Team PH - Season finale

F1 commentator James Allen seems to have become obsessed with data analysts recently. Rambling endlessly about the maths geniuses working hard on race strategy by analysing data from the cars to work out the way to win, he even goes as far to say they are the modern day equivalents of code breakers from the Second World War.

In pursuit of greater speed I decided to see if analysing race data over a weekend could really get the best out of car and driver. For my code breaking I decided an alternative park to Bletchley was needed, so the Midlands race track that is Donington was the location of this modern day math session. And a brand new DL1 from Race Technology my chosen statistical weapon.

My initial mathematical tyre calculations had gone slightly wrong with the wet weather at Mallory and thus four brand new tyres were bought for the last two races. Not the best start to my new found mathematical genius. With brand new tyres in place I set off for the final qualifying of the season.

Fresh rubber takes around three laps to get to the really sticky stuff, so onto lap four I sped up to set my fastest time. Beating my best times in sector one and two, this was going to be a blistering lap. As I approached the Esses yellow flags were being waved furiously and I had to slow for two Ginettas that had tried to use the same bit of track at the same time. This cost me over a second and with the resultant red flag and traffic in the second part of qualifying I found myself 16^th and 14^th on the grid for the races.

As the rest of the UK basked in autumnal sunshine, Donington was engulfed by a dark cloud and slow drizzle. So the newly purchased dry tyres were put to one side in place of wet weather rubber for the Team PH Ginetta. The only problem being that with no wet weather practice the setup would have to be guessed.

On the two green flag laps prior to the start it became obvious that the front end grip was non existent. The Donington Park clock ticked to 5.15 above my head on the start line and the red lights extinguished – time to start slipping in circles around the track.

Progress from 16^th place on the grid was difficult and battling to keep up with the front pack was hard. As Paul Morgan span in front coming out of McLeans I backed off to avoid the pirouetting Ginetta and jinxed around the left side. This unfortunately meant that time was lost to the major pack as I missed the slipstreaming affect that was pulling them all along and so had to settle for a battle for 12^th place by the end.

The next race was not until the next day so it was time to re-visit the data and see where it was all going wrong. The DL1 has a GPS system which nicely maps the race track and along with the statistics of speed and g-force – breaking, accelerating and cornering – a picture of my driving performance was emerging.

The quicker laps showed a sharper lateral g-force applied to turn-in and later braking into the corners. Also it was easy to see the cornering force for each turn around the track and identify where I could carry more speed through the bends and brake less. All in all it was shouting at me to be more aggressive, stop dawdling around the track and start being a racing driver again.

The last race of the season was greeted with bright sunshine and with the new sticky rubber back on the car it was time to finish the season with a last resounding racing flourish. This wasn’t just for TeamPH pride but also the championship position was in jeopardy as my closest rival, Matthew Flowers, look set for a podium – I needed to finish in the top 6 to retain my position and I was starting the race in 14^th slot.

The final red lights of the season turned off and I accelerated hard into the first corner remebering my manta that I have to be more aggressive reverberating in my head. The start was storming and I got up to 11^th by the Old Hairpin but a spinning Andrew Smith meant a little lift that put me alongside Mark Wania.

Coming into McLeans for the first revolution Mark moved slowly across onto me and I thought he hasn’t seen me. As I straddled the kerbing he kept moving towards me and as I couldn’t move any further to the right we collided and unfortunately Mark span off into the barriers. I managed to keep the car in a straight line but dropped to 13th place.

Slipstreaming in Ginetta racing is one of the reasons the action is so close and going into lap four I was battling and trading places with a group of cars positioned 6^th to 12^th. I knew I needed to head this group by the time the flag dropped to save my championship position so four abreast into some of the corners my heart was racing. Luckily I was racing just as fast and with three laps to go I had battled my way to heading the pack of six.

Last time into the back straight I saw a struggling Russell McCarthy running out of fuel and now the battle became one for 5^th place. As cars swarmed around me I lept to the inside for the chicane and three abreast we braked for the last corner of the season, by mid corner it was two abreast and a straight drag race to the finish line only metres away. With a margin of 0.2 seconds I secured 5^th, though the whole race being a battle it felt like a victory – a great end to the season.

So TeamPH finish the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship in 8^th place overall, just one of the many statistics from the season: 350-litres of race fuel, 224 race points, 46 drivers, 20 Michelin race tyres, 18 spins, 3 DNFs, three sets of brake pads, one rear end repair and 1 huge smile from a fabulous season and a big congratulations to fellow PHer Spencer McCarthy (No52) for his championship win.

Race 1

1	28	Kieran	Vernon	Driver	20:23.561
2	3	Julian	Barratt	Reflex Racing GB	+ 0.748
3	46	Andrew	Smith	Driver	+ 14.681
4	52	Spencer	McCarthy	McCarthy Motorsport	+ 14.876
5	9	Gary	Simms	Optimum Motorsport	+ 18.111
6	6	Matthew	Flowers	Optimum Motorsport	+ 22.148
7	99	Phil	Sykes	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 22.350
8	42	Alex	Dziurzynski		+ 26.087
9	51	Russel	McCarthy	McCarthy Motorsport	+ 27.092
10	33	Andy	Thompson		+ 34.243
11	19	David	Jackson	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 41.937
12	74	Peter	Dignan	Pistonheads	+ 42.057

Race 2

1	3	Julian	Barratt	Reflex Racing GB	20:43.138
2	99	Phil	Sykes	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 5.349
3	6	Matthew	Flowers	Optimum Motorsport	+ 15.133
4	35	Tom	Jones	Jones Motorhomes	+ 21.395
5	74	Peter	Dignan	Pistonheads	+ 27.661
6	46	Andrew	Smith	Driver	+ 27.887
7	42	Alex	Dziurzynski		+ 27.981
8	19	David	Jackson	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 28.520
9	33	Andy	Thompson		+ 29.009
10	17	Neil	Merry	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 29.309

 

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