Spa!

About a week ago I got a call from Dave Beecroft of Xero Competition asking me if i'd limke to race a VdeV car at Spa! I couldn't say no!

Thursday was a whirlwind of just making flights and wrong motorway exits, and but I still managed to get to Spa in time for the drivers briefing at 16:00. After that it we had an hour of testing on a wet, but drying circuit. My team mate for this event , Joe Tuckey went out first and found the car to be nicely balanced. Because of the sheer length of the lap (7.2km), 30 minutes goes by really quickly and I was surprised to see the checkered flag. I too had found the car well balanced, but felt that the wet tyres were going off , which was shown to be the case when I got back to the pits. The front left in particular was worn right down and the tread blocks were a mess. Still, no damage done and all looked good for Friday.

Friday's weather was fantastic with not a cloud to be seen. We had decided that Joe should do a minimum of laps in qualifying which would allow me to post some sort of time. We also decided to use old tyres and save the new ones for the race. Joe did his 3 laps and reported that the car was "a bit oversteery" - A phrase I found to be the understatement of the week - It was awful, with the tail just not willing to stay in line under any sort of power on corner exists. One of the guys in our sister car, Toby Newton, followed me near the end of the session and he said I was leaving huge black lines on the corner exits as I struggled to get the power down. On the last lap the car wouldn't down shift on the way into the bus stop chicane so I nursed it into the pit lane stuck in 6th gear. The car has a flat shift paddle change that uses quite a lot of electronics, so the guys changed a potentiometer that monitors the gear selector position and hence tells the ECU what gear you are in.

So we qualified 13th with 1 2:36.4 - not great, but Dave B assured me that on new tyres, we would be fine. He was right (about the tyres).

Joe started the race, and the car was clearly much more stable, and Joe quickly got up to 7th right behind the sister car posting a best of mid 2:32. But the it all went wrong. Joe appeared in the pit lane with the car again stuck in 6th gear. The guys got the car back into neutral and sent Joe back out, but he was straight back in next lap and then spent around 30 mins tying to get it fixed. He managed another 10 laps or so and came back in again with the same issue. The guys had got hold of one of the 'laptop guys' who then spent some time tweaking the ECU settings, and the it was my turn.

I managed 19 laps with a best of a 2:31.4 before the same issue reoccurred and it was over - A frustrating yet enjoyable experience, and in a world of ifs, buts and maybes we could have finished in the top 6 quite comfortably with the pace we were running, but it wasn't to be.

Cars like this are addictive and Im now trying to figure out how i get to race one again - more begging letters it seems :-)

Crail ProKart Endurance - Summer Series Round 2

What a day (Sunday 17th May) - I was again driving with Fraser Adam in his MS kart in the Crail Summer Endurance Championship.

I managed to take pole and was leading race 1 - after about 15 mins I got a horrible vibration through the in-field, and as I entered pit bend, the kart swapped ends and I saw my left rear wheel bouncing over the pit wall. I looks like 2 of the 3 wheel bolts had worked loose hence the vibration, and then when I turned in, the studs sheared. Still, we got it fixed and and Fraser went back out to finish 17th.

I started race 2 from the back (reverse grid) and somehow found my self leading after 3 laps! Young Scott in the SA Racing kart got past me when I made a hash of the roundabout, but I then just sat on his bumper 'till it was time for Fraser to take over. He was running a close third when the front 2 tangled with 2 laps to go and we took the win and the fastest lap for me. This put us 7th for the final, and I spent the first 4 laps getting up to 3rd. Scott and Grant (MBM) were about 5 seconds up the road and I set about catching them, which I was doing, but then the left hand engine started mis-firing. A quick trip to the pits found the ignition lead was shorting against the casing, and once fixed, I continued to finish the race in 5th, with Chris Miller beating me to the quickest lap by 0.002 on the second last lap :-).

So we had the pace, but not the luck!

Up Hill and Down Dale

My latest Formula V adventure took place at the fantastic Cadwell Park Circuit in Linconshire. I expected a tough weekend and I wasn't disappointed!

Cadwell is an old school circuit that is more suited to bikes than cars, as it's very narrow and has loads of big elevation changes - but it's a real challenge and I'm glad I've been there - reminds me of the kind of elevetion changes that Spa has. I have never been to Cadwell Park before, so my expectations were not high, but I really struggled to get on the pace. I'm my own worst critic, and post qualifying, I was extremely fed up with only managing 15th on the grid (1:43.92), and 3 seconds off of my own personal target. This target was set based upon what I'd need to be in the top 8, but it wasn't to be. It wasn't that I was making mistakes, but just that I was still learning the circuit. Alan, who runs the car, put things in perspective by reminding me that 50 laps is no where near enough to to know Cadwell's secrets, let alone the 9 I had just done.

The race 1 start was my worst yet - I was either in 3rd gear, or I just didn't get enough revs, but the car nearly stalled, and I lost 4 places before the first corner. I managed to get 2 of these back before the 2 cars in front of me tangled at the mountain on lap 1 which caused a red flag. This gave me the chance to make ammends for my poor start, but i did it again! Still, I managed to re-pass the cars that got past me at the start and worked my way up to 11th by the end, reducing my lap time by 2.6 seconds to 1:41.21. I still need to find another 1.5-2.0 second a lap to get me up to my 'usual' p(l)ace. Still I have another race tomorrow, so despite the forecast, I hopeed for a dry race (having never driven a V in the wet)

Sunday

So despite the forecast of rain, Sunday was a beautiful day with the cold wind of Saturday thankfully gone. With another 15th place start, I decided just to pass as many cars as I could and work on increasing my pace. Luckily, I managed to make an OK start (not losing any places!) and over the 9 lap race got past 4 cars to get me up to 11th again. I found some more time posting a best of 1:39.90 and 8 of the 9 laps were quicker than my best in race 1, so I was learning the circuit. There's no doubt that ther's at least another 1-2 seconds before I get to my limits, but that will have to wait 'till July's meeting.

If I can keep working (the contract market is tough at the moment) or find a sponsor (you never know!) my plan is to finish the season in the rental car I'm currently driving, and then buy my own new Formula V car and start doing some serious testing with a view to having a real go at it next season.

I'll miss the next FV meeting at Anlgesey (south Wales) but I'll be back for the second Cadwell meeting in July.