RE: Team PH Round 1 and 2

RE: Team PH Round 1 and 2

Wednesday 26th March 2008

Team PH Round 1 and 2

Diary of a racing driver



Motorsport clichés. There are many, and sometimes I tend to head them. Fail to prepare and prepare to fail would be one that springs to mind at the start of the first race. The car had been fully prepped; we had tested and shook it down at Croft in the week, cliché met!

Curry club on a Friday night; a love for chocolate; and an argument between a right elbow and my rib cage on a football pitch the night before, unfortunately I didn’t. I am sure reading a preview of F1, Hamilton hadn’t listed those as his pre-season activities. Oh well, it had worked for club racing.

I am not really sure what I expected arriving at the paddock for the first race. I had been to GT and F3 race meetings before, but arriving with just the S-Max and trailer I was swamped by a motorhome and awning metropolis. Someone had stolen the paddock and built a small town made of lorries and fabric. Suddenly it dawned on me that this is a completely different ball game to the club racing I had previously raced.


In awe of paddock bikes and teams of mechanics I waited for my willing PH volunteers to appear – or more appropriate find their way to the Team PH car. Out of the morning snow flurries Iain (Chassis33), Rich (sniff_petrol) and Ben (20thebear) turned up and we set about getting the car ready for the scruitineers and racing. I say we, but really Iain, Rich and Ben did the work while I faffed with decals.

Throughout the practice and qualifying I had to learn the track in a new car with my new HANS device. For those that haven’t experienced HANS, like me, I felt claustrophobic, not to mention every time you try to look left and right something yanks your head and says no. This makes the mirrors harder to see out of, and when a car appears on your left, it does frighten you. No wonder toddlers cry so much when on reins!

But HANS ignored I set out improving lap times around the circuit for qualifying and managed to put in a 1:59.5, only 1.6 seconds off pole. Unfortunately the closeness of the racing meant that I was 11th on the grid. All to do in the race then!


The lights went out and I was racing Ginettas. Conscious of cold tyres and 28 other competitors around me I decided to take it easy, avoided a spinning car through Cascades and set about challenging the leaders, unfortunately I forgot about those cold tyres. Out of Britten’s Chicane I decided to floor it and the Ginetta decided to face the other way round.

I returned to the black stuff and the red mist descended as I saw 26 cars in front of me. This was not quite what I had planned, I had to make amends and set off on a mission to get back to a respectable position.

The first race of any season always seems to be a destruction derby. My spin may have helped me avoid most of it by being at the back. But on my fight through the positions I was aided by cars scattering themselves off the track at nearly every corner. Russel McCarthys’ car deciding oil was an optional extra helped massively to this carnage, and probably to my comeback. I changed to a wet line through Old Hall and through Cascades where the oil lay.


By the end of the 20 minute race I had made it to 7th overall and returned the car in one piece, not too bad for a days work. Roll on race two!

The second race was not as eventful as the first though, and after a miss-read of the regulations found myself 12th on the grid and not 7th as I had been planning. Next time I must remember that it is the second fastest qualification lap that puts you on the grid and not your finish in the first race.

Remember cold tyres I repeated as a mantra to myself through the first lap, which seemed to work and moved up to 9th. From then on, suffering with under steer through the slow corners, I worked on keeping the car pointing in a straight line and to finish without incident.


The plan half worked as towards the end I decided to try the full throttle approach out of the second chicane and showed off a nice pirouette for the gathered audience. No places lost by my entertainment for the crowd I crossed the line 8th.

All in all the first two races were reasonably successful despite feeling despondent about the 8th place finish. A massive thank you to all the PistonHeaders who came and said hi and to Iain, Rich and Ben (plus their respective supporters) who helped with the car.

Another cliché pops into my head looking back: to finish first, first you have to finish. Well 7th and 8th isn’t quite first place, but at least I finished!

Race 1 Results

1 28 Kieran Vernon Driver 20:32.295
2 18 Paul Sheard Speedworks + 1.040
3 9 Gary Simms Optimum Motorsport + 3.990
4 46 Andrew Smith Driver + 23.719
5 52 Spencer McCarthy McCarthy Technology Services Ltd + 26.550
6 21 Richard Sykes Speedworks + 57.222
7 74 Peter Dignan Pistonheads + 1:00.203
8 6 Matthew Flowers Optimum Motorsport + 1:03.635
9 4 Paul Marsh Tockwith Motorpsort + 1:04.339
10 58 Martin Jones Hepworth International + 1:04.767

Race 2 Results

1 4 Paul Marsh Tockwith Motorpsort 20:05.109
2 3 Julian Barratt Reflex Racing GB + 2.662
3 52 Spencer McCarthy McCarthy Technology Services Ltd + 3.884
4 9 Gary Simms Optimum Motorsport + 4.184
5 51 Russel McCarthy Driver + 14.713
6 19 David Jackson Speedworks + 19.132
7 46 Andrew Smith Driver + 19.564
8 74 Peter Dignan Pistonheads + 38.842
9 28 Kieran Vernon Driver + 45.413
10 26 Jonathan Hawkins FNH Racing + 46.398

 

Author
Discussion

Northern-Loop

Original Poster:

913 posts

226 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Well done Pete smile

Video of the days will be on the way soon enough smile

chrisbr68

4,121 posts

247 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Good work Pete - will try and make it down to one of the rounds.

TvrJohn

1,058 posts

254 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
SAW YOU THERE, NICE TO READ YOUR REPORT, KEEP IT UP

zeb

3,193 posts

217 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
well done mate..a decent first round in somewhat 'challenging' conditions. I saw the s-max with its piss com plate...oh the irony wink!!!!

20thebear

29 posts

192 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
I recon as long as you score top 10 points in all the rounds you will stand a good chance of being in the hunt for the title come the end of the season.

mattsayle

1,799 posts

197 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Well done! Good to watch you espiaclly when you overtook someone coming to Knickerbrook.

sniff petrol

13,107 posts

211 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Thanks for a great weekend Pete. Hoping to get to Cadwell in a couple of weeks so see you there.

VladD

7,853 posts

264 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Congratualtions, looks incredible fun.

However.....

"The car had been fully prepped; we had tested and shook it down at Croft in the week, cliché met!"

I think you meant "Shaken". You only get away with "Shook" if you're Elvis.

Thank you, thank you very much.

VladD has left the Forum.

Edited by VladD on Wednesday 26th March 13:27

rralston

701 posts

244 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Excellent - good skills!

I saw you briefly in the paddock, although I was unable to speak due to being so dam cold! Although I did see you later on in the afternoon on the track!

Cheers
R

Beefmeister

16,482 posts

229 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Looking good Pete, see you at Brands with my finest brew-making hat on!

VladD

7,853 posts

264 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
mickken said:
TvrJohn said:
SAW YOU THERE, NICE TO READ YOUR REPORT, KEEP IT UP
WHAT......??
HE SAID "SAW YOU THERE, NICE TO READ YOUR REPORT, KEEP IT UP"

Clean your bloody ears out. hehe

Edited by VladD on Wednesday 26th March 16:00

RacingPete

8,845 posts

203 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
sniff petrol said:
Thanks for a great weekend Pete. Hoping to get to Cadwell in a couple of weeks so see you there.
Cool, will be good to see you there!

Beefmeister said:
see you at Brands with my finest brew-making hat on!
Hopefully it will be nice and sunny... unlike the cold snow flurries last weekend. Looking forward to the brews smile

Beefmeister

16,482 posts

229 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
I think i'll bring an inverter and my fancy new Tefal Quick Cup kettle thing.

Instant brew in 3seconds.

Oooh, technology eh....

skeggysteve

5,724 posts

216 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Well done Pete, a very good start to the season.

I'm still working on getting a pass from SHMBO for Cadwell!

.Adam.

1,822 posts

262 months

Wednesday 26th March 2008
quotequote all
Nice result! Looking forward to Brands as well, I'll have to remember to bring my camera.

Andy_sx

2,410 posts

205 months

Thursday 27th March 2008
quotequote all
Beefmeister said:
I think i'll bring an inverter and my fancy new Tefal Quick Cup kettle thing.

Instant brew in 3seconds.

Oooh, technology eh....
sounds good to me thumbup bring on Brands, should be a nice day, but we have a little time yet

Droptheclutch

2,604 posts

224 months

Thursday 27th March 2008
quotequote all
Well done, Pete!

Good results all things considered, we look forward to helping out soon.


C9/89

480 posts

224 months

Thursday 27th March 2008
quotequote all
A good job on a bad day weather wise! I was marshalling on cascades and watch in awe as all missed the first spinner, could have sworn someone was going to T-bone himsmile But well done to avoid the oil slick, and the various other bits dropped by the crash victims.

Have a good season and good luck in a superb close series.

Redlake27

2,255 posts

243 months

Sunday 30th March 2008
quotequote all
Well done! I used to compete in G20 and it is a tough series to do well in. Was your car a new one, or did it race in 07 as well? I'm intrigued because I had a black G20 that I sold at the end of 06!

ps: I notice that the pole/fastest lap times are nearly 2 secs slower than in 07..... has there been a big spec change on the cars?

ginettag27

6,272 posts

268 months

Monday 31st March 2008
quotequote all
Redlake27 said:
Well done! I used to compete in G20 and it is a tough series to do well in. Was your car a new one, or did it race in 07 as well? I'm intrigued because I had a black G20 that I sold at the end of 06!

ps: I notice that the pole/fastest lap times are nearly 2 secs slower than in 07..... has there been a big spec change on the cars?
Tyre change to Michelins..

Well done, two top 10 results, keep up the good work.

I'll be at most meets - with the #88 GT4 spec. G50 if you need anything, we'll try and help, but the depth and breadth of the G20 paddock should see you right.