7th May

After the last meeting I have been working on improving the aerodynamics of the Radical in an attempt to keep up with the faster cars through the corners. The first step was to change the rear wing end plates to a larger design. This idea of the larger plates is to stop the air "falling off" the wing and ensure its channeled over the wing thus produces more downforce. This was a reasonably easy fix and MVS Racing provided the bits for me to do this. The next step was to remove the current front splitter and dive planes and replace it with a diffuser. The main difference between the two is the splitter/dive planes produce most of their downforce by forcing the air over their areas to push the car down. This has one big side effect, drag. The diffuser is designed to speed up the air underneath the car which generates a low-pressure area which in turn sucks the car onto the track. All good theory but after spending the best part of 2 days fitting it I wasn’t convinced. In true motorsport fashion money was a little tight this month so the plan was to test the diffuser in qualifying and fix any problems before the race. After all we have had perfect weather for the past 4 weeks so the Bank Holiday is bound to be dry, you can already see the plan has a slight flaw….British weather!

So yes as you have guessed it the morning of the race day the heavens opened and the track was a complete wash out. Add to that strong winds and all plans of testing the aero go out the window. Qualifying was an interesting affair, lots of standing water on track and very little grip. However the car was feeling pretty good through the fast kink at Folly but I wasn’t prepared to push it hard, I had nothing to gain and everything to loose, after all I can’t race a bent car! For this meeting CCRC have split the GT’s up into two different races. Classes A and B which are mainly sports cars including Radicals, Jades, Juno etc and then another race for classes C and D which are road derived cars i.e. Ferraris, Lotuses, Westfields etc. Even with this split we still had 20 cars on the grid. My conservative drive around in qualifying had put me into 10^th on the grid.

Around lunchtime the sun started to come out and with in the hour the skies were blue and the track was looking perfect. My optimism for the day had improved and I started looking forward to the race….better still my overalls had finally started to dry! I took my position on the grid….well tried to but went to the wrong spot….not a mistake I’ll do again…blimey I got a right ear bashing! So finally in the right position and we start the green flag lap. I concentrate on getting some heat into the tyres and brakes and preparing myself for the start. Soon I am back on the grid waiting for the 5 second board. The whistle blows and the board is shown, I raise the revs and wait for the light to start their sequence. I hold the rpm around 7-8k and as the lights go out I drop the clutch. For a second I seemed to be the only car moving and moving quickly, the rest of the grid wake up but I was already up to 6^th, something just clicked in me and I just planted the gas firing up the gearbox as I go. By the entry to Avon Rise I was up to 3^rd place and trying to get past a SR3. I get a good run out of Quarry and I power past the SR3 before the Esses. Cutting the esses tight costs me a mirror but I am on my way. The only car infront now is Louis Davidson’s Radical. I was feeling good and the car was feeling fantastic….or was it. There was a large vibration into Tower. I was concerned but pushed on, on the entry to Camp the vibration came back but worse! I couldn’t believe it….but I also didn’t want to destroy the car/engine if it was a problem. I keep on pace and up to Avon Rise the vibration is worse than ever and shaking the car apart. I try and keep pace by when I get to tower I throw the towel and slow the car down. I make my way back to the pits where Barry and Justin are waiting for me. They have a look around the car but there isn’t anything obvious. I leave the pits and try again but straight away the vibration is there. Back to the paddock I go and park up, nightmare! We have a good look around the car and there is nothing obvious. I suspect it could be transmission but after a extensive check that is ruled out. So attention turns to the new aero, first suspicion was the front body was flappy but that was ruled out after some more investigation. Louis came over after the race to ask what had gone wrong and we explained. He mentioned a symptom where to much downforce causes the car to be sucked to the road then because the air can’t go under the car it pops back up again. This comment reminded me of a program I had seen on the Discovery channel when they were following a Le Mans team and they had a similar problem. It looked like we have sussed the problem. We pack up and head home. Once everything was packed away Justin and I sat down with a beer and watched the video footage from the race. Straight away you can see the body work is rattling all over the place but it is coupled by a large scraping noise which is the front diffuser hitting the road. Made worse by the bumpy nature of Combe causing the car to spring up and down. So we know now the problem so work has started to correct it. In hindsight I should have booked a test day before the meeting and we would have found the problem, guess we need to chalk this one up to experience. I now have a test day booked and we’ll get the diffuser working properly. Even after all the drama of the day I still walked away with a smile, the car was running so well, I got a fantastic start remembering that was my 3^rd ever standing start and the car ran at the front of a very competitive field. It all bodes well for the rest of the season and fill me with hope that’ll we’ll be on the podium before the season is out.