Caterham Academy Round Six: Brands Hatch
Spins, sin bins and unexpected wins (well, podiums) as the championship chase hots up
Compared with the wide open spaces of our previous race at Snetterton, the Brands Hatch Indy circuit is a tight, unforgiving ribbon of rising and falling, constantly curving track, with deep gravel (which will get you stuck) or looming walls (which will get you crashed) eager to punish any mistakes. It is not a place where you push your luck.
Come the qualifying session late on Saturday afternoon, an already congested track was made all the trickier by several stopped cars. The ensuing yellow flags meant confusion and disruption and it was clear that whoever managed the traffic best - and got lucky with the flags - would be the ones to post the quick times.
Tough race for championship hopeful Kurt Brady
On race day, the predicted heavy rain held off and, under a gloomy but dry sky, I finally made a decent getaway from the line as the red lights went out. Unfortunately, as I tried to duck inside Martin Pass ahead of me he fluffed the change to second gear, forcing me to back off and become immediately swamped by cars left and right. I managed to squeeze back past a couple of cars at the Druids hairpin, but I was seventh at the end of the first lap.
I managed to stay there until the safety car came out - allowing marshals to retrieve the beached car of Mr Needham - although a nervous restart made me over-defensive into Druids, resulting in a bit of a love-tap from Tim, who was (very) close behind me. I managed to hold him and a recovering Kurt and Martin off and was wondering whether I could chase a podium when the final roll of Lady Luck's die landed.
Ross Macindoe leads a post-safety car pack
It stayed that way until the end of the race, giving Ross, David and me - three extremely chuffed novice racers - our first taste of the podium. It's quite good fun, this racing lark...
Pics: Rachel Horgan
 Too much of this... |
 ...ends you in this |
Group 1 - the 'other' race:
Mike Hart Leads from Wesley Fox
Sadly, a late-braking lunge at Paddock that caused Mike to nerf Merlin Edwards into retirement, and a muscular move on Wesley towards the end of the race, both drew the attention of the race stewards. After the race, they decided that Mike had been 'driving in a manner incompatible with general safety', and would therefore be excluded from the result.
Although Mike was undoubtedly pushing his luck, the penalty seemed like a harsh call, all but wiping out Mike's championship hopes and leaving Wesley in a commanding lead in Group 2's championship standings.
With the race officials doling out a full race exclusion, Mike can't use Brands as his dropped score - a punishment that doesn't seem to quite fit the crime. you can have a look at the contorversy by following the links to Mike's in-car camera footage below.
Group 1 Academy race part 1
Group 1 Academy race part 2
As my fellow racers will no doubt tell you, by the time you've added in all the extras, plus track days, test days, fuel, accommodation, and the all-but-inevitable damage, you'll be looking at £25k for the season.
but it's little more expensive than buying and running a Boxster S for a year - and you get to go racing!
Congratulations on the podium though. Sometimes you are better keeping your nose clean and being consistant rather than attacking the car in front!
Good racing - i'm really enjoying reading the reports on this series.
I think there should be a little more consistency, a similar 'crime' last time out, was a 3 sec penalty, enough to give the place gained back to the initial race leader.
Congratulations on the podium though. Sometimes you are better keeping your nose clean and being consistant rather than attacking the car in front!
Good racing - i'm really enjoying reading the reports on this series.
Good job Riggers, really a pic of the podium is in order!
EDITED for grammar
It was the first time I've ever had to present myself in front of the stewards, and I found the whole thing pretty confusing! I'm bad enough at remembering what happened in a race anyway, let alone one specific incident, so defending myself proved pretty difficult even with a video! All I remember about Merlin is that it felt like I approached the corner in the same way as I did the lap before, only this time, I ended up in the back of him! Really have no clue what happened really even now. I wasn't even trying to overtake him there, and it doesn't really seem like he brakes earlier, and he certainly doesn't swerve wildly in front of me. Normally, I would say it's a racing incident, but the fact that it resulted in him retiring kind of makes it harder to call. I for one felt gutted at the time. It was the last thing I wanted to do!
As for the final lap...all season people have been saying that I've been too polite on track. I've been at the end of some pretty sketchy overtakes at times, but it seemed like this is just close racing to me. I was leaving the door open thinking I could just get back past. When you're in a situation like that, especially when, intentionally or not, someone has physically squeezed you to the very edge of the track, it become quite difficult to sum up your options in a split second. Although it was indeed muscular, I really didn't feel it was any worse than moves I've seen in front of me all season and/or had done to me. It really get's to me that the penaltiy refered to my driving as not being safe. I genuinely try to be fair in all my racing, and it really upset me that the steward came down so hard! The fact that it basically sees an end to my championship after leading all year is particularly galling.
Anyway. I hear that everyone in the grandstands enjoyed watching, and it'll be on MotorsTV next weekend for people to watch, so even though the result was crap, at least it'll provide some entertainment!
RSB here I come :P
Also a quick 'thank you' again to you and all of the other Caterham Academy 2010 drivers who took the time to talk to me in the paddock this weekend and to answer my myriad questions.
I am very happy that I am going to be involved in the Academy next year and can't wait to get started.
Mike, I was in the grandstand and can assure you that the Group 1 race was certainly entertaining from a spectator’s point of view!
It is a pity that the penalty will have such a dramatic effect on the Championship.
I hear that there were some heated confrontations after some of the other Caterham races before ours. Following the test-day mis-haps (and perhaps the exchanges made following incidents in other Caterham races at Rockingham), there was a lot of focus on driving standards.
For me it was a challenging couple of days - being pipped by 0.002 secs at the end summed it up really but I had a great time. Odd that I'd driven my car round the Nuerburgring Nordschleife the week before and one lap of that circuit was almost the same length of our entire race at Brands!
Well done to Riggers - great work.
Whether exclusion is justifiable (my penalty was to have my best 2 qualifying times disqualified) is something that could be debated until the cows come home. Given the level of racing, it was harsh in my opinion. But as you say, that's racing.
Jez
Sorry to hear you suffered too Jez. James Needham in Group 2 Academy had ALL his times disallowed for overtaking under a yellow despite his video making it very clear that said yellow was totally obscured by the car in front! Like you said.....they were coming down hard on everyone last weekend. You live and learn though, and at the end of the day, they are there for our safety, no matter how much it destroys peoples weekend/year!
On the plus side it made me so angry I channelled it positively and won the next two rounds at Silverstone GP. Gassing Station | Caterham | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff