Championship Standings after Brands - Prep for Mallory

Amazingly I am still leading the Class C championship standings and second overall. A little close in points with Rob! Fastest lap and coming third at Brands has helped to restore the position but I need a good set of results this weekend and at Cadwell to maintain the position. Good job I love those circuits!

No major changes needed for Mallory this Sunday. The car was running very well at Brands and no damage from the impact with Steve. I have changed over to a new set of Coils and HT leads so that I can take the borrowed items back to Andy. Weather forecast looking like rain for Sunday afternoon so might be a chance to test out the new tires oh and have some fun sliding around Gerrard's all day :)

The incident that probably cost me class C victory

Lap2 of the third restart, saw Steve Robinson (Class A Genesis) make a mistake into the Druids hairpin and push me into the gravel trap from 1st in class. I returned to the track in 22nd place, making it up to 3rd in class by the end of the race, whilst Steve went on to his first race win.

Brands Hatch Race - Pole, 3rd Place and Fastest Lap

For me the brands hatch round of the RGB championship last weekend race filled the complete weekend, I signed up for the allcomers race on the Saturday so I had some time on the track and some time to test out our fixes for the engine misfire that limited the points from the last round at Castle Combe.

It turned out to be very valuable as for both of the Allcomers sessions I had reoccuring misfire issues. The first 2 laps of the allcomers qualify were fine and then it returned. We changed the battery, carb rubbers and remounted the airbox between qualify and the race but the same issue persisted. It did however give me a chance to learn more about the circuit all be it at a reduced pace – in fact at about the same pace as a hot hatch as I raced with a few of them for the entire duration!

Saturday evening was full of head scratching but Andy (AB Performance) took the carbs apart and found some dirt in one of the primary jets which we are associating with the earlier fuel pump failure. A quick test before dinner seemed to show it as resolved but we had thought that before of course!

Sunday dawned nice and bright and the midday qualify for RGB would be the true test. Well I am more than happy to report that the car was back on true form. In fact right back to the same as I had at the start of the season. I was able to post a lap time 52.64 which was good for pole in class and 3rd overall. In fact I was able to post 4 laps that would have given me the pole time, my closest competitor being John Cutmore with a 53 second deal. The main change over last year (and its about a 1 second improvement I think?) is down to a smoother driving style. I have continued to analyze the videos from last year, highlighting the actions that seem to unsettle the live rear axle and waste acceleration and build that into my preparation for the track. Still running the same setup for each track though which is interesting in itself.

The aftertnoon race would be in three parts as we unsuccessfuly tried the first two starts whilst making an unimpressive show for the marshals when show red flags.

Attempt 1 –
I had a rather poor start, using too many revs and not blocking the inside into Paddock Hill bend and was down to 3rd in class. Gordon span part was down the hill through paddock hill bend and cars when everywhere. I tagged on the back of John's tail and overtook Mike into hairpin and then just about to make a move on John Cutmore down the back straight when we both saw the red flags and slowed. The cars in front slowed quite a bit and by the time that concertina had rippled back a few rows, we have cars flying past us manically trying to slow down. Unsuprisingly I dont think the marshals were too impressed with that show.

Attempt 2 -
Gordon missing from the grid, with some front end damage from the first race start so in front of me was Rob all alone. I altered the starting revs based on too much wheelspin from first start and got a good start, all be it not as good as Cutmore. I defended into turn one and got a good run through the rest of the lap to give a bit of a gap and as we came around to the start finish line there was another red flag. Yet again a few of the mid field cars went in all directions to try and slow down in time after a slightly delayed reaction to seeing the flags

Attempt 3 –
After a big talking to from the clerk of the course we were allowed to restart the race as the last of the day. Originally planned to be 18mins as first defined but it turned out to be just 13 + 1lap which would be a shame for me. Third attempt at the start and this time I got a good start, into turn 1 in the lead in class and off for the first few laps sprint to get clear of the pack. All was going very well, the car handling good as usual with cold tires, I was able to attack well into Paddock Hill, holding a slight slide over the crest and keeping it straight at the point of compression. I tweaked the brake bias a little over the first couple of laps to get a better balance between stopping from wheel lockup at the hairpin and not causing too much rear effect into Graham Hill and the entry to Clearways. The gap was building when Steve Robinson in the Class A Genesis came up behind. There was no point in racing him and loosing time to the Class C pack so I opened up the door into the Hairpin by staying wide and braking early. Steve went for the inside as offered to him and then just as I was turning into the corner, expecting him to slip through, he came straight at me and barged me off into the gravel trap. I immediately grabbed second gear and planted the accelerator whilst trying ease the car around to the right and execute a 180deg turn without getting stuck. Engine screaming and a massive spray of gravel existing from the rear wheel as I slowly headed back to the black stuff and the field came screaming through.
By the time I was back on the track and trying to shake off the worst of the gravel off line, I was almost at the back of the field with a lot of work to do. I knew the car was going well and lap times were good so I put the off to the back of my head, and set about catching everyone up. The tires took a lap and a bit to come back but I soon started to catch up the field, closing nice and quickly so as not to give much opportunity for other drivers to defend. I very much agree with the train of thought that you should attempt to overtake immediately on closing up on another driver rather than settleing in on their speed. The most successful overtakes taking place into the hairpin after a good run through Paddock Hill and then again into Clearways after a good run through the chicane. I kept a very close eye on the lap times, concentrating on bring them down lap after lap, especially on the very rare occasions when I did not pass another car in a lap, and watching the time count down on the very handy timer at the end of the pit exit. Desperate to catch the leaders before it came down to zero. Of course, without a pit crew you never know the gap forward to the next car or the leaders but I was heartened by the consistently low lap times which I doubted the leaders would be able to equal if they were in a battle which thankfully they were. As I came around to a couple of minutes left in the race, I could see Mike Atkinson, Paul Rogers and John Cutmore at the front and new I had the leading pack in my sights with few other cars in the way. I was then able to concentrate on the clearways exit, trying to manage the tire heat buildup on the passenger rear. As we came around for the last lap I was less than a second behind John but ran out of time to make a move, if only it was an 18min race rather than just 13!

I was heartening to see that my fastest time on lap 11 of a 52.79 (almost identical to my pole time) was faster than anyone else’s who completed the race, including Class A and some 7 tenths of a second faster than the quickest class C time of John Cutmore’s. So as it has turned out I got 3rd place which means 10 points + 1 for fastest lap which was quite a save after being taken out. Later in the paddock in discussions with Steve it would seem he locked up the rear wheels under braking and hence was not able to turn into the corner, which is a pity but an understandable mistake I guess. Whats interesting is that I made a mistake in the last of the brands races last year and sent David Wale into the gravel at Clearways. That incident which was totally my fault, require me to present my case to the clerk of the course and could have resulted in points on my license. Seems to be less of an issue this year! Steve actually went on to record his first ever race win, after Gordon spun, taking Rob out on the exit of paddock hill bend and James retiring due to a chassis / steering failure.

So although I came away with the thought in the back of my mind that I should really have returned with Pole, Win and Fastest lap, the fact that the car is now fixed and back on speed as well as getting some good points and remaining in the championship lead is actually quite a result. I also have a new found fondness for the Kent circuit. Amazing how different results can leave you with different impressions of the same circuit. I must admit I really enjoyed that race, a race that was probably as hard as any I have completed so far but boy did I have a grin on my face at the end!

All is set now for some minor checks and off back to Mallory in 2 weeks where I will attempt to recreate the success of the first race this season once again.

Lydden, Castle Combe and lead up to Brands Hatch - phew!

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!

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 !.

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.

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.

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.