Monday 7th April 2008

Team PH Race Diary Rounds 3 and 4

Team PH tots up the cost of racing at Cadwell Park

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Seating position may need adjustment

When I speak to racers across all levels of motorsport the one thing that always comes up is the costs involved. As someone wise once said to me: ‘The only way to get rich in motor racing, is start out very rich.’

The major expense in starting racing is cost of getting started: buying a car; sorting out a way of getting to tracks; and license and entry fees. For club racing you probably can do it for less than £5k, for F3 a top team will be looking for £500k. Team PH’s Ginetta racing will cost from 14k to 20k. Not the cheapest way into motor racing, but for a high profile series sharing a billing with F3 and British GT, it’s a snip.

It will T-Cut out

The other major expense is running the car for the whole season. When it comes to racing, my heart seems to control the purse strings and my brain simply ignores it - so for once this year I am going to add up all the costs involved with racing. For any racers who share my Scrooge-like tendencies when doing the weekly shop, but whip out the credit card when the purchase has racing in its name, look away for these bits.

This brings me neatly onto last weekends racing, where the cost-o-meter took a nasty hit, along with the car.

Testing had gone well on the Saturday in ever changing snowy conditions,

One nearly new wishbone for sale

re-equating myself with the very tight but exciting Cadwell Park. We even had time to scrub in a set of wets in damp conditions in anticipation of the snow predicted for Sunday. Apart from a bit more wear to the front brake pads we were doing well cost wise.

Sunday was not so cheap. Qualifying saw bright sunny conditions and making light of the good position I found myself in on the third revolution I decided to throw in a quick lap. Coming out of Gooseneck I drifted two wheels onto the grass, pulled the car back onto the circuit to brake for Mansfield. Unfortunately the braking was slightly too late, and with the struggle to get the car turned in, the back end lost grip and sent me into a 360 spin.

TeamPH sponsored by black tank tape

Unfortunately the driver behind me decided to commit to passing my spinning car on the side of the track I was spinning into and smashed into the rear end. It sounded expensive.

I limped back to the pits and my gathered team for the weekend: Steve (skeggysteve), Ben (20thebear) and Kelly (RacingPete’s better half); inspected the damage. It didn’t look pretty and the car wasn’t driving in a straight line. Car jacked up, wheels off and the full extent of the impact could be seen. The shopping list for new parts were: Rear lower wishbone, rear toe link, rear diffuser, 2x rear lights, fuel tank mounting bracket and a lot of tank tape.

The other damage - apart from my pride - was to my grid position for the race, 22nd for the first and 27th for the second. But that was the least of my worries; we had to get the car fixed.

1mm of air on the Mountain

Showing amazing ability with the tank tape, spanners and ratchets the team got the car back up and running with minutes to spare before the first race. In fact you couldn’t even spot the difference (well not from one side). Massive thanks to Steve, Ben and Kelly for sorting the car while I ran to the spares truck and back.

As I sat on the grid for the first race snow pellets started falling from the sky, perfect I thought for a few cars to leave the track and elevate my position through the pack. I was right. By lap three the safety car came out for a collection of cars stranded at the side of the track and I had got up to 14th place in the two laps. The safety car stayed out for an age and came in with one lap to go. Four more cars passed and the back of the grid charge meant I finished 10th.

This is my good side!

The second race had less starters after the first race carnage but still all to do from dead last on the grid. This time a dry track and spring sunshine meant the charge would be slightly trickier. With slow methodical picking off - the highlight three cars in one go down Park Straight - the elevation through the positions saw a rise to 11th overall.

Not the best results from the weekend, but at 11am Sunday morning with a smashed car and qualification in the back rows of the grid I would take it. Maybe next week at Knockhill I will work on not being towards the back and having to battle my way through, though it is good fun.

Full Race Results:

Race 1

1	52	Spencer	McCarthy	McCarthy Technology Services Ltd	20:27.617
2	28	Kieran	Vernon	Driver	+ 0.803
3	3	Julian	Barratt	Reflex Racing GB	+ 2.449
4	99	Phil	Sykes	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 3.461
5	51	Russel	McCarthy	Driver	+ 5.688
6	9	Gary	Simms	Optimum Motorsport	+ 7.753
7	4	Paul	Marsh	Tockwith Motorpsort	+ 11.626
8	6	Matthew	Flowers	Optimum Motorsport	+ 13.030
9	14	Paul	Morgan	Driver	+ 13.401
10	74	Peter	Dignan	Pistonheads	+ 14.044
11	17	Neil	Merry	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 16.860
12	26	Jonathan	Hawkins	FNH Racing	+ 18.095

Race 2

1	28	Kieran	Vernon	Driver	20:06.730
2	52	Spencer	McCarthy	McCarthy Technology Services Ltd	+ 1.054
3	46	Andrew	Smith	Driver	+ 17.626
4	18	Paul	Sheard	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 18.112
5	51	Russel	McCarthy	Driver	+ 18.799
6	3	Julian	Barratt	Reflex Racing GB	+ 19.125
7	99	Phil	Sykes	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 21.755
8	16	Ross	Edwards	Speedworks Motorsport	+ 25.275
9	9	Gary	Simms	Optimum Motorsport	+ 43.975
10	5	Steve	Rigby	Reflex Racing GB	+ 52.964
11	74	Peter	Dignan	Pistonheads	+ 58.670
12	58	Martin	Jones	Hepworth International	+ 1:05.570

Team PH are still looking for people to help out at Knockhill this weekend, so if any of the PH Scottish contingent wish to come down drop the team an email at [e-mail]

[Northern-Loop]

awww unlucky about the spin mate - Good report though!

[sprinter885]

Yet rotten luck- Cadwell can be a bit unforgiving in the wrong place! That Gooseneck can be tricky to correct if you go a bit wrong with the downhill to Mansfield coming up. Shame

p.s. Is Spencer McCarthy any connection to Perry of same name & original Stig fame??

[robm3]

And the cost for the weekend?? Or will this be shared near the end of the season?

I've always wondered when someone else does something silly that causes you damage at what point is it considered "a racing incident" as opposed to a paddock chat that goes along the lines of "you owe me X you stupid b$stard!"

[RacingPete]

robm3 said:

And the cost for the weekend?? Or will this be shared near the end of the season?

I've always wondered when someone else does something silly that causes you damage at what point is it considered "a racing incident" as opposed to a paddock chat that goes along the lines of "you owe me X you stupid b$stard!"

I haven't had the full invoice from Ginetta yet for the parts (plus I have a new rear end to put on which will add to the costs) but will put a running total of everything so far in the next report after knockhill this weekend.

[RacingPete]

sprinter885 said:

Is Spencer McCarthy any connection to Perry of same name & original Stig fame??

Not that I know of, though he use to give Rob Huff a very good run for his money in MG BCV8s, before Rob went on to compete in BTCC and WTCC.

[ginettag27]

Cadwell is excellent Although amazingly scary when you first get there! I remember someone going off there, during our testing, and I was only in my first season of motorsport, he'd managed to launch it over the barrier just before the Mountain.. Eek! Especially as we all had to peel off slowly past the accident, to exit the circuit...

The different sessions do take a lot of getting used to, qualifying is especially tough if you have a large grid of cars and want to get some space on track to get a clean run at it all.

Knockhill is going to be interesting..

[Graham]

Ouch sounds a bit like my luck at Cadwell Last year.

A jammed throttle going into park on the friday night testing saw me break the tyre wall!!

100 man hours and lots of borrowed spared later, saw one very battle scarred tuscan lining up on the back of the grid on the Sunday.


Only for a oil loine to break after making my way up to second, and have me spinning into the tyres on fire !!!!

I didnt get much change out or 5k for that weekend... which is a lot considering my budget for the previous year was only 6.5k !!!

Im hoping for no snow this weekend as we're out at Cadwell on Sturday for our first race..


cheers

G

[RacingPete]

Graham said:

Im hoping for no snow this weekend as we're out at Cadwell on Sturday for our first race..

Good luck for the weekend, we didnt leave the place too battle scarred, though the new tarmac (well new since I was last there 4 years ago) on the outside of Chris Curve makes it hard to spot if its wet or not when the conditions decide to snow in one place and have bright sunshine in the other.

[DrGP]

Great report. Any chance of some pistonheads TV filmage reporting and piccys of your laps?

[AdeV]

Aaah, Cadwell. My second-favourite, and also second-most-disliked circuit....

I love driving on it; the Gooseneck, Mountain and the fearsome complex (highlight of my racing there: Arriving at the end of the complex in a full sideways slide facing the wrong way, and STILL managing to get it facing the right way for the corner

But it's hurt me badly, that track: I've been t-boned by a Nova, lost a wheel at Chris Curve causing retirement, and at Park one year I tried to out-brake a Davrian (a strange car, about the size of a deck of cards & made out of really thin plastic) in my Capri (about the size of a battleship & made out of depleted uranium). So I left the corner backwards @ high speed, as he only had to brake 3 inches from the corner, wheras I needed 1/2 mile...

Oops

[Geoff101]

Thanks for the cheese sandwich!

Good luck for knockhill.

[Racylady]

It was quite a weekend wasn't it?!! I did the same (well, actually my other half) in calculating exactly how much my first season in Ginetta's cost me - it was a rather scary figure. I suggest you get the prozac out and ready when you tot up the figures!
Sorry I didn't get a chance to drop by and say hi. I was having quite a few issues myself! Unfortunately, a DNF whilst battling for 5th place in race one - which also then meant I ended up at the back of the grid for race two from which I managed a respectable 6th place. Not a bad weekend all-in-all and rather glad the snow showers avoided my races!!

[No52]

I'd like to say a well done to RacingPete and the team for the weekends efforts!! His car was pretty damaged and the repairs looked very good. I would like to say that I'm holding him responsible for my lack of qualifying pace due to my racing line taking me over all the fiberglass he left on the exit of Mansfield!!

Being a fello MG racer in the past I'd very much like to see him up the front keeping the young guns off my a*se, so come on Pete, pull your finger out!

See you at Knockhill ;-)

[Racylady]

Hi Spencer. So you've come over the dark side and joined us at Pistonheads eh?!!! I hope you realise there may be no going back!
Good racing over the weekend, by the way - and congrats on the win in race one. How you and Russel didn't hit each other during that 'moment' at the Mountain I'll never know!

[20thebear]

It was Kelly's delicate hand with the black duck tape which made it look so good. It covered up the mess I made with the yellow tape!

[RacingPete]

No52 said:

Being a fello MG racer in the past I'd very much like to see him up the front keeping the young guns off my a*se, so come on Pete, pull your finger out!

If you can reveal the fine art of setting up a Ginetta then I will be up there fighting the youngsters with you Now tell me, how do you dial out that understeer in slow corners???

[No52]

Under-steer, hmmmmmm........ If I tell you i'll have to ......... I'll have a chat with you at Knockhill to see if I can do anything. There's no real fix, it's just about making it manageable, driving round it and anticipating it.

If anyone has any photo's of Russell or my Orange Ginetta's it would be good to see them.

And as for the near miss when Russell was broadside into the mountain section, well I'll not say too much but I did see the pound signs rolling in front of my eyes!!

Thanks

[mjracing]

Until this weekend, I thought it was natural for the Ginetta's to understeer like pigs on rollerskates...

However, you will notice that my wet & dry laptimes had been virtually the same but then dropped massively to only being .5 away from Pete in the 2nd race and I had absolutely no one to give me a tow down the straights so that's a genuine time only bought about by realising you can push it soooooo much harder when it's setup better (as opposed to last year when most of my pushing was taking from the back of the recovery truck and onto the trailer....).

I hadn't raced at Cadwell for 3 years and have only been to Knockhill only once (6 years+ ago) so it'll be interesting.

Knockhill here we come..?! Ah - the secret lives of PH'ers!

Michael - #11

[No52]

Just to clarrify....... Russell and Spencer McCarthy are sons of Roy McCarthy the Famous MG racer of many years!! Perry, who's he?

[flattotheboards]

Great report, the spin was unlucky.