Tag Archives: plans

Calling it for 2020

27 Tuesday Oct 2020

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I was hoping for a surprise end of year blog to say we’re getting out there for a race, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened.

Glenn and myself have decided to call time on the 2020 Formula Vee championship so that we can concentrate on other things and look towards racing in 2021.

It’s been a very weird year, to say the least, and I hope you are all safe and well?

Glenn has still been very busy this year caring for his brother and dealing with the day to day aspects of his business during the Covid-19 lockdown, and I’ve been kept busy working from home in my day job.

The Sheane is very close to ready, and just needs the engine to be put back together and a bit of paint on the nosecones to be raceworthy, so the plan was always to sit back and see what happened and maybe jump in to do the last rounds at Oulton and Donington.

Watching from afar, it seems like Motorsport UK and 750 Motor Club have done an amazing job getting things moving around the Covid restrictions whilst still keeping everyone safe. That has been great to see how the whole sport (and world?) can adapt so quickly to make the most of things.

It’s been great to see so many new names high up the leaderboard of the Vee races this season, and of course a well-earned (at last!) congratulations to James Harridge for winning the 2020 title already with an almost flawless 6 wins from 7 races in the home-built Maverick.

It’s been frustrating not to be out there racing, but Racing Team Vee are equally feeling the loss of the Formula Vee paddock family.

I will be carrying the Primrose Hospice and Birmingham Super Prix Project logos on the car, so am eager to get their names out there again for the great work they’re both doing and help build support.

We hope to see you all back out there for 2021, in a more normal world, and wish you all the best!

Season Review and 2017 Plans

07 Tuesday Feb 2017

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Well, the end of 2016 was the end of my first full season – although the thing I wanted to do as a kid is still far from over.

I think I’ve come on a long way but am fully aware there’s still a huge jump to be made to get me consistently inside the top 10, and THEN I’ll still have to find something more to get in with the top boys!

I have the confidence in the car and my abilities to be able to push the limits, but still have to be conscious that it’s Glenn’s car and he’ll be the one doing 95% of the work to fix anything I break!

Testing would be a huge bonus, but my budget won’t really allow for that, so any progress I’ve made in 2016 has had to be done at very high risk in qualifying and in the races. This really becomes apparent with our wet set-up, at the moment, and I’d love to be able to get on track to be able to play around with suspension settings a lot more.

That said, I’ve consistently been the fastest or one of the fastest at a new track out of those who haven’t tested or raced there before, so I must be doing something right!

I may also try and brush up on my set-up understanding and knowledge by using computer games, so I can give Glenn even better feedback and try and find something big there.

I’m loving my little on track rivalries, and it’s been good seeing rookies come in the series and watching how they’ve developed, too.

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I need to make sure I’m watching my footage back between races, as it’s no good identifying something I was doing wrong once I’m back at home and won’t be back at that track for a year or more.

We’ve had some problems over Winter that were looking like Glenn wouldn’t be able to even look at a race car, let alone prep it for racing, but recently we seem to be back on again. We both seem pretty confident that we can make the grid this year – which if you’d asked me a month ago wouldn’t have been the case.

This has meant the search for sponsorship has taken a huge knock, but I believe UK action/dash camera company JooVuu will be in partnership with us again in 2017, and we have another few exciting things in the pipeline with others. I realise we’ve missed the main window for getting the deals done, but it’s not over yet – and if you’re reading this and would like to find out what we can do for each other then please get in touch.

2017 should see the Ray out as well as the Sheane at some point, and hopefully the multi-championship winning Scarab will be out in either rolling or running form, too. Glenn will be having a look at remounting the front shock absorbers on the Sheane, and finding more power from the new engine.

It is becoming a bit more obvious that I’ve missed out on the years of karting or other racing/trackdays that most others on the grid have, and my learning potential is definitely limited by it. It’s hard to know how to claw back some of this disadvantage – but that will be the focus of this year. If I have the budget and opportunity I’d like to have a crack at drifting, some off-road/rally stuff, and some karting, as well as continuing to ask questions, research everything I can, and listen to other drivers.

If I can improve on the 6th place overall in Class B, that will be good, but I have no doubt the competition will be even more fierce this season!

There do seem to be a lot of new tracks on the calendar for 2017, which is bad as I can’t compare my performance to the last time, but good in that it knocks out the advantage some others may have. And I have done a few track days at some tracks on two wheels, so should at least know where they go and which corners I can get my knee down on!

I’ll look forward to seeing everyone back out there again, and let’s hope everyone has a great year!

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“Just throw it into the corner, and sort out whatever happens afterwards!”

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

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“Just throw it into the corner, and sort out whatever happens afterwards!”

I’ve done 3 championship race weekends (plus one non-championship festival) on a very tight budget, proved I can actually drive a proper Formula Vee race car, and realised my childhood dream!

2015 has been a pretty good year in terms of my personal development.

I’ve had huge help from Glenn Hay who’s basically carried me along the way, but have also overcome my own fears, doubts and lack of skill along the way!

Since coming to my epiphany of how to drive a Formula Vee quickly at Silverstone in my first race (hence the title, “Just throw it into the corner, and sort out whatever happens afterwards!”), I’ve realised it fits quite well with my attitude on life.

Take that gamble.  Get off your ass and DO IT – and then deal with the consequences be they good or bad.

If you’re not pushing forwards into the unknown, well, you’ll never know what might have been possible for you.

I’m looking forward (bit of an understatement!!) to driving for Glenn next season, but am also acutely aware that I can’t really do this forever.

I still believe that it IS possible to do a season in Formula Vee for £2000, but I’m not sure it’s sustainable.

In my current job, that’s about all that I could spend.  One big crash and that could easily wipe out my budget.  Without Glenn to help me, I don’t think I’d have any chance of carrying on.  Even if I keep improving and do everything right, realistically, I can’t afford this.

The obvious next step is to find some sponsorship.

I have a lot of ideas, but am also realistic in what I think it’s even possible to get from sponsors in this day and age, and in a race series that’s far from the BTCC or F1.

I may reveal my methods if they yield some success, but for the obvious reasons of competition, this may be the one thing that I won’t be very open about on my blog.

If you read this and would like to help me or the team out in any way at all, from fees, parts, to just getting your hands on at race weekends, then please get in touch!

For 2016 Glenn will be stripping the excellent engine in the Sheane, remounting the front shocks, and then working at getting the Ray and his championship winning Scarab back together, too.

Why?

Because 2017 will be the 50th anniversary of Formula Vee in the UK!  We aim to have as many cars out as we can, and it should all be a huge year for Formula Vee, and for British racing!

My aim for 2016 will be more of the same. A steady improvement, and moving up the grid. I’ve proved that I can be quick even with a damaged car and injury, and I was still able to drive around these problems and get, for a total rookie, some pretty fine results!

I’ll be aiming to finish in the top 6 – especially on the tracks I’ve already been to. If I can afford to test before the races I’ll take full advantage so that I can hit the ground running. If I knock out my mistakes I can do well – if I can grab the car by the scruff of its neck and get confident with it at the limit, I can maybe surprise a few of the front runners!

I’ve had some support from JooVuu.com, and hopefully I’ll also be using one of their brand new JooVuu-X cameras. I’ve had a sneak peak of the prototype that arrived just too late for me to use at Brands, and it’s a proper quality bit of kit with loads of amazing features, and it should be huge for them. I’ll also be running multiple cameras where I can to capture all the track action!

Glenn is modifying the front shock positions, so that should also take care of anything I bent getting airborne at Donington, and then the car should be good to go.

Before that, the Vee Centre are holding their annual awards night this Saturday, with a lot of the drivers doing a bit of karting before! I’ll take a helmet camera for that, but with skinny kart experts out there I don’t expect to be winning anything there.

It should be fun, though!