Bigpower

Thought i'd share this video with you guys, especially as it took a good few hours to edit.

It says "100 overtakes" which might be a slight exaggeration but according to the lap chart there was 23 on lap 1 and I probably passed 20-30 in the pits as I ran for 70 minutes.

This is the Birkett 6Hr Relay, 70 teams with between 4 and 6 cars/drivers each so around 350 cars in total, 70 on track at any one time.

This is a long video (28min) but contains LOTS of action, including a fairly hairy crash on lap 1 which I was lucky to recover from. There's also a biggish crash towards the end between a BMW and a lightweight open sportscar which happens right in front of me.

Another interesting aspect is that I give a running text commentary of whats about to happen and my thinking etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wzIWCEIvAc

We where 2nd in class at the end of my stint and were running there for the first 3-4hrs but one car ran out of fuel plus we came in under safety car to remove a camera that had come off it's mount. We thought we wouldn't lose any time but they closed the pit exit until the SC came around again and we lost a lap. We still came 4th which wasn't bad but without those 2 problems we would have won.

The video is in HD, shot with a GoPro HERO3 so click through to Youtube to enjoy it at it's best resolution.

Maxx

I had a busy weekend, that race was on the Saturday and on the Sunday I did a 2hr Lotus Cup UK race at Snett.

This is the race I did with the 16yo first time racer I had been working with this year. He did great, at some stage he was lapping within a few tenths of the much more experienced racers. He came in 9th and I went out for the last hour. Managed to get up to 2nd in class before electrical gremline crept in and I had to feather the throttle through all the right handers, still cutting out and eventually died with less than 10mins to go.

Turns out, if we'd continued, even at that reduced pace, we would have won as the winner got a post race penalty.

The race went into the night and my stint was totally dark, always feel faster in the dark somehow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJimKVqr454

Malc

Really enjoyed watching that.... Sweet revenge right at the end too..... Good job there !
What a diverse grid too....looks like almost anything goes...
Driving standards were interesting I think it was a fine line between talent and enthusiasm for many of the drivers.....
The speed differance between some of the cras was quite frightening too especially with those Radicals the spped they passed was scary, I know just doing track days they are a pain in the arse and almost invisible when they pass you so in difficult conditions with spray etc you need eyes in the back of your head...
I have to take my hat off to you though because if that had been me driving I wouldn't be able to post the video because there would have been too much shouting and swearing going on especially when the knob in the Civic hit you.....go on though admit it a few corners later when you were tucked up inside his rear you wanted to give him a tap didn't you ?
I probably would have done ! Whoops sorry mate out braked myself !

Thanks for watching John, I know it's a fair commitment to sit through a 28minute video, just shows you how much action there was in the 70mins, I did miss a few of the easier overtakes out.

Anyway, to the race, posted this on another (general) forum.

It's the Birkett 6Hr Relay. If you don't know what it is it's a 6hr Realy Race for teams of a minimum of 4 drivers/cars and maximum of 6 drivers/cars. It's run on the Silvertstone GP Circuit but with the Historic Link that cuts out Vale. This replaces perhaps the worst corner on the GP Circuit with IMO the best sequence of corners.

You can run pretty much anything as long as it's race legal. Last year I had quite a battle with a 1938 Alard, occasionally interupted by a passing Radical. Nothing quite as old this year but lots of 50s and 60s stuff mixed with a few Radical and Sakers, lots of Caterhams and Locusts and pretty much everything in between.

It's a handicap race and there are 3-4 class also handicapped. These are worked out based on laptimes submitted by each driver/car for either this circuit or others and they are constantly updated throughout the race (so no point in sandbagging). Yes, it's tough to work out where you are but as long as you are fairly truthful you can keep track, we were running 2nd for most of the race before a fuel problem (ran out on track) and a bad SC call dropped us to 4th.

You often get more overtaking in an hour of this race than in a full season of 'fastest first' quali/race type Mororsport, and this is especially true if it's wet.

Entry fee is

Although a handicap there is also much Kudos in actually winning the race, and this year was the closest ever finish, 0.51 sec after 6hrs.

And the race has been running many years, every year since 1951 in fact!

Malc

Just curious what car were you in.....sorry if it is covered somewhere but couldn't see anything.....
I have to say I wish I had the money and potentially the talent to go racing proper and if I did it would have to be historics for me...

Great video - and how on earth did the civic think he had enough room!!!, that little yellow mini?, honda powered?

Also, video quality so much better - new camera set up?.

john B wrote:Just curious what car were you in.....sorry if it is covered somewhere but couldn't see anything.....
I have to say I wish I had the money and potentially the talent to go racing proper and if I did it would have to be historics for me...

Hmm, maybe it wasn't. It was a Mk2 MR2, same spec as race in the 750MC MR2 Championship, about 150bhp, 1100? kgs on Toyo 888s.

Well, you def need SOME money to go racing but TALENT is definitely not a pre-requisite

Malc

The lads that set up my autograss car I believe won this the Deegans team...

Nice film I enjoyed that.

Initially I didn't think I would watch all 28 minutes+ in one go but I found it captivating from the off. My son actually came over and watched some of it as well; incidentally he commends you on your driving ability and lap times! (kudos indeed coming from a 9 year old).

It was certainly an eye opener watching some of the displays of varying driving skill.

I did learn quite a bit from that....if nothing else I now know that Ronald Macdonald drives a Civic and Co-Co drives a Beemer!!!

Nice vid