RACE REPORT: Castle Combe September 2015
Pre-Race Prep
Not a good start to the weekend with a flat battery in the race car, tried everything to recover it by charging and jump starting it, car eventually fired up, but didn't hold its charge. So on Friday I had to drive to MSAR motorsports and safety in SE London
www.msar.co.uk to pick up a new battery, in the mean time I missed my trailer pick up time (due to the guy having to leave the country), so all morning was spent phoning around trying to locate a trailer that was free, I finally found a place in Maidstone that had a trailer free, by the time I had collected it I had to cancel my geo set up with Mark Fish...bummer.
I already had spoke to a fellow competitor (Will) to borrow his optical gauges so knew that I could at last resort geo the car at the circuit.
Managed to get to the circuit around 8pm, to be greeted by the rest of the gang...good to see 2 new competitors this meeting too. The car flew through scrutineering but due to Qualifying being so close to Scrutineering, I never had time to do a geo.
QUALI
I made sure I was last out to give me some breathing space to warm up the tyres, still shaken from Silverstones spins I didnt want to take any chances, due to the nature of Combe I softened up the dampers even more to what I was currently running, even though the circuit has had some recent patch work,
The car handled like a dog, and was pretty scary, at times on the straight the car wanted to pull me off the circuit,with some sever bump steer (i BELIEVE) and combined incorrect tracking. Once tyres came on the handling did seem to get better. I managed a shocking 1.21 which put me in 9th position on the grid.
RACE 1:
Prior to the race I strung the car out to check the geo, the front and rear toe was out by miles. So popped the Optics on the front which read 5min toe in (total) and rear was 35min toe in (total) camber was pretty much on withing my race tolerances. So a few quarter turns here and there which out the front toe back to around 10min and adjusted tyre pressures.
Had a very good start off the grid, made good pace into the first bend withing arms reach of Tony Hunter, while I was servery trying to defended from Glover and Raz who was desperately trying to come up on my inside...As I manage to move further away from Glover and Raz, giving me some breathing space and to concentrate on gaining pace on Hunter, however Tony having some serious pace was making good distance...SO I needed to up my game into the braking zones....while in the back of my mind I was having flash backs from Silverstone and not wanted to push my luck into the corners....The car felt so good, handled brilliantly entering and existing the corners, it was just my lack of track knowledge that held me back. Another competitor had a bad off who made friends with a marshals post (driver ok) and car suffered frontal damage, this caused the Safety Car to be deployed, ha, meant I could close up on Hunter and give me a second chance....the SC was out for around 3-4 laps, the race was over which was a bit rubbish, was expecting for a few laps more.
I finished 7th place with quickest time of 1.19 (4s faster than last season).
On board footage, memory card full halfway through safety car).
RACE 2
I didnt touch the car as it felt so spot on in Race 1, apart from the normal pre race checks. I started 7th on the grid and got off to a poor start losing out instantly to Glover who got up on my inside, deciding to take the inside defense line into the first right bend...the inevitable happened.....the rear end spun out and went infield.....the car spun back on to the track facing the other way with Paul Clother in his Clio charging towards me, I braced for impact but swerved at the last minute....pheewwwww...that was close...
Now rear marker I had a lot of making up to do battling through midfield when then all of a sudden one the engine coolant pipes inside the cabin plumbed into the T7 lightweight heater split and started squirting coolant everywhere, steam filled the cabin....at this point I was going to pull over but decided to retire and pit the car as I was near the pit exit so I didn't hindrance the race.
SUMMARY
In summary the car will not be going back out on track as I deem it unsafe to myself and other competitors, there is something that's not right with cars set up. I suspected that the rear beams toe was toeing out, initially the rear tyres not heating up was suspect, but after weaving to generate heat this cant be case.
Suspects causes are
Too much rear toe out
Thrust angle of rear beam out
Rear tyres not heating up enough
Lack of negative camber?
EPAS? (getting used to minimal im put).
Tyre pressures?
Happens in tight right hand turns defensive line.
Rear springs too stiff (570lb) but handled faultlessly mid race
I have done numerous car control courses with my previous job, done many driver training days and plenty of track days, I understand the system of car control and front wheel drive driving techniques, but this is something that I had have no control over,and its not right as its unpredictable, im scratching my head now.
The car has been booked on to a local Hunter maching in a few hours to see what that can see.
Apart from my geo woes, I still had a pretty awesome weekend, good to see old and new faces.
Coolant in footwell.