A Fantastic weekend at Brands Hatch

Simply the best day at a Circuit since the Birkett 06.  And finally some payback for all the garage hours and development work.

Friday testing was cold  but the track was dry... It was immediately evident that resolving the fuel issues has made a huge difference, as  have the suspension settings courtesy of Dave T and all the mods over the winter. The car now has pin you back in your seat accelleration.. It's a real handful.

Best time of the day  55.2!   

LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN 55.2!  Whoo Hoo!

Previous best was 59.98 and Tim is in the low 54s.... within a second of Tim now that feels good.!    The driving god that is Derek Jones is doing 50.xx at new lap record speed.  I was boggling at the lap timer's indicated 56.3 in the car but when the data showed 55.2.... well big big grins all around :-)

The car is planted, reliable and driftable.  I can control yaw with the throttle all the way around Clearways...And I'm actually faster than Tim through Graham Hill.  Analysis of the data logs shows that I can make up almost all the lost time between me and Tim in Paddock (where I'm 15mph down at the apex  as I'm such a coward) and in the braking zone at Druids where although I brake later, I also brake harder and get to the apex speed too soon and hold it longer than Tim... Hence the time loss.

Still two sessions in the afternoon were fantastic fun.  In the last one I was nailing GH so well I was spinning up the wheels on the exit, and the hot rubber still hadn't forgiven me at the complex  as tail out squirms both ways through the complex showed that the rears were still way  to hot.

Best save it for the race.   Don't want to wear out all my big grins too soon :-) a Fantastic Afternoon.... 55.2 Fab!

Race Day - 

Practice was wet and the track was squirmy and I hate the wet, It was also the first day back a school for the RGB field and there where lots of nervous folk out there but to every body's credit no one fell off big style and the session completed with out incident.  I also drove on our new Wet tyres (basically our mandated A048Rs but with additional tread cut into them. I'm happy to report that these are much more progressive and confidence inspiring that the "Skating in ice" feeling from the dry's . I followed Dave's advice and left the suspension well alone.  And the car just behaved the same, although obviously grip and speeds where lower, but still nicely recoverable when the back end stepped out. Now I like the wet. :-)

Tim curtailed practice due to  loosing a coolant hose and reverting his blade engine to an air cooled model.

It was such such a hoot, and it was also apparent that I was in amongst the pack much more than previously.... and keeping up with people who normally left me for dead.

For  race 1 I qualified 22th out of 32 and for race 2 I was 20th... in both cases 10 spots and 5 rows further up the grid than I'm used to and in the centre of the pack.  And because of the curtailed session Tim's second best lap wasn't great and so I had out qualified him for Race 2. This really is a day for firsts. Derek qualified on pole in 57.56, I did I did 1:04:74  (   I used to struggle to do that in the dry ). Time did 1:03.38

Race 1.

The track had dried a bit and the whole field went out on dry tyres. I was hopeful of a good start, however when the lights went out my left rear drive shaft also left in a huff  as I launched the car 10K.  A loud crunching noise and the car bouncing off the rev limited showed me no drive.  So I tried again... still no drive... by now 5 rows of cars are funneling by me... on last time.. throttle revs.. drive!  I'm away but its still not right.  I'm trying to evaluate if it is Diff failure again or clutch, as the revs keep spiking the limiter when I put the power down. Right I'm dead last so it's time to get after the pack.  I shove it unceremoniously up the inside of  new boy Daniel Croft (1:14s) at Druids  and then get after Judy and take her at Maclaren on the turn in to Clearways.    However, getting the power down  is hard as the revs keep spiking after the upshifts so I have  to retire at the bottom of Paddock Hill due to lack of drive, joining Colin Duce whose throttle has failed.  

It appears the cut n shut drive shaft has failed, and then friction welded itself inside the sleeving tube  to give me some drive and then  finally given up again... Hmm! Steve, Jonathan and I fettle it out of the car and Good old Andy B re welds it ready for Race 2.   I also failed the noise test so we spent some time repacking the exhaust too  (111) DBa  

Sunday dawns cold and dry and promising Sunshine at some stage.   For this race I'm another row forward, but I warn the guys behind me that I may not get away fast as I'll be protecting that welded driveshaft.   I take it easy at the start and lose a few places,  but we get racing. I'm having a tussle with Robert Grant  and Matt Green (who had fallen back a bit from his 12th on the grid) and somebody else in a yellow Fury.  This get a bit entertaining as Matt  gets it badly wrong at Graham Hill and ends up on the grass.  I nearly get by as he recovers.... but he loses it again at the Surtees Maclaren Complex and gets a good couple of feet of solid air, and as he' bouncing around on/off the grass  and verge I nearly got him... but didn't quite manage it.  Unfortunately the race is red flagged as Darren Gay firmly stuffs his yellow Fury at Clearways (breaking his little finger and the entire front chassis ).

As we reform I'm treated to the unnerving  spectacle of being called forward through the partially assembled grid to fill a hole some around 18th with a fair gaggle of cars behind me. At the restart I'm still being a bit gentle but no nearly so much, and off we go again.  This time its a 5 minutes plus 1 lap sprint.  And it's me and Matt again pulling away from Mike Allen, Tony Carpenter and Peter Brown.  Matt has the lead for a couple of laps,  I'm trying to get past but He has track position, for a couple of laps running I  position for the pass under the Gantry into Paddock.   But due to my habitual early lift and braking here I don't quite get him.... Next Time around I get great drive from Clearways tuck up right behind him in the tow, jink right at the gantry and leave my braking just late enough to get the inside line to Paddock..... Damn  that felt good (and I try not to worry about the waved yellow that I caught in the corner of my eye as we went round but hey I was committed.   

Matt is all over me a Druids I cover his move up the inside but he has the outside line at the exit and hence can get up the inside at Graham Hill, I know the place is lost so I let him have it.  I also know his tighter line will run him wide at the exit, so I run a bit wider  and turn in later, but on the correct racing line to get the power down early So I " switch back close"  behind him with great drive all the way up to Surtees and MClaren. I now have 3/4 of a car length the  and inside line so get  the first apex and can squeeze him out of the second thus keeping the place... he's all over me at Clearways, but I can tighten the line a little to close the door and hold him off.:-)

After a lap or so I've got about half a second on him, and I'm getting after a yellow Fury who it turns out is Neil Constable Berry In class B.  Unfortunately carrying more and more speed through the back straight complex mean that I  run to deep into Clearways and have a couple of slow times around  and as I pass the last  lap board Matt is pretty close again.  He tries one last time around Clearways, but I have the line and the grunt to hold him off, and take a hard fought 21st place 0.9s ahead. 

Oh and other than passing me on the original start I didn't see Tim again... so I didn't get lapped in either portion of the race and Infact  I only finished  12 seconds behind him (although in fairness it was a short race) So at Last, long last I'm competitive and moving up the grid :-)  Best lap time 55.48, Tim was 54.5. Big.... VERY BIG Grins all round.  And the first race completed in over a year, 

AND and My 17 Year Old son said he was Proud of the way I fought for the places.  How cool is that!:-)