A short spell in the garage last night was all that was needed to diagnose and fix the straight line speed drop off experienced in the last race. The airbox had moved a small amount and caused the seals to come loose that join the airbox onto the top of the throttle bodies. Only slightly though so not immediately obvious. I think also what happened is that as the speeds increased the air pressure and aero effect widened the gap and therefore made it worse on the back straight compared to down the craner curvers or the slower start/finish straight. Good news though as its easy to fix. There seems to have been some sort of sealant used before which I might try and replicate to help the seal but for now it should be OK. It would seem that my bonnet moves around quite a bit when it gets the opportunity to. Helped in this case by losing one of the bonnet catches from a loving kiss of the chicane marker posts during the previous race!
In prep for tomorrow we have moved the transponder forward to a better position, bled the brakes, cleaned out the discs (the fronts had lost of dirt in the vents, including singed tissue!) and checked the oil levels.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Derek Fantasy Track
As we draw near to the end of the 06 season I have been thinking about all of the tracks and my favorite corners. My fantasy UK track would have Copse from Silverstone, Craner Curves from Donington, the Mountain section from Cadwell, Coppice and the straight from Donington leading into Paddock hill bend from Brands. Dibeni from Pembrey and then to complete the lap the Bomb Hole, Corum and Russells from Snetterton. Now that would work well for club racing, extended to include Spa for longer races and then 24hour challenges on the old Nurburgring Nordschleife!
Donington Race 2 Report
The second race was after lunch and this time I had a 4th place in class grid position behind Tim, Mike and John.
For the first couple of laps it was Tim out front with John and I chasing for the remaining podium positions until John would go straight on at the old hairpin when he hit the throttle as well as the brakes. By this time Tim had pulled away, making the most of a clear track and the many laps of experience he has at this track. I reminded myself that I had only completed about 20 laps of the circuit and concentrated on refining my lines and keeping the car in shape to minimize mistakes. After a few laps though I noticed that my lap times were not reducing much. Definitely not as much as I would expect with the tyres coming up to temperature and the fuel loads reducing.
Even more evident when I had some clear space. In fact over the next couple of laps I could see Mike catching me up, especially down the back straight. The car did not seem to be pulling 6th well at all so I changed the dash to show revs and speed rather than lap sector times and saw just 115 – 118mph for a peak speed as compared to 125mph or so in the first race and qualification. Hmm this did not bode well.
By lap 6 Mike had caught me up but more significantly he came in the tow of Paul Haynes who was making the most of his 30 or 40bhp advantage.
Paul caught me on the back straight unsurprisingly and in the processed of him overtaking enabled Mike to come right up close. The next few corners of that lap Paul was concentrating on defending his position where I was quite happy for him to just run off in the distance so I could keep in front of Mike. Paul’s defending slowed us down and Mike found it easy to pass my down the craners.
Up front Rob was doing an excellent job keeping with Gordon and Jonathon. Great improvement in speed this year and just a pitty we did not have separate races so I could watch the close running
We ran close up the other side and as we came around the last left to straighten up before the next right hand turn Paul span. Mike, a cars length ahead of me went high and I braked in the straight line to give myself some more time.
By the time I needed to make a decision of what direction to go, I had scrubbed of most of my speed and Paul had completed his rotations and was traveling backwards towards the outside of the track, in fact exactly where Mike had gone! There was a very interesting impact, unfortunately just out of view of my camera, sending Mike skywards and ending the race for both. In fact as they were the gravel on the outside of that corner the race was red flagged and rolled back to the last complete lap excluding Mike and Paul so that left me with another second place! Very unfortunate for an RGB race to be red flagged especially because of an accident but both Paul and Mike were uninjured and it saved me form being easy pickings for people like John and Mike Atkinson as my top speed deteriorated.
So overall a very successful racing weekend and I have come away with a real regard for the circuit. Its even more of a challenge than I remember and then is immediately obvious form a spectators point of view. Cycling around the circuit goes part way to highlighting the fun of the undulations but until you are heading down the craner curves, car sliding whilst being flat in 6th at over 120mph or turning into Coppice, blind and over a crest in 4th the reason for Donington’s high regard by many racers is not apparent
For the first couple of laps it was Tim out front with John and I chasing for the remaining podium positions until John would go straight on at the old hairpin when he hit the throttle as well as the brakes. By this time Tim had pulled away, making the most of a clear track and the many laps of experience he has at this track. I reminded myself that I had only completed about 20 laps of the circuit and concentrated on refining my lines and keeping the car in shape to minimize mistakes. After a few laps though I noticed that my lap times were not reducing much. Definitely not as much as I would expect with the tyres coming up to temperature and the fuel loads reducing. 
Even more evident when I had some clear space. In fact over the next couple of laps I could see Mike catching me up, especially down the back straight. The car did not seem to be pulling 6th well at all so I changed the dash to show revs and speed rather than lap sector times and saw just 115 – 118mph for a peak speed as compared to 125mph or so in the first race and qualification. Hmm this did not bode well. 
By lap 6 Mike had caught me up but more significantly he came in the tow of Paul Haynes who was making the most of his 30 or 40bhp advantage. Paul caught me on the back straight unsurprisingly and in the processed of him overtaking enabled Mike to come right up close. The next few corners of that lap Paul was concentrating on defending his position where I was quite happy for him to just run off in the distance so I could keep in front of Mike. Paul’s defending slowed us down and Mike found it easy to pass my down the craners.
Up front Rob was doing an excellent job keeping with Gordon and Jonathon. Great improvement in speed this year and just a pitty we did not have separate races so I could watch the close runningWe ran close up the other side and as we came around the last left to straighten up before the next right hand turn Paul span. Mike, a cars length ahead of me went high and I braked in the straight line to give myself some more time.
By the time I needed to make a decision of what direction to go, I had scrubbed of most of my speed and Paul had completed his rotations and was traveling backwards towards the outside of the track, in fact exactly where Mike had gone! There was a very interesting impact, unfortunately just out of view of my camera, sending Mike skywards and ending the race for both. In fact as they were the gravel on the outside of that corner the race was red flagged and rolled back to the last complete lap excluding Mike and Paul so that left me with another second place! Very unfortunate for an RGB race to be red flagged especially because of an accident but both Paul and Mike were uninjured and it saved me form being easy pickings for people like John and Mike Atkinson as my top speed deteriorated. So overall a very successful racing weekend and I have come away with a real regard for the circuit. Its even more of a challenge than I remember and then is immediately obvious form a spectators point of view. Cycling around the circuit goes part way to highlighting the fun of the undulations but until you are heading down the craner curves, car sliding whilst being flat in 6th at over 120mph or turning into Coppice, blind and over a crest in 4th the reason for Donington’s high regard by many racers is not apparent
Donington Race 1 Report
Race one call to the assembly area at the bottom of the Melbourne loop, we were directed up the wrong direction and then around a 180deg turn to the chicane before the grip linup. I put a lot of effort into warming the tyres and brakes on that short run up the Melbourne loop with the thought of the first lap run into Redgate and even more importantly the fast run down the craner curves and into the old hairpin. The thought of that with cold tyres and even worse with cold brakes did not fill me with excitement! We sat on the grid for quite a while for Paul Haynes to form on the grid after he had instigated a made rush back to the STM factory to get a replacement damper for his new Phasar R1
In fact Paul was to line up just behind me and run close by for the start of the race. As the lights went out I got a good run off the line, arriving in the middle of the track right beside Tim on my right and Paul, who had made a great start, on my left. For the first lap or so the car felt really good, I was able to keep up with Paul Haynes in his twitchy but powerful R1 in front and almost hang on to Tim ahead of him whilst pull out a small gap to Mike and John behind. The Racing was nice and close and in fact it would seem that Paul and I touched at some point on the 3rd or 4th lap when he started to experience fuel starvation problems. I did not notice it from in the car and its not obvious from the in car video either but anyway. So Paul dropped back and would later retire, leaving me clear in 2nd place.
. By mid race Tim would also retire with his exhaust fouling his rear wheel leaving me in first place but being caught by Mike and John. The last third of the race would see a really exciting battle between the three of us with lots of overtaking through out each lap. Donington is one of those circuits where defending costs lots of time and the two of the three at the front would be caught by the third as soon as defending was needed and then the process would just repeat itself. 
Great racing and nice and clean. I was very conscious not getting too close to John as we had had contact back at Silverstone and his is in the hunt for the championship. Nevertheless I made an assertive overtake into Coppice on what would turn out to be the last lap and managed to get 2nd place.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Donington Race 2 Telemetry
I know I have not posted a report of the races yet but in prep for Snetterton I need to try and work out why my car was not pulling well at the top end of the back straight. 
In all but the first lap of the second race I was about 10mph down on my normal speeds on the back straight.
strangely the peek speeds elsewhere on the laps were fine, 122 down the craners for example but it would seem to be just what happens when I get into 6th at the end of the lap.
When we get around to lap 5 the problem is even worse.
In all but the first lap of the second race I was about 10mph down on my normal speeds on the back straight.strangely the peek speeds elsewhere on the laps were fine, 122 down the craners for example but it would seem to be just what happens when I get into 6th at the end of the lap.
When we get around to lap 5 the problem is even worse.
Donnington Qualify
From the trackguide, the cycle around the circuit the night before with Paul and some distance recollection from trackdays years past I know that Donington was more complex than most we race on and therefore went out with the aim of pushing quite hard from lap 1. The idea was to get a feel for the grip levels even before getting the lines right. That way once I had completed a few laps I should be able to put in some good lap times and spend the rest of the session refining. It would not quite work out that way however.
Looking at the in car video for lap 2, I actually got the run through Coppice (blind entry over a brow, double apex corner that leads onto the long back straight) almost dead on. The video is something I should be able to share, as we did not have to sign any of the normal non-publishing forms, except for the fact that I have packed up the computer with the Firewire connector in preparation for my house move. Opps
After the session I had some comments from spectators that I was pushing hard right from the start, mainly spotted as I was locking my front inside wheel going into Redgate (Turn1) on both lap 1 and lap 2 ☺
Lap 4 had a handful of mistakes but the line was better overall. Lap 5 was much better, getting me into the 1:21’s but still had a couple of small mistakes, mainly redgate and then into the old hairpin. Lap 6 was better still and the sectors times were much improved but when I got onto the back straight I could see a lot of traffic ahead, so I backed off to get some space.
Bad mistake because as I came down the cranner curves on lap 7 the car got very out of shape and tried to spit me off on the infield whilst flat in 6th gear! As I gathered up the slide I saw in the distance that Matt had gone straight on at the old hairpin and was having some fun running through the gravel trap. At this point alarm bells started to ring. I kept the car over to the right of the track, instead of heading left to rejoin the track, which meant I could brake in a straight line and check out the state of the track. From there you could see a lovely neat oil slick exactly on the racing line, all the way through the old hairpin and up the hill. This continued all the way around the track and meant almost everyone’s fastest times were to be in those 5 or 6 initial laps. Boy, do I wish I had not backed off at the end of lap 6.
Anyway that would turn out to give me a 3rd place and 4th place in class on the grid for the following two races. Not to shabby bearing in mind the last time I was on track here must have been nearly 3 years ago at a trackday. I spent the rest of the session avoiding the oil and trying different lines, mainly overtaking and defending lines for the key corners. It was also a good time to try out the curbing that we had cycled over the night before. Thinking about this after the event it was also a good learning experience as I don’t think I have even driven hard on a circuit covered in oil before. It’s similar but still quite unique to driving on patchy ice. In icy conditions on the road you tend to, and rightly so I guess, slow it all right down and treat the whole road as if its icy. On the track you are pushing all the time looking for clean track. When it is clean you are getting very good grip levels like normal and then all of a sudden there is absolutely nothing at all. Quite a different experience. Fun though, in an out of control type of way!
Donington is definitely one of the more technical circuits that we race on. Although not as complex as a whole when compared to Cadwell, each point in the circuit is more critical due to the higher speeds and wider track. In the RGB cars with somewhat limited straight-line speed it is imperative to maintain good momentum as one mistake at the hairpin for example hampers you all the way up the hill, through 2 to coppice and then onto the back straight. In the race this is even more apparent as it is reasonable easy to pass due to the width. This means a small mistake can mean loosing places in addition to a loss in lap times. At Cadwell in comparison you can loose some time but its fairly easy to defend, collect yourself and get back into the grove.
Looking at the in car video for lap 2, I actually got the run through Coppice (blind entry over a brow, double apex corner that leads onto the long back straight) almost dead on. The video is something I should be able to share, as we did not have to sign any of the normal non-publishing forms, except for the fact that I have packed up the computer with the Firewire connector in preparation for my house move. Opps
After the session I had some comments from spectators that I was pushing hard right from the start, mainly spotted as I was locking my front inside wheel going into Redgate (Turn1) on both lap 1 and lap 2 ☺
Lap 4 had a handful of mistakes but the line was better overall. Lap 5 was much better, getting me into the 1:21’s but still had a couple of small mistakes, mainly redgate and then into the old hairpin. Lap 6 was better still and the sectors times were much improved but when I got onto the back straight I could see a lot of traffic ahead, so I backed off to get some space.
Bad mistake because as I came down the cranner curves on lap 7 the car got very out of shape and tried to spit me off on the infield whilst flat in 6th gear! As I gathered up the slide I saw in the distance that Matt had gone straight on at the old hairpin and was having some fun running through the gravel trap. At this point alarm bells started to ring. I kept the car over to the right of the track, instead of heading left to rejoin the track, which meant I could brake in a straight line and check out the state of the track. From there you could see a lovely neat oil slick exactly on the racing line, all the way through the old hairpin and up the hill. This continued all the way around the track and meant almost everyone’s fastest times were to be in those 5 or 6 initial laps. Boy, do I wish I had not backed off at the end of lap 6. Anyway that would turn out to give me a 3rd place and 4th place in class on the grid for the following two races. Not to shabby bearing in mind the last time I was on track here must have been nearly 3 years ago at a trackday. I spent the rest of the session avoiding the oil and trying different lines, mainly overtaking and defending lines for the key corners. It was also a good time to try out the curbing that we had cycled over the night before. Thinking about this after the event it was also a good learning experience as I don’t think I have even driven hard on a circuit covered in oil before. It’s similar but still quite unique to driving on patchy ice. In icy conditions on the road you tend to, and rightly so I guess, slow it all right down and treat the whole road as if its icy. On the track you are pushing all the time looking for clean track. When it is clean you are getting very good grip levels like normal and then all of a sudden there is absolutely nothing at all. Quite a different experience. Fun though, in an out of control type of way!
Donington is definitely one of the more technical circuits that we race on. Although not as complex as a whole when compared to Cadwell, each point in the circuit is more critical due to the higher speeds and wider track. In the RGB cars with somewhat limited straight-line speed it is imperative to maintain good momentum as one mistake at the hairpin for example hampers you all the way up the hill, through 2 to coppice and then onto the back straight. In the race this is even more apparent as it is reasonable easy to pass due to the width. This means a small mistake can mean loosing places in addition to a loss in lap times. At Cadwell in comparison you can loose some time but its fairly easy to defend, collect yourself and get back into the grove.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Donnington Prep
Well in preparation for Donnington this coming Sunday and in light of the contact and brake issue at Silverstone quite a number of things have been worked on in the last week or so.Firstly there was the matter of the electric reverse mechanism that was bodged in the first place. We sort of worked on it a few months back but really it just needed scrapping and replacing with a decent mount.
So Johns engineering skills came the forefront in a completely new base plate and mounting method which firstly holds the motor in place and secondly does not flex at all.
We also fed it power with a much better cable to help reduce any power loss.
In the pictures here you can see the old (black) bodged bracket which actually held the motor at the wrong angle! and the John special bracket with the motor attached.
And would you believe it - last night the Fury reversed up the gravel drive and over the lip into the garage, under its own steam, three times in a row !!!
Other items on the list to do were to rebond the rear tub to the lower panels at the passenger side rear after contact with John Goodwin pulled it away. Never syringed resin before but it was fun and effective. Next I made up a new ali bracket to hold the front of the sidepod onto the chassis and repaired the rear wheel splat. More difficult than all of these was the process of removing Johns paint and tyre marks on the paintwork!Earlier in the week I had repaired the brake line pipe to the rear drivers side brake drum. In the slight touch with Mike into the first corner of the first start it cracked the end off the pipe and broke the seal. It was a simple process of borrowing the correct tool from Paul and re-inserting. I also checked out the other pipes for fractures but they look in good condition.
And wow, this car is much easier to bleed the brakes on than the Westy. Rears I actually did on my own and last night as a finishing touch, John and I did the fronts to push through some of the more heavily used front liquid. Pedal pressure good ;)
Friday, September 08, 2006
Silverstone Race
By the time the race came around the track was dry and the weather looking much brighter. We had a joint A,B, and C race so lots of cars on the grid with Mike and I heading up class C being on the 4th row back in the overall lineup. I was just hoping the many straights at Silverstone would mean the class A cars would power off into the distance and leave us to our own class race.
In the first start I got a really good run off the line and through the first few corners, being able to stay with Mike and keep clear of the rest without any great effort. Deciding to hold station and see how the race panned out. Unbenounced by us there was a some coming together as you say in the mid pack which meant the race was red flagged as we came under the bridge heading towards Brooklands. We were in a close pack at this stage all racing down the straight and the first thing I noticed was Rob Baldwin with his arm up. I thought to myself that he must have a problem and that was a shame for Rob. As it turned out he had seen the red flag in the distance before he had in the following pack. Shortly afterwards we all spotted the red lights on the bridge gantry and slammed on the anchors. The slight delay meant we were all very close it was a good test of outright braking abilities!
So back on to the grid for a while whilst the glass fibre explosion was cleared up and ready for the second off.
In the restart I had too much wheel spin, some of which may have be a result of leaking brake fluid on the rear tyres and a resulting missed 2nd gear change meant I had lost places to John and Mike Atkinson into Copse. I had a good run from there into Maggots right behind John. He had a bumpy time over the apex curbing and got a little out of shape and we came out of the corner almost side by side. As I got back on the throttle the car snapped sideways very unexpectedly and our cars touched. As we were interlocked we both headed to the outside of the track and separated. By the time we were back on track of course the field had departed and we had a mammoth task of catching everyone up.
It was only as the race progressed and as I made my way through the field that I realized the braking on the Fury was disappearing. For the 2nd third of the race onwards I had almost no braking at all. A join in the rear brake line where it meets the drivers side rear drum had sprung a leak and by that point in the race all of the rear cylinders brake fluid had been squeezed out. The brake bias bar then does not have anything to push against and you loose almost the entire front braking as well. It’s amazing how fast you can go without braking much. My tactic was to run into the corner loaded up on the front with some understeer to scrub off speed, chuck it at the apex and do all of the gear changes (could not heal and toe during the ‘braking’ areas as the brake pedal was so far towards the bulkhead that I could not get to the throttle with my right foot) and then get back on the racing line and fire out of the corners.
It ended up being a lot of fun, coming from the complete back of the field through up to 6th place on the last lap. John managed to recover back to 5th, in fact we kept in step with each other most of the race, with maybe 1 or 2 cars between us as we both headed through the field. Here you can see John getting past Henry on the 2nd to last lap, something I duplicated on the second from last corner of the final lap!
In the first start I got a really good run off the line and through the first few corners, being able to stay with Mike and keep clear of the rest without any great effort. Deciding to hold station and see how the race panned out. Unbenounced by us there was a some coming together as you say in the mid pack which meant the race was red flagged as we came under the bridge heading towards Brooklands. We were in a close pack at this stage all racing down the straight and the first thing I noticed was Rob Baldwin with his arm up. I thought to myself that he must have a problem and that was a shame for Rob. As it turned out he had seen the red flag in the distance before he had in the following pack. Shortly afterwards we all spotted the red lights on the bridge gantry and slammed on the anchors. The slight delay meant we were all very close it was a good test of outright braking abilities!
So back on to the grid for a while whilst the glass fibre explosion was cleared up and ready for the second off.
In the restart I had too much wheel spin, some of which may have be a result of leaking brake fluid on the rear tyres and a resulting missed 2nd gear change meant I had lost places to John and Mike Atkinson into Copse. I had a good run from there into Maggots right behind John. He had a bumpy time over the apex curbing and got a little out of shape and we came out of the corner almost side by side. As I got back on the throttle the car snapped sideways very unexpectedly and our cars touched. As we were interlocked we both headed to the outside of the track and separated. By the time we were back on track of course the field had departed and we had a mammoth task of catching everyone up.
It was only as the race progressed and as I made my way through the field that I realized the braking on the Fury was disappearing. For the 2nd third of the race onwards I had almost no braking at all. A join in the rear brake line where it meets the drivers side rear drum had sprung a leak and by that point in the race all of the rear cylinders brake fluid had been squeezed out. The brake bias bar then does not have anything to push against and you loose almost the entire front braking as well. It’s amazing how fast you can go without braking much. My tactic was to run into the corner loaded up on the front with some understeer to scrub off speed, chuck it at the apex and do all of the gear changes (could not heal and toe during the ‘braking’ areas as the brake pedal was so far towards the bulkhead that I could not get to the throttle with my right foot) and then get back on the racing line and fire out of the corners.
It ended up being a lot of fun, coming from the complete back of the field through up to 6th place on the last lap. John managed to recover back to 5th, in fact we kept in step with each other most of the race, with maybe 1 or 2 cars between us as we both headed through the field. Here you can see John getting past Henry on the 2nd to last lap, something I duplicated on the second from last corner of the final lap!
Silverstone Qualify
Friday Night
In preparation for the race at Silverstone, I had an engine installation to do. I decided to get a spare from Andy at AB Performance to aid change over if anything else happens with engine or gearbox. As the car had not run much since then I was going to have to take it easy in the first few laps of qualifying.
The evening before the race, I headed down to the circuit and after some good socializing set about checking the ride height, fluids and pressures before the race day. As it turned out the engine position is slightly different and this causes problems with the already bad reverse mechanism support. We ended up spending quite a bit of time, what I mean is up until midnight, trying to get reverse gearbox to alight properly – very very very many thanks go out to help from Paul, Andy, Tim and Adrian for their persistence. They actually seemed to quite enjoy being under the car!
Saturday Morning
The morning started out wet and seemed to take ages for the track to dry off.
I elected to change over to my wet set of tires from the front just in case it started to rain whilst we were out. They have quite a bit more tread than the older front set I had on. In the end it was almost dry by the time we went out just, sort of a TopGear Mildly Moist type of track! I took the first few laps quite easy as the engine had only just been installed and I was trying to get used to the change in feel for the paddle shift and concentrate on heel-and-toe again.
Before going out I had the aim of getting into the mid 1.06’s. Firstly that was the fastest sort of time form last year and the figure most in practice had been striving for. A few had reporting dipping into the 1.05’s but I thought that would be unlikely in the short qualify time especially as the track had been well drenched overnight.
No real problems with track space here at Silverstone as its so wide, you can pass slower cars with ease. By lap 5 I was down into the 1:08 and the car generally felt really good. At this pace, the car was starting to slide around a bit but as I kept on pushing through the slip angles the time kept coming down. I managed a couple of laps in the 1.07 but had some other traffic near by which compromised my exits to some of the import corners. The next lap was then aborted as Gordon spun on the exit of Luffields causing waved yellow flags. Second from last lap the path was clear, with just Mike in front and I guessed he was heading for a good lap as well so I got my head down and concentrated on the lines and braking. The result of which was a 1:05.95 and then followed that up with a 1:06.27, which would also have been in the 1:06’s had it not been for traffic on one corner.
Car performed very well during the session, only item needing attention before the race was to replace a lost magnet for the DD2 which meant I did not have speed or more importantly a gear indicator in the later half of the qualify session. We had a lunch delay in knowing the results of qualifying due to some incidents needing review from the clerk of the course but I was very pleased indeed to find I had 2nd on the grid, after just 10 laps of running around the track. In fact I missed pole but just half a tenth of a second to Mike! I knew it was going to be an interesting race as I had Mike so close in time and right beside me on the grid with John Goodwin, less than half a second slower, and Mike Atkinson, just point 7 of a second slower than me, just behind on the 2nd row.
Mike FIELD - 1:05.90
Derek JONES - 1:05.95
John GOODWIN 1:06.42
Unfortunately due to a little incident following Gordon’s spin on track Paul had to start from the back of the grid but as it would turn out he had a good run through the pack and we would get to race, albeit just briefly, for once.
In preparation for the race at Silverstone, I had an engine installation to do. I decided to get a spare from Andy at AB Performance to aid change over if anything else happens with engine or gearbox. As the car had not run much since then I was going to have to take it easy in the first few laps of qualifying.
The evening before the race, I headed down to the circuit and after some good socializing set about checking the ride height, fluids and pressures before the race day. As it turned out the engine position is slightly different and this causes problems with the already bad reverse mechanism support. We ended up spending quite a bit of time, what I mean is up until midnight, trying to get reverse gearbox to alight properly – very very very many thanks go out to help from Paul, Andy, Tim and Adrian for their persistence. They actually seemed to quite enjoy being under the car!
Saturday Morning
The morning started out wet and seemed to take ages for the track to dry off.
I elected to change over to my wet set of tires from the front just in case it started to rain whilst we were out. They have quite a bit more tread than the older front set I had on. In the end it was almost dry by the time we went out just, sort of a TopGear Mildly Moist type of track! I took the first few laps quite easy as the engine had only just been installed and I was trying to get used to the change in feel for the paddle shift and concentrate on heel-and-toe again.
Before going out I had the aim of getting into the mid 1.06’s. Firstly that was the fastest sort of time form last year and the figure most in practice had been striving for. A few had reporting dipping into the 1.05’s but I thought that would be unlikely in the short qualify time especially as the track had been well drenched overnight.
No real problems with track space here at Silverstone as its so wide, you can pass slower cars with ease. By lap 5 I was down into the 1:08 and the car generally felt really good. At this pace, the car was starting to slide around a bit but as I kept on pushing through the slip angles the time kept coming down. I managed a couple of laps in the 1.07 but had some other traffic near by which compromised my exits to some of the import corners. The next lap was then aborted as Gordon spun on the exit of Luffields causing waved yellow flags. Second from last lap the path was clear, with just Mike in front and I guessed he was heading for a good lap as well so I got my head down and concentrated on the lines and braking. The result of which was a 1:05.95 and then followed that up with a 1:06.27, which would also have been in the 1:06’s had it not been for traffic on one corner.
Car performed very well during the session, only item needing attention before the race was to replace a lost magnet for the DD2 which meant I did not have speed or more importantly a gear indicator in the later half of the qualify session. We had a lunch delay in knowing the results of qualifying due to some incidents needing review from the clerk of the course but I was very pleased indeed to find I had 2nd on the grid, after just 10 laps of running around the track. In fact I missed pole but just half a tenth of a second to Mike! I knew it was going to be an interesting race as I had Mike so close in time and right beside me on the grid with John Goodwin, less than half a second slower, and Mike Atkinson, just point 7 of a second slower than me, just behind on the 2nd row.
Mike FIELD - 1:05.90
Derek JONES - 1:05.95
John GOODWIN 1:06.42
Unfortunately due to a little incident following Gordon’s spin on track Paul had to start from the back of the grid but as it would turn out he had a good run through the pack and we would get to race, albeit just briefly, for once.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
