Snetterton Race part 2 *** TWO RACE WINS IN THE WEEKEND ***

Race two was also quite eventful.
Due to the conditions earlier in the day during qualifying, I was starting way back in 11th overall, 6th in class for the second race and had quite a bit of traffic to make my way past before I could challenge for the class lead.
I made a really good start and straight away started to carve my way through the field, within a few laps I had caught the leading pack, having overtaken all except Mike Field, Mike Atkinson and Martin Brookes in class C but the race was red flagged due to an incident at the first corner. The race was restarted from scratch with a reduced time and we were positioned on the grid from the last complete lap so I was in 4th place in class. As we had to stop on the start finish line for the reforming and its on a hill, I had used my handbrake. How silly was that? The pads had started to break up again during the first part of the race, even though John had spent ages over lunch cleaning and sanding them down. So once I transferred more heat into them by applying the handbrake for a few minutes, they did not want to come away from the drums when I released the handle when the red lights went out. So although my reaction was really good on the restart, the car did not want to move as the handbrake pads were still engaged. Great!

I quickly held up my hand so as not to get hit from behind as I played with the hand brake and restarted the engine. Finally I got going in something like 2nd or 3rd from lap place. I had an excellent first lap, just passing at every stage of the track to come over the line for the first time in 12 place overall after passing something like 7 cars in one lap!

The passing just continued from that point onwards. Thankfully the track had not changed from earlier and I know the car was very quick already so I just maxed out each corning, sometimes running way off line throughout a complex, sometimes just backing off before a corner and having a really good run through it and passing a couple of cars straight after the exit curbing. This tactic worked brilliantly with the long straights of snetterton as I could almost guarantee a good slipstream each straight by timing the corners leading onto it and the gap to the next car (or cars!).

The progress was something like….
2nd lap, past Tim Hoverd and Richard Wise for 9th
3rd lap, past David Wale
4th lap, past Mike Field (on the inside through Corum)
5th lap, past John Cutmore
7th lap, made up another position by overtaking Martin Brookes, which meant I was just behind Mike Atkinson Paul Rogers (class B) and with the three class A leaders out in front. On the entrance to the back straight on that lap, Mike made a mistake and spun out, letting Martin and I straight through and I was leading the class C battle.
On the next lap I finished the race 8 seconds behind Paul, the finishing order being 1,2 and 3 in class A, 1st in class B and then first in class C.

Current Championship Standings

With just 1 race at Silverstone and a double header back here at Snetterton left this season, the current championship standings look like this.....

Snetterton double header - Qualify and Race 1

Qualify
Just as we went do to the assembly area it started to rain. We went back to get the allen keys and spanners needed to disconnect the anti roll bars but in the end decided that the track was going to dry as the session went on. Unfortunately although it stopped raining, it never dried off and because we were the first out on track on Sunday following a full day of racing in the dry the day before meant that the track was very very slippery. My main problem during the session was the lack of tyre temperature. I even had a nice trip into the corn fields at the exit of Riches simply by locking the front wheels up for a split second, exploring the limit of grip!
So qualifying was not a very successful start to the weekend but thankfully the day cleared up and we had 2 nice dry races.

Race 1
I had a good start off the line, followed John Cutmore close into sear, I ran a wide line in and cut to the inside for the exit, caught a slipstream for the first part of the straight and past John before we entered the the Essess.
On lap 2 as I came through Corum in front of John, I had a slight lock up in Russels, John copied me and takes out the centre post on the chicane in dramatic style. I must admit I do not remember seeing this in the race, I must have had my eyes elsewhere!




By lap3 I was catching the lead pack of Mike Field, Mike Atkinson and Martin Brookes. We all came down into Russells in a close group and had some slipstreaming fun. On the entry to the Essess there were sparks coming from the front corner of Martins car and I slipped through on the inside of the Bomb Hole as he let me though.

The following lap I overtook Mike but he took me out at Russels, spun me around and I droped back quite a long way down the field with all that work to do again. Mike rejoined just behind John Cutmore, Steve Robinson and Paul Rogers with Mike Field still leading the race for Class C and Rob leading Class A and the overall race.

After returning to the mid pack, I set about catching them all up again, starting on Lap 5 with a 1:19.72. Only Rob and Paul were running quicker at this stage of the race so there seemed to be no lasting damage from the impact with Mike!

Lap 6 was nice and clear for me which enabled me to get put my head down, concentrate on lines and carry good mid corner speed to get a 1:17.64 whilst catching Martin Brookes. This would end up being my fastest lap and the fastest lap of the race. Thats a 0.4 second improvement over last year.


Lap 7 was back into the 1:20's as I caught up with John and on the following lap I overtook John and Mike Atkinson again.


On lap 9 I managed to catch up with Mike field and got a really good run out of the Essess, closing quickly through the bomb hole and slipped up the inside at Corum to take the lead for the Class C runners. The only remain cars in front were Rob leading overall, followed by Steve and then Paul who was next on track in front.
By lap 10 I can caught Paul up and passed him on the exit of Corum. Paul ran a little wide at this point and David Wick took some fantastic pictures of Paul's wild ride on the grass which I have uploaded to Flickr here.
In fact both my Dad and David took a large number of excellent quality photos, thats my excuse for the time it has taken to do the blog, I had so many to browse through!

Amazingly Paul kept the car under control, bounced around and returned to the track to brake just like normal and continue as if nothing happened!

I then put in another 1:17 lap to catch up with Steve Robinson in the class A Genesis.

From lap 11 through to the end was just behind Steve. I slowed down to his pace and ran a little back from him as his car is very noisy and slipstreaming just meant my water and oil temps started to rise a little.



The damage from the impact was not too great. Just a bit of the rear wheel taken off as you can see from this photo.
We did need to sort out rear brakes again, in the same way as after Cadwell as they were starting to lock the inside rear into Russells occasionally and I did not want the same problem we had at Cadwell! It would seem that the compound of the rear shoes is either too soft or just faulty as it seems to be continuously breaking up. Time for some alternative shoes I think

So from a rather uncharacteristic qualify and being a lot further down the grid than I am used to, was a race win and fastest lap which will do a world of good the Championship points. In fact Gordon was to have some problems with an engine cut out dropping him down the field to record a 3rd place all be it with fastest lap and Mike Atkinson had a spin towards the end of the race which helped even more with the points gap.

Snetterton double header - Press Coverage

Well we had an excellent time at the Snetterton double header. Nice to be at my local track again and some great results. More on that shortly as the real blog entry is on its way but here is what the local press had to say.

Cadwell Park Double Header (3rd and 2nd)

The Cadwell park visit this year was a double header. It was a very enjoyable weekend but I didn't quite reach full potential but I did come away with some good points and overall lead of the RGB Championship.

Qualifying was wet to start with and drying throughout until a slight increase in track moisture for the last few mins. The lap times kept coming down, the first surprise was to see the Dash show a lap of 1:49.71 which is faster than my dry qualify from last year. Then on the next lap I saw the display read 1:48.8! The lap after this was half a second faster in the first sector but I had a misunderstanding with Neil on the back straight. I went right to pass him, just before he signaled and guess what he signaled for me to pass on the left! This left me almost completely on the grass over the brow at the fastest part of the track. I just got it back onto the track before the entry to Park corner so I could scrub off some speed but entered the corner with excessive velocity. An interesting pirouette on the grass followed and I returned without any damage but with a slightly raised heart rate. On my final lap of qualifying, I was also well up on sector times but I caught back-markers through the mountain and then between the hairpin and Barn corner which completely ruined the lap.
So although the lap time was well under that of last year with a 1:48.8, it was only good enough for 4th overall and 3rd in class C.

The first race of the Cadwell double header was on the Saturday afternoon and the rain had set in again so it was soft settings and huddling under umbrellas pre-race. Out on to the grid and a really long wait until we went for our green flag lap, why we could not have waited in the assembly area under cover whilst they towed back the cars from the race before I can not work out. The track was not too bad despite the amount of water and I got a fairly good start, getting in front of Mike for 2nd in class off the line and holding that for 6 laps. On the 7th, I had a very small lock up into Park corner at the end of the back straight, just missing the apex by a few feet and allowing Mike to come up along side me. As the visibility was quite limited and I know how slippery that next corner was, I backed off to let Mike take the inside rather than risk a tap and resulting spin into the barriers. For the next lap I could see Mike increase the gap each time we came to the exit from a slow corner, where his more compliant rear suspension enabled him to get better traction. Although I could make up some of the gap in the faster corners, I decided to be a little more cautious, reducing the risks I took as I had a 15second gap back to Matt and cross the line for 3rd in Class and 10 more championship points. Rob took a fantastic first win in Class A and with Gordon missing the race that has helped the championship standings.

Sunday dawned much brighter although still menacing clouds but delivered a dry period for our race. Off the line, I got a very good start although I got baulked by Martin on the run off from the line as Mike had a clear and easy run down the inside before we got to the first corner. I followed Mike very closely into turn 1, stopping Martin from getting to the apex and arrived at turn 2 with enough room to turn in front. I followed Mike for the remainder of that lap, although the increased slipstream effect of the head wind on the Park straight caught me out as I touched the back of his car, sorry Mike! As we came around to the end of the first lap, I dropped back a little and made a run through Barn corner which allowed me to easily overtake on the start / finish straight and into turn 1. From there on I put in some fast laps, straight into the 1:37's for 4 laps and then a final burst on lap 6 with a 1:36.84 to give me a 4 second lead over Mike in 2nd place. From there on a backed off a touch to maintain the gap , staying well within the limits of the car to bring it home for the win. Until, that is, braking downhill for Mansfield on the final lap, the rear wheels locked up expectantly and I headed sideways onto the grass! I gathered it up, arrived back on the track facing the wrong direction, flicked it back around to the right way and just as Mike passed me for the lead, I fired up the engine and recovered. From there all I could do was to follow Mike to the flag, recording 2nd in class and the fastest lap which gave me 13 points to his 15. Rob had his second win in Class A, whilst Gordon who had started from the back of the grid made it up to 2nd in class A, giving him 8 points.

So although I don't think I could have held off Mike for the entire length of the first race, I should have been able to record an easy win the second race. My plan for the weekend was to return with 2 podiums and I managed that. I am also quite happy to have recorded a 1:36.84 at Cadwell, which is the fastest anyone has managed in a race since the series moved onto the current specification of tyres.

The rear brakes issue has been diagnosed as a problem with one of the rear brake shoes braking up along with a build up of brake dust from the new pad material. We have cleaned this up, added a leading edge to the pads and will instigate regular maintenance checks to stop it from happening again.

So if my calculations are correct, I now lead the overall championship both before and after the dropped scores are taken into account.

This coming Sunday we are racing a double header at Snetterton. Cars ready to go and it will be interesting to see how much quicker we are this year at my home circuit. Amazingly there are 5 more rounds left, 3 more race weekends and only 2 more tracks.

Championship Points

Before we head to Cadwell for the next two rounds this week, I thought I would post up the current championship points positions.

The Car is all packed up in the trailer ready to head to the circuit this evening and the test day tomorrow. I just need to refill the oil which is coming from AB Performance and set the Digidash up for the correct circuit length and anticipated lap times. Last year I managed 2nd on the grid with a 1:39.06 which wasn't too bad for first time out at a complex circuit but it was 2 seconds slower than Tim's pole time for Class C. In the race I was able to get the fastest lap with a 1:38.19 but only I think because Tim was out in the lead and not pushing. All of our times this year have improved so I think I need to be in the 37's for pole and a race win. Mind you it could be wet all weekend and then its anyones guess as to the times needed.

Mallory Qualifying Video

As we build up to an exciting double header weekend at Cadwell Park, I thought I would post the first 10mins of the Mallory Qualifying session.


For Cadwell, we have replaced the fuel line running from the tank, forward to the pump as it was starting to perish, modified the mounting of the tank itself to give a slight tilt and enable all of the fuel to be used, re-calibrated the fuel 'stick' and replaced the fuel filter. More significantly we have completely changed the reverse gear engagement linkage to remove slack, changed the fuel filler design and welded up a cracked main engine mount. Appart from that, just a simple oil change!

Off to Cadwell on Thursday night for the Friday test day and the Saturday and Sunday races. Aim, well lots of points, preferably 16 each race but podiums are enough to keep the championship on target ;)