I took the circuit license at
Sodegaura Forest Raceway with some of my mates about 2 weeks ago. Fantastic day. I did two sessions. First session I drove well within the car as I drove around and tried to learn the lines etc. I think I got a 1'26.9 or something. 2nd session I drove faster each lap and ended up with a 1'23.7 but there is still loads more time there. The circuit is very interesting and has some fantastic corners.
Corner 1 is a rather brave corner. You come at it quite fast after a decent straight in 4th, brake and I think take it in 3rd. It's blind and always seems faster than you think but you don't really want to run out of space on the exit either. A good exit is very important though as the next part is uphill and its quite a while before you get on the brakes again.
Corner 2 is flat out. It's always a rush keeping full power down, nailing the apex and floating out towards the edge of the track on exit... Easy to turn it too early and muck it up as its blindish on the way up to it.
Corner 3 I'm unsure. It's super wide on the exit of corner 3 but corner 4 follows soon after and that's the next important one. I downshifted to 3rd but kept reapplied power on the way into and out of it. It seems fast enough and stabilizes the car for braking into 4.
Corner 4 is fantastic. At first it seems like a slow right hand hairpin and its easy to take it like one, but infact the exit is as wide as the entrance and its important not to slow too much and maintain momentum. I brake early way out, rotate the car early and I'm way on the power before the apex. It was really fun to feel the car rotate all the way through that corner as you balance braking, turning and power.
Corners 5, 6 & 7. My word. It's downhill into these. You can't see the apex at all as its way below you. Plus the corner itself is a combo all in one direction. It goes on forever! I found it impossible to take it anywhere near right. I noticed cars not really braking too much for it but my brakes started to go off mid my last session and I'd no precision left in them. This corner will be one of the challenges for the next time. Love it.
Corner 8 was another tough one. Very wide with a million lines around it. I noticed a lot of cars going in very early into this one and understeering all the way around it almost. I opted for going in deep, braking hard but short, early rotation and power down all the way, way before the apex. I think a mid line might be better though - going in and not braking as hard, rotating on throttle and then powering out.
Corner 9 was pretty easy. Just a hairpin which I can pretty much do easily enough since I've done so many laps of Tsukuba :-)
Corner 10 is quite crazy. The entrance is blind, there is a concrete pit wall on the right and not much run off on the left. It's right before a long straight so its vital to be quick through here for a good lap time also. I'm slowly working my way up on that one also. There is also a highish rumble strip on the inside of it which I haven't quite figured out if mounting is a good thing or not. Not a good place to have any kind of action in the car except a nice clean fast exit. Thrilling though :-)
I must figure out what to do about my video equipment as it's ruined :-( I think I might get a helmet mounted HD cam or something next and see how that works out. Going to go one more time in December.
I've another race this weekend at Ebisu circuit in the Prelude. Looking forward to that although it snowed there today so hopefully we will be able to race. We were 3rd in class the last race but we couldn't drive the last 1.5 hours as it was fogged out.
