Blog Update
I have had a few comments about the delay in updating this blog so I thought before we head to the next round at Brands this weekend, I should make the effort.
To stop this from being a massive post going, through every item of the last two races I will keep it short and expand a little later. The good news is that both for the Lydden races and for the last round at Castle Combe, I am able to post the videos so they can form most of the commentary!
Lydden
I have drafted a more detailed version of this but quick summary is as follows:
Flew in from South Africa overnight, was collected at the airport and driven to the circuit where my car was waiting for me all ready to go! The glamour of motorsport ☺ Many thanks for Andrea for the chauffeuring, Andy Bates (AB Performance) for transporting my car to and from the circuit and to John for the preparation on the car before and at the circuit. Qualifying went quite well, I came away without the feel that I had the circuit completely sorted but it was good enough to get me onto the second row for both races and considering the jet lag was not too bad.
As I drove down to the assembly area later in the day however for the first race the engine did not want to keep running below 6k so I sat on the grid, in gear, hoping not to overheat. The first lap was quite good, I was quicker than those in front but did not try anything too risky. As we started lap 2, I got a good run on John Curtmore and headed on the outside into the chessingtons drift. It was a little dusty out there but I held the slide until the engine stalled on me, locked my rear wheels and sent me straight towards the tyre wall. Exit speed from the circuit was somewhere between 80 and 90mph I think and there was not a lot of deceleration on the grass! From there on I had a nice view of the Class C race battle whilst wondering what damage there was to the car. It was good to see the close racing throughout the grid and brilliant to see Mike Atkinson take his first ever class C race win. After the race we set about repairing the car with lots of fibreglass and resin and diagnosed the engine problem/reason for the crash down to a split pipe used to balance the carbs. All repaired on the Sunday morning and ready to race for the afternoon. Many thanks for John for the fibreglass repair kit, Andy for the engine diagnosis and John and Paul for their assistance in car repairs. Great team.
The Sunday race was a hot one and I needed to catch up on the learning curve as everyone else had completed a race distance more than me. I had a good start and a great battle throughout the race with Mike Atkinson, John Cutmore and Mike Field. Mike Atkinson drove a great race and was on for a great race win, repeating his win from the first race on Saturday until he spun towards the end of the race, letting John, Mike and I through. John and Mike subsequently being disqualified in post race scrutineering due to reverse gearbox failures, leaving Mike Field with the win and me with second place. The car was quite OK after the accident, the only noticeable difference being a slight reluctance to turn in which we latter diagnosed to be a tracking issue, not too surprising really as the entire left side of the car hit the tyre wall! The main reason however that I was not able to attack as much as normal in the race was that the front brake pads that I had planned to replace before hand but didn’t were just completely at the end of their usefulness. They got hard and very hot early in the race and the braking reduction was quick severe. Time for a change and the need for somewhere to bed them in.
So despite the accident and the lost points from that race, I came away from the weekend with a second place and quite a liking for this small Kentish circuit.
Between the Lydden weekend and Castle Combe, we reset the geometry and competed some more repairs to the bodywork as well as replacing the front brake pads. Took the car down to snetterton to check out the handling and brakes and all was running very well (brakes back to being awesome again!) until the last session where the car started to misfire.
Castle Combe
In the last few weeks we have replaced almost everything you can imagine to trace this misfire, heading to Castle combe with the expectation that we have solved it, only to find that during a very wet qualifying that it still persisted. Mind you I qualified 4th in class despite a 7k rpm limit! Between the qualifying and race sessions, we pulled out the fuel pump, fuel pipes and pressure sensor and replaced with a new pump just in case. The trouble is you need to get the car under good load to find the issue. Well the short story is that it did not fix the problem and as I tried to pull away from the lights at the start of the race, the car died on me and by the time I had it moving, most of the pack had passed, from there it was just a matter of hassling the back few drivers as I could run much faster through the corners but gave away metres and metres on every straight. Quite some fun for a few laps and then as the race progressed and I was on my own at the back, I just concentrated on having fun on the circuit, not slowing down for the corners and sliding around for the spectators! Fun and the circuit is brilliant but I can not help but think I was in for a potential win if the car was all OK, where as I just came back with 3 points instead.
So as we lead up to the race at Brands this weekend I think we have finally worked out the issue resides around the fitment of the carbs into the new AB Performance airbox. It would seem that ever since we first installed this new airbox, the carbs have been sitting at a slight angle and maybe post accident or maybe just because the carb rubber mounts are starting to get looser, they are starting to let some air bleed in under high load and therefore creating the misfire. Hopefully we have this fixed by some alterations to the mounting and edges of the box but we have also modified the original Honda airbox to take air directly from the NACA duct and will run that if we have to.
I am signed up to compete in the Allcomers qualify and race this Saturday and I will use that as our test and then hopefully we will be all set for a great battle in the RGB race on the Sunday. Hopefully!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Donington Reflections
Overall reflections
Air box, carbs and air intake have definitely improved the top end pull and especially the pull through 5th and 6th gears. The new throttle pedal, modified linkage and its revised position had definitely made a difference at Mallory but as I was not running the video it was quite hard to remember the details. At Donington when I had the video, you can actually hear nice well defined throttle blips throughout the braking zones. The handling had been nice and consistent throughout the race as well. I was running with the slightly softer setup I had tried in the one winter test session I completed in the run up to the race. It had worked well over the bumps at Mallory and helped me a little with the undulations and curbs of Donington.
Last year my fastest in race lap was a 1:20.55 and I know I was in a pack quite a bit of the time but it surprising what some track time can do, this year with the car improvements adding up to some part but not all of the improvement to a new fastest lap for me at the circuit of 1:19.40. I wonder if I can transition this into a similar improvement at the other tracks I have raced at before?
A very impressive run from Rob and Gordon out in front, some fantastic lap times there, just a pity there are not a few more racing together at the front of class A.
Class B showed some really promise as well. Paul running almost identical times as me in the all comers race, Tim showing his usual brilliance at Donington by getting Ian Gray's Phasar to very impressive 1:18.28 before it lunched itself.(1:19.76 in the Class C Phoenix last year)I think this might be a good indication that a class B version of the Phoenix or Fury class C cars should be capable of running around 2 to 3% quicker. Although Colin Duce had a rather eventful race and finished back in 13th overall despite winning class B, he did manage to get fastest lap for class B of 1:19.41 on lap 12 which again shows great promise. (1:22.77 best from last year)
Two very noticeable improvements for Donington this year were Tim and Paul. Firstly Tim for an excellent 3rd place in class for the start and an equally impressive improvement in lap times, from a 1:25.00 last year reduced down to a 1:21.47 this year. I am sure his new AB Performance airbox and pimp my ride alloys have made a different but most of that must come from driving.
Paul's lap time improvements have definitely come from seat time and improved confidence. Last year Paul managed a fastest lap of 1:23.19 during the race and this year he brought that down to a 1:20.33 before being taken out by John Cutmore. Even better still, he managed to get into the low 1:19s in the all comers race when we were running within sight of each other. We have been able to sit down and compare that last lap of the allcomers race through the DD2 and the results are quite interesting. I definitely carry some more speed into and through the corners, that faster corners especially but Paul is much smoother out of the corners and makes up all if not more of the time through that and the better pulling power of his R1 engine. So Donington is like Snetterton, where we are both improving and now running at almost identical lap times. Bring it on !.
Air box, carbs and air intake have definitely improved the top end pull and especially the pull through 5th and 6th gears. The new throttle pedal, modified linkage and its revised position had definitely made a difference at Mallory but as I was not running the video it was quite hard to remember the details. At Donington when I had the video, you can actually hear nice well defined throttle blips throughout the braking zones. The handling had been nice and consistent throughout the race as well. I was running with the slightly softer setup I had tried in the one winter test session I completed in the run up to the race. It had worked well over the bumps at Mallory and helped me a little with the undulations and curbs of Donington.
Last year my fastest in race lap was a 1:20.55 and I know I was in a pack quite a bit of the time but it surprising what some track time can do, this year with the car improvements adding up to some part but not all of the improvement to a new fastest lap for me at the circuit of 1:19.40. I wonder if I can transition this into a similar improvement at the other tracks I have raced at before?
A very impressive run from Rob and Gordon out in front, some fantastic lap times there, just a pity there are not a few more racing together at the front of class A.
Class B showed some really promise as well. Paul running almost identical times as me in the all comers race, Tim showing his usual brilliance at Donington by getting Ian Gray's Phasar to very impressive 1:18.28 before it lunched itself.(1:19.76 in the Class C Phoenix last year)I think this might be a good indication that a class B version of the Phoenix or Fury class C cars should be capable of running around 2 to 3% quicker. Although Colin Duce had a rather eventful race and finished back in 13th overall despite winning class B, he did manage to get fastest lap for class B of 1:19.41 on lap 12 which again shows great promise. (1:22.77 best from last year)
Two very noticeable improvements for Donington this year were Tim and Paul. Firstly Tim for an excellent 3rd place in class for the start and an equally impressive improvement in lap times, from a 1:25.00 last year reduced down to a 1:21.47 this year. I am sure his new AB Performance airbox and pimp my ride alloys have made a different but most of that must come from driving.
Paul's lap time improvements have definitely come from seat time and improved confidence. Last year Paul managed a fastest lap of 1:23.19 during the race and this year he brought that down to a 1:20.33 before being taken out by John Cutmore. Even better still, he managed to get into the low 1:19s in the all comers race when we were running within sight of each other. We have been able to sit down and compare that last lap of the allcomers race through the DD2 and the results are quite interesting. I definitely carry some more speed into and through the corners, that faster corners especially but Paul is much smoother out of the corners and makes up all if not more of the time through that and the better pulling power of his R1 engine. So Donington is like Snetterton, where we are both improving and now running at almost identical lap times. Bring it on !.
RGB Round 2 - Donington Park ***RACE WIN***
A few weeks ago we went to Donington Park for the second round of the 2007 RGB championship. I elected to do the Allcomers race as well as the RGB race to get some practice in for what I think is probably one of the most technical circuits we go to. The Allcomers qualify was just to learn the track again. In the RGB qualify I managed to get Pole, 0.7 of a second ahead of John Cutmore in 2nd and about 2 seconds ahead of Tim Hoverd who managed a very impressive 3rd in class C.
As we lined up on the grid, there was Rob and Gordon (both Class A) in front of me, unfortunately no Tim Gray in the lead Class B car beside me due to his engine expiry and James (Class A) just behind on my right.
As the lights went off I got a good start but the engine bogged down just a little, I have been trying to remember the exact revs I used successfully last year and I think I now knows it’s a little higher than I had thought! Mind you my start looked really stunning compared to Gordons!
As we ran up to Redgate, Gordon had caught a second wind and was pulling away, whilst James had made up some good speed and was on the inside and in front of me. I received a little tap from behind by Mr Cutmore as I turned into Redgate but got a good run out of the corner, through the craner curves and down to the old hairpin. As we came up the hill and through to Coppice we were all quite close still but the next part of the lap started a pattern that would repeat many times. I would get a good run through Coppice but James would use the power of the Busa to pull away quite convincingly down the straight, I would make up some in the braking zone for the chicane and then he would get another extension to his lead down the start finish straight.
Redgate for each lap would show the biggest gap between us, followed by a closing up of the gap as I carried slightly more speed through the craner curves and the old hairpin, until we were quite close again through McLeans and up to Coppice.
Lap 2 saw Aaron continuing straight on and making intimate contact with the barrier which meant we had yellow flags being waved all over the entry to Redgate and Paul Haynes was sat up at Coppice watching the race following another engine failure. Over the next few laps, as we went down the hill through the craners, I could see that Rob had pulled quite a margin over Gordon and then about the same back to James in front of me.
By lap 3, I had already dipped into the 19’s with a 1:19.4 with a nice clear run, no need to defend and a fair bit of concentration on keeping smooth and some good mid corners speed. This would in fact turn out to be my fastest lap of the race, not through design but due to a little problem I had at the end, more of which later. Mind you by this time Gordon and Rob were both in the 17’s and even more impressively they both managed 15s over the next couple of laps!
As we started Lap 6, Aaron’s car was being pulled out by a massive tractor, which takes on a completely different image when you are in a small and low lightweight race car traveling straight towards it at 120mph! By this point, Paul and John had passed Steve Robinson behind me and were the next cars down the track from me, all be it 9 and a bit seconds behind.
On Lap 7 we came up to lap Julius Bates in the Aeon Blaze, where I got a nice view of a flame out under braking into the chicane.
Lap 8 coming into Coppice, James chooses not to dive up the inside of Dick Adams in the class A Westfield as we lapped him which means I reduced the gap considerably. The next couple of laps would show around a half second gap. Entering the chicane on Lap 8 and we had yellow flags out and what looked like Paul’s Phoenix sitting against the barrier. Lap 9 is almost replication of the former, where we are both held up heading into 
coppice by lapping Garry for the second time.
As we lined up on the grid, there was Rob and Gordon (both Class A) in front of me, unfortunately no Tim Gray in the lead Class B car beside me due to his engine expiry and James (Class A) just behind on my right.
As the lights went off I got a good start but the engine bogged down just a little, I have been trying to remember the exact revs I used successfully last year and I think I now knows it’s a little higher than I had thought! Mind you my start looked really stunning compared to Gordons!
As we ran up to Redgate, Gordon had caught a second wind and was pulling away, whilst James had made up some good speed and was on the inside and in front of me. I received a little tap from behind by Mr Cutmore as I turned into Redgate but got a good run out of the corner, through the craner curves and down to the old hairpin. As we came up the hill and through to Coppice we were all quite close still but the next part of the lap started a pattern that would repeat many times. I would get a good run through Coppice but James would use the power of the Busa to pull away quite convincingly down the straight, I would make up some in the braking zone for the chicane and then he would get another extension to his lead down the start finish straight.
Redgate for each lap would show the biggest gap between us, followed by a closing up of the gap as I carried slightly more speed through the craner curves and the old hairpin, until we were quite close again through McLeans and up to Coppice.Lap 2 saw Aaron continuing straight on and making intimate contact with the barrier which meant we had yellow flags being waved all over the entry to Redgate and Paul Haynes was sat up at Coppice watching the race following another engine failure. Over the next few laps, as we went down the hill through the craners, I could see that Rob had pulled quite a margin over Gordon and then about the same back to James in front of me.
By lap 3, I had already dipped into the 19’s with a 1:19.4 with a nice clear run, no need to defend and a fair bit of concentration on keeping smooth and some good mid corners speed. This would in fact turn out to be my fastest lap of the race, not through design but due to a little problem I had at the end, more of which later. Mind you by this time Gordon and Rob were both in the 17’s and even more impressively they both managed 15s over the next couple of laps!
As we started Lap 6, Aaron’s car was being pulled out by a massive tractor, which takes on a completely different image when you are in a small and low lightweight race car traveling straight towards it at 120mph! By this point, Paul and John had passed Steve Robinson behind me and were the next cars down the track from me, all be it 9 and a bit seconds behind.
On Lap 7 we came up to lap Julius Bates in the Aeon Blaze, where I got a nice view of a flame out under braking into the chicane.
Lap 8 coming into Coppice, James chooses not to dive up the inside of Dick Adams in the class A Westfield as we lapped him which means I reduced the gap considerably. The next couple of laps would show around a half second gap. Entering the chicane on Lap 8 and we had yellow flags out and what looked like Paul’s Phoenix sitting against the barrier. Lap 9 is almost replication of the former, where we are both held up heading into 
coppice by lapping Garry for the second time.This time through the chicane and I could see Paul watching from behind the barriers, it would seem that John Cutmore had dived for a gap that was not present and had taken them both out of the race. Some quite major damage to Paul’s driver side, thankfully the side impact bar doing its job, but a real shame as Paul’s had been putting in some really good lap times and he was on for a good win in class. Even more of a shame when you realise that neither were actually racing each other for position, John even doing himself out of a solid 2nd place and some good championship points bearing in mind he came second in the previous race as well. 
Once of the real joys of our race series is the close, wheel to wheel racing, sometimes this is improved upon even more by running mixed classes (sometimes it’s the other way around of course!) but a major issue comes when one driver effects the race of a different class. I had been very conscious of this in the former, all comers race where I had to make sure along side having a good race and learning the track, that I did not get in the way of any of the drivers in the 7’s race as it was theirs we were taking part in.
Lap 11 was over a second slower than the others as James and I caught Judy up going down into the old hairpin, her hazard lights on and her car puzzlingly placed slap bang in the middle of the track, around the half the speed we were expecting. It wasn’t not until the entry to McLeans that we managed to pass Judy.
Lap 13, we lapped Rob Grant in the Striker, again one of our new racers in the series and doing very well in what is a rather steep learning curve.
Lap 14 was quite busy, lapping Mike Allen in the Tiger on the outside around the first right-hand sweep of the craner curves and then Garry just after a rather hasty gab on the brakes at the left hand apex on the craners!
I was just about to lap Simon Maybe in the Fury and Pete Rope in his multi coloured Pheonix on back straight when the first of the engine stutters appeared, which meant it was the end of the following start finish straight before I passed them. This let James get more of a lead and would be the end of my very enjoyable run in close proximity.
Of course by this point, with John going out on lap 7, my closest Class C competitor Mike Atkinson was some 25 seconds behind and I did not really need to push.
Over the span of the race I had been able to keep the times in the low 20’s to mid 19s but concentrating on carrying corner speeds rather than pushing hard to sliding a lot. A bit of a surprise to some, me not sliding around much! As the fuel level had come down, I had kept an eye on the times to make sure I was not slipping back but equally not over stressing the car or tyres.
Back at Laps 12 and 13 we were into the low 19’s and as the last 3 or so laps came, I was planning to put in a bit of a spurt to attack the lap record. Unfortunate by this point the car was running a little low on fuel and I started to notice a touch of spluttering on the start of the straight.
After the event I found I still had more than the required 3ltrs left, its just that the bottom of the tank is so mangled now after all of the repairs (prior to my ownership I hasten to add.) that the pump was having difficulty in getting fuel out.
So the penultimate lap showed fuel starvation on the latter half of the straight and the final lap it appeared as early as the entry to Coppice and lasted through a little swerving until I was half way down the back straight!
On analysis it would seem the fuel pickup issues is actually from starkeys bridge and up the hill into McLeans but because I now have a swirl-pot post pump, there was sufficient pressure to run until came to Coppice. A short while after that the pump had managed to catch up and all was well again. A good job I had a nice lead!
The final excitement happened as we entered the chicane for the last time to find Doug had parked his Genesis slap bang in the middle of the track at the centre of the chicane and required us to thread our cars between his and the corner markers! I was following Julius at this point and it seemed he had little room to get past behind Doug from where I was so I elected to brake for longer in a straight line and go in front of Doug. Trouble was there was even less room but I managed to borrow some space on the dirt!
All that was left after that was to cross the line for a win in Class C, fastest lap in class and 4th overall in the race.
Once of the real joys of our race series is the close, wheel to wheel racing, sometimes this is improved upon even more by running mixed classes (sometimes it’s the other way around of course!) but a major issue comes when one driver effects the race of a different class. I had been very conscious of this in the former, all comers race where I had to make sure along side having a good race and learning the track, that I did not get in the way of any of the drivers in the 7’s race as it was theirs we were taking part in.
Lap 11 was over a second slower than the others as James and I caught Judy up going down into the old hairpin, her hazard lights on and her car puzzlingly placed slap bang in the middle of the track, around the half the speed we were expecting. It wasn’t not until the entry to McLeans that we managed to pass Judy.
Lap 13, we lapped Rob Grant in the Striker, again one of our new racers in the series and doing very well in what is a rather steep learning curve.Lap 14 was quite busy, lapping Mike Allen in the Tiger on the outside around the first right-hand sweep of the craner curves and then Garry just after a rather hasty gab on the brakes at the left hand apex on the craners!
I was just about to lap Simon Maybe in the Fury and Pete Rope in his multi coloured Pheonix on back straight when the first of the engine stutters appeared, which meant it was the end of the following start finish straight before I passed them. This let James get more of a lead and would be the end of my very enjoyable run in close proximity.Of course by this point, with John going out on lap 7, my closest Class C competitor Mike Atkinson was some 25 seconds behind and I did not really need to push.
Over the span of the race I had been able to keep the times in the low 20’s to mid 19s but concentrating on carrying corner speeds rather than pushing hard to sliding a lot. A bit of a surprise to some, me not sliding around much! As the fuel level had come down, I had kept an eye on the times to make sure I was not slipping back but equally not over stressing the car or tyres.
Back at Laps 12 and 13 we were into the low 19’s and as the last 3 or so laps came, I was planning to put in a bit of a spurt to attack the lap record. Unfortunate by this point the car was running a little low on fuel and I started to notice a touch of spluttering on the start of the straight.
After the event I found I still had more than the required 3ltrs left, its just that the bottom of the tank is so mangled now after all of the repairs (prior to my ownership I hasten to add.) that the pump was having difficulty in getting fuel out.
So the penultimate lap showed fuel starvation on the latter half of the straight and the final lap it appeared as early as the entry to Coppice and lasted through a little swerving until I was half way down the back straight!
On analysis it would seem the fuel pickup issues is actually from starkeys bridge and up the hill into McLeans but because I now have a swirl-pot post pump, there was sufficient pressure to run until came to Coppice. A short while after that the pump had managed to catch up and all was well again. A good job I had a nice lead!
The final excitement happened as we entered the chicane for the last time to find Doug had parked his Genesis slap bang in the middle of the track at the centre of the chicane and required us to thread our cars between his and the corner markers! I was following Julius at this point and it seemed he had little room to get past behind Doug from where I was so I elected to brake for longer in a straight line and go in front of Doug. Trouble was there was even less room but I managed to borrow some space on the dirt!
All that was left after that was to cross the line for a win in Class C, fastest lap in class and 4th overall in the race.
Donington Allcomers Race Reflections
During the Donington RGB weekend, a number of our racers signed up for the allcomers race. Paul and I used this as a chance to get some mileage in the cars and get some laps under our belt at the circuit. Donington is quite hard and expensive to get good testing at due to the stupid local council who restrict the noise at a circuit that’s been around for generations, supports social activities for hundreds of thousands a year and even more bizarrely is situated under the immediate flight path of East Midlands Airport. I once remember being told of for exceeding the noise limit (due to an exhaust failure) but being unable to hear the marshals comments as an airliner was landing!
I went into the Allcomers race with the aim of testing my start, learning the circuit, trying a few different lines and not over pushing the car and in fact did most of it well away from the rev limiter. Towards the end of the 18mins race, Paul was running quite close to me and we up’d the pace a little. Interestingly we both ran telemetry so we are able to do a little side by side comparison of both our cars and our driving styles. What makes it even better is that on the final lap we both did almost identical times, Paul in fact beating my fastest lap of 1:19.48 with a 1:19.36.
Firstly its interesting to compare the temperatures of our two cars. My mods over the winter included a simplifying of the cooling system, making it pressurized and the running temps have dropped quite substantially. So here’s a graph of the water temps of mine and Paul’s – 90degrees average for mine on the last lap of the race and an average of 72 for Paul. Now we were both out in clear air and it was quite cool at the time although each time I have run mine so far this years its been the same. If we look at the oil temps as a similar comparison we see an interesting difference. Paul’s averaging around 101degs and mine at around 113 (10deg down on mine from last year).
Paul is running a bike radiator, I am running a polo dual core car rad and we are both running separate oil coolers. I wonder what mine would look like if I removed the oil cooler and allowed the oil/water heat exchanger as standard on the blade?
Comparing speeds into, through and out of corners is also quite enlightening,
The first obvious difference is the run down the craner curves seen in this graph from our telemetry. Paul’s speeds are in green and mine are in red. The highlighted blue cross marker is placed on the apex of the left hand part of the craner curves just as it is dipping at its steepest and the part of the circuit that I find the exhilarating. Some say scary and a few times it can be, its probably the one place of all of the circuits we race at that my car is out of shape at the highest speed! I must admit that in both of the races we did at Donington this weekend that it took me a few laps to be confident to run flat out through these corners. Anyway you can see that Paul is running through this corner at 108mph with a further spurt to 112mph before braking for the old hairpin. Comparatively I am doing 116mph with little improvement until having to brake earlier for the next corner. Interestingly by the time we both get to Paul’s braking point we are doing the same speed! There is a 3mph difference in the mid corner speed through the old hairpin, I get a bit of wheel spin due to the slide through the corner where Paul gets a better and smoother run out of the corner and this advantage runs all the way up the hill where he makes good use of the increased power of the R1 engine meaning he is 2mph up at the top of the hill.
Again I enter and run through McLeans a little faster than Paul – 76mph as apposed to 69mph but Paul gets a great run out and reaches the same peak as me at 100mph before we enter Coppice, run almost the same speed through and down the straight. Again his power helping a little to reach a back straight maximum speed of 130mph compared to my 125mph.
All of the other items in the telemetry are unsurprisingly quite similar.
I went into the Allcomers race with the aim of testing my start, learning the circuit, trying a few different lines and not over pushing the car and in fact did most of it well away from the rev limiter. Towards the end of the 18mins race, Paul was running quite close to me and we up’d the pace a little. Interestingly we both ran telemetry so we are able to do a little side by side comparison of both our cars and our driving styles. What makes it even better is that on the final lap we both did almost identical times, Paul in fact beating my fastest lap of 1:19.48 with a 1:19.36.
Firstly its interesting to compare the temperatures of our two cars. My mods over the winter included a simplifying of the cooling system, making it pressurized and the running temps have dropped quite substantially. So here’s a graph of the water temps of mine and Paul’s – 90degrees average for mine on the last lap of the race and an average of 72 for Paul. Now we were both out in clear air and it was quite cool at the time although each time I have run mine so far this years its been the same. If we look at the oil temps as a similar comparison we see an interesting difference. Paul’s averaging around 101degs and mine at around 113 (10deg down on mine from last year).
Paul is running a bike radiator, I am running a polo dual core car rad and we are both running separate oil coolers. I wonder what mine would look like if I removed the oil cooler and allowed the oil/water heat exchanger as standard on the blade?
Comparing speeds into, through and out of corners is also quite enlightening,
The first obvious difference is the run down the craner curves seen in this graph from our telemetry. Paul’s speeds are in green and mine are in red. The highlighted blue cross marker is placed on the apex of the left hand part of the craner curves just as it is dipping at its steepest and the part of the circuit that I find the exhilarating. Some say scary and a few times it can be, its probably the one place of all of the circuits we race at that my car is out of shape at the highest speed! I must admit that in both of the races we did at Donington this weekend that it took me a few laps to be confident to run flat out through these corners. Anyway you can see that Paul is running through this corner at 108mph with a further spurt to 112mph before braking for the old hairpin. Comparatively I am doing 116mph with little improvement until having to brake earlier for the next corner. Interestingly by the time we both get to Paul’s braking point we are doing the same speed! There is a 3mph difference in the mid corner speed through the old hairpin, I get a bit of wheel spin due to the slide through the corner where Paul gets a better and smoother run out of the corner and this advantage runs all the way up the hill where he makes good use of the increased power of the R1 engine meaning he is 2mph up at the top of the hill.
Again I enter and run through McLeans a little faster than Paul – 76mph as apposed to 69mph but Paul gets a great run out and reaches the same peak as me at 100mph before we enter Coppice, run almost the same speed through and down the straight. Again his power helping a little to reach a back straight maximum speed of 130mph compared to my 125mph.All of the other items in the telemetry are unsurprisingly quite similar.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Mallory Race **** RACE WIN ****
As the day came to a close we lined up in front of the 60's style pit garages in qualifying order. Unfortunately I did not have my video camera with me for this round so the only pictures I have are some long shots from John. They do however show the order and the gap I had back to the rest of the pack later in the race. The run out to form on the grid at Mallory is almost a complete lap so it was a good opportunity for lots of tyre and brake warming, which I fun quite enjoyable!
I had a tense moment waiting for the lights, frantically trying to remember what revs to use for the start! I got a good start when the light went out but John C had a flying start, passing James and I on the inside whilst we were barely moving. The first corner is always fun in a race but for that corner to be Gerrards and will just a small lift after the drag from the standing start it was always going to be a time for a short intake of breath. The front end was nice and responsive so I drove around the outside of James into Gerrards, got a good run through the middle and end of the corner to slipstream John down the back straight and take 1st place in class (3rd place in the race) into turn2. As we exited the hairpin and powered through the Devils Elbow, I took a look back to see where John was and as I brought my attention back to the straight in front I saw there was a red flag, worse still Gordon and Rob had responded very quickly and were doing half my speed. The next few seconds were, how should I put this........ interesting is a little bit of an understatement. The car was a little squirmy as I tried to slow the car down and miss the two cars in front, which madly scanning the track for the reason for the red flag.
So we went around again and lined up for the second time. This time I got a better start (remembered what revs to use, well it has been 5 months!) and kept my place. Rob and James had a little contact as they both went for 2nd place and because of the distraction, I was able to go around the outside of James as we entered Gerrards. James was later to drop out because of the contact.
From lap one I just concentrated on keeping in touch with Rob in the class A BDN and get some space between me and John in 4th overall. For the first 5 laps I managed to keep the gap to Rob down to 4 seconds and had a 3 second gap back to John. Keeping up with Rob was harder as the laps ticked by as well started to pass back markers, all of which were very well behaved but its hard to make up the time you loose following somebody though the slower corners. I did find I had more pace potential than I qualifying had shown, when I had to run a tight line into Gerrards to pass a back marker. I found I could run that line at the same speed I had been entering when I was on the racing line. Towards the end of the race I had a 4 to 5 second gap back to 2nd in class (4th overall) and tried to ensure I kept the lap times coming down slightly each time but without over pushing the car or taking too many risks. Its hard to judge gaps at Mallory, every time you go around the hairpin the following cars look really close and when you fire out of Gerrards and down the back straight they seem miles back. 
As the fuel came down I managed a couple of laps in the 50's even though I was running a very tight line out of Gerrards to minimise the risk, most of the improved lap time coming from a better entry speed at Gerrards which takes a little bit of practice to build up to. By this time I had completed 24 laps of the circuit (one of the benefits of a short lap) and had a good feel of the grip levels. The last two laps seemed to take quite a while and I must admit I was looking at the lap counter and trying to work out how many more to do when I saw the chequered flag and crossed the line for 3rd overall and 1st in class C. How come I always miss the last lap board?
So first outing of 2007, Pole in class, Race Win and Lap record for Class as well. Good start to the season :)
So I was going to leave this post at that, but I can't finish without some congratulations. Obviously the first needs to go to Gordon for the Class A win but maybe more importantly to Tim H who managed a complete Qualify and Race without bending his car, excellent show Tim! A good round of applause for all of the other racers who have complete major changes of the winter including those who have moved to Class B with complete engine transplants. 2007 should turn into a very interesting battle in Class B with the new cars, a challenge for you there Paul!. Finally congratulations and warm welcome to our many new competitors for this year, its a great series to race in and even more interesting when you have lots of new faces. Excellent!
I had a tense moment waiting for the lights, frantically trying to remember what revs to use for the start! I got a good start when the light went out but John C had a flying start, passing James and I on the inside whilst we were barely moving. The first corner is always fun in a race but for that corner to be Gerrards and will just a small lift after the drag from the standing start it was always going to be a time for a short intake of breath. The front end was nice and responsive so I drove around the outside of James into Gerrards, got a good run through the middle and end of the corner to slipstream John down the back straight and take 1st place in class (3rd place in the race) into turn2. As we exited the hairpin and powered through the Devils Elbow, I took a look back to see where John was and as I brought my attention back to the straight in front I saw there was a red flag, worse still Gordon and Rob had responded very quickly and were doing half my speed. The next few seconds were, how should I put this........ interesting is a little bit of an understatement. The car was a little squirmy as I tried to slow the car down and miss the two cars in front, which madly scanning the track for the reason for the red flag.
So we went around again and lined up for the second time. This time I got a better start (remembered what revs to use, well it has been 5 months!) and kept my place. Rob and James had a little contact as they both went for 2nd place and because of the distraction, I was able to go around the outside of James as we entered Gerrards. James was later to drop out because of the contact.
From lap one I just concentrated on keeping in touch with Rob in the class A BDN and get some space between me and John in 4th overall. For the first 5 laps I managed to keep the gap to Rob down to 4 seconds and had a 3 second gap back to John. Keeping up with Rob was harder as the laps ticked by as well started to pass back markers, all of which were very well behaved but its hard to make up the time you loose following somebody though the slower corners. I did find I had more pace potential than I qualifying had shown, when I had to run a tight line into Gerrards to pass a back marker. I found I could run that line at the same speed I had been entering when I was on the racing line. Towards the end of the race I had a 4 to 5 second gap back to 2nd in class (4th overall) and tried to ensure I kept the lap times coming down slightly each time but without over pushing the car or taking too many risks. Its hard to judge gaps at Mallory, every time you go around the hairpin the following cars look really close and when you fire out of Gerrards and down the back straight they seem miles back. 
As the fuel came down I managed a couple of laps in the 50's even though I was running a very tight line out of Gerrards to minimise the risk, most of the improved lap time coming from a better entry speed at Gerrards which takes a little bit of practice to build up to. By this time I had completed 24 laps of the circuit (one of the benefits of a short lap) and had a good feel of the grip levels. The last two laps seemed to take quite a while and I must admit I was looking at the lap counter and trying to work out how many more to do when I saw the chequered flag and crossed the line for 3rd overall and 1st in class C. How come I always miss the last lap board?So first outing of 2007, Pole in class, Race Win and Lap record for Class as well. Good start to the season :)
So I was going to leave this post at that, but I can't finish without some congratulations. Obviously the first needs to go to Gordon for the Class A win but maybe more importantly to Tim H who managed a complete Qualify and Race without bending his car, excellent show Tim! A good round of applause for all of the other racers who have complete major changes of the winter including those who have moved to Class B with complete engine transplants. 2007 should turn into a very interesting battle in Class B with the new cars, a challenge for you there Paul!. Finally congratulations and warm welcome to our many new competitors for this year, its a great series to race in and even more interesting when you have lots of new faces. Excellent!
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Mallory RGB Race - Part1
Last weekend saw us head over to Mallory for the first race of the 2007 RGB championship.
An easy and relaxed trip out on Saturday afternoon so that we were all set for Sunday. In fact the whole weekend was nice and relaxed as our scrutineering was not until mid morning, the practice session just before lunch and then race not until after 5pm. Even the weather stayed nice, with the small exception of a cold wind but what can you expect of mid March in England!
Mallory was yet another new track for Paul and I, although we
had completed a handful of laps a the Focus RS during our ARDS test but not really comparable with the RGB cars!
The track in a development of a trotting track and resembles a slightly warped oval with a strangle loop ending in a very sharp hairpin. You obvious attention is taken immediately by the fast and very long Gerrards first corner which went on for ages in our Saturday evening track walk.
Before I get into the details of the practice and race I have to mention that this is an excellent track in my opinion. I know we have seen a number of incidents here in RGB over the years and some of my fellow racers have come home with broken cars but the racing is close and it has speed, tight corners, short and long braking areas and required neatness and guts! Good combination.
So practice got underway with a slow train heading out on the first lap. I was a little way back from the front but spent the first half of the lap getting some good heat into the tires and then blasted past some of the leading pack at the hairpin and then we were off. The advantage of a short track is that you get to do quite a number of laps and therefore opportunities to try different lines and hone the braking zones / turn in points.
I love Gerrards, a turn in or around 95mph and an exit of over 110 some 200odd degrees later. In my next post I will put up some telemetry info for a couple of laps.
We had one interesting lap, coming around the hairpin with waved yellow flags to find Buzz, a new member of the RGB racing fraternity had parked his Genesis half way up the inside Armco barrier! Way to go Buzz. :)
I knew I needed to be near the 50 second lap time to be right at the front but thought that as long as I could hit the low 51’s that would be ok for the first outing. Well as the fuel came down and the confidence grew so did the traffic to pass!
My two or three fastest laps were all slightly compromised by traffic but in the end the fastest was still fast enough.
So practice left me with a lap time of 50.59 to give me pole in class and 4th overall in the race, with just 3 class A cars ahead. John Cutmore in the Westfield (now one of three westies in our race series) was only just behind but would be starting on the 3rd row of the grip, all be it on the inside.
We had quite a wait between the practice session and the race and although
I should have spent that time looking at the telemetry, actually I enjoyed a nice lunch, watched some close racing and refueled the car. Did I mention it was cold?
An easy and relaxed trip out on Saturday afternoon so that we were all set for Sunday. In fact the whole weekend was nice and relaxed as our scrutineering was not until mid morning, the practice session just before lunch and then race not until after 5pm. Even the weather stayed nice, with the small exception of a cold wind but what can you expect of mid March in England!Mallory was yet another new track for Paul and I, although we
had completed a handful of laps a the Focus RS during our ARDS test but not really comparable with the RGB cars!The track in a development of a trotting track and resembles a slightly warped oval with a strangle loop ending in a very sharp hairpin. You obvious attention is taken immediately by the fast and very long Gerrards first corner which went on for ages in our Saturday evening track walk.
Before I get into the details of the practice and race I have to mention that this is an excellent track in my opinion. I know we have seen a number of incidents here in RGB over the years and some of my fellow racers have come home with broken cars but the racing is close and it has speed, tight corners, short and long braking areas and required neatness and guts! Good combination.
So practice got underway with a slow train heading out on the first lap. I was a little way back from the front but spent the first half of the lap getting some good heat into the tires and then blasted past some of the leading pack at the hairpin and then we were off. The advantage of a short track is that you get to do quite a number of laps and therefore opportunities to try different lines and hone the braking zones / turn in points.
I love Gerrards, a turn in or around 95mph and an exit of over 110 some 200odd degrees later. In my next post I will put up some telemetry info for a couple of laps.
We had one interesting lap, coming around the hairpin with waved yellow flags to find Buzz, a new member of the RGB racing fraternity had parked his Genesis half way up the inside Armco barrier! Way to go Buzz. :)I knew I needed to be near the 50 second lap time to be right at the front but thought that as long as I could hit the low 51’s that would be ok for the first outing. Well as the fuel came down and the confidence grew so did the traffic to pass!
My two or three fastest laps were all slightly compromised by traffic but in the end the fastest was still fast enough.
So practice left me with a lap time of 50.59 to give me pole in class and 4th overall in the race, with just 3 class A cars ahead. John Cutmore in the Westfield (now one of three westies in our race series) was only just behind but would be starting on the 3rd row of the grip, all be it on the inside.
We had quite a wait between the practice session and the race and although
I should have spent that time looking at the telemetry, actually I enjoyed a nice lunch, watched some close racing and refueled the car. Did I mention it was cold?
Preseason Testing for 2007
Well what an interesting start to the new season.
The build up to 2007 started really late for me, my focus being on a house move and rather too much on the work side. The house move has helped amazingly in that I now have enough space in the garage to work on the car and room to maneuver the trailer. In light of this I have upgraded to a covered trailer so that the car stays clean in transit and does not need to be packed away or loaded up immediately before or after an event, leading to a much more relaxed time around the race day. Due to the late start in prep for the new year there were a few items I had wanted to do which will need to wait until later in the year. Namely the upgrade to the dampers and a replacement set of body work. The dampers are the original steel bodied avo single adjustable which much be well past their best and the body work well how can I put it, is rather tired and has more patches of fiberglass and resin that the base mould!
So anyway to get ready for the first race we (ably assisted in part by John, Tony, Steve from concept designs and Andy from AB Performance) have completed the following.
- Swapped out the old ‘spare’ engine and back in with a refreshed late model blade with fully working gearbox.
- Installed a new AB Performance airbox with near NACA duct in the bonnet
- Modified the bonnet for the aforementioned airbox
- Rationalised the cooling system to make it a closed loop and therefore pressurized setup which has dropped the water temp quite a bit.
- Welded in some strengthening supports to the dash/steering column mounting to reduce flex during gear shifts on the paddles
- Repaired and created new mounts of the exhaust silencer that fell off on the cool down lap of the Birkett 6 hour endurance race!
- Made a ‘NASCAR’ sized throttle pedal and replaced the pivot point on the pedal arm to improve the smoothness of the throttle action and make heel and toe action on down changes easier in a bid to improve gearbox life.
- New grill to protect the radiator
So there has been quite a bit to do and Paul and I did a shake down test at Snetterton a couple of weeks ago to test our hard work.
The day started a little damp which meant we just slithered around but it was a good opportunity to bed the engines in a test for any silly mistakes. By lunch time as the track dried the cars were really flying and although we were not timing, my thought was that the no.4 Fury, as it will be in 2007, was straight back on pace. 
A very good test and with some added fun of being able to drive Andy’s blade engined Pheonix (ex Steve Savage RGB car) as well as doing a swap with Paul (current R1 Pheonix RGB car) for a run out.
More on my analysis of these cars later.
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