor getting overambitious with an overtake, making contact with the automobile forward and sending them right into a full barrel roll. It was a sobering reminder of what we have been letting ourselves in for; no instructors within the single-seaters.
As soon as within the vehicles we received a remaining instruction on controls, a warning to not set off the hearth extinguisher (which is outwardly surprisingly widespread), and we have been off. The F3000 run is on the identical observe because the JP-LM, so that you already know your means round by the point you trundle out of the pits. A lap to heat the tyres, then push.
The automobile was visceral. It was loud, it was fast, it wished to be pushed. It wished to go quicker than you have been driving it, and with each nook it advised you that it had extra. It. Was. Implausible.
Fortunately Bedford Autodrome has a mass of run-off and only a few partitions to collide with so, with the mud settled and my pants nearly intact, and with the information of the place the restrict was a way behind me, it was straight again to pushing
Feeling like the following Lewis Hamilton (regular on! – ed), I used all of my sim racing-honed abilities to push the automobile. Brake a bit later there. Get extra on the apex there. Carry the pace extra by way of that nook. Teasing the restrict was the secret, and I felt like I used to be dancing on that slender line.
Then I spun.
It’s a story as {old} as time – driver will get in automobile, driver pushes, driver will get overconfident, driver makes error. Fortunately Bedford Autodrome has a mass of run-off and only a few partitions to collide with so, with the mud settled and my pants nearly intact, and with the information of the place the restrict was a way behind me, it was straight again to pushing.
I received to a degree the place I felt I had numerous good corners – perhaps not all on the identical lap, however good nonetheless – and immediately it was over. Leaving a part of my coronary heart behind on the West Circuit, I got here in and checked the instances: first, and by a second and a half (with the eighth-fastest time of the yr at that time, which has already been got rid of the leaderboard).
‘F3000’ chassis might be traced again to the Van Diemen Method Palmer Audi
Photograph by: PalmerSport
Nonetheless coming down from the adrenaline excessive of the F3000, we have been transported again to base for some lunch. It gave everybody an opportunity to take a seat down collectively and commerce tales from the primary half of the day, refuel, and stay up for the remaining half of the day. This construction hasn’t come collectively by chance, in fact – it’s been a profitable method for years.
“Jonathan Palmer and Lisa Davis developed the format of the day after they first began working company driving occasions at Bruntingthorpe within the Nineteen Nineties,” says Bedford Autodrome venue supervisor Sonia Vann. “And it’s barely modified since then, because it labored so effectively. The timetable stays the identical day by day, whether or not we run one crew or a full day of as much as 75 friends. Clearly, we’ve modified the car line-up a number of instances over time to supply one thing new for repeat friends and to maintain folks wanting to return again yr after yr.”
First order of enterprise post-lunch was heading over to the 1.5-mile South Circuit for some laps in a BMW M4 GTP. Going from the comparatively spartan Caterham and F3000 earlier within the day right into a (comparatively) enormous, heavy BMW was surprisingly simple. My teacher, Mazda MX-5 racer Jordan Pimley, inspired me to drive it exhausting and depend on the electronics to kind all the things out.
By the top of the drive I’d put in a 1m03.98s lap, which he stated was inside a second of his quickest time. Under no circumstances would I’ve come near that point with out him telling me what to do, me appearing as a mere puppet behind the wheel following his directions with a bit of little bit of autonomy, but it surely gave a lift to my ego heading into the ultimate two occasions. And that is what the purpose of the day is – providing you with the sensation, nevertheless fleeting, of being an actual racing driver.
“Basically we would like all our friends to have one of the best and most exhilarating driving expertise, whether or not they’re a compete novice or a critical aspiring racer,” says Vann. “We pleasure ourselves in having the ability to tailor every visitor’s session to go well with their wants and, because of the distinctive nature of the circuit layouts, we can provide them the arrogance to achieve limits they by no means knew that they had, and to drive quicker than they ever thought potential!
“We would like folks to get behind the wheel of vehicles they’d by no means usually get the possibility to drive on observe, and show to themselves that they’ll do it – and finally have the most effective days of their lives.”
Our penultimate drive was within the Caterham PalmerSport Version, and right here got here certainly one of my favorite moments of your complete expertise. Steve, our professional/minibus driver for the day, was my teacher. In his personal phrases he had “little or no self-preservation”, which is strictly what you wish to hear out of your teacher when getting behind the wheel…
Attempting out the Caterham 7 PS Version was a thrill
Photograph by: PalmerSport
Like the opposite instructors, Steve wished me to push, and I wished to push. Driving a Caterham, foot flat in third, combating it by way of a nook whereas your teacher giggles and encourages you to abuse the observe limits in a means that will make IndyCar drivers blush is a superb feeling, and isn’t one you’ll get elsewhere.
And that’s what units PalmerSport aside from the typical trackday you choose up subsequent to the tills at Boots. The instructors there encourage you to deal with these machines because the racing vehicles they’re, not as a quantity on a profit-and-loss sheet that must be pushed delicately to make it final. They perceive that if you happen to’re right here it’s since you’re a fan of exhausting driving, and so they’re blissful to oblige.
The brakes required a tough stomp earlier than the ABS would kick in, and the rear favored to bop by way of corners. It felt like a race automobile and, for my time behind the wheel, I felt like a race automobile driver
The ultimate drive of the day was the Ginetta G56 GTA. A brand new version to the fleet, the automobile changed the Renault Clio in March and is pushed on the one-mile North Circuit. The windscreen was small and provided little visibility, the brakes required a tough stomp earlier than the ABS would kick in, and the rear favored to bop by way of corners. It felt like a race automobile and, for my time behind the wheel, I felt like a race automobile driver.
After which it was over. Heading to my automobile with the trophy for the quickest F3000 lap (which sits in pleasure of place on my desk, thanks for asking), two issues have been sure. The primary was that the over two hours of motorway driving I had forward of me have been going to really feel very gradual. The second? That I needed to discover a method to do it once more.
Throughout his time within the Ginetta G56 GTA, Jeffries felt like a racing driver and has whetted his urge for food for competitors
Photograph by: PalmerSport