15th September

After the average result from the August bank holiday meeting it was back to the drawing board to see how we can improve the car. As you know we tried a few things at Donington Park but these proved unsuccessful however a few lessons were learnt. The results this year have been great but what the results mask is the modest power of our car. Not taking anything away from the front runners at Combe because they are all very quick drivers but compared to some of the cars we are giving away upto 50+ bhp. To combat this we have been running a modest aerodynamic package so not to loose out on straight line speed. This has been working great upto the last meeting when the front guys obliterated the timing charts with some very fast times. This has forced us to revisit what we have been doing all year.

This is where the lessons learnt at Donington are put into action. With the dive planes fitted to the car again we were getting a lot of oversteer which suggested that the front had far to much grip. We need to get the car’s balance back and to do this we turn to the rear wing. I had to work out how to get the rear wing working better with out compromising drag to much. This was going to be a task because drag is always a side effect of downforce and drag slows the car down. With the aid of a book on aerodynamics and a program from NASA (no I’m not kidding!) I spent a evening working out the dimensions of the wing and it theoretical optimum performance. To my relief the design of wing we use is a good one and in a completely ideal world can produce a healthy lump of downforce. However we are not in an ideal world so the next part of the plan was going to be guesswork. I did think of hiring out MIRA but don’t think my bank manager would go for that.

So armed with enough theory to sink the titanic (we’d have to float it again first of course) I paid a visit to Neil at Corinium Motorsport to form a battle plan. The calculations suggested that the optimum angle of attack (this is the angle of the wing vs. the direction of the air stream hitting it) would be around 8 - 10 degrees. Considering that we’ve been running the wing at 5 degrees this was going to be a large difference. For the race meeting we set the wing at 9 degrees, the plan being I would do a few laps in qualifying and come in and try a different setting.

It’s the morning of the race day and what a wonderful day it is, the skies are clear and I am feeling confident that we are going to have a good day. For the first time this year there are no class A cars in our race so us "B’s" are going to be the quick class out there. This also means that the possibility of getting a good starting position is more likely.

The Class B championship is very close for 2^nd place, 1^st place is held by Shane Marshall and he has a healthy lead after his victory last time out. As an example of the commitment of the drivers in this series Simon Tilling traveled back from a business trip in India on the Friday evening just to do the race, and was then flying back out to India the on the Sunday morning! The score currently stood with me on 27 points, Simon on 26 and Louis Davidson on 25. This is the first time I’ve felt pressure to get a good result in a few years. And to be honest it was driving me on and made me determined to get a good result.

Qualifying started at 11:15am and the track was perfect, the car felt pretty good on the first lap and I put my head down for the second to get a feel for the new downforce. Coming into Tower I braked as normal but when I turned the steering it went slack, same feeling you have when driving on ice. I somehow managed to get the car back under-control, it really was a "new overalls needed" moment. Seeing a car on the exit of Tower with coolant leaking from it confirmed I was the victim of his spillage and not something wrong with my car. The next couple of laps I concentrated on getting a clear lap which was near impossible. However the car was working really well and it felt like it had a lot of potential. I had changed the gearing on the car to compensate for the extra drag of the aero kit but I don’t think I had to as the higher corner speeds were making up for the loss of acceleration. All good, the only slight concern was the car was on the stiff side. Not overly so and after 10 laps I was quite comfortable with it. Even with the traffic I managed a time of 1:07.3 which put me on third place on the grid which was great.

The race, the day had been littered with red flags in the other races. The poor MG boys were having a torrid time with cars in barriers, upside down and generally getting bashed about. This meant our race was about 30 minutes late. To make sure the circuit doesn’t go over its curfew our race was reduced from 15 to 12 laps. When we did get on the grid the days sun had heated up the track a lot and judging by the other races times it was slower than it was in the morning.

Shane was on pole and Simon was along side him. I was positioned right between the two on the second row. Well it was a simple plan, foot down and go between Simon and Shane. Of course they are not as stupid as they look and they made sure the gap wasn’t as big as it could have been. The lights go out and I get a great start passing Simon on the line and tucking up behind Shane. The extra power of his Mallock was keeping me at bay. On the run out of Quarry Simon gets the legs on me and despite me trying to delay is progress he overtakes me into the Esses. I keep my foot in and get into chasing him and Shane. As we come out of Bobbies the red flags go out and we stop racing. There has been a big shunt on the start line and the race is stopped while they clear things up.

Second restart and again I get a flyer and am tucked right up the exhaust of Shane. Again the extra power of his car pulls away from mine but I keep him in sight this time. Simon is unable to repeat the move from the first start going into the Esses and I hang on to my second place. Second lap and Simon is breathing down my neck, all systems normal there then!, I get a rubbish drive out of Quarry and again Simon tries to get down the inside of me. This time I move over as much as I dare to defend the line into the Esses. We both out break ourselves, I go across the grass and Simon has a half spin. Who mentioned anything about championship pressure?

Because of the restart the race was reduced to 10 laps. My concerns from qualifying that the car was to stiff had come back and car just wasn’t handling as well as it did in the morning. It was hard work to keep the laps constant but I was doing my best. Occasionally I would get a glimpse of Simon’s car in my mirrors but the gap was around 5 seconds. As is normal with GT racing at Combe I was soon fighting my way around the back markers. On lap 6 I came across a gaggle of them going into Bobbies. I had to wait until the exit of Bobbies until the Ferrari in front noticed I was up his exhaust. I over took him and the next car but infront of him was another 2 cars overtaking each other. I made decision to get these two cars aswell before Camp corner (remember that pesky Simon was still behind me). I got the first of the two and squeezed past the second at the apex of Camp corner, I don’t think I’ve been that close to rubbing another car, credit to the driver of the MR2 for noticing me at the last moment and giving me room. The rest of the race I concentrated on keep the laps consistent, the handling was definitely not right and Simon was starting to gain quite quickly. Lucky for me the chequered flags came out before he got with in targeting range. So I crossed the line 2^nd overall and 2^nd in class. So a good result which also increased my lead over Simon in the championship by another point. Unfortunately for Louis his car failed to finish due to a electrical problem so his challenge on 2^nd has been reduced considerably. Shane has now done enough to take 1^st in Class B, Congratulations Shane.

So lessons learnt, the car is better but we need to revise the suspension to get it working over the bumps (sorry undulations) of Combe. More power would be nice and something I will look at over the winter. Of course this all costs money so we are currently working on a sponsor information pack to invite local companies to get involved with the team and car. If you know of anyone that might be interested please ask them to drop me a line via the site

Just to finish off with the usual thanks to the team (Barry, Justin) for their efforts. Neil for being a great sounding board and doing the car setup. My family for their support and even my Nan who made the trip to the circuit to watch, not bad for lady 90 years young.