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Brands Hatch 2016 – Rounds 3 & 4

28 Thursday Apr 2016

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Brands Hatch 2016 – Rounds 3 & 4

After the damage sustained from the crash and the engine failure at Donington Park last month, we needed to get through the weekend at Brands Hatch with the car in one piece.

Glenn Hay had straightened out the front beam and worked hard on the front suspension, but as I drove out of the tunnel underneath the circuit for the qualifying session, we had a problem. I dabbed the brakes but the car veered hard right.

Weighing up our options before we went out on track, I decided I’d see if we could crawl around the minimum 3 laps, and then we could do something before the first race.

Luckily, after the first lap the car was straight and true! I suspect it was either the camber of the tarmac that had dragged me right, or maybe a piston stuck in the brake calliper.

After a few laps I saw spots of rain on my visor, but figured I’d press on faster and faster until the car started sliding. It didn’t, but a few other cars went off.

I managed a rather disappointing 21st place out of 30 cars. Not terrible, but about 6 places away from what I was expecting.

We’d also decided to dial back the engine power until we find some reliability – and so I guess it was expected. The misfire I had on the exit of most corners, wasn’t expected – but that disappeared before the race…

Race 1

Sat on the awkward rolling hills that is Brands Hatch pit straight, I was holding the brake and blipping the throttle with my heel (the Sheane won’t idle at all if the revs drop!), but as the lights went out I caught my sole on the edge of the pedal, so got a terrible start.

Martin Snarey stole all my fortune, and shot off in the best start I’d ever seen, straight up the middle of many rows, proper taking the Mickey!

I headed a bit too tentatively into Paddock Hill behind Jake Hockley, who’d finally managed to get off the line and take his driveshaft with him. I hung onto him for a few corners before he started pulling away – great to see them finally sort their issues, and hopefully I’ll be able to drag myself up for a scrap with him once we get the car back on form!

I then got a lot of pressure from the gaggle behind me – Neil Aldridge and David Leniewski in their blue AHS cars and also Sam Engineer in his brand spanking new orange GAC. Sam has now left our little group of Sheane’s, but I was pleased he’d found a second a lap straight away in his new car, and is looking good already.

Jamie Harrison spun out of Surtees, and I had to lift off mid-corner both for the yellow flags and so I could tighten my line and get around him, but Neil unfortunately was right on the back of me and had nowhere to go other than off and into the tyres.

I then had a bit of a dice with Sam, before some of the lead cars laped us and we had to back off a bit to let them through.

Suddenly Sam came passed me and pulled out a huge gap straight away! I was pretty sure my engine hadn’t gone again, so I got my head down and gave chase in disbelief at how he’d found another 30hp!

I tried my best to hang onto him, and then the back stepped out big-time through Surtees. I was facing tyres walls at very high speed, still on opposite lock, and needed to be turning right. I have no idea how, but I must have snapped on the perfect amount of steering lock to catch the car, and much to my thrill and amazement still managed to make the next corner! This was a HUGE moment, but to look at the video you’d barely even notice it!

One thing to stand testament to this was that my FitBit recorded a heart beat of 171bpm at this moment. I will do another blog about the whole FitBit experience in another blog soon! It’s pretty interesting stuff.

I finished 18th overall, and 5th in Class B. When we were in parc ferme, I also realised the orange car I’d been chasing was actually Maurice Gloster lapping me – and Sam was still behind me in his identical car and helmet!  The two laps following Maurice were also by far my fastest up until then!

Race 2

I got a better start, but again Martin Snarey came rocketing about 4 rows forwards. I’m convinced he’s using some kind of catapult, and will be watching him VERY carefully from now on.

I out-dragged Francis Twyman and dropped down Paddock hill behind Jake Hockley once again, and just as before he steadily left me from that point on!

Francis dived to my inside into Druids and then pulled out a large gap as one of the blue cars in my mirrors disappeared into the gravel at Paddock Hill, bringing out red flags as the marshals dragged David back onto terra firma for the restart…

We sat on the grid for about 15 minutes waiting for the restart. The problem here is we’re in air-cooled cars, and if you switch off your engine it might not restart again. So I sat there, on another awkward bit of track, holding the brake whilst constantly blipping the throttle to keep it from stalling. At one point I actually grabbed my right knee with both hands and physically pushed and pulled my leg up and down, as I couldn’t do it any longer!

Finally, despite a leg now made purely from rubber and pain, I got another good restart, passing Francis and almost Jake into Paddock Hill.

I was determined to keep up with the pack ahead, so tried my best to avoid the marauding group snapping at my exhaust, and got all kinds of out-of-shape into Paddock. I saw yellow flash in my mirrors as Francis followed me deep into the corner but couldn’t quite keep it on the black stuff.

This all seemed to put the rest of my chasers off just long enough for me to draw out some breathing space, and I focused on the white Sheane of Martin Snarey in the distance, and tried to compensate for lack of power by pushing hard in the twisty bits.

I steadily reigned him in, taking huge chunks out of his lead through Paddock and Druids, only to have him pull it all back in the next corners to leave the gap over the start line the same.

I ignored the pain screaming in my arms (did I say Formula Vee wasn’t all that physical in an earlier blog?) and closed right in, but had left it too late as the chequered flag came out when I was half a second behind. One more lap and I’d have undoubtedly been all over him – but passing might have been another matter!

This left me 5th in class again, and 17th overall. Perhaps more of a victory in this one was that I didn’t get lapped! I don’t like getting lapped!

Those are the cold, hard facts – I’ll give my take on my own performance in an analysis blog.

I would like to thank Vard again for coming along to help out – and congratulations to Paul Smith who won both races, as well as Ben Miloudi and Martin Farmer who got 2nd and 3rd in race 1, and Ian Jordan and Ian Buxton for race 2.

And another very special thank you to Dan at JooVoo for the amazing new JooVuu X camera that I used to capture all the action.  I’m sure you’ll agree that the quality of the footage is amazing, and it will get even better as we learn how to set the camera up for race use.

Race 1 Video:

Race 2 Video:

 

The 2016 Ravenol Formula Vee Season is about to start!

15 Tuesday Mar 2016

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The 2016 Ravenol Formula Vee Season is about to start!

Even though the Winter ‘off season’ has lasted forever, it’s also suddenly gone, and on Saturday 20th March we’re back at Donington Park to race again!

In true tradition, we’re far from ready for it, but hope to be able to get the car back together in time.  Glenn should be getting the engine in today, and then we can look forward to a few late nights as we put the rest back together.

So what’s new for 2016?

We’ve remounted the engine, lowering the rear a little.  We haven’t remounted the front shocks, yet, so that will  be the same as last year for a while.  The bare aluminium sides are still there for now, but will also be getting painted yellow when we get chance.

We’re also hoping to have a very kindly helping hand from Chris ‘Vard’ Vardon in the paddock when he can, with another few offers to help out, from others.  That should make our life a lot easier between races!

There’s also an exciting new partnership with a company that you should see in place in time for Donington, and I should fall under the banner of Glenn’s race team.  This will lead to another car out on track before the end of the year, with a view to getting 4 cars out for the 2017 50 years of UK Vee celebrations!

The cars out for 2017 should be the Scarab in which Ian Flux and Glenn Hay both won the UK championships, with the other car being the Beech in which Jenny Nadin won the first ever Formula Vee race in the UK.

I’ll also be pushing more to raise my profile, looking for more sponsors (and trying some new things) and have already spoken to local newspapers to print some race reports, as well as a good few other ideas.

Mentally, I’ll be getting my head back in the game to hit the ground ready to build on last years pace (although we won’t have time to test before qualifying), and getting some iRacing laps in to see how that helps.

It’s hard to make much judgement from the entry list for this race, as I’m sure a lot of others are leaving things a bit late, but it seems most of the usual front-runners will be back to battle it out.  Paul Smith may be concentrating more on racing his Crossle this year, but Martin Farmer will do a few rounds when his HRX business allows.

James Harridge will be going all out, but so will Adam Macauley over from the Irish Championship, with Ben Miloudi back out in a newly built car as well.  Ian Jordon will be hoping to go one better this year, and I’ll be here all day listing the many drivers who are in with a realistic shout of winning the championship this year!

There’s a Harry Webb listed in Class B for AHS who may be one of the new ones to watch, and I’m sure the usual battles will rage all the way down the grid.

I’ll be aiming for the top 10 this year, and if I can get close to the top 3 in Class B whilst keeping things safely on my learning curve, I’ll be happy with that.  Not as happy as if it all comes together and I get some wins myself, though!

We’ll see… either way 2016 should be another great year!

2016 Calendar​

19/20 March – Donington Park​ National

23/24 April – Brands Hatch​ Indy

21/22 May – Croft​

12 June – Mallory Park​

16/17 July – Anglesey (Coastal)​

20 August – Silverstone (International)​

24 September – Snetterton​ 300

 

Buying a Formula Vee racecar

30 Saturday Jan 2016

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Buying a Formula Vee racecar

Thanks to Tom for his comment on my last blog where he had several suggestions for future topics.  I will do a few blogs trying my best to answer and give whatever information I might have, and hopefully others will find that useful, too!

I suppose the first thing for most is getting a car.

If you’re willing to go through the roller coaster that is building your own car from the ground up, you have 4 options – building a car, buying a new car, buying a used car, or hiring a car.

Build it yourself

If you are inclined to build a car from scratch, it’s worth noting that Graham Gant has been steadily improving his Worms Eye View (WEV) for years, and there is some fascinating tech on that beast.  He’s a regular front-runner, and I’d highly recommend checking his car out in the paddock.

Perhaps at the other end of the spectrum, James Harridge and his Dad, Dave, have more recently used their karting expertise to build the Maverick.  I’m sure you’ll be seeing this right at the pointy end of things in 2016, after they proved at the Vee Festival it’s a winner.  In contrast to Graham’s tech, ask the Harridges to point out the chopped-up bits of old karts that make their chassis – and see if you can spot the Halfords socket used as the gear change shaft!  This is no rat car, though, and they know what they’re doing – the stand out point would be the only Formula Vee that has TRUE ‘zero roll’ rear suspension.

The biggest problem with building your own car, is you then have the massive task of infiltrating the black magic secret MI6 type depths of engines and cams and all kinds of things that will make you go glassy eyed or fume with frustrated rage.  Or just buy an engine from someone else and forever wonder if others have something that’s better!

Buying a new car

There are only a few manufacturers you can buy a new Formula Vee from.  

AHS are the most prominent, and as you might expect, they’re also bloody good, and the aptly named ‘Dominator’ hasn’t seen much that can touch it for years in the hands of Paul Smith.  The down side here is that it will set you back around 30,000 of your finest sterling!  I believe their Challenger car is a little cheaper, and a lesser evolution of the Dominator.

Contact Alan Harding at AHS and I’m sure he’ll be happy to give you more information.

You can also buy a brand spanking new GAC 01 – details here.

And I believe the final choice currently is a Storm from SG Race Engineering.

Buying a used car

The GAC’s, AHS’s and Storms are probably first on the wanted list, but if you’re buying it is worth noting that spending £20k+ on a car won’t necessarily mean somone in a sub-£3000, 20 year old Sheane, Scarab or Ray won’t disappear into the distance!  And there are people out there proving that the old cars are still competitive!

Because there are so many potentially competitive cars out there, they can pop up anywhere at any time.  The Formula Vee groups on Facebook ( Formula Vee Championship UK and Formula Vee UK ) are the best place to spot these, but people will also advertise them on the 750 Motor Club and Vee Centre websites, and you’ll even see them on Ebay!

There are also lots of cars sat in sheds in various states.  The Vee Centre are currently compiling a register to try and track down these cars, which will make it much easier for people to buy one.  Watch this space, and I’ll post more info once the register is up and running…

For most people, assuming you can store and transport your car, this is by far the cheapest option to go racing.

Hiring a car

If you have little or no mechanical skills (or interest!), or you just want to turn up at a track like your F1 hero and jump in a racing car, hiring is for you!

There are quite a few people doing this in Formula Vee, and it’s easy to see the appeal, if you can afford it. You’ll be looking at paying around £500 – £750+ per day (it’s hard to be more exact as most hirers will tailor the package to what you want), and obviously the more you pay you’ll get a (theoretically) better/newer car with full technical and mechanical support, or they’ll just give you the car to get on with it yourself. You’ll still need to pay the race entry fees on top, possibly fuel costs, and then you’ll also pay for any damages, or an agreed maximum fee towards repairs.

AHS are the kings here, with a huge inflatable bouncy castle thing over their stable of cars, a huge transporter bringing their cars to the track and the expertise of Alan Harding and his experienced crew. Bears Motorsport run a few cars, but you’d have to get in quick to get a seat from them. Contact them directly for further info (the links for both teams should take you to their websites).

Then there are a few independent people and teams with single cars that would be tough to list here as I’m not sure if the seats are free this year! I know Peter Studer has two cars for hire this year. If you ask on the Facebook pages they’ll tell you what’s available – and if you read this and have a car for hire feel free to comment with details.

If our own plans for a full team pan out, then Glenn Hay will have 4 cars on track by 2017 and be offering them for hire.

Trackside support

There is another option midway between buying a car and hiring one, and that is to buy your own car but then buy various levels of support for race days and/or maintaining your car between races. This is also very popular, and AHS and Bears are the main ones for this, too. For extra, they may also store your car and transport it to and from circuits for you – so that part may be of use if you don’t have anywhere to keep a car yourself.

——

As to what to look for if you’re buying a car – that’s a lot tougher.  Even if you’re buying a car that’s been a championship winner, it’s not to say all the best parts haven’t been butchered off it before it was put up for sale.  My best advice here would be to take someone who knows what to look for with you – or at the very least ask around about the car and the seller.

So those are your choices – and there’s something there for everyone!

I’ll stress again that the best ways of finding any of these is to ask the current Formula Vee people! Sign up to the Facebook groups, have a look at the links above, and get yourself down to a race meeting and have a chat to people!

Easy, isn’t it? Now you just have to get something sorted ready for Donington Park at the end of March!

***EDIT***

As an extra, there are a few contacts listed in the newly published series regulations:

Car suppliers and hirers:

Dominator
Alan Harding, AHS (Mechanical) Ltd,
Tel. 01455-553052/ 07989 414471
alan@formulavee.co.uk

GAC
Alan Woodward/Graham Card.
Tel. 01296 613222
http://www.vwracing.net
alan@vwracing.net

Leastone
Paul Heavey, Leastone Racing,
Kilmeague, Naas, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Tel. 00353 (0) 45 860658

Scarab
Andy Storer,
Tel. 01636 822033 / 07970 632874

Sheane
Peter Andrews, Centurion Motorsport
Tel. 0121 373 4426/07904102348
centurionmotorsport@hotmail.co.uk
http://www.centurionmotorsport.com

Storm
Steve Glasswell
Tel. 07500 836492
Stephen@sgmachining.co.uk

Race Car Hire & Repairs
Phill Foster, Bears Motorsport
Tel. 0121 742 2200/07976 715812
info@bearsmotorsport.co.uk

Osport, Storm
Formula Vee Team,Race Car
Hire,Preperation and Driver Coaching
Tony: 07920 425820
Jake 07917 166333
http://www.teamosport.com

 

 

2015 Formula Vee Highlights Video

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

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2015 Formula Vee Highlights Video

Here’s all the action and moments charting the story of sliding into the cockpit for the first time, to blasting away from a race grid in a National championship!

Hope you enjoy it

You can’t believe how much work goes into videos like this – I had to go through every bit of footage, noting bits to include, train myself up on video transitions and stuff, spend hours compiling it all and getting it to fit, then scrapping so many cool overtakes that it broke my heart!  Then another few hours processing, checking, and uploading it!

A lot of work – but I loved it!

Feel free to comment with any suggestion, improvements, likes or dislikes!

“Just throw it into the corner, and sort out whatever happens afterwards!”

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

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“Just throw it into the corner, and sort out whatever happens afterwards!”

I’ve done 3 championship race weekends (plus one non-championship festival) on a very tight budget, proved I can actually drive a proper Formula Vee race car, and realised my childhood dream!

2015 has been a pretty good year in terms of my personal development.

I’ve had huge help from Glenn Hay who’s basically carried me along the way, but have also overcome my own fears, doubts and lack of skill along the way!

Since coming to my epiphany of how to drive a Formula Vee quickly at Silverstone in my first race (hence the title, “Just throw it into the corner, and sort out whatever happens afterwards!”), I’ve realised it fits quite well with my attitude on life.

Take that gamble.  Get off your ass and DO IT – and then deal with the consequences be they good or bad.

If you’re not pushing forwards into the unknown, well, you’ll never know what might have been possible for you.

I’m looking forward (bit of an understatement!!) to driving for Glenn next season, but am also acutely aware that I can’t really do this forever.

I still believe that it IS possible to do a season in Formula Vee for £2000, but I’m not sure it’s sustainable.

In my current job, that’s about all that I could spend.  One big crash and that could easily wipe out my budget.  Without Glenn to help me, I don’t think I’d have any chance of carrying on.  Even if I keep improving and do everything right, realistically, I can’t afford this.

The obvious next step is to find some sponsorship.

I have a lot of ideas, but am also realistic in what I think it’s even possible to get from sponsors in this day and age, and in a race series that’s far from the BTCC or F1.

I may reveal my methods if they yield some success, but for the obvious reasons of competition, this may be the one thing that I won’t be very open about on my blog.

If you read this and would like to help me or the team out in any way at all, from fees, parts, to just getting your hands on at race weekends, then please get in touch!

For 2016 Glenn will be stripping the excellent engine in the Sheane, remounting the front shocks, and then working at getting the Ray and his championship winning Scarab back together, too.

Why?

Because 2017 will be the 50th anniversary of Formula Vee in the UK!  We aim to have as many cars out as we can, and it should all be a huge year for Formula Vee, and for British racing!

My aim for 2016 will be more of the same. A steady improvement, and moving up the grid. I’ve proved that I can be quick even with a damaged car and injury, and I was still able to drive around these problems and get, for a total rookie, some pretty fine results!

I’ll be aiming to finish in the top 6 – especially on the tracks I’ve already been to. If I can afford to test before the races I’ll take full advantage so that I can hit the ground running. If I knock out my mistakes I can do well – if I can grab the car by the scruff of its neck and get confident with it at the limit, I can maybe surprise a few of the front runners!

I’ve had some support from JooVuu.com, and hopefully I’ll also be using one of their brand new JooVuu-X cameras. I’ve had a sneak peak of the prototype that arrived just too late for me to use at Brands, and it’s a proper quality bit of kit with loads of amazing features, and it should be huge for them. I’ll also be running multiple cameras where I can to capture all the track action!

Glenn is modifying the front shock positions, so that should also take care of anything I bent getting airborne at Donington, and then the car should be good to go.

Before that, the Vee Centre are holding their annual awards night this Saturday, with a lot of the drivers doing a bit of karting before! I’ll take a helmet camera for that, but with skinny kart experts out there I don’t expect to be winning anything there.

It should be fun, though!

A big old soppy thank you blog!

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

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A big old soppy thank you blog!

I’ve been holding off on a season review/thanks blog – mainly because I’m racing at the non-championship Formula Vee Festival this weekend at Brands Hatch! Also, I was kind-of hoping to be able to say that my wrist is better after the Donington crash, but sadly that is not the case…  And this will probably be the crappest post on this blog for most of you who read this stuff (and if you’re one of them, cheers for sticking with my ramblings!).

Anyway, I think I can now safely say that I have achieved my childhood dream.

I am a Racing Driver!

I have gone from playing with Matchbox cars on the living room carpet, to racing a full-on formula race car, and held my own out there, too! I have literally gone from no race experience – having never raced karts, raced anything at all, and not even done a car track day – to having a justifiable belief that I will finish in the top 10 of a national championship.

First and foremost I need to thank Glenn Hay – it’s been an honour and a privilege to have the help and support of a championship winner, and for him to even risk letting a total novice use his beautifully prepared Sheane has been amazing. He’s made sure I’m under no pressure at all, but in a way that’s made me want to get him even better results. He’s had to run around the paddock after me, push me and the car all over the place, and it’s 99.9% Glenn who’s slaved away on the car late into the night when I’ve had to admit I’m a bit of a mechanical numpty! I know he didn’t expect much from me as a driver, and the look on his face when I came into the holding area 11th at Snetterton was priceless!

I also have to thank fellow drivers Ben Miloudi for his advice and encouragement. Also James Harridge (who WILL be a championship winner!) for pre-race advice, braving the Silverstone Gestapo/Security to get me fuel, and race day chatter – and his mate Chris Kasch who I have a sneaking suspicion will also be on the grid at some point in the future. And Mike Oldknow and Nick Brown – who always race hard on track and have been big on advice!

When you race at a consistent pace, you find yourself mixing it up with the same people every race, and not only does this push you to beat them, but it’s good to chat to them between races and share advice. With this in mind, more thanks going out to:

Martin Snarey. He’s been a massive help to me, and we seemed to have a pattern going where I beat him in the first race, and then he beats me for race 2. I thought I might break this by beating him twice at Donington but then I cocked it up and he beat me twice instead! I’m hoping he returns to Vee next year, because not only has he been a major motivator on track, but he’s a thoroughly nice chap who’s always got time to chat, and the same can be said for all his race-day crew.

Tony Mitchell. I think Tony is one of the two people I’ve had more dices with than anyone. Again, he’s a great bloke off the track (I may as well not say this, because all the Vee drivers and crew are!), and I fully trust him to push me and stick overtakes on me safely. At Snetteron I finished a few hundreths of a second behind him, so I won’t get much of a closer finish!

Bill Stenning. This is the other car I’m normally to be found scrapping with. I managed to catch him for a chat at Donington, but weirdly before that had hardly spoken to him. I will try and chin-wag with you a bit more in the future!

Steve Bailey. His Dad used to race with Glenn in the early days of Vee, and he’s been nothing but encouraging to me since I was spectating.

Jesse Chamberlain and Jamie Harrison who are both coming on leaps and bounds, and happy to share advice with me. Also to Alex Jones, Ed Lowndes, Pete Belsey, Tim Probert (who says he’s never seen me without a smile on my face!), Sam Engineer, both Paul Smith’s, Wes Burton, Jack Wilkinson, Ian Jordan, Steve Ough (especially for pointing me the right way at Snetterton when I got lost in the paddock!), Peter Studer and Martin Farmer (who I hope gets back on the grid full time for next year). Oh, and speaking of part-timers, Chris Wilshire who’s been at the trackside this year but hopefully will also get back out there with us – He’s another driver I’ve been harassing for years with questions, and poking around his Sheane to see what he’s got that we need!

Also Graham Gant and his mate (told you I’m crap with names!) who proper saved our lives at Silverstone when we’d worked through any chance to get food, and they brought us over a few slices of pizza and a hot coffee!

And the fellow n00bs I’ve shared race nerves and new driver briefings with: Oliver Williams (you’re far too young to be that fast!), Francis Twyman, Patrick Liedke, Jack Davies…

And of course Alan Harding whose magic transporter of tools has saved many stricken Vee drivers in their hour of need! I think he was the one who came through with a steering link to get us out for race 2 at Donington.

Dan from JooVuu – who has been a huge help in making sure I’ve got onboard footage of every race. It’s the best learning tool you can have, and their Mobius camera has been outstandingly reliable, and they’ve sent me anything I’ve asked for to help out or replace components!

There are others who I haven’t had much of a chance to meet, yet, but I’m sure I will!

Not to forget all the brilliant marshals without who none of us could do this, the officials, and the trackside photographers!

And to my gorgeous fiancée Julie Kimberley, who’s had to put up with my outright obsession with all things RACECAR for the last few years, and shown nothing but support!

Lastly, I also need to apologise to anyone I’ve missed here. Even more so, I want to apologise to anyone I may have unintentionally blanked at race meetings – I’m still completely overwhelmed by the whole scene, and this combined with a crap memory for faces, an even worse one for names and matching up the drivers when they’re not in their cars, adrenaline/stress-fueled pre-race blinkers, and my pretty shoddy social skills means I’ve undoubtedly offended a few. It is a massive task for me to be thrown in with over 100 brand new people (drivers and their friends/family/crew) and to try and get to know them all! That said, I’ll chat to anybody, so if you think I’m missing you out PLEASE come and say hello.

You’ve all made me feel really welcome as a new driver – and whilst I suppose that doesn’t matter away from the racing, it does make it all a much more enjoyable experience!

I’m looking forward to seeing you all out there next year, and this weekend if any of you are doing the Festival http://www.msvracing.co.uk/cars/calendar/2015.aspx  

Donington Park GP 03/10/15

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

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Donington Park GP 03/10/15

A year on from my first ever time sitting in the Sheane Formula Vee race car.

A year on from the disappointment of paying over £100 per corner to test, only to get 3 corners in before the engine seized, and it was all over.

Of course, I’ve managed 2 race weekends since then – and finished 4 races, so this time coming back to Donington was greatly different.

Qualifying

Leaving the holding area, I gave it a big hoof of throttle and did a big rolling burnout up the track which was completely planned and intentional and in no way an accident. Ahem. We were the first session out for the day, and it was a bit slippery, then!

Perhaps understandably, I was a bit tentative going through Old Hairpin, but as soon as I got through that, I started building my pace up.

I’d been watching a lot of YouTube videos to prepare. Not just the top racers videos, either – I’d also made sure that I watched the onboard footage from the slower cars, to try to understand what they were doing differently, and what my margin would be.

One thing I did notice was that almost everyone was changing down to 2nd gear for both hairpins – something that is still a problem, and I’m not sure if it’s me or the car that won’t allow it! I opted to stay in 3rd gear as long as I wasn’t losing too much time…

I had done a trackday here on a 600cc Kawasaki ZX6R years ago, so knew the layout of the track quite well from that. Both of these things helped me!

I latched onto the back of Tim Probert and Pete Belsey as they came past just at the right time, as I’d found some confidence.

Coming into Redgate, I made a slight mistake that I think resulted in a bit of a block pass on Patrick Leidke, who I’d just watched get very sideways around Goddards, and with a wave of apology put in a fast lap.

It was all to no avail, as I got back around to Goddards myself to push a little too hard and do exactly the same thing myself, spinning off backwards onto the grass.

As I readied myself to get back on the black stuff, Paul Smith came around, and I could see the chequered flag being unfolded ahead, ending the session and meaning I lost out on not only my fastest lap, but one more lap to improve further!

This left me qualifying 15th for race 1, and 19th for race 2 – but I knew I was a fair bit faster than all the cars around me on the grid!

Race 1

I was confident that if I could get past a handful of cars ahead without incident, I could drop back into my own pace and pull away. It’s easy to hit the back of a group and then settle in to their pace.

I wasn’t as aggressive as I should have been, allowing a few people to come past me in the first few corners, but by the back straight I was catching Alex Jones, and knew one of my strongest zones was the entrance to Foggies chicane.

I passed Alex just before the braking zone, but he was braking very late to try and defend his outside line. I turned in, but getting twitchy on cold tyres meant I’d made a rookie error and hadn’t dropped to 3rd gear. As I straightlined the chicane, clipping a cone, Ed Lowndes flashed between me and Alex and into the gravel, and my mirrors filled with carnage as cars spun.

I overcooked it into the Melbourne hairpin, went wide, and spun, rejoining right at the back of anyone left running.

Then the red flags came out as Patrick Leidke was beached in the gravel!

As I came back around prepared to start at the back, I was chuffed to bits as the marshals waved me back into my original place on the grid for a total restart. Let’s try that again…

I made another good start, passing a slow moving Jesse Chamberlain on the grass, and did exactly the same move into Foggies on Jamie Harrison – only this time I remembered to change gear!

I worked my way up to Steve Bailey, catching him down the pit straight quickly, but didn’t think I was close enough to dive up the inside.

I broke a few feet early and committed to running deep and turning late for a cut-back pass, but he ran very deep and stayed on the brakes without turning in. I locked up my front right wheel and then it slid into Steve’s rear left, launching me a few feet up in the air. I felt instant pain as the steering wheel wrenched my wrists around, and a blinding snap in my left shoulder.

I smashed back into the tarmac, damaging my front left wheel and smashing my left elbow into the chassis, as my head, neck and back also took some punishment. Perhaps more seriously, the car veered to the left as something Not Very Good had happened to the suspension/steering.

I crawled around the rest of the lap carefully, expecting something to break or at least the tyre to go down, but as I reached the pits only a few cars had come past me. I decided to stay out and try and pick up some points.

Every time I was on full lock out of Melbourne I could feel my left wrist grinding and cracking, but it wasn’t so bad on the rest of the lap.

Alex Jones came past me as I tip-toed down Craner Curves, and I could see a pack of cars behind me with Bill Stenning. Could I at least stay ahead of them?

Yes, as it turns out! I almost caught Alex again through my strongest section (McLeans to Melbourne) and then saw yellows on the exit where Tony Mitchell and Ed Lowndes had come together.

I limped it back in 18th place.

Race 2

We found a bent steering linkage was the worst of our problems, borrowing one from (I think) Sam Engineer, and Glenn set about trying to reduce the positive camber we now had on our front left wheel!

Starting from 19th in this one, I was careful through the first few corners as we had no idea how the Sheane would handle, but it was soon clear that I’d be able to manage the handling problems and do what I could.

I started charging through the field with a pass between Tim Probert and Martin Snarey into Redgate, then battling with Tony Mitchell before eventually shaking him off to attack Mike Oldknow and Jamie Harrison.

After nipping by Jamie into Melbourne, I nearly followed Mike straight on at Goddards, but just made it around to stay ahead.

Edging away from them, I saw the last lap board and gave Glenn a thumbs up, knowing nobody was going to catch me, but also seeing I’d need a few more laps to get on the next car that was in the distance.

Throwing it into McLeans I suddenly had no power.

My instant fear was that I’d blown the engine, but quickly realised, as a few cars streamed past me, that I was out of fuel.

I faltered through the Foggies chicane – two corners to go – before the engine died, and I had to pull onto the grass.

My first ever DNF. My second time being towed back to the pits at Donington.

Perhaps surprisingly, I’m not mad about the fuel cock-up. Sure, another £1 would have probably got me to the flag, but I showed that even with a damaged car (and wrist!) I could be fast. Jamie Harrison was 2nd in the B class championship, and is certainly no slouch, and this was the first time I’ve been faster than him!

I know I still have a lot to learn, and the car is much faster than I am. The positive to take away from an unlucky weekend is that I’m confident I can improve to be close to the lap times of B class Champion Jack Wilkinson, and that means I should be aiming at the top 3 of the B class for next year!

As long as I can keep all four wheels on the ground…

The videos:

Race 1

Race 2

Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – 12 & 13 September 2015

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – 12 & 13 September 2015

As soon as I’d slithered around the first few corners I was finding cars going much more slowly than I felt I could go.  All doubts gone as I dropped into the zone, I pulled out past them, opting to feel the track out at my own pace rather than take the safe option of following someone else.

After the torrentially wet Silverstone test day, I though I’d learned nothing – but maybe it had helped me.  I had a lot of confidence in the car, and it was only when a car spun in front of me that I panic braked, locked the front, put a wheel on the grass, and around I went.

It was no drama, and in the 5 laps I had to qualify, I spun another 3 times – still managing to clock the 15th best time of the 22 cars listed!

Above all, I found it great fun!  The times themselves weren’t worth much with massive differences making it a bit of a lottery, and I thought I’d most likely drop back in the dry for race 1.

After an ok launch the start line, I found myself up with the experienced drivers Martin Snarey, Tony Mitchell and William Stenning, when things settled down.  I was up to 11th on track but then started to drop down the order, as I wasn’t able to find much speed through the first corner and most of the infield section.

After losing about 4 places in one lap (I left it in 4th gear through the infield – doh!), I gave myself a mental slapping and watched the cars in front, braking later than wherever they were braking, and soon began reeling them all back in.

I swapped positions with Tony and Martin until they both got past me again. Tony went a bit wide onto the back straight, and I got a good exit to pull out of his slipstream and outbrake him (and nearly myself!) and made up a lot of ground on Martin.

The lap before I’d managed to get my front wheels alongside Martin into Coram, and this time I thought I’d see if I could complete the move. Getting a good run through the Bomb Hole, I closed in on Martin and seeing I had room kept it pinned in 3rd around the outside of him on the dirty line.

I caught him totally by surprise and flew past, skating sideways into the braking area and just about pulling it back into line to get around the left hander onto the main straight still ahead.

Feeling pretty chuffed with myself, I then saw the chequered flag was out!

I’d snatched an ecstatic 12th place – which then became 11th after Graham Gant was excluded for being under the weight limit. By far my best result, and more than I would have ever hoped for in my second race meeting!

Massive thanks to Tim Probert and the Vee Centre for organising the free BBQ on Saturday night, too – I got to relax and chat to a lot of the other drivers and their crews over a can of beer and great food. This kind of event is especially brilliant for us shy newbies, who struggle to match up names to faces and then match them all up again with the cars and helmets on track! I’m trying to get around all the drivers for a chat, but that’s almost as hard as the racing side of things!

Race 2 saw Snarey fly off ahead but left me in a battle with Wes Burton as I watched Tony Mitchell and William Stenning scrapping it out ahead.

I didn’t push anywhere near as hard as I should have at the start of the race, and although I was 5 seconds per lap faster, everyone else was even quicker!

Wes’s engine sadly blew as he slipstreamed me down the pit straight, leaving me trailing the two ahead.

I got up to a decent pace on the last lap, finally catching Tony and reaching the finish line 0.05 secs behind him to finish 17th overall of the 19 finishers.

This might look disappointing on paper, but I drove much better, and at that pace I should have been in the big gaggle fighting for 11th place again, if I’d gone harder at the start.

More importantly, I still enjoyed it and came away happy!

To keep this short(er), I’ll do another blog with my full post-race analyses.

ONBOARD VIDEO FOOTAGE:

Qualifying:

Race 1:

Race 2:

Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – Preparation and not wanting to be there

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

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Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – Preparation and not wanting to be there

My second ever race weekend, with the goal of finishing all the sessions intact and getting signatures for my licence upgrade.

We chose not to test the day before, and set off at 5am for the long drive to Snetterton in horrible weather conditions.

At the circuit I had a quick chat to the other drivers, then signed on attended the New Drivers Briefing.

When getting the car scrutineered, I forgot to bring my signing on sheet, then forgot my gloves and balaclava, then had to trek back across the paddock yet again to fetch my camera mounting, before getting a mild bollocking about my tinted visor.

We were called to the assembly area quicker than I expected, so I donned all my kit and then found the car was totally dead!

Glenn shorted across the starter motor with a screwdriver, and luckily it fired up, so I shot through the paddock, not knowing where the Hell I was going, before eventually catching up with everyone after asking for directions (thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Steve Ough!)!

I sat in the holding area with all the other cars, staring out across a very wet track, and was fully aware that I did not want to be there at all. I don’t really know what it was, but I wasn’t happy with anything.

I’d struggled to find any videos showing the 300 layout, and only done that last minute, so didn’t really know where the track went.  I worried I’d be far too slow, or just spin off everywhere, and miserably decided to trundle around and try to qualify for the (forecast) dry races.

I had a feeling I wouldn’t even get the car back safely…

I took one last deep breath and tried to force myself to focus, and then followed the pack onto the puddle-filled tarmac for my first ever lap of Snetterton, and my first time ever on a wet track with all the other Vees…

Of course, then I stalled it.

My First Race! Silverstone International 22/08/15

24 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by in ARDS Test, Fitness, Formula Vee, Racing, Rules & Regulations, Technique

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My First Race! Silverstone International 22/08/15

Race time.

This was the peak of my fear. This was all unknown. What if I miss my place on the grid? What if I stall it at the start? I’d never even practised a race start in the dry, and even the wet ones after spinning last week were on my time and not to a set of lights!

I started my engine, took a couple of deep breaths, and followed the other Vees out of the holding area onto the track…

As I pulled up to the grid the marshals pointed my into place, showing me the exact line to stop at. I was calm and in the zone, but as the 5 second board was displayed my visor fogged up as I realised I was breathing quickly and heavily.

I got control as the red lights came on above the start line, keeping the revs up and slowing my breathing and heart rate down, and dropped into the zone as the lights flashed out.

I reacted so quickly that I actually hesitated because nobody else around me seemed to be moving. I got an ok start, but had to lift almost immediately as I couldn’t get around the car ahead.

37 cars piled into the first corner with wheels hanging out everywhere, twitching as everyone tried to find a gap.

I stayed out wide and drove around the outside of the track, having to drift wide to avoid people, and finding some bugger had put traffic cones there! I smashed into one with the left front suspension.

I kept the throttle open and the cone flew away, and the suspension looked ok as we all piled into the next turn.

The rest of the race is just a blur. I settled into the racing lines and found I was getting faster every lap. Total confidence in the little old Sheane as I pushed harder, braked less, turned in faster.

I stuck a few overtakes on people, and avoided spinning cars.

I found my car came out of the corners really strong, and after I passed people I could reel in the next car ahead even down the Hangar Straight.

I was enjoying it, cackling madly as I nailed a corner here and there. I was battling with names I’ve been watching racing Vee for years, and coming out ok!

I pulled in Nick Brown, and as he got sideways onto the Hangar straight I got a good exit, passing him into the braking area, and he switched back on the exit to regain his position, but then lost the back end through the next turn.

I had nowhere to go, and flicked the wheel right to try and get around the back of him and straight into the gravel trap.

The nose cone took a battering, but I missed Nick by millimeters, and got back on the track in a shower of gravel, shaking the wheel and hoping none had got into the calipers.

I got back the places I’d lost and found myself with a clear track ahead. Knowing it must be near the end, I got my head down to make sure I dropped the cars behind me – I was having this one!

One of the things you can’t appreciate from the outside is after the chequered flag, as you do your cooling down lap, the marshals wave to you. This actually makes you feel really special, and I almost got emotional as I gave them all a thumbs up as I passed.

We were guided into park ferme where I jumped out and chatted to Glenn and the other drivers excitedly.

I’d done it!

I learned that I’d actually taken 17th place overall, and 4th in Class B – massively exceeding my own expectations, and at last I felt like I should be out there, and had proved that. Better still, I was only around 3 seconds a lap off the pace of the leaders!

Race 2 was more of the same, but with a slightly worse start, and I knocked another half a second off my best time. I found that I could trail brake into corners and slide the back end out just enough to get me through the faster turns quicker, then get straight back on the throttle. You have to get these cars sliding to be quick.

I won’t go into more detail about the races, as this has been far too long already, and you can watch the onboard videos for yourselves!

I found I’d got myself up to 18th place and 5th in class – but better yet was passing Ed Lowndes into the very last corner. He’d been the car 20 seconds ahead of me that I couldn’t even see in the first race!

To top off an already awesome day, I was given the Driver Of The Day Award!

I know I can go faster, and so can the car, so there is more to come. With a bit of luck, I can’t see why I can’t get a top 10 place with the Sheane.

Glenn has a few modifications he wants to make, and we’re working together very well changing set-ups (told you my time playing Forza 4 wasn’t wasted!).

So that was my first ever race. It’s still all a bit surreal.

All the drivers and crews are a great bunch, and I can’t wait to get back out there!

I hope you enjoy the videos, and thank you all for reading this and your support. I hope this blog has helped show people that you CAN go from nothing to racing driver on a very limited budget, and you can live your dream.

And seriously, get out there and do it! Now I’ll be keeping you updated on the equally as hard progress forward from here, to try and climb up the order and see how far I can really take this.

I still have a Hell of a lot more to learn!

***EDIT***

Onboard videos of both races here: