It's always good to approach a new season with a plan. In January 2015 we had a plan. By February it had changed and by March it had changed again. It's always good to have a flexible plan.
As 2014 drew to a close we had a couple of sponsors lined up for the next season, both having agreed a deal in principal "verbally". So the first lesson of 2015 was, always take verbal agreements with a pinch of salt. By the end of Jan one sponsor was out and the deal with the other was moving forward albeit slowly.
A friend of mine, David runs a company with his wife called CommsQuest. An internal communications company that helps big companies communicate between departments or train staff or assist in transitions with mergers. That's about all I understand about it. Check them out if you're interested. www.commsquest.com
While we were still lining up this deal we headed to Brands Hatch in March for a pre season test day with Ollie Jackson, BTCC driver and friend of Portal Motorsport joining us to put down some benchmark times.
Activity in the garage at Brands
Despite technical problems I did get a few laps in
Sadly, the day didn't quite go to plan with the engine blowing on Ollie's first outing in car number 73 and No 74 suffering fuel surge prblems throughout the day. It left us with a lot to do before the first race, starting with sourcing a new engine.
New engine going in to 73, Graphics removed from 74 for new sponsors
David and his team at CommsQuest had already spent a few days with us over the past couple of years on our corporate days under the Portal Motorsport banner and he was enjoying refining his track driving skills. By the end of 2014 he was keen to take his race license test and start a bit of racing.
So we put a deal together where CommsQuest would sponsor one of our cars for the season and David would share the driving with one of us in the endurance series that we enter each year. This took far longer than we had anticipated but we got David through his ARDS test after a day of tuition with Jake Hill (BTCC driver 2016) in our Nissan 350Z and finally we were ready for our first race weekend at the end of June at Cadwell Park.
Clio getting wrapped in CommsQuest branding.
Looking slick in gloss yellow and matt green wrap.
Race 1 Cadwell Park 20th June
We had both cars entered into the 750mc Roadsport series on the Saturday but booked onto the test day on the Friday also as David hadn't even driven the car up to this point. Ryan and Antonio were paired up in the other Clio with Antonio also a race virgin after a gearbox failure at the end of the last season put an end to his first race without him getting into the car.
Camping at Cadwell for Ryan and me. David and Antonio took the soft option and stayed at a B&B down the road
Testing went well on the Friday with the weather holding and both cars behaving. Saturday however was a different story.
David getting some seat time on the test day
David drove first in qualifying and put in some decent times and keeping the car on the tarmac. I went out second and posted a couple of decent times before the car lost all power and left me stranded at the pit lane entrance at the end of the session.
After much panicking and rallying round we located a slighly frayed wire that was shorting out in the engine bay and blowing fuses. Thankfully a simple fix.
So after lunch as the race approached the heavens decided to open and more panic ensued as we rushed to change the tyres to wets. We had no time to adjust suspension settings and my car had a set of used wet tyres on it that we had never run on before. So as I lined up on the start line I wasn't the most relaxed.
I had a terrible start, wheel spinning pretty much all the way up to the first turn which in the dry is a flat-out corner. Less so in the wet and I had already lost a lot of places including being passed by Ryan in the other Clio. That didn't last long though and I was back past him after turn 2. Caught up in the pack though had left a large gap between me and a bunch of front runners and on lap 3 in my enthusiasm to catch them my unknown tyres ran out of grip a millisecond before I ran out of talent and found myself sliding over wet grass with a tyre barrier fast approaching.
In hindsight I should have restarted the car and try to carry on. But at the time the impact was pretty shocking and I had no idea what damage I had done to the car until I got dragged out by the marshalls. It turned out to be mainly cosmetic and with the radiator having escaped being punctured I finally got back in the car and limped back to the pits. Only to find Ryan had also retired with a puncture.
So neither of our race virgins got to race that day which is not a good start for a sponsor.
Making up places
Not looking so slick now
Race 2 Donington Park 6th September
After various conflicting personal commitments we didn't visit a track again until September when we trekked up to Donington Park for a spot of testing a couple of days before and then racing on the 6th.
Testing went well again and with some tuition from a young lady racer, Sarah Reader for whom Donington is home from home we both were making good gains around the circuit.
Race day arrived and a bright sunny day promised some great racing. Alas, not for us (again!).
It was decided that I should drive first. I can't remember who decided that. It may or may not have been the right decision but either way I wanted to get a clear quick lap in as early as possible so that David could get out there too. And after 2 or 3 laps working through traffic I finally had a clear track ahead as I came over the start finish line. Out of turn one and heading into the Craner curves I was already half a second up when, before I knew what was happening I was sliding sideways across the tarmac, then the grass and finally the gravel which unceremoniously tipped me over onto the roof. BUGGER!
The wavey windscreen gives away what's happened here.
I've never felt so angry with myself as I ran it over and over in my head. What had I done differently? Was I really just pushing on too hard? Only on inspection many days later did we discover a big power steering leak had coated the underside of the car in fluids which we now think got on to one of the rear tyres. (not everyone believes this theory but I'll take it)
Either way, I had another dissapointed sponsor and a lot of work ahead of me.
Race 3 Donington Park 3rd October
The upside down action a month previously put paid to our appointment with Silverstone unfortunately so our 3rd race was a return to Donington to "try again".
This time we had a "Race Manager" with us in the form of David Roucka-Brown our race instructor at Portal Motorsport. The strategy this time was for me to drive first again! But only a short stint and then get David out for as much time as possible.
So I did my minimum number of laps and brought the car in for David. All was going well...
Until, after a few laps David didn't come around again and we had to wait for the end of the session to find out what had happened. This time it was mechanical failure. The bottom pulley had slipped and bent all the valves. Game over again and yet more spanner time for me.
We had a spare cylinder head and a quick strip down revealed no damage to the bottom end so a rebuild ensued with tips and pointers from Mark Fish along the way. A fortnight later and we were ready once more.
Race 4 & 5 Brands Hatch 31st October
We were determined to go out with a flourish. The last meet of the season and we had secured a second driver to partner Ryan in the No73 Clio. Alex Roberts is the proprietor of GPG Signs in Stevenage, www.gpgsigns.co.uk and the man responsible for the lovely CommsQuest livery on our car. He also happens to be a veteran of MX5 racing and fancied getting his racing boots on again.
We had 2 races lined up this time and the phillosophy was "JUST BLOODY FINISH".
Which I'm glad to say we did. With both cars! no lap records were set and no trophies were brought home but we finished! with our families watching and the sun shining it couldn't have been a better end to a somewhat crap season. And, as is the way with this addictive sport a finish like that leaves you chomping at the bit for the next season to start.
Watch this space for the 2016 season...
A test day the day before gave us the pick of the parking lot to set up in
Feeling a lot happier at the end of the day here.
The car didn't escape totally unharmed though.
