The past Saturday saw the first event at Zwartkops, Driver Training.

Started up fresh and early with registration at 8 am. With the rumbling sounds of some beautiful V8's doing some testing, we all gathered in shed 3 for some lessons. Feeling very much like a student again, the brilliant Colin Hastie explained all about the dynamics of the most important part of racing, the tires. Colin also did a quick run thru of some of the corners around the track, including braking points.

We were then set lose on the track with the instructors giving us good guidance. Thanks to Kollie, I soon lost sight of Lourens in his new Clubman MINI with Kollie guiding him around the track. This gave me time to try out some of my new found knowledge. I also had some fun times with some of the other track users.

The session ended and I pulled off with some smoking brakes and warm tires. After inflating my tires a bit more as suggested by a fellow MINI race driver, the second session was upon us and this time Kollie was in the car with me. One of the best instructors I have ever had in my car I soon started getting some great speed and in turn times around the track. The Clubman however eventually caught up and passed us on the uphill section. This just proved again that there is no substituted for torque. Again my ever troublesome brakes forced us to turn in to the pits it was more fun than all the previous track time I have done both here and in Cape Town. The fun was largely down to the fact that I could feel the car going very fast and this was because of some brilliant coaching from Kollie. After the two sessions we discussed the day and some corners and lines that we have learned.

Although I did not stay longer as I needed to get home, the rest of the day was spend burning more fuel and tyres as it was then a open practice day for everybody.

Big thanks to Kollie and the other instructors for giving us some well needed guidance and for making this day unforgettable.

I hope to see some more guys at the next event.

Until then,

happy motoring.