Saturday, June 2, 2018

[6/1/2018] HANSON School (DDT)

[6/1/2018] HANSON School (DDT)
Event: HANSON International Driving School
Track: CTMP DDT
Weather Conditions: 25°C, Sunny



In 2017 I took a sabbatical from work and since I was technically unemployed I chose not to track for financial reasons. But I’m back to work now, and the beautiful weather was enticing me to go out and play.

I registered for CSCS on Sunday so I wanted to get in as much practice as I could at the HANSON School on Friday.


I’m still running the same set of Direzza ZII’s as my last blog post in 2016. These tires continue to perform and are honestly some of the best bang for the buck tires you can buy for having fun at the track.


There were a few changes I wanted to test with respect to the pace notes I made in 2016:


T1 – A different approach influenced by Jim Houghton’s line in his record setting 1:25 lap and a vlog post by Michael Gardener explaining the same concept.. This involves cutting T1b aggressively (read: 2wo) and tracking wide left to get a very wide approach and late apex (post-concrete curbing) vs. my old approach of shallow-in, neutral apex. Also not downshifting into 3rd but rather keeping a higher entry speed in 4th to carry momentum.

T10 – Keeping 4th gear rather than downshifting into 3rd for similar reasons as T1.

T11 – Staying more to the left of centre as I bomb down the curve so that I can take T12 as wide as possible. Previously I would be too close to the right/grass and end up with an awkward sharp entry angle into T12.





I forgot to record the first session. I only did two more sessions later in the day as I was suffering from some pretty severe motion sickness after riding with my student in the morning (despite using my killer anti-sickness combo).

Although I didn't have a lap timer to prove it, the line changes to T1 & T11 seemed faster to me. I think I still need to go wider at the exit of T1c though. Although holding 4th through T1 & T10 is certainly easier, I'm not entirely convinced it's faster, as there's still a decent amount of braking involved and in doing so I lose a lot of boost/torque.

Overall a solid day back at the track with much rust shaved off. Feeling good for CSCS on Sunday.

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