race

This weekend started off bad, and got worse then got better and towards the end was the best of the year so far.

It all started when I went to pick up the van (10 mile bike ride to the rental company), and was informed that the van I was due to rent was not taxed (it was taxed but the tax disk was not in the vehicle), but they found me a nice Volkswagen Transporter (I have wanted to have one of them for over a year). So I made my way home and started to load the van up, and get ready to leave for the weekend. When I went to check my lights on the trailer, I discovered that they were not working, I immediately thought it was the trailer, so started to check bulbs, connections etc, but it looked to be all working correctly, so I changed my focus to the van. After speaking to the rental company, they gave me directions to locate the fuse for the rear control box for the towbar electrics, and I discovered that this did not have power, so I put in a lead from the battery to the fuse of the control box, this gave me lights on the trailer, so I could leave (3 hours behind schedule now).

I arrived and setup next to a fellow class D driver in the inner paddock of Rockinghams circuit, and proceeded to unload the car from the trailer, so I did not need to do that job in the morning, then I proceeded to eat something and we had a relaxing evening talking to other drivers at the circuit.

We got up the next morning, and prepared ourselves for qualifying, I managed to qualify 5th out of the 6 cars, but I was only 2 tenths behind the 4th in class car, so I was happy with the result.

For the race, I was positioned on the outside of the track, so would be running around the outside of the first corner, so I decided that I needed to try and get a good start to get myself up to 4th from the start, but my start was not that good, as we had a class A car spin on the banked bend, so I backed of when other did not. So I entered the second lap in 5th position in class, but was still in touch with the 3rd and 4th position cars.

I felt that on some laps I was catching them, but others I was loosing ground, I had a lucky break when car 74 span on the exit to Tarzan and I managed to get close enough to make a overtaking move (not something you would see in formula 1) and made it stick, so finished the first race of the weekend with a 4th position.

We got weighed in scruiterneering and my car was at 1128kg which is one of the lightest that its been, and the petrol light was not on, so their could be still some weight to be removed. That was it for the saturday, so the scruiterneers got us to remove the engine cam covers again so they could remeasure the cams on the M42 engined cars, and take the model numbers from the cams on the M44 cars. After the cars were back together we started to relax for the night, and get ready for the next race.

The sunday morning came, it was a colder night, so we hatched a plan to locate the diner on the other side of the track, and get a full english breakfast, 5 of us made the trip over, we did get a little lost, but eventually located the diner, and settled in for a hearty breakfast.

Our race was the second one the day so we were on early, so after breakfast it was time to check fuel levels, and tyre pressures, then get ourselves to the assembly area. I got a much better start and held my own but on the 2nd corner I managed to get my car up to second in class when two other cars in class D touched wheels, shortly after I was passed by the race winner so I was then in third, I managed to keep this position for the whole race, even with the guys behind me trying to get past. On the last lap I did get nudged by one car and my rear diffuser was knocked loose from the rear bumper, but I managed to keep my composure (and it in gear) and finished the race with a third in class. It was one of the hardest races I have been in so far, but also defiantly one of the most exciting and interesting.

BMW racing drivers club rounds seven and eight from the Snetterton circuit, close to Norfolk, this was my first visit to the circuit and unfortunately the car broke on the out lap of qualifying, so I was given the chance to do 3 laps of the track just before the first race of the meeting on the saturday, so I had no reference point to see how well I was doing as going around the circuit alone you never know if you are following the racing line.

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

As this was the first race of 2010, and over the winter I had done a few items mainly on the suspension setup, by replacing the bushes, I thought it would be a good time to test the car, as there was a test day on the friday before the race.

I booked myself on the afternoon session (I would get 3 20-30 minute sessions on track), I got to the circuit on time, I signed on all ok, but when I removed the car it sounded louder than normal, but with a noise test first, I did not think too much about it.

The first session was good, and the car felt a lot more planted than what I remember from last year, but bad news struck when I was about to head out for the second session, the car was blowing from the exhaust middle joint, it looked like the exhaust was broke (it was a cheap ebay item), so I jacked up the car, and confirmed that my exhaust had split completely in half around the joint, I decided that it was better to try and fix the car, and loose my track time (if i took the track time I may not be able to race tomorrow)

I searched all the paddock for anybody with a welder, I found people with welders, but missing gas, welders that needed special people to operate (and they were not there), so eventually I brought 2 legend teams together and got the exhaust welded up.

I qualified in a good spot, and made up over 8 seconds compared to last year, but still was just outside of a sub minute lap of the brands circuit.

The first race I had the camera mounted on the front bumper, so you can see the whole race there, I managed to get ahead of John Brabbin and kept him behind me for over half of the race, but he eventually passed me at druids.

The second race, I was following Sean and John when John had a big moment coming down from the paddock hill bend, and I nearly got past him, but he recovered, I felt that I kept with them better than last year.

Well it was confirmed today that the european race at Zandvoort has been cancelled, the team that runs the BMWrdc did try for another weekend, but this has not come through, maybe next year we will race abroad.

This is probably not the best time to have a first drive of a car, but it passed scruitineering, with a couple of questions about the standard air intake, and it seams they had not previously seen the power-steering radiator still on a race car.

My first drive was a little apprehensive, you have to remember that I put the car back together myself, had I done up all the correct bolts, did I put enough brake fluid in the car, all these kind of questions went shooting through my head whilst we were waiting to go out on track for the qualifying session.

All the previous questions disappear though when you get on track, and the other competitors are coming past you at full chat, and then you feel that you are not moving at all. They come from all directions, you have to keep an eye at all times on the mirrors, and also concentrate on the racing line. It was an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life.