29/30 July – Cadwell Park (non-championship 50th Anniversary Festival)
19/20 August – Silverstone International
9 September – Rockingham ISSL
30 Sept – 1 Oct – Donington GP
And so the 2017 season is fast approaching!
With the legendary Paul Smith leaving Vee in favour of the RGB championship, the battle for the top spot is the most open it’s been for a fair few years.
Martin Farmer is always a threat if he’s able to commit to a full season. Or sticking with Bears, Paul Taylor and Dave Hughes could finally make the impression they’ve been pushing towards for the last few seasons. Graham Gant is always a serious contender in his Worms Eye View car – with the ever-charging James Harridge improving his own home built Maverick and as hungry as ever.
Whenever John Hughes and Pete Belsey put in an appearance they’re straight on the pace, but then Steve Ough is making his return to Vee after picking up a few wins in the Crossle Sportscar in his time away. Ian Jordan must get some luck from his Superman t-shirt soon! Then there are Ben Miloudi, Tim Probert, Craig Pollard, Jack Wilkinson and Maurice Gloster always pushing up to the pointy end – if they can keep some more consistancy they could be in there, too.
Or will Adam Macaulay – the only other person to beat Smith last year – take the British title to add to his Irish success? He’d have to scrape in as favourite for this year.
We may not see Ian Buxton for a while, as his crash at Brands Hatch at the end of last year leaves him still recovering from a broken back, but hopefully he’ll be back on track soon. I think Harry Webb could have been up there if he tried a second season in Vee, but he’s pushing for bigger and better things, and I hope that comes together for him.
Or there are the real outsiders, either brand new to Vee this year, or those like myself – still learning and getting faster all the time, just waiting for everything to click into place. And we’re the underdogs, so everyone wants us to win!
Whatever happens, we’re sure to see a lot of great racing all through the pack – and that’s what always makes Formula Vee such a favourite with spectators and drivers!
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?
We had a new engine sat on the bench for next year, so with the disaster at Silverstone it was easier to salvage all the internals from the wrecked engine and get next years engine in the Sheane early.
Glenn did all the work in time for us to have a non-running car on display for the SPEAR (Sue Pike Equine Animal Rescue) charity open day. I’m not sure rescued animals would have fully appreciated a running engine, anyway, but the day went well with dog and horse shows and lots raised for the great cause.
However, when small children are jumping in and out of your racing car all day long, they apparently want to flick every switch in sight, and be warned if you have a brake bias adjuster in your cockpit at such events… I’ll come back to that point later…
A lot of other drivers either tested the day before the race at Snetterton, or took advantage of a 30 minute session at the start of the day on Saturday – unfortunately our preparation meant we could only be loaded up and on our way (very) early on Saturday, and so couldn’t test the new engine.
Qualifying
Knowing so many others were already warmed up and dialled in to the circuit, I opted to try and tag onto one of my usual sparring partners whilst using the bits of track information I’d gained from playing Project Cars, watching YouTube videos, and reading track guides.
The sun was shining and the track grippy and warming up as we headed out.
It’s surprising how well you remember a track you haven’t been on for a year, and it doesn’t take long to drop into the groove – however, you have to make sure you get 3 laps in to be able to qualify for the race, and with such a long lap this is half the session!
To make things worse, just as I was on my second lap and starting to push now the tyres were getting warm, the red flags came out to stop the session.
I didn’t see any of it, but Neil Aldridge had put a wheel on the grass on the exit of a corner, getting it sideways, and Bill Stanier had nowhere to go as he came off the corner behind. It looked like a pretty hard contact with both cars badly damaged and out for the day, but both drivers were unhurt.
The clean-up meant we sat in the pit lane for 20 minutes before we were finally let out again – but as this was only for another 2 laps I’d barely got up to speed again before the session ended. This wasn’t too terrible timing for me, as when I came into the pits for the red flag the car was stuck at 2,000rpm. Glenn checked it over and worked his magic with the spanners, and I still managed to get out on track with everyone else.
I tagged onto David Leniewski, sneaking past him but not able to shake him, and held him up twice at the hairpin as I struggled to find 2nd gear again (it was fine before!).
I was trying to get a bit of a move on, throwing the car into a few corners, but for some reason it didn’t feel like I was going very quickly.
After my 11th place overall finish last year, I was a bit disappointed to qualify 22nd and 21st for the races, but given the circumstances and lack of track time figured it wasn’t too bad.
The engine was making a few funny noises but the throttle problem wasn’t anything major. All my suspension settings seemed ok with the time I’d had, so I left it all the same, thinking any improvement would be more likely to come from me for the race.
Perhaps more seriously, I had Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” stuck in my brain, and was sure there’d be 3 seconds a lap improvement if I could just get the damned tune out of my head!
Race 1
They lined us all up on the grid extremely closely, so I knew straight away it would be tough to find any sort of gap even if I got a good start.
The lights went out, and I blasted away with another great start, but then had nowhere to go. Finding some space around the outside, I made up 5 or 6 spaces on my second attempt, but then got hung out around the outside of the first turn as most of them got back up my inside.
Sam Engineer must have got an absolute flyer as he passed me into the hairpin – but now Dolly Parton had gone, and I got my head back in the game.
I passed Sam on the brakes into Agostini, locking the front wheels up all over the place as I pushed harder than I had been all day, and I remembered the brake bias adjuster, and all those inquisitive hands twisting it as they sat in the car. I made a mental note to tip the balance back towards the rear as soon as I got chance.
Jamie Harrison also had a bit of a lock-up in front of me, with Andrew Cooper sandwiched between all the tyre smoke somehow keeping out of trouble.
I tucked into Cooper’s slipstream down the straight, slipping through on the brakes into Brundle, chasing down Harrison to go down his inside into the hairpin. It seemed I had found the sweet spot with my brake balance again!
I also decided to take the hairpin in 3rd gear, rather than trying to find 2nd, as I couldn’t see a massive difference between the two.
I tried to tuck in behind a James Harridge as he worked his way back up the grid after a spin, which lasted all of 20 seconds – but did pull me onto the back of Darren Lomas.
Making use of a good exit onto the finish straight, I held onto his tow to get around the outside before we got to the first turn, and then tried to hang onto the rapidly disappearing Harridge hoping the horde of cars behind would trip each other up.
Alex Jones must have also gone off somewhere, as he passed me into the chicane, and I could see Lomas, Cooper and Harrison all very clearly in my mirrors again.
To my surprise, I was also catching European karting champion Harry Webb – who must have been suffering some problems – as Harrison overtook Lomas in my mirrors and piled on the pressure.
As I powered out of the hairpin I saw a thick line of oil (Alex Jones had hit Craig Bell, damaging his oil cooler) on the racing line all through Palmer corner.
It was one of those spills that was impossible to avoid, as at some point in the corner you had to either brake or turn on the oil. All you can do is adjust your line to minimise this, and hold on for the ride!
I got through alright with Harrison still on my tail, but could see that Lomas had dropped right back.
With the hard-braking into the next corner at Agostini, I had to make the choice to either slow down and risk Harrison overtaking me, or go for it and risk being the first one to spin off into the wall.
Being a bit of an idiot, I quite enjoy sliding around on oil, and managed to keep the nose at the right end of the car. As I slithered over the exit curb I saw a flash of blue and yellow as Harrison went off backwards – not hitting anything, but being unable to restart and so ending our battle.
Going into Hamilton – a small lift or even flat out but only one line through – was always going to be an interesting experience, but I somehow held that one, too, after several stages of lurid slide!
I could see Bell pulling onto the grass after the next corner, so was pretty sure that was the end of the oil, and got the hammer down, braking a little earlier and shifting a few rpm sooner knowing I now had a considerable gap over Lomas, with nobody within my sights ahead. There’s no point crashing out of a sure thing, but you also don’t want to lose your rhythm and slow too much or make a mistake.
The last lap board came out and I knew I just had to manage that gap and keep it safe on the oily bits, still getting it pretty sideways but virtually crawling around Hamilton successfully back onto grippy tarmac.
Driving out of the last corner towards the finish line I realised I must be well up the pointy end of the B Class, and began to suspect I was in the top 3!
A quick count of the cars in the holding area confirmed the B class was won by Jack Wilkinson with James Harridge 2nd – and some newbie called James Cater had finally fought his way to a trophy!
Race 2
Phew – that was long, wasn’t it? Fortunately (for you, the reader – not me) this one will be a lot shorter.
I made up a couple of places off the line but got blocked again and had to lift right off.
Within a few corners I’d edged past David Leniewski and caught the tail of Darren Lomas and Mark Egan, so all was set to resume the scrap with the big group before the oil in the first race.
On the second lap Jamie Harrison (after a terrible start) passed me down the back straight, followed a few corners later by Andrew Cooper.
I was driving much harder through the corners – for example, where I was dabbing the brakes hard into the first turn in the first race, in this one I was just giving a small lift… and yet I just couldn’t hang with anyone!
I managed to retake Cooper and stay ahead for a lap until he re-passed me and pulled out a little, and then he managed to hold that gap until the finish. I was clearly missing something, and think we’d lost some engine power.
Alex Jones somehow came from behind me once again (I don’t know how he keeps getting behind me like that!), but other than that my mirrors were empty.
I brought it home a fairly lonely 18th (perhaps appropriately for the final race of the season?) and 5th in Class B, but did enjoy the drive!
After the flag a mixture of lack of concentration and “I wonder if I can take the corner like THIS” into the first turn meant I clipped a high part of the curb and ended up all kinds of out of shape on the grass on the exit. My main thought was that if I spun after the flag I might get into Trouble with the Clerk of Course, so that motivated me to save it somehow as I bounced wildly over the mud!
But nobody saw that bit, right?
I think hitting that curb bent something, as the car was pulling left as I came in – oops!
Up front was titanic as ever, with Paul Smith winning a controvercial photo finish over Dave Hughes, and Adam Macaulay a tenth of a second back from them!
So I have my first B Class podium after so many 4th places, and I’m chuffed to bits!
No doubt I’ll do a year review – but for now I’ll be looking forward to getting back on track for the Vee Festival at Brands Hatch on the last weekend of October. It’s cracking value for track time, and I hope a lot of UK cars turn out for it, because I know the Irish will come over in force again!
After a major gearbox rebuild, we arrived at a very cold and damp Silverstone on Saturday morning, knowing we’d have to test the gears in qualifying.
Things were a bit hectic as we got scrutineered and sorted ourselves out ready to make the first session of the day. A lot of the others had been testing the day before or at least arrived the night before.
Not realising quite how wet it was on the track, I kept my dry suspension settings we’d last used at Anglesey, but raised the tyre pressures a few psi. With the gearbox to test out and both races within a few hours of each other, it was never the intention to set the world on fire in qualifying – just to get us in the races safely.
Qualifying
I was one of the first cars out onto the track, and immediately realised it was extremely slippery, and we should have softened everything on the car right up and gone far higher on tyre pressures! This was also my first time ever on this track in anything but bone dry conditions.
On almost every corner I was locking wheels on the brakes, the back end stepped out mid-corner, and then again when I tried to get on the power.
I counted off the three laps I’d need to qualify, and then tried to get the hammer down.
That lasted a until I got to the second corner, failing to catch a filthy great slide through Farm, but doing an excellent j-turn across the mud and gravel to get pointing the right way before rejoining the track.
A lap or so later I lost it again through another of the fastest corners, doing pretty much a mirror image of the previous spin and j-turn at Stowe.
I was having fun controlling the car out there, but this time – unlike at Croft – I wasn’t very fast to go along with it – only managing 23 and 22 place on the grids for the two races. I’d have preferred to be in the top 20, but with the 38 car entry and with a car that was a right handful, I guess it wasn’t bad!
Even better was that the gearbox now felt perfect, and we wouldn’t have to fine-tune anything!
Race 1
Moving out of the holding area, we were then held in our grid positions for a long time before being allowed out of track.
Being aircooled, Formula Vee engines do not like this sort of treatment. I have wondered a few times this year if the organisers are aware of aircooled engines and how fast they will cook themselves if left sitting there revving away… Switching off isn’t a great option, either, as we run a total loss system, meaning everything is powered off the tiny battery, and once that runs out we’re going nowhere. It doesn’t take many starts to zap all the juice – and so we’re using starter packs before we go out for a good reason!
Eventually, they let us loose, and I set about warming my tyres and feeling how much grip the now almost-dry track had to offer.
On the grid I held the revs, then after only a slight hesitation as the starter lights went out, I dropped the clutch and powered away.
It was an absolute beast of a start, and I felt the rear tyres right at the edge of traction as I shifted up to second gear, lifting off the power as I found space to get around a stalled car, then up to third gear as we came to the first corner.
I’d already passed around 8 cars as I dived to the inside where nobody else seemed to want to be, trying to stay with the pack, but losing a couple of places to the more powerful cars down the Hanger Straight as I was bulked at Village and hadn’t got back up to speed.
Coming back passed the start line, I was alongside another car and decided to try and go up the inside into Vale with barely a lift off the throttle.
It proved too much for the slightly damp track and cool tyres, and I wasn’t able to catch the spin, slewing sideways across the track at an obscene speed as I looked at the rest of the field shooting towards me out of the fastest corner on the circuit.
Luckily, although stopped in the middle of the track sideways, I was well off the normal racing line, and slammed it into first gear to get going again right at the back.
Catching the tail end of the pack down the Hanger Straight, red flags were being waved just as my engine started making an uncomfortably familiar sound.
Back at the start line after cruising in, the noise had vanished, and I could see the marshals were gridding people up in their original positions for the restart, which was taking even more time as we sat there stationary.
At least I’d be able to reclaim my 23rd place – although I wasn’t expecting to do more than pull into the pits if my car started making the strange noise again.
As we finally started another green flag lap I could tell I’d lost a fair bit of power, and the car didn’t want to rev. I limped back and pulled into the pit lane to see what Glenn thought was the best course of action.
Finding nothing obvious, he told me to go for it, and although the other cars had left the grid some time before, I chased out onto the track to see what happened.
What happened was the noise came back down Hanger Straight, and then got twice as loud, with the car not revving over 5000rpm. I throttled off and pulled into the pits to retire.
The familiarity of the noise became apparent as we found the cause: two of the engine studs had snapped – much the same as the one at Donington earlier in the year, except these hadn’t shot a hole through the covers.
After the valiant efforts of Glenn Hay and Clive for a few hours, we reluctantly conceeded that we weren’t going to be able to make the grid for the second race. One of the threads was irretrievably stuck in the engine case, and all the drilling and hellicoiling wasn’t shifting it.
So it was a very expensive weekend, after showing so much promise.
Even more soul-destroying was that this was the first time ever I had a lot of people come down to watch me! By my sisters, Michelle and Stef, my brother in law Alan, their two beautiful kids Poppy and Calum – and even my fiancée Julie (wearing my old Redditch Arrows #18 US Football shirt!) were making their first ever visit to any race track! You’ll also notice the new JooVuu sponsor stickers on the car, and RTV decals…
Despite all this, it’s also hard to be too down about it. My ‘fan club’ seemed to enjoy the excitement of it all, and without a doubt their enthusiasm and jumping around spurred me on a lot!
I also got to watch some of the brilliant racing that is Formula Vee – with Paul Smith winning both races and the championship (and jumping straight into a Crossle for two more wins – the most total wins ever in a day in the history of the 750 Motor Club!), James Harridge sticking the Maverick on pole and hounding Smith in both races, Adam Macaulay storming through from the very back to challenge for the lead and a great drive from Tom Roper as he got to grips with the TCR Sheane.
We should make Snetterton – where I got an 11th place last year – but it will be a total engine strip and rebuild. We may even put another engine in that was being saved for next season. The problem with this being whether we’ll be able to do a shake-down test to avoid another expensive weekend of DNS’s…
I get a lot of comments about the quality of the onboard footage from races.
I’m chuffed to bits to be able to say that we’ve finally got some new stickers on the car to bring British company JooVuu into the limelight, who have been supplying me with cameras, accessories and amazing support right from the start!
JooVuu are a UK based company with an awesome range of products such as dash cameras and action cameras – go check out their website.
I started using a Mobius Action camera, as I’d used them on motorcycles and found them absolutely flawless, never letting me down, and being a much better shape than the ‘more boxy’ competition, but with the same quality and amazing support.
Even better, I saw that JooVuu were taking this idea to a new level with their very own JooVuu X micro camera! You’ll notice this massive jump in the (already good) quality over the Mobius in my footage from Brands Hatch and the recent Anglesey race.
Still at a fraction of the price (and more on that in a moment…) of the competition, the JooVuu X boasts a huge 2.5k Super HD resolution and 1080p 60fps – In short, this gives amazing quality footage that looks extremely professional.
The thing I like even more about JooVuu is that they are constantly listening to customers of the JooVuu X and tailoring the cameras to exactly what they want – for example it’s very easy to update the cameras with the latest free firmware releases, which iron out any bugs people have found and make subtle changes and improvements based on feedback and testing. This also means you don’t just buy a camera and live with it – it’s constantly getting better!
Despite having no screen on the camera itself, JooVuu have developed apps for Apple, Android and Windows systems that will stream footage to your mobile or let you change the massive range of settings by WiFi or cable connection.
Obviously I’m using my JooVuu X as an action camera mounted on my racecar – but they do just as great a job on the road as a dashcam, or mounted on radio controlled aircraft and drones.
If you want to upgrade your current camera to a JooVuu X, I even have a deal that will get you one with FREE tracked shipping for only £89.99! Just enter the code YAY10 at checkout for this great deal.
It’s great to be able to highly recommend a product that I genuinely think is the best out there, and even better to have JooVuu on board with James Cater Racing and Racing Team Vee (more about RTV soon!).
Don’t forget to come to Dubtoberfest on 30 & 31 July to get a closer look at the new sponsor stickers and what the compact JooVuu X looks like on a Formula Vee racing car!
It strikes me that this year we’ve been battling against the odds. If it’s not bits on the car breaking, mistakes, or my own self-doubts, it’s food poisoning or technical infringements!
I have to justify this stuff to the press and sponsors, and sometimes it seems hard to answer the same questions.
I think what a lot of people don’t realise is that racing is all about being on the edge. It’s a very fine line between blowing up your engine and not giving it enough revs and losing out, or lightening a component which then breaks under stress.
Driving as fast as the Formula Vee drivers do is totally alien to me – and I’m not known for taking life slowly. To lap at a respectable pace for a track day will see you way down the back of a Formula Vee grid. To get my brain to make the jump from flinging it into a corner going over my own abilities (and then hopefully catching up and controlling it), to doing that 20mph faster like the front-runners do, is a massive struggle.
Already I’m half way through my first ever full season racing, and it’s only now I’m starting to shake the vague nagging voice telling me I’m not good enough to be out there racing. What most people may see as pretty poor results, to me, have been massive in letting me see that I CAN get there, and I am on the way.
It’s everyone’s dream to get into a car and win right from the start. To play football and instantly be top goal scorer. It would be quite easy to see an 18th place result as a bit of a failure – until you realise that you’re actually the 18th best Formula Vee driver on the planet at that moment!
There’s nothing stopping anyone else from doing it – but you’re the one out there, and that’s pretty special!
I’ve been getting a great response to this blog, and from the emails that people send a lot of you are finding it interesting or useful, so I’m happy to try and help out. The local press have been picking up my reports in the Bromsgrove Standard, with a lovely feature in The Village Magazine, too!
The support from everyone is still mind-blowing, but shows how many people want to be involved in motor racing, and get genuinely excited to see someone like me living his dream and enjoying every second of it. It’s nice to be able to surround myself with so much positivity.
For the last half of the season, we’ll be looking at the gear selection problems to try and get second gear reliably. There are still some modifications that Glenn wants to do to the front suspension to improve things, and at some point I’d like to get out my hand-me-down race suit into something newer (and less ‘snug’!) and have some of my own sponsors logos on there!
Speaking of which, I hope to have JooVuu-X stickers on the car soon – check out www.joovuu-x.com for the excellent cameras I’ve been using. There’s currently a special offer on them so if you’re after a dashcam there are no finer ones out there for the price!
Off the track it will be more analysis and reports, and I’ll be answering a few questions people have emailed that they want to see on here.
I’ve also just upgraded my iRacing setup to a new wheel to see if that can improve things in the real world, so I’ll write some more about that!
In the mean-time, I’ll be getting my head in the game and “pushing very ‘ard” to get closer to the front of the pack!
Thanks for all your support, and I hope to see you out there!
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!
After finally sorting out the seized engine, we booked in to test at Llandow circuit in Wales.
We had massive problems finding somewhere to test that was suitable to our needs – I think I’ll do a separate blog about that and what we’ve found out, so that might make it easier for anyone else for the future!
In short, though, Llandow were brilliant and laid back. I had sent a few emails to Louise and Sharon, but basically they let us book up the day before, and were happy for us to turn up “around 11ish” and get three hours testing in.
Aims of the day:
Check the engine runs ok
Get the feel of the car
Gain confidence in driving the car
(personal aim) Not to spin, crash or kill the car!
I didn’t really get a chance to be nervous after arriving at Llandow. We basically unloaded the car, fine-tuned some things, and then I signed on, kitted up and jumped in.
There was a brief moment of panic when I slowly let the clutch out (at my Silverstone driving experience they advised to treat the race clutch like a hill start – this was great advice!), only to find the car didn’t move! I checked it was in gear, tried again, and still nothing…
Then I remembered that the biting point on the Sheane is stupidly high off the pedal – unnaturally so! I took my big stupid foot ALL the way off the clutch, and bunny-hopped it forwards a few times. Doh!
Just to rattle me even more, I then saw the light was red onto the circuit, so I had to stop again! When it went green I stumbled away again, then crunched the hell out of the gearbox as I tried to find 2nd gear. I couldn’t, and pulled off the side of the circuit, thinking I must look like the biggest rookie ever and that I’d be seeing a black flag waved at me soon… At least I was the only car out there!
Several deep breaths and I found second gear, deciding to pull away in 2nd to at least get rolling, then 3rd and 4th as I eased onto the back straight with no problems. I was easing the brakes on, and trying to warm the tyres whilst expecting the back to snap around on me like it did at Donington at every second, but after a few corners I realised that must have been the engine seizing that spun me, and all was now well. I could concentrate on getting some heat into the tyres and brakes.
Coming past the pits I braked progressively and changed to 3rd, then to 2nd just before I turned left… and just got lots of crunching again.
Finding 3rd gear I kept it running, and decided to stay in 3rd and 4th for the rest of the session, as getting laps in the car was more important than lap times.
I warmed everything up and after a few laps had found the line and (safe) braking points. I pushed a little harder, raising the corner speed, braking later, and getting on the power harder and earlier, before the chequered flag called me back in.
Second session, and I raised the bar even more. Faster, later, more speed!
I tried braking at the 100 yard board into the first corner, dropping to 3rd at the 50 before turning in, but, as I told Glenn after the session, “the front wheels were doing all kinds of crazy shit!”. I could see both flapping around like a rabbits ears if you gave it a good slap (err, not that I ever have, or would advise doing this – that’s just the image it gave me at the time)!
I thought this was just a combination of the bumps and crest in the braking area and me braking to the limits and locking the wheels a little (more on this later!). I found braking 25 yards earlier and a little smoother seemed to fix the problem, and I could get Glenn to add more damping.
I’d been discussing camber with Glenn on the drive to the circuit, and found exactly as he called it: more throttle in the corners squatted the car down and stabilised the rear. This was the first time I’d felt the power of camber in action, and it felt good!
Always wear a HANS device, kids!
The speed wasn’t intimidating to me at all – I’m used to 0-100mph in under 4 seconds on my bikes – but it also didn’t feel slow. I had a feeling I’d enjoy the high-speed corners, hard on the throttle through the turn, and the two coming onto each straight were indeed my favourites! The connection to the car was as close to riding a bike as I’ve found. It’s still a fair way off, but far closer than I was expecting I’d ever feel on four wheels.
It felt good, and it felt natural, as I improved gear change times and everything started to get into muscle memory. My lap times for the session were consistently within the same second, even though I was still taking the complex in 3rd gear.
I had a few twitches from the rear, but was making sure to push gently up to the limits. It was either Mansell, Senna or Skip Barber who said that if you spin you learn nothing, other than that you went past the limits, and you don’t need to spin to find the limits. Glenn told me after that he was expecting me to spin, and wasn’t sure if I was taking it easy or being smooth and sensible!
We added a click of damping to see what that did into turn 1, and did the 3rd session with me again raising the pace and feeling for the limits. I braked at the 100 yard board again, but the wheels still did their flappy thing, and I had to cadence brake to get it all back on the tarmac.
I blasted out for the 4th session – with me forgetting to switch the camera on!
I’m a bit gutted about this, because I was pushing to what I’d say was a ‘safe race pace’, and would have liked to see the onboard footage. I was fully on the throttle and not touching the brakes until the 50 yard board on the back straight, dropping to 3rd just as I tipped into the chicane, then straight back on the throttle, hanging the right wheel over the grass on the inside all the way around the curve. I was changing up to 4th on the corner exits onto both the straights just as I hit the curb, and giggling like a loon!
The front was still playing up into turn 1, and Glenn waved me in for a closer look after a particularly bad shake of the old bunny ears. And we found this:
Note the very thin metal plate where the shock mounting is welded on. We thought my shoddy braking was the cause, but looking back over the video I can see it first moves around after that very first 100 yard braking attempt in the second session!
When stationary, the mounting must have been moving back into place so we didn’t even spot anything when using the adjuster on the bottom of the shock – and although it’s clearly moving in the video footage, I couldn’t the top of the shocks from the drivers seat.
So that was day over for us, but to be honest I’d got all I needed from the day, and was at the stage where I’d just be taking risks to shave tenths off my lap times – which is not what we were there to do.
Here’s the onboard footage from the 3rd session:
Results:
The engine is strong and ran flawlessly. I’d like another 40hp, but after 30 mins in any vehicle I’d tell you that!
I got a great feel for the car, but some things need work – like changing into 2nd gear and clutch starts.
I’m fully confident driving the car to the levels that I did. I know I was pushing close to the limits, but I also know I can push closer, and then I need to know how to go over that line and still keep it on the track.
(personal aim) I didn’t spin, crash, and it appears I didn’t kill the car, either!
When I had the Donington test last year, my mounting bracket hadn’t turned up in time, and so I went with the easy option – I put a bit of foam underneath the camera (a Mobius Action Camera in JooVuu waterproof case) and duct taped that sucker to the roll hoop on the Sheane.
Whilst this does work, and is very secure, it does come with a few problems. First, we found I’d taped over the LED that shows if the camera is switched on or running, so we had to guess whether it was working. It also means it’s hard to take the memory card out or charge the battery up.
For this year I’m going to make use of the bar clamp mount from JooVuu. It’s not perfect because it’s a bit too small for the 32mm chassis tube – but as I came to find when testing things out, the tube isn’t exactly round everywhere, either, so that makes things a bit tough.
The previous run with it taped on top of the roll hoop gave a good picture, but a lot of the screen was filled up by my behelmeted noggin. This is hard to get around, but with this proper mount it should raise the camera a good few centimeters up, which might make all the difference.
The best camera view will show as much action as possible – both outside and inside the car. This means mounting it on the right hand side, so you (hopefully) get a view of the gearshift and the steering wheel, and maybe even the pedals.
I may be able to get around this even more effectively by mounting the camera on the side of the roll hoop, although the mount that I currently have limits this, as you can’t have the mount in place with the camera horizontal…
This is probably what I’ll go with at first, but it’s no problem to unbolt and move the camera around a little.
As Glenn rightly pointed out, if I put the car upside down it could cause a problem for the camera with these mountings, but then I will be hoping not to do that, anyway!
We also need to consider getting into and out of the car – in a single seater it’s an even that requires an almost Olympic level of strength and contortionism, without having to worry about knocking a camera. And we need to ensure there’s somewhere for them to put a tow rope if we end up getting towed off circuit again!
I will hopefully experiment with rear-facing cameras (providing there are going to be other cars behind me on the track!), but that will need more thinking about with types of mount, heat from the engine, and vibrations from bodywork.
If the test day goes without drama, then I should have a bit of time to rethink what we’re doing with cameras, and make improvements where we can.
