The Feeder Series

Go Motorsport: ARDS Test

Date: Wednesday 21st April 2010.

Time: 10.00 am.

Location: Thruxton Motorsport Centre, Andover.

I got asked the day before if I was nervous, I could honestly say no and even whilst travelling towards the fastest circuit in Britain I wasn’t nervous. However, as soon as I reached the circuit and signed on, oh how the nerves came.

I was part of a group of 11 taking the ARDS test that day and whilst we were told to relax and to take our seats in the briefing room, it was made clear to us that a spin of any kind would result in a failure. As part of the ARDS pack there was a DVD on racing, flags and the like which we were strongly advised to watch before we arrived, well I duly followed orders but when I got there, we watched it all again. As we watched the DVD as a group, one of our instructors paused it in various places to explain certain aspects in more detail, whilst it is mainly self explanitory it was good to go over certain things again. With part one of the DVD over, our group was split into two with one half watching the second half of the DVD and our half going out into the cold to the awaiting fleet of Mazda 3 MPS’s, well I say fleet, there was 3, but with only 3 instructors it worked out well enough.

Walking out into the cold we paired up and chose an instructor, I popped in the back behind the passenger seat with our instructor giving us a few laps of the circuit. He showed us the racing line, gears, where to brake and how to use the circuit markings and changes in tarmac as points of reference. After observing for a few laps I hopped out the car to let my pair take the wheel for a while, he and the instructor swapped and whilst they left the pitlane I sat outside shivering (from the cold and from nerves), 15 or so cold minutes later the car pulled in, it was my turn.

I slid myself into the car, adjusted my seat, put myself into gear and slowly pulled up the clutch. I was so aware that I didn’t want to stall it that it felt like learning to drive again being so careful to pull the clutch to the biting point, but once into third I gave it a boot of throttle and we were out the pitlane and heading towards the first braking point. Now Thruxton if you don’t know is fast, very fast, in fact you only brake twice in the lap and around 70% of the lap is spent at full throttle, but when it’s your first time on track the speed isn’t the thing that strikes you the most, its the sheer grip of a road car and having to believe that you can go into that corner at that speed and push the throttle there and you won’t end up upside down in the armco.

After  what felt like many laps my confidence grew and I was gaining speed and generally getting better lines. As we reached the last chicane for what was the penultimate time my instructor said to me; “Now do a perfect lap for me Jon”, so I tried my hardest, making sure that I focused on my lines rather than speed, they’d explained to us that the test was on technique and being a competant driver rather than outright speed, it felt like a good lap and as we passed through the chicane for that last time he signalled for me to enter the pits and as I slowed down he told me that I’d done well and that he was pleased with what I had done. Unbeknowst to me, I’d done the hard part, that was the practical part of the driving over.

After getting out the car and swapping with the other half of the group we went back into the briefing room to watch the second half of the DVD which was on procedure, flags and other bits of safety that we needed to know. Again one of the instructors paused bits that needed particular attention before we went onto the theory test. 20 or so questions on flags, some basic rules and bits of safety.

The test was quite easy, most of the answers were very logical and as long as you knew your flags you’d be fine, of our whole group only 1 person got 1 question wrong, for the record the question was “What is Understeer” and the answer was not, “When you don’t steer enough”.

The rest of the group joined us back in the briefing room where much talk about the on track experience and what answers we had put for the theory test was had. The instructors all gathered in a side room discussing the events of the day and how we’d all done. Then out they stepped and announced to us all;

‘I am happy to tell you all, that I will be signing off all of your forms today. You’ve passed’

Credit: MSA UK

What a great feeling! A great day and hopefully a step towards some further on track experiences.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this and want to find out more then either contact the MSA, or Go Motorsport.

Don’t worry! This is not the end of this Go Motorsport series, theres plenty more fun to be had getting involved in Motorsport; we’ve still got Marshaling to do, working with a team for a day and some further on track experiences may be round the corner…