Eventful weekend: Hit A Ferrari Dino doing 110mph up clay hill on Friday in testing. There by the grace of God only minor damage and back on the track for qualifying. Took 1.5 seconds off the R400 lap record in Qualifying and lead the early stages of the race - but as the pit stops came around the pack was shuffled and I couldn't keep at bay the higher powered cars so slipped to P3 overall but 1st in class by a good margin.
Thanks to Anthony from www.Iwannagofaster.com for his input in testing.
7th June 2010
A selection of the caterham in action.
12th May 2010
The season so far in the Magnificent Sevens Championship
SNETTERTON APRIL 2010
Qualified P 4
Finished P 3
The first race of the 2010 Season took us to Norfolk’s Snetterton circuit on a beautiful sunny but bloody cold weekend!!
Qualifying on Sunday morning started off badly with loads of oversteer which we fettled through adjustments to rear rake and then set a near Personal Best for the track of 1.16 dead qualifying me in 4th out of 28 entries and second in class.
5 second board, red lights on……….5k revs….red lights off……dump the clutch and got a brilliant start up to 2nd – firing off the big patches of rubber I’d laid down on the sighting lap. In the braking zone down to corner 1 Peter Ratcliffe cut back across to take the place back and I exited Riches in P 3 having made up 1 place and running just behind last year’s R400 championship runner up. Over the next 5 laps I diced for P3 and broke away from the pack with the front 4 until I outbraked myself into Russell’s and lost the tow from the front 3 – re-emphasing the importance of slipstream and aerodynamics in the caterham series.
Increasing the gap back to 5th we then ran unchallenged for position for 40 mins and 30 laps of Snetterton before taking the chequered flag in p4 – however a subsequent disqualification for the leading driver on the grounds of unsafe driving then elevated the finish to 3rd place on the podium and a 2nd in class result!
A solid start to the season, before moving on to Brands Hatch Indy May 9th
Next Races
Anglesey International
May 22
Oulton
June 12
Spa Francorchamps
July 3+4
Snetterton
July 25
Mallory
August 29
Silverstone
September 4
Snetterton
October 17
BRANDS HATCH MAY 2010
Qualified P 1
Finished P2
Like a lot of the tracks on the calendar this year – I had never raced at Brands Hatch before the race weekend so arrived with a bit of trepidation to say the least.
Saturday testing at the Kentish circuit was consistently wet and cold but a good opportunity to work out which direction the circuit went in.
In Sunday’s qualifying I was 0.9seconds off pole after the first session of qualifying and laying 6th, in the second session of another 5 laps we worked this down to 0.3 seconds and 3rd place; and in the final session of qualifying after 3 laps managed to beat the fastest lap by nearly 0.3 seconds – to take the first pole position of my “career!”
After a 3 hour wait until the main event – leaving the pits and leading the crocodile of 32 cars on to the grid felt pretty good! Lining up on pole pointing at the blind crest of paddock hill bend fills you with a bit of excitement and a lot of fear frankly!
Made a good start and managed to lead the first 2 laps but was unable to make a real break and along with the 2 front runners that came with me, we diced for 1st place for the first 20 laps of the race – leading 10 of these over the line.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt the best racing I have ever been involved in – credit to the other 2 drivers, very fast, very bold, very safe (ish)
In 20 laps I must have made at least 15 overtakes and been passed back as many times – fantastic racing.
From P2, after 25 laps I pitted for the mandatory stop at exactly the same time as the leader. We entered the pits together, we stopped together, we left the pits together; and after a lap I was back in the lead and pulling away.
Then disaster…..black flag, Stop Go Penalty, No 41 “speeding in the pitlane”
A rush of blood to the head during the stops meant I was back in the pits for a stop-go penalty which ultimately cost me about 40 seconds and handed a 25 second winning margin to the car I had only just overtaken.
You live and learn….
On the penultimate lap I got back in front of Carl Woodwiss’ CSR on the inside on the approach to Clearways and managed to get away to from him to reclaim and cement P2 in an absolutely exhausting but thrilling race.
So all in all, for my first visit to the track, Pole position and P2 was a really satisfying result – next time out Anglesey May 22.
So far this season Race 1 = P3, Race 2 = P2, Race 3 = hoping to go 1 better!!
4th December 2009
A New Car Has Arrived....
A brand new SEAT touring car has arrived for next year...
We will be competing in the Euro saloons, NSSCC and possibly some Endurance racing with the team of 'Bernard & Marcus' at the wheel next season.
The car is pictured during in a trip to the paint-shop.
Then it's off for some more modifications before the 2010 season gets underway.
The Prodrive Mondeo Supertourer is only semi-pensioned and will still be racing at events like the Silverstone Classic.
It's therefore nice to report, that it will still be seen about the circuits on a regular basis...
24th September 2009
Spa-rkling weekend
Round 5 of the British Caterham R400 championship took us all off to the world’s most (in)famous circuit – Spa Francorchamps, arriving only 2 weeks after the F1 boys had vacated the paddock and benefitting from some rubber left behind by Jenson and his pals.
Qualifying on Friday was daunting – “……it’s flat through Eau Rouge in 6th” (see below) says team manager “Flavio” Dave Ketter-atori as he straps us into the missile I’ve come to know as my Caterham R400.
Are you sure Dave ????????
Anyway it was flat in 6th and after a disciplinary for me and team mate Ed we established it was flat, but this does not include straight lining the exit for which we we received a final warning and the threat of a drive through in the race.
So first qually on Friday was more of a navigation exercise than a race environment – 7Km and 20 corners meant every time you arrive at a corner you’ve no idea which one it is or where it goes and invariably it was up when you thought it was down and left when you thought it was right!
So after an hour on track and some changes to the front bar to find some more front end grip under turn in, we had a half decent setting. Some more changes to ride height of the rear before final qually gave us pretty much the perfect balance of predictable under and over steer you need for spa and we qualified 10th out of 27, including 11 of the less powerful R300s. Having set off doing 2.52s we’d got down to 2.46s so it began to feel like progress and we were ahead of some of the guys who’d been there before.
So on to race one, too many revs and a stodgy start dropped me down the grid straight off and embroiled in a battle with the middle of the order we didn’t see the front runners again and finished up 6th after a few ding dongs, a lot of slipstreaming on Kemmel straight and a couple of front runners taking each other out at Les Combes.
With a decent points haul from race 1, team mate and I, Ed Hayes, started Race 2 on the 3rd row of the grid he in 5th to my left.
Far better start this time and straightlined to the apex at La Source, focusing on keeping it tidy and making it through to avoid Donington style heroics which inevitably end up with a going too fast backwards moment. A tidy entry and exit made it possible to get the power down early on the run to Eau rouge and tucked in with the front 4.
Eau Rouge is the most phenomenal experience in Motorsport.
Accelerating to about 110mph from the hairpin to the base of Eau Rouge you point the car away from the bend, take all the grass on the left then drag the car back across the track as you go up the hill with Newton’s basics trying to drag you through the floor of the car and the suspension dropping onto it’s haunches. Keep full power and stick the car on the rumble on the right and it drags you up the road in roughly the right direction – then down into 5th before the crest and enjoy the air time as you lift off over the blind crest onto Kemmel which goes on …. for ever. Far better drivers than I have had major offs here and it wasn’t lost on me lap after lap as adrenaline helped me ignore my more rationale nature.
So away with the fast lads and managing to live with them for the duration the race turned into by far the best of the year and on the last lap as team mate (veteran) Peter Ratcliffe backed the pack up for the final flurry I got a run on the front 4 on the exit of Stavelot only to put a wheel on the gravel and go into a 90’ sideways whoooooaooooaoo moment. Caught it and got back on the power, flat through blanchimont and as I arrived into the bus stop chicane, Ferrari Challenge driver Mike Cantillon over cooked it on the right left and I squeezed through to take 4th leading him over the line by 15/100ths of a second
All in all a fabulous weekend at the most beautiful scary and challenging race track in the world, a mega confidence boost and some momentum to take to the last round at Snetterton and into the closed season testing.
