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Certifiable

PMW track-tests the driver training and race license testing services offered by Brands Hatch

by Graham Heeps

 

Pictures by www.rawaction.co.uk

When it comes to track driving, everyone has to start somewhere. And in the UK, whether you’re a teenage karting veteran, a gentleman driver with an eye on GTs, or a magazine editor who’s never raced, that means obtaining an MSA National ‘B’ race license at one of the 17 Association of Racing Drivers Schools (ARDS)-approved establishments around the country.

With several such schools within an hour or two’s drive of the PMW offices, there were many easy options open to me when I decided it was about time I got my license. My choice was Brands Hatch in Kent, one of four racing schools operated by former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer’s MotorSport Vision (MSV) organization at its circuits around the UK.

Instruction and the test itself are held on Brands’ Indy loop rather than the full GP track. Having never driven there before, I decided it would be prudent to have some on-track tuition before taking the practical element of the test. A one-hour, one-to-one tuition session at Brands is priced at £250, as is the ARDS assessment. These Club MSV rates are competitive with those of other racing schools in the UK’s Southeast, such as Thruxton Motorsport Centre (where several other PMW staff have passed their ARDS tests) or Mithril at Goodwood.

The booking process is straightforward via MSV’s website or over the telephone. I was also offered, but did not take up, an examination in the circuit’s medical center (required for the license application) on the day of my test, priced at £60. In an otherwise transparent process, the guidelines on ARDS medical examinations weren’t clear to me initially. The information in my Go Racing pack (ordered from the MSA before booking an ARDS assessment, price £65) stated that a medical would be required before the test. MSV staff at Brands later made it clear that this was not the case.

I took my test on a foggy, sopping wet day in February. First up was the classroom session and written assessment under the eye of MSV chief instructor Peter Alexander, a former Formula Ford champion who’s been teaching race driving since 1992 and also drives a Simtek F1 car in EuroBOSS. Along with six other candidates (approximately twice that number formed a second group later in the day), I sat through the MSA’s aging Go Racing video fronted by driver/presenter Steve Deeks.

Alexander then made various helpful comments about the video, drawing the candidates’ attention to sections likely to be assessed in the written exam, clarifying areas that were ambiguous in the video, urging care with the flag section of the paper (for which the pass mark is 100%), and taking questions. In short, he did everything permissible within the rules to ensure his candidates were successful before we sat down to do the exam.

With the classroom session complete it was time for the track-based part of the ARDS test. After a briefing from Alexander, each candidate was paired with an instructor and allocated to a Vauxhall VX220 Turbo or BMW 1-Series. A regular trackday was in operation alongside the instruction and assessment, featuring everything from a Ford Mondeo to a rapid Juno sports-prototype, with up to 25 cars on track at any one time. This provided an ARDS rookie like myself with a considerable extra challenge in terms of awareness of other track users, but I felt it made for a much more suitable environment than an empty airfield for an assessment that is, after all, aimed toward participating in a race.

Unfortunately, when combined with the extremely wet conditions the busy racetrack generated more than a handful of red flags, which served to interrupt and delay some of the instruction sessions and ARDS assessments. Club MSV did try to keep on top of the situation though, for example by reminding all drivers to respect the conditions, and issuing individual warnings to those who transgressed.

My instructor for the one-to-one tuition was Darren Burke, a former European championship karter who also works extensively with Caterham and races for Alexander’s team in historic FFord. He was patient and constructive with his feedback, encouraging a smooth and consistent style, albeit with mixed results! He also brought us back to the pits for a short break and debrief every 20 minutes or so, which kept things fresh and allowed me to take stock of what I’d been learning.

Despite my ‘off’ (see below, How did it go?), I felt that the dual-control, mid-engined Vauxhall VX220 Turbo – essentially a reskinned Lotus Elise with a 197bhp, 2-liter turbo powerplant – made for an excellent learner vehicle: mid-engined, rear-drive dynamics; good acceleration and stable under braking; but not too fast for a novice.

With the hour of instruction out of the way, Burke felt I was ready to move on to the test itself, and we progressed seamlessly into the assessed laps without unnecessarily building the tension by pitting again. When it was all over, I headed back inside for the verdict, and for the efficient Alexander to tie up the paperwork and ensure there were no outstanding questions.

How did it go?

Magazine Editor Not Great On Track is hardly breaking news, but for anyone who’s interested, here’s how I got on in my ARDS test.

Having sat through the video twice and swotted up on Section Q of my 2010 MSA ‘Blue Book’ (the regulations pertaining to circuit racing), I was relieved to pass the written paper with a perfect score.

But I knew it was the track element that would provide the greater challenge. I’ve been lucky enough to drive on several racetracks as part of my job, and in several racing cars, but I was well aware that my moderate experience of circuit driving was no guarantee of ARDS success. Given the weather conditions on the day, I was particularly glad of the extra time the one-to-one instruction gave me to familiarize myself with the car and the lines and braking points of the Indy circuit.

I very much enjoyed driving the VX220 and was suitably wary of the conditions, but a premature squeeze of the throttle at the apex of Surtees, with a driven rear wheel of this mid-engined car still on the slippery curb, was enough to put the progress I’d made over the previous half-hour firmly in perspective. The little Vauxhall’s back end snapped away, and we went spinning up the hill through McLaren. In the instructor’s seat, poor Darren Burke tried hard to retain his composure, but eventually lost it after the second rotation, when we slid off the track and onto the slippery grass, accelerating again toward the tire barrier.

Car and occupants survived unscathed to rejoin the track at Clearways and drive straight to the pits, where we discovered that the damage was fortunately nothing that a good wash wouldn’t fix. And after taking five to let the adrenaline drain, it was back out for the final instruction session and assessment.

Burke subsequently told me I’d taken it easier in this final session. That’s hardly a surprise given the knock to my confidence and the knowledge that a spin during my test would result in automatic failure, but for me this was a subconscious change – I was trying to drive exactly as before, albeit with even greater caution around the curbs. And so having mastered the physical side of driving well enough to earn an 80% pass in my ARDS track test, I’d inadvertently proved that the mental side can have just as big an impact on performance. Next stop: a sports psychologist…

For further information go to: www.clubmsv.co.uk/pmw