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James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

James Cater Racing

Tag Archives: Heritage Parts Centre

Preparing to re-start and post-Covid fitness

08 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by jamescaterracing in Fitness, Formula Vee, Uncategorized

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750 motor club, billy blanks, Birmingham Superprix, covid, CRPS Racing 4A Cure, formula vee, Heritage Parts Centre, iZone Driver Performance, lockdown, Primrose Hospice, race fitness, tae bo, training

The amazing thing is that this is where I had my first ever Formula Vee race back in 2015, and so will be a bit like a re-birth after my two year lay-off.

The Covid lockdown was tough for my fitness. Actually, that’s not entirely true – it’s been so damned long that I’ve put on weight, lost loads, then put on even more into the start of 2021.

More serious than that, was that my overall fitness was terrible. Working from home, rarely going out of the house, no gym, and with no real fitness routine, things had got pretty dire.

I started doing quick five to ten minute online workouts – mainly from Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo program. This was brilliant to get me moving again, and quick enough to fit in on a morning work break to get me away from staring at a PC all day. Highly recommended if you don’t think you can face full-on fitness malarkey (and if you can, he also has hour long, 5000 calorie killer workouts).

Tae Bo "I Like What You Do" (Part 2) - YouTube

There is a fitness program provided with the iZone Driver Performance Training, but that looked far too full-on, so I’ve saved them all to work through when I want something more hardcore. My main focus was to get back to the gym ASAP, which I finally got to do. Oh how I’ve missed that heavy bag for slamming in Thai-style elbows and shin kicks, rather than just filling my face with Thai Pla Sam Rod!

Other than working the bag, my two or three weekly sessions have been all about getting my aerobic fitness back up, and flexibility. I have a strong martial arts background so losing my flexibility for the first time since I was eight years old has really bugged me!

Lots of cross trainer, indoor cycling, rowing and pounding it out on the treadmill. I will switch my focus back to core strength by picking up my weights and going back to 100 squats per day and stuff.

iZone also helped with other things that are often overlooked, and I planned to change this year anyway: I barely used to drink liquids, but upped that to at least two litres per day. I switched to an ‘intermittent fasting’ diet (basically skipping breakfast and having two meals per day between 12pm and 9 in the evening – you just need to learn that feeling hungry doesn’t mean you have to eat). Kevin from iZone recommended healthier snacks that you might not expect – like greek yoghurt, peanut butter or cheese so that your body gets the fat it needs to think it’s full. And I always have a nut mix of almonds, Brazils and walnuts as they all give great nutrition.

This has all lead to me dropping a stone of weight I’d put on, but more importantly hasn’t been anything so extreme that I can’t easily sustain all the changes. It also means I’m not denying myself the odd takeaway or fried breakfast – hey, I still want to love food and this isn’t exactly Formula One!

All of this has also massively stabilised my blood sugars and generally seems to suit me. So that must be worth a few seconds a lap, right?

I have plans for a few other things to boost my performance when I get back on track – some of which I might tell you about in another blog, but possibly not all of it!

I hope you have all been keeping yourselves in shape – you never appreciate your fitness until you don’t have it any more. Go on – do a quick Tai Bo Body Blast and see how good it makes you feel!

We’re missing the first round!

16 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing

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2021 season, 750 motor club, Birmingham Superprix, CRPS Racing 4A Cure, formula vee, Heritage Parts Centre, Primrose Hospice

You may have noticed a distinct lack of, well, me, on the entry lists for Cadwell Park this weekend.

I can confirm that we won’t be there, this time.

Frustrating as it is, we have to remember that racing is only a hobby for me (unless there are any spare F1 or GT drives going?), and there are still some more important things in and around Racing Team Vee that we’re still in the process of sorting out before we can re-focus on racing.

I’m sure you will all understand that these are difficult times, but we do fully intend to be back as soon as possible!

Croft, next month? To be totally honest, it still seems a bit shakey, but if it is at all possible it’s a track I love so you can bet it’s still on the cards…

Good luck to all the Formula Vee drivers this weekend – you’ll see a few familiar faces returning to the grid along with some brand new to us. The races are being live streamed on video from the 750 Motor Club website, so be sure to take a look.

www.750mc.co.uk

Stay safe everyone, and have some great racing!

2021 Season Gets Green Light!

26 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

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2021 season, 750 motor club, Birmingham Superprix, calendar, CRPS Racing 4A Cure, formula vee, Heritage Parts Centre, iZone Driver Performance, Primrose Hospice, skip barber

Yes, folks – after sitting out the last two seasons, I’m back!

Driving for Racing Team Vee, and proudly supporting Primrose Hospice, The Birmingham Superprix project and CRPS Racing 4A Cure, I will return to racing in the 750 Motor Club Heritage Parts UK Formula Vee Championship.

I had been dubiously awaiting the latest Covid announcement, but Motorsport UK have give the go-ahead for club racing to start on 29 March 2021. Of course, this will always be subject to any further lockdowns or restrictions, but with the vaccine working its way through the general population I think we’re all feeling much more positive about where things are heading.

In my time off, you’ll probably be unsurprised to hear that I’ve still spent every day obsessed by racing, so although my seat time has suffered, I’ll be coming into this season more prepared than ever, and also much more hungry!

I have been sim racing lots using iRacing, especially driving the Skip Barber car which is probably the closest to a Formula Vee, and have a few more changes going on which should boost my performance.

You may have seen my name pop up on the list of iZone Performance drivers. This is something else that has been a huge change, as I have been active in their daily Zoom training in all aspect of improving my performance – physically, technically, and especially mentally. This training has been amazing, not just for racing, but for strength and motivation in everyday life through this pandemic. Go check them out!

The iZone coaches have also reinforced some realisations that I was slowly coming to myself about approaching things from a much stricter and more structured way, and I have a few more essential things to sort out for the next time I get back in the car.

It’s an exciting time, and you can of course expect blogs, videos and lots more from me and my social media accounts along the way. Feel free to contact me if you would like to get onboard as a sponsor or support me and the team in any way, or if you think I can help you or your brand.

And again, in case I don’t say it enough, if you’re reading this then thank you! I love your support and words of encouragement and am eternally grateful to have you all with me!

May be an image of text that says "CUNCE Ouulton 2021 PROVISIONAL CALENDAR 1&2 CADWELL PARK 17th APRIL 3&4 CROFT CIRCUIT 29th/30th MAY 5&6 ANGLESEY COASTAL 19th/20th JUNE 7&8 SNETTERTON 300 17th/18th JULY 9&10 & SILVERSTONE INT 7th AUGUST 11&12 BRANDS HATCH INDY 11th/12th SEPT 13&1 OULTON PARK INT 9th OCTOBER 750 MOTORCLUB FORMULA VEE เ7 HERITAGE PART CENTRE"

2018 Season Review

11 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

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2018, formula vee, Heritage Parts Centre, Primrose Hospice, review, season, UK

JonElsey750MC2018CroftFVee-1 a

My 2018 racing season in the Heritage Parts Centre UK Formula Vee championship certainly had some ups and downs.

From blowing the engine on my out lap at Castle Combe in qualifying, being involved in someone elses crash at Brands Hatch, overcoming engine problems to prove I can still drive at Croft, flying to Ireland with broken ribs and concussion (after a motorcycle accident) to challenge for a class win at Mondello Park, and then random problems which ultimately led to me not racing in the last round of the season and being left with two scrap engines.

It was a definite uphill struggle all year long, but sometimes I managed to see over that crest. Sometimes I got to taste that joy of both victory and the unbelievable exhilaration that only comes with motor racing.

I could focus on my engine problems and pure bad luck and frustration – or I can remember going for the class win at Mondello Park, wheel to wheel with Bill ‘Wom’ Garner in a titanic scrap on the final lap! Or the way I overcame serious power loss at Croft to lead B Class Championship winner Andrew Cooper in the opening laps and still hang onto him despite it being a very fast power circuit.

crash c

However frustrating things were, I’m still doing the thing I only ever daydreamed about as a kid, and to me, dropping back through the field at Silverstone with the engine dying but still fighting hard to stay ahead of the pack – that’s the sort of victory many will never be able to understand.

Despite missing 6 races and not finishing 1 – so half of the scheduled 14 – I somehow ended up 6th in class and 22nd overall. And more important than any stat is that I know that I have clearly improved and I’m a much faster and consistent driver and loving every second on and off the track!

If you were wondering where I was for Snetterton, basically the oil leak that stopped me doing the last race at Donington turned out to be an insert for an engine stud that had come out. As this meant we couldn’t use that engine case, we swapped all the internals into a spare case, only to find that case needs to be line bored as the main bearing was warped, and the barrels couldn’t be shimmed up evenly as that surface has warped, too. So whilst we have two scrap engines at present, we should be able to recover at least one.

IMG_20181006_135737
IMG_20181006_134338
IMG_20181006_114727

For 2019 I’ll be hitting the season at full blast after a few improvements to the car, and fully intend to win my class, as well as stick it in the overall top 10 on a regular basis as I push myself even harder.

It’s a roller-coaster of a ride, but what’s better than throwing both hands high in the air and yelling “faster!”?

Thanks for all of your support this year, and for reading my (sometimes very long) ramblings!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Special thanks:

Primrose Hospice for their amazing service, and allowing me to proudly carry their logo on my car and help their promotion.

Glenn Hay for heading up Racing Team Vee and for the use of the car.

My beautiful fiancé Julie for putting up with my sacrifices to go racing and my total obsession with it.

The Bromsgrove Standard and Craig Gibbons for publishing my race reports.

r2 pic 05

My View Of Croft – Race 2

08 Friday Jun 2018

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

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750 motor club, best, control, croft, driving, formula vee, Heritage Parts Centre, Primrose Hospice, race 2, race report, technique, tyres, UK

JonElsey750MC2018CroftFVee-1 a

Race 2

We all run Formula Vee with our ignition timing advanced. It’s a way to use all of the potential of higher octane fuels, and I’ve even heard some claim to be running more than 30 degrees advanced – but people in the paddock don’t always tell the truth for that kind of stuff, and even if they are doesn’t mean they’re sticking to the rules to be able to do that…

With the bodged-together engine since our old one died at Croft, we’ve been running less advance than normal. Using his vast experience, and with none of the right equipment, Glenn advanced us a degree or so to tap into a bit more bhp. Very risky, but I was getting slaughtered on the straights.

IMG_20180607_212733

The car balance had help up fine, but corner exit grip was a bit iffy in places. The near-bald right rear tyre wasn’t helping, so I dropped the pressure a little on the rear to see if I could get it to dig in a little more without just overheating. A rear anti-roll bar would have been useful here, as a few clicks harder would have been good, but I was reluctant to change our rear damper settings as I suspected it was more the bumps upsetting that aspect of the car, and other drivers were saying the same.

All this aside, I knew everyone else would have made improvements or just learned the track better, so they would all be putting faster lap times in, relatively (technically about a second slower than Saturday, because of the heat).

The lights went out.

My plan was to latch on to Ian Buxton a few rows directly in front of me, and though we both started quickly, by the time I snatched second gear his car was already picking up it’s petticoat and giving it legs over mine.

I’d blasted past Bill Stenning and had Andrew Cooper ahead for second in class B as my target, when Bill Garner appeared on my left.

race 2 003

I held the inside and let the brakes off to ease up to the inside of Cooper around Hawthorne. He had to concede my better line through the chicane, although it pushed me wide on the exit, where I found air under my right wheels at the end of the curb, before manhandling it all back onto the tarmac.

Watching Cooper in my mirrors, I hammered it into Tower but the tyres didn’t quite have the heat in them to grip. The rears lurched into oversteer mid-corner, which I collected with a flick of opposite lock but this meant I had to delay getting on the loud pedal.

Cooper got the run off the corner and just had his front wheels ahead as we turned into the Jim Clark Esses – normally taken flat out with only one line through.

Cooper was throwing up all kinds of dirt from his outside line, and with him still just ahead, to avoid disaster for the right hand exit, I had to ease off and let him through. I tried to fight back on the inside into Barcroft, but he closed the door.

All this had definitely slowed us down (I hadn’t even changed up to fourth gear!), but luckily Garner had stayed behind (probably expecting us to crash) and I got on the throttle early into Sunny In and let the car slide all the way around onto the next short straight.

I had one last snap at Coopers heels into the hairpin but then he was edging away and I just sat back and tried to see exactly what he was doing, so that I could try and copy it.

race 2 002

My car felt like I could do anything with it. I was getting pretty out of shape in places, but there was never a moment where I though I might lose it… where I wasn’t fully in control, really. Something had definitely clicked in my head and I think it has a lot to do with confidence.

Although losing Cooper, I was also steadily drawing away from Garner in my mirrors (with a flash of Jamie Harrison before he encountered problems), but wasn’t cruising to maintain the gap as I was enjoying it all too much.

I remember going into Sunny In far too quickly, still trail braking and clearly overcooking it all, and just planting the throttle to bring the rear around as I drifted up to the edge of the curb on the exit as if nothing had happened.

And of course there was lots of opposite lock as I tried to get whatever was left of the tyres to do something out of the hairpin.

I’d been noticing my pit board, for once, too – I think the first time was when Craig Bell must have spun off, and I caught him onto the pit straight. My board read ‘P10’ so I was chuffed with that, and gave Glenn, Mark and Michelle and thumbs up!

race 2 006

Suddenly the red flags were out as I came into the complex, and I dived into the pit lane pretty sure they wouldn’t bother restarting the race.

Sure enough, the marshals waved me down pit lane and through into the holding area. There was nobody here to stop me, and I was first off the track, so I was a bit paranoid about getting a penalty, but if the gates were all open and nobody was there, surely that couldn’t do me for it?

I rolled back happily to our awning before getting out to shake hands and chat to the other drivers. It’s nice to see the respect we all have for each other after the races, despite how hard we race.

Oh, and I had my first ever trip to a real life podium for coming third in Class B, with a great trophy! And 10th place overall gives me my best ever result to date (not counting non-championship results), and it was earned the hard way rather than through attrition of the front-runners.

There is still loads of work to do before we go international and head to Mondello Park in Ireland in July, and I’m a bit gutted that it’s so long away, as I feel like I’ve unlocked something in me as a driver. I need to get back out there right NOW and try it!

With time to work on the car and address some of our issues, it looks promising for the trip, though – and at last I’m back in the championship with a strong chance of racking up points!

Bring it on!

Croft Podium 2018

IMG_20180527_152952 c

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