I’ve been woefully poor at keeping this blog up to date but really there was nothing to report last year after the already well reported season cancellations and truncation. We spent the last part of 2019 and all of last year chasing an unfathomable misfire that left us not competing in a single race last year despite qualifying in 3.
On the last meeting of 2020 at a very wet Castle Combe we at last found the cause of the misfire as being a broken connector on an injector. This sent us storming into qualifying and climbing all the way up to third before the gearbox broke, thus rounding out the non existent season in typical fashion.
We have started 2021 on a far more positive note, with a fresh gearbox and a raft of upgrades on the car leading all the way up to our first race of the season at Thruxton on 2nd May.
Thruxton May 2nd 2021
Saturday morning began with packing the van before hitching up the trailer and loading the car. Feels like an age since I last did this!
I set of for the 2.5hour drive at about 11.30 with a planned stop in to see my parents on the way before arriving at the track at about 3pm. first things first was to have a new set of AO52s fitted to my TD 1.2s ready for either Brands or Donington depending on how my current set looked after this weekend.
Within half an hour of that I had sold the part worn AO50s to a fellow competitor so I didn't need to bring them home.
Towards the end of the day the paddock began to thin out as the day's racing came to an end so I staked a claim in the designated Tin Top area for Sunday and set about setting up.
Just minutes after I had the car under the gazebo the mother of all hail storms hit and I began to pray that this wasn't a sign of weather to come tomorrow.
all set up. Quick Jack earning it's keep
SUNDAY -
After another pleasant stay at The Holiday Inn at Stone Henge I arrived back at the circuit for 8.30 and Jon arrived soon after from his hotel near Bristol. We had plenty of time to catch up, go over the changes to the car, set tyre pressures and discuss strategy before qualifying at 12.30.
Everything felt good but it was with some trepidation that I took the car to the assembly area trying the gearbox for the first time since the rebuild and then on to the track to test the whole package for the first time...
Assembly area, ready for qualifying
2019 was the last time I raced here so it took a couple of laps to start settling in begin turning up the wick. The car felt great and I could tell there was plenty of potential that I was still to find. Sadly after 10 minutes a safety car was deployed for a stranded car so I opted to pit and let Jon out to complete qualifying. He had never raced at Thruxton before and as he's a paying driver I needed to let him have as much time as possible.
We had already decided that after last season, the aim was to get to the end of the race and not worry about position but of course we are both racers... And fortunately for me Jon is a talented driver despite having far less experience than me. He set our fastest time and put us P6 on the grid of 27 cars. We were happy with that!
It is clear that the car is much more lively with the weight loss and an absolute joy to drive on the limit. For Thruxton though you really need a whole bottle of Brave Pills to get the most out of it and clearly Jon was half way through his bottle already!
Interestingly, in a demonstration of the constant march of progress in racing, my P5 qualifying position in 2019 was a whole second off our P6 time this year!
Anyway, we spent most of the afternoon feeling quietly confident and maybe a little smug that we had nothing to do to the car other than top up fuel, reduce tyre pressures, (fronts were 34psi and rears at 32 after quali) and carry out a precautionary bleed of the brakes (which were awesome by the way). All was calm in Camp Lord Motorsport. Until we were called to the assembly area before the race at 4pm.
Suited up, I jumped into the car while Jon started to walk over to assembly and I pressed the start button.. nothing!
I guessed straight away that the signal lead must have come off the starter so we made a frantic attempt to jack the car up and get under to reconnect it but all to no avail. We ditched the idea called for help to push and I reached the assembly area with 30 seconds to go before were were sent out on to track.
My head was all over the place... Not my normal Zen state before a race start and also in the panic the cameras had not been turned on either.
I reached the grid and before long the red lights came on. And then off very quickly and of course I lit up the tyres getting mugged by 4 or 5 cars into the 1st corner.
It's been a while since I've started a race right in the middle of the pack and I was quickly reminded that it gets the juices flowing very quickly!
I managed to keep it clean through the complex, passing a couple of cars before heading out onto the back part of the circuit where the speeds build quickly. On lap 1 this is where the drama happens when tyres are cold and blood is hot. But again all went well and continued the chase to recover my position.
By the end of the first lap I was back up to P7 and tucked up behind a quick little Fiesta where I stayed, briefly changing places with him for the next few laps until I finally made a move stick on lap 6 which brought us up behind an altogether trickier competitor in a Proton and with a reputation for aggressive defending. But within 1 lap I forced a mistake from them, using the newly found awesome stopping power and got past hoping that he may hold up the fiesta who was still hot on my heels.
This strategy worked for a couple of corners but then the Fez was behind me again.
This is where I should have finished the last of the brave pills and taken Church flat but I must have left them back in the paddock because I just couldn't quite get there and consequently, each lap the Fiesta would be on me again by the end of the lap.
During this battle we managed to reel in a couple more cars ahead until I was up to 4th. And it nearly all ended when our Fiesta friend decided to go for a gap on the inside into turn 1 that really wasn't there and punted me in the rear quarter sending me into a 100mph drift. In my mirrors he was also taking the corner sideways but we both held it and continued our battle.
By lap 11 I was in 3rd when the safety car was deployed again so I dived into the pit to hand over to Jon.
Our mandatory 2 minute pit stop got elongated by another 22 seconds when he was held at the pit exit while the Safety Car came past and we rejoined the race in 8th. However, there were still a few cars ahead still to stop so we were comfortable with the position.
And sure enough, although Jon had a much quieter race than me, he constantly banked some great lap times even though again the tyres overheated towards the end and he brought the car home in 4th, 7 seconds behind 3rd but not a gap he would have closed. Had there been no safety car it might have been different but then the whole race might have been different.
More important than our 4th place was our 1st in class and over a lap ahead of 2nd. We really couldn't have asked for more.
So, some damage to repair to add to the list before Brands on the 22nd but nothing major. Just how I like a weekend's racing to end.
Brands Hatch 22nd May
Well, last weekend kind of started on Thursday last week when @Rob Quantrell and I headed down to Brands to set up our gazebo for the weekend. The idea being that we could rock up nice and relaxed on saturday morning and just unload the cars straight in without the faff of setting up a double sized gazebo which takes a bit of time.
We left Brands on Thursday afternoon at about 2pm all done and feeling mildly smug that we were the first TinTops there with the perfect pitch, complete with a hook-up to power and water.
At 5pm that day I received some photos from a racing colleague of our gazebo looking less than secure in the increasingly gusty conditions and by 9pm he and several members of one of the larger F3 teams had held it down to the ground to stop it heading up to Druids and subsequently decided to dismantle it to save it for us.
So that plan didn't work.
Through Friday as more people arrived at Brands I was increasingly worried that we would lose our place, not to mention the thought of getting down there to find the gazebo broken or half missing. So late on Friday we made the decision to head down again to set it back up as the wind had now eased a little and also to take the cars down early instead of Saturday morning.
So I quickly booked a room in a local hotel and headed off. Rob also came down but he had to go back home for family commitments before coming back down again Saturday morning.
For our local track we covered a lot of miles between us over the weekend!
So Saturday morning came and fortunately some drying conditions. We weren't due to qualify until 10.45 and there were several sessions on track before us mainly of cars using plenty of aero so we were hopeful of a dry qually.
We had nothing really to do to the car other than change the wheels over onto a new set of AO52s and set the pressures.
I've only driven Brands GP once on a track day about 7 or 8 years ago so it was going to be interesting. Although of course, probably the majority of the grid hadn't driven it before or had limited experience like me.
There is also a shortage of Youtube footage to watch other than BTCC cars or motorbikes. So not much to go on.
I went first into qualifying and tried to get up to speed as quickly as possible to find the limits of the car (and myself) and start setting some quick times. With only 30 minutes for qualifying, (15 minutes each) it goes very quickly and if a safety car comes out or it rains suddenly an early lap time can pay dividends.
I was running in P3 when the safety car was deployed and we decided to swap over while it was out.
John went out with 10 minutes left and luckily within 1 lap the safety car came back in.
As people got comfortable and inevitably quicker we dropped down to P10 as John tried to get to grips with the track. Then as the clock ticked down to zero he managed to hook up behind the Simpson and Simpson Peugeot 306 who are always quick and on the last lap popped us into 4th right behind the Pug!
Needless to say, we were happy with that and now we had 6 hours before the race to either bask in a little glory or start thinking about all the things that could now go wrong!
My mind flitted between both states throughout the day. Happy to speak to anyone who came to discuss/congratulate us on a successful qually and equally happy to get under the car or in the car looking for anything that might be loose or about to break.
I found nothing and again, other than adjust tyre pressures again. (they were too high once again after we came in) And brim the fuel tank there was nothing to be done.
I did buy another couple of AO52 tyres though. just to replace the 2 fronts that at Thruxton had got too hot both in qualifying and in the race so were looking a little second hand. So we have another new set for Donington next weekend.
I should add here that @Rob Quantrell and his race partner John who we were sharing the gazebo with were having a very different day to us.
Their Clio decided to drop on to 3 cylinders on the way to qualifying and the decided to die completely. As a result they didn't get out for qualifying and instead set about finding the problem.
This was tracked down to a failed alternator which, thanks to the great club that we race with was replaced by @Russ Rallye's spare.
Once all up and running the organisers allowed them to do their mandatory 3 laps each behind the safety car during the lunch break. So they were to get a race from the back of the grid which would be fun!
After watching the British GT championship qualifying sessions we had a leisurely prep for the race.
Cameras were all set after the Thruxton c**k-up with a new "Wired Remote" set-up for both front and rear cameras making it nealry impossible not to get footage. (unless I forget to put a memory card in I guess)
Changeable weather had been hanging over us all day and we had been looking at satellite images regularly throughout the day.
Sure enough as we all entered the assembly area half an hour before the race the heavens opened. The Ginetta academy that was out on track had it worst as they all proceeded to slide off the track and keep the safety car busy until the end of their race. By which time the rain had stopped and the sun came out.
We were told there would be 2 green flag laps to give us a chance to warm the tyres and get a feel for the grip levels of the track. It was going to be interesting.
Green flag laps complete, lined up on the grid I was determined not to light up the wheels like Thruxton which on the damp track was going to be interesting. I had some last minute dilemmas whether to pull away in 2nd or gently in 1st and as the 5 second board came out I opted for 1st.
The lights went out and I managed to pull away fine. Not perfect but no wheel spin and I headed into Paddock Hill Bend in 3rd and chasing.
The first few laps were intense. Swapping between 2nd briefly and 3rd and 4th and back to 3rd and back to 4th with a couple of other cars but mainly with Martin Addison in his Pug 106 rocket. Graham Hill bend strangely seemed to get greasier for a short while, resulting in quite a hairy sideways moment while in P3 with P2 just in front doing exactly the same!
We had another short safety car period while someone was recovered from the gravel trap on Paddock Hill and managed to get a good restart once the safety car came in. The top 4 or 5 cars managed to pull out a bit of a gap to the rest of the pack so I came in to hand over to Jon in a strong position.
Andrew Windmill in P2 at the time would be serving a 30 second success penalty for his win at Thuxton which meant we had a good chance of a good result. The track was drying quickly and Jon set about doing what he does putting in strong consistent laps.
We had slightly dropped the ball in the pit stop when P5 behind us managed to jump us in the pit as we were not quite tight enough on the timing and I had to hold Jon until our rival went past. Jon passed him on track within 4 or 5 laps though putting us into 2nd and closing on the leader 2 or 3 seconds a lap.
Sadly a red flag finished the race 7 minutes early with us 7.3 seconds behind the lead. It would have been close and Jon was dissapointed not to have had a crack at the lead.
The silver lining however, is that we have another rival with a 30 second success penalty potentially putting us in a strong position going in to Donington next weekend.
Regardless, we were ecstatic with P2 and another 1st in class. 2 for 2!
