Mondello Race School

smarty

I visited the Mondello Race School today, to take the Clubman course. It involves 4 laps sitting in with an instructor driving a Rover 25. You then get to drive the car for six laps of the circuit. Then you get to do 12 laps of the circuit in a rover single seater car.

It was very wet this morning, but by the time we got out on to the track it had dried up nicely. The Rover 25 was surprisingly good fun. The rev limiter is restricted to 4500rpm, and you only use 3rd, 4th and 5th gear on the circuit.

Then you get a chance in the single seater car. This is also restricted to 4500rpm. It starts off with two laps behind the pace car, to get acclimatised to the car and the circuit. The gear shift is on the right hand side and is hard to use initially, but once you have completed the two laps it is fine.

When the pace car left I started off on my first lap and it felt surprisingly fast. On the second lap I was coming up the back straight, and couldn't believe my eyes. The rear left wheel on the car in front of me came clean off the car! The wheel just flew off and bounced away and the car dragged along the ground, with sparks flying up off the tarmac. It was pretty scary, as I was less than 20 metres behind them! I can't really imagine how scary it was for the driver.

They cleaned up the car and put the driver out in another car. The whole thing was cleaned up in less than ten minutes and we continued on our laps.

I completed eleven laps before the chequered flag was waved. Overall the course was very good, but I was a bit disappointed about the marshalling of the track when in the single seater. There were some very slow drivers on the track who were holding up the cars behind, and as there is only limited parts of the track where overtaking is allowed, the marshalls really need to get the blue flags out a little more often.

Beekay

Wow,I've never heard of that there before.(i work there as a marshall sometimes)
Sounds scary.

but with the blue flags,i know what you mean about the slow cars,its a pain for us marshalls.And sometimes the slow guys just don't notice the flags

smarty

I accept that it is an introductory course, and for most people it is their first time on a race track, but it kind of took the gloss off the day for me to be honest.

I was really enjoying it going down the main straight, only to catch up with cars in front in the "no overtaking zone" and then when I get into the overtaking zone drivers not noticing me.

It kind of reminds me of cars sitting in the overtaking lane on a motorway and not noticing the list of cars behind them!!!

Beekay

Its a pain for us too,cause ppl get frustrated behind and then get aggresive which could lead to accidents.

Would you be able to tell me who your instructor was?if ya can remember

smarty

Beekay wrote:

Would you be able to tell me who your instructor was?if ya can remember

Instructor was a young guy called Michael. He was excellent.

AJ!

smarty wrote:

Instructor was a young guy called Michael. He was excellent.

Michael Devaney from the Irish A1 team? He's working up there at the moment.

TheBazman

yeah done it a couple of times but heading over to the uk tomorrow to palmersport.com - looks class

Beekay

AJ! wrote:

Michael Devaney from the Irish A1 team? He's working up there at the moment.

Yeah,that would be him

Dilbert75

Boy did you get a class instructor!

Did that course a few years ago (though it was the advanced, as I'd done the Vee courses 3x times) and found it great - much more useful instruction than before in proper driving techniques.

Steffano2002

I also did the Clubman course back in March and it was a blast! Was crap in the Rover but did good in the single seater!
Thankfully no scary incident such as wheels coming off during my session! :eek:

We also had problems with people holding us up (the first 2 cars when the pace car pulled in! - Typical...) but that didn't last too long. I admitted passing other drivers out outside the "safe zones" to my instructor and he told me that was alright. I mean some people were just so slow! I wasn't going to let it ruin my fun! Not after spending all that cash! :mad:

All in all, would definitely recommend even though I found the course quite pricey for what it was... Oh and the staff there were awesome! Really friendly and helpful. Class croud!

Next time I go there I'm doing the Clubman course though!

Steffano2002

By the way, what was your best time? The weather was crap when I did it (i.e. not lashing but drizzle and road really wet) and my best time was a ("very respectable" I was told!) 1'09". My instructor told me I had the fastest lap time of the day!

Now, if you know that all instructors actually say this to their pupils please don't tell me! You'd be crushing my feelings!

smarty

Steffano2002 wrote:

By the way, what was your best time? The weather was crap when I did it (i.e. not lashing but drizzle and road really wet) and my best time was a ("very respectable" I was told!) 1'09". My instructor told me I had the fastest lap time of the day!

Now, if you know that all instructors actually say this to their pupils please don't tell me! You'd be crushing my feelings!

My quickest lap was 1'02".

I really wanted to break the 1 minute mark, but on the 1'02" lap I got held up by a slow car coming up to the hair pin. If they hadn't been there I think I might have done it!

smarty

Dilbert75 wrote:

Boy did you get a class instructor!

Definitely. I was watching the other instructors coming through the hairpin before I went out to drive and most of them were taking it very wide.

There were three of them that were really getting the racing line, and Michael was one of them. He seemed like a good guy too. I had no idea who he was but he came across very modest.

Diamondmaker

ID like to try that sounds cool. Best I did there were the karts in extreme yet, major sideways fun...*stards cancelled when it got too yet for safet reasons...apparently other drivers could not quite master the side wyas stuff nad kept spinning out....F*cks sake:mad:

SouperComputer

he rear left wheel on the car in front of me came clean off the car! The wheel just flew off and bounced away and the car dragged along the ground, with sparks flying up off the tarmac

Well, thats what you want. A realistic situation where things happen to spice it up a little Did they charge extra?

michael

Didnt know he was working in the school though.

AJ!

SouperComputer wrote:

michael

Didnt know he was working in the school though.

He's starting testing for the A1 next month so he's there for a few more weeks.

Beekay

Here are times that two of the instructors


My bro did a 52.6 as an instructor which means he wouldn't be able to push as hard as he would like

And Devaney did a 52.3 as a normal customer so he didn't have to worry about wrecking the car



the fastest a non racing driver has done is a 56,,which happens very rarely

dubtom

I did it a few years ago and it was great craic. Got the two fastest laps a 102 and 103 which wasn't bad considering I'm a fat bloke.What was the cream though was beating my mate Philip who is now an instructor up there,oh joy. Please anyone who knows him feel free to remind him of that historic day.

Beekay

does he also race formula vees?
and i think has also done rallycross?

dubtom

Beekay wrote:

does he also race formula vees?
and i think has also done rallycross?

Yea that's Him, He's know me as Tommy.

Kersh

ah ye, Phillo, i had to give him major help with his car last few weeks, had to do some headwork as he has had problems all year. I think he finished yesterday though . for once.
Anyway, I instruct there ( Im beekays bro), the fastest we ever see from students is in the 56,s, and it happens rarely.
Sometimes as instructors we are asked to go out and 'checkout' a single seater if a student has complained... we never really bother timing ourselves as ususlly it involves braking or gear change complaints, so we go slow enough, but on a few occasions I have pushed hard enough to get a 52.6 (one of the lads timed me cos he knew I would go quick), that was last year sometime.
When Michael came down he was there as a 'student', or more precisely on a corporate day.. he managed a 52.3 (beekay got it wrong), which is the quickest non instructor time I have seen there. Then he showed up for work the next week, and he is one of the soundest blokes you will ever meet.
To put it simpler, the quickest of the quick students is still 4 seconds slower than experienced drivers, as nothing beats time at the wheel.

Kashkai

I've done this twice and the fastest time I got was 1.00 even (the track was wet in places on both days and I spun off once which was fun)

I'd love to know how to go faster as I kept getting hit by the rev limiter which really knocks the speed off. Slow guys also hold you up. Why don't the instructors use the warm up laps in the Rovers to see who can drive fast and let them off first in the single seaters. I know everyone has paid their cash and is entitled to their drive but slow guys in front can cause accidents when they frustrate faster drivers behind them. Also, when you pay a substantial wad of cash for the time at the wheel, you should be entitled to a clear shot at a fast time.

Mondello is only a mile from my house and I'm often tempted to have another go but three kids and the wife have a greater say on my finances than the thrill of driving fast.

Kersh

Why don't the instructors use the warm up laps in the Rovers to see who can drive fast and let them off first in the single seaters.

Cos its not up to us . Besides, you should take it easy on the first lap or 2 either way. Its catch 22 anyway, if we let quick guys out first, they will catch the tail end slow guys within a lap or 2..... or, we let the slow guys go first and you will catch them on your 1st/2nd lap anyway.
It also depends on how slow 'slow ' is... I have seen some people do 1:36;00.....
We also sometimes get people who think they know how to drive fast, but cant, and push real hard, getting tons of tyre squeel in the saloons, not listening to us cos they know it all and have Vtec civics etc... and wonder why they only get 1:05'.

As for knowing how to go faster, its all about exit speed but the work is done at corner entry and apex. If you are slow here on any corner the lap is ruined. Slow in fast out is the rule... 70% of students I see go barrelling into corners, scrub lots of speed off, dive on the throttle too early.. which means they have to lift and are thus late on the throttle for the straight ahead, which leaves them 10-12 mph or so down on a quick guy.

smarty

Kersh wrote:

Cos its not up to us . Besides, you should take it easy on the first lap or 2 either way. Its catch 22 anyway, if we let quick guys out first, they will catch the tail end slow guys within a lap or 2..... or, we let the slow guys go first and you will catch them on your 1st/2nd lap anyway.
It also depends on how slow 'slow ' is... I have seen some people do 1:36;00.....
We also sometimes get people who think they know how to drive fast, but cant, and push real hard, getting tons of tyre squeel in the saloons, not listening to us cos they know it all and have Vtec civics etc... and wonder why they only get 1:05'.

As for knowing how to go faster, its all about exit speed but the work is done at corner entry and apex. If you are slow here on any corner the lap is ruined. Slow in fast out is the rule... 70% of students I see go barrelling into corners, scrub lots of speed off, dive on the throttle too early.. which means they have to lift and are thus late on the throttle for the straight ahead, which leaves them 10-12 mph or so down on a quick guy.

In my opinion, the best way to manage this would be to put fewer cars on the circuit together. If you put out four cars rather than eight together, and then had the other four lined up to go immediately after the first four came in. It will mean there is more track time required, but it would be less than double. There was quite a bit of idle time when I was there.

Kersh

If they did that the place wouldnt make any money, and i wouldn have a job.
If you owned the track, and had a licence for 9/10 cars, would you put 8/9 in a session or would you put 4... for the same labour costs.
Trust me, there is no idle time... maybe you were idle, but the group after you are being briefed.
we run in sessions A+B, C+D, E+F, G+H, --- A+B arrive together, and do the saloons separate, then they take turns do the single seaters, then C+D arrive to do the same, and it all overlaps..... thats why you were waiting, but i bet the cars were out on circuit, or we were belting up a group to go out.

bkbyrne

Guys,

I did the clubman today, i was terrific. Never driven a rce car before, clocked a 1 minute lap on the 9th lap and was ona flyer in the 10th (figured if I spin now who cares!) The guy in fron spu off and ruined the lap doh!

but still pretty happy with first go.....need to have another go next year!

B