We went to Tenby on Saturday night and stayed in a guest house. Tenby is a picturesque seaside town and seemingly the hen night capital of South Wales. I ate a fish pie the size of a briefcase that must have contained half a pint of cream and drank several pints of local real ale. The combination caused my digestion some problems in the middle of the night.
We had been driving at Pembrey circuit. One of the reasons I like it so much is that it feels very safe. There are big grass runoffs, not much Armco, and the two most difficult corners have a straight on lane so that you can chicken-out and give up on turning. I took a lesson in the morning and have started learning the difficult business of using the brake and the steering wheel at the same time. When I get the technique right (which is seldom) I am much faster. On one occasion I made such a good job of Honda Curve that I hit the rev limiter in 4th on the start-finish straight and found myself in 5th approaching the hairpin. Changing 5th to 4th to 3rd to 2nd under heavy braking was too much for me. I don't know what gear I put the car in at about 90mph but I'm confident that it was the wrong one. I spun violently and frighteningly and ended up pointing backwards inches from the crash barrier with the engine stalled. While I was travelling backwards I was looking into the face of the driver who was following very closely behind me. I don't know if he was as scared as me, but he made an excellent job of slowing his car and not hitting me.
The marshals had the yellow flags up before my car had even come to a halt, nobody hit me, and I eventually got the car running and drove back to the paddock.
Richard "trail braking" B
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