I woke up to a beautifully shining winter-sun this morning – well, it was almost noon, actually – and on impulse decided to head to the STC for a few laps. So I did, but not until two o’clock in the afternoon did I get all the stuff done that needed doing. STC closes at 4:30 pm during the grim winter months, but I figured it was a good idea to go nonetheless, as they currently offer a 15 per cent discount on 10-turn- and 25-turn-tickets until the end of January. Since I can’t be sure to find the time to go there before the offer runs out, I had a good enough excuse to pick up a 25er today. I got there at a quarter past three and apart from two bikers who just went there to buy a discounted ticket, no other drivers were around. I decided to do only one quick turn before heading back home.

These were my first laps on a completely dry track and I could immediately tell the difference. Where I wasn’t able to fully accelerate out of the turns previously, I could now simply mash the throttle in third without getting understeer. Only if I didn’t come into the turn too hot, of course, which happened quite frequently to be honest. I just don’t have the braking points down well enough, yet. So I braked too late several times. Never to an extent for it to become a problem, though.

The difference from a dry to a damp track was particularly noticeable in the long right-hander after the small chicane. That turn (the N°2 on the track map) has a late apex and it never fully dried off the last time I was there. So I always had to be easy on the throttle to prevent running wide. This time I could mash the throttle right at the apex. This wasn’t quite possible in the slower turns, where I decided to pick 2nd gear instead of third like last time. Namely that was in the hairpin after the long straightish bit (N°3), the second series of turns in the infield (N°4) and the last turn before start/finish (N°5). The Clio does have a considerable amount of power for its front wheel drive and when excellarating in 2nd at above 4000rpm, it will understeer quite a bit. Nothing that couldn’t be countered by lifting off the throttle a little, though. And that is probably the most important thing I learned about my car today: It’s neat and predictable tendency to lift-off oversteer. This makes steering it on the throttle quite easy. And it makes especially the tight infield fun, where there’s a series of four right turns you take in one radius (N°4 again).

Obviously, one turn of 15 minutes is not quite a track day and you can’t really learn anything in such a short amount of time – it’s more like a warm-up turn, really – but since I was there already and was really longing for at least a little bit of track time, it was rewarding nonetheless. The next track day I won’t attempt before I have my brakes done. Even after those few laps, it was really noticeable that they need it.

P.S.: I didn’t video my turn, because the sun was sitting so low that one would not have seen anything most of the time anyway. I did time it, however, and was pleased to see a best time of 1:53.332 on my last lap (the last timed lap, that is). That’s already 10 seconds faster than in the damp in November.