On Saturday, we had the first official event of the 2013 calendar year. The Seminar day.
If you’re not as damn nosey as I am and haven’t done a lot of asking and digging around already, this day really is the first time that you get to hear all about the Academy year and really get the impression that something is happening!
Nearly everyone from both groups of the Academy had made it up to Caterham Midlands, near Leicester for a 9am start. Jenny Grace kicked off proceedings by taking everyone through the way that the season would run, what would be expected of us and what we can expect from Caterham. We got to hear our provisional sprint dates and venues.
Next year, we’ll be kicking off with Aintree as normal, provisionally on the 27th April. We then move to Snetterton 100 on 18th May. Finally we end the sprint events at Blyton Park on 15th June. Blyton is a new venue for the Academy – and being based in Scunthorpe, is another long old trek up North for those based on the South coast!
Sadly, we still don’t know our track venues or dates yet. We’ve been told these will be announced on 30th November.
Jenny also covered some of the more administrative aspects of the Academy. Talking us though race licences and the paper work we would be asked to complete shortly.
Simon Lambert took us through towing :). Who knew there was sooo much interesting stuff to cover on the subject… ahem. Simon covered some the driving and competitive aspects of the year as well as the personal aspects of all being shoved into the same situation with other like minded people and coming away friends at the end of it.
He covered the topic of insurance… I’ve covered that before in this blog. Essentially, £1600 to cover a big accident. Most accidents won’t break through the £2000 excess.
He also walked everyone through the potential pitfalls of spending £’000s on tuition, gadgets and gear. He acknowledged the fact that this would go straight in one ear and out the other with some, but he insisted that there was very little advantage spending out on team support between races and extensive tuition. That there is no magical setup for a Caterham and that you’re better off concentrating on your own performance than that of your car.
Porky and Zoli from the 2012 Academy year were on hand to offer the competitors point of view on proceedings and the support crew took everyone through what their role was through the year – essentially, they fix things when you brake them at the track – they don’t prepare cars! Unless, of course, you pay them to! They are also on hand to answer questions and to help the Academy drivers help themselves with tips, tricks and guidance.
Jonny from Book-a-track then took us through how important track days are to get used to track driving (of course he’s gonna say that!) but he also made it clear the differences between track days and testing days. Jonny is always great to listen to and he did a great job.
Lunch offered everyone the chance to have a good old natter. The day started out quite quiet but by the end, it was amazing how noisy the chatting had become! For me, this was the best part of the whole day. We’d seen the names on the first newsletter of all the drivers but seeing a whole room full of the faces that go along with the names was absolutely great. Personally, my biggest criticism of the day would be that there wasn’t enough of an opportunity to chat to everyone. I would certainly have been up for a social after the formalities had finished.
After lunch, the support team demoed how to correctly load a car on a trailer – which was great to see – and is good to know that I didn’t get anything majorly wrong when I took my car over to Dartford!
The day ended with a chat from Dave Kimberley of Demon Tweaks. He took us through the kit we’d need and the official Caterham suit on offer if enough people signed up.
The big news this year is that we are going to be able to officially use data logging equipment at Caterham events. I already have my V Box, and now, being able to use it without having to constantly remember to remove the logging aspects of it at official events is going to be great.
Like I said, meeting and chatting to so many people was great. The ‘excitementometer’ has been cranked up another notch and assuming that the IVA and registration goes well, I should be actually driving the car next week. Perhaps even on track with it next weekend!
Bring it.