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James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

James Cater Racing

Tag Archives: analysis

Remember Croft? Qualifying & Race 1

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

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Tags

analysis, crash, croft, formula vee, joovuu, Primrose Hospice, race report, VW Heritage

Sorry that this blog has been so long coming! Unfortunately the major dramas that make up Real Life came into play, and my usual best escape of racing failed as that all turned out disastrous, too.

That said, it was brilliant getting away for a few days to hang out with the other Vee drivers. I know a few of us have some huge things going on away from racing at the moment, and hope the distraction of racing helps them as much as it does me.

After 6+ hours on the road, we arrived (early for once!) at Croft – one of my favourite circuits from last year. After the many hours spent fixing (and de-gravelling) the car since Brands Hatch, the brief was to keep the car safe and just get some points back on the board.

 

Qualifying

I hadn’t done the sort of prep that I should have – watching videos, playing simulators etc – so started somewhat steadily in qualifying. When you’re not 100% sure where to break and turn in on every single corner, it’s amazing how much it adds to your lap times.

The car felt good, but then someone dropped oil around half of the lap on the fastest section all the way back to the finish and a few cars had spins.

As ever, I’m enough of an idiot to enjoy a bit of oil, but obviously with oil down from the 2nd or 3rd lap this meant all those who’d practiced the day before got much faster laps in before the track was ruined. I actually put my quickest lap in on my final lap, despite lifting off to let Adam Macaulay and Ben Miloudi through on flying laps – so at least knew I was doing something ok!

I did lose the lap before with a huge minger of a drift that turned into a spin, though…

I qualified a mediocre 17th and 16th – but with James Harridge blowing another engine and Jamie Harrison losing all power this still put me 2nd in class right behind Colin Gregory for both races. The first class win was in sight!

Race 1

With another fast start I pushed a few places up the grid off the line, having to lift for a few slower cars but still making good progress.

I got ahead of Mark Egan up the inside of the first turn, but then into the sharp Turn 2 I knew I could either get aggressive and perform a really harsh block pass on Mark, risking taking us both out, or back out as safely as I could, making sure I could hold the tight line around the corner. This would mean Mark disappearing on the exit, but I could live with that for now..

Unfortunately, Mark then cut hard across to the apex, I assume having not seen me, and leaving absolutely no room for me.

I slammed on the brakes even harder and got a nudge from behind from Peter Studer – but it was already too late and Mark’s right rear wheel slammed into my front left.

This broke the steering link, and as my wheel flapped around like some sad, dying fish, I was at the mercy of the rest of the field as I veered across the track and off the side to retire.

I was not happy.

Then, just as I got out and stood at the side of the track, it started thundering. Yeah, thanks for that.

The car was carried back on a crane, and some hasty bodge repairs made ready for the next day. As we were making a start on it, Ian Rea spotted the impact had ripped the front beam off the chassis, stripping the thread and bolt holding it on.

Gary Richardson kindly helped get the set-up as good as we could, but with camber, castor and toe all a bit wonky (we had to try and even things out by re-adjusting the good side!) I could tell I might have to drive around the faults for the second race.

Croft Analysis

31 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique, Uncategorized

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Tags

750 motor club, analysis, driving, first lap, formula vee, motivation, psychology, racing, rookie, wet race

Croft Analysis

It’s amazing how a few poor results can affect you.

So far this season, things have not gone well.  I’ve been driving pretty badly, and combined with some car failures, I’d been questioning myself.  Questioning if I can afford to be doing this if I’ve got no chance against faster cars and drivers with bigger budgets.

There’s no question that the other Formula Vee racers are more skilled than me – even those that don’t have a background in trackdays and karting have more experience in Vee’s, more testing, or just have youth on their sides!

I’d been starting to enjoy the stuff in between races more – editing and processing videos, writing race/press reports, and the quest to find some sponsorship.  Learning to enjoy that is no bad thing, as it takes an ungodly amount of hours fo my time – but I’m supposed to be here to race.

When it was raining so heavily at Croft for qualifying, I was literally just following Tony Mitchell around for most of the session, eventually getting passed him but still just driving.  If Miss Daisy had been sat next to me she wouldn’t have even spilled her cup of tea.  Proper ‘meh’.

I’d lost any hope of testing out our all-new lower rear suspension mountings, or running in brand new brake pads for the first time.  What a waste of time…

I gave myself a bit of a shake after that, reminding myself of my Brands Hatch blog where I swore I’d push harder everywhere.

As if to try and break my spirit even more, the track was now bone dry for the first race, and so my first ever dry lap of Croft would be at full racing speed.

Except this time I was ready.

I knew that in theory Croft would suit me.  I’d watched video so I knew where to brake (although admittedly I’d watched James Harridges footage, which meant I’d know where to brake to get it ridiculously sideways and murder myself within three corners!), and now I could just about remember which way the track went.

So when those lights went out I just went for it.

Now, up to this point I realise I haven’t sounded like my own biggest fan.  I do have self-confidence, and have proved I can drive quickly at the end of last year.  More importantly, when you flip that visor down nothing else matters.  Nothing.  When I’m staring through my blue iridium tint I can win, and I’m there to win.

I still hesitated slightly before dropping the clutch and feeding the revs up, and the biggest gain I had over the rest was changing up to second, then to third.

In second I knew I’d got a bit of a blinder, because I was already a few rows forward, and everyone else was looking slower.  I simply drove through a hole up the middle of the grid, lifting off briefly as I thought I’d maybe stolen enough places, then getting back on it and diving to the outside to pic up a few more positions.

I just figured I’d do whatever the car ahead of me did, and trust I had the skills to hold onto the car.

When we came to the Jim Clark Esses I knew everyone said they didn’t lift off, and so I just kept my foot in and trust Glenn’s suspension work would help.  It felt great getting through easily, and then taking the first two flat-out right handers the same!

The brakes must have bedded in despite the wet qualifying, because they were sharper than they’d ever been.  I looked through the corners and pressed on, seeing cars in my mirrors but nobody close enough to make a move.

Then I hit the hairpin, and cars streamed passed as I tried to find second gear.  That’s something I have to work on, because I lost masses of time!

After that I just kept pushing a little harder everywhere.  There is a big twitch where the weld on the anti-roll z-bar at the back snapped, and I dropped two wheels over the drop of a large curb, which pitched me back across the track in 4th gear flat out.  I thought I was going to spin but caught it so fast, still keeping the loud pedal pressed down, that Darren Lomas behind me barely made up any time.

Of course I didn’t know that the z-bar had snapped until after the race, and so just kept going, and despite the flying Alex Jones also getting passed me as I fished for second gear at the hairpin again, I came a respectable 13th.

I knew I could take big chunks out of my time, but that wasn’t to be, as we had some of the worst race conditions ever seen for the second race…

I’d also been revving the car higher, and although Jake Hockley in his much newer GAC was able to pull away on the straights, he wasn’t pulling away all that much.  I have found that as I hit around 7000rpm the needle on the gauge starts doing all kinds of funky stuff except stay still and tell me what revs I’m pulling.  I was estimating 7400rpm for my gear changes, and the car seemed happy with that.

Anyway – between races we got one of the AHS crew to re-weld the z-bar, and were ready to go.

I’d hyped myself up for the wet.

I knew it was totally pointless driving like I had in qualifying.  I wanted to use the dreadful conditions to get the car moving around a bit.  In the wet you obviously reach the limits of traction much sooner than in the dry – but when the car does let go it does so more progressively.  If you’re fast enough you can catch it and get the balance and drift.  In theory, this will happen in the wet exactly as it would in the dry, but be more controllable.

I hit the brakes about 4 times before we reached the first corner – because all I could see was spray from the 20 cars ahead, didn’t know if I’d be pushing my face up against their engines at any second in a surprise inspection, and couldn’t actually see the edges of the track to know where the corner was!

I knew people ahead would spin off, and sure enough some cars appeared out of the spray at funny angles through the first chicane and I picked a way through as best as I could.  My tighter line may have taken me passed someone under yellow flags, but as I couldn’t see more than 6ft away and didn’t even know which way any of the cars around me were facing, or if anyone was following me, I think I’d be forgiven for that one.

Feeding in the power down the next straight the puddles were tearing at the steering wheel and the rears were spinning up at the same time, making things ‘educational’.  As I gently eased the brakes on I could barely see if my wheels were locked up, and as I was aquaplaning anyway it was just plain weird.

I cadence braked whenever I knew my wheels were locked, but to be honest that’s not as obvious in those conditions as you’d think.

There were huge puddles on the inside of some turns, but already I was starting to enjoy myself.  I even started dropping my front wheel into some of these puddles to help me turn the car!

I wasn’t getting the power down as hard and soon as I’d have liked to, but I was pounding down the straights and braking pretty late into a few corners.  The wheels were still spinning up in 4th gear on the straights, then puddles ripped you sideways under braking, the car slithered straight on through the corner and then snapped to oversteer, then even more so as you got back on the power!  What a rush!

I was getting a move on when Ian Buxton overtook me (he was one of the first corner spinners), but unlike every other time he’s done that I realised he wasn’t disappearing – I was still on him and actually had to drop back a bit as I didn’t want to spear him into a corner again!

I knew it was treacherous braking into Tower, and so should have been braking much earlier with my new-found speed, but I either forgot where to brake or got too enthusiastic.  The wheels locked several times and I knew I’d have to run wide, so let off the brakes deep in the corner, ready to snap on the opposite lock to catch it for a spectacular drift, and something went *ping* and the back swung around.

I saw mud spray into the air as I hit the grass, and let the car spin 360 so I could get control in the right direction again, hitting the starter button and finding a gear to get me back on the black stuff.

But the ping had been the weld on the z-bar braking again – meaning the rear had dropped down and that lack of clearance beached me in the mud.

I tried rocking out in reverse before giving up and holding my hand up for the marshals to know I was stuck. 

I still had the engine running hoping for a push, but they pulled out the red flags to stop the race.  They said it was too dangerous, anyway, so don’t think the race would have carried on much longer either way… At least they did give me a push so I wasn’t towed in behind the Wagon Of Shame again!

So whilst it wasn’t great to end that way, psychologically the weekend was massive for me – in a very positive way!

I know I can still drive fast in the dry and hold my own – even on a track I don’t know, with a broken car.  And I know I can be properly quick in the wet.  I mean, I was 9th fastest when I went off, but was barely getting up to speed, and properly enjoying myself as I did so!

I didn’t think the weather was that bad!  My test last year on Silverstone National was a fair bit worse, so I’ve got that as my wet benchmark – and I survived that!

Mallory Park for the next race could be interesting, because I’ve done around a hundred laps around there on a Kawasaki ZX-6R B1H, but that was with the little bike chicanes in place.  And I could find gears at the tight hairpin.

One thing for sure is that I won’t be worried about it raining anymore!

Post Race Analysis – Snetterton 300

18 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique

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Tags

ambition outweighed talent, analysis, donington, first race, formula vee, going faster, improvement, rookie, snetterton, trail braking

Post Race Analysis – Snetterton 300

Overall, I’m very happy with the weekend!  I brought the car back safe and well, didn’t take anyone else out, and got 11th place in the first race!  You may have noticed me punching the air when I saw the chequered flag, there!  It felt like I’d won!

For my second ever race weekend, that’s not bad going!

I am still playing it safe on track, because I don’t want to kill the car, and realise that I am still learning, and have a long way to go.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m pushing harder than I’ve ever pushed before, but as I’m doing that, it’s like I’m stretching my own limits, and I’m fully aware of how much harder I can use the car and still be beneath my own ragged edge.

At Snetterton, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I could be 5 seconds quicker per lap and still not be overstepping my or the cars limits.

I actually didn’t drive very well, and most of that is due to lack of preparation.  I simply didn’t study the track to know it well enough before I got there. Testing the day before as many other drivers did would have helped, of course, but we have a very tight budget to work to.

Watching my own onboard videos and seeing myself on the videos from other cars is a brilliant learning tool and very entertaining, but there’s no hiding your shortcomings, either.

My lines through the infield were a bit shoddy, and I should have been turning in much harder just about everywhere, lifting off less, braking later… The first corner alone I was pretty terrible at, and it’s exactly the kind of wing-and-a-prayer corner that I love and am good at!

I also wasn’t trail-braking enough, and I KNOW that that’s where massive chunks of time can be had!

And I love doing it!  That’s where I get a proper buzz of satisfaction from racing a Vee – being right on the edge, sliding it into a corner…

Tim Probert actually came up to me after having followed me in a race on track (before he pissed off into the distance!), and said “We’re going to have to teach you trail-braking!”.

This was backed up speaking to Paul Smith (note: He started dead last in race 2, having spent most of the night rebuilding his engine after killing it in race 1, and then was in the lead by lap 3!  Truly amazing stuff – and he clocked a 2:09 lap time to my best of 2:17!) who said it was weird being with us lot at the back end, as we were braking so much earlier into the corners.

I guess that easing into things this way and not going all-out is the sensible approach to be taking. I don’t want “my ambition to outweigh my talent” until I know for sure I have the practical skills to back up the theory that I’ve studied.

Donington Park is the next race and season finale on 3rd October. Again, we won’t be testing there before the race, but I know the layout well and have been on a bike track day there. It’s also my ‘home’ race, so there should be some people I know coming to watch – and qualifying and both races are all on the Saturday.

I’d like to get a top 10 result to close the season, but in reality this is the first track that all the other drivers will know very well, so it will be tough to get inside the top 20!

Whatever happens, I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun!

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