The Green Machine Returns to the Track

After a long winter break (during which saw the arrival of a new car to the MAD-racing stable in the form of Suz's Locost), the green machine finally turned a wheel in anger at Mallory Park on April 5th with me (Mike) at the wheel. The lead up to the test day at Brands Hatch on April 1st was in the usual style of everything being finished at the last minute (well that's motorsport for you) with Al, Des, JB and myself pulling a late night on Tuesday in preparation.

There were lots of changes to be tried at Brands including new lighter brakes, new suspension bushes, new alternator, a rear anti-roll bar and lots of other bits of (top secret) tweakery. It was my first time behind the wheel since my Anglesey races in July last year and much had changed since then. So it was with slight trepidation that I belted myself in to Kermit and took to the track for the first time. After a warm-up lap, I started to pick up the pace, overtook a Caterham and then promptly spun across the grass onto the outside of Clearways. Great start! I'd never driven such an oversteering car and now I was slightly afraid. A quick check in the pits by the crew of Al, JB and Suz quickly found the root cause of the lairy handling being that the front dampers had been wound to zero. That'll do it then! After setting them to actually do some damping, I was back out on track and picking up speed more successfully.

JB and Al were making blind set-up changes to the suspension and I was attempting to feed back what the car was doing beneath me in an attempt to give some honest feedback. This of cause meant I needed to be on the ball.....which I didn't really manage to do all day. Still, the day ended on a high (despite an alternator bracket failure earlier on) with the decision made to skip the anti-roll bar and leave the car basically as it was at the end of last season. Roll on Mallory then.....

In the usual tradition of last minute working, I eventually finished bolting on the newly catalysed back-box and tow loops and we loaded the car on the trailer at 9.30pm on Saturday night. Just-in-time. I met up with JB and Des at the gates of Mallory the next morning and the race day had begun.

Following signing-on, I walked the track whilst JB and Des moved the car through scrutineering. Kits were out first for practice. The car immediately felt fast, grippy and fun. I put in a couple of slower laps and then started picking my pace up. What I wasn't expecting though was the coolant temperature warning flashing at me on the display after only 7 or 8 laps. Something was evidently very wrong. I coasted round for half a lap which brought the temperature down from 120C to 105C and I pulled in to the pit lane. It became clear that the car had bolied over and we had lost coolant. That was the end of practice for me.

An investigation in the paddock found the water pump inlet pipe was collapsing at higher engine revs, so that was reinforced internally with a a coil of brake pipe inserted just before the pump inlet. We were hopeful this would fix the problem. My qualifying times had me starting 13th and 11th for the two races which was a little disappointing but understandable given the short practice session. The first race quickly came round and as I lined up on the grid, I was mindful of watching the coolant temp. My first couple of laps were quite eventful with a car spinning in front of me on the exit of the Devil's Elbow in a real heart-in mouth and "which way should I move" moment. And then I came across a car parked mid-track facing the wrong way at Gerard's. Still, I picked my way through and carried on. Unfortunately, a look at the dash showed that the cooling issue hadn't been resolved and the coolant temperature was rising again. In the end I had to keep backing off the power every couple of laps to bring the temperature down and then I could race for another lap, before backing off again. Really frustrating and I didn't feel I was really part of the race. Still, I eventually crossed the line in fourth in class which was much better than I had expected given the problems.

Lunchtime was spent trying to find the root of the cooling problem and more minor changes were made and we hoped again that the car would run cooler during race number two. I got a fantastic start when the lights went out at the beginning of the 2nd race and was challenging right in the middle of the pack. However, after a few laps a quick glance at the coolant temperature saw that the problems hadn't been fixed and the engine was once again running hot. I decided to call it a day after just five laps and pulled in to the pit lane and retired from the race. That was only the second retirement from a race I had made in over four years of racing so I wasn't used to the frustration of watching a race I should have been in. After the preparations at Brands I had been really hopeful of a strong running at Mallory but it just wasn't to be my day.

Thanks to all at MAD racing for your efforts in getting me and the car to the grid. Hopefully we'll have a better outcome at the next event. Mike

February 2009 Update

The MAD-Racing team have been a little bit quiet on the e-waves over the winter of 2008/2009. You can rest assured that there has been quite some activity going on in the background, a quick flavour:-
Rear axle off, lightened, re-painted, ARB in preparation, new rear wheel bearings.
New halfshaft!
Rear bulkhead off, new seat mountings, bulkhead replaced.
Wiring loom stripped out, & replaced.
Steering column mounting replaced
Front bushes
General weight saving (car was 28kg over weight at the end of 2008 season)

Huge thanks to the Mad-Racing Northern Technical Centre, aka “Bruce”, who has once again come to the rescue with a bundle of milling, turning & any other technical jobs!! Huge thanks Bruce!

Most of the winter works are done, or are mainly done, and the car is planned to be back in action in March 2009. With this bundle of changes, the team hope to propel the car to an even higher position that during the 2008 season.

Pls find a few photos of the rebuild below.

Mad Racing 2008 Video Compendium

Shhhhhhh......! Keep the noise down!

If you need to reduce your tailpipe noise from 107 dB to 100.82 dB, first you'll need a frozen apple pie. Remove the pie from the foil tray, discard the apple pie but punch three 6mm holes in the tray........

Watch Des At Snetterton (Race 2)

3rd Overall!

Okay, so by reading the blog, you know, where we came during our individual races during the 2008 series, but now all races have been completed. How did we do overall?

 Here are the stats:

Position	Name	Points
1st	Andy Hiley	192
2nd	Steve Taylor	119
3rd	Mad Racing Combined	108
3rd	Jim Goodwin	108
4th	Stephen Bell	77
5th	Colin Benham	54
6th	Anton Landon	45
7th	Guy Hussey	44.5
8th	Michael Coomber	44
9th	Stephen Lansley	42
10th	Erik Fairbairn	35
11th	Alex Jullien	31
12th	Rob Johnston	29
13th	Paul Cooper	29
14th	Adrian Cooper	27
15th	Chris Scopes	26
16th	Jason Stirzaker	25
17th	Andrew Ward	24.5
18th	Brian Smith	24
19th	David Aspden	22
20th	Matt Jones	14
21st	Tony Southgate	9
22nd	Robert Horton	6
23rd	Martin Tyman	1

So in the individual drivers championship  for 2008,

• Our leading man was Uncle Mike.
  
• In silver position we have Des,
  
• and stood on the podium in third, we hve Big Al

Perhaps more importantly, however if we combine each of our race results we have come third overall - not bad for our first season in the championship!

 We should all be very chuffed with ourselves!

 Watch out next year, everybody……. 

Des Wraps up the year in style at Snetterton

It seems like only a couple of weeks ago, that we were picking up our snot green kit car from its previous owner, and yet here we are today packing all the gear into the galaxy for the final race of the season at Snetterton.

The staff of the matter racing technical centre had been very busy over the past couple weeks, so we had to key changes to test on our car. Firstly Big Al had fitted some smaller master cylinders in an attempt to increase my confidence in the brake pedal, and secondly JB had made it a diffuser for the rear of the car especially for Snetterton as it is the highest speed circuit which we go to during the year.

For the Friday test, it was just the original racing team of me and Big Al in attendance. Big Al had a very busy week, and I was suffering from an acute bout of man flu, so we were hoping for a very easy day out. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite like that. Instead of us testing the car, the car spend the entire day testing us!

First off, as we try to put the car on the trailer at the technical centre and Big Al noticed that the exhaust pipe snapped, and so instead of setting off plenty of time. We had to strip down the left-hand side of the car, weld up the exhaust pipe, create a new bracket and fit it all back on. All in all, it took us about two hours, and despite some swift towing, we arrived at the circuit just as our first test session was going out.

After all the pre-driving checks, signing on, noise testing etc had all been completed. There was still about 20 minutes of the session remaining, so with a gulp of lemsip, and a hearty shove from Big Al, I sped out onto the circuit. After less than a lap, I had to come back into the practice as the new diffuser was rubbing on the rear tyres - a quick fine adjustment with a hammer by Big Al, and I was back out onto the circuit, only to be met by a red flag. The first session was a complete write-off. I think we only completed three laps all of which were on cold tyres.

At least we now had a couple of hours to get the car ready for the final session of the afternoon. The final session was much better. The new master cylinders had improved the brake pedal enormously. I'd even go as far as to say it is the single biggest improvement we have made to the car this season. I could now nail my breakpoints with plenty of confidence and hold the car on the point of locking its wheels without too much problem. Hopefully this would now be like attack into the bends, whereas at Oulton Park I was finding that difficult.

Another small problem, or to send after 20 minutes, but a quick fix was always by Big Al and I was out for another 10 minutes at the end of the session. Not the best testing session is ever had, but at least all the problems happened in testing so hopefully the car would be hundred percent reliable for racing.

We parked my car next to the Cherrington team home, and set off back to the Cogg.

A quick snooze later, and JB and Big Al knocked on my door at 5:45. We were off racing!

Because he had a doubleheader, we were first into scrutiny in, and first practice session. As I have been testing the day before, I was keen to get out early in the practice session and have a clear track. The boys did a fabulous job and I was in the assembly area first. Ready for art session. But mostly we had a long wait as the morning mist had failed to lift from Snetterton, and we had to wait for 90 minutes until the track cleared sufficiently to allow racing to commence. 

I shut out of the pit and started my first lap practice, taking each of the corners gently breaking nice and early to get some heat into the tyres. The second lap, I started putting a little harder just to get the tyres up to full racing temperature, everything was feeling good as I rounded Coram and braked nice and early for Russell, however, halfway through my braking zone. The front wheel suddenly locked, followed by the rear is before I had time to react, and I was spinning off onto the grass. Someone must have dropped some oil in the braking zone as two more cars followed me off in a synchronised spin. I was really annoyed at myself at first, as I was out at the front of practice and had an entirely clear circuit, which is exactly what you want to set a fast time, although in retrospect, it would be difficult for me to predict that someone had dropped oil. That wasn’t there the previous lap! Anyway, I was now at the back of the chain of cars, and hence would find it difficult to get a clear lap. I pull out the remainder of the lap as slowly as possible in order to find as much track space as I could before getting my foot down and try to set a time.

I think it's fair to say that it wasn't my finest hour. I didn't make any howling mistakes, but my brain felt a bit fuzzy, and not once did I get that lovely feeling when you know you have absolutely nailed corner. The entire lap timer confirmed my feelings, by the end of the session. I was a full second slower than it had been in practice the previous day.

I came in and shared the bad news with the guys. The team is always brilliant at times like this, they always have encouraging words to say and spend an hour with the car, pretending to find things, which would explain your crap performance, but at the end of the day, you know that all the boys have spent hours getting the car ready, and you feel bad for not doing your bit as driver by getting the maximum out of the car.

The results sheet came out, and I was a rather disappointing 12th and 8th in class some three seconds off the pace.

I had a quick snooze in the tent, and before I knew it was wheel spinning my way to the line ready for race one. 

30 seconds, five seconds, red lights, go! I got an awesome start, collecting a couple of places off the line, only to throw it all away by missing second gear, and breaking way too early into turn one. It took the usual first lap to settle down, but after that. I quickly got into a nice rhythm and was really enjoying myself. A quick check of my lap timer confirmed that not only was having fun, but I was flying round the circuit two seconds quicker than I had in practice – excellent! Snetterton is not my favourite circuit, but it does give exciting racing due to the length of the Straights and hence the importance of getting a slipstream from the car in front. Through a combination of nifty overtakes, and a couple of retirements. I found myself in a similar place to Oulton Park, in the midst of an epic battle between Rob Johnson and Jim Goodwin. The places were changing, each lap, but as the race went on. It appeared that robs car was going off, allowing myself and Rob to nip through and pull out a bit of a gap. We stopped places at a number of times by slipstream each other down the back straight, but, from my Locost days . I knew the way to beat him was to make sure I was behind him as he started the final lap, and hence could get the slipstream down the back straight, block him at the bomb whole and be in the lead at the finish line, and that is exactly how it happened! In fact, as I crossed the line. I was only a few tenths behind Guy in his red Silva striker, so I knew for race two, he was the target!

I'm so busy in my little race. I did not actually know where I finished overall, so wasn't until the results sheet came out. I discovered I had come out forth in class - not bad, given my ropey qualifying!

Another snooze, and some more tempering with the cars by the boys trying to get rid of some turn in oversteer, which was causing me a little bit of grief, and I was on the grid for race two.

I got another demon start, and this time didn't miss any gears, and before long, was again battling with Guy and Jim for third and fourth and fifth. It was a great battle, with Guy having a little more performance out of the bends, but with our car catching as the speed got higher, however, I couldn't make the overtake stick on the back straight . As our car hit the rev limiter in top gear about 300 m before the end of the straight just when I needed an extra couple of miles an hour to nip past under the bridge. 

After a few laps of trying, I finally got in under the breaks into turn one, I missed my apex, but Guy managed the situation perfectly, and although we were both rather wide, we shot through the corner, the exiting with me in the lead. My glory was short lived, however, as Guy outbreaked me into Sear and took back the position – bugger!

I got alongside Guy on the main straight couple more times but each time was scuppered by hitting the rev limit - I was sure I was very slightly quicker than Guy over a whole lap, but just couldn't make the pass. On the last but one lap, I turned in to aggressively into Sear and lost the back end, the resulting slide, meaning I was slow on to the back straight, allowing Jim to get alongside and passed.

The last lap board was out, and I got an excellent exit from Sear this time write-up on to the bumper of Jim and Guy, but again, my red limiter meant I could not get past, but I noticed both of them had gone into the corner at the end of the straights to quickly and hence made a big mess of the following right-hander - I had a quick look into the bomb hole, but it wasn't on. - only one chance left - the exit from Russell. I braked a little earlier, in order to leave a tiny bit of space on the hope that one of them would make a small mistake, and true to my dreams, Jim got a big slide on allowing me to out drag him to the finish line - it was a photo finish, but the results sheet showed me ahead by 100th of a second, to take another fourth-place!

It was a great race, and especially given my qualifying position, I was made up with a fourth-place. I'm sure that third place was on the cards in both races , with a couple of tweaks to the car, but even so, fourth-place having started dating class is still a result!

As always, special thanks must go to the rest of the team and of course, the extended mad racing support network: Uncle Mike, Suzie Sue, JB, Big Al, Jo, and of course The Little “O”

See you all next year.

Des's bid for a trophy at Oulton....

Better late than never Des's report from Outlon :

It has been four years since I last pedalled a race car round Oulton Park in Cheshire, and it was a skeleton team who headed up to Oulton Park of the penultimate round of the kit car championship

 As we arrived at circuit on Friday morning, it was quite clear that we were in for one of the wettest days racing that we have ever done. We quickly decided that would be an extremely miserable day, unless we have a garage, so quickly found one of the RGB Raith and negotiated a garage share deal to keep is dry. JB did his usual fantastic job, running round getting the car ready whilst I took the liberty of a track walk around the 2.6 mile Oulton Park International circuit. From the track walk. It was clear it was going to be a tricky day testing. There were rivers running across the track, and deep puddles around many of the corners. After four years away from all Park, it was quite surprising how much I had forgotten about the circuit during my track walk, I had mainly forgotten how much of the circuit has a camber to it, both negative and positive, and indeed, what an awesome track it is!

 As I lined up for my first test session. The rain was coming down really strongly, and going out onto the circuit. It was like, you sometimes see on the Formula One -- where all you can see of the car in front of the dim glow of their rear light. I managed about three laps tiptoeing around the circuit, discovering quite how little grip. Our car has in the rain. If that is not a lack of grip, which is the problem, but our semi-slick racing tyres’ inability to clear the water - indeed, I think it was the first I can remember that I was not willing to hold the accelerator open all the way down the straights. The car was spinning up its wheels in each of the first four gears.

 The first session was cut very short, lasting only about 15 minutes.

 A quick check over the car, and we are out for session 2. The conditions were no better. I did a couple of laps in traffic, and then came through the pit lane in order to get myself some clear space. It was a good idea in principle, however, it didn't really work out as, the first time I went into cascades braking hard downhill. I managed to lock the rear wheels spinning myself backwards off into the gravel and ending the session – oops…..

 Third and final session was again a complete washout with the car aquaplaning all over the shop, and survival being the name of the game. It really was impossible to learn anything useful! My lap times were in the region of  2:45 versus a good dry time of under 2:00.

 After the final session, the Mad Racing catering department (my Dad) supplied us with a cup of tea and a slice of cake before we loaded the tools into the back of the galaxy and headed off to our respective homes to warm up. Overall it was the end of a fairly miserable day testing!

 

As I hung my overalls over the radiator at home, and having seen the weather forecast. I was fully expecting the racing to be cancelled on Saturday………

 When Saturday, arrived it was still damp outside, but the skys were looking brighter - a good sign. When we got to the circuit with extremely pleased to find that our car was still in the garage where we left it and hence we had a roof over our heads for the rest of the day.

 The car sailed through scrutineering and before I knew it I was lined up ready to go out the practice. It was shared practice with Kit  Cars and SR GTs. The track was still damp, in places, although a dry line was starting to form. I trundled out onto my out lap and  just started to feel the amount of grip - there was loads more grip than on Friday, and importantly, almost no standing water. My investigations into the grip however, were short lived, as on the out lap one of the SR GT cars took out the tyres at Knickerbrook, and red flagged the session. As I sat in the same rating for the session to restart, I chatted to JB, and we looked at the stopwatch and concluded that we probably would only get our minimum required in the practice - that meant. When the session restarted and would have the out lap, and then two flying laps with which to set a time.

 But this in mind, I did an extremely slow out lap in order to give myself as much room as possible, and as I came out of Lodge I floored accelerator and headed into my first hot lap really, not knowing how much grip there was. I had no break markers , worked out, as the track conditions were so different to the test day, and hence was driving on feel and guesswork, yet I was quietly pleased with my first few corners of the lap - perhaps this was going to work out quite nicely! My confidence, however, was short lived, as I exited Knickerbrook . I caught up with a chain of perhaps five slow-moving cars - a disaster to my hot lap. I knew there was no way I could overtake or five of them before the start of the next lap, and hence the only option was to abort this lap, slow right down, and use my second and only remaining hot lap to set the time.

 I pulled off the racing line, and slow down, in order to create as much space as possible. As I exited the final corner, I put my foot down and headed into my one remaining hot lap. Again, I was very pleased with the first few corners, but to my frustration, I caught a slow-moving car again on the way into Knickerbrook. I went for the overtake, but can only assume the other car had not seen me as he moved across effectively to block my overtake, I tried two more times, but each time I attempt was blocked, in fact, it wasn't until Druids when I was able to fight the inside under braking, and resume the lap. It was a disaster I guess that I had lost five seconds behind the slow-moving car and on my only hot lap……

 I went back into the garage is slightly disillusioned - I hadn't achieved anything like my potential lap time during qualifying, and having driven a Oulton Park numerous times before. I was really hoping to get a good grid slot.

 When the results finally came out, I was pleasant surprised – was 4^th on the grid! It seems that everyone else had had similar problems finding space on the track.

 After more tea and cake from Mad Catering, and elongated celebration from JB and I as we manage to repair something electrical on the car in the absence of Big Al, I lined up on the grid,

 The top four places on the grid are always special, as due to the staggered nature of the grid you get a clear view of the track in front of you - it felt great, and reminiscent of the good old days in Lowcost-ing. The red lights came on and after a couple of seconds extinguished - we were go. I tried a new technique to get a side which had been recommended to me by Big Al and as a result of that got a great start zooming straight up to second place. Gary in his more powerful B class car got ahead of me before turn one, and Rob carefully placed his car up the inside into a whole, forcing it to lift a mix it and conceded another place - back to fourth…… I was quite tentative round cascades for the first time for and was overtaken by the yellow Cambridge transformers car on the exit – down to fifth…. This was no good, being overtaken is no fun at all!

 I held my position for a couple of laps, by which time I had got a good feel of the track and started to push harder. Rob was in front of me in fourth, and I'm sure slower, however, everytime I got close to him I made a small mistake dropped back - damn that consistency thing! Then on, the next lap into Lodge, I was quite close behind Rob, and saw him get a really big oversteer on mid-bend - but I was too close to make the most of it, I had to lift off, and during Robert in some synchronised sliding - fun, but ultimately slow. And I dropped another place due to my poor exit speed. Despite this, I was  still convinced I could overtake Rob, and got straight on to attacking again. I tried three times to out break him into depends, but each time Rob had more confidence on the brakes and I did and I couldn't make the pass stick. If I couldn't get him under braking, the only choice was to get a faster corner exit and overtake him on one of the straights,

 I lined, the manoeuvre up into Cascades, and despite a very gentle tap (sorry Rob) got on the power earlier and overtook him on the way down to Island.

 The next target was Jim in his Grey Phoenix. Jim was a good way ahead of me, and after a couple of laps I realised I wasn't making much headway on him. Perhaps fifth was as good as I was going to get today. I've just about to resign myself to the idea of coming fifth. When I noticed a couple of spots of rain on my visor. This could affect the thought of myself. I had spent all yesterday afternoon driving round the track in the rain, and knew that Jim had not practised yesterday - surely I would have an advantage here. Over a couple minutes, a few spots of rain turned into a good old British shower, and before I knew it I was right on the back bumper of Jim. The rain was coming down quite hard now, and I watched as Jim went really wide in Druids - here's my chance, I thought. However, I was about to discover quite by Jim had gone so wide – Druids was like an ice rink - it was my second some synchronised sliding, but whereas Jim just put a wheel in the gravel, I managed to gather up my slide is still on the circuit and make the overtake stick!

 I was in the clear space, and drove in a ridiculously tentative manner to the finish line! I was fourth on track, but because one of the cars in front of me was a class B. I had got it in class and hence won a trophy! Something which was very important to me, as both Mike and Big Al have got trophies this year, and I was  beginning to feel like a lemon as the only driver without one!

 I drove back our garage, and jumped out to rapturous applause from the support team:

Dad, JB, Mel, Liz, Graham, Jan, Bill, Laura - it was a fantastic feeling - so a special thank you to all the supporters!

 The celebrations did not stop there, as JB’s parents had offered to make tea for, not just Mel and I, but also our Parents. We all piled round to their house, where they made a special fuss of me by setting up a podium complete with union Jack flag and the national anthem, before we eat and drunk the evening away.

 I had only come third, but everyone made me feel like a king – it was fantastic!!!!!!

 We do it all again on 27^th September at Snetterton…. See you there. 

Snetterton - Last race of 2008 season

This Saturday (26th September) sees the final two races of the 2008 season with Des behind the wheel.

Here is the schedule:-

Scrut: 0745 (nope we're not kidding, that really does say 0745!)
Prac: 0900
Race 1: 1300
Race 2: 1620

The car now has it's nitro fitted (JB's suggestion), rocket boosters are loaded into the sidepods, Des has been weight training, and so everything is ready to rumble....roll on Saturday.

On a serious note, there are a few cheeky changes to the car prior to the event that we're hoping for big things from....roll on Saturday.

Big Al

Note: The team will be mostly snoozing between 0900-1300...

Oulton Park Timetable

Friday 5th September:

Practice - All Afternoon

Saturday 6th September:

Scruitineering - 9:55

Practice - 10:55

Race - 14:40

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

Farewell at Donington

It's almost uunbelievable, as my first race seemed only yesterday, but Donington was to be my last scheduled race of the season for me in the Kit Car Championship, but a great venue with which to do it.

The immediate lead up to the Donington race was not quite as smooth as we had perhaps hoped. There were still lots of things to adjust and fix the day before the race with no real room for error. So when at 9.30pm Al noticed that the bottom hose was collapsing when the engine was being revved, effectively closing off the coolant flow to the radiator, things were not looking too good. With no spare parts at the Mad Racing Technical Centre to fix the weak hose, we had no choice but to leave it to chance that we could find the parts we needed at the circuit the next morning, through a process of begging, stealing and/or borrowing.

As Suz and Des unpacked the car from the trailer, I got myself signed-on and went looking for some helpful types who could perhaps supply some hose. Fortunately for us, Ian Kempson came up trumps (a huge thanks to you) and we were quickly able to fix the problem with the parts he lent us. After we had the rear tyres swapped for some more legal-looking items, it was all to quickly out to practice.

There had been lots and lots of changes to the car since its last outing at Brands, with a new steering rack, new radiator, new oil cooler ducting, modified radiator ducting, spring changes all round, new rear brake pads and a different driver. I wasn't imediately comfortable in the car and consequently my qualifying time was some way off the pace (1:23.13 vs. pole on 1:18.77) and only good enough for 13th on the grid (8th in class). After reviewing the on-board footage with my race engineer (Des), it became apparent that I was just being a big girl's blouse around the circuit and should have been attacking the corners with much more conviction. I obviously had to make a change to the car as well, to make it look as though it was the car's fault, so I went about reducing the rear dampers by the smallest amount I could - that'll make the difference then!

So the time quickly came around for the race. My grid slot had me positioned on the inside of the track for the first corner. My starts had always been fairly good in this car, and when the red lights went out, I managed to make up a few places even before the Craner Curves, so a good start again. After getting close enough to gain from a good tow down the Dunlop straight, I overtook again heading into Goddards and that put me up to 8th place by the end of the first lap. For the next few laps I held position until I was passed, heading towards Goddards. I was then able to out-manoeuvre and pass another car coming out of Redgate on the following lap which put me up to 7th place.

A fairly hairy moment occurred on the next lap when I managed to get the car extremely sideways turning into the Old Hairpin but just about kept it pointing in almost the right direction. I was then passed by a recovering front runner and then held onto 8th place right up until the last lap, where the car I had passed coming out of Redgate got a tow down the Dunlop straight and squeezed passed me on the inside going into Goddards, the last corner of the last lap! So in the end I finished 9th (6th in class) which, considering my less than spectacular qualifying session, I was quite happy with.

So that's it for me for this season in the Kit Car Championship. Over way too quickly but very enjoyable. I plan to be out for the Birkett relay however. It'll be a long wait. Thanks to Al for helping get the car ready until late on Saturday (and for the loan of the Galaxy) and to Des and Suz (and my mum, dad and Kristi) for support on race day.

Can you tell what it is yet?

What the hell are you? After a long evening's work, here is the result



Is it a:-

Muppet show
Boeing 747 air conditioning system
Suz' artwork
Cold air feed to the oil cooler

We'll leave this one with you....

Next race - Uncle Mike, Donington, Sunday 20th July

Well all, Uncle Mike's last turn at racing in the 750mc Kitcat challenge is upon us, here are the details of this weekend's racing activities:-



Sunday 20th July
0920:- Scrutineering
1020:- Practice
1625:- Race 1

Uncle Mike has put in a very solid performance this year, so no pressure UM!

Mike, Mike, Mike!!

Mr and Mrs Barnet

A key event ocurred in the MAD-Racing as JB pulled off the scam of the century by persuading the very beautiful Liz to marry him! No one is quite sure how he managed it, but it now means that the entire team have successfully snared lovely wifes (oliver excepted - he is still a bit young....)!

JB is excused from racing dutys for a couple of weeks as he is on Honeymoon, but is expected to return with his normal excess of commentry and banter once he lands back on UK soil.

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Barnet, have a great honeymoon, and we all look forward to your return!

Brands Videos

Race 1 - 0.15 of a lap - Short lived..


Race 2 - All 15 minutes - The real deal!