Hot lapping

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Yesterday saw the Mini back on track (Croft) for the first time in almost a year. With replenished reserves of brake pads and rubber, it should’ve been a stroll. As it was, the searing heat made things wilt like I’ve never known before. It was scary.

Perhaps, in hindsight, putting fresh tyres on the car just a week or so beforehand wasn’t a good idea. Hard on the brakes into Clervaux for the first time and the car squirmed around alarmingly. Not quite enough to make me think I’d lose it, but enough to scare me. Back in the pits after a few more exploratory laps, it was clear that the depth of tread on the tyre combined with the soaring track temperature had just melted the rubber. What I first thought was marbles caked onto the tyre was in fact my own rubber, brushed from one side of each tread block to the other. Little wonder the car felt a little unpredictable beneath me.

Then came my salvation: thunder showers. As we sat queued in the pit lane, ready to go out again, big fat globules of rain started pounding the ground. By the time we were released, the track was soaked and standing water was forming. I’ve never seen so many flash cars being driven so gingerly. More to the point, I’ve never overtaken so many flash cars. Whereas previously I’d been the whipping boy, now I was the Regenmeister, picking off all and sundry. The lumpy, melted rubber was shed and the grip was phenomenal — almost as much as in the dry. Only an Impreza driver refused to swallow his pride and let me past.

Sadly, by the end of this second session, the rain had stopped and the track began to dry. I still had another couple of stints before the day was over, but I’d already had the most fun I was going to get. I used to be wary of driving fast in the wet (and still am on public roads), but after adventures in the Michelin Renault scholarship, then at Rockingham and now this, I can’t get enough. :)

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