Paddy at the ACS Auto-Renntage 2025 in Frauenfeld

Thursday, 01 May 2025

The 3.2km track with 49 gates on the Grosse Allmend in Frauenfeld was a real challenge. Paddy was racing without his navigator and there were rumours that Paddy might get lost on the course. To avoid this, Paddy attended the course reconnaissance and walked the 3.2 kilometres. However, he later admitted that after about 40 gates he began to forget the first 20.

The "LOC - Historische Gleichmässigkeitsprüfung" consisted of an inspection lap, two practice laps and two race laps. The aim was to minimise the difference between the two laps. An intermediate time was recorded and the lap time was displayed on the finish straight. After the inspection lap, Paddy decided to drop all tactics and trust his inner instincts.

Without any driving experience of the track, breaking points, and so on, Paddy's instincts were as accurate as a cheap Swiss watch that's been dropped on the floor. Twice. In the practice runs he had a 10 second difference, in the first run he made a few mistakes, which he corrected in the second run, hence the 10 seconds. On the race laps, Paddy improved and managed to reduce the difference to 3 seconds. However, he thought he was faster on the second lap and held back on the finishing straight. Nevertheless, it was a fine performance for his first participation at the ACS Auto-Renntage.

As the competition was incredibly strong - the winner had a difference of 1 hundredth of a second - this meant 13th place out of 17 competitors. A trophy would have required a difference of less than 1 second. All in all it was a great experience and a good preparation for the next event. AvD-Histo-Tour - here we come.