Tag Archives: Brands Hatch

Caterham Seven 420R, Championship Event, CSUK Championship

More Firsts at Brands Hatch

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I am still waiting for my first race around the Brands Hatch GP track, what is oft touted as the best track in UK. However, this weekend would see several more firsts for me. Most of which were not welcommed!

However, first up was 2 days of testing on the tight and relentless Indy circuit. The slick shod 420R is a beast around the track but it is notoriously difficult to overtake around the track and so grid position and race craft are important.

Qualification

Grid position wasn’t going to be an issue though. We were again treated to a wet qualification session after several days of dry testing. It seems that 3rd time is a charm for me. Now more confident on the tyres and with a greater knowledge of Brands Indy, I was able to dial in some good laps and came out in 4th place on the main qualification session.

Superpole

That placed me in the Superpole session once more. The conditions were drying up every minute and it was clear that going out second in the Superpole was unlikely to be a good result. However, just as the preceeding session got tidied out on track, the rain started once more.

Instead of being a hinderance, the earlier lap was an advantage and I managed to make the most of it and slung it on 2nd place on the grid. A touch lucky perhaps but it was about the first time in the year where I felt like I’d done a reasonable job.

Race 1

Before the race, there was an incredibly emotional tribute to a marshal who had been killed the previous weekend at the cirquit. The mood was heavy and it’s a reminder that so many people allow us to do what we love to do and that it’s dangerous. They put themselves in the line of fire out of the love of the sport and it was a wakeup call to motorsport around the world of how dangerous our sport can be.

#ThankYouMarshals

Running early in the race in 3rd, things were looking good. I was shuffled slowly back behind various team mates as time went on but I was still feeling strong. However, a safety car meant that a reasonable safety margin to the car behind was eroded and I had to manage a restart. Starts and pack racing have, ultimately, been my donwnfall this season with a lack of confidence and endlessly having to learn and sometimes relearn lessons of hard racing.

By the flag, I was in 7th place. Just behind Jake Swan-Dixon. Whilst thanking the marshals, I failed to spot the queue of cars stopping unexpectedly at the end of the pitlane. By the time I clocked it, it was too late and I managed to hit the rear of Jakes car. Causing fairly large damage to his rear pannel and puncturing my radiator. A silly mistake and one that left me even more deflated! Jake was incredibly understaind under the circumstances and I’m grateful for that.

Race 2

Another diabolical start. Another slip back through the field. Another delay in getting dialed in and up to racing speed. We were into lap 4 before I was getting going and it took a good number more laps to catch up with the main race pack.

I had some good racing with Chris Aubrey and Tom Eden on my way back through the field to 6th place. However, after pulling a slight gap from Tom I felt a strange reaction from the car going out onto the start finish straight and the car didn’t pick up speed as normal.

Tom made his way back through into paddock and by the time I got to Surtees, I felt what I knew was a rear wheel failure. The car wiggled and sat down and I watched as my wheel overtook me. I was initially worried it was going to bounce back into me off the barrier but it crossed the track and sat on the infield, upright. My car ended in the gravel on the outside of Clearways.

A prop shaft had sheared and the whole wheel assembly had become detached. I watched the race finish without me. My first ever mechanical failure in my racing. Another first I wasn’t particularly happy to have but I’ve been lucky through my racing and the fact that this was the first time I hadn’t reached the flag because of the car is quite something.

Race 3

So, even after a good qualification and reasonable performance in the races, I found myself once again at the back of the grid.

It took me a while to get by a few cars in my now traditional slow start. Once the early laps had settled, I battled back through and caught up with my team mate Alex Jordan. Overtaking him for 8th on the last few laps. A poor set of results from what started off as a promising weekend.

Caterham Motorsport, Caterham Supersport, Championship Event

Crest of a wave, bottom of a trench

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It’s taken me a long time to post this write-up from Brands. It was a weekend I’m not going to forget any time soon.

From the first laps of the circuit on Friday, I could tell that the car was super quick and stable. All the hard work to reduce my weight and get back to the weight limit had finally paid off in full.

Due to my normal support crew (my parents), being away on holiday, I was running the weekend out of the DPR awning. Having to prepare the car myself through testing and the weekend just proved to me how much I now rely on mum, dad, family and friends. Seemingly large gaps between sessions on track soon got eaten by cleaning, refuelling and general preparation work. I lean on everyone around me and I missed their support.

However, DPR were always on hand for any questions and, vitally, to check pressures and change settings in the pit lane. I’ve never before carried out an in session back-to-back test of a front anti-roll bar and boy, was that eye opening.

Every time you take a car out on track, you learn something, and being able to feel a direct comparison between one setup and another has changed my outlook on testing. All possible because of the DPR boys.

It’s one thing to turn in some speed in testing, quite another to convert that into a good grid spot. And for the majority of the qualification session, it looked like I’d blown it. I spent too long out front in clear air trying to get a good banker and catch the tail of the field for a tow. I dropped back to find some traffic to use for a tow but there was a fair amount of gamesmanship out on track, with plenty of abandoned laps costing time. I wasn’t alone in being affected for sure and there were some grumpy faces in parc ferme after the session. However, on the last lap, I managed to put a decent lap together, including a tow and 2nd on the grid was the result. A few thousandths of a second behind Henry Heaton.

Given the last minute nature of the lap and the track temperature, it was definitely a rescue and a good start to the competitive element of the weekend.

Come race time, the track temperature had risen massively. This is always a bad sign for our tyres, which don’t like it when things get hot. I made a reasonable start off the line and was ahead of Henry going into turn 1. However, Mike Evans made his normal spectacular start and was in the lead from 3rd on the grid going into Druids.

I managed to get back out in front in fairly short order and lead an opening stint of the race. An incident at druids saw the race red flagged. It was looking like Mike was going to be able to get back past at the point the flag was shown, so it may have been a turning point. A re-grid of the race was the decision of the steward for a 15 minute blast.

Another reasonable start off the line but another screamer by mike saw him in paddock bend first.  I was able to get past into druids and got me head down as fast as possible to try and spring a gap.

It’s a rare thing to manage to pull a lead over a field of Caterhams, but over the course of a few laps, I was able to pull away enough to be able to take the full racing line consistently. Battles further back then meant I was able to consolidate that lead.

With around 5 minutes to go, I had a gap of 2.5 seconds and knew, subject to not cocking things up, I could bring this one home. Even the sight of Christian Szaruta taking second place and gradually getting closer wasn’t enough to put me off in that race! And I took the flag with a comfortable gap back to the rest of the field.

Four long years it has taken to finally cross the line in first place again. Four years. Boy did it feel great. It was such a shame I didn’t get to share it with my family, but my friends inside and outside of the paddock were all carrying me on the crest of a wave. A feeling that never grows old.

Sunday was another scorcher. Any threat of a thunderous downpour slowly ebbed away through the day and we were in for another hot, dry race.

I made a good start from pole and the early part of the race was similar to race one; fighting with Mike Evans and trying hard to try and spring a gap. However, that wasn’t to be in this race and it was a much more traditional clump of cars through the first 10 minutes of the race. Into the middle phase of the race, Henry Heaton, Tim Dickens and myself all had good battle, with Henry and myself swapping positions on a number of occasions.

Just as things looked like they had settled down a little with Henry and myself pulling a slight gap on Tim, I was preparing to try and solidify that gap. However, I was caught out by Henry braking earlier than I expected for paddock bend and, following very closely to him at the time, I did what turned out to be a bad job of avoiding his car. My front left tyre hit the rear right of Henry’s.

What followed was a big accident. After the initial contact, the front of the car skipped in the air and initially landed interlocked with Henry’s car. It then launched again, this time with both the front and rear wheels contacting at the same time. The car pitched up at about 45 degrees and I was close to rolling. Thankfully, when the car landed, it righted itself and I skipped across the gravel and made heavy contact with the barrier.

As the dust settled and I caught my breath, I was thankful that everything felt in one piece and I could see Henry jumping out of the car.

It was such a sad end to what was shaping up to be a great battle between Henry and myself. We’ve had some great battles in the past and we’ve shared a racing journey for the past 5 years. In the cold hard light of day, I made contact with a friend out on track whilst he was leading the race. Nothing’s going to change that now.

The contrast in emotion was, and is, enormous between the highs of Saturday and the lows of Sunday. Motoracing gives and motoracing takes away.

Caterham Academy, Caterham Motorsport, Caterham Roadsport, Caterham Seven 270R, Caterham Seven 310R, Caterham Seven 420R, Caterham Supersport, Championship Event

Making a b-line for Brands

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We’re headed to Brands Hatch this weekend for rounds 5 and 6 of the Official Caterham Motorsport Ladder. The paddock is joined this weekend by the Olympic Legend – Sir Chris Hoy. He’ll be racing with the 310R boys and girls but will certainly add a bit of fame to the #CaterhamFamily

Timetable

Supersport race times this weekend are:

  • Quali Sat 3rd June 09:25 – 09:45
  • Race 1 Sat 3rd June 12:20 – 12:50
  • Race 2 Sun 4th June 14:05 0 14:35

Live Timing:

http://tsl-timing.com/event/172231

Live comms should also be available on the Live Timing page over the event. If not, the Brands Hatch App used to have this feature – so you could try there!

Caterham Supersport, Championship Event

Back in the mix at Brands

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Two days of testing and two days of race action draw to a close on the first weekends racing of the 2016 Caterham Supersport Championship.

It’s fair to say that my 2015 campaign didn’t exactly go without issue and so the first round was always going to be one of discovery. With 44 cars entered for the first event of the year, there were too many cars to run on a single grid. We therefore had to run a split grid format.

That’s never ideal and it’s a shame that we haven’t yet seen all the lead drivers together on track. From the four races that took place at Brands, that’s an extremely tasty proposition. Fingers crossed, Anglesey will see everyone together.

Qualification was fully wet and generally went to plan. There’s always ‘the lap that got away’ and this session was no different. However, 3rd fastest in session was a good result and with the combined qualification times and the way the grids were decided, I would start 2nd on the grid for race one.

I made a good, initial, start at the lights but second gear bounced out briefly, so I settled in behind Jack Brown and keeping an eye on the swarm of cars in the mirrors. The fairly traditional lap one safety car came out after Max Robinson was caught out by a spinning Andy West and left immobile in the gravel.

At the restart, Jack went almost as soon as the safety car lights went out. This was a stroke of genius as we pulled a huge gap on the whole field – with the exception of Richard Ainscough, who was slightly stuck in the middle ground. As I was clinging on to Jack Brown’s car for all I could, Richard slowly caught me and as soon as we started dicing for position, we gave Jack the perfect opportunity to tootle further up the road.

The rest of the race was a too and fro battle with Richard for 2nd place. Fantastic close racing. The back-markers certainly played their part in proceedings. One driver being lapped perhaps four times in a 20 minute period – the speed differential through the corners meant that it was hard to judge how and where to try and get by without compromising race position.

The final run to the flag was an equally tight affair, with Richard pulling alongside early on the straight and I wasn’t sure whether I’d managed to hold him off over the line. As it goes, I just managed it by a few thousandths. 2nd place. Back on the podium and back in contention.

It was a superb feeling and quite a relief after 2015.

Race 2 took place on the Sunday and was a much sunnier and far more blustery day. Half of the grid were made of new drivers compared to race 1 and all, as ever, eager for a good result.

I made a reasonable start, although a slightly cautious 2nd gear change meant I slipped to 3rd behind the fast starting Mike Evans by turn one. Christian Szaruta lead early doors as everyone else tussled for their running order behind.

It became quickly apparent in my car that the rear end grip wasn’t what it had been through the rest of the weekend and I struggled to get the power down and control the cars backside. This left me without much attack once things settled down as I was constantly having to defend along the back straight rather than move forward.

Ultimately, this saw me gently fall through the front pack as the race went along. I did briefly make it to the front of the field but it wasn’t to last.

To cut a long and extremely exciting, close and frantic story short, I ended up 5th over the line, with a missing rear wing, curtesy of Adam West – who clearly fancied a nibble of cheese on his way to 4th place! Sadly, it was one of my original Academy wings – so now I’m down to just one remaining!

For all the excitement that the races brought to the table, there was always a feeling of ‘what will it be like when we’re all together?’ That’s an extremely enticing prospect and one which we’ll hopefully get to see at Anglesey in May.

I’ll have just turned 38 by then…. I’m getting too old for all this!