This weekend the Formula Vee circus descended on Brands Hatch to open the 2019 race season.
But you may have noticed that I wasn’t there…
Some of you will already know that Glenn’s brother Malcolm sadly passed away in February, leaving Glenn with a lot of slack to pick up for his business.
With his other brother also being in poor health, it means that he simply doesn’t have the time to do anything with the race car.
Add in a dose of other ‘life stuff’ getting in the way, we’ve had a discussion and decided to put all race plans on hold, for now.
I am still registered for the season, and you can bet that when the window of opportunity opens we’ll be diving through it with the same fire as always, and giving it everything!
I will still continue to give updates on here and on the Facebook pages, so please ‘like’ them to see what’s going on!
Until then, I did knock up a video with the main action from my 2018 season, so I hope you enjoy that. I do have another more technical video to post on the RTV blog where Gelnn talks through the engine problems that cut our season short last year, so look out for that, too!
Oh yes, and my top picks for the title this year?
James Harridge – He’s finally took the plunge and got a GAC engine, so with the reliability issues sorted and more power, his driving skills could make him a proper weapon this year! (note: shocking story here that stopped him racing at Brands – but I’m not going into that here…)
Craig Pollard – Still fired up after winning the title last year he should be full of confidence to repeat it in 2019.
Ian Jordan – He’s probably done more Vee races than the rest of the grid together (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration), and he’s always well up the front in the mix. I’d expect a few wins (note: updating this after the weekend to say that he won the opening round!)
Graham Gant – Proven to be very fast in what could be the best Vee on the grid. I’ve had him in my top picks for the last few years but he hasn’t done a full season – if he does in 2019 then he’s a major threat. He doesn’t seem to like the rain much, though… (note: yep – and he won the second race at Brands this weekend!)
Daniel Hands – He was strong before in Vee and hasn’t lost anything! He’ll be out to take it.
One to watch:
Christian Goller – he must have had horrendous luck, as he always seems to start from way behind me, and then just comes flying past during the race. If he qualifies well his true pace should surprise a few.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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!
James Cater Racing 