172 Race Car
Silverstone Race Report:
The 5th race of our season at our home circuit, Silverstone. We retired from the race last year so we were looking for a decent result. There was a strong field entered and some light scattered showers forecast. It was an early start as we were the first practice session and again sharing with the German series. Luckily we had a garage this time so had our own timing screen.
I was out first and we had a brand new set of tyres. I built up the pace for the first few laps and was re learning the circuit. I only did 1 lap in the race last year before the throttle cable broke. I managed to equal last years times but felt I was struggling a little. I handed over to Tony halfway through and he was down into the 1min 9’s by the end of the session. A 1:09.5sec got us 21st in the session and 6th on the grid for our race. We moved up to 5th when a car in front withdrew.
A general lack of grip and straight line speed was what we both agreed on, as last year the car is not as well suited to this circuit as it is at Mallory Park. Shortly after the session finished a massive rain shower soaked the track, it was much heavier than forecast. We went through our pre race checks and then sat down with a track map. We discussed lines and braking points and after watching the video back I could see where I was loosing time.
The track had dried nicely during the morning and it was a sunny start to the race as I lined up on row 3.
Lights out and I got a flyer! I went through the middle of the 2 Honda’s ahead of me and was 3rd into Copse. Russ in the MG had an even better getaway and passed at the exit. I held onto 4th for the rest of the lap despite a slide into Brooklands but could sense that it was going to be hard to maintain it.
For the next few laps I went backwards, loosing 1 place per lap, mostly on the back straight. By lap 5 I was down to 8th and struggling to keep up with the group ahead. I didn’t know it but I was a second per lap quicker than I had gone in practice and got within 0.1 second of our qualifying time on lap 6. On lap 7, the Dibble Civic caught me on the back straight, he had an intermittent misfire but managed to get ahead on lap 8 after a good fight. We were now 9th.
We pitted at the end of lap 16, trundling down the pitlane seamed to take an age, its the longest pitlane in the series. Although I fumbled with the shoulder belt a little, it was a fantastic stop. Stationary for under 16 seconds, our quickest ever ‘live’ driver change. Tony had rejoined in 5th, making up 4 places during the pitstop phase. He could see Russ in the MG just ahead and tried to chase him down. He was pushing really hard and clipped a marker at Brooklands on one lap. Doing low 10′s and high 09′s through the traffic was a great pace for us but with his new engine, Russ was just too quick to catch. He was also very lucky with lapping cars, passing them on the straights where as Tony always caught them in the corners. We were up to 4th position for a few laps as Jerry in the #15 Peugeot had been given a drive through penalty. They have massive straight line speed and got back past on lap 26 as a few spots of rain began to hit the windscreen.
It continued to spit with rain for the next few laps but not enough to effect the times. The gap to the MG had grown to just over 6 seconds but as the rain began to fall heavier, Russ began to loose time and Tony started to reel him in. On lap 32 the rain turned from light drizzle to a full on down pour. Tony was right with the MG now but a massive moment at Becketts on the last lap put paid to any chance of getting by and they crossed the line 0.3 seconds apart.
We finished 5th on the road and 3rd in class so another trophy. An amazing result considering the nature of the track. We were over the moon. We had got as much out of the car as we both could and our fastest laps were a second quicker than in 2010.
The last race of our season next at Oulton Park. We have a big ‘fan club’ coming so hope to put on a good show
The 5th race of our season at our home circuit, Silverstone. We retired from the race last year so we were looking for a decent result. There was a strong field entered and some light scattered showers forecast. It was an early start as we were the first practice session and again sharing with the German series. Luckily we had a garage this time so had our own timing screen.
I was out first and we had a brand new set of tyres. I built up the pace for the first few laps and was re learning the circuit. I only did 1 lap in the race last year before the throttle cable broke. I managed to equal last years times but felt I was struggling a little. I handed over to Tony halfway through and he was down into the 1min 9’s by the end of the session. A 1:09.5sec got us 21st in the session and 6th on the grid for our race. We moved up to 5th when a car in front withdrew.
A general lack of grip and straight line speed was what we both agreed on, as last year the car is not as well suited to this circuit as it is at Mallory Park. Shortly after the session finished a massive rain shower soaked the track, it was much heavier than forecast. We went through our pre race checks and then sat down with a track map. We discussed lines and braking points and after watching the video back I could see where I was loosing time.
The track had dried nicely during the morning and it was a sunny start to the race as I lined up on row 3.
Lights out and I got a flyer! I went through the middle of the 2 Honda’s ahead of me and was 3rd into Copse. Russ in the MG had an even better getaway and passed at the exit. I held onto 4th for the rest of the lap despite a slide into Brooklands but could sense that it was going to be hard to maintain it.
For the next few laps I went backwards, loosing 1 place per lap, mostly on the back straight. By lap 5 I was down to 8th and struggling to keep up with the group ahead. I didn’t know it but I was a second per lap quicker than I had gone in practice and got within 0.1 second of our qualifying time on lap 6. On lap 7, the Dibble Civic caught me on the back straight, he had an intermittent misfire but managed to get ahead on lap 8 after a good fight. We were now 9th.
We pitted at the end of lap 16, trundling down the pitlane seamed to take an age, its the longest pitlane in the series. Although I fumbled with the shoulder belt a little, it was a fantastic stop. Stationary for under 16 seconds, our quickest ever ‘live’ driver change. Tony had rejoined in 5th, making up 4 places during the pitstop phase. He could see Russ in the MG just ahead and tried to chase him down. He was pushing really hard and clipped a marker at Brooklands on one lap. Doing low 10′s and high 09′s through the traffic was a great pace for us but with his new engine, Russ was just too quick to catch. He was also very lucky with lapping cars, passing them on the straights where as Tony always caught them in the corners. We were up to 4th position for a few laps as Jerry in the #15 Peugeot had been given a drive through penalty. They have massive straight line speed and got back past on lap 26 as a few spots of rain began to hit the windscreen.
It continued to spit with rain for the next few laps but not enough to effect the times. The gap to the MG had grown to just over 6 seconds but as the rain began to fall heavier, Russ began to loose time and Tony started to reel him in. On lap 32 the rain turned from light drizzle to a full on down pour. Tony was right with the MG now but a massive moment at Becketts on the last lap put paid to any chance of getting by and they crossed the line 0.3 seconds apart.
We finished 5th on the road and 3rd in class so another trophy. An amazing result considering the nature of the track. We were over the moon. We had got as much out of the car as we both could and our fastest laps were a second quicker than in 2010.
The last race of our season next at Oulton Park. We have a big ‘fan club’ coming so hope to put on a good show
