Track rebuilding at the Beehive!	June 2007

In the two months since our move from Henley a core of members have been busy sawing, cutting, filling, painting and sometimes cursing (but not when the Vicar is around!) in an effort to get the monster track to fit in it's new home. For those who know the circuit the major mods have seen half a metre taken off the rostrum depth and a 1.5 metre section taken out of the two main straights. This has had the effect of not only shortening the layout but also widening it and compressing the three bridges into the front end of the track. Sight line issues have already been discussed but it was decided to get the track back in business and address these issues later. One radical solution would be to reverse the direction of travel. Watch this space for our first driving impressions. Lap length is still a good 35 metres (115 feet) and the lap record could go sub 4 seconds with some practice. Over to you Richard!

 

While the track is down the hairpin has been reworked, too. Some of the slots were showing signs of severe wear in the form of a taper on the outside wall and braid damaged by guides locking out at full drift. To repair this and improve the corner the slots have been re-cut tangentially with a constant radius for each lane based on the original inside lane, Blue. This may make Red even more desirable but there is scope for reworking of the start bend to improve vision and marshal access, later on, which could redress the balance. In the future there is the possibility of building a new track in a room at the other end the hall and long term, if we are good "lodgers" we may be considered in the future rebuild of Beehive.

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