Sixth at Silverstone

For two thirds of the season, I have been watching uncle Mike and Big Al zoom round the various circuits of the UK, chalking up impressive results at the wheel of the MAD-Racing Phoenix. By saving my races until the end of the season I of course had the benefit of a more developed car, but obviously the additional challenge of remaining patient whilst Mike and Big Al had all the fun!

So this weekend, I finally got my chance to race our car. How would it compare to Locost racing? How rusty would my racecraft be? How would I get on at a circuit I had never driven before?

The weekend started on Thursday night as Jo, Oliver and I set off for the Midlands, where Big Al's parents live. After a two-hour drive and a few hours sleep, the alarm went off, signalling the start of the test day. It was back to the old Des and Al Racing days in many ways, as just myself and Big Al set off for Silverstone. I had done a bit of swatting up from some video footage I found on the Internet, but Big Al made things really easy for me by insisting that I didn't touch the car and instead spent an hour wandering round the track on foot getting some idea of where all the braking and turn in points would be. So, track map in hand, I lined up in the pitlane ready for my first session at Silverstone. Quick pep talk from Big Al, and I was off. The first couple of laps were just finding my way round the circuit, and all was going swimmingly when I noticed the rear panel of the bodywork was flapping in the breeze. A quick visit to the pits for a couple of fasteners to be reattached and I was back out on to the track.

The Silverstone circuit is all about power, there are really only three braking points. The first is the fairly awesome Copse Corner which you approach at 125 miles an hour, hit the brakes a whisker before the 50m board, and turn in towards a blind apex at 85 miles an hour, pulling roughly 1.3 G. As you head off towards the entrance to Maggots, reaching about 115 miles an hour before having to brake in a left-hand bend and head into the 60 mile an hour right-hand kink. The exit from this corner is absolutely critical, as it leads you on to the back straight. You snatch fifth gear for just a few seconds before again braking from 115 miles an hour down to 65 miles an hour in a straight line, and then still decelerating as you head into the late apex left-hander of the complex. The briefest squirt on the power before you brake and turn in to the unfeasibly long Luffield corner - at this point it feels like you have almost slowed to a crawl, although the data log shows that you still doing around 50 miles an hour. This final corner is all about balancing the car, and trying to get the power down as early as possible, without running wide.

In my first session, I managed a fairly encouraging 1:06.48, and survived one of the longest racing slides I can remember, as I put a wheel on the astroturf exiting Copse - note to self astroturf is slippy!

Once the session was finished, Big Al ran around checking of the car and, in what seems like no time I was out again - I tried a few modifications to my lines, and was more aggressive into the bends, but did not manage to go any quicker than in my first session. A quick, Conflab with Big Al in between, session 2 and 3, and I was out for my final session of the test day - I felt I had really improved my exit from Maggots, and was getting braver into Copse, but a combination of small mistakes and traffic meant that, again, I did not improve on my first session time. I was a little frustrated as I felt sure I could get our car into the 1:05.xx’s but had not quite managed it.

The afternoon was spent taking Oliver to a local kids activity farm with Al’s family, before hitting the pub for tea, and then getting in a good early nights sleep.

Race day arrived with the normal bleep of the alarm clock, and within a few minutes Big Al and I were in the Galaxy heading back to Silverstone. Al got to work prepping the car for scrutineering, as I swatted up on my track map. Bang on time Uncle Mike and JB arrived and took the car to be scruitineered whilst Big Al and I reviewed yesterday's video footage.

I donned my race overalls one more time and headed out into practice, with just one thought in my mind - get the car round Silverstone in less than one minutes six seconds! In the event, it took me six laps before the lap time showed the magic number of 1:05.98 - objective achieved! The rest of practice was reasonably uneventful, with me in plenty of clean air, and although I managed a number of laps in the very low 1:06.xx’s I couldn't beat my lap six time.

When the results came out, I can't deny a little disappointment at being 11th on the grid, and 7th in class - I really felt I had driven the wheels off our car, but still had only achieved 7th fastest! The leaders were 0.6 of a second quicker than me, and I really had no idea where to find that additional time!

Once the adrenaline had worn off, and another look at the video footage with Al, which showed a couple of areas where I could improve my lines, particularly on the way into some of the fast corners, nothing major, but every 0.1s counts!

Uncle Mike, JB, Big Al, and I celebrated a successful practice by hitting the canteen for our lunch. Three Chilie’s and a Lasagne later, we found ourselves back in pit garage, wondering what to do next. It was at that point that the largest support team I can ever remember at a Mad-Racing event arrived! We had Liz, Mel, Jo, Suzie Sue, Oliver, Polly, Jon, Tom, Cheryl, David, Lindsay, Pippa, and Vicky - all coming along to cheer for yours truly.

In no time at all I was strapped back into our car heading out on to the grid for my first race start in five years. 30 seconds, car into gear, five seconds, revs up, red lights, go! I got a bit too much wheel spin off the line and lost the place I think, but moved right to protect my inside line into Copse. As I grabbed second year, I saw the rear panel fly off the car in front, and wedge itself underneath our car - I gave the steering a quick wiggle, and could feel nothing wrong, so carried on regardless. As we entered Copse, I had Big Al's final pep talk words, ringing loud in my ears - take it easy on the first lap! I was glad of his advice as the car in front, disappeared in a cloud of tyre smoke, and I think another car span off in front of me - the mayhem continued as we headed into Maggots, I only just managed to slow the car down on its cold tyres, and another car span right into my path! I have to confess that I don't really remember too much about the remainder of the lap! My recollection comes back a couple of laps later, when have found myself in a reasonable gap with Steve in one of the Procomp cars a couple of seconds ahead of me, as a monitored the situation. I could see I was catching the car, but twice in succession I ran wide at Copse losing all the time I had made up ground the rest of the lap. I finally caught the car heading into the complex. I considered the overtake under braking, but decided I was a little too far back, and backed out early, leaving what I thought was plenty of room, however Steve chose to Apex really early, presumably to protect his line - something which I did not expect him to do, and unfortunately I just tapped his rear left with my front right - nothing serious, but just enough to spin me through 90°….. I quickly recovered and didn't lose a place, and as I checked my lap time had only lost four seconds - an annoying error on my part, but one which could have been avoided if Steve had given me just one more inch of room.

A couple of laps later, there was yet more fun at the same corner, as the number 11 car came up behind me on the straight, I moved left to protect the inside line, forcing him to go round the outside into the complex, I left my braking absolutely as late as I dared, and to my amazement, the number 11 car sailed past me for another 20 odd metres before hitting the brakes - surely he couldn't make the corner, breaking there? - indeed he couldn't, and after watching his valiant fight for control, I had a front row seat as the car disappeared into the grasps of the gravel trap!

After those two events, the rest of the race was relatively uneventful - I got overtaken by one of the class B cars, but apart from that was very much on my own holding position. I eventually took the flag, 6th in class.

All in all, it was an awesome couple of days racing, and although my target was to finish in the top five, I was quite happy with sixth place. If I'm honest, I had forgotten quite how hectic racing wheel to wheel really is, and how different the skill set required is compared to just putting in a fast lap on your own! I'm really looking forward to sharpening up my race craft over the next couple of races!

Special thanks as always to Big Al, Uncle Mike, and JB for doing such an excellent job setting up and maintaining the car. And a second mention for the enormous cheerleading crew - it really is awesome to have so many people coming along to cheer me a lot - so a heartfelt thank you to you all!

The next race is at Oulton Park on the 6th of September - see you there!

Silverstone Times - Saturday 23rd August

0925 Scrutineering
1030 Practice
1510 Race

Go Des!!!!

Des takes the baton:

Okay, we'll it seems like a long time in the making, but finally it is my turn to take the wheel of the mad racing wagon!

Having watched both Mike and Al flying round the various circuits of the UK in our car, it's fair to say that I have been chomping at the bit on the get a seat in the car. In many ways, it's probably fair to say I'm the lucky one - the car has come on in leaps and bounds since we first bought it back in February, and of course I have had none of the donkey work developing it into the lean mean racing which it is today!

I have not bothered to count exactly how long it been since I last took to circuit in a race car, but somewhere in the region of five years, so I was expecting to be a little rusty. I took the liberty of studying Al’s race footage from Brands Hatch in order to get me up to speed - so as soon as I got into the car I had a good idea of where to brake, when to turn in, and where to change gear etc.

Within what seemed like seconds of arriving at the circuit, JB was hoiking down the shoulder straps on the harness, and I was off.

The first three laps were behind the course car a ducks and Drakes introduction, and boy did I need it - by the time I had done three laps, I still haven't been above 4000 revs or use more than half throttle.

The first 10 laps were just me getting used to the car - it felt great, but at the same time quite an alien place to be - I certainly haven't felt a car cornering with such g force for a while!

A quick pit stop, just to collect my thoughts, grab a bit of fuel and I was out again - I was starting to get used to the car and explore the potential - it is one quick machine!

The middle session went really without note, I was just starting to build up speed and get a feel for what the car does on the limit - it wasn't really until the third session that the fun really started.

By the third session I started to feel everything was coming back - sure, my driving still left a little bit to be desired in terms of track position and consistency, but my confidence in sliding the car round, moving it into understeer and oversteer was coming back -- mainly due to the incredibly friendly nature of car for a race car. It really is quite amusing how gently it moves into oversteer!

The one thing you really notice on a track day is the speed of properly set up most versus everybody else there - our car is like a rocket ship – F355 challenge car on slicks? Easy! 911 turbo? Get outta my way! A slight flipside is that it is also quite frightening! Pinning the throttle to the metal all the way through fourth gear and into fifth before braking hard for paddock hill bend has to be one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life so far! – awesome!
My other highlight is our car's ability to drive the whole of clearways with no lock on, just using the throttle to steer the car - not always the fastest way round the bend, but awesome fun!

I must also dedicate a paragraph to the team - Big Al and JB were fantastic! I felt like I was part of an arrive and drive team. I swanned round in my fancy overalls, did no work on the cars and just came in complain about the understeer. The boys worked tirelessly to make the whole evening a resounding success! Ta Lads!

All in all, I had a fantastic evening, our little race car is brilliant! And I can't wait for my next go at Silverstone in a couple of weeks - hopefully see some of you there!

A few key notes:
The driving position is great - thanks for the spacer Dad!

The car sucks on cold tyres!

Understeer, understeer, understeer! Turn in, mid-corner and exit!
It is possible to move the car into oversteer, using the throttle, but the native balance is towards the understeer. That said, I can't deny that the understeer gave me an awful lot of confidence through paddock hill, but a bit less would be good. I wonder if compliance in the bushes is causing the front wheel to lose camber control under heavy load???? Perhaps we can set up a video camera to investigate this?

Rear wheel spinning up: it is only really a problem if either you hit a kerb, or the car is in oversteer before you hit the throttle.

Brakes: the brake balance is very far forward, meaning you can do a crazy amount of Trail braking - this helps the turning, but of course as soon as you come off the brakes, The understeer returns.

The brakes seem to lack bite, the power is there, but whatever reason it seemed to take me a long time to build the car up to full braking potential - I think with more confidence in the brake pedal. I could break a lot later for both paddock hill, and the hairpin.

Forgiving nature: I'm not sure from losing the plot here, but I'm sure race cars shouldn't be as forgiving as our car is - we know, the car is really soft, and perhaps this is part of it, but I really remember our locost being a much edgier drive. That said, maybe i'll feel differently when there are 20 other kit cars heading for the same bit of track!

Desy F takes to the racecar wheel.....for the first time in 4 years!

Desy F, aka "F" took to the wheel of "Mike Wizowsky" for the first time yesterday.
All went well and the car behaved like a beauty (well what would you expect with JB and Al spannering)!

Some photos can be found at the link below:-

Photies from Brands

Bruce's (Northern Mad-Racing TC Guru) custom steering boss is a work of art, and something to be admired!

Des' report to follow.....when time permits.

Al

Mallory Majesty – Well Yes, really!

One practice, two races, a 3rd place, a 4th place, whatever next?

A fine sprinkling of rain greeted us at Mallory on Sunday 3rd August for Al’s final two races of the season. The car had undergone a bunch of fairly major changes prior to Mallory, and although the calculations showed the car should be infinitely better, the lack of a test day meant that the car was unproven with the new set-up……..eek.

Practice came and went, and was uneventful, but somehow busy, meaning that I didn’t get a clear lap. Every time I thought “this is the one”, something would happen to scupper it – yellow flag, backmarker, spinner, damn! The car handled brilliantly throughout, and is now a real weapon, so that was great news.

Practice results were out, I had qualified 11th out of ~20 cars. Not my best, not my worst!

So onto the 1st race, I got a great initial start, but failed to engage 2nd gear straightaway and so lost two places. There a few words that describe the frustration of missing a gear, but none that are publishable here! I slotted into the pack going into Gerard’s and held my position. Had a good battle with Steve Bell (Sylva Striker) & another Striker style, white car and jostling for places for a few laps, then managed to pull a gap and found some free space. Not too much happened for the rest of the race, and brought the car home 3rd in class and 6th overall. A very nice result!

2nd race came around soon enough. Going round to form-up I felt the tyres were really “cold” and were low in grip levels, so some enthusiastic weaving and practice starts to try and get some warmth into the tyres. Lined up on the start, and away we went! Hooked up a great start (got 2nd gear this time!!), both Rob Johnston and I got past the two cars in front of us (Jim Goodwin and Mark Alexander Williams), and slotted in for Gerard’s (probably up to 3rd place here?) Jim was able to sneak through on the way around Gerard’s and I held Mark off until John Cooper Esses where he slipped past on the outside - a very good move, but I shouldn’t have let him through! Flying up into the hairpin, hard on the brakes, something peculiar happened (!!) that saw me steering left to avoid the cars in front and taking to the grass. A couple of seconds off-roading (my argument was that I was trying out the new dampers!) and I was back onto the circuit. What a muppet, that oversight cost me valuable seconds and places. I can only conclude that the tyres were not fully heated and that I had outbraked myself…Damn, damn, damn. I started my charge to try and catch back up with the front runners, but it was going to be tough – very tough. Caught and jostled with Nigel Brown for a couple of laps, then got past on the way into Gerards, in the distance I could see Rob Johnstone, and was catching, but slowly – we were clearly both lapping at about the same pace. So this was the order in which we were to finish, I finished up 4th in Class for race 2, however I am sure that barring any disasters and had I not gone on the grass on the 1st lap, this could have been a 3rd place, and perhaps even a challenge for 2nd place. Nevermind, it was a great days racing, the car is a huge improvement from before, a 3rd and a 4th place is excellent and I had a great final meeting of the season. So all in all a huge success and very enjoyable.

Massive thanks go to JB and Des for their spannering all day at Mallory – all I had to do was drive, which takes a huge amount of pressure off me. Of course, the whole team need a mention for their support of me throughout the 2008 season, so a big round of applause to Des, JB, Jo, Oliver, Bob2, Mel, Liz, Mike and Suz for all their support, help, food, drink & encouragement throughout!

Next event is Silverstone on 23rd August...

Al