Tag Archives: uk championship

The 2016 Ravenol Formula Vee Season is about to start!

15 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The 2016 Ravenol Formula Vee Season is about to start!

Even though the Winter ‘off season’ has lasted forever, it’s also suddenly gone, and on Saturday 20th March we’re back at Donington Park to race again!

In true tradition, we’re far from ready for it, but hope to be able to get the car back together in time.  Glenn should be getting the engine in today, and then we can look forward to a few late nights as we put the rest back together.

So what’s new for 2016?

We’ve remounted the engine, lowering the rear a little.  We haven’t remounted the front shocks, yet, so that will  be the same as last year for a while.  The bare aluminium sides are still there for now, but will also be getting painted yellow when we get chance.

We’re also hoping to have a very kindly helping hand from Chris ‘Vard’ Vardon in the paddock when he can, with another few offers to help out, from others.  That should make our life a lot easier between races!

There’s also an exciting new partnership with a company that you should see in place in time for Donington, and I should fall under the banner of Glenn’s race team.  This will lead to another car out on track before the end of the year, with a view to getting 4 cars out for the 2017 50 years of UK Vee celebrations!

The cars out for 2017 should be the Scarab in which Ian Flux and Glenn Hay both won the UK championships, with the other car being the Beech in which Jenny Nadin won the first ever Formula Vee race in the UK.

I’ll also be pushing more to raise my profile, looking for more sponsors (and trying some new things) and have already spoken to local newspapers to print some race reports, as well as a good few other ideas.

Mentally, I’ll be getting my head back in the game to hit the ground ready to build on last years pace (although we won’t have time to test before qualifying), and getting some iRacing laps in to see how that helps.

It’s hard to make much judgement from the entry list for this race, as I’m sure a lot of others are leaving things a bit late, but it seems most of the usual front-runners will be back to battle it out.  Paul Smith may be concentrating more on racing his Crossle this year, but Martin Farmer will do a few rounds when his HRX business allows.

James Harridge will be going all out, but so will Adam Macauley over from the Irish Championship, with Ben Miloudi back out in a newly built car as well.  Ian Jordon will be hoping to go one better this year, and I’ll be here all day listing the many drivers who are in with a realistic shout of winning the championship this year!

There’s a Harry Webb listed in Class B for AHS who may be one of the new ones to watch, and I’m sure the usual battles will rage all the way down the grid.

I’ll be aiming for the top 10 this year, and if I can get close to the top 3 in Class B whilst keeping things safely on my learning curve, I’ll be happy with that.  Not as happy as if it all comes together and I get some wins myself, though!

We’ll see… either way 2016 should be another great year!

2016 Calendar​

19/20 March – Donington Park​ National

23/24 April – Brands Hatch​ Indy

21/22 May – Croft​

12 June – Mallory Park​

16/17 July – Anglesey (Coastal)​

20 August – Silverstone (International)​

24 September – Snetterton​ 300

 

My First Race Is Approaching!

22 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

My First Race Is Approaching!

“Life is racing.  Anything before or after is just waiting” – Steve McQueen


After a lot of waiting as my car is being built and prepared, a lot has happened all of a sudden.

We decided to set a target of entering the last round of the UK Formula Vee Championship at Donington Park on 4/5 October 2014.  It would still be a bit tight, but having a target forces you to push, so with exactly one month to go, I paid my entry fees… and then went to Spain for a couple of weeks.

This meant that whilst Glenn was working away at the car, I still hadn’t even sat inside it yet – until only last night, with less than 2 weeks before the first race!


I was expecting the car to feel uncomfortable and awkward, and was pleasantly surprised to find it quite comfortable.  The seating position is almost perfect for me for the steering wheel and pedals, and once I’d contortioned myself around the chassis and dropped into the seat the car fit me quite well.

I did find that changing from 3rd to 4th gear means my knuckles brush against a metal tube, so will be expecting a bit of pain after a few hours pounding around trying not to cock up the right handed gear shifts.

Which leads me nicely on to testing.

We are hoping to do the morning session at Mallory Park in *panics a bit* 2 days time!  This looks a bit tight, so we may revise that and try and get a day at Llandow.  Failing that, it will have to be the test day at Donington Park 2 days before the actual race!

I’m prepared to do that, but I think things would be much better if I can have some time in the car just to get used to the feel of it.  I have no idea what to expect from a single seat race car – except that it will be very different to anything I’ve ever experienced before.

If I can get a few hours driving on my own, and be comfortable with that, then maybe I can aim to do more at Donington than stay out of everyone’s way and get the car home in one piece.

I hope to get cameras onto the car (or even a helmet camera) for the testing, so that will be up on YouTube, and will also be studied to help me improve as much as I can in this short window we have before the race.

I’m not expecting to sleep much before that!

Formula Vee – The New Attack Plan

25 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Formula Vee – The New Attack Plan

 

So, you may have noticed my posts dried up about my start to racing.

I didn’t crash and explode in my first race, or anything exciting – in fact, I had to write off the 2013 racing season.

The Ray and the Sheane Formula Vee cars are both still in pieces.  The Ray, from the Mallory Park crash at the end of 2012, and the Sheane because we’re dropping the ride hight at the rear, and adding some extra strength to the rear of the chassis.

This all would have been done and dusted, but unfortunately, ‘life’ got in the way a bit, and due to work commitments and illness of family members, Glenn hasn’t been able to do as much to the cars as he’d anticipated.

Whilst this is frustrating for me, I fully understand and support his decisions.  He’s giving me an awesome opportunity to drive one of his cars, and so I’m more than happy to wait until next season.  I’ll also have more budget for a proper attack at Formula Vee, rather than maybe a single round or two.

Formula Vee has been in a bit of turmoil for the last few years.  It’s not something I want to go too deeply into here, because it feels wrong to talk about this to ‘outsiders’.  Basically, some competitors have been taking some liberties with the rules and/or the outright spirit of Vee as a cheap and tightly controlled series.  Many felt the 750 Motor Club were sorely lacking in the way it was all handled.

It’s no secret that a lot of the competitors were unhappy, and I know for a fact that this all contributed towards a lack of motivation with Glenn as well as some of those competitors.

However, I am now pleased to say that rules have been clarified, changes have been made, and the future for Formula Vee looks great, once again!

I’ve been to a few rounds this year, and found that rather than seeing any of the racing that I’d paid for, I spent the whole days chatting to other drivers and people from the Vee circles – literally only watching the Vee races when there was nobody left to talk to as they were on track.  The worst thing about this, is that I really bloody enjoyed it!

Looks like I’ll fit right in with them!

I have kept up my gym membership, and although I haven’t even been karting for a long time, I find visualising the view from a Vee cockpit when I’m running on the treadmill gives me a massive burst of energy.  It’s why I’m there, and if I can lose a few stone it can only be a good thing.

So for 2014 my eyes are back on the target.

There will be a race in June at Castle Coombe, which may be a good target for my first race.  It’s also Rob Cowburn’s home race, so hopefully he’ll be back in the car and we can do a 1-2 finish!

I’m thinking about grabbing one of the Experience Days whilst they’re cheap over Winter – but I’m not sure how much driving a Ferrari will teach me, and having seen the single-seater experience at Silverstone, they seemed so slowwwwww I think I’d end up headbutting the steering wheel in frustration – so I’ll have to see…

Either way, I still want it.  In the worst possible way.

car