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Snetterton 300 – Rounds 13 & 14

29 Thursday Sep 2016

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Snetterton 300 – Rounds 13 & 14

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We had a new engine sat on the bench for next year, so with the disaster at Silverstone it was easier to salvage all the internals from the wrecked engine and get next years engine in the Sheane early.

Glenn did all the work in time for us to have a non-running car on display for the SPEAR (Sue Pike Equine Animal Rescue) charity open day. I’m not sure rescued animals would have fully appreciated a running engine, anyway, but the day went well with dog and horse shows and lots raised for the great cause.

However, when small children are jumping in and out of your racing car all day long, they apparently want to flick every switch in sight, and be warned if you have a brake bias adjuster in your cockpit at such events… I’ll come back to that point later…

A lot of other drivers either tested the day before the race at Snetterton, or took advantage of a 30 minute session at the start of the day on Saturday – unfortunately our preparation meant we could only be loaded up and on our way (very) early on Saturday, and so couldn’t test the new engine.

Qualifying

Knowing so many others were already warmed up and dialled in to the circuit, I opted to try and tag onto one of my usual sparring partners whilst using the bits of track information I’d gained from playing Project Cars, watching YouTube videos, and reading track guides.

The sun was shining and the track grippy and warming up as we headed out.

It’s surprising how well you remember a track you haven’t been on for a year, and it doesn’t take long to drop into the groove – however, you have to make sure you get 3 laps in to be able to qualify for the race, and with such a long lap this is half the session!

To make things worse, just as I was on my second lap and starting to push now the tyres were getting warm, the red flags came out to stop the session.

I didn’t see any of it, but Neil Aldridge had put a wheel on the grass on the exit of a corner, getting it sideways, and Bill Stanier had nowhere to go as he came off the corner behind. It looked like a pretty hard contact with both cars badly damaged and out for the day, but both drivers were unhurt.

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The clean-up meant we sat in the pit lane for 20 minutes before we were finally let out again – but as this was only for another 2 laps I’d barely got up to speed again before the session ended. This wasn’t too terrible timing for me, as when I came into the pits for the red flag the car was stuck at 2,000rpm. Glenn checked it over and worked his magic with the spanners, and I still managed to get out on track with everyone else.

I tagged onto David Leniewski, sneaking past him but not able to shake him, and held him up twice at the hairpin as I struggled to find 2nd gear again (it was fine before!).

I was trying to get a bit of a move on, throwing the car into a few corners, but for some reason it didn’t feel like I was going very quickly.

After my 11th place overall finish last year, I was a bit disappointed to qualify 22nd and 21st for the races, but given the circumstances and lack of track time figured it wasn’t too bad.

The engine was making a few funny noises but the throttle problem wasn’t anything major. All my suspension settings seemed ok with the time I’d had, so I left it all the same, thinking any improvement would be more likely to come from me for the race.

Perhaps more seriously, I had Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” stuck in my brain, and was sure there’d be 3 seconds a lap improvement if I could just get the damned tune out of my head!

Race 1

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They lined us all up on the grid extremely closely, so I knew straight away it would be tough to find any sort of gap even if I got a good start.

The lights went out, and I blasted away with another great start, but then had nowhere to go. Finding some space around the outside, I made up 5 or 6 spaces on my second attempt, but then got hung out around the outside of the first turn as most of them got back up my inside.

Sam Engineer must have got an absolute flyer as he passed me into the hairpin – but now Dolly Parton had gone, and I got my head back in the game.

I passed Sam on the brakes into Agostini, locking the front wheels up all over the place as I pushed harder than I had been all day, and I remembered the brake bias adjuster, and all those inquisitive hands twisting it as they sat in the car. I made a mental note to tip the balance back towards the rear as soon as I got chance.

Jamie Harrison also had a bit of a lock-up in front of me, with Andrew Cooper sandwiched between all the tyre smoke somehow keeping out of trouble.

I tucked into Cooper’s slipstream down the straight, slipping through on the brakes into Brundle, chasing down Harrison to go down his inside into the hairpin. It seemed I had found the sweet spot with my brake balance again!

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I also decided to take the hairpin in 3rd gear, rather than trying to find 2nd, as I couldn’t see a massive difference between the two.

I tried to tuck in behind a James Harridge as he worked his way back up the grid after a spin, which lasted all of 20 seconds – but did pull me onto the back of Darren Lomas.

Making use of a good exit onto the finish straight, I held onto his tow to get around the outside before we got to the first turn, and then tried to hang onto the rapidly disappearing Harridge hoping the horde of cars behind would trip each other up.

Alex Jones must have also gone off somewhere, as he passed me into the chicane, and I could see Lomas, Cooper and Harrison all very clearly in my mirrors again.

To my surprise, I was also catching European karting champion Harry Webb – who must have been suffering some problems – as Harrison overtook Lomas in my mirrors and piled on the pressure.

As I powered out of the hairpin I saw a thick line of oil (Alex Jones had hit Craig Bell, damaging his oil cooler) on the racing line all through Palmer corner.

It was one of those spills that was impossible to avoid, as at some point in the corner you had to either brake or turn on the oil. All you can do is adjust your line to minimise this, and hold on for the ride!

I got through alright with Harrison still on my tail, but could see that Lomas had dropped right back.

With the hard-braking into the next corner at Agostini, I had to make the choice to either slow down and risk Harrison overtaking me, or go for it and risk being the first one to spin off into the wall.

Being a bit of an idiot, I quite enjoy sliding around on oil, and managed to keep the nose at the right end of the car. As I slithered over the exit curb I saw a flash of blue and yellow as Harrison went off backwards – not hitting anything, but being unable to restart and so ending our battle.

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Going into Hamilton – a small lift or even flat out but only one line through – was always going to be an interesting experience, but I somehow held that one, too, after several stages of lurid slide!

I could see Bell pulling onto the grass after the next corner, so was pretty sure that was the end of the oil, and got the hammer down, braking a little earlier and shifting a few rpm sooner knowing I now had a considerable gap over Lomas, with nobody within my sights ahead. There’s no point crashing out of a sure thing, but you also don’t want to lose your rhythm and slow too much or make a mistake.

The last lap board came out and I knew I just had to manage that gap and keep it safe on the oily bits, still getting it pretty sideways but virtually crawling around Hamilton successfully back onto grippy tarmac.

Driving out of the last corner towards the finish line I realised I must be well up the pointy end of the B Class, and began to suspect I was in the top 3!

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A quick count of the cars in the holding area confirmed the B class was won by Jack Wilkinson with James Harridge 2nd – and some newbie called James Cater had finally fought his way to a trophy!

Race 2

Phew – that was long, wasn’t it? Fortunately (for you, the reader – not me) this one will be a lot shorter.

I made up a couple of places off the line but got blocked again and had to lift right off.

Within a few corners I’d edged past David Leniewski and caught the tail of Darren Lomas and Mark Egan, so all was set to resume the scrap with the big group before the oil in the first race.

On the second lap Jamie Harrison (after a terrible start) passed me down the back straight, followed a few corners later by Andrew Cooper.

I was driving much harder through the corners – for example, where I was dabbing the brakes hard into the first turn in the first race, in this one I was just giving a small lift… and yet I just couldn’t hang with anyone!

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I managed to retake Cooper and stay ahead for a lap until he re-passed me and pulled out a little, and then he managed to hold that gap until the finish. I was clearly missing something, and think we’d lost some engine power.

Alex Jones somehow came from behind me once again (I don’t know how he keeps getting behind me like that!), but other than that my mirrors were empty.

I brought it home a fairly lonely 18th (perhaps appropriately for the final race of the season?) and 5th in Class B, but did enjoy the drive!

After the flag a mixture of lack of concentration and “I wonder if I can take the corner like THIS” into the first turn meant I clipped a high part of the curb and ended up all kinds of out of shape on the grass on the exit. My main thought was that if I spun after the flag I might get into Trouble with the Clerk of Course, so that motivated me to save it somehow as I bounced wildly over the mud!

But nobody saw that bit, right?

I think hitting that curb bent something, as the car was pulling left as I came in – oops!

Up front was titanic as ever, with Paul Smith winning a controvercial photo finish over Dave Hughes, and Adam Macaulay a tenth of a second back from them!

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So I have my first B Class podium after so many 4th places, and I’m chuffed to bits!

No doubt I’ll do a year review – but for now I’ll be looking forward to getting back on track for the Vee Festival at Brands Hatch on the last weekend of October. It’s cracking value for track time, and I hope a lot of UK cars turn out for it, because I know the Irish will come over in force again!

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Anglesey Coastal 2016 – Rounds 9 & 10

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Anglesey Coastal 2016 – Rounds 9 & 10

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Despite being so far away, the drive to Anglesey circuit is pretty special in itself.  The A55 ‘coastal road’ takes in the beaches, but the A5 winds its way through the breathtaking beauty of Snowdonia National Park.

If you still have anything left in you, you arrive at Anglesey circuit, where we were on the Coastal Circuit featuring ‘The Corkscrew’ – the Welsh equivalent of its namesake at Laguna Seca.

A few drivers had been testing on the Friday, but due to time and budget, we were going to learn the track in Qualifying on Saturday morning and aim low for our first races outside England.

Glenn had done some extensive work on overall car set-up, improved 2nd gear selection, and in theory I’d have the Sheane at the best it had ever been.

Qualifying

Catching the weather out for once, the pack of Formula Vee’s rolled out onto an unscheduled dry circuit.  I got my mandatory 3 laps in to qualify for the race, on what was a surprisingly slippery track, and then tried to tag onto the back of more experienced drivers.

I’d walked the track in advance, and was amazed at how much banking was in turn 2, and thought I’d fly around the first half of the lap taking full advantage.  As it turned out, I was pretty useless in most corners, but did seem to be able to nail the right-hander coming onto the long back straight and make up time.

Second gear was much easier to get, but still not perfect, so was still fighting me around the tighter corners, and then it was amazingly difficult to get the line right from there, through The Corkscrew, and around the rest of the lap.

I’d said I was aiming for the top 20, and would be starting from 18th and 17th on the grid for the races.  Knowing I could pull back seconds in certain corners, and the car was also very skittish, I was pretty happy with this.  I believe it also made me the fastest of those who’d never turned a wheel on the circuit before!

Race 1

In contrast, the rain had come well before the first race, leaving the track very wet but drying rapidly as the sun scorched its way over the surrounding sea.

I got an average start, but played it safe around the first few corners, staying on the back of a huge pack of cars down the long back straight.

As we all came to the very hard braking zone, Alex Jones dived up the inside of the pack on the wet line, unsurprisingly losing it on the brakes and spearing into Martin Snarey.

As the entire second half of the grid bore down on them, the pinball effect took out Sam Engineer in his new car, and everyone took avoiding action to try and get around the spinning cars blocking the whole track.

I had my own problems, however, as by this time I was at maximum braking heading towards Alex, and as I turned the wheel that tiny bit more the traction broke completely!  I prepared for the collision, but somehow slithered out of harms way.

Caught out a little by still being alive, I was in 3rd gear for the tight right hander, and despite a valiant attempt to powerslide around when the rear broke loose, I spun slowly off the track.

Luckily for me (not so much for Martin and Sam) the race was red-flagged, and I was able to retake my original grid position for the restart.

After another average start I latched onto Craig Bell and Colin Gregory, but after a few laps they edged away leaving me in a familiar scrap with David Leniewski, John Hartin and Neil Aldridge. I came onto the pit straight to find Colin facing me in the middle of the track, and as I dived to the left for yet another close call, David went right and John also snuck through on the fast line for the first turn.

I used my favourite corner well again, taking the fast right-hander onto the back straight as fast as I dared, and got passed them both again on the drag up the hill.

I pulled a small gap and held that, but couldn’t catch Craig, eventually coming home 4th in class – just missing a podium again – and 12th place overall.

Adam Macaulay did the inevitable to get his first win in the UK championship, with Paul Smith following him home in 2nd after being unable to make it 9 wins from 9 races this year.  Ian Jordan took 3rd place – wait… 3 Sheane’s on the podium?  Who needs those £30,000 brand new cars, eh?  Garry Newsome, another legendary driver from the Irish championship in a guest appearance won the B class – of course in ANOTHER Sheane (run by Peter Studer)!

Race 2

I knew I could gain huge chunks of time around the track – especially into the banked turn 2 by braking much later into it.  As the car had also been a bit loose I added another click to stiffen the rear shocks.  Hopefully this would keep the car stable mid-corner and on the exit…

Martin Snarey had repaired his car with the help of the great Formula Vee crews in the paddock, although I thought he may suffer from The Fear a little bit after his accident.  Fantastically, this wasn’t the case, and set up a great battle!

 Even better was the scorching sun and clear blue skies, and a bone dry and grippy track.

Another mediocre start saw Craig Bell flying around me as I got stuck into him and Colin Gregory once more.  I cut back off the banking at turn 2 and powered passed Colin and held it alongside Craig down the straight, with Colin all over the back of me as we all caught Martin Snarey.

Craig blasted passed Martin in the 2nd gear right hander, and then Colin came passed me and Martin through the Corkscrew. 

Smelling blood I also took advantage of Martin’s lapse and went around the outside through turn 1, closing back up to Colin as we slung it around the banking.

We came up to ‘my’ corner again, and I pinned it, showing the penalty we’d got at Mallory for illegal restrictors meant nothing as I rocketed out of his slipstream and pulled out 6 or 7 car lengths by the time we hit the brakes!  My Sheane was running good!

Unfortunately I then ran a bit wide, letting Colin right back up to me but then Tim Probert, charging through after starting from the pits, gave me a bit of reprieve as I watched them scrapping it out behind me for a few laps.

With little point holding Tim up, I left the door open into the banked turn, but then I cut back as he slid out wide, holding onto him down the back straight but ultimately finding the limits of the Sheane’s power against one of the fastest cars on the grid.  He disappeared into the distance and that was the last I saw of Mr Probert!

Colin was also back with me, and also passed me easily when I missed 2nd gear, and followed Tim off up the track, and I had no answer for him.

Martin Snarey was now also tapping his nosecone on the back of my head, but thanks to some great advice between the races from James Harridge, I managed to get enough of an advantage through the corners I was good at, that Martin couldn’t quite find an opportunity in my less-good turns.

I gave the car every ounce of my skills for the rest of the race, at last meeting my objective of pushing the car hard into every single corner.  There was still, no doubt, more to be had, but I’d got the car on opposite lock, powerdrifting with total confidence, catching the spin into a few corners as I pressed on.

It was easily the best I’ve ever driven in terms of how in control of the car I was.  Maybe I’ve finally clicked and got that kind of oneness with the car I get on my motorcycles?

With my muscles screaming at me I wrestled the car around with the white Sheane filling my mirrors, and didn’t even see the chequered flag – only realising it was all over by how fast I’d caught Colin into the next turn.

I’d thoroughly enjoyed it all and had no idea where I’d finished – all I knew is that I felt like a Racing Driver!

Paul Smith got his 52nd all-time win, with Adam Macaulay picking up an excellent 2nd place after James Harridge was given a time penalty for exceeding track limits.  Dave Hughes brought it home 3rd for Bears, with Harridge classified 4th overall but again leading home the B class to regain his championship lead.

I also have to thank the Vee Centre for holding the annual BBQ on Saturday night – an amazing way to get to chat to all the other drivers and crews with a beer and burger.  I found it a massive help socially last year, and again got nattering to a few I hadn’t had the chance to before.

Oh, and I came home 6th in class and 16th overall.  Proof that sometimes your position doesn’t really matter all that much.

I just can’t wait to get out there again so that I can refine what I’ve finally found, and start chipping away at that time gap to the leaders…

Videos:

Race 1

Race 2

Half way through my first season

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Half way through my first season

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!

Fitbit from Croft

06 Monday Jun 2016

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Fitbit from Croft

After the interesting heart rate readings from Brands Hatch, I once again wore my Fitbit for the races at Croft.

Qualifying was my first ever lap of Croft, and with the rain absolutely clowning it down, you might expect me to be a bit excited about it all.

Unfortunately, this was before I started to enjoy the rain, and so I just trundled around without even trying to kill myself – and this seems to be reflected in my heart rate:

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So, much like I thought of my own performance in that session, it’s a bit ‘meh’.

But then things dried out for the afternoon, and for my first ever dry lap of Croft I’d have to be at full racing speed with no idea what the car would do in the extremely fast corners.

As you might imagine, this one told a different story:

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So we have a new record at 172 bpm peak!

A lot of the back of the circuit is foot to the floor, and then just turn the sucker in and hop you’re on the right line. I like this sort of thing, but it’s unsurprising that it would get the old ticker beating a bit faster. There was also frustration at not getting 2nd gear, and Darren Lomas filling my mirrors waiting to pounce on any mistake.

And, of course the huge moment when my Z-bar broke and I put 2 wheels off and had it all got a little bit skew-whiff…

Race 2 saw the return of rain with a vengeance. I’d sworn to push, whatever the conditions, and couldn’t actually see much of the track, corners, or other cars because of the spray.

And I was taking those same flat-out sections as fast as I dared in those horrendous conditions.

So you’d expect, if my heart didn’t stop completely because of me being dead, or something, that my heart rate would be through the roof, right?

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What the…?

OK, so this is the same pattern as Brands Hatch, but this time the high heart rate seems more linked to high speed than being inches and split seconds from disaster.

In that second race I was enjoying myself and having fun, but I’m pretty sure I remember having a bit of a whoop inside my helmet in the dry race, too.

Is it that I’m more used to the track and so much more relaxed for that second race? Because the pressure is off to get the car back safely for another race?

At Mallory Park the qualifying session and both races are all on the same day – so will this same pattern repeat, or will the hear rate get higher and higher like it has done on the first day of a race weekend?

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Croft Analysis

31 Tuesday May 2016

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Croft Analysis

It’s amazing how a few poor results can affect you.

So far this season, things have not gone well.  I’ve been driving pretty badly, and combined with some car failures, I’d been questioning myself.  Questioning if I can afford to be doing this if I’ve got no chance against faster cars and drivers with bigger budgets.

There’s no question that the other Formula Vee racers are more skilled than me – even those that don’t have a background in trackdays and karting have more experience in Vee’s, more testing, or just have youth on their sides!

I’d been starting to enjoy the stuff in between races more – editing and processing videos, writing race/press reports, and the quest to find some sponsorship.  Learning to enjoy that is no bad thing, as it takes an ungodly amount of hours fo my time – but I’m supposed to be here to race.

When it was raining so heavily at Croft for qualifying, I was literally just following Tony Mitchell around for most of the session, eventually getting passed him but still just driving.  If Miss Daisy had been sat next to me she wouldn’t have even spilled her cup of tea.  Proper ‘meh’.

I’d lost any hope of testing out our all-new lower rear suspension mountings, or running in brand new brake pads for the first time.  What a waste of time…

I gave myself a bit of a shake after that, reminding myself of my Brands Hatch blog where I swore I’d push harder everywhere.

As if to try and break my spirit even more, the track was now bone dry for the first race, and so my first ever dry lap of Croft would be at full racing speed.

Except this time I was ready.

I knew that in theory Croft would suit me.  I’d watched video so I knew where to brake (although admittedly I’d watched James Harridges footage, which meant I’d know where to brake to get it ridiculously sideways and murder myself within three corners!), and now I could just about remember which way the track went.

So when those lights went out I just went for it.

Now, up to this point I realise I haven’t sounded like my own biggest fan.  I do have self-confidence, and have proved I can drive quickly at the end of last year.  More importantly, when you flip that visor down nothing else matters.  Nothing.  When I’m staring through my blue iridium tint I can win, and I’m there to win.

I still hesitated slightly before dropping the clutch and feeding the revs up, and the biggest gain I had over the rest was changing up to second, then to third.

In second I knew I’d got a bit of a blinder, because I was already a few rows forward, and everyone else was looking slower.  I simply drove through a hole up the middle of the grid, lifting off briefly as I thought I’d maybe stolen enough places, then getting back on it and diving to the outside to pic up a few more positions.

I just figured I’d do whatever the car ahead of me did, and trust I had the skills to hold onto the car.

When we came to the Jim Clark Esses I knew everyone said they didn’t lift off, and so I just kept my foot in and trust Glenn’s suspension work would help.  It felt great getting through easily, and then taking the first two flat-out right handers the same!

The brakes must have bedded in despite the wet qualifying, because they were sharper than they’d ever been.  I looked through the corners and pressed on, seeing cars in my mirrors but nobody close enough to make a move.

Then I hit the hairpin, and cars streamed passed as I tried to find second gear.  That’s something I have to work on, because I lost masses of time!

After that I just kept pushing a little harder everywhere.  There is a big twitch where the weld on the anti-roll z-bar at the back snapped, and I dropped two wheels over the drop of a large curb, which pitched me back across the track in 4th gear flat out.  I thought I was going to spin but caught it so fast, still keeping the loud pedal pressed down, that Darren Lomas behind me barely made up any time.

Of course I didn’t know that the z-bar had snapped until after the race, and so just kept going, and despite the flying Alex Jones also getting passed me as I fished for second gear at the hairpin again, I came a respectable 13th.

I knew I could take big chunks out of my time, but that wasn’t to be, as we had some of the worst race conditions ever seen for the second race…

I’d also been revving the car higher, and although Jake Hockley in his much newer GAC was able to pull away on the straights, he wasn’t pulling away all that much.  I have found that as I hit around 7000rpm the needle on the gauge starts doing all kinds of funky stuff except stay still and tell me what revs I’m pulling.  I was estimating 7400rpm for my gear changes, and the car seemed happy with that.

Anyway – between races we got one of the AHS crew to re-weld the z-bar, and were ready to go.

I’d hyped myself up for the wet.

I knew it was totally pointless driving like I had in qualifying.  I wanted to use the dreadful conditions to get the car moving around a bit.  In the wet you obviously reach the limits of traction much sooner than in the dry – but when the car does let go it does so more progressively.  If you’re fast enough you can catch it and get the balance and drift.  In theory, this will happen in the wet exactly as it would in the dry, but be more controllable.

I hit the brakes about 4 times before we reached the first corner – because all I could see was spray from the 20 cars ahead, didn’t know if I’d be pushing my face up against their engines at any second in a surprise inspection, and couldn’t actually see the edges of the track to know where the corner was!

I knew people ahead would spin off, and sure enough some cars appeared out of the spray at funny angles through the first chicane and I picked a way through as best as I could.  My tighter line may have taken me passed someone under yellow flags, but as I couldn’t see more than 6ft away and didn’t even know which way any of the cars around me were facing, or if anyone was following me, I think I’d be forgiven for that one.

Feeding in the power down the next straight the puddles were tearing at the steering wheel and the rears were spinning up at the same time, making things ‘educational’.  As I gently eased the brakes on I could barely see if my wheels were locked up, and as I was aquaplaning anyway it was just plain weird.

I cadence braked whenever I knew my wheels were locked, but to be honest that’s not as obvious in those conditions as you’d think.

There were huge puddles on the inside of some turns, but already I was starting to enjoy myself.  I even started dropping my front wheel into some of these puddles to help me turn the car!

I wasn’t getting the power down as hard and soon as I’d have liked to, but I was pounding down the straights and braking pretty late into a few corners.  The wheels were still spinning up in 4th gear on the straights, then puddles ripped you sideways under braking, the car slithered straight on through the corner and then snapped to oversteer, then even more so as you got back on the power!  What a rush!

I was getting a move on when Ian Buxton overtook me (he was one of the first corner spinners), but unlike every other time he’s done that I realised he wasn’t disappearing – I was still on him and actually had to drop back a bit as I didn’t want to spear him into a corner again!

I knew it was treacherous braking into Tower, and so should have been braking much earlier with my new-found speed, but I either forgot where to brake or got too enthusiastic.  The wheels locked several times and I knew I’d have to run wide, so let off the brakes deep in the corner, ready to snap on the opposite lock to catch it for a spectacular drift, and something went *ping* and the back swung around.

I saw mud spray into the air as I hit the grass, and let the car spin 360 so I could get control in the right direction again, hitting the starter button and finding a gear to get me back on the black stuff.

But the ping had been the weld on the z-bar braking again – meaning the rear had dropped down and that lack of clearance beached me in the mud.

I tried rocking out in reverse before giving up and holding my hand up for the marshals to know I was stuck. 

I still had the engine running hoping for a push, but they pulled out the red flags to stop the race.  They said it was too dangerous, anyway, so don’t think the race would have carried on much longer either way… At least they did give me a push so I wasn’t towed in behind the Wagon Of Shame again!

So whilst it wasn’t great to end that way, psychologically the weekend was massive for me – in a very positive way!

I know I can still drive fast in the dry and hold my own – even on a track I don’t know, with a broken car.  And I know I can be properly quick in the wet.  I mean, I was 9th fastest when I went off, but was barely getting up to speed, and properly enjoying myself as I did so!

I didn’t think the weather was that bad!  My test last year on Silverstone National was a fair bit worse, so I’ve got that as my wet benchmark – and I survived that!

Mallory Park for the next race could be interesting, because I’ve done around a hundred laps around there on a Kawasaki ZX-6R B1H, but that was with the little bike chicanes in place.  And I could find gears at the tight hairpin.

One thing for sure is that I won’t be worried about it raining anymore!

Croft 2016 – Rounds 5 & 6

24 Tuesday May 2016

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Croft 2016 – Rounds 5 & 6

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I made the call with Glenn to travel 180 miles up to Croft on the Saturday morning, rather than the night before. Glenn used to do this all the time when he raced, so I figured I’d try it and see how tired I was – assuming we made it in time for qualifying!

Glenn has remounted the rear suspension lower down. This means we get a lot more suspension travel than before which should help with set-ups, and it’s lowered the rear and thus the centre of gravity. The aim of the weekend was to see how this all worked, and also run in some brand new brake pads – so Croft would be very much a learning weekend rather than anything competitive.

I used to like the track on the old TOCA Touring Cars computer game, and spent some time watching onboard videos to try and remember which way to turn, but a lot of other drivers were there testing all day on the Friday, so it was looking like a weekend to stay safe and accept we’d be at the back.

Qualifying

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One thing you can’t account for is the weather. As we rolled into the collecting area, the rain absolutely hammered it down on us. With track conditions being borderline dangerous (they cancelled the following sessions for safety), we trundled out into the puddles.

I followed a group of cars all tip-toeing around in the treacherous conditions, eventually skating passed Tony Mitchell, but was pretty much just driving around the track boring myself.

After the first 2 laps, just as I was learning the track enough to pick up speed, the rain increased even more. It paid off for those who’d tested or raced at the track before, as they could get straight on it in those 2 laps, and lead to some excellent surprises such as Alex Jones snagging 5th place on the grid, and David Leniewski qualifying 10th!

I dribbled my way home in a deserved 19th place to start from the back in both races.

Of course, we found out absolutely nothing about the handling changes, and I had no idea if I’d even started to bed the new brake pads in. I was kicking myself, because I knew I’d wasted my time by not trying to push – but then I guess stating at the back is better than finishing in the armco barriers…

Race 1

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A mere four hours later, in scorching sun (I have pale blue, Polish skin, ok?) we lined up to go out again. Despite the drastically improved conditions, it wasn’t actually very much help to me, as I’d never driven a lap in the dry before!

I’ve had major self-doubt creeping in following a few disappointing results, and so had a lot to prove to myself to justify spending all my money on this racing malarkey…

The lights went out at the start and I got a pretty good start. As I changed to 2nd it turned into a belter of a start, as I flew passed a few cars in a hole up the middle, and then after a hesitation dived to the outside into the first turn to pick up another few spaces – 6 in all!

I was already up with David Leniewski, and having no clue what I was doing, just figured I’d copy him only brake later, carry more speed in, and get on the power sooner – and just hope I could hang onto the car! Back to my old “Throw it into the corner and sort out whatever happens” philosophy! I kept it absolutely nailed through the 4th gear Jim Clark Esses, and through the following rights as I hoped I’d remembered which of them you had to brake hard for.

I eventually eased passed him when he had some mechanical problems, but not before my next biggest obstacle – the 2nd gear hairpin.

2nd gear is such a low ratio it’s very rare that you have to find it in a Formula Vee. Which is just as well, as you can’t find the damned thing.

As I fished around in a bag full of crunching neutrals, a few cars streamed back passed me onto the pit straight. Eventually I found 2nd and fired off after them all.

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The red and white car of Darren Lomas was filling my mirrors as I tried desperately to keep on the racing line, now Jake Hockley ahead in the GAC with exactly the same dry Croft experience as me – i.e. none.

As I came back into the flat-out section my car lurched left in the turn, making me run wide and drop two wheels down the small cliff on the exit at 120mph+. I caught the resulting slide quickly and kept my foot planted, turning the wheel back the other way to recover, and by some miracle stayed not only on the track, but still stayed ahead of Darren.

He chased me hard for the rest of the race, and it was probably quite funny watching us at the hairpin as neither of us could get 2nd gear!

Martin Snarey was right on the back of us, but I held on for an excellent and much needed 13th place and 4th in class B!

More importantly, I knew I could hold my own against faster cars, and hit a brand new circuit first time out and be quick. I’d started to doubt this. And I knew I could knock a good 2 seconds of my time even if I still couldn’t find 2nd gear!

As I climbed out in parc ferme, Darren pointed at the back of my car.

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Ah.

The weld holding my anti-roll Z-bar had snapped – explaining my high speed moment in the race!

So we still didn’t really know what the rear modifications had done for the car. One thing I did know for sure was that the new brake pads were awesome already!

At the pointy end Paul Smith romped home to another win, with the 2 Bears cars of Dave Hughes and Paul Taylor coming in a chuffed-to-bits 2nd and 3rd.­

Race 2

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After a hot and sunny Sunday, precisely as we were kitting up, the skies went black again!

All thought of knocking those 2 seconds off my times were washed away in the waterfalls that hit Croft as we waited for 20 minutes for the officials to decide if it was safe to go out.

Sat under umbrellas, joking with Sam Engineer, Adam McCauley, Glenn Hay and Chris Wilshire, I figured there was no chance of them starting us, and was tempted to be the first to start up and drive back onto the trailer.

Suddenly, they waved us out on track. Good – because I couldn’t live with my wet performance from qualifying.

Already soaked, I could barely see the track even on the slow lap around to get on the grid, let alone the car ahead. And there’d be about 20 of them off the start!

The lights went out and I got away without wheelspin, but as soon as we were in 2nd gear I couldn’t see a thing through the spray. I hit the brakes about 4 times before I even got to the first corner, and could see carnage through the deluge.

I held an inside line and skittered passed a few spinners, wary of anything going into the back of me, and tried to find a compromise between having some visibility and getting between the puddles without them ripping the car off the track.

I was determined to use the conditions to get the car a bit sideways (it’s easier to do in the rain) and try and get more comfortable doing that, and found that I was really enjoying it!

Cars kept appearing out of the spray, and I was able to get by them despite locking up a lot, getting wheelspin in 4th gear on the straights, and having to save a good few slides.

Ian Buxton slithered passed me, and I hung on to the back of him fairly easily (that’s a first!) so knew I must be doing something right!

Martin Snarey was ahead, and I was flying up behind him when I had a major loss of 2nd gear at the hairpin. I watched Martin drive away down the straight, and was about half way down myself before I found a damned gear again!

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I kept powering on, actually hooking my front wheel into some of the puddles to get the car turned in better, and knew where I could grab loads more time, and then disaster struck.

I had a huge lock up as I braked for Tower, and drifted out very wide – not a problem, as I eased a bit of throttle back on to slide it back into the corner when the back end twitched again as the re-welded Z-bar broke again, spinning me off into some filthy great muddy field.

Even that wasn’t so bad, as I was ready to drive out, but the car had dropped as the z-bar disconnected, and I got beached in the mud. I tried in vain to reverse out, then had a vague recollection of an off-roading technique of rocking it out, but it was no good.

I waved for the marshalls and the race was red flagged as conditions were too bad and nobody wanted a stack of Vees growing in their turnip field on top of me.

A quick push and I was on my way again, but despite having been up to at least 12th when I went off, I was only classified in 19th at the finish.

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I’m not disappointed with that in the slightest – because I also set the 9th fastest lap overall!

That’s a huge confidence booster on its own – but combined with my dry performance in the first race it was a psychologically fantastic weekend for me!

I had brilliant fun in wet and dry, and my confidence in the car is coming on in leaps and bounds. I know I’m headed back in the right direction at last, and I know I can do much, much better – and that’s all with a damaged car!

There might be 2 James’ in Formula Vee doing rain dances for the rest of the year!

Speaking of which, James Harridge came in 2nd behind the seemingly unbeatable Paul Smith, with fellow n00b Harry Webb picking up an excellent 3rd on the podium!

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VIDEOS:

Brands Hatch Analysis

16 Monday May 2016

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Brands Hatch Analysis

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I have engine paranoia.

After finishing Donington with more holes in the engine than we started with, it made sense to play it safe and not rev over 7000rpm.

Of course, in qualifying, I had a lot more than that to worry about!

Glenn had pretty much straightened out the bent front beam, and we’d found the wheelbase on the left was an inch or so shorted than the other side – so that should explain why the car had been pulling to the left. When I came through the tunnel before the session, I jabbed the brakes and the car veered massively to the right.

I thought we might have overcompensated with the set up, or maybe the piston on the left brake caliper had shaken itself back. I could only do a soft brake test before I was in the holding area, and that didn’t show anything up.

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I told Glenn, who said the brake pads were also a bit low, so that might not be helping. I decided I could live with it for 3 laps (the minimum to qualify) and then come in, and then we could fix it before the race.

As it turned out, the brakes were fine – but I then started getting a misfire coming off random corners. Weirdly, this disappeared before the races – but Glenn’s tweaking, whilst not finding a cause, may have fixed this.

So I was expecting to qualify higher than I did, but wasn’t overly concerned. I was still struggling with some corners, but was much better in others than at the Festival. I don’t think I ever ran wide out of Graham Hill, and was pretty good through Surtees – but although I was faster through Paddock Hill my line was useless.

I was under a lot of pressure from behind in Race 1, and my shoddy defensive line through Paddock Hill seemed to them become my regular line when I was on my own. I need to slap myself for that!

The results weren’t great – but then with all the guys up the front being SERIOUSLY fast, that could be a problem for us this year. I do find it quite amusing that my mix-up between Maurice Gloster lapping me and my battle with Sam Engineer meant I was 3 secs per lap faster as I tried to fight back at Gloster!

The good news is that I am finally feeling comfortable with the car getting a bit out of shape.

When I had The Moment on the last lap through Surtees when the back stepped out, I made one very fast correction to the exact angle needed. There was no input needed for the recovery – I simply turned into the next corner from that with the car totally back under control. I’m pretty proud of myself, and think that might be the ‘click’ I get with a new bike when I sort-of become one with it (in hippie terms)!

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I’ve said from the start I think the way to drive a Vee is to get it moving around. Now I’m sure I need to get the car out of line BEFORE the corner to have any chance against the faster and more powerful opponents.

James Harridge demonstrated this perfectly with a huge 4 wheel drift into and around Druids when he lapped me, as did John Hughes as he passed me through Paddock, with a filthy great lurid slide all the way down the hill. This was also carbon-copied by Jamie Harrison when he came back passed me in the same place!

If I can back a bike into a corner, then surely I can do it on 4 wheels? If not, I’m going to learn!

I was using lift-off oversteer mid-corner a fair bit to bring the back around and turn it in, then powering through the exit. This seems to work equally as well in slow corners like Druids as it does flat out through Surtees.

Glenn has remounted the rear shocks ready for Croft, so we’ll see if this helps with another few inches of suspension travel plus a lower car.

Race 2 felt like I drove much harder, but was actually only 0.01 secs faster. Track conditions could account for this, but overall each lap was faster – and of course I didn’t get lapped by the leaders!  Having Martin Snarey as a target helped a lot with this.

My engine just doesn’t sound like it did last year, so something isn’t quite right, but we don’t know what. For Croft I’ll be pushing the engine a bit more, and revving to 7400rpm or so and seeing if all our power is still in those last 400rpm.

Croft is a circuit I only know from TOCA Touring Cars computer games 20 years ago, so I will be doing some YouTube research for it.

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We can’t afford to test for this one (in terms of both money and time due to travel), so I’ll be jumping straight in and learning the track in qualifying.

If it’s dry then the fast corners should suit me, but might not suit our reduced power too well. If it’s wet… well, it might not be so bad for us at the moment!

I hope you all liked the amazing footage from the new JooVuu X camera – I will be talking about this a lot more in the near future!

See you at Croft this weekend – hopefully for some more sideways action!

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A FitBit in a racecar!

04 Wednesday May 2016

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A FitBit in a racecar!

It’s worth saying from the start that I am not the ‘fit bit’ in the racecar.

For those who don’t know, a FitBit is a bracelet type thing that keeps track of things like heart rate, how many steps you’ve taken, how much sleep you’ve got, and any exercise you’ve done. There are a load of cheap ones on the market and the main thing missing is the heart rate monitor, but I chose he FitBit HR because it has this and works on Windows phones.

For £100, they’re very clever pieces of kit that can be use to set and track a lot of health targets, even including calories burnt and helping with a diet plan. My main interest, though, was to find out what happens to my heart when I’m racing.

For the Brands Hatch round of the 2016 Formula Vee championship, I wore my FitBit, and have taken several screenshots of the heart reading that I got from the weekend.

My normal resting heart rate is around 66bpm. Based on age (220bpm minus your age), my maximum heart rate is 181bpm.

Arriving at the circuit on Friday afternoon, it seemed like a good idea to take the racecar to get scrutineered (officials check the car and your kit are safe and within the regulations) ready for the weekend.

A ‘formula’ racecar is a bit of a beast. It has one sole purpose in life, and that is to go fast. Two – if you count “trying to kill you”. The point is that even being around one will get you going a bit.

I jumped in the car and drove about 200m up the hill in 1st gear, just to save us pushing it – and then checking the heart rate logs my pulse went up to over 120bpm just doing this!

I’d asked people on Facebook and at work what they thought my max bpm would be – and this showed that a few would be way off the mark!

The following morning was where the fun really started, and I strapped into the full 6 point harness, donned my helmet and HANS device, and rolled out onto the circuit to complete the qualifying session.

As you’ll see from the graph below, whizzing around a track got my heart pounding up to 152bpm! Perhaps unsurprisingly, this peak was early on in the session, where the fear and excitement are strong, and your brain readjusts to thraping a car around at over 100mph.

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What is something of a surprise, is that my heart rate dropped to almost 110bpm in the middle of the session as I settled into a rhythm and got used to things, before rising to around the 150bp mark again as I gave a push to find a decent lap time.

Then came the first race of the weekend.

30 cars all trying to pile into the first rollercoaster of a corner on cold tyres is a thing to behold. Even getting to the grid and waiting for those red lights to come on is pretty stressful – your visor steams up, and your adrenaline is in overdrive.

When the red lights switch off, and you try to get the power down faster than everyone around you, you’re already in that deep calm state.

The only thing I can really compare it to is a fist fight. All the fear leading up to it lasts until you get that first punch in the face – then you’re just into the battle and you find everything slows down for you. You start to think and plan and the blinkered tunnel around you starts to open up again.

If you’re not the violent type, then the next best example I can give is all the excitement, fear and worry as you get ready to go up on stage (in a band, for me). One you play the first few notes you forget the crowd and just concentrate on playing the music…

Calm as this all may seem to you, this is when your body is working the hardest:

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Boom! 171Bpm!

As you can see, my heart rate was pretty high the whole time, but that 171 peak was undoubtedly when I lost the back end on the last lap around Surtees. To me, this was massive, and I felt the back come around, snapped on some opposite lock, and then found I was headed off the track at a very high speed. I thought it was an accident, and it would be a big one, but by luck or judgement I’d got the amount of correction on the steering wheel so exact that somehow still got it turned into the following corner.

Of course, on video, this looks like nothing. Quick twitch, carry on, no drama.

Anyway – that was the peak of the weekend.

You can see slight patterns, but I don’t think the FitBit is sensitive enough that you’ll be able to see stuff like: 156bpm around Paddock Hill, 148 at Druids etc.

I tried harder in race 2, without question.

I also had a large can of Monster energy drink about an hour before I got in the Vee.

And so this result surprised me:

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Yes – that’s a peak of a mere 134! So much for energy drinks increasing your heart rate!

I find this pattern very interesting. The initial peak is that start and then the lull is waiting on the grid after the race was red-flagged.

You’ll not that on the restart, my heart rate rises, but is even lower overall, and with a big dip.

The spike will have been from a battle, and then the dip from when I was ‘in the zone’ chasing after another driver. The peak will be me catching him and pushing hard to do so.

And so what does it all mean?

I do concentrate hard on my heart rate in the gym – how to control it and lower it. It seems this kind of training is well-founded!

The 171bpm peak isn’t entirely unexpected, as we’re all doing something pretty stupid out there – and trying hard to do it, too!

We’re inches from death.

We’re also experiencing life like few others ever do.

Because of that I’m wondering if this pattern will be the same at every race? I suspect the lower heart rate in the second race is a lot to do with the body and mind getting used to being exposed to extremes. It’s more used to it, and copes better each time you do it.

There’s less fear, less excitement, and less stress. It’s like building up a tolerance to eating hot chilli’s – what you used to think was unbearably hot is now a mere tingle on your tongue.

One thing is for sure – time spent on aerobic exercise is time well spent for a racing driver!

I’ll be hoping to use my FitBit at all the races, and will post screenshots for those in the future.

Until then – don’t forget to breathe!

Brands Hatch 2016 – Rounds 3 & 4

28 Thursday Apr 2016

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Brands Hatch 2016 – Rounds 3 & 4

After the damage sustained from the crash and the engine failure at Donington Park last month, we needed to get through the weekend at Brands Hatch with the car in one piece.

Glenn Hay had straightened out the front beam and worked hard on the front suspension, but as I drove out of the tunnel underneath the circuit for the qualifying session, we had a problem. I dabbed the brakes but the car veered hard right.

Weighing up our options before we went out on track, I decided I’d see if we could crawl around the minimum 3 laps, and then we could do something before the first race.

Luckily, after the first lap the car was straight and true! I suspect it was either the camber of the tarmac that had dragged me right, or maybe a piston stuck in the brake calliper.

After a few laps I saw spots of rain on my visor, but figured I’d press on faster and faster until the car started sliding. It didn’t, but a few other cars went off.

I managed a rather disappointing 21st place out of 30 cars. Not terrible, but about 6 places away from what I was expecting.

We’d also decided to dial back the engine power until we find some reliability – and so I guess it was expected. The misfire I had on the exit of most corners, wasn’t expected – but that disappeared before the race…

Race 1

Sat on the awkward rolling hills that is Brands Hatch pit straight, I was holding the brake and blipping the throttle with my heel (the Sheane won’t idle at all if the revs drop!), but as the lights went out I caught my sole on the edge of the pedal, so got a terrible start.

Martin Snarey stole all my fortune, and shot off in the best start I’d ever seen, straight up the middle of many rows, proper taking the Mickey!

I headed a bit too tentatively into Paddock Hill behind Jake Hockley, who’d finally managed to get off the line and take his driveshaft with him. I hung onto him for a few corners before he started pulling away – great to see them finally sort their issues, and hopefully I’ll be able to drag myself up for a scrap with him once we get the car back on form!

I then got a lot of pressure from the gaggle behind me – Neil Aldridge and David Leniewski in their blue AHS cars and also Sam Engineer in his brand spanking new orange GAC. Sam has now left our little group of Sheane’s, but I was pleased he’d found a second a lap straight away in his new car, and is looking good already.

Jamie Harrison spun out of Surtees, and I had to lift off mid-corner both for the yellow flags and so I could tighten my line and get around him, but Neil unfortunately was right on the back of me and had nowhere to go other than off and into the tyres.

I then had a bit of a dice with Sam, before some of the lead cars laped us and we had to back off a bit to let them through.

Suddenly Sam came passed me and pulled out a huge gap straight away! I was pretty sure my engine hadn’t gone again, so I got my head down and gave chase in disbelief at how he’d found another 30hp!

I tried my best to hang onto him, and then the back stepped out big-time through Surtees. I was facing tyres walls at very high speed, still on opposite lock, and needed to be turning right. I have no idea how, but I must have snapped on the perfect amount of steering lock to catch the car, and much to my thrill and amazement still managed to make the next corner! This was a HUGE moment, but to look at the video you’d barely even notice it!

One thing to stand testament to this was that my FitBit recorded a heart beat of 171bpm at this moment. I will do another blog about the whole FitBit experience in another blog soon! It’s pretty interesting stuff.

I finished 18th overall, and 5th in Class B. When we were in parc ferme, I also realised the orange car I’d been chasing was actually Maurice Gloster lapping me – and Sam was still behind me in his identical car and helmet!  The two laps following Maurice were also by far my fastest up until then!

Race 2

I got a better start, but again Martin Snarey came rocketing about 4 rows forwards. I’m convinced he’s using some kind of catapult, and will be watching him VERY carefully from now on.

I out-dragged Francis Twyman and dropped down Paddock hill behind Jake Hockley once again, and just as before he steadily left me from that point on!

Francis dived to my inside into Druids and then pulled out a large gap as one of the blue cars in my mirrors disappeared into the gravel at Paddock Hill, bringing out red flags as the marshals dragged David back onto terra firma for the restart…

We sat on the grid for about 15 minutes waiting for the restart. The problem here is we’re in air-cooled cars, and if you switch off your engine it might not restart again. So I sat there, on another awkward bit of track, holding the brake whilst constantly blipping the throttle to keep it from stalling. At one point I actually grabbed my right knee with both hands and physically pushed and pulled my leg up and down, as I couldn’t do it any longer!

Finally, despite a leg now made purely from rubber and pain, I got another good restart, passing Francis and almost Jake into Paddock Hill.

I was determined to keep up with the pack ahead, so tried my best to avoid the marauding group snapping at my exhaust, and got all kinds of out-of-shape into Paddock. I saw yellow flash in my mirrors as Francis followed me deep into the corner but couldn’t quite keep it on the black stuff.

This all seemed to put the rest of my chasers off just long enough for me to draw out some breathing space, and I focused on the white Sheane of Martin Snarey in the distance, and tried to compensate for lack of power by pushing hard in the twisty bits.

I steadily reigned him in, taking huge chunks out of his lead through Paddock and Druids, only to have him pull it all back in the next corners to leave the gap over the start line the same.

I ignored the pain screaming in my arms (did I say Formula Vee wasn’t all that physical in an earlier blog?) and closed right in, but had left it too late as the chequered flag came out when I was half a second behind. One more lap and I’d have undoubtedly been all over him – but passing might have been another matter!

This left me 5th in class again, and 17th overall. Perhaps more of a victory in this one was that I didn’t get lapped! I don’t like getting lapped!

Those are the cold, hard facts – I’ll give my take on my own performance in an analysis blog.

I would like to thank Vard again for coming along to help out – and congratulations to Paul Smith who won both races, as well as Ben Miloudi and Martin Farmer who got 2nd and 3rd in race 1, and Ian Jordan and Ian Buxton for race 2.

And another very special thank you to Dan at JooVoo for the amazing new JooVuu X camera that I used to capture all the action.  I’m sure you’ll agree that the quality of the footage is amazing, and it will get even better as we learn how to set the camera up for race use.

Race 1 Video:

Race 2 Video:

 

How to race for £3000 per season!

19 Tuesday Jan 2016

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How to race for £3000 per season!

One of the main things you’ll learn about motor racing is that, much like the other ‘M’ word (Marriage), if you mention it, the costs for everything go up.  So it’s best to try and ignore what you’re spending on it.

A few of you have commented on my claim to have a budget of £2000 to do a season of Formula Vee – and rightly so, because if you add up all the entry fees that alone comes to just over this figure!

Last year, I came into the UK Formula Vee championship very late, and only did the last 3 rounds.  Added to this was a bit of testing, plus the non-championship Vee Festival.

So, the long and short of it is that it will cost more than £2000 to race for a season, but with a few large assumptions, it can be done for not much more than this.

The main assumptions are that you have your own car, you’ve already got a set of Hoosier tyres, you’re not testing, you don’t break the car, and you’re not actually attending every round.

The way the championship is scored means you drop your worst two scores, assuming you have attended and finished every round – because of this a lot of drivers with tight budgets will miss a round because it’s too far away or they don’t like the track.

The point I’m making here is that you can race in Formula Vee on a fairly small budget – but most people in the series don’t.

If you’re testing at tracks it’s great, and highly desirable when you’re new to it all, but you CAN turn up and learn learn the track in qualifying – as I have done for the most part.  I would love to be able to test, but I simply cannot afford to, both in cash terms and time off work.

Whilst I’m spending £30 per race weekend on Shell V-Power straight from the pump (and isn’t it great that fuel costs are still down?!), a lot of the other drivers are using full-on Sunoco race fuel for £300 per weekend!  Whilst there should be some advantage to the higher octane fuel, I’ll just point out that I’m beating people using this fuel – so there’s no way I could ever justify spending this!  Or to look at it another way, if I had that money I’m 100% sure it would be better spent on a test day hammering around a circuit.  Once I’m familiar with all the circuits this might change, but to a rookie there is no magical go-faster add-on you can buy that will help you win – you need time in the car!

If you’re hiring a car you’re going to be paying between £500 and £750 for anything competitive – but do bear in mind you can buy a car for £3000 and you’re probably going to do as well in that as a rookie as if you’ve spent £30,000 on a sparkling new AHS Dominator!

The great thing about Formula Vee is that you DO see people who are on a tight budget mixing it up with the more affluent drivers. I have the ‘honour’ of being one of the lowest paid drivers trying to race Formula Vee, and whilst that can be frustrating, it’s also very rewarding.

I don’t resent the ones with the big budgets – because whatever level of motorsport you do, you will always have teams with a bigger budget.  And how much more satisfying is it to beat them?

Of course there are then travel and food costs – we cut that down by taking a lot of Aldi food (maybe I should get them to sponsor me?) and camping over at the circuit in the trusty VW Camper van!  Others take tents or sleep in their car – those who can will drive back home or book into a B&B.

Another excellent thing about Formula Vee over a lot of other series is that it is, to some extent, gentleman’s racing. This means most drivers won’t go for silly moves to overtake you, and will do it safely. Of course that observation might change if you’re running in the leading pack, but it means you CAN put fears of being taken out to rest, and just drive and have fun. Nobody wants to crash, because that is expensive, and may well be your season over.

Perhaps equally importantly is that if it does all go wrong on or off the track, the other drivers and teams will do what they can to help you! We all want to be out there racing, and we want more people out there with us (as long as we can beat them)!

So, to revise my original claim with a bit more (reluctant) thought – you can race Formula Vee for a season with a budget of £3000. You won’t be able to be the best you can be, as you’ll have to worry about not crashing and barely testing (I have another blog about the cheapest ways I’ve found to test) – but that is still a Hell of a lot less than anything else you can do to race.