We should have been supporting several British GT weekends through 2021. However, Covid saw the foreign rounds disappear and we were left with one final partnership at Oulton Park.
It’s not a track I have loads of experience at. However, it’s a brilliant track to drive. Such a wonderful set of corners. You really go on an adventure every lap with something for everyone. Fast and committed. Tight and technical and gradient thrown in everywhere. Plently of barriers to punish you as well if you get things wrong.
Qualification
Frustration! Slick tyres on a drying track was the correct choice and I was on the correct combination. However, I was further back in the queue than I would have liked at the start of qualification and that meant I was finding it hard to get any track position and a clear lap.
It’s not often I can say that I was held up by Will Smith, but I certainly did as he was on older slicks.
After several off track escapades in what were very tricky conditions and a session only 10 minutes long, it all came down to the final lap.
It went well, although I had to navigate Tom Eden who had parked on the final apex. I was sure this had scuppered my lap, but was surprised to find myself again in Superpole.
Superpole
A steady lap. And it showed. 4th on the grid was the result after James Murphy fell foul of track limits. I felt more was possible but I failed to get back up to speed quickly enough. A familiar defect to my season.
Race 1
A good start for once. I made up a place to run initially in 3rd. This changed to 4th when James Murphy taught me a lesson on the amount of grip you can generate early on with a specacular move into the Chicane. 4th was looking good. Great actually.
I had a gap behind and was keeping up (just) with the ultra rapid Steve Nuttal, Henry Heaton and James Murphy. This was more like it! Due to the tight schedule on the GT calendar, we were only having 2 races this weekend, back to the 30 minute race format. That comes with advantages for me; less starts; less early laps; more ‘settle in’ period. However, this year it also comes with a big downside. Fitness!
13mins in and I made a mistake coming out of the second chicane. I drifted onto the grass and lost positions gathering things back up onto the track.
I then got spooked into the final corner braking zone causing Greg Monks to hit my rear. Not his fault at all. But that saw me lose more places. So disappinting from the drivers seat. Gonig from 4th and now dropping to my more familiar mid field setting.
I got stuck behind Rob Watts and Greg Monks having an epic battle. I felt I had the speed over both of them but just not the racecraft, or energy frankly, to make it stick.
That then cost me more positions with Jake Swan-Dixon coming back through. Ultimately, he made it all the way to 5th place and that would have been a position I was capable of if I was more race hardened and fitter.
Race 2
The race that never was. Well, “half wasn’t” I suppose.
Conditions once again were extremely changeable and tricky to judge. The whole field decided on slick tyres even through there was rain threatened. With the banks absolutely chock full of specators, it was going to be an absolutely epic advertisment for Caterham racing. For whatever can be said about our brand of motorsport, it leads to endlessly entertaining and epic racing.
An initial delay being released onto the track and then an even longer delay held on the grid before we got going meant that the threatened rain had a chance to arrive.
I made a reasonable start and then managed the conditions well to move forward. I’d got all the way to 5th place when Alex Jordan found the barriers and a safety car was thrown. Unfortunately, this meant that all the residual heat from the tyres was lost and the rain was getting heavier by the second.
Unfortunately, some poor communication by race control meant that instead of calling us all in to swap to wet tyres, they showed us a premature chequered flag instead.
That’s a signal there is no recovery from. The race is over and restarting it would have lead to more technical and regulatory issues that would likely have lead to the result being void.
Finishing in 5th would have been a result to take away of course, and I would have been happy to! However, half points was all that was awarded so it was added to everyone’s dropped scores list for the season.
We all went away from that weekend feeling disapointed. It’s a long way to go to only get one race and for me, 2 potentially great results went away.
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.
In the lead up to the Championship finale weekend at Silverstone, storm Ali and storm Bronagh were playing their parts in what was already a turbulent and delicately balanced set of variables.
It was apt that the weather was as unsettled and unpredictable as the Championship leaderboard and the lack of certainty was doing nothing to settle the nerves!
You tell yourself, and others, “it’s just another race weekend”. But you know that’s not true. On the cosmological scale, the Caterham Seven 310R Championship is an insignificant blip. But for the competitive spirits that are part of the whole Caterham Motorsport family, it means a lot.
We went into the weekend with three DPR drivers heading the points. Myself, Christian Szaruta and Gordon Sawyer all separated by a few points. With drop scores taken into account, just 2 points split us.
Lee Bristow was the only other driver in the field to be able to take the top spot, but that would require a perfect weekend for his orange machine (certainly not impossible given his speed and consistency), and a disaster to hit in both races for all the DPR drivers (again, not impossible given what was at stake).
Qualification was scheduled for late morning, at about the same time as the storm rain was due to hit. Spits of rain were in the air as we got into assembly and it really wasn’t clear how many laps would be possible before the rain affected grip. As it turns out, it was around 3 laps. Andy Perry managed to ping in a lap for 4th on the grid before spinning into the gravel at Vale. That brought out the yellow flags and effectively ended qualification at that point.
I’d grabbed a 6th place, with just 2/10ths covering the top 6, there’s always the feeling that more was possible! But given the conditions, it was an OK result. Gordon managed a great lap to bag him 2nd on the grid but Christian missed out on a crucial tow in the dry laps at the beginning of the session and ended up 13th.
The weather set in for the afternoon and constant rain made sure the track was absolutely soaked. Not having turned any wet laps at Silverstone all weekend did little to settle the nerves. Neither did the memory of Castle Combe, where Christian and Gordon both out-classed me in the wet. Being in 6th also meant being right in the middle of all the action at the start. To keep the championship alive, I needed to make sure Gordon didn’t get a break off the front of the group.
My clutch foot was doing a nervous jig as we waited for the lights and it was quite amazing that I managed to hook up a great launch. With a little manoeuvring, I got to turn 2 in 2nd place with Gordon out front. Andy Perry briefly managed to get ahead with a very brave move into Stowe on lap 1 but he couldn’t quite hold it together and I managed to regain 2nd by Vale.
There was then a settling in period where I could tell Gordon and myself were pulling clear of the chase pack and I was gradually learning where all the grip was. Gordon did start to pull a gap, but whereas at Castle Combe, this was due to a lack of pace on my part, here I knew I was comfortable and happy to wait.
On more than one occasion, the marshals put their own lives on the line to push cars out of dangerous positions in the gravel. On many other weekends, there would have been multiple safety car periods in the race and it’s only down to those brave men and women in orange that we were able to fight out the championship with no interruptions and no reduction in the lead gap over the pack.
Around 10 minutes into the race, the gap back to the chase pack had grown a lot and I felt more at home in the soaked conditions, so I pushed on and fairly quickly closed the gap to Gordon. However, closing was easy compared to getting by. There was a ‘slightly less wet’ line around most of the track which was giving up all the grip. Off this line, there were puddles and a lower level of grip. Therefore, Gordon just had to remain on line and an overtake would be all but impossible.
I managed to get briefly in front going down hanger straight but was left on the wet track and Gordon took the lead back again comfortably. I almost went to the outside of Gordon when pulling out of the slip stream as there was JUST a cars width available. That could well have got me the place, but it would have been highly risky and I think caution was probably the correct approach.
I was also getting a little frustrated at track limits around this time. In the morning briefing, we had been told that they would be enforcing track limits on the corner out onto hanger straight. There’s a curb out in the middle of the track, put there for the MotoGP racers, and we were told that we weren’t allowed to go over the green part of that curb. Gordon had consistently taken a wide line over the curb and I was trying my best to keep it all inside, which was costing me time onto hanger straight. However, no warnings were issued and no penalties given.
It wasn’t then long before the back markers came into play. With visibility virtually zero at times, it was always going to be hard to check they had seen you coming through and also that they had clocked it wasn’t one of their own rivals. A little caution on my part and catching some tail enders in bad places meant I dropped away from Gordon and didn’t have any time to pull it back for a last lap attempt for the win.
So, 2nd place over the line and a fastest lap by 0.6s meant that I had a 1 point lead over Gordon going into the final race. Christian had made an absolutely epic comeback drive to make it to 4th place (see previous comments about how impossible it was to overtake…) and with Alan Cooper sticking it in 3rd place, that was a 1,2,3,4 for DPR Motorsport. Amazing result.
Sunday dawned and the weather looked like more of the same, with constant rain and overcast skies. However, the forecast had changed over night and the rain was due to fade by lunchtime. With our race due on track at 14:30, it was going to be a nail biter on whether the circuit would dry and therefore what tyres / setup to apply to the car.
Changes were being made right up until the cars left for the formation lap. I’d chosen dry tyres but softened the car off one step all round. Going to the grid, I could tell that the fully dry setup would have been the way to go, but there’s nothing that could be done about it and the car was still in a good spot.
To make what was already a nerve racking start to begin with even more so… the lights failed. After a couple of attempts to get them working, we were sent on another green flag lap. We were then started using the drop of the Union Flag… that’s another first for me! 6 years into this hobby and still new things are thrown at you every time.
Being on the dry side of the circuit meant I got a flying start compared to Gordon. I even pulled a gap to the chasing field. However, it was always going to be an impossible task to keep the gap far enough to break any tow and, sure enough, down Hanger Straight, Christian had passed me by the time we reached Stowe corner.
It wasn’t in his best interest to try and break away from the field, and so from that moment on, I knew it was going to be a long hard race.
Not too long into the race, Gordon had caught and passed me as well an we traded places a few times. Again, there was a small chance we were going to break away from the chase group but Lee Bristow and Tom Grensinger continued their end season charge to the front and it was a pack of 4 changing spots.
Around 1/3 of the way into the race, a change of places let Gordon slip the group very slightly. This gap then began to slowly grow. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have quite the speed to make any impact when it was my time at the front to try and claw back Gordon and Lee and Tom were not necessarily as interested in doing that as I was!
It was a race long battle between the three of us. Hard and epically close as ever around this fast track. As the race was drawing to its conclusion, I briefly took 2nd place and promptly tried too hard to make up time on Gordon, actually costing myself and slipping to a very disappointing 4th place when the flag waved.
It was such a disappointing end to the weekend for me. I’d been properly beaten by Gordon on both days. He’d pulled it out the bag and shown a clean pair of heals when he needed to.
Heading into Parc Ferme though, everything changed. It transpired that Gordon had received a 5 second penalty for track limits infringement. And that had slipped his position behind me. I’d got a 3rd place and 4th place for Gordon meant I’d won then Championship!
Utter, utter, disbelief ensued. I hadn’t spotted the warnings / penalty notice for Gordon and what I thought was Lee / Tom settling for 2nd was actually them knowing that Gordon wasn’t a factor in the race so long as they kept within 5 seconds.
I can’t explain the feelings. I’m still trying to process them. There was a tidal wave of congratulations from so many people in the pit lane that I still can’t take it all in. Wow. Just wow.
I can now say that I am 2018 Caterham Seven 310R Champion and, boy, does that feel good.
It’s been another ridiculously close year of racing. Remaining friends with the people you race so hard against isn’t overly common in such a competitive environment. However, I think we’ve done it. One last hoorah at the awards evening in a months time to really let the hair down and enjoy the moment.
I may be the one that is lucky enough to drive the car when the racing starts but even at this level, there’s a whole army of people that are right there, helping me do that to the best of my ability.
DPR Motorsport have been by my side since the very start of my Caterham racing experience. They have gone so far beyond the call on so many occasions that I just can’t thank them all enough. It’s a debt I hope has been helped by finally bringing home the big trophy 6 years after we started. Ben Clucas, Darren Burke and Dave Robinson have all helped my point the car in the right direction at one time or another.
The people I race against month on month change occasionally, but they all share the same passion and the same drive. And the whole year has gone by with so little friction that it’s testimony to the respect that everyone has for each other.
There are too many people to mention from the Caterham team individually but Simon, Abi, Lucy, Kirsty, Darren and crew make the paddock and the racing experience better and better year on year.
In how may other motorsport paddocks around the world does the championship photographer play such a pivotal part in so many drivers weekends? Jon Bryant (SnappyRacers) is motivator, friend, bloody good at photography and not a shabby racer himself.
Friends and family, who support me, pick me up, dust me off and kick me up the butt to get out there again. Thank you! Hanging around in car parks over a weekend where you could be doing something far more productive is dedication and forever appreciated.
Finally, Mum and Dad. My chief mechanics; pit crew; sounding boards; administration team. My rocks. They are the engine that’s helped me to this win. I can’t thank them enough.
I’m so happy we could all bring this one home together and so many people got to share this dream that’s been 6 long years in the making.
I don’t think I’ve ever been at a race weekend that could be described as boring, however, Thruxton was the complete opposite. An absolute roller coaster of a weekend with high highs and low lows.
Due to noise limits, the race ‘weekend’ actually started on Wednesday with an early track day, so I was stationed in Andover for an extended period of time.
The Championship was very tightly poised going into the weekend and so the pressure was on to produce a strong set of results to keep in the running for the overall Championship trophy.
DPR Motorsport had a different driving coach on the truck this weekend as Darren Burke was racing at Silverstone. It’s always interesting having a new view of your racing style and I spent the majority of Friday testing tweaking my technique, trying new things as well as resurrecting techniques that I’ve lost over time. It all came together, just in time, during the last session of testing.
Could I put it all together in qualification the following morning? Well, ‘not really’ was the answer. It was a pretty diabolical qualification session to be honest. An early lap wasn’t anything particularly special but unfortunately, with a whole lot of drivers abandoning laps, parking on apexes and generally easing back to create gaps, I never got another lap together and it was only good enough for 9th on the grid. My worst performance ever I think.
With Christian and Gordon on the front row, I was left with a lot to do in race 1 to keep the championship alive. However, the huge tow on offer at Thruxton meant that it wasn’t the end of the world.
I held position early in the race. Roughly 8 laps passed before I began to make progress above 8th place. However, through the middle part of the race I did start ticking off places to move into the top 4.
There was a settling in period where positions for the top five cars regularly changed lap by lap. This routine was broken with around 4 laps to go, when Gordon out braked himself going into the last chicane and span. This also compromised Christian and the chasing pack and so Lee Bristow and myself pulled clear. It looked like it could be enough of a gap but unfortunately, the chase pack did get back in contention with a lap to go.
It was therefore a fight with five cars on the final lap of the race. It was always going to be a lottery and on the way through the final chicane I found myself in 2nd place, just behind Christian. However, the race wasn’t quite over as Christian made the dreaded 2nd to 5th gear mis-change on the way out of the chicane. I JUST squeezed past the slowing car and took the win, ahead of David Yates, with Christian coming home in 3rd.
I couldn’t believe it. It’s not over until the fat lady sings – and Christian was singing merrily away out of the final corner. I did feel a BIT bad but, heck, that gear change mistake has cost me a lot this year as well.
It was brilliant to see David Yates on the podium. I’ve been racing David for 6 years and this was his first podium. He’s threatened many times and has been getting closer and closer this year. So it’s great that he finally made it all stick and held it together.
I had lots of friends and family down for the weekend, so it was another amazing post race feeling sharing the win with everyone. I really don’t do this alone and it’s so rewarding to be able to reward all the help and support from friends, family and DPR Motorsport.
Half the race weekend done then and a fantastic start. But there was still half a job to do.
I got a good enough blast off the line in race 2, enough to be leading around the first part of the lap. And the early part of the race went largely to plan. The standard drop of places every other lap at the chicane, then picking them back again a lap later.
It looked as though things had settled a bit in the race and there was even a chance that the front pack of four were slightly pulling clear of the chasing pack. Certainly, the chicane started to calm down and was generally under control, rather than a complete madhouse.
However, any hopes that this would continue was scuppered by contact lower down in the field, causing big car damage and enough carnage to require a safety car. At the time, I was in second place behind Christian and at the restart, things got going again and, of course, the chicane turned into a madhouse once more.
With only 5 minutes remaining the tactics of where to be in the queue of cars started. I managed to get to 4th place on the final lap, which is where I was aiming for to get the super tow. However, everyone did a good job of getting themselves in a position where they could win the race and at the chicane, the pack went in 6 wide.
It was never likely to come off without a hitch and sadly, I had contact with Tom Grensinger, who had slightly outbraked himself and his recovery line through the chicane clashed with my more natural line. It resulted in a spin for me and by the time I’d fired up the engine once more, I was left down in 15th place over the line.
Really not the end to the race I’d hoped for and also one that uses up a ‘get out of jail free’ card with the drop scores we have in the championship. I could really have done with a podium to make things slightly more comfortable going into the final round at Silverstone.
That being said, once drop scores are taken into account, I actually go into the final meeting ahead by 1 point to Christian and 2 points ahead of Gordon.
It’s always been heading towards a crichendo and it’s only fitting that we won’t have an outcome until the last lap of the last race of the season. I am extremely hopeful that we can get this whole thing sorted out with some brilliant racing at Silverstone. It’s what this season deserves.
