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Get on the edge!

18 Monday Apr 2016

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Get on the edge!

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Donington did not go well.

I’m still pretty disappointed in myself for not pushing harder, like I know I can.

I’m fully aware I’m still learning – but I’m not going to learn much without pushing the boundaries a bit!

For the next race I need to ask myself:

Was I on the limit?

Can I push harder in that corner? How about THAT corner? And that one?

Brake less – carry more speed through!

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I know my lines are pretty good, and I’m fairly consistent and smooth.

If you remember my first blogs I talked about the racing line being the most important basic. Not just that, but where you position your car on the track.

I try to stay as close as possible to the edge of the track – a lot of drivers will leave a good foot or two between them and the edge of the track. I know that this is a major thing to work on if you want to go faster. If you leave 2 inches between you and the edge of the track, it’s bad – one inch or less and you’re getting there.

It’s much harder to do this than you might think, but makes a massive difference, because you’re effectively opening all the corners out and making them easier. The thing I’m not doing is taking advantage of this to carry more speed through them!

So it’s easy for me to drive – but far too easy! I can and should be raising my corner speed until the car starts to move around, and at the moment it’s just on rails. My tyres aren’t starting to slide, and I’m not having to correct anything.

I was getting close to the mark around Coppice, feeling the back start to slide around on me in a balanced way, but last time out at Donington I was doing this around Redgate and occasionally in a few other corners. I need to be doing this in every single corner like I know I can do!

Last time at Brands Hatch, in the final race I was just doing this around Clearways and Surtees, but not really anywhere else. And you know when you are, because it feels GOOD!

Speaking of Brands Hatch… Less than 1 week to go… Glenn found that as well as the big bloody hole in the engine case, we’d been burning another (different) piston – which had made a mess of the cylinder head. We think it’s recoverable, but we do have a few tiny holes on the outside, but that shouldn’t affect the seal.

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We used Shell V-Power from the same garage as when we burnt the last piston at Silverstone – so that seems to be the only common denominator, at the moment. We’re thinking maybe their ‘super’ unleaded, well, isn’t. It seems odd that it’s the same damage you’d expect to find if you used ‘normal’ low octane fuel, and yet using BP, Sunoco and Gulf super fuels, we’ve not had the problem.

I know for a fact (I tested it myself!) that Shell V-Power is the best fuel for my bikes, so I’ve got nothing against V-Power – just doubts about whether that’s what we were buying from that garage… And we’d be silly to stick with Shell until we know for sure what’s going on – so Shell is out for now.

The thing that’s going to take this one down to the wire is straightening the bent front beam. Luckily, it seems Glenn can do this without having to chop and weld pieces in, or make up a new bean with all our modified fittings… It’s a big job.

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We’re also wrapping our exhaust system – which with any luck might bring the volume down a few db’s. More importantly, this will increase how fast the engine can expel exhaust gasses by maintaining high temperatures in the exhaust itself. And, yes, I did have to look up the science behind that!

This was all looking very iffy for even getting to Brands, but I think we’ve got it in hand, and should be there.

If it’s dry, I will also be eager to use the new JooVuu X camera for the main footage – this truly is a quality camera, and on special offer from £92.24. I will be doing a full review shortly for using it both as an action camera and an in-car road camera. Go snap one up!

And my final plan for Brands Hatch will be to wear my new Fitbit for the weekend.  Any guesses what my heart rate will show during the races?

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Warts and all: My Donington crash…

17 Sunday Apr 2016

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Warts and all: My Donington crash…

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You may have noticed a distinct lack of footage from my qualifying ‘incident’ at Donington.

I’ve already made it clear it was totally my mistake, and I was an idiot – even if you can put a lot of that down to inexperience and/or bad luck.  But there is a problem with onboard footage, sometimes…

You may remember a video from a few years back where a Porsche 944 driver got crucified after seemingly pushing another car into the pit wall at Cadwell Park?  Everyone wanted his blood, but a few voices pointed out that the 944 could just as easily have been trying to pull into the pits, and it was all a totally innocent mistake.  The point is, the camera won’t always show you the truth.

We are all competitive on track, and all want to win – but (I hope) it would be extremey rare that any of us want to actually make anyone else crash.  It’s expensive, won’t win you any friends, and people can die.

When I looked back over my footage of that first lap of qualifying, the camera shows I dived up the inside of Buxton in an impossible move, and took him out.

Of course, I know this isn’t what happened, but without having you feel that I was at maximum braking trying my best just not to hit Buxton, it doesn’t look good. 

Then there’s the adrenalin factor – when you’re on track everything happens slowly and you just react to it.  Looking back at the footage it’s not always clear that you did have time to assess the situation – in this case that I wasn’t going to stop in time, so angled the car hoping I’d pull it all up before I even got to the corner.

Anyway, I promised you warts and all on this blog, and the fact is I should have braked earlier or got my tyres up to temp sooner, and this wouldn’t have happened.

So here’s the full onboard camera footage from that lap:

Rounds 1 & 2: Donington Park National

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Rounds 1 & 2: Donington Park National

I had to put the earlier mistake from qualifying out of my head, but also make sure I got in a solid and safe finish to get some points on the board.

‘Safe’ was the key – nobody wants to get a reputation as a crasher, or especially as someone who takes other people off!

For this weekend we’d also got the help of Chris ‘Vard’ Vardon – who, unlike me, actually has some mechanical skills that can help Glenn, as well as get stuck in with lifting, carrying and pushing stuff around.  It was Vard’s first ever time in the Vee paddock, and I think he enjoyed it – we may even see him on the grid himself, some day.  So a massive thanks to him!

Race 1

On the green flag lap I found the car was pulling heavily to the left after the earlier collision.  Not the end of the world, as I could drive around it – but more importantly I still hadn’t pushed the Sheane into a corner in anger since we’d changed the engine mountings and rear ride height. 

We had also found that the font dampers have 21 settings, which could explain some of the issues we had with our suspension being too soft – I’d thought there were only 10 settings, and so was being rather conservative with my changes to harden it up.

I pulled up to my spot right at the back of the grid, but when the lights went out it all got very strange as nobody else seemed to move!  I sped away and then eased off seeing a couple of slow and stationary car, assuming I’d missed a red flag.

I still picked up a few places into Redgate, and settled in to feel how the car was going to handle.

I had a brief tussle with new racer John Hartin, pulling alongside him down to the Roberts chicane.  Truth be told, I sold him a bit of a dummy there!  After the qualifying crash there was no way I was going to risk taking anyone out on that corner again, and unless he’d hit the brakes very early I was always going to let him go through first.  As it was, he braked late in defence – too late – and locked up, leaving me to dive back down the inside and take the corner.

Being honest, my driving was pretty poor.  I was being far too cautious, and nowhere near as committed as I was last year on the GP circuit layout.  I was easing off the throttle at the bottom of the Craner Curves, where I should have been keeping it pinned. 

The revs were spiking as I changed gear – something that’s never happened to me before, and not necessarily from my shoddy gear changes!  After my Drive Of Shame earlier behind the pace car I did notice the revs stuck at 3000 rpm when I went to switch off – and my car doesn’t normally idle at all.  This could also simply be the clutch pedal, as we literally got the car back together the night before, and so hadn’t had a chance to test anything.

I was carrying more speed through Old Hairpin then last year, but was still nowhere near the edge.

My favourite corner was still Coppice – you jab the brakes quickly and hard about halfway down the curb on the left before throwing it hard right over the blind crest.  You have to be brave.  I also found that keeping a tight line through the double-apex seemed a lot faster, but the back end starts to swing around, and you just balance it there, letting it bring you around without any opposite lock, hard on the throttle all the way out to the exit curb.

Even then I was too hard on the brakes for too long.  The same problem at Redgate, where I was also fast last year…

There wasn’t a single corner where I wasn’t well away from how hard I should be pushing it – how hard I KNOW I can push it – and still be within my own safety zone.

I managed to go from 24th up to a 14th place finish – which was pretty good, considering, but a bit disappointing when I’d been hoping for top 10, and I never even got close to catching Snarey and Harrison and my usual playmates.

I was lapped by the leaders at Old Hairpin, seeing them nice and early and getting well out of the throttle and offline to wave them all through.

Paul Smith lapped me a full lap before the gaggle fighting for second place, and unsurprisingly demolished the rest to win, with Graham Gant and Craig Pollard finally securing the rest of the podium.  James Harridge got 5th overall to win the B Class ahead of Mari Snarey and Colin Gregory after Jack Wilkinson had problems and couldn’t capitalise on his fastest lap in class.

Race 2

Starting from right at the back again, as soon as I pulled away from the start I knew something was wrong.  I got a few places, but the rest of the field simply drove awy from me into the distance even before I’d made it to Redgate!

I drove a bit better, pushing harder through the turns and knocking 2 seconds off my lap times as I tried to make up for the loss of power.

A few laps in I head a sound that I thought was the power cable to my camera hitting the roll hoop… then it got bigger and louder, and with everything else seeming normal (and no smoke) I figured the exhaust had come loose somewhere.  That would explain the power loss and why the sound only seemed to be when I was at certain revs in 4th gear.

There was no way I was going to rock the headlines in this race, so I latched onto the back of Francis Twyman (having his own issues) and decided to just bring it home behind him, changing up nice and early and pressing on as much as I could through the corners.

In hindsight, that’s where I should have pulled into pit lane for Glenn to have a quick check of things, but I stayed out one more lap, and inevitably I saw smoke in my mirrors as I crossed the start line.

The first part of the track is very fast and flowing, and it’s very hard to find anywhere to pull off safely that won’t affect everyone else’s race!  I cruised through Old Hairpin and pulled right onto the grass to park it up by the wall, shutting it down and jumping out for a look and to make sure nothing caught fire.

When the car was put on the back of The Wagon Of Shame and taken back to the pits, we found a big bloody hole that definitely wasn’t supposed to be there!

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Paul Smith dominated the race with another clear victory (so much so that I thought he’d had problems as he was so far ahead of the rest!), with John Hughes a distant second after an amazing scrap, and Harridge 3rd overall and taking the B Class victory again.  Jack Wilkinson claimed 2nd in class (and 5th overall behind Harry Webb), with Colin Gregory claiming another 3rd in class.

As bad as my weekend may have been, there was a huge and scary incident for Tim Probert.  There was a lot of oil on the circuit from several cars, and Tim went into the gravel at Roberts, and then Ian Buxton also went off in the same place, head on into and launching over Tim, giving him a good clout on the noggin as he did so.  Luckily Tim was shaken up but ok – the car not so much so…

New racer Harry Webb also had a scary incident as his steering arm snapped at high speed, and Martin Snarey had his own brown trouser moment when his wheel bearings collapsed!

Hopefully my engine issues will be a simple fix, and we should be out for Brands Hatch in a months time – and this time I’ll keep reminding myself that if I’m not on the edge in every corner then I should be pushing harder!

I love Donington Park – but it hates me!

21 Monday Mar 2016

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I love Donington Park – but it hates me!

So far at Donington I’ve managed 3 corners before the engine seized in my first ever Vee drive, qualified badly after a spin losing my fastest lap plus my last one, caught a few feet of air in a crash and demolished my wrist in the first race, and then ran out of petrol whilst flying in the second race.

So this year had to yeild a bit of luck, right?

I’ve never done the National track layout before, so studied many hours of onboard footage to find braking and turning points, and decided to dial them right back to get my required 3 minimum safe laps in to qualify.

I cruised out onto the track, easing back into things as I tried to get a feel for some of the changes we’ve made to rear ride height on the car over Winter, and to just generally get my head back into driving a racecar.

Straight away I was moving past people not yet even thinking about getting my tyres up to temperature on the out-lap. I came onto the back straight and as we approached my newly learned braking zone, Ian Buxton passed me, I hit the brakes nice and early to follow him through the chicane, but as soon as he slammed on his brakes in front of me I knew I was in trouble.

Maybe he’d got his tyres and brakes up to temperature, but I could tell there was no way I was possibly going to stop before I smashed into the back of him. I was at that ‘floaty’ point on the brakes – after exceeding traction but before locking up (which is where you want to be on a fast lap on the limit) – but maximum braking is pretty useless when your overall traction levels are about half what they should be.

I threw the car to the right hoping I could pull it up before he came across on the racing line, or hoping he’d run wide himself, but Buxton didn’t stand much chance and my left front hit his side, spinning him around as I carried us both deep into the gravel trap… Not even one lap completed.

Understandably, he wasn’t impressed, and probably assumed I’d made a crazy dive down the inside. As I undid my belts I heard footsteps pounding through the gravel towards me.

Ian had a bit of a (well deserved) shout at me and then stomped off where the marshalls led him to safety. I got out and took my helmet off (this might not be the wisest move under the circumstances!) and tried to diffuse things with an apology as we waited for the snatch vehicle to drag our cars out of the gravel.

When they did, both cars looked relatively unscathed, other than being full of gravel. In hindsight, I should have jumped back in and got back on track to try and get the laps in to qualify, but didn’t think of that.

I drove the car back and legged it up to race control to see what I could do about getting the laps in so I could race, and they said I could follow the course car around during the lunch break, and then be allowed to start from the back of the grid for both races.

I went back down to the garage to pick gravel out of the poor pebble-dashed Sheane and then heard my name over the tannoy being called back up to see the Clerk of the Course. Uh-oh.

Remembering school time visits to the Headmasters Office, I slunk into the room and was asked to explain what happened.

I held my hands up to it all straight away – said exactly what had happened, and reiterated that I wasn’t trying to be stupid and was still cruising around, as far as I was concerned, but cocked up.

Then they moved on to the events after we were in the gravel trap – and it became clear that they Do Not Want any fisticuffs or threatening at the track side! This was clearly big no-no, so make a big note of that in case you end up tangling with another car!

It wasn’t anything to do with Ian Buxton, and I fully understood (and deserved!) his reaction, and so made sure they understood that I wasn’t threatened or intimidated by him etc. He had a few words in anger – I wasn’t scared for my life – there was no harm done, as far as I was concerned. I was just glad I hadn’t killed his car or hurt him!

I heard them call Ian up to the office after me, and we were both allowed to race, so I think I handled it all ok for the both of us.

We then just had to do a Drive Of Shame behind a pace car for 3 laps at hot road hatchback pace…

Oh, and Ian absolutely stormed through the grid in race 1 to finish in 6th with the fastest lap. That probably helped smooth things over for when we did shake hands later in the day.

Although he did still quip that he could have won that if it wasn’t for me!

Fair point, well made, Ian. Sorry…

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

 

 

Where to test a race car?

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

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Where to test a race car?

It is surprisingly hard to test a race car – especially if you have an open-wheeled/single seater – and it’s getting harder all the time.

A lot of the smaller (and cheaper) testing facilities seem to have moved focus towards hosting ‘driving experience’ days.

These are the circuits that you may or may not know about for testing:

Bruntingthorpe

Bruntingthorpe used to be great with it’s airfield runway layout and loads of run-off area, but this one is now out of the picture.  They want you to produce your own liability insurance to be able to test there.

This liability insurance is the type of thing that trackday companies all have for their events, and your average Joe trying to get it for a day will find it almost impossible.  If you have your own business, you may be able to find someone to cover you, but from my research it seems you’ll be looking at £250 for a day, then testing fees on top of that – so that no longer makes it a viable option.  And that’s if you can even narrow down what SCOPE of cover you need – Bruntingthorpe are very vague when you ask any questions about this, and the impression is they don’t care or want you testing there.

That said, a few people do have cover for the year, such as Alan Harding from AHS – and if you’re in one of his cars you’ll be ok.  He is not able to just let you do it on his policy, as insurance won’t allow this anymore.

I’m amazed that Bruntingthorpe don’t have their own insurance, because they are surely losing money?

Three Sisters

A forgotten little track up in Wigan, that I thought only did karts and bikes, but their website does indeed say that cars are welcome!

They seems pretty flexible, and will let you come and test whenever there’s nothing else on for £60 per hour.

They answered my email enquiry very quickly, and are helpful and friendly.  There is also a fair bit of info on their website.

Llandow

Another small and forgotten track in Wales, around 20 miles West of Cardiff, where they actually used to hold Vee and Super Vee race meetings!

I sent several emails which were answered very quickly (thanks to Sharon and Louise!), and are also very flexible and relaxed over dates and times.  Again, you can test there whenever they’re free, and they were happy for me to turn up “around 11ish” and book on whenever I was ready.  It’s a bargain at £30 per hour, and although I was expected a boring but functional track to shake the car down on, I found I loved the place!

For less than a 50 second lap you get a very tight complex with flat-out high speed turns, a tight chicane, and it somehow has a million times more character than it should!

Short of these, you’re limited to paying through the nose for pre-race test days at £300-£400! Plus it will mean in most cases another night spent at the circuit, and if anything does fail it can be a busy old time trying to fix stuff so you can get out for qualifying the next morning.

If you keep your eyes open you might be able to squeeze into a test day for another series, so it’s worth checking out where Formula Ford, F4 etc are due to race. This can mean you’re out there with seriously fast machinery, and you might find you spend most of the time trying to stay out of their way…

If you’re in a tin-top you can take your pick of the many track days organised all over the place – but then you’ll be driving amongst a pack of Average Joe’s. Even worse is the added frustration of rules limiting where and how you can overtake anyone, so you might find you’re stuck behind a gaggle of Fiat Uno’s unable to pass for the entire session! The driving might also not be as predictable as you’d hope from MSA licence holders…

If you can get a few other Vee drivers to test with you, wherever you do it, it’s a massive bonus, because you’ll have some kind of reference point of how you’re doing. I blasted around Llandow all day thinking I was doing ok, but it wasn’t until I got to Silverstone that I found the other Vee drivers were gobsmackingly faster than me! You won’t get much from a test day where you’re not doing it right!

With an increased budget it would be great to cram in all the testing I could, because that’s the best way to get faster. At this stage I don’t know how much I’ll test this year, and most of it could well be turning up at a circuit and learning the track during the qualifying session – not ideal if you want to be competitive!

If I’ve missed anywhere, feel free to let me know! I hope this is of use to someone out there!

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.

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!