My 2018 racing season in the Heritage Parts Centre UK Formula Vee championship certainly had some ups and downs.
From blowing the engine on my out lap at Castle Combe in qualifying, being involved in someone elses crash at Brands Hatch, overcoming engine problems to prove I can still drive at Croft, flying to Ireland with broken ribs and concussion (after a motorcycle accident) to challenge for a class win at Mondello Park, and then random problems which ultimately led to me not racing in the last round of the season and being left with two scrap engines.
It was a definite uphill struggle all year long, but sometimes I managed to see over that crest. Sometimes I got to taste that joy of both victory and the unbelievable exhilaration that only comes with motor racing.
I could focus on my engine problems and pure bad luck and frustration – or I can remember going for the class win at Mondello Park, wheel to wheel with Bill ‘Wom’ Garner in a titanic scrap on the final lap! Or the way I overcame serious power loss at Croft to lead B Class Championship winner Andrew Cooper in the opening laps and still hang onto him despite it being a very fast power circuit.
However frustrating things were, I’m still doing the thing I only ever daydreamed about as a kid, and to me, dropping back through the field at Silverstone with the engine dying but still fighting hard to stay ahead of the pack – that’s the sort of victory many will never be able to understand.
Despite missing 6 races and not finishing 1 – so half of the scheduled 14 – I somehow ended up 6th in class and 22nd overall. And more important than any stat is that I know that I have clearly improved and I’m a much faster and consistent driver and loving every second on and off the track!
If you were wondering where I was for Snetterton, basically the oil leak that stopped me doing the last race at Donington turned out to be an insert for an engine stud that had come out. As this meant we couldn’t use that engine case, we swapped all the internals into a spare case, only to find that case needs to be line bored as the main bearing was warped, and the barrels couldn’t be shimmed up evenly as that surface has warped, too. So whilst we have two scrap engines at present, we should be able to recover at least one.
For 2019 I’ll be hitting the season at full blast after a few improvements to the car, and fully intend to win my class, as well as stick it in the overall top 10 on a regular basis as I push myself even harder.
It’s a roller-coaster of a ride, but what’s better than throwing both hands high in the air and yelling “faster!”?
Thanks for all of your support this year, and for reading my (sometimes very long) ramblings!
Special thanks:
Primrose Hospice for their amazing service, and allowing me to proudly carry their logo on my car and help their promotion.
Glenn Hay for heading up Racing Team Vee and for the use of the car.
My beautiful fiancé Julie for putting up with my sacrifices to go racing and my total obsession with it.
The Bromsgrove Standard and Craig Gibbons for publishing my race reports.
It’s only now that I’m looking back through my camera footage (as I make the compilation video) that I realise what a terrible first half of the season I had!
I’ll post my long edit video first for those who don’t want to read my long edit blog:
And I also must thank my sponsors JooVuu for supplying the best action cameras and accessories from a UK company, and Primrose Hospice who have been there and helped several people close to me in the last few years.
So what happened to me in the 2017 Formula Vee championship?
Oulton Park International
OK, so I drove really well at Oulton Park, but as I left the pit lane in qualifying my engine spat out a spark plug with the thread still attached, leaving me trundling around to qualify at the very back. If not for that, I’d have undoubtedly got my first class win, and quite possibly done the double.
I love the track and have done hundreds of track day laps on bikes, so it didn’t really surprise me that I was quick there. When I was on a charge with the recovering Dave Leniewski at the end of race two, we were about two seconds a lap faster than the cars ahead of us – even getting in each others way – and the speed I closed in on Jamie Harrison into the final corner I actually put two wheels onto the grass and was going to put all four off and pass before the braking zone before Common Sense kicked in!
I still think I could have pulled it off, too…
Brands Hatch GP
So from that high of my first ever second place trophy, we went to Brands Hatch for an amazingly expensive and rare go at the full GP circuit.
In terrible conditions with relentless rain, I lost the back on the exit of Paddock Hill in qualifying, correcting the slide no problem… but then the rears hit the outside camber and it launched me into the gravel so fast I got my first taste of how big an accident you can have there. Luckily I stopped before hitting the wall, and Paresh Kumar and Chris Whitehouse both helped massively getting the tonnes of gravel out of EVERYWHERE to get me out with seconds to spare before the start of the race.
With the rain still pouring, I had gear selection issues and started from pit lane, and under a first safety car experience, I found myself trapped behind a struggling Peter Cann who couldn’t catch up to the main pack as his own car was handling like a nightmare. I got in Trouble for pulling alongside him to motion him to catch up – which was a bit harsh, if you ask me!
And then a circlip on the gearbox popped off leaving me to retire, stuck in second gear, anyway…
Race two saw me lose it going into Paddock Hill as I locked the rears (still wet) and put it straight back into the gravel.
It took weeks to strip the car and clean and get all that gravel out. It was terrible.
What I did learn there was that I’d crashed by not pushing. Leaving it in fourth gear for Paddock meant I had less engine braking than when I’d normally drop to third. This meant rather than my rear wheels slowing me and stabilising the car, their momentum pushed the rear on… The physics all make sense in hindsight – and I was only leaving it in fourth because I was trying to keep everything safe and in ‘survival mode’ to just finish in the terrible conditions…
Croft
I put it all behind me for a sunny Croft, where I always go well but am usually hampered by being unable to get second gear out of the hairpin. Not this time, though, as we had all four definite gears!
After a sensible qualifying I shot off the grid (something I’ve been getting a name for this year!) holding a tight line through the first corner. With 15 cars right up my exhaust pipe, I was then pretty committed to staying inside through turn two, but Mark Egan didn’t see me and cut to the apex through my front left wheel as I got hit from behind trying to brake a little more to avoid the inevitable…
Race over with my first contact-induced DNF. I still say Mark should have left me racing room as I had nowhere else I could possibly go (other than block-passing him), but it was also a ‘racing incident’ so I couldn’t really blame him, either.
And as the marshals pushed me off the track with a snapped steering arm flapping in the breeze, it also started to rain on me. Yeah, thanks.
Going out for the second race I could tell instantly that the car felt all kinds of wrong. The steering wheel wasn’t straight, for a start. A red flag saved me from dropping back further in the field, and I convinced myself I was just being a wuss, and the car was fine.
On the restart I ignored the handling issues and gave it everything, closing down Colin Gregory at the fastest part of the circuit… but as the steering wheel wasn’t straight, when I straightened the car up ready to brake into Sunny In, I’d actually put my left rear onto the grass just as I hit the brakes hard.
This was an amazingly fast spin that wasn’t entirely unpleasant as I mowed the grass to the inside of the track (seriously, I had grass get inside my damned helmet, somehow!?), but then realised I was going to go back across the track. Bill Garner did well to avoid me, but I’d blown it and was down to the back of the field again.
I scrabbled a few places back in the couple of laps we had, but it wasn’t great. Another lesson: If you think the car is doing weird scary stuff it’s probably not just in your head.
Anglesey Coastal
With Glenn Hay working his magic, the car was in top shape as we went to Wales.
And it did all feel good – I was in tune with the car, and drove the best I ever have done, under the sun, by the sea.
It was also some of the most entertaining racing as I diced first with Martin Snarey and then with Colin Gregory, and beating both to the flag.
I stayed right with the lead pack for the whole first lap in the seconds race, which was another first for me, but although still driving well was unable to keep Jamie Harrison behind me in the closing laps, as I missed a gear as we diced and then just couldn’t catch him again!
Silverstone International
Another track where I’d normally go well, but in qualifying a faulty seal was leaking oil onto the clutch, resulting in much slippage. Some hasty bodge repairs got me out for the first race, but sadly didn’t hold and I had to crawl around to make the finish.
This did mean I had to try and over compensate in the corners, resulting in my most awesome video moment to date – a huge filthy great drift through Vale performed almost to perfection!
I had a brilliant fight at the end of the race with Martin Snarey, swapping places several times in the closing laps, and getting a great cut-back on the last corner, only to be foiled again as I was unable to get any power down and he beat me by just under a tenth of a second at the line!
A late night from Glenn, with help from James Harridge, Jake Hockley and Michelle Berry meant I started the second race with a fresh clutch. This sorted out the worst of the problems, but some slight clutch slip remained for the rest of the year – something we aim to fix by fitting stronger clutch springs.
The race went well, and I showed a fair pace and was running third in class for most of the race, after brief dices with Colin Gregory, Bill Stenning and Mark Lawton. All the time in my mirrors I was watching Jamie Harrison charging ever-closer, and thinking I’d covered the line well enough I slowed a little too much into Abbey, only to have him slide to the outside, blocking my exit and getting through in a terrific sneaky move, and knocking me off the B class podium by a tenth of a second!
Rockingham ISSL
Opting to save our tired car and not do the practice session meant I was at a disadvantage going into qualifying, but at this stage saving the car was more important, and I knew the track from bike trackdays. Or thought I did – except we were doing a slightly different layout!
The race was pretty terrible with everyone terrified of hitting the wall in the downpour. Everyone spun and went off everywhere, but I found myself ahead of Pete Belsey and Paul Taylor and doing ok – only to run very wide on the last lap and have to spin around to get back on the track. That was a bit disappointing as it would have been a great result, but at least I hadn’t hit the wall!
Race 2 was cancelled as even the safety car didn’t like the conditions out there – I would have still been happy to go out and have a crack, though!
Donington Park National
Surprisingly, despite the number of disasters over the season, it turned out I was a mere 1 point behind second in the B Class championship going into the last round. Jamie Harrison just had to make it to the grid in one race to win the title, which left me and Colin Gregory fighting for the rest of the podium.
My left rear tyre was down to the bone, the clutch slipping on every upshift, and the engine just very tired and down on power – but I decided that I could still do it!
After a safe qualifying session the first race was in heavy rain, and in the first few laps a few cars dumped oil all over the racing line. I opted to play it safe with cars going off everywhere, and thanks to Colin having a nightmare start ending on the grass and all sorts, I did just enough to stay ahead of him with no dramas.
Race 2 was dry, and it was calculated that on drop-scoring I was actually still 1 point behind Colin in the championship – so had to beat him again!
Nothing else out there mattered more than my mirrors after I’d made another good start and got ahead of him. I was managing my race nicely behind Mark Egan and Andrew Cooper, but then he caught me when I missed a gear shift, and went through along with Ross Price.
Kicking myself as they pulled into the distance, I was ok with nursing the car home to a safe 3rd place… but then something came burning up inside me and I decided I had to win!
I clawed Ross and Colin back in, and then we traded places in an epic battle – we were all fighting very hard and giving nothing away, but also all safe around each other. A proper battle.
As I lunged to the front of them I missed my braking into Clearways and as I managed to hold it all on the track they both came back through, but then almost touched wheels into the chicane. I’d stayed just far enough back to stay out of trouble but be ready to pounce, and out dragged them both up the pit straight.
Ross had one last attack into Redgate but had to go in far too hot, and I just let him sail by and then cut back under him on the exit. I got my head down and pushed hard, dropping them both off to a safe distance, braking early and softly into the final chicane to make sure I came out on top.
It felt like one of the greatest achievements of my life!
I realise it was only for 2nd place in a B class championship, but in my opinion if you don’t get excited by that then what are you even doing it for?
Then of course the bubble burst and I became the first driver of the weekend to get a time penalty for passing under yellows (despite many being called up and mine not giving me any kind of advantage) – which dropped me back so far in the race I lost everything to finish only 4th in the championship. Still not bad, but it does take the shine off things.
For a racing driver, I have very limited karting experience.
So limited that I can actually sum it up in one sentence: I’ve done about 3 or 4 ‘arrive and drive’ sessions at a track that closed down, and 1 structured race even with a few mates.
Ayrton Senna I am not!
I have been told that karting will improve my racing, and have been meaning to go (for about 4 years!), and finally booked it in at Teamworks Karting in Halesowen.
The advantage here straight away was that you can book into a slot online, and then email or call their excellent staff who will let you add others to your booking without having to pay until they arrive. This saves the nightmare of having to coral payments from friends in advance, and made it all much easier!
We had a voucher which meant each of our group of 6 paid around £24 for 30 minutes of karting.
Unlike the last place I went to, this was split into two 15 minute sessions, so you get a chance for a bit of a breather and to chat in between your sessions. It’s also valuable recovery time if you’re not used to karting, as it does work some unique muscles in your forearms, shoulders, and hands.
Incidentally, it used to feel like someone had tried to rip the muscle off my forearms the day after I’d been karting. Racing Formula Vee seems to have cured this and I didn’t feel that bad at all – I guess I’m more used to it, now!
We all met up and had to book onto the session with name, email address, and nickname. This is automatically put into the session so you get a personalised printout of your lap times, and times also appear on the viewing screens.
We were then taken to the kit room to choose a race suit and helmet. My suit smelt a bit, umm… ripe, but it was late in the day, and if you were doing it often they’re cheap enough to buy (or I could use my own!). I did take my own helmet, but they have loads available – it’s recommended you buy a balaclava (£3) if you’re using theirs, or they can give you a free hairnet thingy to wear under it.
Gloves are also supplied (again, I used my own), and you’ll be fine in any sensible footwear – I again took my race boots, though!
After that we were shown a quick video about how to drive the kart and what the flags meant (red – stop, yellow – slow down, black – pull in for a harsh speaking to), then sent to wait for our session to begin.
We were assigned a kart by the staff, then they gave each of us a quick check to make sure we could use the brakes, and then we blasted out on track.
Now, bearing in mind I’m a racing driver – the night before I’d gone on YouTube and found some onboard laps of the track, so I already had a good idea where it went, and was able to get straight on the pace.
Speaking of which, Teamworks were happy for me to use a JooVuu X helmet cam to film the action – and they also let me stick a Mobius camera on the helmet of a colleague. I’ll put the video at the end of this.
To be honest I wasn’t that impressed with the track from watching the videos, but driving on it myself I have to admit it’s a very good track. It’s a good mix between flat out and technical, with a lot of lines available through some corners, and a lot of fun.
It wasn’t long before I was taking the first two corners on full throttle, blasting down the big long 40mph straight – that ends in a very tricky left hand curve which you have to brake on, immediately into a hairpin right. Then it’s tight around the left hander which leads up steeply over the bridge, trying to keep momentum up the hill, then back down on slippery wooden boards into another tight right hairpin where it’s easy to spin out.
It’s probably around a 30 second lap for most, with the faster drivers hitting low 23 seconds.
There are yellow flashing lights around the circuit so you know when to slow down if you can’t see anyone waving the flag, so it’s all quite safe, and there are tyres all around with smooth rubber bumpers in case you clip the walls trying to use all the track.
We had brilliant fun, with everyone improving their lap times in the second session now we were all settled in. I didn’t have it all my own way, and was pushed very heard by several other quick people in my group, but luckily just scraped the fastest lap – which also put me in the Hall Of Fame for the 4th fastest lap of the day with 23.547secs!
Not bad for an overweight 40 year old against all the young whipper-snappers (unless none of the fast ones had turned up that day)!
Teamworks also send you an email giving your fastest laps from previous sessions and notify you if you’re lucky enough to make the Hall of Fame – so great touch there! We also all got a £10 voucher for completing a few quick questions about your day.
Overall, it was a brilliant and very enjoyable experience! I’ll definitely be going back for another go, and we’re already thinking of entering as an endurance team for one of the proper race events they host.
I’d recommend them – so go find your local track and get booked on! As for me, we’ll see how it helps with my racing…
Well, the end of 2016 was the end of my first full season – although the thing I wanted to do as a kid is still far from over.
I think I’ve come on a long way but am fully aware there’s still a huge jump to be made to get me consistently inside the top 10, and THEN I’ll still have to find something more to get in with the top boys!
I have the confidence in the car and my abilities to be able to push the limits, but still have to be conscious that it’s Glenn’s car and he’ll be the one doing 95% of the work to fix anything I break!
Testing would be a huge bonus, but my budget won’t really allow for that, so any progress I’ve made in 2016 has had to be done at very high risk in qualifying and in the races. This really becomes apparent with our wet set-up, at the moment, and I’d love to be able to get on track to be able to play around with suspension settings a lot more.
That said, I’ve consistently been the fastest or one of the fastest at a new track out of those who haven’t tested or raced there before, so I must be doing something right!
I may also try and brush up on my set-up understanding and knowledge by using computer games, so I can give Glenn even better feedback and try and find something big there.
I’m loving my little on track rivalries, and it’s been good seeing rookies come in the series and watching how they’ve developed, too.
I need to make sure I’m watching my footage back between races, as it’s no good identifying something I was doing wrong once I’m back at home and won’t be back at that track for a year or more.
We’ve had some problems over Winter that were looking like Glenn wouldn’t be able to even look at a race car, let alone prep it for racing, but recently we seem to be back on again. We both seem pretty confident that we can make the grid this year – which if you’d asked me a month ago wouldn’t have been the case.
This has meant the search for sponsorship has taken a huge knock, but I believe UK action/dash camera company JooVuu will be in partnership with us again in 2017, and we have another few exciting things in the pipeline with others. I realise we’ve missed the main window for getting the deals done, but it’s not over yet – and if you’re reading this and would like to find out what we can do for each other then please get in touch.
2017 should see the Ray out as well as the Sheane at some point, and hopefully the multi-championship winning Scarab will be out in either rolling or running form, too. Glenn will be having a look at remounting the front shock absorbers on the Sheane, and finding more power from the new engine.
It is becoming a bit more obvious that I’ve missed out on the years of karting or other racing/trackdays that most others on the grid have, and my learning potential is definitely limited by it. It’s hard to know how to claw back some of this disadvantage – but that will be the focus of this year. If I have the budget and opportunity I’d like to have a crack at drifting, some off-road/rally stuff, and some karting, as well as continuing to ask questions, research everything I can, and listen to other drivers.
If I can improve on the 6th place overall in Class B, that will be good, but I have no doubt the competition will be even more fierce this season!
There do seem to be a lot of new tracks on the calendar for 2017, which is bad as I can’t compare my performance to the last time, but good in that it knocks out the advantage some others may have. And I have done a few track days at some tracks on two wheels, so should at least know where they go and which corners I can get my knee down on!
I’ll look forward to seeing everyone back out there again, and let’s hope everyone has a great year!
I’ve posted before about my first experience of iRacing – online simulation racing.
Although I am still playing iRacing, it’s not as much as I’d like to, as it does take a fair bit of commitment, time-wise.
However, the biggest change here came when I upgraded my steering wheel and pedals, upgrading to a Logitech G920 state-of-the-art wheel and pedals set!
This was very expensive. The last generation wheels still sell on Ebay second hand for upwards of £160 – and the G29/G920 costs around £400 to buy new!
When I had decided that I may as well spend the kind of money you’d spend for a practice day on a wheel, I saw a G920 on special offer for not much more than a second-hand G27 wheel, and so bit the bullet.
I also paid about £30 for a stand for it all, so I could set it up, sit and use it on the couch, and then put it all away again when I wasn’t using it.
Cars that were previously undriveable on my old controller suddenly felt great with the force feedback and weighted pedals.
I’d tried Project Cars before, and couldn’t even survive a lap – but now all of a sudden that game was back on.
And the way that the tyres behave on Project Cars is much more realistic. It lets you drift the cars around more, and the Formula Rookie (Formula Ford) car is closer to a Formula Vee than the Skip Barber racer on iRacing.
Project Cars also has a fair number of tracks that we use in real life – Snetterton 300, Silverstone International, Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park…
The gear ratios of the Formula Rookie are way out compared to the vee – especially the first 2 – but still useful for getting a feel of things.
With the new G920 the difference between driving a single seater and a classic touring car is profound, with the heavy, stable and direct feel of a Formula car pretty well mimicked, and the relative floaty, unresponsiveness of a saloon car a very clear difference.
At the moment, the quick way that I can set up a few short races on Project Cars is winning over the hour or so minimum you need for iRacing – but I’m not going to cancel my membership.
I also made a demo video to try and show it in action:
Onboard camera review: Mobius Action Camera from JooVuu
Thanks to some excellent support from JooVuu, I shall be using their Mobius Action Camera to capture onboard footage from Formula Vee races.
I’ve been using a Mobius camera on my motorbike helmet for over a year and found them to be much better than the likes of Go Pro. They are smaller, lighter and have a lower profile – so it’s less like having a brick stuck to the racing car!
In terms of reliability, the Mobius has never once let me down, despite being used daily in sun and rain and from scorching Summer temperatures to way below freezing in the Winter.
The only problem I had was the battery life went down from 80 minutes recording time to around 30 minutes. This would normally mean buying a new camera if you’re not adept at fiddly circuit board stuff, but in this case I just got a new battery from JooVuu (for around £5), opened up the camera, and it’s literally just a case of unplugging the old one and slotting the new battery in! Even better is that the latest batteries have improved to give over 2 hours recording time.
And it’s this kind of constant improvement that puts these cameras above many costing hundreds of pounds more – firmware is updated for free by a downloadable program that also allows you to fine-tune more settings than you’ll ever need.
It’s primary use was for radio controlled aircraft, so is small and light. This also makes it perfect for use on a racing car or motorcycle.
JooVuu themselves designed and built a great quality waterproof case which I have put through some serious weather at high speed, and it’s been flawless.
The waterproof case does deaden the sound a little – there is no way to use an external mic with the Mobius, and whilst sound is good as it is, wind noise can be a pain.
I think for use on a single seater racing car, it will pay to use the case. There’s too much oil and fluids flying about on a race track, and it will also offer some extra protection if I decide to get some close-ups of tyre barriers and gravel traps.
There are as many different mounts around as you can imagine, and more are being released all the time – so you should be able to find something to suit your needs. I will be doing a separate blog exploring how and where I’m going to place my cameras on the car, so please check back for that, or give me any tips or recommendations that you have.
JooVuu also have top-notch customer support, and I’m sure will answer any questions you have through their website:
And please mention my name if you decide to buy anything from them! I’m more than happy to shout their praises, or answer any other questions that you have myself.
Specs & Info
The Mobius Action Camera Wide Angle Version has a Field of View (FOV) of 131 degrees. It’s ultra compact shape means it is small and shorter than a credit card and is is only 15mm high.
Ideal for an Action Camera:
820mAh Battery
Two user selectable video modes, toggled by the mode button after power up. Either mode can be set to record 1080p-30fps or 720p-60fps or 720p-30fps.
Three movie quality settings (Super, Standard, and Low), which will vary the recording bit rates suitable for the user-selected frame size and frame rate. The Super setting with 1080p-30 fps video gives an approximate average total bit rate around 18,000 kbps. with a high level of detail and smoothess of motion. The Low setting with 720p-30 fps video gives approximately 5800 kbps at the low end.
Lots of accessories: cars, bikes, and soon surfboards!
Ideal for a car cam:
Auto-record when power to the camera is applied (useful for car recorder use – no button presses needed).
Loop recording (5 min. clips with one sec. video overlap, so no lost video).Pressing the mode button while in Loop Record mode means that the current file cannot be overwritten and in turn protects it from accidental deletion or overwriting. However, it can be manually deleted.
Movie flip (180 deg. rotation).
Movie sound (off plus three volume levels).
Photo capture mode with frame sizes of 2048×1536, 1920×1080, or 1280×720 (all native pixel sizes – no up conversion).
Time lapse photos with delays between images. The targeted delay times range from 0.25 to 60 sec.
Recording LED toggle.
Movie/photo time stamp toggle.
Power on button delay (to prevent premature activation while handling)
Other information:
The video format is .MOV with H.264 compression codec. Furthermore, this camera can record sequential clips with a one sec. overlap, so there is no lost video and no need for an AVI firmware like the #16 to get that benefit.
Four video recording cycle time settings 5, 10, and 15 min. plus “Max”, all of which stop/save/continue. The Max setting will record until the 4GB files size limit is reached, the card runs out of space, or the battery power is removed. The actual Max recording time will vary dramatically accord to the user’s settings for frame size, frame rate, and movie quality. The 4GB file limit can be reached in less than 30 min. with 1080p High quality video.
Charging on/off toggle when plugged into a USB data port (useful for some external USB devices).
TV out (PAL or NTSC), which will include a playback mode.
TV display ratio (4:3 or 16:9).
GUI program support for setting the parameters will be available.
When a few mates over Christmas suggested we should go karting, I realised it had been over 2 years since I last went to my local track! This wasn’t good enough, so this time we actually sorted it out, and turned up at Birmingham F1K to take advantage of a £20 deal for 30 mins of track time.
Last time I was there, I’d done a few sessions close to each other, and was convinced that my 27 second lap time was as good as I could drive, and my weight was the only factor left to bring my lap times down.
That said, when I’m karting I’ve always used the brakes as a bit of an on/off switch. This worked to get the kart sliding and drifting, but, as I hope we all know by now, if your tyres are sliding you’re almost certainly going slower than you could be.
On previous sessions I’d worked at making sure I’m hitting the right lines, and there’s less than an inch between me and the edge of the track so I’m using everything I can. These things alone will help you carry speed through corners – which is vital in a kart that goes ‘off the boil’ the instant you release the loud pedal. This time, I was determined to have a go at using the brake pedal a bit more lightly and progressively.
Video here:
I was a lot faster than the others on the track – which made the passing fun, but didn’t actually give me a whole lot of clear laps. And it was all just a bit of fun, so I do like to get majorly sideways and full on the throttle through a few of the corners on the track! I also wasn’t going to shove the others out of the way and ruin their enjoyment, knowing I wasn’t going to get stuck behind them for long.
I was here to work a little and get some benefit from it, though…
I remember getting a good exit onto the start/finish straight, looking over to find the track ahead clear for most of the lap, and thinking “Right, let’s get a quick one in!”.
I scrapped the drifting, and used very delicate braking for the whole lap – just to see if I could get a faster time. This was Lap 9 – and I smashed my previously ‘unbeatable’ (for me!) time by a full second! And I still weigh the same as I did, then!
The other few clear laps I had I did the fun way – which felt faster to me, and wasn’t far off that time (a few tenths in it), but never bettered that Lap 9 time.
So, experiment concluded – keep it all in line for the best times!
Of course, I’m once again convinced that I’d need to lose weight in order to beat my best time – so it’ll be fun to go back again soon, and see if I can get under 26 seconds!
The original plan was to do this before jumping in the Vee, and then I would have a benchmark for driving a single seat racing car. I couldn’t book the day up until AFTER I should have had my first Vee race, but as it turned out, this all righted itself.
So I was up bright and early yesterday to be at Silverstone for 08:20 am.
The ‘Experience Centre’ is easy to find at Silverstone (just follow the signs to the right and over the bridge), and presenting a valid road license for signing on was quick and easy.
I’d taken my full race kit, but didn’t want to look like a Tit-Head, so decided to sign in and check out what everyone else was wearing/carrying. Nobody had anything at all with them, so I decided I’d use my own helmet, gloves and boots, but my three-layer race suit would be overkill. Silverstone provide gloves and helmets free of charge – but if you’ve got your own kit, you may as well use it!
There’s a half hour driver briefing with a video covering all the essentials like racing lines, flags, the track and braking and turning points/cones. It’s very good for novices, but if you hold a race licence you should really know this stuff already! The main difference from the ARDS test briefing was probably that you’re expected to do all your braking before you turn in to the corner.
Also, you can’t overtake anywhere on the track apart from on the straights and only on the left. The marshalls will show a blue overtaking flag to the car in front, who is expected to accelerate ‘more gently’ out of the corner to allow the car behind to pass safely. This does work wonders for safety, as you know nobody is going to try to come past you on the brakes, or pull a block pass mid-corner. The day works incredibly well because of this.
Next you go over to the Stowe infield circuit and meet the cars.
They’re special ‘Formula Silverstone’ cars – a 1.6 litre Ford Duratec engine and four gears on the right hand side, with treaded tyres and wings. They look the part, and I noticed the bodywork was pretty heavy duty, which I’m sure is part of having reliable cars that any old numpty can jump in and thrape around a circuit!
The cockpit was quite spacious, and much easier to get into and out of than the Sheane Formula Vee, but you felt very safe and secure even just using a four-point harness.
It’s a full racing clutch – so pretty much an on/off switch! You need to rev to around 5000rpm and very gently ease the clutch out until it punches you in the back and away you roar!
When I first slid into the cockpit I realised how much confidence I’d lost after spinning the Sheane. I had a bitter metallic taste in my mouth from adrenaline, and realised I’d put myself under serious pressure not to cock this up, and to prove that I actually CAN drive a racing car. I was much more nervous than sitting in the Vee for the first time.
All the cars went out in small groups, following single file behind an instructor in a Renault Clio. I was the lead car in my group, so headed out at what felt like a very slow pace.
Much like a Vee, you only really use first and second gears to get going, and the whole of Stowe was third and fourth gear.
After a few laps slowly building up the pace, we came into the pits, a different lead car went behind the Clio, and we went out again.
This pace was actually pretty perfect for all levels of driver. If you’re brand new to it all, you won’t be intimidated, and have plenty of time to learn the track and racing line. Even for me, once again having my Tom Cruise ‘crisis of confidence’, it settled me right down so I could concentrate on getting the feel of the grip and the responsive throttle.
Once more we came back to the pits, and then were let loose for the last 20 minutes on our own!
When you push the throttle down properly, it all gets a lot more hectic.
With the revs up you’re instantly lapping the circuit in less than half the time, and having to really stand on the brakes coming off the straights.
Out the pit lane you come down to an awkward entry to a left hairpin, with a late apex meaning you feed the power in onto the longest straight. Then you realise you’re being a wuss and squeeze the pedal more.
It’s a fair feeling of speed and a very bumpy journey as you ease the brakes on before you get to the ‘Brake Now!’ board, kicking yourself for not leaving it 50 metres later even as you slam it down to third gear and turn into the corner.
As you exit you drag it back to the left and dab the brakes again for a right hander, leading into a complex of corners all in third gear, some requiring a dab of brakes as you get later on in the session and pick up speed.
There’s another really awkward entry to the other hairpin, and it’s begging you to turn in too early, so you hold off and look for the yellow apex cone and bring it in to that, building power through a lovely left hander that snaps right onto the pit straight as you scream the revs up to fourth gear, braking hard but keeping as much speed as you can through a right-left s-bend back down to the first hairpin.
I was there to have fun, and pushed a fair bit with a few wiggles, but don’t think I ever strung a decent lap all together without hitting traffic (or missing a gear!), which I wish I’d concentrated more on, because in the debrief they hand you a printout of all your lap times!
I did ok, and I’m happy with my performance because I know there was a lot more to come.
As mentioned before, it ironed out some confidence issues both with driving itself, and also the big fear mentioned in previous blogs that my braking would be a major weak point. It wasn’t, and I was very comfortable with it, and willing to push much further than expected.
On about the only clear lap I had, I put in a 1:04, and although I did get caught in a fair bit of traffic, it looks like I got lucky with a very fast group, so didn’t get held up nearly as much as I’ve seen watching other peoples videos. That’s the chance you take with arrive-and-drive things.
So I’m feeling good about driving, and that should get me through to next years Formula Vee campaign. Shame there weren’t any spaces in the next session, or I may have had another go…
The full experience is available from Silverstone for around £199 – but you’ll find loads of vouchers, offers and cashback around to bring that down to around £140 – I bought mine through www.buyagift.co.uk. Then there’s the £20 damage waiver (it means you pay nothing if you kill the car), CD of top quality photographs for £20, and £30 for a full video of the day on a USB stick (plus you get £5 off the photographs with this). Not cheap, but welcome to motor racing!
