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James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

James Cater Racing

Tag Archives: vw camper

Dubtoberfest Festival 2016

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, sponsorship, Uncategorized

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2016, 750 motor club, dubtoberfest, festival, formula vee, mental breakdown dragster, throckmorton airfield, vw camper

Dubtoberfest Festival 2016

Racing Team Vee had the honour of being asked to display the Sheane at Dubtoberfest at the weekend.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is a great little festival for the VW camper van brigade, with a Bavarian theme and a family-friendly atmosphere, held at Throckmorton airfield near Pershore.

Displaying both the new JooVuu and RTV stickers in public for the first time, we joined Gary Richardson and David Leniewski with our three very different Vee’s on display.

With live music playing all through the day, loads of food on offer, a 2000hp ‘Mental Breakdown’ dragster, dog agility course, show & shine car competition, archery, and some rather nice partying each evening (in lederhosen, no less!), a great time was certainly had by all of us – and the equally friendly crowds of people seemed to be enjoying themselves just as much.

Some of them (including my beautiful fiancée, Julie) even got to experience riding on the Dodgems with a load of ultra-competitive Formula Vee racers!

It’s a great festival, still in its early days, and I’d heartily recommend it for next year!  In fact, thinking about it, this has been the first festival I’ve ever attended! 

Massive thanks to Damian Cottrell for the invite, organising things, and his hospitality!  As a racer himself (and pretty good by all accounts) and being a local, it’d be good to see him back out on a grid again soon!

I’ll leave you with some pictures from the weekend.

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

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Rules & Regulations

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#18, 750 motor club, confidence, formula vee, james cater, open wheel, preparation, psychology, qualifying, racing, snetterton 300, vw camper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of course, then I stalled it.

Silverstone International – Testing and Qualifying

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique

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Tags

750 motor club, doubt, driving, fast, first race, formula vee, piston failure, preparation, qualifying, rookie, silverstone international, skill, testing, vw camper

Silverstone International – Testing and Qualifying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I qualified 29th and 28th for the races.

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

I had to reset my brain.

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

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

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

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

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

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