Formula V - In at the Deep End

I set of for my inaugural Formula V race meeting with no idea what to expect – I did know that there was an entry of 32 cars. I have raced at Snetterton before, so at least I'd know the circuit!

As instructed, I turned up at 7am and spent an hour or so getting the seat belts adjusted and the seating position setup. Then after signing on it was straight in to qualifying at 9:00. FV has only 1 session where your fastest lap counts for race 1 and your second quickest for race 2. I managed to lose the back end at at Sear on my out lap, resulting in a trip across the green stuff, but no harm done. Then it was a matter of keeping out of the way of the quick guys and trying to set some reasonable times. The V (well mine) has no on board lap data, so I just kept going, learning the car and getting quicker each lap. ( at least I hoped so:-)) I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had managed to qualify 10th for each race with 1:22.23 and 1:22.65. Pole was 1:18.2, so still lots of time to come, but a good start. I say pleasantly because it was evident from the first lap that the pedals were too far away as all the braking effort was coming with straight legs. Still, OK.


We spent some time getting the pedals sorted and then it was off to the weighbridge to make sure I was not underweight. I got about 10 meters when the engine stalled – I started it again, but then the oil light came on. When I got out the car and there was oil everywhere:-( A brief check found a burst oil pipe, so the next 30 mins were fairly fraught, but Alan Woodward who is providing the car, got it fixed and then it was up the the weighbridge (OK) and then straight to the grid.


I got a great start and was 8th at then end of the first lap. On lap 2 I thought I had picked up a puncture as the car went very sideways on the exit of the BombHole and again through Coram, but then I saw the oil line and knew that someone had a problem (not me!). On lap 4 I picked of a another couple of folk on the way out of Russell where there was yet more oil, and then settled into a rhythm which saw me pull a decent gap on the chasing folk. As the race wore on, there were more and more cars stopped, and more and more oil at various places. I really thought I was off on lap 8 when I was on the lockstops through Coram (flat-ish in 4th gear), but somehow gathered it up and I must say I was happy to see the last lap board as I crossed the start/finish line. However, ¾ of the way round the last lap, the red flag was shown and it was over.
The leaders had lost around 2 seconds from their qualifying pace, so I was happy with a 0.5 second gain and 5th place. This exceeded my goals by some way, but luck is a fickle friend, and we'll see what tomorrow brings.