172 Race Car
8th May 2011 - Brands Hatch
A wet journey on the way down to Kent this morning but the forecast was for a dry, sunny day. Tony and Helen had arrived before us and put up the gazebo just before it began to rain very hard. A small river was running through our pit area but we could see blue sky approaching.
We didn't have to wait long until it stopped and started to dry up very quickly, the weather reports were correct for once, and there was no more rain for the rest of the day. We had a few little jobs to do on the car as well as the usual prep. The de-mister switch had fallen apart during the winter and we had not got around to changing it. A quick little job. We added some more stickers to the car too. Ady from N2Grafix did a fantastic job for us again, the car looked great.
Qualifying was at 12:00, the track was now bone dry and the sky's clear. The plan was to run Tony for a few warm up laps, bring him in for a tyre pressure check and then he would do a few hot laps before handing over to me. I'd not done any dry running in the car since October. He came in after 3 laps and the tyre pressures were ok. He reported the car was quite tail happy and we adjusted the dampers slightly when I went out. My first thoughts were that the gearbox felt brilliant and traction was a massive improvement. I slowly upped my pace to try and get a feel for the car. It was quite loose at the rear, as Tony had said and with about 5 minutes of qualifying left I pitted for a tyre pressure check. Some adjustments made and I set off again. I struggled to get used to putting the power down earlier on the exits but ended up with a 56.7 second lap, good enough for 10th on the grid.
We were quite happy with that as before the meeting we had said we were aiming for 56's. We know the car can go quicker with more setup work, it doesn't work as well here as it did at Mallory 2 weeks ago, a familiar story for us.
So we worked through the prep list and made another change to the dampers. The race start time was moved forward by 15 minutes and just before we had to go to the assembly area we did a few practice pitstops. Tony was starting the race and lined up on the outside of the grid. He got a decent start but was on the outside for the first corner and lost a place to Russell in the MG. By the end of the lap, one of the Integras had slipped by into clearways and a lap later another got by, leaving him in 13th. He was struggling with the rear of the car as the tyres warmed up and fell back from the two Hondas. The Fiesta in 14th was very quick around Druids and Clark but Tony had more straight-line speed so stayed ahead. Around 3 laps later he started to pull away from the Fiesta and make in roads into the Hondas. He times improved by around a second per lap and he was catching P12 very quickly. He got a good run out of clearways and slipped by into Paddock. The pit window had opened and some of the front runners had pitted, Tony continued to push on and passed the other Integra and was getting happier with the car. We ran as high as 4th place during the pitstop phase and Tony came in at the 23 minute mark, the window having been altered for this season and the pit lane now closes at 25 minutes.
I joined the track and built up my pace quite slowly. The car was still very nervous and made Paddock Hill bend a bit of a scary ride. About 4 laps into my stint I exited Paddock and saw an oil flag being waved at Druids. One of the MG's had let go and spread oil all around the hairpin and halfway down the hill. I backed right off and could see the oil slick in the braking zone so dived to the inside. There was no way to avoid the oil at the apex though and slid wide. I took the next corner steady not knowing how much grip I had but it wasn't too bad. The two race leaders came up to lap me and I let them by on the pit straight but could keep up with them easily at this stage. We were all struggling on the oil at Druids and it took a few laps to clean up at the apex and exit. No one was using the left on entry so it never cleaned up. I managed to hang on to the Civic and Integra as they battled for the lead, but had Tom in the class B 205 right on my bumper. The guy drives sideways everywhere and was very quick exiting Druids. He caught me out on the exit of Graham Hill bend as I ran a little wide onto he rumble strip. I gave him a little rub as he went by and stayed with him till the end of the race. I never felt like I could get back past as he was quick in all the right places. He was quite slow through paddock as his car was very loose at the rear and I had to brake much more than I wanted. But with the oil on the entry to Druids it was never really on.
We finished 10th overall and 8th in class, not bad considering the strong field. We were quite pleased but know we still have work to do on setup. We'd love a little understeer back that we started last year with. It was a fun race though, both me and Tony had great on track battles. I gained a lot of confidence running close to other cars and the car was working well mechanically so we can just concentrate on setup going forward.
Donington next, not been there before so should be interesting.
Great to be racing again!
A wet journey on the way down to Kent this morning but the forecast was for a dry, sunny day. Tony and Helen had arrived before us and put up the gazebo just before it began to rain very hard. A small river was running through our pit area but we could see blue sky approaching.
We didn't have to wait long until it stopped and started to dry up very quickly, the weather reports were correct for once, and there was no more rain for the rest of the day. We had a few little jobs to do on the car as well as the usual prep. The de-mister switch had fallen apart during the winter and we had not got around to changing it. A quick little job. We added some more stickers to the car too. Ady from N2Grafix did a fantastic job for us again, the car looked great.
Qualifying was at 12:00, the track was now bone dry and the sky's clear. The plan was to run Tony for a few warm up laps, bring him in for a tyre pressure check and then he would do a few hot laps before handing over to me. I'd not done any dry running in the car since October. He came in after 3 laps and the tyre pressures were ok. He reported the car was quite tail happy and we adjusted the dampers slightly when I went out. My first thoughts were that the gearbox felt brilliant and traction was a massive improvement. I slowly upped my pace to try and get a feel for the car. It was quite loose at the rear, as Tony had said and with about 5 minutes of qualifying left I pitted for a tyre pressure check. Some adjustments made and I set off again. I struggled to get used to putting the power down earlier on the exits but ended up with a 56.7 second lap, good enough for 10th on the grid.
We were quite happy with that as before the meeting we had said we were aiming for 56's. We know the car can go quicker with more setup work, it doesn't work as well here as it did at Mallory 2 weeks ago, a familiar story for us.
So we worked through the prep list and made another change to the dampers. The race start time was moved forward by 15 minutes and just before we had to go to the assembly area we did a few practice pitstops. Tony was starting the race and lined up on the outside of the grid. He got a decent start but was on the outside for the first corner and lost a place to Russell in the MG. By the end of the lap, one of the Integras had slipped by into clearways and a lap later another got by, leaving him in 13th. He was struggling with the rear of the car as the tyres warmed up and fell back from the two Hondas. The Fiesta in 14th was very quick around Druids and Clark but Tony had more straight-line speed so stayed ahead. Around 3 laps later he started to pull away from the Fiesta and make in roads into the Hondas. He times improved by around a second per lap and he was catching P12 very quickly. He got a good run out of clearways and slipped by into Paddock. The pit window had opened and some of the front runners had pitted, Tony continued to push on and passed the other Integra and was getting happier with the car. We ran as high as 4th place during the pitstop phase and Tony came in at the 23 minute mark, the window having been altered for this season and the pit lane now closes at 25 minutes.
I joined the track and built up my pace quite slowly. The car was still very nervous and made Paddock Hill bend a bit of a scary ride. About 4 laps into my stint I exited Paddock and saw an oil flag being waved at Druids. One of the MG's had let go and spread oil all around the hairpin and halfway down the hill. I backed right off and could see the oil slick in the braking zone so dived to the inside. There was no way to avoid the oil at the apex though and slid wide. I took the next corner steady not knowing how much grip I had but it wasn't too bad. The two race leaders came up to lap me and I let them by on the pit straight but could keep up with them easily at this stage. We were all struggling on the oil at Druids and it took a few laps to clean up at the apex and exit. No one was using the left on entry so it never cleaned up. I managed to hang on to the Civic and Integra as they battled for the lead, but had Tom in the class B 205 right on my bumper. The guy drives sideways everywhere and was very quick exiting Druids. He caught me out on the exit of Graham Hill bend as I ran a little wide onto he rumble strip. I gave him a little rub as he went by and stayed with him till the end of the race. I never felt like I could get back past as he was quick in all the right places. He was quite slow through paddock as his car was very loose at the rear and I had to brake much more than I wanted. But with the oil on the entry to Druids it was never really on.
We finished 10th overall and 8th in class, not bad considering the strong field. We were quite pleased but know we still have work to do on setup. We'd love a little understeer back that we started last year with. It was a fun race though, both me and Tony had great on track battles. I gained a lot of confidence running close to other cars and the car was working well mechanically so we can just concentrate on setup going forward.
Donington next, not been there before so should be interesting.
Great to be racing again!
Was quite surprised at how the leading Hondas weren't a lot quicker than you guys, from the figures they are a good 40+bhp up on you so to be right up there with them is good!
