Brands Hatch Race 2

So, Race 2!

Not a perfect start - the car was rolling (grid is on the downhill at Brands) and as a result of going onto the footbrake to stop this, did not get the revs right for the start - so a poor reaction time & lots of wheelspin!! This cost me one place, as the Raw Striker Challenge car (driven by Daniel Fergusan) came flying past...Into Paddock I went, with cars three-a-breast in front - Daniel on the outside, Guy in the middle and Stephen Ward on the inside, following closely by me on the outside with Ian Kempson on the inside! My god, busy bend!!! Just reaching the apex, I saw that Mark Alexander Williams had something of a tank slapper...and finally span into the infield, this meant most of us slowed, and then charged for the race to Druids (hairpin)...I exited Druids in 7th, so made up 3places....good stuff! Cars were three-a-breats out of Graham Hill bend, good god, heart stopper!! Going down the start-finish straight, I heard the all too familiar sound of a V8 thumping up behind me

, zoom went Mathew as his power advantage showed it's merit!

I could see that Steve Taylor and Guy Hussey were pulling a gap from the following pack of 5cars that were jostled for position at every bend, Steve Bell snuck through on the exit of Graham Hill and gained 7th relagating me to 8th place - for now. Despite numerous changes to improve the situation, I was still struggling to get the power down out of Clearways, and a gap clearly opened up on each lap. However, diving late onto the brakes into Paddock, I was able to catch up lost time. Really close, and fair racing for a few laps. I had a look up the inside of Steve Bell on the way into Clearways, but it wasn't quite on - not on this lap anyway. Steve Bell was able to get past Andrew Ward on the way up to Druids, Andrew back past again into Graham Hill, then Steve back past again on the exit - tight stuff. I then got past Andrew on the run into Druids

, and should have had a go with Steve too, but didn't - so made up a place. Then Andrew back past into Graham Hill, whilst just in front and at the same time Steve got past Mathew!!!!! This was turning into some battle. Next lap, Steve made an attempt up the inside of Mathew on the way into Graham Hill which didn't stick and cost him speed, I hooked up behind Mathew and slungshot past Andrew. So, into 7th - I think. Andrew got through on entry to Graham Hill, but I got back past on the exit. Spot the trend, will it ever end????
It all got a little interesting on the 2nd from last lap, Daniel got past Andrew on the entry to Graham Hill but caused them both to slow as a result, with Mathew following hot on their heals and me just behind. Both Mathew and I got past Andrew, and Mathew wass able to just sneak through the inside of Surtees to get past Daniel, but was carrying a lot of speed through the bend and slid round the entry of Surtees - meaning that he was too fast and offline, I thought that Mathew had recovered it and was all set for a fast line through Clearways when he missed his apex and started a monster and unfortunately unrecoverable slide that took him into the gravel trap. Daniel had slowed, and here was my golden opportunity - up the inside I went full power, charging through to 5th place and with a real run on both Daniel and Andrew who were now both behind. Whist I could see Steve Bell in my sights, there was insufficient to catch him. I settled in to 98% race speed and brought the car home safe and sound and in 5th place overall, 4th in class - a great result given a starting position of 10th place and the tough competition.
The car went very well, still room for some improvements, but excellent given the number of bits that have been off on the car, repaired, panel beaten, etc, etc it's a miracle that it even started!!!

Great job by everyone that came, and actually to all the other "Kits" drivers, really great driving standards from all.

Roll on Cadwell - aka the mini Nurburgring.

Brands Bo Selecta - Sunday 21st June 2009 - Big Al driving

So, how did the double header at Brands go??

Cheeky test day on Friday showed some really promising lap times, getting round the circuit quicker than ever before in our car.
Some subtle changes to the car set-up made it more forgiving on the limit, also a tad more friendly (less snappy).

Saturday soon rolled round, and into our practice session which had been combined with SR> qualifying bringing a total of 32cars onto circuit at once. This unfortunately meant that practice was very busy, with no clean laps and certainly no repeat of the fast lap times from Friday's test day. I got 9th place for Race 1 and 10th place for Race 2, not what I had hoped for, but given the busy and varying relative speeds in practice not at all surprising.

Race 1

9th place, means pitwall side of the grid and 5th row, and as it turns out downhill!! So, for the start, handbrake on a fraction to stop the car rolling and wait for the red lights. On they came, revs steady, then out and GO! Got a fantastic start, hooking up the initial traction just nicely before planting it and thrashing the car through it's gears up to max revs in third gear ready for the entry to Paddock - managing to get past Mathew Lewis in his MNR Vortex before Paddock. MAW and Steve Taylor had some contact heading off from the grid, but both carried on with no apparent issue. Nigel Brown got a great start and catapaulted himself up from 14th to 6th by Druids. Paddock was busy, very busy! Side by side with Stephen Bell round Paddock and into Druids, Steve just slipped past (My excuse: I'd been slightly put off by the amount of tyre smoke on entry to Druids and expected to find a car in two in track!)

Once back on the start-finish straight, the power advantage that a V8 offers became apparent - Mathew came stomping past, despite me having a great run out of Clearways - I guess those extra 4 cylinders create a few more of those desirable pigmy horses! As soon as we got to Paddock again though, it was very clear that Mathew's cornering speed is not as high as our lighter car's. I was hot on the heals of Matthew all the way round Paddock and Druids, he got a better run out of Graham Hill which opened up a gap - very handy since halfway round Graham Hill Mathew started an almighty slide which he did not recover - I jumped on the brakes and was ready to try and decide which way to dodge - left or right, to miss him, when BANG! - Ian Kempson who was following me, came straight into the back of my car and sent me into a real tank-slapper, fortunately I oscillated past Matthew 4 times without hitting him!! I could immediately hear bodywork dragging and see it flapping, so straight into the pits for a checkover. Des and Mike quickly repaired the car so that I could go out a do some hot laps, however the main pack were so far ahead that there was no chance of catching, got some clear laps, overtook a few backmarkers, and enjoyed the drive! No cigar though, finally finished 14th (last) due to the time in the pits having repairs!

Oh well, back to the pits for repairs and read for race 2 @ 1745....leaving us ~2hours to repair the car....So much for putting our feet up then...



Huge thanks to the support team - Des, Mike & Suz especially for keeping the car running! Jo, Oliver, Emma, Jason & Tina with Joshua and Brandon, Graeme, Steve & Suzanne and Nigel for their great support throughout the day. Nigel and Jason, have now attended two years in a row, and were successfully roped into car repairs again this year - thanks!!

Race 2 report and photos to follow...

Calamitous Cadwell

Following the mixed successes of the track day on the Tuesday, the following Sunday May 10th saw the return of our race car to racing duties at Cadwell Park. If the challenge of Cadwell wasn’t enough in its own right, with myself (Mike) at the wheel, the challenge was also to try to match Al’s excellent speed around the circuit, not only from last year’s event but also from Tuesday.

Upon arrival, it was clear that the weather had improved vastly from what greeted us earlier in the week and it looked set to stay dry all day, which it duly did. We were straight through safety scrutineeering and quickly into practice. I had left the car set-up with the same settings that Al finished with on Tuesday, and as it turned out, with have very differing driving styles. All last year we had suffered with turn-in understeer but that had been ironed-out very effectively with the winter updates. It appeared that Al likes the car to move about at the back more than I do as I found myself dealing with turn-in oversteer at virtually every bend. I tried to quickly get used to the setup but struggled to get enough clear space on track to put in a quick time. The session seemed to end very quickly and when the qualifying times were announced I was disappointed not to have posted a faster time. I was 9th and 7th on the grid overall for the first and second races respectively.

Having turned off the circuit at the end of practice, I was immediately ushered into the scrutineering bay for discussions on the new adornment at the front of the car. It was deemed we were eligible to race with it for this weekend and so after a period of slight apprehension, onwards we went.

Scrutiny of the on-board video showed that I needed to slow down the rate that I applied lock as I was unsettling the back of the car at corner entry, so I took that on-board but also tweaked the dampers to a slightly softer setting both front and rear. Hopefully that would help my confidence in the car.

It was a long wait of over five hours between the end of practice and the first race, but only a scheduled gap of just under an hour between the two races. Not ideal. Still, having checked the car fully and fixed the alternator plug that had become dislodged in practice, it was to the grid that I went. When the lights went out, I made quite a good start and made up a place almost straight away. I was being hassled through Charlies 1 and 2 by a faster-moving car behind but I covered my line coming into Park Corner. The car was lacking grip as the tyres were still coming up to temperature (the difference between cold and hot tyres is quite big on these Yokos) which was limiting my mid-corner speed. I managed to hold off the attack and on the next lap started pulling away quite easily now the tyres had some heat in them. The car felt much better suited to my driving and the improvement in my confidence was marked. After only a few laps I checked the lap timer and I was running nearly two seconds quicker than in qualifying but still some way off Al’s lap times. D’oh!

I had a great race with Chris Scopes for the majority of the first race and thought I could get through a couple of times when he ran wide through the Gooseneck, but I just couldn’t make it past. On the last lap, I got a great exit from Charlies 2 and was perfectly place din the slip stream to pass him. However he covered his line well and fairly into Park Corner and so I failed to get past him. However, I thought I had a great chance of gaining a trophy as I spotted that Andrew Ward had gone onto the grass at the exit of Mansfield. Suddenly a recovering Andrew, Chris and myself were line astern coming into the Mountain for the last time, but over-taking in that part of the circuit is tricky at best. As it happened, that’s the order we finished (behind Stephen Bell who took class honours). So a fourth in class finish (6th overall) and only a couple of seconds off second place after a 20 minute race. I was very pleased indeed. The car had been brilliant throughout as well.

After a necessarily hurried re-fuelling stop and check over, we were back to the grid for the second of our 20 minute races. This time I was two places further forward on the grid and with more confidence in the car. The start was momentarily delayed as Andy Hiley’s car was pushed off the grid after it stalled and failed to start again. I got a fantastic start and was right in the middle of the tightly bunched pack through the first lap. Coming through the mountain section I could see a fast moving Hiley gaining behind me (as it turned out Suz and Des had been able to bump-start his car in the pit lane). I pulled out of Barn and Andy was still some distance behind me. I carried on accelerating down the straight and saw he was catching me. He moved towards the inside of the track but I reached the turn-in point at Coppice first. As I turned in however, Andy moved inside of me. Not wanting to collide with him at over 100mph, all I could do was run wide and I ended up spinning off onto the grass, watching as almost the entire field drove past. I was furious as I was in a great position beforehand but now my race was in tatters.
All I could do was try to gain back as much time and places as possible. The car still felt good after the spin and so I was pretty sure no damage had been done. I overtook one car on the next lap and kept on pushing. I very quickly caught up with Rob Sinclair and Nigel Brown just in front of him. As we raced up through the mountain section, Rob attempted an ambitious overtake going into the Hairpin, but couldn’t avoid taking to the grass as he ran onto the marbles and unfortunately collided with the side of Nigel’s car. However, this caused both of their cars to stop in the middle of the circuit. I had nowhere to go and despite my best efforts to avoid a collision, I ran into the back of Rob’s car. D’oh!

As I moved off again, I could hear a great deal of scraping coming from the front of the car and so there had obviously been some damage. Fortunately for me, the pit lane was just around the next corner and so I coaxed the car towards the pit lane. I felt a bump from the right front tyre and looking in my rear view mirror showed that I had just run over part of our front splitter. That would be that broken then! As I called into the pits, Des and Suz came running over to assist me (Suzanne was laughing for some reason though…….why was that again?) but it was evident that it would take some time to secure the bodywork before carrying on again and so I decided to call it a day. Not the best end to a race day particularly following such a strong start in the second race, and of course some repairs to be done before the next outing for the car, this time with Al at the helm at Brands Hatch.

So thanks to all the team for helping get me to the grid but apologies for not bringing it home unscathed. I must try harder next time. Good luck to Al at Brands on the 21st of June. Mike