172 Race Car
RACE REPORT:
Saturday 28th May 2011 - Donington Park
Our 2nd race of the season was at Donington Park. To try and sort out our handling woes, we managed to get a few hours on the trackday the day before. We arrived around 11am and set up our new 'Circus Tent'
It took quite a while as it was the first time we had used it but it was well worth it.
I had never driven around this circuit and only been as a spectator once. Tony had prior experience of the track so I went out first to get a feel for the layout and warm the car up. I did around 6 laps and could feel that the car still wanted to oversteer when pushing on a bit. Back to the paddock and we made a change to the rear geometry
I jumped back in and went back out to see if it had made a difference, it hadn't. Back in and another change, this time a big one, the car was so far off where we wanted it to be we decided to change the rear springs for some softer ones.
I went out again to compare it to previous runs. The car felt so much better and I could be much more aggressive on turn in as the rear was much less likely to slide. It wasn't perfect but a vast improvement. I was enjoying the car and learning the circuit even more. As I came down the craner curves I tried to keep flat, just as a Honda in front started to brake. I had to lift and the car had a big slide. I caught it but was getting close to the Honda so I just let it go. I spun around twice, eventually ending up facing the right way and had a close encounter with the gravel trap. I limped back to the pits with the tyres flat spotted and told Tony the good and bad news
The car was fine, apart from the flat spots so Tony hopped in to see how it felt. He did about 6 laps and came back in. He agreed that the car felt ok but could still improve. A quick call to Curtis at AST and we made some more adjustments and Tony went back out.
The day was almost over so he was back in after 4 laps saying the the car was better again so we had gone the right way on setup. With only 15 minutes left on the day we had no time for more changes. We needed to get some tyres scrubbed in so we swapped wheels. We were almost ready to go, when we found that the drivers side front wheel would not torque up properly. Then a stud snapped.
We had 3 spare standard wheel bolts with us but could not get the broken stud out of the hub with the tools we had with us. Whiteley came to the rescue with some mole grips and another spare bolt. Life saver.
With that panic over we had some time to prep the car. We changed the brake fluid, refaced the pads and checked a few things over. Everything was ok and we left it up on stands overnight. It was starting to get dark when we had finished dinner so went for a walk up to the chicane. We ended up walking half the circuit before it go too dark to see and we took a short cut through the middle.
The next morning we woke to find it had rained a little through the night. We got the bacon cooking and finished off the prep of the car. We made another small change to the setup and hoped for the best. Tony gave it a wash and buff up while one of our competitors came over to sabotage the car by contaminating the fuel
I took the first stint in qualifying and the track was damp with a dry line starting to appear.
As we didn't get a chance to scrub the new tyres in last night, it made the first few laps very interesting. I had a big slide into Red-gate as I went off line to pass another car. I really struggled to get a clear lap in the session and Tony left me out for as long as possible. I let loads of cars through on the back straight to try and get a gap. I had one lap left before handing over to Tony and nothing in front of me. I made a mistake into Mcleans and ran wide, lap ruined. My in lap was much better and wished the track had been drier. Tony jumped in and had 12 minutes left. He had traffic on his laps but kept improving his times as the line dried more and more. We moved over to the timing screens with about 3 minutes left. Tony was in 14th place. Next lap a 1 second improvement to 13th place
The chequered flag was flying to signal the end of qualifying, he was on his last lap. We saw him exit the chicace and onto the main straight. He passed the line and popped up into 10th place with a lap 1.2 seconds quicker than his previous best. We were very pleased with that. We failed to miss the car that crossed the line a minute later to displace us to 11th place. Out of 32 runners, we were still pleased. Especially that the one clear lap either of us had, I ruined by visiting the scenery
We finished our pre race prep on the car and found some damage. Tony said he heard a bang on the back straight. The windscreen had some very big stone chips and the door mirror took a hit. Some gravel had been flicked up from the car in front. Id of been very upset if id spent a load of money having them powder coated
The race started at 16:15 and I was doing the first stint. It was a rolling start, the first one I had done. I was on the inside for turn 1 and it was all clean around me. I was taking it steady as the warm up lap had been quite slow and I wasn't sure if the tyres were up to temperature but already, I felt quite comfortable
By lap 3 i'd managed to pull a bit of a gap to Andy in the Clio behind me so started to push on. I could see the #87 Integra ahead and a few more cars bunched up. I then managed to do 3 laps in the 1:24sec bracket, 2 seconds quicker than we had gone in quali and was catching the cars ahead. I could see Russell in the MG and the #87 Integra starting to fight and that spurred me on. I set my fastest lap on lap 7, 1min 23.8 seconds. 2.5 seconds quicker than in qualifying. I was using loads of kerb at the old hairpin and a bit of grass. The car was flying, the best it had felt for a long time
On the next lap I could see some fluid coming from Russells MG and as he turned in for a fast right, it swapped ends on him. The Integra slowed right down and pulled to the left as he span. I was 8 or so car lengths back (not quite in shot) so could see what was happening. Russ pulled onto the grass and id caught the Integra by the bottom of the hill. We were both slow for the next few corners as we had no idea what fluid we had just driven through (turned out to be coolant) and the car felt fine. I had a nice battle with the Integra for the next few laps, eventually making it stick on lap 9 up at Mcleans (the Matt Neal line) But we went side by side down the pit straight later that lap as I went too deep into the chicane. I stayed ahead
We pitted on lap 14. As I slowed for the speed limit and changed into 2nd, the gear knob came off in my hand. I dropped it into the footwell, that made me panic a bit and I was worried i'd not find it while we were doing the driver change and the problems that might cause if it found its way under the pedals. Luckily I was easy to spot.
Despite this, the stop was our 2nd quickest ever, stationary for 22 seconds, We had to hold Tony for at least a second while another car went by.
As he exited the pits he could see a group of 4 cars just behind and managed to keep ahead. They were all cars we had lapped so it worked out brilliantly. Another 2 seconds on the pit stop and he would have had to pass all of them.
He settled into it and had rejoined the race in 9th place, with a few cars ahead yet to stop. Once the pitstop phase was over he was in a comfortable 6th place. Tony was keeping the gap to the car in 5th at around 6-7 seconds and he had about 9 seconds to the car behind.
5 laps into his stint the safety car was deployed for an incident at the far side of the circuit. we hoped that would help close the gap to the car in front but after a few laps behind the safety car the chequered was shown with 8 minutes left on the clock. It was an incident involving several cars and they knew it wouldn't get cleaned up before the end of 40 minutes so ended the race there. Luckily everyone involved was ok to our knowledge
A very good day. The track time we had the day before had proved productive again.
Its a long time till our next race. Anglesey in August. Thats a very different circuit that tends to make cars understeer. In the mean time we have a few jobs to do and a trackday in July for a bit of fun and some passenger rides
Saturday 28th May 2011 - Donington Park
Our 2nd race of the season was at Donington Park. To try and sort out our handling woes, we managed to get a few hours on the trackday the day before. We arrived around 11am and set up our new 'Circus Tent'
It took quite a while as it was the first time we had used it but it was well worth it.
I had never driven around this circuit and only been as a spectator once. Tony had prior experience of the track so I went out first to get a feel for the layout and warm the car up. I did around 6 laps and could feel that the car still wanted to oversteer when pushing on a bit. Back to the paddock and we made a change to the rear geometry
I jumped back in and went back out to see if it had made a difference, it hadn't. Back in and another change, this time a big one, the car was so far off where we wanted it to be we decided to change the rear springs for some softer ones.
I went out again to compare it to previous runs. The car felt so much better and I could be much more aggressive on turn in as the rear was much less likely to slide. It wasn't perfect but a vast improvement. I was enjoying the car and learning the circuit even more. As I came down the craner curves I tried to keep flat, just as a Honda in front started to brake. I had to lift and the car had a big slide. I caught it but was getting close to the Honda so I just let it go. I spun around twice, eventually ending up facing the right way and had a close encounter with the gravel trap. I limped back to the pits with the tyres flat spotted and told Tony the good and bad news
The car was fine, apart from the flat spots so Tony hopped in to see how it felt. He did about 6 laps and came back in. He agreed that the car felt ok but could still improve. A quick call to Curtis at AST and we made some more adjustments and Tony went back out.
The day was almost over so he was back in after 4 laps saying the the car was better again so we had gone the right way on setup. With only 15 minutes left on the day we had no time for more changes. We needed to get some tyres scrubbed in so we swapped wheels. We were almost ready to go, when we found that the drivers side front wheel would not torque up properly. Then a stud snapped.
We had 3 spare standard wheel bolts with us but could not get the broken stud out of the hub with the tools we had with us. Whiteley came to the rescue with some mole grips and another spare bolt. Life saver.
With that panic over we had some time to prep the car. We changed the brake fluid, refaced the pads and checked a few things over. Everything was ok and we left it up on stands overnight. It was starting to get dark when we had finished dinner so went for a walk up to the chicane. We ended up walking half the circuit before it go too dark to see and we took a short cut through the middle.
The next morning we woke to find it had rained a little through the night. We got the bacon cooking and finished off the prep of the car. We made another small change to the setup and hoped for the best. Tony gave it a wash and buff up while one of our competitors came over to sabotage the car by contaminating the fuel
I took the first stint in qualifying and the track was damp with a dry line starting to appear.
As we didn't get a chance to scrub the new tyres in last night, it made the first few laps very interesting. I had a big slide into Red-gate as I went off line to pass another car. I really struggled to get a clear lap in the session and Tony left me out for as long as possible. I let loads of cars through on the back straight to try and get a gap. I had one lap left before handing over to Tony and nothing in front of me. I made a mistake into Mcleans and ran wide, lap ruined. My in lap was much better and wished the track had been drier. Tony jumped in and had 12 minutes left. He had traffic on his laps but kept improving his times as the line dried more and more. We moved over to the timing screens with about 3 minutes left. Tony was in 14th place. Next lap a 1 second improvement to 13th place
The chequered flag was flying to signal the end of qualifying, he was on his last lap. We saw him exit the chicace and onto the main straight. He passed the line and popped up into 10th place with a lap 1.2 seconds quicker than his previous best. We were very pleased with that. We failed to miss the car that crossed the line a minute later to displace us to 11th place. Out of 32 runners, we were still pleased. Especially that the one clear lap either of us had, I ruined by visiting the scenery
We finished our pre race prep on the car and found some damage. Tony said he heard a bang on the back straight. The windscreen had some very big stone chips and the door mirror took a hit. Some gravel had been flicked up from the car in front. Id of been very upset if id spent a load of money having them powder coated
The race started at 16:15 and I was doing the first stint. It was a rolling start, the first one I had done. I was on the inside for turn 1 and it was all clean around me. I was taking it steady as the warm up lap had been quite slow and I wasn't sure if the tyres were up to temperature but already, I felt quite comfortable
By lap 3 i'd managed to pull a bit of a gap to Andy in the Clio behind me so started to push on. I could see the #87 Integra ahead and a few more cars bunched up. I then managed to do 3 laps in the 1:24sec bracket, 2 seconds quicker than we had gone in quali and was catching the cars ahead. I could see Russell in the MG and the #87 Integra starting to fight and that spurred me on. I set my fastest lap on lap 7, 1min 23.8 seconds. 2.5 seconds quicker than in qualifying. I was using loads of kerb at the old hairpin and a bit of grass. The car was flying, the best it had felt for a long time
On the next lap I could see some fluid coming from Russells MG and as he turned in for a fast right, it swapped ends on him. The Integra slowed right down and pulled to the left as he span. I was 8 or so car lengths back (not quite in shot) so could see what was happening. Russ pulled onto the grass and id caught the Integra by the bottom of the hill. We were both slow for the next few corners as we had no idea what fluid we had just driven through (turned out to be coolant) and the car felt fine. I had a nice battle with the Integra for the next few laps, eventually making it stick on lap 9 up at Mcleans (the Matt Neal line) But we went side by side down the pit straight later that lap as I went too deep into the chicane. I stayed ahead
We pitted on lap 14. As I slowed for the speed limit and changed into 2nd, the gear knob came off in my hand. I dropped it into the footwell, that made me panic a bit and I was worried i'd not find it while we were doing the driver change and the problems that might cause if it found its way under the pedals. Luckily I was easy to spot.
Despite this, the stop was our 2nd quickest ever, stationary for 22 seconds, We had to hold Tony for at least a second while another car went by.
As he exited the pits he could see a group of 4 cars just behind and managed to keep ahead. They were all cars we had lapped so it worked out brilliantly. Another 2 seconds on the pit stop and he would have had to pass all of them.
He settled into it and had rejoined the race in 9th place, with a few cars ahead yet to stop. Once the pitstop phase was over he was in a comfortable 6th place. Tony was keeping the gap to the car in 5th at around 6-7 seconds and he had about 9 seconds to the car behind.
5 laps into his stint the safety car was deployed for an incident at the far side of the circuit. we hoped that would help close the gap to the car in front but after a few laps behind the safety car the chequered was shown with 8 minutes left on the clock. It was an incident involving several cars and they knew it wouldn't get cleaned up before the end of 40 minutes so ended the race there. Luckily everyone involved was ok to our knowledge
A very good day. The track time we had the day before had proved productive again.
Its a long time till our next race. Anglesey in August. Thats a very different circuit that tends to make cars understeer. In the mean time we have a few jobs to do and a trackday in July for a bit of fun and some passenger rides
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