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Silverstone International – Rounds 11 & 12

26 Friday Aug 2016

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Silverstone International – Rounds 11 & 12

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After a major gearbox rebuild, we arrived at a very cold and damp Silverstone on Saturday morning, knowing we’d have to test the gears in qualifying.

Things were a bit hectic as we got scrutineered and sorted ourselves out ready to make the first session of the day. A lot of the others had been testing the day before or at least arrived the night before.

Not realising quite how wet it was on the track, I kept my dry suspension settings we’d last used at Anglesey, but raised the tyre pressures a few psi. With the gearbox to test out and both races within a few hours of each other, it was never the intention to set the world on fire in qualifying – just to get us in the races safely.

Qualifying

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I was one of the first cars out onto the track, and immediately realised it was extremely slippery, and we should have softened everything on the car right up and gone far higher on tyre pressures! This was also my first time ever on this track in anything but bone dry conditions.

On almost every corner I was locking wheels on the brakes, the back end stepped out mid-corner, and then again when I tried to get on the power.

I counted off the three laps I’d need to qualify, and then tried to get the hammer down.

That lasted a until I got to the second corner, failing to catch a filthy great slide through Farm, but doing an excellent j-turn across the mud and gravel to get pointing the right way before rejoining the track.

A lap or so later I lost it again through another of the fastest corners, doing pretty much a mirror image of the previous spin and j-turn at Stowe.

I was having fun controlling the car out there, but this time – unlike at Croft – I wasn’t very fast to go along with it – only managing 23 and 22 place on the grids for the two races. I’d have preferred to be in the top 20, but with the 38 car entry and with a car that was a right handful, I guess it wasn’t bad!

Even better was that the gearbox now felt perfect, and we wouldn’t have to fine-tune anything!

Race 1

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Moving out of the holding area, we were then held in our grid positions for a long time before being allowed out of track.

Being aircooled, Formula Vee engines do not like this sort of treatment. I have wondered a few times this year if the organisers are aware of aircooled engines and how fast they will cook themselves if left sitting there revving away… Switching off isn’t a great option, either, as we run a total loss system, meaning everything is powered off the tiny battery, and once that runs out we’re going nowhere. It doesn’t take many starts to zap all the juice – and so we’re using starter packs before we go out for a good reason!

Eventually, they let us loose, and I set about warming my tyres and feeling how much grip the now almost-dry track had to offer.

On the grid I held the revs, then after only a slight hesitation as the starter lights went out, I dropped the clutch and powered away.

It was an absolute beast of a start, and I felt the rear tyres right at the edge of traction as I shifted up to second gear, lifting off the power as I found space to get around a stalled car, then up to third gear as we came to the first corner.

I’d already passed around 8 cars as I dived to the inside where nobody else seemed to want to be, trying to stay with the pack, but losing a couple of places to the more powerful cars down the Hanger Straight as I was bulked at Village and hadn’t got back up to speed.

Coming back passed the start line, I was alongside another car and decided to try and go up the inside into Vale with barely a lift off the throttle.

It proved too much for the slightly damp track and cool tyres, and I wasn’t able to catch the spin, slewing sideways across the track at an obscene speed as I looked at the rest of the field shooting towards me out of the fastest corner on the circuit.

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Luckily, although stopped in the middle of the track sideways, I was well off the normal racing line, and slammed it into first gear to get going again right at the back.

Catching the tail end of the pack down the Hanger Straight, red flags were being waved just as my engine started making an uncomfortably familiar sound.

Back at the start line after cruising in, the noise had vanished, and I could see the marshals were gridding people up in their original positions for the restart, which was taking even more time as we sat there stationary.

At least I’d be able to reclaim my 23rd place – although I wasn’t expecting to do more than pull into the pits if my car started making the strange noise again.

As we finally started another green flag lap I could tell I’d lost a fair bit of power, and the car didn’t want to rev. I limped back and pulled into the pit lane to see what Glenn thought was the best course of action.

Finding nothing obvious, he told me to go for it, and although the other cars had left the grid some time before, I chased out onto the track to see what happened.

What happened was the noise came back down Hanger Straight, and then got twice as loud, with the car not revving over 5000rpm. I throttled off and pulled into the pits to retire.

The familiarity of the noise became apparent as we found the cause: two of the engine studs had snapped – much the same as the one at Donington earlier in the year, except these hadn’t shot a hole through the covers.

After the valiant efforts of Glenn Hay and Clive for a few hours, we reluctantly conceeded that we weren’t going to be able to make the grid for the second race. One of the threads was irretrievably stuck in the engine case, and all the drilling and hellicoiling wasn’t shifting it.

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So it was a very expensive weekend, after showing so much promise.

Even more soul-destroying was that this was the first time ever I had a lot of people come down to watch me!  By my sisters, Michelle and Stef, my brother in law Alan, their two beautiful kids Poppy and Calum – and even my fiancée Julie (wearing my old Redditch Arrows #18 US Football shirt!) were making their first ever visit to any race track!  You’ll also notice the new JooVuu sponsor stickers on the car, and RTV decals…

Despite all this, it’s also hard to be too down about it.  My ‘fan club’ seemed to enjoy the excitement of it all, and without a doubt their enthusiasm and jumping around spurred me on a lot!

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I also got to watch some of the brilliant racing that is Formula Vee – with Paul Smith winning both races and the championship (and jumping straight into a Crossle for two more wins – the most total wins ever in a day in the history of the 750 Motor Club!), James Harridge sticking the Maverick on pole and hounding Smith in both races, Adam Macaulay storming through from the very back to challenge for the lead and a great drive from Tom Roper as he got to grips with the TCR Sheane.

We should make Snetterton – where I got an 11th place last year – but it will be a total engine strip and rebuild. We may even put another engine in that was being saved for next season.  The problem with this being whether we’ll be able to do a shake-down test to avoid another expensive weekend of DNS’s…

Wish us luck!

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How to race for £3000 per season!

19 Tuesday Jan 2016

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How to race for £3000 per season!

One of the main things you’ll learn about motor racing is that, much like the other ‘M’ word (Marriage), if you mention it, the costs for everything go up.  So it’s best to try and ignore what you’re spending on it.

A few of you have commented on my claim to have a budget of £2000 to do a season of Formula Vee – and rightly so, because if you add up all the entry fees that alone comes to just over this figure!

Last year, I came into the UK Formula Vee championship very late, and only did the last 3 rounds.  Added to this was a bit of testing, plus the non-championship Vee Festival.

So, the long and short of it is that it will cost more than £2000 to race for a season, but with a few large assumptions, it can be done for not much more than this.

The main assumptions are that you have your own car, you’ve already got a set of Hoosier tyres, you’re not testing, you don’t break the car, and you’re not actually attending every round.

The way the championship is scored means you drop your worst two scores, assuming you have attended and finished every round – because of this a lot of drivers with tight budgets will miss a round because it’s too far away or they don’t like the track.

The point I’m making here is that you can race in Formula Vee on a fairly small budget – but most people in the series don’t.

If you’re testing at tracks it’s great, and highly desirable when you’re new to it all, but you CAN turn up and learn learn the track in qualifying – as I have done for the most part.  I would love to be able to test, but I simply cannot afford to, both in cash terms and time off work.

Whilst I’m spending £30 per race weekend on Shell V-Power straight from the pump (and isn’t it great that fuel costs are still down?!), a lot of the other drivers are using full-on Sunoco race fuel for £300 per weekend!  Whilst there should be some advantage to the higher octane fuel, I’ll just point out that I’m beating people using this fuel – so there’s no way I could ever justify spending this!  Or to look at it another way, if I had that money I’m 100% sure it would be better spent on a test day hammering around a circuit.  Once I’m familiar with all the circuits this might change, but to a rookie there is no magical go-faster add-on you can buy that will help you win – you need time in the car!

If you’re hiring a car you’re going to be paying between £500 and £750 for anything competitive – but do bear in mind you can buy a car for £3000 and you’re probably going to do as well in that as a rookie as if you’ve spent £30,000 on a sparkling new AHS Dominator!

The great thing about Formula Vee is that you DO see people who are on a tight budget mixing it up with the more affluent drivers. I have the ‘honour’ of being one of the lowest paid drivers trying to race Formula Vee, and whilst that can be frustrating, it’s also very rewarding.

I don’t resent the ones with the big budgets – because whatever level of motorsport you do, you will always have teams with a bigger budget.  And how much more satisfying is it to beat them?

Of course there are then travel and food costs – we cut that down by taking a lot of Aldi food (maybe I should get them to sponsor me?) and camping over at the circuit in the trusty VW Camper van!  Others take tents or sleep in their car – those who can will drive back home or book into a B&B.

Another excellent thing about Formula Vee over a lot of other series is that it is, to some extent, gentleman’s racing. This means most drivers won’t go for silly moves to overtake you, and will do it safely. Of course that observation might change if you’re running in the leading pack, but it means you CAN put fears of being taken out to rest, and just drive and have fun. Nobody wants to crash, because that is expensive, and may well be your season over.

Perhaps equally importantly is that if it does all go wrong on or off the track, the other drivers and teams will do what they can to help you! We all want to be out there racing, and we want more people out there with us (as long as we can beat them)!

So, to revise my original claim with a bit more (reluctant) thought – you can race Formula Vee for a season with a budget of £3000. You won’t be able to be the best you can be, as you’ll have to worry about not crashing and barely testing (I have another blog about the cheapest ways I’ve found to test) – but that is still a Hell of a lot less than anything else you can do to race.

“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!

Helmet Upgrade: Koden KSC25 Carbon

26 Monday Jan 2015

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Helmet Upgrade: Koden KSC25 Carbon

Much as I love my floro yellow Koden, the move to using a HANS device meant my hand was forced, and I needed to buy a new helmet with the SAH2010 approval with the HANS posts drilled.

It was always my intention to get a ‘better’ helmet when I could, so I figured now I might as well spend and get something I’d be happy with for many years to come.

Most of the big names sell their entry level helmet for around £400+, then the HANS posts will cost another £40+. That’s all a lot of money for someone with an Oliver Twist style race budget like mine!

Having been happy with the fit of my Koden, I looked at their more expensive models at the Autosport International Show, and found the fit equally as good, but the quality of their later helmets noticeable better.

Their base helmet with HANS fitments could be had for around £250!  The only limit is that you have to have black or white, so no gaudy glowing colours this time…

However, if I’d bought one of these (and I’d be happy to race in them) I’d have always been kicking myself for not buying the full carbon fiber version – so I did!

The show price from Mark at M&P was an absolute bargain of £350 INCLUDING the HANS fitments!  So for that extra £100, I’d be getting a Koden KSC25 in real life carbon – the likes of which would set you back, ooh, one or two thousand for one of the ‘big name’ brands!

Quality is excellent.  Nothing is flimsy, all the bits join together perfectly, and even the Nomex lining is well-stitched and as good as any I’ve seen.  Weight is a stunning 1330g.  To put that into perspective, as a biker of 15 years riding daily, I buy the best kit I can.  I have never worn a helmet as light as the Koden KSC25, and it’s very, very noticeable as soon as you put it on!

It’s got a trusty double D-ring fastener, and holds my noggin like a sensuous lover.  Or a wrestler about to crush your head like a grapefruit.  Whatever makes you feel safer!  And the button on the front is to release the visor – so no more fumbling around for the lift tab!

As you can see from the first picture, you get a few accessories, too.  There’s the peaked bit, for people who drive closed cars and are deluded into thinking nothing can ever possibly get through the windscreen, so don’t need a visor.  And another bit that I think is a spoiler.  I’ll put that on, if I can – I need to check clearance in the Vee cockpit with the HANS kit, first, though.

You can get spare visors, but I forgot to get one!  I think you can get black/smoke or blue iridium.  I wear blue iridium on my bike, because a) it looks cool, and b) the blue tint gives better viewing definition in cloudy or overcast conditions – perfect for the UK!

I am chuffed to bits with my Koden KSC25.  For the price it’s unbelievable value – but just as a race helmet for ANY money, it’s a damned fine buy!  I’m sure it will do me proud.

Getting Kitted Out

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

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Getting Kitted Out

Some of you have asked me what I’ve done about racewear, and how much I’ve paid.

The Lottery winner miracle still hasn’t happened, yet, and so I’m still on a tight budget.  This has meant a compromise between buying top-quality brand new kit for safety, and taking the second-hand gamble to get stuff cheaper.

I went to the NEC National Motorsport Show early in the year, with the aim of trying on things like a race suit so I had an idea of size, and hopefully grabbing some bargains.

The ‘bargain’ thing didn’t really happen.  Instead, after going in with the idea to buy a budget 2 layer race suit, I made the mistake of trying on a good quality 3 layer suit on one of the stands…

The quality oozed through in every aspect of the suit, and even the feel.  The suit I instantly fell in love with was up for an absolute bargain of £300 – but this was way over my budget, and by some miracle I managed to resist the temptation to buy it.

What I did decide, was that I was going to spend more money on a 3 layer suit rather than a 2 layer suit.  There is a simple reason for this: if you wear a 3 layer suit, it becomes optional to have nomex underwear.  That will save £100+ straight away.

Whilst a nomex race suit IS important for safety, it’s not providing you with active protection like bike leathers do.  Unless you catch fire – and then you want every penny you have invested in it!

I’d been watching and bidding on loads of suits on Ebay, and just missed out on one before it ended unsold.  I emailed the seller to see if the suit wa still for sale – it wasn’t, but as it turned out he did have a few others for sale.

After a brief flurry of emails, and finding out exactly who this ‘Martin Byford’ fellow was, we agreed a price of £120 for one of his old suits.  It’s a 3 layer Sabelt suit.

My fiancée made the final choice between two suits, because she said one of them ‘felt lucky’.  As it turned out, it’s the suit that Martin Byford won the Renault Clio Cup with in 2007! 

Sabelt 3 layer suit, modelled by my beautiful fiancée!

The downside is I look like I’ve just fell out of the Clio Cup – the upside is that this should terrify fellow open-wheeled racers!  I need to look into getting patches to cover up the worst of the sponsors…

I did pick up some cheap Sparco gloves from the NEC show – I figured gloves will wear, so best to buy these new.  I can also upgrade to better ones when I have more cash.  They did keep my hands warm driving on Winter roads, though!  £40 from Demon Tweeks.

I won a pair of fairly tatty OMP boots from Ebay for around £25.

It doesn’t seem all that clear whether boots and gloves have to conform to regulations, but I made sure all my kit meets the 2000-8856 standard, just to be sure.

I’m considering borrowing Glenn Hays helmet (if it fits!).  It does irritate me having to buy a car helmet.  I really should be upgrading my bike helmet, as that is getting old, now, but of course motorcycle helmets don’t meet car regulations!

As an aside, the reason for this is firstly that car helmets must have nomex lining, and also because a car helmet has to be able to withstand multiple impacts such as smacking against a roll cage on every corner.  A bike helmet is built to withstand one big impact and is then scrap.

Hedtec and V2 do good quality helmets for around the £150 mark, so I’ll be getting one of these for now, if needed.  If you’re interested, I’m also looking at around £3-400 for the latest AGV bike lid, but bear in mind I’ll be wearing thsi every day and travelling much faster!

I had my beady eye on balaclavas next.

I was going to spend as little as possible here, but thinking about it, decided to shell out for a 2 layer one.  The more expensive ones also have an extra cooling function which may well be made up nonsense.  I do get hot, however, so figure I may as well go for it.  £40 to £50 should get a Sparco one with ‘X-Cool’ coating.

Looking on Ebay, I found one for £15 that had ‘only been worn once’, put my bid in, and won it!

So, the running total so far, for some top quality kit at bargain prices:

  • Sabelt 3 Layer Race Suit: £120
  • Sparco gloves: £40 (bought new!)
  • OMP boots: £25
  • Sparco 2 layer balaclava: £15

The bad news is both Formula Vee racers are still in bits, due to other aspects of life getting in the way, and my debut at Rockingham International is off.  It’s a setback, but it’s only that.  I could have made the extra effort but it would mean jumping straight onto the track with championship contenders when I’ve never even sat in the car before… So I’m planning on at least one test to get the feel of the car first.