Tag Archives: qualifying

Donington Park – Qualifying & Race 1

08 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

37543216632_4d46def822_z

Once again we’re back to the track that I love – but it hates me!

I did my first ever Vee test here, making it three corners out of the pit lane before the engine seized… or there was the time I was winning B class until I ran out of petrol half way around the last lap… or the time an engine stud smashed through the case… or when I t-boned Buxton on the first lap of qualifying…

This time it was for the final round of the 2017 Ravenol UK Formula Vee Championship – and going into it I was third in the B Class championship and only one point behind Colin Gregory in second place!

After a year where I was sometimes faster than Jamie Harrison, he was more often much faster than me, and needed a single point to tie up the B Class championship. This basically meant all he had to do was make the grid for the start of one of the races…

To complicate things for me, fourth and fifth in the championship were the extremely quick Jack Wilkinson and Andrew Cooper – and they could both catch me and take my third place away if I didn’t finish high enough!

Because of the abandoned race at Rockingham, 750 Motor Club had give us all a free test session on Saturday morning, but with conditions slick and raining it was more of a chance to get your eye in for the track. I cruised around, changing gear around 6500rpm to save the tired engine for the races.

My left rear tyre was also now on the wear indicators, and seriously affecting grip. We swapped the left and right rear wheels over after the session, hoping it would bring enough grip back to make me competitive, although I was still setting some decent times. Unfortunately we’d also spotted some clutch slip changing from third to fourth gear, so had to hope that wasn’t getting any worse.

One more concern was that Andrew Cooper was clocked as second fastest overall! Some great driving, and confirmation that the pressure would be on me to get on his tail to minimise points damage!

Qualifying

The track was still cool but dry a few hours later as we rolled out. I left the dampers on the soft wet settings, trying to get a bit more rear grip, with a slight compromise on the front anti-roll in case the rain came back.

I still needed to get a decent place on the grid to be in with a chance of snatching second, but had to balance that with actually making the races.

I settled into a good rhythm, the rear wheel swap doing the job for grip, and although the slipping clutch was even more noticeable under almost full power, the car still felt pretty good.

As expected, Jack Wilkinson was the quickest B class runner, and Cooper second.

Colin was third, starting in 17th place on the grid – whilst I would be 18th.

Jamie had cruised around and then come into the pits, doing exactly what he needed to do, but unlikely to feature at the pointy end of the class battle in the first race.

Colin’s qualifying time?

1:24.16

My qualifying time?

1:24.17

It couldn’t have been set up any better!

Unusually, both races were to be held the next day, and so we all had the night to brood over tactics for the following day. We should have also taken note of Ross Price, behind us in 19th with a time of 1:24.23 – because he had no intention of leaving us two to scrap it out in the races!

Race 1

37575344331_5487226eb9_z

Fittingly for this season, the heavens opened shortly before our early morning race began!

Here I’d like to thank James Harridge and Richard Rainbow who’d let RTV share their awning for the weekend. Personally I think it was the least Harridge could do, as he’d decided not to race but I could have done with him winning Class B to take points away from all the others!

There was a chance there would be carnage in the tricky conditions, and so my tactics were simply to finish the race in as good a position as I could. If that was ahead of Colin then even better, but there was still another race to go and he was my only real focus.

After two green flag laps, I’d felt that there was a surprising amount of grip on the track, and so believed I could push quite hard from the start.

The lights went out and I got an amazing start, blasting forward like everyone else was stood still.

Unfortunately Cooper saw my move to the inside of the track and moved over to block me – I’d got so much momentum already that I actually had to brake hard to avoid going into the back of him!

Paul Taylor snuck through around Redgate, but I was still on the back of Cooper, Mark Egan and a large pack. I’d left Colin for dead on the start line – as it turned out he’d got all kinds of sideways and ended up on the grass by the pit wall, and then had to fight his way back through!

The track conditions were deteriorating rapidly, and the car snapped sideways up the hill out of Old Hairpin as I changed into fourth – fair warning given and heeded. Steve Ough ended up on the grass ahead, but was back on track as I reached him, joining out pack, with Alex Jones looming in my mirrors.

36865297304_890ecb30c3_z

I didn’t fight as he slithered through at Old Hairpin, but now there was a thick line of oil forming around the racing line of the whole circuit, and Alex was caught out at Coppice on the following lap, spinning but rejoining behind me.

I was slowly dropping off the pack, but with nobody behind me (where were they all??) and with lots of oil down at all the places you really don’t want any oil, I was easing off anyway.

A flying Christian Goller caught me after qualifying problems had left him at the back of the grid, and an eager Neil Aldridge followed him through. On the exit of Old Hairpin Neil found the huge patch of mud and gravel someone had dragged onto the circuit, and he predictably swapped ends, letting me retake the place.

I eased off even more as cars were going off everywhere, and a charging Alex Jones caught me once more. There was nobody behind him and no point in me fighting, so I stuck on the back of him in case he lost it again, and followed him safely to the flag.

I was 16th overall, and 3rd in Class B – Colin was two places behind but still got 4th in Class B.

Jamie Harrison had officially won the Class B Championship, and predictably Jack Wilkinson took the race honours from Andrew Cooper.  In the main title hunt a third place for Ben Miloudi left him teetering on the brink of the of the title, with Ian Jordan taking the win from Craig Pollard.

Some quick maths from Steve Bailey after the race put me one single point ahead, and now second in the championship… but now the drop-scores would come into play.

As Colin hadn’t done every race, this meant I had to drop my two single point finishes from Brands Hatch.

So now, headed into the final race of the year, I was again just one point behind Colin, and the only way I could take second place was to beat him!

36865298034_28b9853c6a_z

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.

Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – 12 & 13 September 2015

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – 12 & 13 September 2015

As soon as I’d slithered around the first few corners I was finding cars going much more slowly than I felt I could go.  All doubts gone as I dropped into the zone, I pulled out past them, opting to feel the track out at my own pace rather than take the safe option of following someone else.

After the torrentially wet Silverstone test day, I though I’d learned nothing – but maybe it had helped me.  I had a lot of confidence in the car, and it was only when a car spun in front of me that I panic braked, locked the front, put a wheel on the grass, and around I went.

It was no drama, and in the 5 laps I had to qualify, I spun another 3 times – still managing to clock the 15th best time of the 22 cars listed!

Above all, I found it great fun!  The times themselves weren’t worth much with massive differences making it a bit of a lottery, and I thought I’d most likely drop back in the dry for race 1.

After an ok launch the start line, I found myself up with the experienced drivers Martin Snarey, Tony Mitchell and William Stenning, when things settled down.  I was up to 11th on track but then started to drop down the order, as I wasn’t able to find much speed through the first corner and most of the infield section.

After losing about 4 places in one lap (I left it in 4th gear through the infield – doh!), I gave myself a mental slapping and watched the cars in front, braking later than wherever they were braking, and soon began reeling them all back in.

I swapped positions with Tony and Martin until they both got past me again. Tony went a bit wide onto the back straight, and I got a good exit to pull out of his slipstream and outbrake him (and nearly myself!) and made up a lot of ground on Martin.

The lap before I’d managed to get my front wheels alongside Martin into Coram, and this time I thought I’d see if I could complete the move. Getting a good run through the Bomb Hole, I closed in on Martin and seeing I had room kept it pinned in 3rd around the outside of him on the dirty line.

I caught him totally by surprise and flew past, skating sideways into the braking area and just about pulling it back into line to get around the left hander onto the main straight still ahead.

Feeling pretty chuffed with myself, I then saw the chequered flag was out!

I’d snatched an ecstatic 12th place – which then became 11th after Graham Gant was excluded for being under the weight limit. By far my best result, and more than I would have ever hoped for in my second race meeting!

Massive thanks to Tim Probert and the Vee Centre for organising the free BBQ on Saturday night, too – I got to relax and chat to a lot of the other drivers and their crews over a can of beer and great food. This kind of event is especially brilliant for us shy newbies, who struggle to match up names to faces and then match them all up again with the cars and helmets on track! I’m trying to get around all the drivers for a chat, but that’s almost as hard as the racing side of things!

Race 2 saw Snarey fly off ahead but left me in a battle with Wes Burton as I watched Tony Mitchell and William Stenning scrapping it out ahead.

I didn’t push anywhere near as hard as I should have at the start of the race, and although I was 5 seconds per lap faster, everyone else was even quicker!

Wes’s engine sadly blew as he slipstreamed me down the pit straight, leaving me trailing the two ahead.

I got up to a decent pace on the last lap, finally catching Tony and reaching the finish line 0.05 secs behind him to finish 17th overall of the 19 finishers.

This might look disappointing on paper, but I drove much better, and at that pace I should have been in the big gaggle fighting for 11th place again, if I’d gone harder at the start.

More importantly, I still enjoyed it and came away happy!

To keep this short(er), I’ll do another blog with my full post-race analyses.

ONBOARD VIDEO FOOTAGE:

Qualifying:

Race 1:

Race 2:

Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – Preparation and not wanting to be there

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Rules & Regulations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Snetterton 300 Formula Vee – Preparation and not wanting to be there

My second ever race weekend, with the goal of finishing all the sessions intact and getting signatures for my licence upgrade.

We chose not to test the day before, and set off at 5am for the long drive to Snetterton in horrible weather conditions.

At the circuit I had a quick chat to the other drivers, then signed on attended the New Drivers Briefing.

When getting the car scrutineered, I forgot to bring my signing on sheet, then forgot my gloves and balaclava, then had to trek back across the paddock yet again to fetch my camera mounting, before getting a mild bollocking about my tinted visor.

We were called to the assembly area quicker than I expected, so I donned all my kit and then found the car was totally dead!

Glenn shorted across the starter motor with a screwdriver, and luckily it fired up, so I shot through the paddock, not knowing where the Hell I was going, before eventually catching up with everyone after asking for directions (thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Steve Ough!)!

I sat in the holding area with all the other cars, staring out across a very wet track, and was fully aware that I did not want to be there at all. I don’t really know what it was, but I wasn’t happy with anything.

I’d struggled to find any videos showing the 300 layout, and only done that last minute, so didn’t really know where the track went.  I worried I’d be far too slow, or just spin off everywhere, and miserably decided to trundle around and try to qualify for the (forecast) dry races.

I had a feeling I wouldn’t even get the car back safely…

I took one last deep breath and tried to force myself to focus, and then followed the pack onto the puddle-filled tarmac for my first ever lap of Snetterton, and my first time ever on a wet track with all the other Vees…

Of course, then I stalled it.

Silverstone International – Testing and Qualifying

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Silverstone International – Testing and Qualifying

We went to Silverstone on Friday 21 August to test – my 3rd ever test, and 2nd dry one.

I steadily built up the pace in the first two 30 min sessions, before disaster struck in the 3rd one!

I was blasting down Hangar Straight when I suddenly lost power, and saw clouds of oil smoke in my mirrors… I rolled into the pits fearing the worst, and Glenn soon found that a piston had ‘picked up’ and trashed itself and the barrel. We think this was most likely caused by dodgy petrol – even though Glenn has always used Shell V-Power, and it’s my primary choice for my bikes!

Glenn’s skill got a new piston and barrel in by late evening, with a massive special thanks to fellow driver Graham Gant and his mate Paul(?) for donating half a pizza which saved our lives as we couldn’t go anywhere to get food!

Race day. After spending the night at the circuit in Glenn’s VW camper (nearly 40 years service and still towing the race car!), I woke up feeling the stress.

James Harridge (who wasn’t racing, unfortunately) drove me to get some more fuel, as we couldn’t risk what we had. I had to get to a New Driver Briefing with all the other n00bs before I could go out, then get the car scrutineered.

I decided in qualifying to short-shift at 6000rpm to try and save the engine because we weren’t sure what killed the piston, and I at least wanted to get a race. Most of all, I had to do a minimum of 3 laps (fastest and next best lap times would decide grid positions for both races), and had to keep the car in one piece.

I took it safely but quickly, staying out of trouble, but unfortunately someone spun in front of me just before the start line, ruining the fastest lap I’d managed and also the next one as I had to stand on the brakes to avoid his car.

Then, as I pulled into the pit lane the engine cut out. I thought that was game over, as it wouldn’t start… Luckily it was just because we hadn’t got the tiny battery on charge over night, and everything else was fine.

I qualified 29th and 28th for the races.

It’s easy to watch the slower cars racing in Formula Vee, and you like to think that you’d easily beat them… I found out that even the ‘slow’ people out there in the UK championship are REALLY fast! Much better than I was doing.

I had to reset my brain.

I’d followed Ben Miloudi briefly as he passed me, and noted how he was braking for a much shorter time than I was, and then just throwing the car into the corners at a speed that was mind blowing to me!

I tried it tentatively on the last lap and was surprised to find my car made it! There is no way I’d have made the corners at that speed on a bike without the front washing out.

I chatted to a lot of drivers through the day, and listened to all the amazing advice they gave me. I had to put my trust in them and in the car, and just go for it. It was either that or give in to the doubts creeping in about whether I should even be out there with these real racing drivers. All my time, energy and money wasted? I wasn’t good enough to mix it with them, as I’d greatly underestimated the skill levels in Formula Vee, and I didn’t have those skills…

Hell no! I realised I had to forget almost everything I’d learned to get through the ARDS test. I trail-brake to the apex on my bikes, so I’d have to do this in the car – braking in a straight line and then turning into the corners had to go, if I were to even get close to the other drivers.

Last weeks wet test had done a surprising amount of damage to my confidence in the car, but this was now my time to properly test myself – I couldn’t let myself down, and I couldn’t let Glenn down after all the work he’d put in!