Donovan's Brain

Yesterday I did my third trackday, at the Lotus test track. It was an open pitlane day organised by BookaTrack so there was plenty of track time available (I did seven twenty minute sessions). I’m sure I could drive that track all day for a week and still not master it, but I had a bit of help from someone who knows it very well – Dave Minter.

Dave Minter was formerly the Chief Engineer at Lotus, so he’s done more laps of the technical Hethel track than most. When I heard he was going to be my instructor I was pleased as I knew some of his background, but I’d also heard that he can shout a bit if he’s not happy with your driving. Thankfully for me he liked both my car (it rode very nicely and felt nicely stuck to the track – don’t all Elises? Obviously not) and was pleased with my driving (very smooth steering, nice driving, surprised it was only my third trackday). Maybe I should consider a career change? Then again…

What I did notice about his driving style, or at least what he impressed on me, was smoothness. A previous instructor had me on the throttle through corners pretty aggressively, but Dave emphasised maintaining a constant speed through the complex of corners near the pitlane, and also not braking but lifting off for the mini-chicane at the start of the main straight in order to avoid un-settling the car.

Highlights of the day:

• The instruction from Dave Minter.
• Reaching 110mph before braking to 55mph for the chicane at the end of the main straight.
• Finally getting the courage to do something that Dave had said during the lesson – not braking for the chicane before the main straight. I ended up taking it at 70mph.