For every race this year there's been a defining memory: St Goueno - the crash, Vuillafans - the heat, Mont Dore - the unrelenting challenge. For Chamrousse it is without doubt the view. I was perched literally on the side of a mountain at 1,750m, Grenoble twinkling in the valley below and the peaks of distant places framing the vast horizon. Sitting on a upturned wheel cleaning brake pistons and gazing out at what has to be the best view from any race paddock I've ever seen, Chamrousse was easily living up to my expectations as one of the most eagerly anticipated races of this season.
There's a hill climb in here!
I have always loved the mountains, and a day hiking prior to competing reaffirmed it; the views, the wildlife, the sense of adventure. The plan for Thursday was to start recycling the hill; having three races back to back meant that with all the cramming I'd had to do to learn Mont Dore and St Ursanne, I'd reasoned it would be best to start the 4.8km of Chamrousse once I arrived to avoid overloading my brain with information. This worked well as there was plenty of time to learn the hill, and it really was worth the wait as it's just like something off a computer game. One particular characteristic is the width, which makes it very fast and leaves you a lot of space to run if you're carrying a bit too much speed. The first half of the course is made up of four hairpins and then a fast set of flowing chicanes; the second half is more flowing and a little trickier to remember as the corners merge into one another - some tighten, some open and some are flat. However, after Mont Dore my memory felt up to any test and I found it fairly easy to learn a line with countless (very slow) runs on my scooter. Friday was much the same - practice makes perfect, right?
Glorious dry practice wasn't to last
Saturday was bright and sunny once more, but I wasn't on the hill until mid-afternoon. Once again I had some help at the start line which is uphill, so it was good to have someone chocking my back wheel, cleaning my tyres and connecting the slave battery to fire up the engine. My first run went well, although my gear indicator was playing up meaning that the display was telling me the wrong gear selection - I started in second and bogged down. The cars should struggle at the altitude but the Formula Renault didn't seem to noticeably lack power. I was suffering with understeer into the hairpins, the front end unwilling to dive into the slow bends but quite happy in the high speed corners. The latter half of the track is very bumpy in places where it's been patched up after years of extreme weathering, meaning that you are sometimes wondering whether to take a deeper line to keep the car settled; it's really a very individual thing as each driver's car seems to respond differently depending on set-up.
Run two was much better, I committed fully to a few of the flat corners and relied on counting down my gears into hairpins so I could keep my eyes focused on the apex. Feeling like I'd finally regained confidence in the car I pushed hard to set a pretty good time (2min 32sec) that put me sixth in a class of 10, boding well for race day. Sunday's weather was going to be changeable though, so it may come down to just one hot run...
Sure enough I was woken early the next morning by the sound of rain hammering on Herve the van's roof. However, by the time we went for the first run the track was dry by as much as 75 per cent, we had the luxury of driving down to the start line so at least we had some idea of what to expect. I was running on slicks (as were most of the class) because the weather seemed to be clearing and by the time we went up it had improved, but I hedged my bets and eased off to post a 2min 39sec; there was no use giving it everything now if it was going to dry up in the afternoon.
The second run was bone dry and I'd adjusted the potentiometer for the gear shift so I now had a positive reading every time I selected a gear - everything to play for. Much like my final run last weekend I really went for it 100 per cent, having now found a technique to get the nose turning into the second gear hairpins. I think there was only one bend where I perhaps bled off more speed than I intended to and the car felt incredible - just gipping and gripping, what a feeling! I set a 2min 29sec which although only good enough for seventh, three seconds away from first place in hotly contended class. To be so close to the front of the pack was a great achievement, and I was over the moon to break 2min 30sec too as this was my objective for the weekend - after three weekends back to back I feel like I'm really in the groove with the car right now.
The final run was abandoned as the heavens opened and soaked the track for the remainder of the afternoon, so the weekend drew to a close on a good note once more. I've just ordered some new brake pads for Turckheim as I've been running circuit pads all season which are no good for hill climbing, so I'm looking forward to trying those at the final 6km round of the season. I can't quite believe we're at this point, the year is flying by and the rollercoaster of my first championship year in France is drawing to a close - I'm sad in some ways as I've made so many new friends that I will miss over the winter. Let's see it out with a great result at Turckheim!
Watch the onboard video here.
And the DailyMotion video review here.
Charlie Martin - Formule Renault 2...
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[Images: Charlie Martin/Clement Luck]