Silverstone International Race report 2015
Qualification session
Didn't know what to expect from quali, the car having its ECU problem fixed and a new Gripper gear box, wasnt 100% sure if the ECU problem was fixed etc and only way I was going to find out was out on track, so I went out and put hot laps in from the start, not having driven Silverstone in over a year (last time was when the club was there racing) and being a short circuit it wasnt really hard to forget the layout.
The car felt good, the ECU problem had finally been resolved, power delivery was as it should be and the car handled pretty well, I was still to make my mind up on the EPAS, as this was the first time I had used it in the race car.
I managed a time of 1:09:089 putting me 5th on the grid out of 29 starters with a 02 second gap from pole. Happy with that, best Quali to date, that put me in a positive mood for the day.
Race 1:
There was a bit of a c**k up at the start, after our green flag lap we had finished lining up on the grid to be told that we was to do another green flag lap due to a delayed start (for whatever reason) the marshals had even come to our cars to tell us this and even left one of the other competitors doors open, shortly afterwards the 5 second board was shown and the lights went out, this signaled the race start and half the field behind started to race, I decided to go for it until told otherwise, I lost out by 2 positions. This was very unsafe, and a complaint went to race control by a few of the drivers including myself.
By the time I made up my original position the Safety Car came out, this was deployed for 3-4 laps, to recover a car that had come off at Becketts, I saw the SC lights had gone out so set my self up, got a good restart so to speak, I ended up going into Copse a bit to keen and tapped the curb unsettling the car, tried to counter act it, but got a bit of a tank slapper on and lost it, managed to get her back on the black stuff, by this time I had lost a lot of places, so spent the next half of the race picking my way back up the field finishing in 8th 1:08:840.
Race 2:
Not a good start, spun up the wheel to much off the start line and then spun out again into the first corner, I put in to much steering input, and ended up in field....again lost my position a lot and spent the rest of the race picking my way up through the field, which was actually quite fun. I was also suffering from the dreaded fuel surge again first time ever, so I spoke to soon Andrew.....I finished again in 8th place 4th in class with a time of 01:08:50 setting a new PB This translated to a 36 second gap to the winning car
Summary:
In all the years I have been track driving and last seasons racing on R888 I have never spun out, since fitting the Dunlops I have spun out 4 times this season, now I know these tyres need working hard to bring the rears up to temp but its something I must as a driver remember to do and also to bare in mind to take it easy on the first lap, but not too easy to lose out places, its just something to bear in mind. I am always testing with settings, also you would be interested to know I dont run a PMS rear strengthening kit or a RARB, just the rose jointed beam. Mid race the tyres was fantastic, so do I set the car up for cold tryes/race start or leave it as it is and just work my way around it?
EPAS, hmmmm mid race its fantastic, but low speeds/around paddock I don,t, not sure if its my unit, but feel the resistance can change regardless of where the dial is set, however it inst as bad as I thought it would be.
Anyway, it was good to see the old faces in the paddock as well as some of the new blood who will be joiing us at the end of the year and next season.
Roll on Castle Combe
Sonny
Few action shots
Qualification session
Didn't know what to expect from quali, the car having its ECU problem fixed and a new Gripper gear box, wasnt 100% sure if the ECU problem was fixed etc and only way I was going to find out was out on track, so I went out and put hot laps in from the start, not having driven Silverstone in over a year (last time was when the club was there racing) and being a short circuit it wasnt really hard to forget the layout.
The car felt good, the ECU problem had finally been resolved, power delivery was as it should be and the car handled pretty well, I was still to make my mind up on the EPAS, as this was the first time I had used it in the race car.
I managed a time of 1:09:089 putting me 5th on the grid out of 29 starters with a 02 second gap from pole. Happy with that, best Quali to date, that put me in a positive mood for the day.
Race 1:
There was a bit of a c**k up at the start, after our green flag lap we had finished lining up on the grid to be told that we was to do another green flag lap due to a delayed start (for whatever reason) the marshals had even come to our cars to tell us this and even left one of the other competitors doors open, shortly afterwards the 5 second board was shown and the lights went out, this signaled the race start and half the field behind started to race, I decided to go for it until told otherwise, I lost out by 2 positions. This was very unsafe, and a complaint went to race control by a few of the drivers including myself.
By the time I made up my original position the Safety Car came out, this was deployed for 3-4 laps, to recover a car that had come off at Becketts, I saw the SC lights had gone out so set my self up, got a good restart so to speak, I ended up going into Copse a bit to keen and tapped the curb unsettling the car, tried to counter act it, but got a bit of a tank slapper on and lost it, managed to get her back on the black stuff, by this time I had lost a lot of places, so spent the next half of the race picking my way back up the field finishing in 8th 1:08:840.
Race 2:
Not a good start, spun up the wheel to much off the start line and then spun out again into the first corner, I put in to much steering input, and ended up in field....again lost my position a lot and spent the rest of the race picking my way up through the field, which was actually quite fun. I was also suffering from the dreaded fuel surge again first time ever, so I spoke to soon Andrew.....I finished again in 8th place 4th in class with a time of 01:08:50 setting a new PB This translated to a 36 second gap to the winning car
Summary:
In all the years I have been track driving and last seasons racing on R888 I have never spun out, since fitting the Dunlops I have spun out 4 times this season, now I know these tyres need working hard to bring the rears up to temp but its something I must as a driver remember to do and also to bare in mind to take it easy on the first lap, but not too easy to lose out places, its just something to bear in mind. I am always testing with settings, also you would be interested to know I dont run a PMS rear strengthening kit or a RARB, just the rose jointed beam. Mid race the tyres was fantastic, so do I set the car up for cold tryes/race start or leave it as it is and just work my way around it?
EPAS, hmmmm mid race its fantastic, but low speeds/around paddock I don,t, not sure if its my unit, but feel the resistance can change regardless of where the dial is set, however it inst as bad as I thought it would be.
Anyway, it was good to see the old faces in the paddock as well as some of the new blood who will be joiing us at the end of the year and next season.
Roll on Castle Combe
Sonny
Few action shots
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