As you may have seen on Twitter and Facebook, Racing Team Vee have formed a proud partnership with Primrose Hospice for 2017!
Primrose Hospice is an independent charity supporting patients and families living with a life-limiting illness, across North East Worcestershire.
Their staff and over 450 volunteers are involved in a massive range of activities from supporting patients in the Day Hospice and Family Support Team to running fundraising events all year round.
With the main base in my own home town of Bromsgrove, the results of their help are well known to all my family and friends, and having recently witnessed how they helped my fiancée’s Dad come to terms with recovering from prostate cancer I knew I had to try and help out in any way I could.
The whole team is very positive and upbeat, and that shows with the strength and outlook it gives to their patients, too.
A unique thing I found on a visit is Trevor – the Therapy Dog. He wonders around the place making friends with patients and offering the kind of supporting ear that only dogs can. A brilliant idea, and you can follow his exploits every week on Trevor Tuesday on Twitter.
I’ll be showing my own support for Primrose Hospice later in the year as I jump out of a perfectly good air plane for a tandem parachute drop – so watch this space and please help me raise some much-needed funds!
You can, of course, donate directly to Primrose Hospice, and I’ll be setting up a facility myself, soon.
For me, this is a great chance to give something back to a charity I really believe in, and I hope you will welcome them aboard RTV. Their branding will be prominently on display on James’ Sheane Formula Vee car at the legendary Brands Hatch racing circuit this Monday along with existing sponsors JooVuu.
Please like and share and stay tuned for an exciting year!
Let me get this out of the way first: I don’t like Brands Hatch.
OK, so that’s not entirely true – but it’s my least favourite track that I’ve done so far.
There are some corners that I just cannot get right, and watching others going through them at twice the speed irritates me.
That said, I do like the non-championship Vee Festival that MSV kindly put on for us, and it’s great to see some random Vee racers entered, and to have the Irish racers come over (even if they are all the quick ones!). It’s also where I’ve scored my best ever 9th place overall result, as well as the next best 10th place.
At least this year was set to stay above freezing, be mostly dry, and so not carry with it the abject fear that I would freeze to death overnight in the camper van, like last year.
Arriving early on Friday, we got to watch a few of the Vee’s testing, and they seemed to all be on it straight away.
Our aim for the weekend was to try and survive in one piece, if possible, so we can concentrate on getting the Ray out on track for next season. We were also testing Tesco Momentum 99 super unleaded for the first time, knowing we were still down on power for reliability.
Qualifying
I tried to look after the car for this one, steadily upping the pace. With 3 races to go, and only the grid for the first one being decided on qualifying times, it was more important to stay safe.
I was settling into a rhythm despite the car feeling very sloppy, when Tim Probert dived into the kitty litter at Paddock, and we had red flags.
This was perfect, as whilst we were sat in the pit lane I asked Glenn to stiffen the dampers 2 clicks front and rear, and then I went out again a second faster straight away. Then I took another half a second off that.
Then the car jumped out of 3rd gear going into Clearways.
I thought I must have messed up the shift, and carried on – but then as I hit the apex curb at Graham Hill it popped out of 3rd gear into neutral again, when my hand hadn’t been anywhere near the gearstick since braking for Druids.
The following lap it jumped out again, and this time I couldn’t select any gears at all. I rolled towards the rear pit entrance and pulled off the track, thinking the worst.
When I was towed back into the paddock, Glenn also thought the worst, especially with the rhythmic clunking as we pushed the car.
I thought it was the end of the weekend, but Ben Miloudi stepped in and offered his spare gearbox – which would at least give us the chance to get out for the 2nd race the following morning. This is very much the spirit of Vee, and it’s rare that you’ll be left to retire if there is anyone else in the paddock who can possibly loan you tools, parts or experience to get you back out there!
With some relief, however, as Glenn began stripping the car down, he found the circlip had jumped off the end of the shaft (don’t ask me what shaft – just the one that sticks out the back!). The problem now became how to get the shaft out far enough to get the circlip back on.
John Bowles advised getting a lever into the gearbox and trying to hoof the shaft back from the inside, which after much heaving, hammering sockets, and head scratching eventually did the trick! Of course we still didn’t know WHY it had happened, or if it would just happen again…
No matter – we had just enough time to get it all back together (I’d have liked to do a few laps of the paddock to test it, but sadly time was that tight!), and we’d be able to take our 12th place on the grid for race 1.
Race 1
Everything felt good on the out-lap, and I was getting all gears well enough to make a go of it.
I made up a couple of places before the first turn, but it wasn’t too long before Jamie Harrison and Gavin Buckley (his first time trying an English Vee) came back past me. Hard as I tried to hang onto them, they carried on easing away, leaving me in a bit of a gap on track.
I took advantage of the track space, concentrating on braking less and throwing the car faster into the corners to try and carry more speed around.
I must have improved quite dramatically at Druids, and was turning in and getting back on the power much earlier at Clearways. Unfortunately, I just could not get a grip on Paddock Hill – braking far too much, too early, and getting the line wrong every time.
Graham Hill I felt like I was doing well, but for some reason was still a lot slower through there than everyone else, whatever I tried!
For all my pushing, the car was still like it was on rails, for the most part – so I clearly wasn’t pushing it hard enough!
I’m definitely getting faster, but until I’m drifting it in on the brakes, drifting through the corner, and having to fight oversteer on the exit in every single corner I know I still have to keep forcing myself to go faster. It’s a mind thing, now, because I’m pretty sure I do have the skills to be able to sort it out if it all goes pear-shaped, so there’s no reason why I can’t be pushing that hard.
Oops – rant over! Back to the race:
I hammered it down the start straight and saw red flags and lights everywhere, so eased off to about 80% as I went over the crest to drop down into Paddock Hill… which is where I suddenly saw cars sideways on the track right in front of me!
Ian Buxton had hit Charles Merrill as he went to lap him, leaving an unlucky Ian Jordan nowhere to go as he ploughed into Charles, ripping both cars apart and ending their weekend, but not injuring either driver.
Buxton wasn’t quite so lucky as he hit the tyre wall backwards hard enough to bend his flywheel – then being lifted off to hospital and cut out of his race suit with suspected back injuries. (Don’t worry – he was ok enough to be seen hobbling around on Sunday morning back at the track to watch the action!)
The race restarted for a 2 lap sprint to the flag before Paul Taylor lost it at Clearways and brought out another red flag and the result was declared.
Final position for The Cater Kid – 10th, alive and unscathed.
Not bad – but the realisation soon set in that Race 2 would be a reverse-top-ten grid. To spell that out – I’d be starting the next race from pole position at Brands Hatch!
Race 2
James Cater, on pole position to start a race at Brands Hatch.
Now that’s one for the scrapbook!
Ok, so it’s not earned by being the fastest – but don’t discount the fact that I was the 10th fastest Formula Vee at Brands Hatch on that day – so that’s still pretty special!
I’d spent the previous evening psyching myself up for the start. I knew that I could push the car more in the corners, and if there was any time to try doing that it had to be when I was starting from the very front!
I was confident that if I got a half-decent start I could lead the pack into the first turn, and then would throw it into Druids faster than ever and just go from there.
Stephen Morrin was on the front row next to me in the 1600cc Irish spec Leastone with smaller wheels, so he’d be into the first corner like a stabbed rat, but I still thought I’d have the edge.
I slept well after a celebratory pint of Guinness in the Kentagon, some fine banter, and a brief stint being dragged up to dance with a lovely marshal (Ginette?).
So I woke up to this:
Thick, freezing fog that was keeping the race track very far from the dry grippy perfection featured in my overnight self-motivation. Basically it was exactly the kind of conditions where I’d normally let someone past me just so I could follow them and let them crash first.
But I was still starting from the same spot that greats like James Hunt, Nikki Lauda etc had started from – and rather than being intimidating, it felt oddly relaxing to roll up to that start line. Like it was my home…
I was determined to get as much heat in my tyres as I could on the green flag lap, so weaved and stamped the throttle all over the place before stopping in front of the lights.
The red lights blinked off and I dropped the clutch – but bogged down as the revs I was holding hadn’t taken the crazy camber of the start line into consideration!
The car picked up again, but that had been enough for Morrin to charge past me into Paddock, and then on the exit Pete Belsey and Ben Miloudi flew out of nowhere around the outside before I got to Druids.
The quicker cars mugged me down to 6th place at the end of the lap, and over the next few laps the rightful order reasserted itself, and I found myself back in a lonely 10th – unable to hang with those in front, but well clear of those behind.
In fact, I’d been dragged around at a pace another second a lap faster, and so actually lapped those behind me!
The race was clean for the full distance, and I brought it home 10th – having used my time to control my breathing, concentrate on not gripping the steering wheel, and pushing for faster lines and corner speed.
Race 3 – The Final
Back down the grid to start from my last finishing position in the final, I gave a wave to my dance partner as she ran down the grid, and was prepared for another lonely race, unless I could get my claws into Jamie and Gavin who were lapping about a second faster.
With another fairly decent start I was surprised to see the blue Hawk (called Harry!) driven by John Bowles all over the back of me.
This spurred me on, as there was no way I was going to let anyone else get away from me, and I turned in some decent laps (there goes another half a second!) until I dropped him.
Luckily, I then carried on pushing hard, as I saw a red car on the grass at Graham Hill, and quickly took advantage by speeding past the recovering Gavin Buckley.
As he got back up to speed and caught me, the leaders caught us both, and we had to lift to let them through, but I stayed ahead of Gavin as he tried to dive up the inside into Clearways.
Already lining up a defensive line into Paddock, as we blasted down the start straight I saw the chequered flag being waved!
I’d stolen it just in time, as I’m sure I’d have struggled to keep him behind me for another lap!
And that resulted in a best ever overall result of 8th place!
Even better, although totally unofficial, it also made me the first B class car home, and so if the MSV Festival acknowledged the classes, I’d have also won the B class!
So all in all, it was a pretty good weekend, and very productive. Congratulations to everyone there – especially to the winner John Hughes. He drove so well all weekend there was never really a doubt he’d come out on top – even with his lack of time in a Vee this season! Results are all on the MSVR website.
Do I like Brands Hatch, now? Maybe a little more…
Next year is the 50th anniversary of Formula Vee racing in the UK, and there is talk of us using the full and very rare Brands Hatch GP circuit. Combine that with the potential to see 50+ Formula Vee’s entered, some big names on the grid (Ian Flux? Tiff Needell? Ash Sutton and Michael Epps from BTCC?) and a lot of media coverage, and we could be in for something epic!
Imagine if I can get it on pole for that, one way or another?
Despite being so far away, the drive to Anglesey circuit is pretty special in itself. The A55 ‘coastal road’ takes in the beaches, but the A5 winds its way through the breathtaking beauty of Snowdonia National Park.
If you still have anything left in you, you arrive at Anglesey circuit, where we were on the Coastal Circuit featuring ‘The Corkscrew’ – the Welsh equivalent of its namesake at Laguna Seca.
A few drivers had been testing on the Friday, but due to time and budget, we were going to learn the track in Qualifying on Saturday morning and aim low for our first races outside England.
Glenn had done some extensive work on overall car set-up, improved 2nd gear selection, and in theory I’d have the Sheane at the best it had ever been.
Qualifying
Catching the weather out for once, the pack of Formula Vee’s rolled out onto an unscheduled dry circuit. I got my mandatory 3 laps in to qualify for the race, on what was a surprisingly slippery track, and then tried to tag onto the back of more experienced drivers.
I’d walked the track in advance, and was amazed at how much banking was in turn 2, and thought I’d fly around the first half of the lap taking full advantage. As it turned out, I was pretty useless in most corners, but did seem to be able to nail the right-hander coming onto the long back straight and make up time.
Second gear was much easier to get, but still not perfect, so was still fighting me around the tighter corners, and then it was amazingly difficult to get the line right from there, through The Corkscrew, and around the rest of the lap.
I’d said I was aiming for the top 20, and would be starting from 18th and 17th on the grid for the races. Knowing I could pull back seconds in certain corners, and the car was also very skittish, I was pretty happy with this. I believe it also made me the fastest of those who’d never turned a wheel on the circuit before!
Race 1
In contrast, the rain had come well before the first race, leaving the track very wet but drying rapidly as the sun scorched its way over the surrounding sea.
I got an average start, but played it safe around the first few corners, staying on the back of a huge pack of cars down the long back straight.
As we all came to the very hard braking zone, Alex Jones dived up the inside of the pack on the wet line, unsurprisingly losing it on the brakes and spearing into Martin Snarey.
As the entire second half of the grid bore down on them, the pinball effect took out Sam Engineer in his new car, and everyone took avoiding action to try and get around the spinning cars blocking the whole track.
I had my own problems, however, as by this time I was at maximum braking heading towards Alex, and as I turned the wheel that tiny bit more the traction broke completely! I prepared for the collision, but somehow slithered out of harms way.
Caught out a little by still being alive, I was in 3rd gear for the tight right hander, and despite a valiant attempt to powerslide around when the rear broke loose, I spun slowly off the track.
Luckily for me (not so much for Martin and Sam) the race was red-flagged, and I was able to retake my original grid position for the restart.
After another average start I latched onto Craig Bell and Colin Gregory, but after a few laps they edged away leaving me in a familiar scrap with David Leniewski, John Hartin and Neil Aldridge. I came onto the pit straight to find Colin facing me in the middle of the track, and as I dived to the left for yet another close call, David went right and John also snuck through on the fast line for the first turn.
I used my favourite corner well again, taking the fast right-hander onto the back straight as fast as I dared, and got passed them both again on the drag up the hill.
I pulled a small gap and held that, but couldn’t catch Craig, eventually coming home 4th in class – just missing a podium again – and 12th place overall.
Adam Macaulay did the inevitable to get his first win in the UK championship, with Paul Smith following him home in 2nd after being unable to make it 9 wins from 9 races this year. Ian Jordan took 3rd place – wait… 3 Sheane’s on the podium? Who needs those £30,000 brand new cars, eh? Garry Newsome, another legendary driver from the Irish championship in a guest appearance won the B class – of course in ANOTHER Sheane (run by Peter Studer)!
Race 2
I knew I could gain huge chunks of time around the track – especially into the banked turn 2 by braking much later into it. As the car had also been a bit loose I added another click to stiffen the rear shocks. Hopefully this would keep the car stable mid-corner and on the exit…
Martin Snarey had repaired his car with the help of the great Formula Vee crews in the paddock, although I thought he may suffer from The Fear a little bit after his accident. Fantastically, this wasn’t the case, and set up a great battle!
Even better was the scorching sun and clear blue skies, and a bone dry and grippy track.
Another mediocre start saw Craig Bell flying around me as I got stuck into him and Colin Gregory once more. I cut back off the banking at turn 2 and powered passed Colin and held it alongside Craig down the straight, with Colin all over the back of me as we all caught Martin Snarey.
Craig blasted passed Martin in the 2nd gear right hander, and then Colin came passed me and Martin through the Corkscrew.
Smelling blood I also took advantage of Martin’s lapse and went around the outside through turn 1, closing back up to Colin as we slung it around the banking.
We came up to ‘my’ corner again, and I pinned it, showing the penalty we’d got at Mallory for illegal restrictors meant nothing as I rocketed out of his slipstream and pulled out 6 or 7 car lengths by the time we hit the brakes! My Sheane was running good!
Unfortunately I then ran a bit wide, letting Colin right back up to me but then Tim Probert, charging through after starting from the pits, gave me a bit of reprieve as I watched them scrapping it out behind me for a few laps.
With little point holding Tim up, I left the door open into the banked turn, but then I cut back as he slid out wide, holding onto him down the back straight but ultimately finding the limits of the Sheane’s power against one of the fastest cars on the grid. He disappeared into the distance and that was the last I saw of Mr Probert!
Colin was also back with me, and also passed me easily when I missed 2nd gear, and followed Tim off up the track, and I had no answer for him.
Martin Snarey was now also tapping his nosecone on the back of my head, but thanks to some great advice between the races from James Harridge, I managed to get enough of an advantage through the corners I was good at, that Martin couldn’t quite find an opportunity in my less-good turns.
I gave the car every ounce of my skills for the rest of the race, at last meeting my objective of pushing the car hard into every single corner. There was still, no doubt, more to be had, but I’d got the car on opposite lock, powerdrifting with total confidence, catching the spin into a few corners as I pressed on.
It was easily the best I’ve ever driven in terms of how in control of the car I was. Maybe I’ve finally clicked and got that kind of oneness with the car I get on my motorcycles?
With my muscles screaming at me I wrestled the car around with the white Sheane filling my mirrors, and didn’t even see the chequered flag – only realising it was all over by how fast I’d caught Colin into the next turn.
I’d thoroughly enjoyed it all and had no idea where I’d finished – all I knew is that I felt like a Racing Driver!
Paul Smith got his 52nd all-time win, with Adam Macaulay picking up an excellent 2nd place after James Harridge was given a time penalty for exceeding track limits. Dave Hughes brought it home 3rd for Bears, with Harridge classified 4th overall but again leading home the B class to regain his championship lead.
I also have to thank the Vee Centre for holding the annual BBQ on Saturday night – an amazing way to get to chat to all the other drivers and crews with a beer and burger. I found it a massive help socially last year, and again got nattering to a few I hadn’t had the chance to before.
Oh, and I came home 6th in class and 16th overall. Proof that sometimes your position doesn’t really matter all that much.
I just can’t wait to get out there again so that I can refine what I’ve finally found, and start chipping away at that time gap to the leaders…
After the interesting heart rate readings from Brands Hatch, I once again wore my Fitbit for the races at Croft.
Qualifying was my first ever lap of Croft, and with the rain absolutely clowning it down, you might expect me to be a bit excited about it all.
Unfortunately, this was before I started to enjoy the rain, and so I just trundled around without even trying to kill myself – and this seems to be reflected in my heart rate:
So, much like I thought of my own performance in that session, it’s a bit ‘meh’.
But then things dried out for the afternoon, and for my first ever dry lap of Croft I’d have to be at full racing speed with no idea what the car would do in the extremely fast corners.
As you might imagine, this one told a different story:
So we have a new record at 172 bpm peak!
A lot of the back of the circuit is foot to the floor, and then just turn the sucker in and hop you’re on the right line. I like this sort of thing, but it’s unsurprising that it would get the old ticker beating a bit faster. There was also frustration at not getting 2nd gear, and Darren Lomas filling my mirrors waiting to pounce on any mistake.
And, of course the huge moment when my Z-bar broke and I put 2 wheels off and had it all got a little bit skew-whiff…
Race 2 saw the return of rain with a vengeance. I’d sworn to push, whatever the conditions, and couldn’t actually see much of the track, corners, or other cars because of the spray.
And I was taking those same flat-out sections as fast as I dared in those horrendous conditions.
So you’d expect, if my heart didn’t stop completely because of me being dead, or something, that my heart rate would be through the roof, right?
What the…?
OK, so this is the same pattern as Brands Hatch, but this time the high heart rate seems more linked to high speed than being inches and split seconds from disaster.
In that second race I was enjoying myself and having fun, but I’m pretty sure I remember having a bit of a whoop inside my helmet in the dry race, too.
Is it that I’m more used to the track and so much more relaxed for that second race? Because the pressure is off to get the car back safely for another race?
At Mallory Park the qualifying session and both races are all on the same day – so will this same pattern repeat, or will the hear rate get higher and higher like it has done on the first day of a race weekend?
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!
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!
A year on from the disappointment of paying over £100 per corner to test, only to get 3 corners in before the engine seized, and it was all over.
Of course, I’ve managed 2 race weekends since then – and finished 4 races, so this time coming back to Donington was greatly different.
Qualifying
Leaving the holding area, I gave it a big hoof of throttle and did a big rolling burnout up the track which was completely planned and intentional and in no way an accident. Ahem. We were the first session out for the day, and it was a bit slippery, then!
Perhaps understandably, I was a bit tentative going through Old Hairpin, but as soon as I got through that, I started building my pace up.
I’d been watching a lot of YouTube videos to prepare. Not just the top racers videos, either – I’d also made sure that I watched the onboard footage from the slower cars, to try to understand what they were doing differently, and what my margin would be.
One thing I did notice was that almost everyone was changing down to 2nd gear for both hairpins – something that is still a problem, and I’m not sure if it’s me or the car that won’t allow it! I opted to stay in 3rd gear as long as I wasn’t losing too much time…
I had done a trackday here on a 600cc Kawasaki ZX6R years ago, so knew the layout of the track quite well from that. Both of these things helped me!
I latched onto the back of Tim Probert and Pete Belsey as they came past just at the right time, as I’d found some confidence.
Coming into Redgate, I made a slight mistake that I think resulted in a bit of a block pass on Patrick Leidke, who I’d just watched get very sideways around Goddards, and with a wave of apology put in a fast lap.
It was all to no avail, as I got back around to Goddards myself to push a little too hard and do exactly the same thing myself, spinning off backwards onto the grass.
As I readied myself to get back on the black stuff, Paul Smith came around, and I could see the chequered flag being unfolded ahead, ending the session and meaning I lost out on not only my fastest lap, but one more lap to improve further!
This left me qualifying 15th for race 1, and 19th for race 2 – but I knew I was a fair bit faster than all the cars around me on the grid!
Race 1
I was confident that if I could get past a handful of cars ahead without incident, I could drop back into my own pace and pull away. It’s easy to hit the back of a group and then settle in to their pace.
I wasn’t as aggressive as I should have been, allowing a few people to come past me in the first few corners, but by the back straight I was catching Alex Jones, and knew one of my strongest zones was the entrance to Foggies chicane.
I passed Alex just before the braking zone, but he was braking very late to try and defend his outside line. I turned in, but getting twitchy on cold tyres meant I’d made a rookie error and hadn’t dropped to 3rd gear. As I straightlined the chicane, clipping a cone, Ed Lowndes flashed between me and Alex and into the gravel, and my mirrors filled with carnage as cars spun.
I overcooked it into the Melbourne hairpin, went wide, and spun, rejoining right at the back of anyone left running.
Then the red flags came out as Patrick Leidke was beached in the gravel!
As I came back around prepared to start at the back, I was chuffed to bits as the marshals waved me back into my original place on the grid for a total restart. Let’s try that again…
I made another good start, passing a slow moving Jesse Chamberlain on the grass, and did exactly the same move into Foggies on Jamie Harrison – only this time I remembered to change gear!
I worked my way up to Steve Bailey, catching him down the pit straight quickly, but didn’t think I was close enough to dive up the inside.
I broke a few feet early and committed to running deep and turning late for a cut-back pass, but he ran very deep and stayed on the brakes without turning in. I locked up my front right wheel and then it slid into Steve’s rear left, launching me a few feet up in the air. I felt instant pain as the steering wheel wrenched my wrists around, and a blinding snap in my left shoulder.
I smashed back into the tarmac, damaging my front left wheel and smashing my left elbow into the chassis, as my head, neck and back also took some punishment. Perhaps more seriously, the car veered to the left as something Not Very Good had happened to the suspension/steering.
I crawled around the rest of the lap carefully, expecting something to break or at least the tyre to go down, but as I reached the pits only a few cars had come past me. I decided to stay out and try and pick up some points.
Every time I was on full lock out of Melbourne I could feel my left wrist grinding and cracking, but it wasn’t so bad on the rest of the lap.
Alex Jones came past me as I tip-toed down Craner Curves, and I could see a pack of cars behind me with Bill Stenning. Could I at least stay ahead of them?
Yes, as it turns out! I almost caught Alex again through my strongest section (McLeans to Melbourne) and then saw yellows on the exit where Tony Mitchell and Ed Lowndes had come together.
I limped it back in 18th place.
Race 2
We found a bent steering linkage was the worst of our problems, borrowing one from (I think) Sam Engineer, and Glenn set about trying to reduce the positive camber we now had on our front left wheel!
Starting from 19th in this one, I was careful through the first few corners as we had no idea how the Sheane would handle, but it was soon clear that I’d be able to manage the handling problems and do what I could.
I started charging through the field with a pass between Tim Probert and Martin Snarey into Redgate, then battling with Tony Mitchell before eventually shaking him off to attack Mike Oldknow and Jamie Harrison.
After nipping by Jamie into Melbourne, I nearly followed Mike straight on at Goddards, but just made it around to stay ahead.
Edging away from them, I saw the last lap board and gave Glenn a thumbs up, knowing nobody was going to catch me, but also seeing I’d need a few more laps to get on the next car that was in the distance.
Throwing it into McLeans I suddenly had no power.
My instant fear was that I’d blown the engine, but quickly realised, as a few cars streamed past me, that I was out of fuel.
I faltered through the Foggies chicane – two corners to go – before the engine died, and I had to pull onto the grass.
My first ever DNF. My second time being towed back to the pits at Donington.
Perhaps surprisingly, I’m not mad about the fuel cock-up. Sure, another £1 would have probably got me to the flag, but I showed that even with a damaged car (and wrist!) I could be fast. Jamie Harrison was 2nd in the B class championship, and is certainly no slouch, and this was the first time I’ve been faster than him!
I know I still have a lot to learn, and the car is much faster than I am. The positive to take away from an unlucky weekend is that I’m confident I can improve to be close to the lap times of B class Champion Jack Wilkinson, and that means I should be aiming at the top 3 of the B class for next year!
As long as I can keep all four wheels on the ground…
Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – Preparation and not wanting to be there
My second ever race weekend, with the goal of finishing all the sessions intact and getting signatures for my licence upgrade.
We chose not to test the day before, and set off at 5am for the long drive to Snetterton in horrible weather conditions.
At the circuit I had a quick chat to the other drivers, then signed on attended the New Drivers Briefing.
When getting the car scrutineered, I forgot to bring my signing on sheet, then forgot my gloves and balaclava, then had to trek back across the paddock yet again to fetch my camera mounting, before getting a mild bollocking about my tinted visor.
We were called to the assembly area quicker than I expected, so I donned all my kit and then found the car was totally dead!
Glenn shorted across the starter motor with a screwdriver, and luckily it fired up, so I shot through the paddock, not knowing where the Hell I was going, before eventually catching up with everyone after asking for directions (thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Steve Ough!)!
I sat in the holding area with all the other cars, staring out across a very wet track, and was fully aware that I did not want to be there at all. I don’t really know what it was, but I wasn’t happy with anything.
I’d struggled to find any videos showing the 300 layout, and only done that last minute, so didn’t really know where the track went. I worried I’d be far too slow, or just spin off everywhere, and miserably decided to trundle around and try to qualify for the (forecast) dry races.
I had a feeling I wouldn’t even get the car back safely…
I took one last deep breath and tried to force myself to focus, and then followed the pack onto the puddle-filled tarmac for my first ever lap of Snetterton, and my first time ever on a wet track with all the other Vees…
I still went to watch the other Formula Vee’s at Donington, and I’m glad I did!
On Saturday the heavens opened and the track looked probably the worst I’ve ever seen it. This justified our decision not to race – with no feel for the car in the dry, let alone the wet, I doubt I’d have even made it to the first corner!
James Harridge, in his first season racing his home-built Maverick took a very emotional second place from qualifying. Everyone watching him power through Redgate on the throttle (the ONLY one who did this!) was a thing of beauty, and I don’t think anyone thought he’d got anything else but pole! Craig Pollard just took it, however.
I mention this here, because in all the write-ups I’ve seen so far not one mentions James’ stunning performance, and that is maddeningly unfair!
His team has battled all year with parts failing and their engine being massively under-powered. This was also literally his first time driving at Donington – no testing or anything – so his second fastest time out of all the Vee’s was set within his first 10 laps of the track EVER!
Come on! Give the man some recognition! A definite future star once they find a bit more power…
Pete Belsey also took his first ever championship race win, after some very close (as ever) racing, and Tim Probert led for the first time. Martin Farmer took the win in race 2, and if you haven’t got yourself on YouTube yet to view both races, you need to!
*Further edit: As it turns out, that was also Craig Pollards first ever pole, so a massive well done to him, to! It’s always been said that the true talent will surface when the field is equalised by rain.
Anyway, back to my own campaign…
We still don’t know what happened to the Sheane, as Glenn hasn’t had a chance to get the engine apart, yet. He’s pretty sure that the cause is going to be the float on the crank shaft. With any luck, there won’t be too much damage, and we’re already planning next season.
750 Motor Club run an early day around February for general testing and new drivers to take their ARDS test. It will be quite a fitting return for me, because it’s at Donington again.
Glenn has told me to just put the spin out of my mind and go at it from fresh. There are too many variables at work for me to have really learned much, and the tyres were old and dirty etc. I do now know that there isn’t as much grip as I was expecting, so will take it even easier and try to get a few more corners in, on my return.
A few drivers also suggested that being in 4th gear won’t have helped things, either.
Spinning a single seater is also a bit weird.
Because you’re strapped in so tightly you don’t get flung around much. I can clearly remember during the spin I was just waiting to catch the car so I could point it the right way, and didn’t move in the seat at all, until at one point my head went *dink* against one side of the roll cage.
It was only gentle, but I’m thinking of putting some padding there for extra safety.
I also have a new camera mount to try out, hopefully raising the view so it clears my helmet and shows a bit more inside the cockpit.
We have a load of things still to do to the Sheane, like moving the position of the extinguisher on to the floor of the car under my legs, improving the engine mountings, and a million other minor preparation jobs.
For 2015 we should be able to do the whole season.
It seems like a long way off, sat here dreaming about jumping in the car again (and every second thought I now have is about racing!), but I’m sure it’ll all come around quickly again.
This time we should be much better prepared, and ready to compete!
We’ve had a few setbacks to our very tight, last minute testing plans.
The car wasn’t ready for Mallory Park on Wednesday. No problem – Llandow is cheap and are bound to be quiet on Saturday, right?
Wrong. They’re fully booked!
I did some desperation research to see if we could get testing anywhere else…
Bruntingthorpe was our original plan, but it seems they will only let you test there if you have full public liability insurance in place. You try finding that for one day, for something that isn’t a road car! It isn’t happening…
There are lots of small tracks around England – mainly airfield type ones. Unfortunately, I suspect the story with them is much the same. I think they’re all more geared up for the ‘Driving Experience’ days and corporate events that they run.
Track days are plentiful all over the UK, but what you might not know is they don’t let ‘open wheel’ cars mix it with their average customers.
Even Mallory Park’s infamous Wednesday test days run separate sessions for open and closed wheels.
I believe this was originally because of the risk of a closed wheel car riding up over a wheel and getting airborne. That kind-of makes sense, until you have a think about open wheel cars on the track together, anyway. Or things like Caterhams, Locosts and Ariel Atoms, which are all allowed out with closed wheel cars!
Either way it’s not going to help, though – the fact is we can’t test before Donington Park on 4th October.
Apart from the official test day on the Thursday before, right?
Umm… yeah… except I waited until I was back off holiday, and was horrified to be told it’s fully booked!
I managed to wrangle the morning, so at least that’s something. It’s also an open pit lane (you basically go out on track when you want and do as many laps as you want), so potentially we have up to 3 and a half hours of track time available.
Then I ‘just’ have to turn up on race day and qualify…
Obviously a higher power thought I needed a bit more of a challenge!
It seems that my last post here about getting ‘race fit’ attracted a fair bit of attention.
I feel a bit bad about this, as I glossed over the specifics of what I’m doing, so anyone reading that blog won’t actually get anything of much use from it!
I did mention that running is my primary exercise. Ask any boxer what the best training is for fitness, and they’ll tell you it’s all about road work.
It’s the fastest way to lose weight, tone up, and massively improve your aerobic fitness.
I run on the treadmill, as I don’t want to terrify old Grannies on the streets as I lollop past in a wheezing splutter of sweat and stitches – or spew my guts up as I fall past the 1 mile mark in public before collapsing in a charity shop doorway.
Set a target that’s realistic to YOU! Ignore what anyone else is doing – if you want to walk for 5 mins then jog in 2 min blasts, then you do that! Likewise if your aim is to burn 200 calories, do 2km, or to just spend 20 mins on the treadmill. Just remember that you do need to keep pushing yourself further and faster to get the best results.
Breathing is often the first thing people neglect. However fit you are, however strong your muscles, if you’re not BREATHING you’re going to fade fast inside the car.
Most people will hold their breath in a stressful situation, so this is something very important to racing. I might stencil ‘REMEMBER TO BREATH!’ in the cockpit somewhere!
I basically use all the gym equipment after I’ve had my run – the bike, cross trainer (again awesome for your aerobic fitness), rower, then do 2 or 3 sets on the weights machines.
Putting on muscle will increase your weight. It will also protect you when you’re tumbling end-over-end smashing into the chassis, so don’t look at it as a totally bad thing to build!
Strengthening the core body muscles is a good idea. I’m doing squats, abdominal crunches, and neck exercises outside the gym.
My neck gets a lot of stick from riding a sports bike, so isn’t too bad for strength. When I used to play American Football I used to do the ‘wrestlers bridge’. You need to be very careful building up your neck muscles, and be warned now that this one is pretty extreme, and won’t work for all of you!
Basically, you lay on your back with legs bent. Keeping the back of your head on the floor, push the rest of your body upwards so your back arches, and then roll from back to front of your head.
Isometric exercises seem to fit well with motor racing. Because you’re working one muscle against another, this will strengthen your muscles for efficiency, rather than just for show. Personally, I also do stretches for flexibility – I’m not sure of the outright value of this for racing cars, but the more range of motion your muscles have, the less likely they are to pull or tear.
I need to pick up my free weights at home (not in the gym, staring at myself in the mirror, because I find that weird!) as I’ve noticed my arms have wasted a bit, and arm strength will be essential to wrestle the car around.
I’m no expert on all this, and even if you think my somewhat half-assed approach to a routine is too much for you, DO SOMETHING!
I’m planning on introducing short sessions to my routine by setting alarms on my phone, and doing a few crunches, squats, push-ups etc. If you do just 10 push-ups a week then you’re 10 push-ups ahead of someone who doesn’t!
You need to motivate yourself to get started – then the rest will come.
And what better motivation than living every child’s dream to be a racing driver!
