HUGE thanks to Hondas-On-Track for a superbly run activity day at North Weald airfield on Wednesday. Some 30 cars gathered for a damp and greasy day blasting around cones and doing everything you can't do on the roads.

We started out with a high speed bend which I struggled to get the hang of. My first attempt resulted in me drifting across the concrete, full opposite lock and full power (I'm sure it looked awesome)! The idea was not to cross a line of drains in the ground, which I did manage eventually, but the concept of turning in and not getting back on the throttle to steady the car really confused me. I had a lot of trouble with the front dampers hitting the stops on the rough surface, and damaged a wing as a tyre caught it (excuses excuses).

Then we had a play on a slalom course. The cones are probably wondering if they had wronged me in some way, as on most of my runs I hit at least 2 and usually several more! They left quite a few scuff marks on the car but it was great fun flicking the car through the course.

Finally there were 2 handling courses. The longer of the two caused me problems again, with the rough surface bottoming out the front dampers and not enough rebound on the rear ones. However, I managed to set some quite good times and really enjoyed sliding the car into the corners. The second course was shorter but included a strip of tarmac which appeared to have been surfaced with ice. Everyone struggled, Russ even managed to lock up and have a trip across the grass!

The day proved to be great fun and excellent value for money. The car wasn't setup ideally for the surface, and I much prefer circuits, but I am really looking forward to the next time we visit North Weald.

Thanks again to Hondas-On-Track and thanks for the inspiring comments left by those that drove my car!

32 video clips of myself, Russ, Tony and James

The minor damage I managed to do to the car