Mallory race report:
So after a long week of going to work, getting home and then doing the full night on the Clio the car was finally ready and I set off to BTM on Thursday morning. Had a really productive day and corner weighted the car, sorted the geo, changed the oil cooler, sorted a leaking gaiter and also most importantly changed 5th gear. Massive thanks to Fred at BTM for squeezing me in and taking the time to help
the corner weights were quite a way off so this was sorted to as good as possible with my hefty weight in the drivers seat! Swapping to LHD would make this perfect but a bit too much work to do now lol. Then Lee from Apex Motorsport Logistics turned up at BTM as he had come up for the weekend to help out, Lee used to work on the Clio cup race cars for TCR so is very handy to have around a Clio
A couple of supplies for the weekend
We both then packed up and headed upto Mallory where we were greeted by Mr and Mrs Hunter. We all sat outside under the awning for a couple of hours and had a catchup.
Next morning and we were booked on for the Javelin trackday. Went straight out on the same tyres as the test day a few weeks before and really got into a nice rhythm. Came in to swap brake pads and tyres as needed to scrub them in ready for race day. The new tyres weren't feeling great unfortunately. We worked through a few other things and then got very low on fuel at 2pm. I went to go fill up at the infield fuel station only to find they don't sell super, being Mallory you can't get out of the infield without waiting for a gap and then would have run out of time. It didn't matter too much so just called it a day early with a very successful and reliable day with the only problem being the new tyres not performing as per the old ones.
I was sharing the day with Tony and he was going to do the last hour or so of the day so he then got out on track in his car as we set off into Leicester to get food and supplies for the BBQ and weekend
After we returned and had a nice BBQ it was time to finish checking the car over, the upper left engine mount bolts had come loose so these were tightened. Then I noticed a lot of flex in the mount. My car with the ITB's doesn't have the 3rd bolt in and this seemed to be allowing the movement. A late call to Chip and the problem was sorted! He was going to dig one of his lower inlets out of the garage and bring it down with him on the Saturday morning and then I could use the grinder to trim the inlet down to just the bracket part I need and job done. So cracked on and finished the rest of the car very much dark by now but MR Hunter kindly lent me his strip light which made working in the dark much easier. Then I had a quick look at the data and video’s from the trackday and unfortunately my feeling about the new tyres were realised. The fastest lap of the day on the new tyres was over a second slower than the old tyres. Mmmmm the old tyres didn’t really have enough life to risk using so I had to stick with the new ones and just try my best but I went to bed on Friday night feeling a little deflated as we had expected to bolt new tyres on and go quicker not slower.
Late night lighting required...
Race day:
Had a bit of a wet night in the tent but woke up to a nice clear sky at 7am. I got up and went to carry on cleaning the car ready for scrutineering. Then it was time to fire up another BBQ for the bacon and sausage butties. Car sailed through scrutineering and then back to the paddock. Went to get Chip in who had brought the inlet so we set about modifying it to fit. Thank you very much to Chip for coming and bringing this for me it cured me of the knocking noise I couldn’t get my head round
he always gets me out of the s**t! This ran very tight for time and I was the last car into the collecting area but still enough time to chill out and work out my plan for quali.
Quail:
As I was last into the collecting area I decided to do a really slow first lap to try and build a nice gap and only put the hammer down when the first people were coming up behind me. Unfortunately this didn’t really work and by the end of the first lap I had caught someone up so it was time to get the hammer down and just pass the slower cars. Lee was keeping me informed on the radio and told me of provisional pole by 8[SUP]th[/SUP]’s but as I said to him at the time it wasn’t going to stay that way. On the in lap we had a chat and it seemed I was still on Pole..... a real shock to me with the way the car was washing out and not feeling great on the new tyres. Sure enough the laptime was slower than in testing on the old tyres but not much I could do about it and still massively happy to be on Pole. Now a few people said to me why was I not happy even though I was on pole and I think the answer was that doing a quick lap isn’t an issue as I have plenty of experience of track driving but have very little experience of the car on car racing with only 4 previous races under my belt so although I was on Pole I could only go backwards lol!
On it in Quali!
Video: Notice the brown pants moment at 3 minutes
[video=youtube_share;qNOjhVt9_dQ]http://youtu.be/qNOjhVt9_dQ[/video]
Race 1:
Time to get to the collecting area for the first race and I was actually a lot more chilled out than expected and I was even caught having quick snooze! I managed to get a good start but Tony was nice and close behind me, I moved over to the right as he was looking like he was trying to go up the inside. The next time I looked in my mirrors was the entry into the esses and I could barely see anyone, great news I thought. I used the gap to try not to overheat the tyres after the going off tyres in testing and quali. Then there was a yellow flag through devils elbow and I think I lifted off too much as suddenly the gap closed by a fair margin, whoops I just didn’t want to risk going through to fast so better to play it safe. That was the gap gone and Ian’s pace was also better than mine. It was time to get on the radio and see how long left, the answer wasn’t what I wanted to hear… 6 mins in. I could of probably had a very wide car for 3 or 4 laps but to do it for 10 minutes would have been taking the piss and also potentially dangerous. I did try my best to keep the position with a little run around the outside of Gerard’s but the straight line pace (or better run out of the previous corners) Ian had made it quite difficult to defend. Ian got through on his second attempt around Gerard’s and I tried to switch back to the inside and get a better exit but just wasn’t happening. Had another chance when we came up against traffic but Ian managed to stay in front. It was a really enjoyable race and I was over the moon with the result. Obviously I would of loved to win as that was my target but I have to be realistic.
Video is to follow as soon as my slow computer finished saving the edit!
Race 2:
We had a proper downpour about 45mins prior to the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] race and I was guessing it wasn’t going to dry out in time so we got the wet tyres ready and I started getting really excited as I love driving on the limit in the wet so thought I could stand a good chance of the win. Unfortunately it dried out very quickly and it was a bone dry race. I got lined up in 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place and was watching the lights, the plan was to try and repeat the start I got in the first race. I got off the line okay but had Ian alongside me going into the first corner, the advantage of my tyres overheating was I was getting heat into them quickly so on the first lap I had the confidence to go quite quickly through Gerard’s and go round the outside, thankfully this worked and I tried to make the most of my tyres at the start to stay in front but after about 5 or 6 laps it started washing out through the middle of Gerard’s and the esses. Ian got a good run out of Gerard’s on one lap and he was abit too close for me to close the door into the esses but thankfully he didn’t get through however same again on the next lap and we went side by side through the esses and down towards the hairpin with Ian on the inside, I tried to get back on the power sooner and cut to the inside for the exit and pulled back alongside but Ian was off and gone! Was a fun few laps and as I said to Ian on the day really enjoyed it
Later on into the race Tony was closing in on me but with not long left I tried my best to hold on. Going into the last lap I knew he was going to try up the inside into the hairpin so I needed to pull out a gap and thankfully there was a back marker going into Gerard's so I pulled round the outside of him and didn’t lift at all which gave me the breathing room from Tony to come home again in second. We all got out of the cars and had a stroll over to the podium where we got interviewed and then onto the presentation.
Time for the pub! The car could wait
Really enjoyed the whole weekend and couldn’t of asked any more from the car. With the only issue being the new tyres not having the pace the old ones did but not much I can do about that other than try to optimize the setup to these new tyres. Had a great introduction to the French Trophy and will definitely be going back for more races! Wish I could be doing Cadwell but funds just won’t allow and I can’t keep getting myself into financial trouble just to get out in the car. I was also hoping to do the Tintops race at Donington but that won’t be possible either now
I will be attending the Renaultsport trackday as my preparation for the Oulton races in September and then also do the winter series in October at Donington.
Thanks to everyone who came to watch over the weekend and all the messages and phone calls
It means a lot to me! The biggest thanks to Lee from Apex Motorsport logistics for coming up and running the car for me for the few days! He was a top guy and made the weekend for me as I didn’t have to be constantly thinking about the car and also brought a lot of experience to the table (Even his epic BBQ skills
)
Thanks for reading as always
James
