Well, that was an induction and a half. I went into Donington the least prepared I have ever been for any race event. With so little running in the car ahead of the weekend, with no racing action since 2018 and only 1 hour of practice to try and get up to speed on Thursday evening at the circuit, it’s no particular surprise, but still hugely deflaiting, that I came out of the box slowly.
Whilst other drivers have a natural ability to find pace, it’s something I’ve always had to work at. It can take a while to convice my sceptical mind about the sanity of taking an extra 10mph into a corner or leaving the braking another 10m down the road. My brain has to experience it before it believes it’s possible.
That’s rather a catch 22 and only cures itself with laps and seat time. Something I was desperately short of. However, of the laps I’ve done very nearly all of them have been on the new slick tyres on this years car. Whilst the DNA of the Caterham is still very much present, the sheer levels of grip offered up by the tyres is three levels of bonkers beyond anything you think possible.
Heading into Qualification, it would be the first time that I would be strapping on the new, dedicated, wet weather tyres. Conditions were absolutely filthy and with ony 15 mins track time and sharing the track with 310R cars, for the first time ever, I absolutely failed to get any lap time set. Over 5 seconds down on the lead times in class and 13th out of 14 cars on the CSUK grid.
That was sore when jumping out of the car and progressively began to sting more as the morning wore on. It certainly needed some soul searching to get strapped back in the car again for the race.
Race 1 approached, as it has a tendency to do, and the weather forecast had been correct in its prediction that the rain would not abate on Saturday. With zero visibility, we headed out on track for my first race lap in 2.5 years. Whilst not comfortable, I was able to start making some places and as the much needed seat time in the wet increased with each passing lap, I was able to figure out the grip levels of the new tyres and started to approach a more acceptable pace.
By the flag, I’d move up to 8th place and set 6th fastest lap – over 5 seconds faster than qualification and at least in the correct ball park.
An early night and the traditional stress and pacing saw race 2 approach sooner than I expected. This time, dry track conditions and therefore the slicks strapped back onto the car.
I essentially let the race happen around me. I was attached to the lead train for a while but sub-conciously I was preserving a ‘safety bubble’ around the car, which meant that I was always slipping backwards and my pace was off. I was as high as 5th at one point, but slipped back again. Ending the race in 7th. Another slight position improvement but again, so many lessons to get through in my re-education into full on competition.
I’ve been lucky through my racing so far to have always had a really competitive field torace against. However, the CSUK Championship is full of seasoned and championship winning drivers. Of the people ahead of me on the grid, only one doesn’t have a Championship to their name. With a couple of exceptions, everyone was also hot off the previous seasons racing and had managed some additional seat time in the new spec car. Many have also been racing the 420R car for several seasons already, which at least makes you feel more comfortable in your surroundings.
We were now all into unfamiliar territory though, heading into our 3rd race of the weekend. Due to the physical nature of the new 420R spec machine, we are running 3 x 20 minute races per weekend instead of the more familliar 2 x 30 minute races. Therefore, cooling down after the first race before building up to do it all again is not something anyone is particularly used to.
I had another action plan to get a bit more enguaged in the racing and start to compete a little more. Whilst I was sucessful in that venture to a certain degree, I still wasn’t happy or where I wanted to be and was making mistakes left, right and centre.
Caution when lapping the traffic also cost me time and position on track off the back of the lead group. However, other drivers were less fortunate in the traffic and that ultimately resulted in several 420R cars crashing out and sustaining race ending damage. That promoted my finishing position to 5th place at the chequered flag. Whilst it’s not a satisfying feeling to benefit from others mis-fortune, the 5th place was a good end result and my relative pace was again reasonable – but certainly not stellar.
The car is in one piece though and that’s more than some could say heading away from the track. From very nearly last place in qualification, I’d made step by step improvements in finishing positions to end up 5th place in the final race. That’s certainly the right direction. However, until I can legitimately say I’m properly competing, rather than clinging on, I won’t be happy with my performance.
Hugh thanks go to my mechanic Jack and driver coach Darren for sticking with me and DPR Motorsport in general for their relentless attention to detail.
