croft

Yesterday BARC released the provisional racing dates for the 2011 season for the Kumho bmwrdc championship, the interesting points are the Castle Combe and the Donington events whilst only having one race, will be televised, and the other outstanding item is it looks like we have three races at Pembrey. The 2011 season has provisionally 19 rounds penned so compared to last year when I managed to only do 12 rounds this year could be a lot more involved.

These provisional dates are setup in the calendar but as always with provisional dates are subject to change until confirmed by BARC and the BMWRDC.

I managed to pick up the van that I would be using for Croft at about 8 in the morning, so all was going well, I knew I had to change the oil in the engine and gearbox before I headed off for croft, so was hoping to leave the house by 1pm, this as normal did not go to plan, and I eventually left at 3pm, and then had the journey from hell (only to be bettered by Piers and Stephan from Bmsport, as there journey took 16 hours, 4 more than mine)

I got onto the M4 and hit traffic, due to an accident at J5 (I get on at J6) then again M25 was crawling, it took me 3 times the time to do the distance to the M1, and then the M1 was closed at J20-J21 due to accident, and after I got through this, it felt like there was continual roadworks on the way to the circuit, then when I got close, I turned left instead of right, and that delayed me more.

But once at the circuit I thought I would get the 2 races in (unlike last year) but this was not to be, when I woke up the saturday morning, I got the car off the trailer (pushed it off, as there are noise regulations at croft that are closely enforced) but when it was time to go to scrutineering the car would not start, looked like a flat battery (it was ok the night before), so I pushed it to the scrutineering and got the car thought, there was enough battery power to get the car lights to show.

I then started to search for some jump leads, or a charger, and luckily there was a few options open to me, so got the car charging, and prepared for the qualifying session.

At croft there were 8 class D cars out, and I qualified in 6th (not last) and the car seamed to be ok on the track, but one of the corners I was loosing power, so I put this down to fuel surge, but it was not this as I was to discover in the race 1.

At the call to go to the assembly area for race 1, the car again would not start, so I got push started, and made the assembly area, but it stopped again, and I needed to be pushed to the track (thanks to all that pushed) for the out lap to get to the grid the car was consistently stopping, and I was having to bump start the car all the time, so I decided that I would not make the lap, so pulled off to the side and informed the officials I was not going to make the race. So the croft curse struck again, and I did not do the race, but watched it with others, it looked good, and I wished I was on track with the others.

The next day I looked over the car, and borrowed an alternator from another competitor, as I had a suspicion that the alternator was not working properly, this was tested using a multimeter, so I started to swap the alternator, but I discovered that the alternator had got a loose connection, and when it was reconnected the battery would charge with the car running (problem fixed I hoped)

When race 2 was about to start, again the car had no power so I needed to get pushed to start the assembly lap, I was just hoping that I would get round the circuit to start the race (I was also terrified that the car would stall and I would not be able to restart it) but I managed to start, but the ABS system was then off, so I had to learn quickly to drive the car with no ABS, this also meant I lost touch with the other cars in the race, but a red flag stopped the race, and it meant that I could get back the gap, and for some strange reason the marshals pulled me to be alongside Paul Bellamy on the restart (I could not understand why this was, so I let the other cars that were behind me through first, as did not want arguments after)

On the race 2 restart, I noticed that the ABS was functioning again, so I attacked Ralph and Neil, who were in front of me, Paul B had an off on the first lap so he was also behind me, but attacking, we had contact on one corner, I could not move over anymore, and hit the tyre wall with the drivers mirror on my car, but we touched my front wing/bumper with the rear drivers side on his car, it was an enjoyable race, and I finished 7th out of the 8 class D cars that were out this weekend.

Lets just see if I get more than one race at snetterton, a circuit that I have not previously raced at, but from last years race (with 2 or 3 red flagged races) it could be an interesting weekend.

There is a video available on Facebook for the race 2 restart

This video was originally posted on Facebook and filmed by Kalie at the Croft Race for the bmwrdc in 2010

Well this was going to be a long weekend, as you may of already read it did not get off to a good start when my rental van was deemed uninsurable due to the fact I wanted to tow something with it, even though it has a tow bar fitted.

Once the transport issue had been sorted we set off at about 16.30 on the friday afternoon, it soon became apparent that the new trailer was going to have difficulties with speed ramps (due to it being very low). There was nightmare weather, traffic and pretty much every roadwork in the UK was in our way, we arrived at Croft circuit at 23:20 and was greeted by the sight of Ralph's car on the back of his trailer (he had got there about 1 hour before us)

Next to pitch the tent, we did not stay near Ralph as he was parked on tarmac so off we went to find some grass to put the tent on, there was grass what they do not tell you is the grass is put down over hardcore, so you have a very small amount of earth to hammer the pegs into, but the tent was put up.

Saturday arrived, and we completed items such as getting the transponders, signing on, attending the new drivers briefing, and generally hanging around until qualifying.

As this was my first time at this circuit and the first time I had driven the car since the rear suspension was altered I was a little apprehensive about what was going to happen, but we all went out there and I qualified second from last, with just Ralph behind me, although I did think that he overtook me on the straight approaching tower bend.

The first race was later on in the afternoon (originally the last race of the day, but they slipped in a extra race, that only a few cars opted for), I got a good start but was early on the brakes for the first corner, to avoid getting tangled up with the other cars. but when we came out of the second chicane, Ralph was able to out drag me up the straight, and I could see that his car was marginally quicker than mine in the straight line. I stayed in that position until the end of the race, but I now had some experience of the circuit, and was eager to race again.

Whilst I was in parc ferme, the other cars were getting weighed, for compliance of the rules, they normally do not weigh the class 'D' cars, but I requested to have mine weighed, with the setup at present, it weighed 1207kg, the minimum weight for my class is 1050kg, so I need to loose nearly 160kg from the car (and some of that could be from the driver).

That evening we walked the track, and looked at all the corners in detail so I would have a better understanding of the circuit on the next race.

We woke early on the sunday, to ensure we got the tent packed up before the racing started, but it started to rain, and it kept raining, so it would be my first wet race. I checked over the car, and all was fine, when it came time to go to the assembly area we all trundled off. My problems started when we were called out of the assembly area to go round the circuit for the formation of the grid. My wipers were not working, I did pull and push all the wires on the column but that did not work, around that lap, I was considering the options. Do I start the race? Will the wipers work when the race is started? Should I abort the race? By the time I had got round to near the start finish line, I decided to pull in and abort the race, I informed the marshals of my decision so the others could get on with the race.

I took my car back to the trailer and loaded it on, whilst the others started the green flag lap and, then proceeded to start the race. The race had been going for only 3 laps when it was red flagged, due to one of the cars dropping oil all around the track, causing dangerous conditions for all the other drivers (it was not intentional, and was a mechanical failure with an oil cooler)

When they restarted they had only 8 laps to do, and it was an exciting race to watch from the pit lane, but I would of preferred to of been in it.

Until the next time, at Donnington Park, when if it rains I will have wipers.

Well I got up early today to go and fetch the hire van, when I got to the rental office, I was informed the van with the towbar was not there, it was about 20 miles away in Reading, it was not the end of the world, we discussed what to do and came to an agreement that they would pay my train fare and I would go over to the other branch and pick up the van from there.

Now it would not be that simple would it, I then got asked why I wanted that particular vehicle, I mentioned it was the one they had with a tow bar, then I was informed that there insurance was invalid if I towed anything, so I could not rent it.

Now I have a sign on meeting tomorrow at 11 o'clock and no way of getting the car (thats already on the trailer) to the race meeting.

After phoning about 5 van rental places with no luck, I phoned the race organiser to break the news that I would not be attending, unless I could find a way to tow the car to the circuit. He informed me who he rented a van from, but when I called he had rented the last one, but they told me another firm that may have one, they did not, and to cut a long story short, after about 4 other rental companies recommended me other firms (due to them not having anything to rent with a towbar for this weekend) I spoke to Delta self drive in Egham and they had a few available.

Now if you know the transport system in England, its not simple and for me to get there, would be a mission, but as I was still in the rental office that had let me down, they could see the problem and kindly offered me a lift to the other rental office, so I could get the van.

So for a simple 10 minute job of picking up the van, it took me four hours, and numerous phone calls to get one.

But now we can go and race.