Motors and Me

As mentioned at the end of the previous post, I took Teamsport up on their £18 Race Again offer after my last time there. For 30 minutes on track, I'm still impressed at that value. Anyway, this time I could muster only  one of my nephews as a companion/rival, despite the fact that two of them plus a brother-in-law had bought the same vouchers. Still, he's a good nephew with a keen interest in — and desire to work in — Formula 1, so all's good. This time out, there seemed to be more of a mix of abilities on track. That was pretty clear as soon as we got out of the pits and some people instantly ignored the yellow lights (used to test whether you'd been paying attention to the briefing), just shooting past everyone. 🙄 Cue those yellow lights turning to red and them getting a quiet word in their ears. Later on, those same people turned out to be mobile chicanes, lapping nearly 10 seconds off the pace. Once we actually got up and running, it was clear that the track ha

Crazy, isn't it? One minute, you're a not-long-married 30-something musing about the inevitability of having to sell your fancy sports car (the 350Z). Then, in the very next blog post, you're a late 40-something dad driving a 1.0-litre Focus, composing a blog post about a rare karting session while your 9yo daughter does gymnastics. Let's hit rewind for some very motoring-skewed notable events of the past 10 years: Sold the 350Z not long after the last big post for... £5000, IIRC.  Focus nearly died (timing belt) on a drive to Edinburgh airport (we still caught the plane after leaving the car behind) First daughter born in 2013 Focus eventually died on a local dual carriageway (no personal trauma involved) Replaced Focus with a diesel Renault Laguna mk3... and grew to hate it Second daughter born in 2016 Eventually replaced the Laguna after 6 or 7 years of joyless motoring with another Focus; mk3 this time Not a single trackday in the last 10 years Occasional track &quo

Last time I wrote something here, I was about to go karting and was getting all het up about wanting to win, despite it not being particularly good etiquette. At least, not in my head. Embarrassingly, it turns out that Dave, the lad who'd invited me along, saw the post, so was well aware of my... somewhat emotional diatribe. Oh dear. Thankfully, he didn't call me an idiot, even though he probably should've done. In the end, I actually did win, although my embarrassment at having been caught being rather arrogant did take the shine off it a little. Still, my wife and mum got to see me in my element, which was nice. (My mum was only there as it was the anniversary of my dad's death and I didn't want her sat at home alone. I'm pretty sure my dad would've hated the idea of anyone spending the day moping too, so it felt good to be getting on, enjoying life. It is, as they say, what he would've wanted.) And that's us caught up to February last year. Sinc

So, yes, I was karting last Thursday... and I won. Mid-life crisis resolved. Kinda. I got pole, the win, and the fastest lap by a second or more. But by god, it was hard work. And my fastest lap was about 3 seconds slower than my previous fastest on that circuit. Three seconds! I don't know how much of that was down to the karts being different (completely different models since I got my fastest laps) or how much the cold circuit affected it, but I hardly feel like I performed anything like as well as I used to. Rather reminiscent of my last trackday , in fact. It just goes to show, this stuff takes practice. I've not been practising and, naturally, the speed and the skill have gone. On the up-side, I went to this event with both my wife and my mother in tow: probably not so cool, but was really nice to have them along. My mum especially, as it was the anniversary of my dad's death and it's just nice to think my parents were represented. One time, many years ago, I ev

A lot has happened since my last post, back in August 2009. God! August 2009! That's 2½ years ago. Anyway, in that time, I've gone from having a girlfriend to having a fianceé and now a wife . :) Said wife has also started learning to drive, which has required the purchase of a slightly more sensible car: a 5-door, 10-year-old Ford Focus. That said, the 350Z remains in the garage. So, in short, I've grown up, but am still clinging the last vestiges of boyracerdom. ;) Another thing, pertinent to this blog, that's happened in the past few years is that I've almost completely stopped doing trackdays. The last trackday I did in my own car was February 28th 2009; just under 3 years ago. And I was dreadful. The last track experience I did was a second Palmersport day, in August 2010. Since then, nothing. Well, except for a charity karting event, which hardly counts. All of this has left me feeling pretty flat about my own motoring/motorsport. The presence of the Foc

Funny how songs can bring back specific memories so vividly. Here I am, sat at my computer, and I put on OK Computer by Radiohead. Airbag kicks into life and I'm instantly transported back to 1998, designing my first track using the Grand Prix 2 Track Editor . Based on the Estoril circuit — as nearly all early tracks were, thanks to its simple pitlane layout — it swept down and to the right from the start/finish straight. The opening bars of Airbag often accompanied this stretch as I popped in a CD before starting play-testing. That first corner will forever be strongly connected with Radiohead for me, which is no bad thing. I loved creating tracks and I still love OK Computer. The track, I believe, was called Cheviot, named after the hill in Northumberland . This was a highly apt name, as I completely misunderstood the editor's height settings. What I thought was a change in absolute height was actually a gradient change. Consequently, when I tried to make a slight hump