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Pike
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Post by Pike »

Cracking Vids Maxx!
2008: VW1 3rd in Class
2009: VW1 3rd in Class
2011: Ginetta Challenge
2012 Ginetta GT5 Challenge/Golf GTI Championship
2014 BRSCC Production GTI Championship

Maxx
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Post by Maxx »

POWERNIGHTS 2 : Donington Park 09.08.07

Was good to be back at Donington, not raced here for lots of years but dome 1,000s of laps here.

Day was laid out as before 3 x test sessions in the day, afternoon quali and 2 x evening races.

First dissappointment was that the requested "tyres with a bit less tread" didn't get done and I had the same tyres as Silverstone, never mind, i'd give it my best shot to wear some of it off for later.

First session was okay, biggest problem was that of the 25+ cars in our race, pretty much all of them had slicks and were either a bit faster or a LOT faster than us. Radicals doing 1:12 while we were doing 1:30s at best. This made getting a clear lap almost impossible. First test session my data-logger refused to work so no idea what laptimes I was doing but i'd settled into a decent groove albeit horrendous understeer and just generally poor grip.

The ONLY thing we can play around with is tyre pressures so I tried to do something there, not really a great difference, data now working was doing very low 1:30s, from when I was running with other MR2s this looked pretty quick, especially down the craners and into old-hairpin.

During the afternoon we weighed the cars. There is a 1200kg car+driver weight limit in the MR2 series, not applicable in this race but worth checking. Was a bit dismayed that my car with me in it was about 12kg overweight compared to some of the others. So we then went about a weight saving exercise. Biggest saving was found by removing the rear spoiler, this would lose 4kg. It may also lose a little rear downforce and make the car a bit more oversteery which is what I wanted so we went ahead. A couple of other small things gave another 1kg saving so still a bit over the rest.

Essentially I was a little bit happier with the car but probably more to having more seat time, no improvement in laptimes, about the same fuel adjusted and I was pretty sure I was getting everything I could out of the car. If I could have strung my best sectors together I was on for a high 1:29

Quali was a real dissapointment, no single lap without traffic and you had to spend a lot of time on your mirrors to spot the rapidly approaching Radicals, a couple of close moments.

Fairly pleased with the 1:30.4 and 2nd out of the MR2s but JUST ahead of car owner (i.e. who I hired my car from) and last years champion, Patrick Mortell.

Patrick and I had a couple of close races at Silverstone and obviously run at a similar pace so looking foward to the races. There were 8 MR2s in the race, the rest just between .5 and 2 secs behind us.

The races were to be run as a pursuit handicap (a la Race 2 LoTRDC). I was placed just behind Patrick, starting at the same time.

Couldn't see the flagman so not a great start but soon started moving up, got past Patrick who it transpires later came off at McLeans, lost a tyre on lap 3 and sat the race out.

I was going pretty well and coming up on another MR2 who had started ahead of us and was not as quick on a lap. Had to abort my initial attempt to go to the right on the run down from Hollywood as a flying machine came whizzing up behind, so switch to the left, theres room, oops he's tightening up, not sure .. oops he slowing down as well, i'm still on it, got to switch to the right. Bit too much for the tyres to handle and the car speared off to the right over the grass, sideways for a while, then backwards through the gravel and managed to get it facing the right way and back on track. Lost loads of time but fought back to finish 3rd of the MR2s.

No damage save for the odd bit of gravel.

Race 2 was essentially the same order with me again lined up behind Patrick. Better start but wrong stratgey to try and go down the inside of a Ginetta into Redgate, with it slowing and a car coming up each side I just had to sit there until they'd passed and get by the Ginetta. There then followed 2 or 3 laps with me mostly less than a cars length behind Patrick. But all normal overtakes were impossible owing to faster traffic coming from behind, occasionally making the gap bigger.

Lap 3 though, coming up to McLeans I let as faster, slick shod car through which would obviously get to McLeans apex before Patrick .. aha .. classic follow through .. I'll just follow it through and Patrick won't be able to take the apex.

Problem was I was travelling 3.5mph quicker, although on a straighter line, the slick shod car slowed a little more than i'd expexted and somewhere in there I had to lift a little more than normal, the back broke away, still managed to take some speed off on the brakes but couldn't gather it all up in time to miss Patrick.

Not a huge bacng but enough to bend his rear anti-roll back and he decided to come in on that lap. I carried on, caught up a bit before the race was red flagged 2 laps later.

The red flag scuppered the handicap so 5 of the MR2s were in the top 6. I finished 5th (would have been 4th if not for count back).

Not too happy with the results and the race format but I know there was nothing else to get out of that car round Donington.

But I did come away in a very down frame of mind which has persisted ever since.

I jumped out of the car as soon as I got back and apologised to Patrick, he was, as ever, magnanimous even though I'm sure he was well p'd off to end another race early.

I would have been absolutely fine had I gone off myself but taking someone else out because of my mistake is something that has never happened to me in well over 100 races and I must admit troubled me all evening and most of a sleepless night.

I of course know that it wasn't a stupid move to consider, I don't go for 50:50 chances and having watched race 1 video there are a number of those I back out of. 55:45 then yes but this was pretty much a no brainer helped by the faster traffic.

I also know I've been the recipient of much worse, part of the reason I have veered towards endurance racing over the last 4-5 years.

I didn't realise that I would feel quite so bad actually and I guess that's another reason apart from cash why I would never have made the top flight in Motorsport.

Was really hoping the in-car video had come out. I noticed on the way back to the paddock the screen had died, so assumed the recorders battery had died, which it had, just seconds before the start of the race I have Race 1 though, including the 360 down the Craners which i'll post when I can.

Maxx

Maxx
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Post by Maxx »

Some Pics

DL1 Analysis of Craners Incident (Race 1) and McLeans (Race 2)
Black line is my .. erm .. usual line, red is .. well not.

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This is a screengrab from my in-car camera going backwards through the gravel trap on the exit of the Craners.

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The external shots of mine and Patricks cars after the Race 2 McLeans incident .. more t-cut required boys!

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Click on images for larger view.

Maxx

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duncan
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Post by duncan »

Great write up Malcolm - seems a very strange format to be running cars with such a differential in speed in what is essentially a sprint race.... very strange :?

I wouldnt beat yourself up too much about the damage to another car - racing incidents like that happen all over the world. You did well to recover your concentration and get a credible result under the circumstances.

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Ben
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Post by Ben »

Wow - great vids .. great idea.
Dum spiro, spero
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duncan
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Post by duncan »

Wow - just watched the Motors TV coverage of the Aug 2nd event - great coverage, great commentary, superb racing and some wicked cars.

The classics races were incredible :D

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maff
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Post by maff »

Just caught donnington on Motors TV :) Theyve got great footage of the gravel trap incident :-D
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Maxx
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Post by Maxx »

Ah excellent, I sky+'d it so will watch it later :)

Incidentally, i'm also doing the 3rd Powernights event this Thursday at Silverstone, should be a good one, our race is MR2s v MX5s billed as "Battle of the Japanese Roadsters" (we wanted to call it Battle of the Japanese Hairdressers' cars but the organisers objected:)). Another wrinkle is that we are the last race of the day (reverse grid) and by 8:15 it was be pretty dark and we'll be running on headlights.

Maxx

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madenglishman
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Post by madenglishman »

Great read Malcolm.........I watched this on sky over the weekend (first one) and it looked superb fun. The racing was close and looked great 8)
Dan

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V8 Jag ....... for pimping

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Pike
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Post by Pike »

Sounds like it's going to be good fun Maxx.
2008: VW1 3rd in Class
2009: VW1 3rd in Class
2011: Ginetta Challenge
2012 Ginetta GT5 Challenge/Golf GTI Championship
2014 BRSCC Production GTI Championship

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