Mark Hales has joined forces with the highly respected coach and car control expert Don Palmer to create a unique learning experience. With your help, Hales and Palmer reassemble it in a way that only you need to understand.
It is not a quick fix, but it is the best route to greater understanding...
It’s a comparatively little known fact in the wider world, but here has been an active race circuit on the North Welsh island of Anglesey for over 10 years. The brainchild of successful race driver and race school manager Richard Peacock, in 1997, a one-mile circuit was laid on the access roads of the army camp near the hamlet of Ty Croes which lies on the south western coast of the island. The buildings with the giant mobile gantries which were used to load Bloodhound missiles onto their launching trailers are still to be found at the bottom corner of the site, home now to a family of little owls and the various machines necessary for circuit maintenance.
The circuit was short, but technical and tricky thanks to the undulations which made the fastest corners unsighted and it operated successfully until 2007. By then Richard Peacock had convinced both the circuit’s landlords and the Welsh Development Council that the site deserved a bigger track, and in July of 2007 a new two and a half mile track was opened, complete with link roads which offer a total of four different circuit configurations. Some of these are also technical but there are now simpler versions for school work, as well as the demanding downhill corkscrew section which is like a tighter version of Cadwell Park’s Gooseneck, that and the flat out sweep leading up the hill to Rocket corner.
The circuit is now to full international standards although officially the Welsh name remains – Trac translates as "circuit", and Mon is the Welsh word for Anglesey – hence Trac Mon. Thankfully the backdrop too is unaltered and this imparts an ambiance which can’t be found anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. To the West there is the Irish sea, sometimes angry, sometimes shimmering and golden. To the South is the imposing presence of Snowdon and the brooding Welsh mountains while along the coast towards Menai and Beaumaris there are the dunes and rocks which drew holidaymakers in their thousands in the days before cheap air travel.
For Masterclass purposes, Anglesey is perfect. Within minutes the view dissipates any stress from the journey while the variety and sometimes simple, sometimes tricky nature of the corners and sequences offers enough challenge to make learning a pleasure. We also have complete freedom without having to worry about other track users, a bonus which is hard to find on the mainland.
Local accommodation is cheap and plentiful and there is also a good selection of eateries to choose from. The evening get together and supper in Beaumaris is always a pleasure. Contact either Mark Hales or Don Palmer for more details about Masterclass at Anglesey.