• Home
  • About Me
  • Race Results
  • Videos
  • Pictures
  • Contact Me
  • 2019 Race Dates
  • Sponsors & Supporters

James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

James Cater Racing

Tag Archives: help

Brands Hatch GP – Qualifying (Part 1 of 3)

05 Friday May 2017

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2017, brands hatch GP, crash, formula vee, gravel trap, help, joovuu, Primrose Hospice, qualifying, spin, VW Heritage

The legendary Brands Hatch GP circuit.

Despite the ridiculous entry fee (£450 just to get in the gate!), as soon as I saw we were getting a rare chance to race on the full circuit, I knew I had to do it.

I thought it might also serve as a much-needed escape from stresses back in the ‘Real World’ away from racing – but as it turned out, it hasn’t helped much at all!

We opted to make the 3-4 hour journey down to Brands on the morning, already knowing it would be a very tight and hectic day ahead.

Within 30 miles the trusty VW Camper van started making a worrying rumbling sound all of a sudden. A quick check delayed us as we looked camper and trailer over to try and find the source, and after a few more miles we pulled in again to check the wheel bearings weren’t about to fall off… half expecting to have to turn around and go home.

Luckily Glenn left the engine running as we got out, and it was soon obvious that the camper had blown something on its exhaust. Happy we wouldn’t die, we carried on.

With light traffic the rest of the way, we made it there on time easily, and thought our luck had changed. We were wrong.

Qualifying

True to form, the heavens had opened as we blasted out of the pit lane for everyone’s first ever lap of the full circuit.

It was instantly obvious that it was really slippery, with everyone sliding around all over the place. I followed Ben Miloudi through Clearways on a big armful of opposite lock, then we were both sideways on the power most of the way down the pit straight as there was just no traction to be found.

The inevitable happened, and with cars off the safety car came out (still better than a red flag!) as the marshals cleaned up.

I felt pretty good with the car, but the excellent wet set up I’d found for Oulton wasn’t working for me at Brands. To be fair it was probably just too wet for anything to be of much use.

The track, however, was fantastic! I’ve said before that Brands Indy is my least favourite track, but I do like the old GP section. I lose my favourite flat-out Surtees corner, but the new version is good an challenging, as is the new angle of attack for Clearways over the crest. I’m sure both would be even better in the dry!

Anyway, the safety car… 750 Motor Club don’t normally use a safety car, so being with MSVR for the day was a good chance to see how it works. For the most part it’s great, as it keeps you moving and out of track, but I will come back to this later with some things that aren’t so brilliant.

I never actually saw the safety car itself, as the group I was following didn’t catch up to it before we saw green flags.

I got back on the pace, and a very quick Christian Goller slithered by I followed him through Paddock Hill and then got on the throttle a little bit harder and sooner down the hill, and the back started swinging around.

I made a huge correction on opposite lock but then the rear bit again and fired me sideways into the gravel trap, ripping my nose cone to shreds and showering me in gravel as I stopped just shy of hitting the tyre wall backwards.

I tried to drive out but that was hopeless as I was virtually buried. I even had gravel on the inside of my visor! I switched off and jumped out, marvelling at how covered the car was.

I’d also taken a quick look inside the carb trumpets, and could see lumps of stone there waiting to get into the engine, so I had to wait until the session ended to be towed back on The Wagon Of Shame.

Of course, the rain stopped just as I needed it to clean the car off!

I need to give a special mention here to Chris Whitehouse and Vinoth Kumar who did an excellent job of cleaning the car up, and also to Dave Jordan for the loan of a vacuum cleaner to get gravel out of the car – without them we’d have no chance of making the start of the race, so it was hugely appreciated, and yet another display of the Vee crowd pitching in to help!

Covered in mud, I used my biker skills to create a workable nose cone out of duct tape, and got to the assembly area just in time…

Oh, and despite all the drama I’d somehow still qualified 18th and 16th for the races!

James Harridge took pole by about 4 seconds from Ben Miloudi and Steve Ough.

A big old soppy thank you blog!

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#18, 750 motor club, championship, childhood dream, driving, first race, formula vee, help, learning, rookie, soppy, thank you, thanks

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  

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Pages

  • 2019 Race Dates
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • Pictures
  • Race Results
  • Sponsors & Supporters
  • Videos

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
jamescaterracing

jamescaterracing

Racing in the UK Formula Vee championship.

View Full Profile →

Tags:

ARDS Test eracing Fitness Formula Vee karting Products Racing Rules & Regulations sponsorship Technique Uncategorized

Blogs I Follow

  • |Project-D|
  • Gavin Fury
  • Blonde On A Boat
  • SoberPunks
  • Racing Team Vee
  • BOOKS BY CRAIG LOCK
  • Need a P-time or F-time job?
  • mikeoldknow
  • The Ali Lowe Commentary
  • The OkiNinjaKitty Blog

James Cater Racing on Facebook

James Cater Racing on Facebook

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

|Project-D|

Lifestyle blog about racing, and other nerdy stuff

Gavin Fury

The Legend Of The Petrol Bastard

Blonde On A Boat

A girly and family themed nautical blog with money saving boating tips and ideas

SoberPunks

A sweary alcohol recovery blog written by a Yorkshireman

Racing Team Vee

Formula Vee Racing

BOOKS BY CRAIG LOCK

"The Writing Journey": The various books that Craig "felt inspired to write"

Need a P-time or F-time job?

mikeoldknow

A great WordPress.com site

The Ali Lowe Commentary

The view from the shed...

The OkiNinjaKitty Blog

Everything you want and need to know about life in Japan.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy