First test at Circuit du Bourbonnais

Just how fast can you go round the 5th gear corner at the bottom of the straight? This was question repeatedly going round my head as I drove back to Lyon airport in heavy rain.

Of course I knew the actual figure (the data logging showed exactly how quickly Nicolas Schatz had gone), I’d pushed and pushed, going from a downshift and firm braking to just a brush on the left foot by the second day. But even so the car had more to give…

Having tried an M20 FC twice last year I’d had a glimpse of the car’s ability, driving tentatively and not asking too much, after all St-Ursanne is not the ideal proving ground. With two dry days, an empty circuit and the reigning French hillclimb champion on hand to show me just what Norma’s latest 2ltr prototype can do, it was finally time. Being a 2016 chassis, this car is running the the most recent aero setup producing even more downforce and the latest gear map meaning that the full throttle upshifts are quicker than ever.

The crucial figure is the power to weight ratio – roughly 600Bhp per ton with no traction or launch control.

I arrived on Wednesday afternoon to find the car gleaming white from the paint shop. As it’s the first time I’ve visited Team Schatz’s workshop, I was there for a seat fitting so they could get me comfortable in the car and have everything ready to go at the circuit. There’s a lot of room in the open cockpit and we got a good compromise between visibility over the front wings and getting me low enough in the car (my bum was on the floor). I’m less reclined than in the FR so my arms are a little closer to the the F1 style wheel than I’m used to, but there’s enough room for all the lock I need and it feels very natural after a few laps. On a circuit you can get away with a little less view of the car’s extremities whereas on a hillclimb you often need to place the car within inches of the armco…

I made it to my motel for 10pm that night and was relieved to find a truckers’ diner still open next door. I love the fact that even at this time of day you can still get a (pretty decent) 3 course meal for 12€ in France – beat that Little Chef! The rain had followed me from the UK and the next day started bright but soggy so there was no rush, we started out with sighting laps and a chance to extend my French vocab of racing terminology. At 2.3km Bourbonnais is a perfect little track to learn on, there’s a mix of 1st – 5th gear corners (the car is still running circuit gearing at present) with some gradients, it’s not too wide and there’s nothing to hit so it’s reminiscent of Blyton Park. The Norma instantly gives you a lot of feedback, it feels solid and completely planted. You can quickly up your pace and it’s very progressive, almost like a huge GoKart (especially as I left foot brake) in the way that you be fairly aggressive and really attack hard. It’s addictive, doing sets of 7 laps on hillclimb Avons means you can get into a good rhythm each time as the tyres don’t need much heat to work, I was buzzing every time I got out of it!

After 6 months away from competition it takes a little time to readjust to track driving, especially when this car’s limits are so far beyond anything I’ve experienced to date. Each time I’d push harder, only to be shown from the data logging that there was much more come… for me the two things that really stood out were the brakes and the speed you can take into corners. Over the course of 2 days & 200km (two seasons for a hillclimber) you completely recalibrate your senses, to the point that you feel like a part of the car as it clings to the tarmac. When I fell into bed on Thursday night my heart was still drumming for some time before I managed to sleep…

So it’s been a perfect warmup to the season, for me it’s the first time I’ve experienced this level of driver coaching at a track and I couldn’t have hoped for more. I’m always trying to learn & improve, on my own this was often hard as I was managing too many things at once, but right now I couldn’t feel more ready for Col St. Pierre.

Which is good news, because not only is it one hell of a hillclimb, there are no fewer than 17 drivers entered in class CN2 this year – the competition is going to be fierce! 

With 6 weeks to go I’ll be flying out the weekend before to meet my good friend & team mate Sarah Louvet to learn the course, and enjoy the south of France a little while we’re there. At 5km and a 300m climb it’s reputably one of the hardest courses to learn, Mont-Dore may have more corners but many of them are tight 2nd & 3rd gear bends… this hill is fast, really fast.

There’s one last thing to do though before my season gets underway, and that’s drive Herve the race van to SWB Motorsport so he can begin the next chapter of his adventure – in New Zealand. I toyed with the idea of turning him into a surf van, but he’s too big really and I’d rather start with a clean sheet (and a VW T5), so much as it pains me to see him go it’s for the best. I’ve had some of my happiest moments driving him around France, and New Zealand is one of my favourite countries I’ve ever visited, so it seemed like fate when Adam emailed me to explain his plan. 

He was buying a Formula Renault from SWB along with a huge spares package, and discovered the my van which I’d cunningly advertised in the single seater category of Racecarsdirect. Rather than buy a trailer in NZ, he had the genius idea of loading everything into Herve and shipping the whole lot together, after all it’s made to measure. A number of us have spent the last few weeks arranging all the shipping, paperwork and loading arrangements, and I’m genuinely excited for Adam (who’s been an absolute pleasure to deal with), if not quite as excited as he is!

Even so, it was hard enough looking back at the FR as I drove away in Holland – I think tomorrow could be an emotional goodbye…