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!