My Caterham race car
Discussion
The next round after Oulton Park was Donington Park - another great track. The weather had been changeable in the days leading up to race weekend but it stayed dry through testing and the races.
Until now 2 drivers had dominated the top 2 spots at each race and I was determined to at least split them up - only slight issue was the Melbourn Loop at Donington as I had never driven it! Testing had gone well and the car was feeling good and I managed to qualify 3rd for the 3rd time with the same 2 in front of me: pw32 on here and Mark Shaw, an ex F3/F3000 driver!
A picture from the 2nd lap of race 1:
I'd had another poor start and dropped back to 4th straight away and the top 4 broke away from the pack. Paul (pw32) didn't feel like playing so just drove off into the distance and let the rest of us fight it out. I was 4th behind Mark and James Sharrock and being patient. About 10 minutes in I slipped past Mark just after McLeans and a lap later managed to pass James. I was now 2nd and managed to break away from the fighting pair behind me. Here's a video of my quickest lap from the 1st race:
Until now 2 drivers had dominated the top 2 spots at each race and I was determined to at least split them up - only slight issue was the Melbourn Loop at Donington as I had never driven it! Testing had gone well and the car was feeling good and I managed to qualify 3rd for the 3rd time with the same 2 in front of me: pw32 on here and Mark Shaw, an ex F3/F3000 driver!
A picture from the 2nd lap of race 1:
I'd had another poor start and dropped back to 4th straight away and the top 4 broke away from the pack. Paul (pw32) didn't feel like playing so just drove off into the distance and let the rest of us fight it out. I was 4th behind Mark and James Sharrock and being patient. About 10 minutes in I slipped past Mark just after McLeans and a lap later managed to pass James. I was now 2nd and managed to break away from the fighting pair behind me. Here's a video of my quickest lap from the 1st race:
I was scoring well but the 2 zero's at Silverstone meant I was still nowhere in the championship. Still, I knew if I could be consistent and finish every race I could place well at the end of the season 
After Donington came Brands Hatch GP circuit. I have driven the Indy circuit dozens of times but never the GP circuit. I decided now might be a good time to get some instruction so I enlisted the help of Kieren Clark (www.kierenclark.com). Kieren had been helping some of the other drivers in one of the lower championships but I first met him by chance at a PalmerSport day.
Thinking I knew it all (being a typical bloke) and half expecting to get a pat on the back showing Kieren my data/video I was surprised how much I didn't know about car control and racing lines. Kieren was away on a paid drive the weekend of Brands so he instructed me from video in the week before and on the phone during the weekend - it worked
Testing had been a struggle as it had mostly been peeing it down but in the final dry session I went 5th quickest which was 'ok' for now.
It stayed dry on the Saturday and I went into qualifying feeling pretty good. I went out near the back and started picking off the slower cars before posting a quickest time of 1:38.34, good enough for P2 behind pw32. Here's my lap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AasQwgkEMC8&fea...
I should've mentioned, this was also the first time the guys from borro (www.borro.com) had come down to watch so there was a bit of added pressure
And a picture from under the Spy Motorsport awning:
After Donington came Brands Hatch GP circuit. I have driven the Indy circuit dozens of times but never the GP circuit. I decided now might be a good time to get some instruction so I enlisted the help of Kieren Clark (www.kierenclark.com). Kieren had been helping some of the other drivers in one of the lower championships but I first met him by chance at a PalmerSport day.
Thinking I knew it all (being a typical bloke) and half expecting to get a pat on the back showing Kieren my data/video I was surprised how much I didn't know about car control and racing lines. Kieren was away on a paid drive the weekend of Brands so he instructed me from video in the week before and on the phone during the weekend - it worked
Testing had been a struggle as it had mostly been peeing it down but in the final dry session I went 5th quickest which was 'ok' for now.
It stayed dry on the Saturday and I went into qualifying feeling pretty good. I went out near the back and started picking off the slower cars before posting a quickest time of 1:38.34, good enough for P2 behind pw32. Here's my lap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AasQwgkEMC8&fea...
I should've mentioned, this was also the first time the guys from borro (www.borro.com) had come down to watch so there was a bit of added pressure
And a picture from under the Spy Motorsport awning:
My team mate, Ben Tompkins, in the sister borro car asked me to write some notes/a report for his blog so instead of repeating, here's a link:
http://oneracersview.com/tag/r300/
I will link to the MotorsTV coverage a bit later
A few pictures from the weekend:
Feel free to ask questions or pass comment as it's good to know people are still interested
http://oneracersview.com/tag/r300/
I will link to the MotorsTV coverage a bit later
A few pictures from the weekend:
Feel free to ask questions or pass comment as it's good to know people are still interested
It's Xmas, I'm in the office so time for an update
After my double win at Brands Hatch GP I was closing in on Paul and Mark who so far had been dominating proceedings after my crash at Silverstone.
The next round was in Germany on the Nurburgring GP circuit (next to the Nordschleife). To keep costs down I transport my car everywhere on an open trailer but for this one I asked Peter at Spy if he could put the car in the truck.
One of the other drivers has a private plane (as you do!) and asked if I would like to join him for the flight to Germany - I didn't need asking twice
We landed in Cologne and arrived at the circuit on the Wednesday evening. After some steak on a stone at Pistenklause and a couple of beers Thursday had arrived and day 1 of testing commenced.
Lap times were all over the place because of the nearly 40 degree heat with the fastest times coming in the first session when the air was cooler. Despite this I was struggling to get away from some of the midfield guys and couldn't work out what was wrong. The guys played around with the set up all day on the Thursday and Friday and finally found the problem - a blocked cat! A very expensive weekend had now turned into an extremely expensive few days. £650 later and at the end of Friday I was feeling a bit better going into qualifying.
We were being joined by 2 professional racers for this weekend. Caterham drift experience intructor and works Juno driver Darren Burke and BTCC driver Paul O'Neill. It was a good chance for some of us wannabe's to see how we compared agianst some top class drivers!
Qualfying was wet (very wet!) and I struggled but managed 5th after a banzai last lap. I don't have the same amount of confidence as I do in the dry so race 1 was about damage limitation and just finishing as high up as possible. Darren Burke had qualified P2 and Paul O'Neill P10. Here's my quickest lap from the race to show how wet it was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-ZhDOsApXE&fea...
I went on to finish P4 but was completely outside my comfort zone and felt exhausted after the concentration levels needed!
The following day I was really happy to see dry weather and not a cloud in the sky. I would be starting from P4 for this race and with the car performing well I was feeling confident. A quick chat about my plans with instructor Kieren and I was ready.
I got a good start but forgot to defend the first corner and got hung out to dry in the first 2 laps. Paul O'Neill barged his way through (well, what did you expect
) and by the end of lap 2 I was 8th and very annoyed!
I decided to up my game and get on with it, first on the list was 2009 R300 champion Jonny Walker. He was defending and holding me up so I threw him a dummy one way and then went the other. Next was Paul Brannan who I had an epic battle with in race 1 and then Paul O'Neill who I was quicker than but he would launch it down the inside at the next corner. I finally got through and set off after Paul Wilson, Darren Burke, Mark Shaw and James Sharrock. I had the help of a safety car and then picked off James and caught a battling Mark and Darren.
The last lap board went out and I was 4th but got a massive double tow from the guys in front. I went passed both of them with some help from the pit lane exit and was in 2nd! I pulled 2 seconds clear on the last lap to finish 2nd and take the lap record by less than a tenth of a second from Paul Wilson who won.
Wet:
Dry:
After my double win at Brands Hatch GP I was closing in on Paul and Mark who so far had been dominating proceedings after my crash at Silverstone.
The next round was in Germany on the Nurburgring GP circuit (next to the Nordschleife). To keep costs down I transport my car everywhere on an open trailer but for this one I asked Peter at Spy if he could put the car in the truck.
One of the other drivers has a private plane (as you do!) and asked if I would like to join him for the flight to Germany - I didn't need asking twice
We landed in Cologne and arrived at the circuit on the Wednesday evening. After some steak on a stone at Pistenklause and a couple of beers Thursday had arrived and day 1 of testing commenced.
Lap times were all over the place because of the nearly 40 degree heat with the fastest times coming in the first session when the air was cooler. Despite this I was struggling to get away from some of the midfield guys and couldn't work out what was wrong. The guys played around with the set up all day on the Thursday and Friday and finally found the problem - a blocked cat! A very expensive weekend had now turned into an extremely expensive few days. £650 later and at the end of Friday I was feeling a bit better going into qualifying.
We were being joined by 2 professional racers for this weekend. Caterham drift experience intructor and works Juno driver Darren Burke and BTCC driver Paul O'Neill. It was a good chance for some of us wannabe's to see how we compared agianst some top class drivers!
Qualfying was wet (very wet!) and I struggled but managed 5th after a banzai last lap. I don't have the same amount of confidence as I do in the dry so race 1 was about damage limitation and just finishing as high up as possible. Darren Burke had qualified P2 and Paul O'Neill P10. Here's my quickest lap from the race to show how wet it was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-ZhDOsApXE&fea...
I went on to finish P4 but was completely outside my comfort zone and felt exhausted after the concentration levels needed!
The following day I was really happy to see dry weather and not a cloud in the sky. I would be starting from P4 for this race and with the car performing well I was feeling confident. A quick chat about my plans with instructor Kieren and I was ready.
I got a good start but forgot to defend the first corner and got hung out to dry in the first 2 laps. Paul O'Neill barged his way through (well, what did you expect
) and by the end of lap 2 I was 8th and very annoyed!I decided to up my game and get on with it, first on the list was 2009 R300 champion Jonny Walker. He was defending and holding me up so I threw him a dummy one way and then went the other. Next was Paul Brannan who I had an epic battle with in race 1 and then Paul O'Neill who I was quicker than but he would launch it down the inside at the next corner. I finally got through and set off after Paul Wilson, Darren Burke, Mark Shaw and James Sharrock. I had the help of a safety car and then picked off James and caught a battling Mark and Darren.
The last lap board went out and I was 4th but got a massive double tow from the guys in front. I went passed both of them with some help from the pit lane exit and was in 2nd! I pulled 2 seconds clear on the last lap to finish 2nd and take the lap record by less than a tenth of a second from Paul Wilson who won.
Wet:
Dry:
Lynch91 said:
Just read through the whole of this thread, really interesting read. I currently race rotax max karts and would like to change in to cars at some stage, just wandering if you would be able to give me a rough guide to the cost of a season racing caterhams?
I came from Rotax Max and will be doing the odd race here and there this year. Drop me an email and I will tell you more: ianp'at'second-sight.comCheers,
Ian
Following on from the Nurburgring update here's the TV footage for the dry race. I was one of the camera cars again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvdWhR-iKtc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvdWhR-iKtc
GokTweed said:
Dear God yes
Right then:With Nurburgring out of the way I could concentrate on the last 2 rounds, Snetterton and Rockingham. For some reason I had always liked Snett, I had my first ever race there in 2009 and took my first Roadsport A podium in the wet there.
We would be racing on the 200 circuit which is basically the original layout. This meant it would be slipstream'tastic so good qualifying would be key. Testing had gone well and I was second or third quickest behind the same 2, Paul and Mark. Paul annoyed me at the end of the test day with his smart arse comment "I thought you would be closer..."
I had made minor adjustments to the car since the 'Ring and jacked the rear up a couple of mm to aid fast turn in. I was happy with everything else.
Qualifying started and I had Paul Wilson in front of me leading up the pit lane. I was looking forward to sharing a tow with him round the circuit but he decided to pull to one side and let me pass
I did a couple of quick laps and then put this one in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MCBunX4nOI&fea...
I was fortunate with a couple of tows but it was good enough for pole by 0.3 of a second. Paul had 'only' qualified 3rd! Strange, I thought he would be closer
GokTweed said:
Haha well that's the way to get back at him! looked like a nice lap as well, the other borro car might have held you up on that last corner but the slipstream made it up so there was potential to get a bit more out of it i recon.
The second slipstream was the deciding factor, I caught him at just the right time to drag the length of the pit straight It was nice to start from pole with circa 25 cars behind me but I still hadn't got my launch sorted. James Sharrock from P3 had been immense at starting all season and catapulted into the lead with me in second and Paul in 3rd. Stuart Simpson who qualified second was in fourth but fell back.
I got round James on lap 1 and Paul followed shortly after. The 4 of us were swapping positions because of the 'tows' but it was all pretty clean. James hit me going into the second part of the esses and I lost my second wing of the season - not bad going considering they are classed as a consumable
I was in the lead heading up to turn 2 and made a mistake. Someone had cut the corner and there was dirt on the apex which I skidded on and went wide. Paul slipped through and more importantly it was enough to allow him to break the tow
And that's how it finished, Paul won (again), I was second and Flick Haigh took 3rd and fastest lap. I was less than a tenth off her time in clean air so the car was going well Despite that I was peed off. I felt strong at Snetterton and knew I could do better, I couldn't wait till the second race on the following day to put things right!
Anyway, enough words, here are some pictures
An arty one from qualifying:
Sitting in the collecting area before race 1:
The swarm!!
Taking second:
And finally Paul (pw_32) consoling me
Will update more tomorrow
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