I'll post more details once i have it parked in my garage!!!
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Fingers crossed i'll be getting my new car next Monday
As long as nothing goes wrong in the next week, my car is sold and going to its new owner in Holland on monday 6th April! I am meeting the guy at Dover to hand over the car, then i'm off up the M40 to pick up my new car!
Thursday 19 March 2009
I've actually put my car up for sale!
I've seen a car i would like to but to run in class C, so i've put my car up for sale. If it sells it sells, if not i'll happily keep racing it.
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Snetterton 2009 report
To some peoples (mine included) great surprise I survived, and so did the car!!!
So heres how it went:-
Friday
Spent most of the day cleaning the car and checking all the nuts and bolts.
Left home at 4pm fully laden up, got stuck in a load of traffic through kidderminster and stopped 3 times within the first 15 minutes as i thought the trailer had broken and i'd forgotten the tickets! But everything was fine, i was just flapping, because after so many weeks prep i didn't want it to all go wrong before it had even started!
Got stuck on the M6/A14 junction
I hate that junction
Stopped for dinner in cambridge
Arrived at Snetterton at 9.30pm
Unloaded car, set up the roof tent (or as steve calls it "the shanty town")unpacked a few bits then popped into the bar for a couple of drinks hoping they would help me sleep
Saturday
Had a decent nights sleep, but woke fairly early so got up and had hot/cold/hot/cold shower.
There were a few things that needed doing which i wanted to get done as early as possible, so i went to the new drivers briefing at 7.45am, then signed on and got back to camp for a bacon butty and a final check over of the car.
I was feeling fairly calm still and was actually looking forward to getting out there, but i was nervous that the car would fail scrutineering and wreck the weekend
At 10pm i took the car for scrutineering, everything was fine until i had turned on the rain light! I only fitted it a couple of weeks ago and it had been working fine, but of course today it packed in!!! I had about 20mins before practice so rushed back to camp and started fluffing about with electrical testers. After 10 mins of checking stuff i decided i would just directly wore it into the lighting circuit so i could get through scrutineering and sort it out properly later, but just as i was to go off and get some wire the light suddenly flicked on!!! It was all caused by a corroded connector on the switch, which once disturbed was fine!!
Panic over i took the car back and got my pass.
At 11.20 we were called for practice/qualifying, i now started to pap myself, especially as i got down there early and saw everyone else coming in ready to go.
I took the first 3-4 laps really steady as you needed to do 3 laps to enable you to start the race, and to be honest even the experienced guys were doing the same. After the 4th lap i started to pick up the pace a bit but didn't go hell for leather, just concentrated on the line and being as smooth as possible and coping with the traffic.
After a few faster laps the yellow flags came out as some oil had been dropped and 4 cars went off, damaging 3 of them quite badly. The yellows stayed out for the rest of the session.
We waited for the practice times, i wasn't expecting great times but to my delight i qualified 20th out of 28. I then also realised that meant i would have cars all round me on my first ever hot start!!!!
I had 3 hours to kill chatting and meeting all of the other guys from the series, Steve had 3 hours to apply all my decals and Dan had 3 hours to look at men. The 3 hous actually flew by as we we all so busy, and suddenly it was my turn to go down to the holding area! Up until now i had been pretty calm, but my arse started to clench as i drove down to holding area and it took a huge bite of the seat as we all started our engines and started to roll onto the grid!!
Race 1
Sitting on row 10 surrounded by cars, the start finish straight didn't look as wide as does when you are going round on your own!!! The boards came up, 2mins, 1min, 30 seconds, 5 seconds (all in the space of 40 seconds
), red lights on, everyones engines start screaming, lights off, GO GO GO GO GO!!
OH MY GOD!!! Cars everywhere, a stalled car at the front of the grid causing cars to coming diagonally across the track to miss it, where the hell is the next bit of tarmac for me!!! I'd been warned that the firt corners braking point would be a lot closer than i could ever imagine as all the cars back up so i just sat on the back of the car directly infront of me, which meant a couple of cars came flying up my inside, then going round the first corner (Riches Corner) 3 abreast. As we cam into the next corner (Sears) there was a large puff of smoke and a car in the middle of the pack spun and got T boned by the car behind, i heard the crunch even inside my helmet and with all the screaming engines! Everyone starts swerving out the way and I go out wide on the large run off area on the exit and head on up Revit straight and barrel into the Esses with a car up my inside so i have to tuck in behind him (I didn't really feel that aggressive driving was the best thing to do on my 3rd ever corner!!). By the time we got to Coram the Red flags were out due to the crash and we were lined back up on the grid for a restart!
My heart was absolutely pounding but i just wanted to get started again!!! The race was reduced to 23 minutes due to the stoppage and time lost cleaning the fluid of the circuit. But i knew this time i was not going to sit behind the car infront and let the other come up inside me, especially as there were now 4 empty spots just to right and infront of me where the crashed cars had been in the first start. So this timne when the lights went out i went for it and shot into the clear middle of the track and held my position for the first couple of bends. But coming up Revits staright my car just wasn't geared correctly and everyone had better legs than me so 2 cars zipped passed me before the Esses. For the next 15 laps i diced with the car infront of me and we left a few cars behind us. He was quicker than me on the starights, and i couldn't even slip stream him as i hit my limiter in top and he kept on pulling, but then i'd catch him on the corner and kept trying to pass him. The guy (Phil A) was very hard to pass (several people said this after the race), and the 2 best places to do it (Riches and the Esses) i was always at least 2 car lengths down on him due to the straights, so the only places i could get closer enough to pass were the bomb hole, coram and Russells, all of which are pretty scarey places to do it. I got alongside him a few times on the outside but not enough to get past and the few times i managed to get a wheel up his inside and he closed the gap off. During all this time i was shouting at the top of my voice, i have now idea what i was saying it was just sounds of excitement and enjoyment!!!!
With a couple of laps to go i saw sparks on the underside of his car and wondered if he had a problem starting, not long after as we came to the Esses after the revit staright he went straight on instead of round the esses!! I thought he had out braked himself so kept pushing and did a couple of laps before the chequered flag came out! I finished 16th overall, 5th in class
I was absolutely buzzing, it has to be one of the most exciting things i have ever done! I am actually sitting here now shaking with excitement after reliving it typing it out on here!!!
After returning to paddock and catching up with some of the guys and shaking the hand of the guy i'd had my battle with it was time to quickly check over the car. Apart from the gearing she performed brilliantly and i can't believe that engine took the abuse!! The only problem i found was the the exhaust had cracked, and was nearly hanging off, i reckon a couple more laps it would have come off!!! So we started to look for a way to repair it with bits of metal etc, but someone said "go and see Andy". Andy bates (AB Performance) sponsors the championship and works on a lot of the cars, but more importantly for us all he come in his big wagon/workshop to every event and repairs thing you wouldn't think was possible in a paddock in such a short space of time!! He took my exhaust away and tig welded it up for me!! When I asked how much he said "nothing!"!!!! I couldn't let him do that so i gave him some cash. What a top bloke, every series needs a man like this!!!
For the rest of the day a lot people were doing everything from drinking tea to replacing entire engines!!!!!
We all went out for a meal and a few beers on the evening and we returned to our cold tent for the night!! By this time i was knackered and slept like baby until about 5am when i started to dither!
Sunday
For the 2nd race your grid position is your 2nd fastest qualifying time from the practice the day before, and again i was 20th on the grid. Sitting in the holding area before the start i noticed there were quite a few cars missing, most notably the car i had be dicing with in race 1. He did eventually turn up but was having brake problems. The sparks in race 1 from his car was caused by the rear brake piped which had snapped and was dragging on the floor! The best thing i saw was the guy who changed his engine suddenly appear in the holding area as we pulling out onto the circuit! He had just finished fitting the engine and hadn't even had chance to test it, another 2minutes and he would have missed the start!!
This time i wasn't feeling that nervous, I just wanted those boards to come up and the lights to go out! The start of the race was a lot less dramatic than race 1, there were no collisions and apart from the guy who had just changed his engine and had lined up at the back, rather than in his grid position in front of me, no one came past me. For the next 3 laps or so i held on to the pack of 4 cars in front of me, again they pulled away from me on the straights but i clawed some of the gap back round the corners, and at a couple of points got my front wheel inside the car in front, but as soon as we could get the power down out of the apex he would pull away. I actually recorded my fastest lap (1.22.77)of the weekend on the 3rd lap while chasing this pack, I was ringing the neck of my little car and probably over drove it through some of the bends trying to claw back some time, but because of there faster straight line speed and a few mistakes by me pushing too hard they slowly pulled away. By the time i had given up trying to catch them there was no one in my rear view mirror, so i settled into a rhythm, and apart from the 2 front guys lapping me on the last lap and me lapping the guy with brake problems i didn't really see any other cars. I came in after the chequered flag pleased i'd finished both races but couldn't help feeling a little frustrated.
They pulled us all in to check car weights and ride heights and then headed back to the paddock. Half an hour later the presentations were made to the winners and a driver of the day award for both races. To my absolute surprise and delight i got awarded driver of the day for saturday due to the way i had driven while trying to pass the car in front by not causing a collision or incident in my efforts to pass as a novice. This absolutely made my weekend and topped off an already fantastic first race experience!!
People say the highs are high and the lows are low, well i think i just experienced one of the massive highs, and i just hope there are more highs than lows in the coming months!!!
I just have to say the guys who organise, sponsor and race in the this series are a fantastic group of people, every single one of them made me feel very welcome, were really friendly and just a great bunch! Also the biggest aim of the organiser (Steve robinson) is to keep the racing as cheap and accessible as possible, and at the moment it seems to be working very well.
If anyone has ever thought of getting out there and having a go, all i can say is do it!!! The cars in this series are relatively cheap to buy, definitely cheap to maintain/repair in comparison to production cars but still very fast!!!
So heres how it went:-
Friday
Spent most of the day cleaning the car and checking all the nuts and bolts.
Left home at 4pm fully laden up, got stuck in a load of traffic through kidderminster and stopped 3 times within the first 15 minutes as i thought the trailer had broken and i'd forgotten the tickets! But everything was fine, i was just flapping, because after so many weeks prep i didn't want it to all go wrong before it had even started!
Got stuck on the M6/A14 junction
I hate that junctionStopped for dinner in cambridge
Arrived at Snetterton at 9.30pm
Unloaded car, set up the roof tent (or as steve calls it "the shanty town")unpacked a few bits then popped into the bar for a couple of drinks hoping they would help me sleep
Saturday
Had a decent nights sleep, but woke fairly early so got up and had hot/cold/hot/cold shower.
There were a few things that needed doing which i wanted to get done as early as possible, so i went to the new drivers briefing at 7.45am, then signed on and got back to camp for a bacon butty and a final check over of the car.
I was feeling fairly calm still and was actually looking forward to getting out there, but i was nervous that the car would fail scrutineering and wreck the weekend
At 10pm i took the car for scrutineering, everything was fine until i had turned on the rain light! I only fitted it a couple of weeks ago and it had been working fine, but of course today it packed in!!! I had about 20mins before practice so rushed back to camp and started fluffing about with electrical testers. After 10 mins of checking stuff i decided i would just directly wore it into the lighting circuit so i could get through scrutineering and sort it out properly later, but just as i was to go off and get some wire the light suddenly flicked on!!! It was all caused by a corroded connector on the switch, which once disturbed was fine!!
Panic over i took the car back and got my pass.
At 11.20 we were called for practice/qualifying, i now started to pap myself, especially as i got down there early and saw everyone else coming in ready to go.
I took the first 3-4 laps really steady as you needed to do 3 laps to enable you to start the race, and to be honest even the experienced guys were doing the same. After the 4th lap i started to pick up the pace a bit but didn't go hell for leather, just concentrated on the line and being as smooth as possible and coping with the traffic.
After a few faster laps the yellow flags came out as some oil had been dropped and 4 cars went off, damaging 3 of them quite badly. The yellows stayed out for the rest of the session.
We waited for the practice times, i wasn't expecting great times but to my delight i qualified 20th out of 28. I then also realised that meant i would have cars all round me on my first ever hot start!!!!
I had 3 hours to kill chatting and meeting all of the other guys from the series, Steve had 3 hours to apply all my decals and Dan had 3 hours to look at men. The 3 hous actually flew by as we we all so busy, and suddenly it was my turn to go down to the holding area! Up until now i had been pretty calm, but my arse started to clench as i drove down to holding area and it took a huge bite of the seat as we all started our engines and started to roll onto the grid!!
Race 1
Sitting on row 10 surrounded by cars, the start finish straight didn't look as wide as does when you are going round on your own!!! The boards came up, 2mins, 1min, 30 seconds, 5 seconds (all in the space of 40 seconds
), red lights on, everyones engines start screaming, lights off, GO GO GO GO GO!! OH MY GOD!!! Cars everywhere, a stalled car at the front of the grid causing cars to coming diagonally across the track to miss it, where the hell is the next bit of tarmac for me!!! I'd been warned that the firt corners braking point would be a lot closer than i could ever imagine as all the cars back up so i just sat on the back of the car directly infront of me, which meant a couple of cars came flying up my inside, then going round the first corner (Riches Corner) 3 abreast. As we cam into the next corner (Sears) there was a large puff of smoke and a car in the middle of the pack spun and got T boned by the car behind, i heard the crunch even inside my helmet and with all the screaming engines! Everyone starts swerving out the way and I go out wide on the large run off area on the exit and head on up Revit straight and barrel into the Esses with a car up my inside so i have to tuck in behind him (I didn't really feel that aggressive driving was the best thing to do on my 3rd ever corner!!). By the time we got to Coram the Red flags were out due to the crash and we were lined back up on the grid for a restart!
My heart was absolutely pounding but i just wanted to get started again!!! The race was reduced to 23 minutes due to the stoppage and time lost cleaning the fluid of the circuit. But i knew this time i was not going to sit behind the car infront and let the other come up inside me, especially as there were now 4 empty spots just to right and infront of me where the crashed cars had been in the first start. So this timne when the lights went out i went for it and shot into the clear middle of the track and held my position for the first couple of bends. But coming up Revits staright my car just wasn't geared correctly and everyone had better legs than me so 2 cars zipped passed me before the Esses. For the next 15 laps i diced with the car infront of me and we left a few cars behind us. He was quicker than me on the starights, and i couldn't even slip stream him as i hit my limiter in top and he kept on pulling, but then i'd catch him on the corner and kept trying to pass him. The guy (Phil A) was very hard to pass (several people said this after the race), and the 2 best places to do it (Riches and the Esses) i was always at least 2 car lengths down on him due to the straights, so the only places i could get closer enough to pass were the bomb hole, coram and Russells, all of which are pretty scarey places to do it. I got alongside him a few times on the outside but not enough to get past and the few times i managed to get a wheel up his inside and he closed the gap off. During all this time i was shouting at the top of my voice, i have now idea what i was saying it was just sounds of excitement and enjoyment!!!!
With a couple of laps to go i saw sparks on the underside of his car and wondered if he had a problem starting, not long after as we came to the Esses after the revit staright he went straight on instead of round the esses!! I thought he had out braked himself so kept pushing and did a couple of laps before the chequered flag came out! I finished 16th overall, 5th in class
I was absolutely buzzing, it has to be one of the most exciting things i have ever done! I am actually sitting here now shaking with excitement after reliving it typing it out on here!!!
After returning to paddock and catching up with some of the guys and shaking the hand of the guy i'd had my battle with it was time to quickly check over the car. Apart from the gearing she performed brilliantly and i can't believe that engine took the abuse!! The only problem i found was the the exhaust had cracked, and was nearly hanging off, i reckon a couple more laps it would have come off!!! So we started to look for a way to repair it with bits of metal etc, but someone said "go and see Andy". Andy bates (AB Performance) sponsors the championship and works on a lot of the cars, but more importantly for us all he come in his big wagon/workshop to every event and repairs thing you wouldn't think was possible in a paddock in such a short space of time!! He took my exhaust away and tig welded it up for me!! When I asked how much he said "nothing!"!!!! I couldn't let him do that so i gave him some cash. What a top bloke, every series needs a man like this!!!
For the rest of the day a lot people were doing everything from drinking tea to replacing entire engines!!!!!
We all went out for a meal and a few beers on the evening and we returned to our cold tent for the night!! By this time i was knackered and slept like baby until about 5am when i started to dither!
Sunday
For the 2nd race your grid position is your 2nd fastest qualifying time from the practice the day before, and again i was 20th on the grid. Sitting in the holding area before the start i noticed there were quite a few cars missing, most notably the car i had be dicing with in race 1. He did eventually turn up but was having brake problems. The sparks in race 1 from his car was caused by the rear brake piped which had snapped and was dragging on the floor! The best thing i saw was the guy who changed his engine suddenly appear in the holding area as we pulling out onto the circuit! He had just finished fitting the engine and hadn't even had chance to test it, another 2minutes and he would have missed the start!!
This time i wasn't feeling that nervous, I just wanted those boards to come up and the lights to go out! The start of the race was a lot less dramatic than race 1, there were no collisions and apart from the guy who had just changed his engine and had lined up at the back, rather than in his grid position in front of me, no one came past me. For the next 3 laps or so i held on to the pack of 4 cars in front of me, again they pulled away from me on the straights but i clawed some of the gap back round the corners, and at a couple of points got my front wheel inside the car in front, but as soon as we could get the power down out of the apex he would pull away. I actually recorded my fastest lap (1.22.77)of the weekend on the 3rd lap while chasing this pack, I was ringing the neck of my little car and probably over drove it through some of the bends trying to claw back some time, but because of there faster straight line speed and a few mistakes by me pushing too hard they slowly pulled away. By the time i had given up trying to catch them there was no one in my rear view mirror, so i settled into a rhythm, and apart from the 2 front guys lapping me on the last lap and me lapping the guy with brake problems i didn't really see any other cars. I came in after the chequered flag pleased i'd finished both races but couldn't help feeling a little frustrated.
They pulled us all in to check car weights and ride heights and then headed back to the paddock. Half an hour later the presentations were made to the winners and a driver of the day award for both races. To my absolute surprise and delight i got awarded driver of the day for saturday due to the way i had driven while trying to pass the car in front by not causing a collision or incident in my efforts to pass as a novice. This absolutely made my weekend and topped off an already fantastic first race experience!!
People say the highs are high and the lows are low, well i think i just experienced one of the massive highs, and i just hope there are more highs than lows in the coming months!!!
I just have to say the guys who organise, sponsor and race in the this series are a fantastic group of people, every single one of them made me feel very welcome, were really friendly and just a great bunch! Also the biggest aim of the organiser (Steve robinson) is to keep the racing as cheap and accessible as possible, and at the moment it seems to be working very well.
If anyone has ever thought of getting out there and having a go, all i can say is do it!!! The cars in this series are relatively cheap to buy, definitely cheap to maintain/repair in comparison to production cars but still very fast!!!
Monday 16 March 2009
Saturday 14 March 2009
Qualified
Really enjoyed the qualifying and Qualified 20th out of 27, and never felt like I pushed it too hard. Feeling happy with that result
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Friday 13 March 2009
Thursday 12 March 2009
The Test day
After braving a shower in the sub zero temperatures i got the car of the trailer, gave it a quick check over and grabbed a sausage sarny. After donating my internal organs to pay for the sarny i went and signed on. I was expecting a safety briefing similiar to trackdays, but to my delight after showing my licence i was given my wrist band and the sponsorship stickers for the series and sent on my way.
I then went over to noise testing, which i was a little worried about as i'd had to change my exhaust can in order to fit the CAT now required by MSA rules. In 2007 i had had a big custom can made to quieten the car down for trackdays, but due to the CAT it would not fit, so had to fit a standard R1 can. Luckily i came in at 102db, which is comfortably under the 105 limit.
Initially i was very nervous about driving on the track, purely as i'd never been in the situation where over taking under braking or around corners was allowed, but within a few laps i was loving it. I just need to get it into my head into it for next weekend and not wait for people to move out of the way. Although i may well be the slowest person on the circuit so won't have to worry about that!!
The day was a bit irritating due to the amount of red flags, but then i caused one when my oil filter decided to make a bid for freedom, squirting oil all over the track and exhaust! The smoke from the oil warned me of the problem and i pulled over straight away. Initaiily i was expecting to see a massive hole in the engine with a piston hanging out of it, but to my relief discouvered the loose oil filter. I decided it was best to pack up and go home and investigate any further damage at home.
Once at home i drained the oil (there was over 3 litres left in the engine), fitted a new filter and topped it back up with oil. The engine sounds fine so hopefullyno damage was done. I've now lockwired the filter so it won't happen again.
Roll on Friday!!!!!
Wednesday 11 March 2009
On the way to snetts test day
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