Tag Archives: Primrose Hospice

Donington Park – Race 2

10 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Race 2

23722525938_e197f01a8d_z

With the track now bone dry and warm, it was set to be a very different second race.

I talked over my tactics with Glenn Hay – I was going to go for it, but if Colin Gregory was showing he was much faster, I’d just let him go and make sure I kept a safe finish to secure third place in the B Class championship.

I stiffened the front anti-roll bar back to dry settings, but left the dampers soft in the hope it would help me find the last of the grip from the worn rear tyre.

I felt relaxed but totally focused as we took the grid. I was in 18th place with Colin just to my right, his second best qualifying time 0.04 seconds faster.

Andrew Cooper was directly in front of me on the grid with Jack Wilkinson a few rows ahead – I was expecting Jack to disappear but thought I might be closer to Cooper in this one. Not that it really mattered, as all I had to to do was beat the white Sheane of Colin.

With the championship won and pressure off, I thought Jamie Harrison might come through strongly, but I knew I’d been faster than him here before.

I slipped a fingertip under my visor to wipe away my condensed breath one final time, as I inhaled twice deeply to oxygenate my blood and slow my pounding heart.

The lights went out and the Sheane shot forward instantly. I slammed it into second gear thinking I should give drag racing a go, and then Cooper was drifting across the track to cover the outside line as I pushed the lever forward into third gear.

I had to feather the throttle slightly with nowhere to go before we turned into Redgate, but we’d all got away well and I could see I had space behind to take a decent line – Colin was still behind but I had a few car lengths plus Phil Waterhouse slotting between us.

37542603082_5373e44be2_z

Cold tyres down the Craner curves was always a hairy moment, and as I opted for the slow-in, fast-out line into Old Hairpin Colin passed Waterhouse with two wheels on the grass around the outside.

I was totally focused on the red and white Challenger of Cooper as he went through the final chicane all over Mark Egan’s Ray, and as Egan checked up on the exit all I saw was clear track to the left and had a run down the straight.

I still didn’t think I’d have the speed to stay ahead of Cooper, but was alongside Egan into Redgate, settling behind him with Cooper a few lengths behind me as I realised I was second in class and holding my own!

36865297864_123c1257bc_z

I put a tyre half over the curb as we came back onto the pit straight, watching as Cooper picked up a tow off me and Egan pulled out another car length over me.

I snapped the gear lever into fourth as fast as I could… and got a big bag of nothing!

Cooper shot past me with inches to spare, followed by Colin. I finally got fourth on the third attempt as Ross Price also blasted by.

I’d lost momentum, but tried to hold onto them, knowing I was strong up the hill out of Old Hairpin.

Colin and Ross were side by side into McLeans, but Ross had to lift as he went wide. Taking the corner well I took advantage and passed him, but Colin was still a fair few lengths ahead, drifting a wide line around Coppice.

I love Coppice. The apex is blind and it takes balls to commit to it over the blind crest. I nailed it and was close enough to catch a slipstream down the back straight.

I took a dive up Colin’s inside at Redgate from a long way back, but never got close enough to force the issue as he closed the door – then I nearly jumped out of my skin as Ross went around the outside of me! Nice sneaky move!

37557135526_c12e53b88f_z

This time he got the better of Colin into McLeans, but ran straight over the curb on the exit, showering me in mud (seriously, there was a splatter right over my left eyeball on my visor for the rest of the race!), and we both passed before Ross was back on the tarmac.

37543211422_782baca8b2_z

I closed right up into the chicane, but Colin had his head down and started to pull away. Ross slid up the inside into Old Hairpin and I thought he might be able to drag me back to Colin. Christian Goller also came through on a crazy charge from the back of the grid (he’s going to be seriously quick next year), but I wasn’t concerned as his Challenger is A Class. I tried to come back at him into the chicane but backed out rather than taking him and potentially Ross out as well.

What was concerning me was watching them all drop me as Christian passed the other two B Class cars and I failed to claw my way back to them.

By the end of the lap, Colin had at least four or five seconds over me and I was starting to think what could have been as I checked the empty track in my mirrors.

I looked for Glenn and my sister Michelle on the pit wall as I passed, settling in to bring it home for third in the championship… and it was about then that I thought:

“I can’t have that.”

Screw the slipping clutch and screw the balding tyres – I wanted this! I might never be in this position again, so what sort of racing driver was I if I didn’t try and do it?

I’d been consciously using every inch of the track and the curbs all weekend, and hitting my lines almost robotically. I cleared my mind and went for it, and by the end of the lap was totally in the zone.

Ross and Colin started getting more scrappy ahead, and when Ross again ran over the curb exiting Old Hairpin I blasted past up the hill.

I carried my momentum, taking seconds off Colin through McLeans and Coppice, even making enough to pull out of his tow into the chicane to force him into a defensive line.

He held me off down through Craner, but I was all over him up the hill faking a move to the outside braking into McLeans that he had to cover, going in too hot. I simply cut back and drove past him on the exit!

23753206428_3117fff66d_z

Thinking I was clever, I forgot to brake into Coppice, flying straight over the crest and heading directly towards the fence. And I still didn’t want to scrub off too much speed and let him back through!

I threw the car hard right, the back end stepping out over the curb, but caught it instantly with a twitch of opposite lock.

But I was wide, and saw a flash of white and then black as Colin went through along with Ross!

My refusal to scrub off speed had left me close enough to catch their slipstream onto the straight, and as they went side by side into the chicane I waited to take advantage of the contact…

By some miracle they kept their wheels apart, but they’d lost speed and I hadn’t. I held the left apex a split second longer to bring me to the left hand side of the track on the exit, and had already passed Ross and was alongside Colin before he could move across to block me.

37347194230_8e6f65a52e_z

Silverstone and Anglesey had taught me about over-defending, and instead I just drove, taking a mid-track entry into the final chicane to discourage Ross from making a dive as he’d got past Colin and was in my tow,

He still had my tow down the pit straight, pulling out to go inside me into Redgate – but I was never going to defend that move! I braked as late as I dared, trailbraking to the apex as Ross overshot the line in front of me, and I cut back again on the apex carrying full speed.

They had no chance after that. I set my fastest lap of the race even though I braked early into the chicane knowing I was safe.

I punched the air over the line as the realisation hit me that I’d done it!

37542603262_d12c506364_z

I was screaming in the car all the way around the lap, and it was an amazing feeling knowing I’d not only done it, but came back through after dropping back. I’d won it fair and square, and there’s no finer way to feel alive!

People were cheering me! I jumped out of the car and it was all hugs and handshakes, and excited chatter as I shook hands with Colin and Ross (who’d finished between us).

23753206278_1966c2c40d_z

I hugged my sister and even Glenn (a very rare moment for me!) knowing I’d done it and got second in the championship for RTV!

I knew I was third in class, so also had another trophy but didn’t even care where I was overall (17th), as I’d done everything I had to do.

I’d been told to take my camera footage to the Clerk of the Course, so did so happily, knowing I’d had a clean race and hadn’t seen anyone else do anything dodgy, so wouldn’t really be able to help much.

And then they took it all away…

When I’d overtaken Cooper at the end of the first lap there had been a yellow flag out for a stationary car on the grass on the right hand side (I couldn’t see anything as my view was blocked by other cars). Even though the safety risks were minimal, and I hadn’t gained an advantage (having dropped back four places within a lap), they decided to ruin the championship and decide the final race and championship results with a 10 second penalty against me rather than just give me points on my licence.

This dropped me to sixth in class, meaning I’d lose second in the championship… and third… and would end up fourth.

I paid £250 to appeal the penalty (not the reason for it) which was all a farce where the stewards refused to even discuss the penalty, and while all this was going on I missed the awards ceremony and everything.

I’m trying not to let this bitter ending ruin it for me but it’s hard.

I know I did it. I did it fair and square on the track, and everyone else knows I did it.

And that’s what I’m doing it for – to prove myself on the track.

Whatever the stewards say they can’t take that away from me.

23753205968_fbe3d9c7f5_z

You can view the full onboard video here:

 

Advertisements

Rockingham – Don’t hit the wall!

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

36361344703_35faa1c4cd_z

It’s one of the tracks where I’ve done a few hundred laps with motorbikes, so it was going to be fine to jump straight in, avoiding the extra expense of testing the day before and on the morning.

Almost everyone else on the grid took advantage of the testing, and it was watching them in the morning session that I realised they were doing an extra hairpin on the infield!

This wasn’t in the plan! It also wasn’t in the BTCC track guide I’d had a look at to confirm my bike knowledge! Ah well, I’d just tag onto someone in qualifying and learn it then…

Qualifying

The first banked corner on the oval was also new to me, but I figured that was bound to be pretty much flat in the dry, and did it with a big lift to get up to speed. It was then that the front felt absolutely terrible, and the unstability made me think I’d gone far too soft on the front damping!

During a red flag (we had a few very paranoid reds due to cars spinning off the circuit) I peeled off in the pit lane hoping to get Glenn’s attention to give me another few clicks of front damping. Before he could get to the car, we were off again, so I blasted off figuring the track time was more important than fine-tuning.

The extra hairpin was amazingly tricky for me to try and get to grips with, totally upsetting the flow of the triple left I was used to. With the few qualifying laps we got in I didn’t get anywhere near familiar with it – but then I hadn’t with the braking points for the rest of the track, either!

Still, I somehow qualified in 14th and 15th place for the races – amazing as I was struggling and really expecting to be around 25th with everyone else having tested here.

Not that it really mattered…

37102479060_8303382240_z

Race 1

…Because of course the skies opened just about an hour before we were due to race, and the track conditions were horrendous!

Rockingham gets slippery (like ice!) with just a few spots of rain, and for this you could see the standing water.

I’m still trying to love the rain, and with my limited testing time figured this was probably best for me to get me on an even keel. However – how fast can you take a banked oval turn in the wet?

It’s about 240mph in an Indycar in the dry, but then they don’t even go out in the wet! We wouldn’t have that luxury.

Weirdly, there seemed to be some unspoken agreement with almost all the drivers that we’d take this turn incredibly slowly to survive it, and then go for it on the rest of the lap. If you hit that wall in a Vee it’s going to hurt you, let alone seriously kill your car, so this rare sensibility from racing drivers was even more strange!

Anyway – the race! I loosened off the front anti-roll bar and softened the dampers at both ends – but not too much at the front as I still wanted some stability.

Slithering around the green flag lap, we could all tell how bad it was out there.

SJN Photography 02b

When the lights went out just about everybody span their wheels off the line, but I hooked up a decent amount of grip. Unfortunately I was on the outside braking into the turn 2 hairpin, and cars streamed up my inside before I could turn in!

When I finally got turned a car had spun on the exit, so I had to avoid them, too.

Braking gently into the chicane, I felt everything lock instantly, and cadence braking didn’t do a thing. Two or three cars ahead were also going straight on and bouncing over grass and gravel – I reluctantly chose the gravel and was promptly airborne as I crossed the thinnest pit on route back to the circuit.

The car still felt ok and wasn’t full of gravel, but then the red flags came out again and it was another restart…

On the restart I got another good – although sideways – start, but was again hung out to dry on the outside for turn 2!

To add to the déjà vu, Pete Belsey spun on the exit in front of me, followed by Dave Leniewski exiting the next turn, and Colin Gregory a few corners later!

Every time I brushed the brakes I locked up, and every time I eased the throttle down it spun up. It was brilliant but very slow! And somehow I was fighting with Jimmy Furlong with Pete Belsey and Paul Taylor behind me!

As the rain eased going into the final lap, it was watching these two that became my downfall. I left my braking a little later, having taken the banked turn a little faster, and locked up a little. As I ran deeper into the corner, I could have just clipped the corner of the grass on the outside and carried on, but as I aimed for it I saw it had become about a 12” drop off the tarmac, with a puddle of unknown depth below that!

I had to abort and turn right up onto the banking through the cones, turning around and then rejoining the track having lost 12th place and dropped to 16th behind Mark Egan in his Ray. It also dropped me to 5th in Class B.

With conditions on the infield still bad, and with oil spreading out at key spots, I was unable to catch Mark and had to sit behind him over the line.

SJN Photography 01

Race 2

After almost drying out, the skies opened again during the RGB race just as we were due to go to the assembly area. I’ve never seen huge rooster tails from the RGB’s before, and evidently neither had the organisers, as they cancelled their race due to weather.

This then left all us Vee drivers in an awkward place. We were all set to go out, but as the current race had been cancelled there didn’t seem much point to us all going to the holding area to get soaked through, and have water go into our open carb trumpets as we sat there.

I mean, evidently they weren’t going to send a single seater class out if they’d cancelled a race!

As I stood kitted up next to a marshal under cover of my garage, 3 cars went down. I then heard radio chatter saying they didn’t have enough cars to run the race, and that “Vee drivers are voting with their feet”!

Err, no we’re not! But as the rest of the radio chatter is calling for the safety car to go out to assess the track conditions – why do you want us to sit in the rain?? I asked the marshal to let them know we were all ready to go, but waiting for the track report, which he kindly did.

Even though I was raring to go out in it, as were many of the others, the organisers finally made the decision to cancel the rest of the days races. It was frustrating, but also definitely the right choice.

That wall is just too unforgiving, and us idiot drivers would have still risked it, albeit slowly…

36776626040_278e374dd6_z

Silverstone International – the view from #18 – Part 1

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

36324432040_898d25c994_z

I did my ARDS Race License test on the Silverstone International layout, and also had my first ever race there, and so it holds a special place in my heart.

Much as I love the track, however, it seems to hate me.

In that first race I burnt a piston the day before in testing, barely making the grid. Last year, on the next visit there, with friends and family watching, I managed one lap before and engine stud snapped in the casing and ended the weekend.

So as I pulled off the motorway in my faultless Honda Civic Sport on Saturday morning to find the revs doing their own crazy thing, I thought it might be a bit of an omen.

Glenn had been there from the night before to secure us space in the garage (after being made to wait outside the circuit until 7pm along with everyone else who’d turned up early), so we just had to get signed on, scrutineered, and then we were ready to go.

Qualifying

As soon as I blasted out on track I could see spray in my mirrors. It was coming from the carbs.

Finding it a little distracting as I watched to see if the car caught fire, I got some laps in at a fair pace, but funnily enough didn’t feel fully into it.

When I pulled into the pits just before the session finished, I found that fuel pouring out of the lines was matched by oil pouring out of the seal we’d replaced a few days before behind the flywheel.

The fuel was easy to sort, but it would be an engine out job for the seal.

With only a few hours until the race, we put a temporary fix in place to hope it held.

Despite this, I’d still got 3rd fastest out of the Class B cars, and would line up 19th and 22nd on the grid for the races.

36633337160_1516343ec9_z

Race 1

After lining up in grid formation in the holding area, it seemed to catch a few drivers out when we got to the grid to find there was no green flag lap. I was included, but realised this was a full race start when the red lights lit up on the gantry, and when they flicked off I was ready and nailed yet another great start.

Unfortunately on the inside through the first turn I didn’t have anywhere to go, so after jumping a few rows forward I was a bit bulked, and also trying to keep the car in one piece so we could concentrate on fixing the oil problem.

That problem soon bit back, though, and I found the revs were rising but the car wasn’t going anywhere – the oil had got onto the clutch plates and was making it slip!

I dropped off the back of Jake Hockley and Andrew Cooper, and then a group of about 6 all flew past as I tried to get some power down onto Hanger Straight and I knew that was pretty much race over.

Pretty sure I knew what the problem was, and that we’d be replacing the clutch either way, I stopped trying to fight for position and instead concentrated on getting the clutch to grip by feathering the throttle. I decided to just bring the car home as best as I could for the points, and got down to avoiding James Harridges nosecone right on the exit of Stowe!

It also wasn’t affecting me around the corners, so I tried to carry as much speed as I could. When I was on my own for a few laps pressing on, I also pulled off a huge filthy great near-perfect drift when I lost the back end into Village.

The front was still pointing towards the corner exit so I kept the throttle on and powered it out, clipping a perfect late apex on opposite lock ending at the exit curb with a mild twitch.

Notice the fist pump at the end!

This save- ahem, I mean skilful drift, also kept me in prime position when I saw Martin Snarey spin up ahead.

36324397470_325413b835_z

I signalled cheerily to show him which way I was gong to pass his stationary car, then battled the slipping clutch onto Hanger Straight, knowing he’d soon be back on my tail but thinking I might just get to the end of the race ahead!

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the white Sheane was filling my mirrors.

Ironically, it was at Village when he dived up the inside, pulling away down Hanger while I tried to feather the throttle to keep the bit of the engine inside the engine as the clutch slipped…

I chased hard through Stowe, and a small lock up into the left hander of the complex put me right back on Martin.

A good run through the rest of the complex, and the clutch biting for once meant I snuck alongside down the pit straight, and with the inside line there was no way I was braking first…

… And of course my bravery was rewarded by a beautiful pass… before the tail stepped out (which I caught!), came back again (Argh! I’m going off, then, am I?), opted to go straight onto the concrete run-off area still mid tank-slapper (Oh no – not in the gravel again!!!) before finally gathering it all back in line safely!

I bumped over the narrow strip of grass and followed the white of Martin again, on what I didn’t yet know was the last lap.

Despite the lively excursion, I was only about 10 car lengths behind, but lost a little more as the clutch slipped down Hanger yet again. I attacked Stowe hard and made most of the time back as Martin took a defensive tight line into the complex.

Taking the regular line I actually got alongside before the flick right, then tried to cut back inside for the fast right onto the pit straight.

I shot out of the slipstream halfway down the straight and fired past into the first turn – I got onto the Hanger Straight before I saw the first marshal waving, and realised I’d missed the chequered flag. What happened to the usual plethora of waved flags from every marshal post to signal the end of the race?

Unfortunately at Silverstone, the finish line is actually before the start line, and so my move had been in vain – I’d crossed the line less than 2 tenths of a second behind the Snarey kid.

Still, considering the clutch problem, I was happy with 8th place in B Class and 22nd overall out of the 32 who started.

I was even more happy that I’d been involved in a close scrap on track with my old sparring partner Martin – whatever else happens in your race, as long as you’re involved in a bit of a fight you come out feeling like a winner! Unless you get pipped to the line, of course…

But now I had to find out if we’d be able to make the second race the next day…

36550214312_c4f1860368_z

Anglesey Coastal – Qualifying & Race 1

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Arriving in Anglesey on a sunny Friday afternoon, there weren’t many places I’d rather have been!

After the long but beautiful drive through along the Welsh coast, and past the mountains of Snowdonia, we arrived early enough that Ben Miloudi kindly let me jump in for the last test session of the day – something I haven’t ever done since my first race!

I was going easy on the car but still managed to get comfortable on a quick pace, so would be dialled in for once as soon as I hit the track the following morning for qualifying, assuming the car felt good after the Croft problems…

Qualifying

I was able to get straight on the pace, and the car felt good. The test session had given me my confidence back and I knew I could trust Glenn’s work as usual.

I was able to push the car safely, losing the front a few times but without any drama on what was one of the most grippy tracks I’ve ever driven on!

I qualified 20th and 17th – but this really didn’t do it justice, as the first 25 cars were covered by 5 seconds and first 20 within 4! All the fast guys were out and on it – including Graham Gant coming out of hiding for the first time this year to grab pole!

In B class, the usual aliens – James Harridge and Jack Wilkinson – were way up the front, but the rest of us were all packed together with very close times. Tim Crighton had done excellent to head the best of the rest putting his Scarab a few rows ahead, but everything was set for an epic B class battle.

36186631065_e06444926b_k

Race 1

With the sun still beating down on us (for once!!), I took it a bit too safely on the start (not wanting a repeat of Croft!) and let a few cars past me, tucking in behind Vaughn Jones, Martin Snarey and Dave Leniewski.

With 2nd gear selecting perfectly this year, I drove out of the tight Rocket corner and took Vaughn on the inside of the next turn, hassling Snarey over the line before making a move on the exit of my favourite corner – Church – and holding him off down the back straight as I set my lights on Leniewski.

I wasn’t making much progress on him for a few laps, and there was still a pack flashing left and right in my mirrors, until Leniewski went oil surfing through Turn 1 and spun. I squeezed past and Snarey just stayed clear as well, but it gave me enough clear track to pull a gap.

Unfortunately I found the same oil on the very next lap, getting very sideways but holding it. I did smile as I came out of the banked hairpin and looked across to see Leniewski do exactly the same thing again! The ol flags finally came out after that, so we were all a bit more tentative through there for the rest of therace, but at least there was no damage done!

Meanwhile, I’d seen James Harridge pulled off the track with more engine problems, Tim Crighton and Jack Wilkinson were well ahead somewhere, and then I felt a pang of excitement as I realised the car I was catching was Colin Gregory, who must be 3rd in B class.

I caught him quickly, selling him a dummy around the outside at Church before cutting back inside and using his tow to blast past down the back straight.

Snarey soon joined the party, with the dark shape of Ross Price looming in the background.

Gregory dived up the inside of me on the brakes into the banked hairpin on the last lap, and I again cut back, this time taking the inside as we were both flat into Church.

With wheels inches apart, I again tucked into his slipstream and got that extra boost to pass down the back straight, this time driving defensively whilst watching Snarey trying everything he could to get past Gregory.

I punched the air as I crossed the line, picking up the final B Class podium trophy – but above all bringing the car home alive and untouched after a great scrap and pushing as hard as I ever have!

I’d finally got the car so on edge that one end or the other was moving in almost every corner, so I knew I was driving well.

Again, the overall result of 14th doesn’t really do me justice, as I was less than 3 seconds per lap off the winners (Pete Belsey) time, so well up there!

And other than gripping the wheel through the first corner harder than the Incredible Hulk, I was pretty relaxed about it all!

After a meal in the cafe and a twilight track walk, I was feeling good about the second race…

Remember Croft? Race 2

27 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

sjn20photography20close201_zpsnc8davmr

A new day, and the sun was shining once more. I was starting from a decent position but wouldn’t really find out what the car would do until I hit the first corner at race speed – not great when the brief was yet again to try and keep the car safe.

On the warm-up lap I gave the car a bit of a slide into the second turn and could tell straight away that things weren’t right. Added to this, the steering wheel wasn’t pointing straight, so my thumbs and stuff were in the wrong places.

As I sat on the grid psyching myself up, I looked down to find my magical rev sweet spot to get another demon start. What I found was the turned wheel was hiding my rev counter!

I looked back up and the start lights had already gone out and I’d missed it!

I recovered fairly well, but with the random handling I stayed well wide through the first few corners so I didn’t end up hitting anyone else as I worked out what the car was doing.

The car didn’t want to turn in at all, and then the understeer snapped from no grip overall to oversteer and back to understeer seemingly at random through the corners.

I was dropping backwards down the grid and couldn’t seem to do anything about it!

Sam Engineer spun off causing a red flag – then we were held for ages before being put back in some weird grid order where I dropped back even further. Then Tim Probert caught fire a little bit, and we had to trundle around on a third slow green flag lap.

In between wondering if I’d catch fire, whether the engine would blow up in the heat, and if I could get the car to restart for the 37th time they moved us 20 yards forward, I told myself that the handling was all in my head, and I needed to give myself a slap.

I got a much better restart, and was all over the back of Colin Gregory for second in class (Jamie had already blown by me in the first start as I struggled) as I threw the car at the track as best as I could – not happy but not giving up!

I couldn’t take any of the usual corners flat out, and needed a big lift to get the front turned in through Barcroft, still missing the apex by a few feet.

This put me slightly wide on the exit, and as I straightened the steering wheel on instinct ready to brake hard from flat-out, I forgot a crucial thing…

Straightening the steering wheel with the repairs meant I was actually steering slightly to the left.

This put my left rear wheel just onto the grass as I slammed the anchors on, and the back wheels made my best overtake of the day on my front wheels. I was suddenly on the grass, backwards, on the right hand side of the circuit and the air pressure even opened my visor and I did what I could to stop taking Colin out as he turned right into Sunny In.

I changed the angle of my spin enough to miss him, but there was no way I could stop the car coming back across the track. Luckily we’d been pulling away, and Bill Garner was next on the scene with some nifty avoidance as he locked up and managed to avoid me as I rolled along the outside of the track trying to restart.

Crisis averted, I was now dead last and trying not to succumb to the red mist.

I locked up into the hairpin then got back in control and dropped back into the zone as I gave chase to Ian Rea.

I was still hammering an unpredictable car as much as I could, but had to dial it back a few notches as there’s no point crashing when you’re at the back anyway…

I slipstreamed past Ian out of the chicane and chased down Martin Snarey and the 6 car chain ahead.

It was taking an agonisingly long time in my head to make any progress, but I clawed past Martin on the start straight, and as I closed on Peter Cann saw Vaughn Jones spin up ahead.

Before he had chance to recover back to speed I squeezed around him almost on the grass and then the short 3 lap restart was given the chequered flag. I salvaged a 17th place finish, but had been expecting top 10 at a track I love and the car is suited to, so it was hard to get too worked up about.

It was an exciting race overall, but still a total disaster for me in the big scheme of things. Hence why I haven’t had the motivation to write this up (or the time!) until now.

As Anglesey approaches, I’m in a slightly more positive frame of mind again. If Real Life allows me to, I’ll prep better for this one, and approach things the same as I did for Oulton.

Hopefully this will be the one where I can show off the cars true potential. I’m at least going to try and enjoy it!

Remember Croft? Qualifying & Race 1

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Sorry that this blog has been so long coming! Unfortunately the major dramas that make up Real Life came into play, and my usual best escape of racing failed as that all turned out disastrous, too.

That said, it was brilliant getting away for a few days to hang out with the other Vee drivers. I know a few of us have some huge things going on away from racing at the moment, and hope the distraction of racing helps them as much as it does me.

After 6+ hours on the road, we arrived (early for once!) at Croft – one of my favourite circuits from last year. After the many hours spent fixing (and de-gravelling) the car since Brands Hatch, the brief was to keep the car safe and just get some points back on the board.

 

Qualifying

I hadn’t done the sort of prep that I should have – watching videos, playing simulators etc – so started somewhat steadily in qualifying. When you’re not 100% sure where to break and turn in on every single corner, it’s amazing how much it adds to your lap times.

The car felt good, but then someone dropped oil around half of the lap on the fastest section all the way back to the finish and a few cars had spins.

As ever, I’m enough of an idiot to enjoy a bit of oil, but obviously with oil down from the 2nd or 3rd lap this meant all those who’d practiced the day before got much faster laps in before the track was ruined. I actually put my quickest lap in on my final lap, despite lifting off to let Adam Macaulay and Ben Miloudi through on flying laps – so at least knew I was doing something ok!

I did lose the lap before with a huge minger of a drift that turned into a spin, though…

I qualified a mediocre 17th and 16th – but with James Harridge blowing another engine and Jamie Harrison losing all power this still put me 2nd in class right behind Colin Gregory for both races. The first class win was in sight!

Race 1

With another fast start I pushed a few places up the grid off the line, having to lift for a few slower cars but still making good progress.

I got ahead of Mark Egan up the inside of the first turn, but then into the sharp Turn 2 I knew I could either get aggressive and perform a really harsh block pass on Mark, risking taking us both out, or back out as safely as I could, making sure I could hold the tight line around the corner. This would mean Mark disappearing on the exit, but I could live with that for now..

Unfortunately, Mark then cut hard across to the apex, I assume having not seen me, and leaving absolutely no room for me.

I slammed on the brakes even harder and got a nudge from behind from Peter Studer – but it was already too late and Mark’s right rear wheel slammed into my front left.

This broke the steering link, and as my wheel flapped around like some sad, dying fish, I was at the mercy of the rest of the field as I veered across the track and off the side to retire.

I was not happy.

Then, just as I got out and stood at the side of the track, it started thundering. Yeah, thanks for that.

The car was carried back on a crane, and some hasty bodge repairs made ready for the next day. As we were making a start on it, Ian Rea spotted the impact had ripped the front beam off the chassis, stripping the thread and bolt holding it on.

Gary Richardson kindly helped get the set-up as good as we could, but with camber, castor and toe all a bit wonky (we had to try and even things out by re-adjusting the good side!) I could tell I might have to drive around the faults for the second race.

The Clean Up!

15 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

q20gravel_zpsks8xcrwr

At Brands Hatch, I spun off into the gravel trap at Paddock Hill bend. Twice.

Whilst the gravel traps are brilliant, and undoubtedly stopped the car meeting the tyre wall at high speed, it still has some major consequences.

When you see the BTCC cars spinning off and then rejoining, shaking off the gravel, what you’re not seeing is the hours spent stripping the car afterwards to get all the gravel out of it – not to mention the damage it does to panels and paintwork and sponsor stickers.

And it gets EVERYWHERE.

Even after scraping out piles of the stuff, after trailering the car home 200 miles there was still masses of the stuff. Kilograms. All over the engine, literally filling the engine bay, and everywhere in the cockpit, too.

Vacuuming gets some out, but there is still masses behind panels and stuck behind chassis tubing, and the only real way to do it efficiently is to totally strip down the car.

The original plan was to jet wash everything, but without one easily to hand James got out the sponge and soap and went over the car.

Then we drilled out the rivets and got the side panels off to get at the rest of it, cleaning up the rest ‘dry’ using an oily cloth and more vacuuming.

Next it was onto the rear of the car – Glenn found that he was unable to crank the engine over by hand, and so the engine had to come out.

Luckily, once on the bench we found a pulped lump of gravel was blocking one of the pistons, and once this was removed everything worked again!

After more vacuuming and cleaning of the engine bay, the car is now ready to start piecing back together – there’s still a lot of work to do (repainting chassis and suspension parts, removing and applying new stickers etc…) but we should have it at least running ready to get to Croft at the end of the month.

Brands Hatch GP – Race 2 (Part 3 of 3)

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

More drama, as the scrutineers had decided to check and seal our gearbox, and the only chance we could do that was right before the second race. I headed to the infield garages, taking all my kit and planning on going straight from there to the grid, if we could still make it in time.

As I pulled into the garage the skies opened big time.

Racing was cancelled for a while as we had hail, the tunnels flooded, the pit lane became a waterfall/swimming pool, and other assorted skallywag behaviour came from the sky.

This was, of course, because it saw me driving to the collecting area and thought the Vee race was about to start!

Eventually it settled a bit, my gearbox was sealed, and I took to the wet grid to try and salvage something from the weekend.

Race 2

I spun the wheels a fair bit off the line, so had to get back off the throttle and didn’t make my patented rocket start – but it was still fairly decent and I didn’t lose out much and was right on the back of a big pack.

Andrew Crighton got a storming start and slipped past and I thought he’d be a pretty decent car to follow for a few laps to drag me up to pace.

I got a monster slide out of Druids which I held but I lost ground on the pack ahead. I could see the red and white of Andrew Cooper behind me but still had a bit of breathing space. With all the spray it wasn’t a bad place to settle in for a while and get some laps in.

I was having to be very definite when changing to 3rd and 4th gears, but other than that the gearbox was holding up and it seemed that the days gremlins had finally gone.

I eased the brakes on nice and early for Paddock Hill bend at the end of the first lap, and instantly locked up the rears.

I was on a slightly high line and figured I’d just hit a bit of track that was more slippery. I became very aware of the wall straight ahead which was now very quickly looming closer, and gave a couple of quick pumps of cadence braking which didn’t seem to help anything.

I realised I was crashing.

I really didn’t want to hit that wall, so got right off the brakes and flung the car to the right, then got lightly on the brakes to trail it in, not thinking I could make the corner in a million years, but preferring to spin it into the gravel over the crest of the track where I wouldn’t hit anything solid.

The back end inevitably swung around, but to my surprise I caught it with opposite lock. Oh wow, I thought – I might make this!

I was still headed for the edge of the track so eased it over some more and then the Brands Hatch camber took over as I went over the crest and I had no space for a correction, this time…

More gravel spewed over me and I realised I’d stalled and was reaching for the starter button before I’d even stopped moving, as my instincts kicked in. I was only a few feet into the gravel trap, so thought I could roll it out and get back on the black stuff.

The engine didn’t fire up, so I gave the starter button another press and this time just got a clunk.

My mind flashed back to the earlier spin and the lumps of gravel I saw down the carb trumpets. I also thought we hadn’t had the battery on charge all day, and there were several long delays to the start where I’d had to switch on and off. There can’t be a lot left in the battery after that?

(A quick note here – we don’t run any sort of charging circuit on the car. It’s what I’d call a “total loss system” on a bike. Stripping the charging components out saves a lot of weight, and you don’t need it. I haven’t asked too many questions about the Vee version, but I assume it’s the same idea.)

The other option, of course, is that the engine had seized. That might explain the strange rear lock-up I’d had (I was locking the fronts everywhere else so don’t see why the rears would lock up there?). Or I’d taken in gravel when I tried to restart the car…

So once again I was towed back on the Wagon Of Shame and left to reflect on how much mess gravel makes, and how I’d paid £450 for maybe 2 competitive laps. Ouch.

James Harridge had another theory about both my spins and that the cause was the same. I’d been holding 4th gear through Paddock Hill, which is fine in the dry, but with the reduced wet speed I should really have been dropping to 3rd for it. This means I’d have been getting pushed by the 4th gear inertia as the engine braking would be a lot less than if I’d slammed it down to 3rd.

For the qualifying crash, although seemingly totally different, being in 4th on the exit meant that when the back end started to lose traction and I reduced throttle input, the engine wouldn’t have reacted as quickly as if I was in 3rd, resulting in the spin that I should really have been able to catch.

I can see his point – probably more for the qualifying spin than the second one, but still a bit of an ‘accident waiting to happen’ brought on by me. Who’d have thought cruising around a little would end up causing more problems than pushing?

Now I’ll spend a lot of time cleaning the car up – time I can only see as wasted as Glenn and myself should be spending time getting the Ray and Scarab out on track.

It’ll be a huge job as that car is absolutely covered and even after being trailered back home 200 miles there are many kilograms of gravel STILL inside and all over the engine. Once that’s looking better we can crank the engine by hand and find out if it has died or not.

Fingers crossed – if the engine is stuffed then I might be out for a while, and definitely won’t be driving the awesome Croft at the end of the month…

Brands Hatch GP – Race 1 (Part 2 of 3)

06 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Race 1

The track was almost dry as we took the green flag lap, but all the help we’d had in the paddock was suddenly in vain, as I tried to change to 3rd gear and just got crunching noises and revs. 4th was also AWOL.

Brands Hatch GP is not a 2nd gear circuit, and so rather than taking my grid space (by this time I’d managed to find reverse or 2nd gears) I dove into the pits.

I managed to get 3rd gear back by desperate gear lever wiggling and selecting, and so made a pit lane start a good 30 seconds behind everyone else.

The rain started as I made my charge to catch the pack, but I was going well!

Alex Jones must have thought I looked comfortable in qualifying, so he stuck it in the gravel at Paddock Hill and brought the Safety Car back out.

Perfect. I could make all the time back and get on the back of the chain for the restart!

I caught a silver car driven by returning driver Peter Cann, who seemed to be going slowly as the rain came heavier. I pulled up inches behind him and gestured wildly for him to floor it and catch the back of the pack, but he didn’t speed up.

I thought he might not know you can speed up to catch the back of the Safety Car chain, so was fuming! I got alongside him down the pit straight and pointed GO GO GO!!! but he just let me by him. I knew I couldn’t pass, so had to let him back through and tuck in behind.

I’m not mad at Peter, and to be fair I could see that his car was a massive handful on every bend. He did come over to me after to apologise, and I was absolutely fine with that, as he was going as fast as he could. It was just unfortunate and very frustrating!

After an eternity we got green flags and I shot past, knowing there wasn’t much hope of making up places but willing to give it my best shot!

It was all going well until I suddenly couldn’t get it into 3rd gear again.

I crawled around the rest of the lap making more gear changes than if I were doing the Monaco GP, before pulling into the pits to retire.

The cause? One tiny little nut had come loose on the gear linkage! At least I’d be out for the second race – but then the marshals were telling me I had to go up to see the Clerk of the Course…

I went up to the office an announced exactly what I thought I’d done – pulling alongside Peter Cann and gesturing him to catch the Safety Car – and was told I was right.

Unfortunately they wanted to do it all to the letter of the law, and with no scope of understanding I was told the timing line said I’d overtaken under the safety car and I would have a 20 second time penalty applied.

I pointed out the race was actually still on, at that point, but even the fact I’d retired didn’t sway them. And it would be applied to the results of that race.

Ok then…

James Harridge had a bearing failure on his engine and failed to finish, and a similar time penalty applied to Craig Pollard (for just as daft reasons) meant Adam Macaulay took the win, followed by Ben Miloudi and the returning James Clennell.

Jack Wilkinson won B class in 4th place overall, with Jamie Harrison and Andrew Cooper shredding my second championship place I’d had coming into the race.

Brands Hatch GP – Qualifying (Part 1 of 3)

05 Friday May 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

The legendary Brands Hatch GP circuit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Qualifying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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