Charlies Angel Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Good luck Matthew Looking forward to your post race blog. Lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Paul Richards Posted March 30, 2012 Area Representative Share Posted March 30, 2012 Nick A few of us from LADS are going to support Alan "Chainsaw" Dixon. See you there if you can make it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted March 31, 2012 Author Share Posted March 31, 2012 Here we go then! Testing (well, the track day) went well yesterday, the car behaved itself, it stayed dry and Mark and I had fun. Remarkably I've had a good night's sleep and I'm ready to go. Hopefully I'll see some of you later. I'm in car 82, black with a white stripe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david nelson Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 good luck, have fun David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadership Team Mcalvert Posted March 31, 2012 Leadership Team Share Posted March 31, 2012 Counting down to the start of coverage from Donnington on Motors TV. Hoping you get more attention from the cameras than Caterham did on their F1 debut Best of luck! Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Nick Chan Posted March 31, 2012 Area Representative Share Posted March 31, 2012 Not able to make it after all ☹️ hope the racing went well for everyone though Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumster Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 No mention of Matthew yet, anyone know his number? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Richard Price Posted March 31, 2012 Area Representative Share Posted March 31, 2012 Quoting Matthew Willoughby: ....Remarkably I've had a good night's sleep and I'm ready to go. Hopefully I'll see some of you later. I'm in car 82, black with a white stripe Chris, maybe he's car No 82 'shame I'm at work, not infront of the telly ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Englishmaninwales Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Quoting Matthew Willoughby: Here we go then! Testing (well, the track day) went well yesterday, the car behaved itself, it stayed dry and Mark and I had fun. Remarkably I've had a good night's sleep and I'm ready to go. Hopefully I'll see some of you later. I'm in car 82, black with a white stripe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Englishmaninwales Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Must type faster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumster Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Sums me up really, a bit slow Obviously my scanning technique needs improvement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James_Russell Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 A great weekend had by the vast majority particularly classics, with both races being free from significant damage. I didn't finish as well as I'd have liked, but with barely any damage and having had two Very hard fought races, I go to the pub happy. I'm sure Matthew will fill you all in shortly, but as far as I can tell he had a great time, drove well and suffered only minor nose/number plate damage from hitting someone else's discarded wing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 Sorry, I was too tired to write anything last night. What brilliant fun racing is! My pace wasn't so brilliant, I was towards the back of the mid-field but I was ahead of a few cars consistantly and was able to have fun with some more experienced drivers. Side by side down the Craner Curves was one of the particular highlights 😬 Let's start at the beginning. I had a good night's sleep following Friday's testing. I had expected to be incredibly nervous and had planned to go for a walk in the middle of the night to get some fresh air and clear my mind if I couldn't sleep, but there was no need to worry. We arrived at the track in good time, finished preparing the car (fortunately we had been scrutineered on Friday evening), signed on, went to the new driver's briefing etc, etc. Then it was out for qualifying. I found myself behind a slower car which wasted the first few laps as I was still driving in track day mode so wasn't close enough through the corners to get a decent tow in order to pass. I eventually made it, but by that time the faster Mega Grads, who were qualifying with us and had been sent out first, had caught us up. I never got a clear lap after that and came in disappointed with my performance. It turned out that my best lap had come right at the beginning while chasing down the slower car. Everybody's best lap from quali determined the grid for race 1 and second best lap determined the grid for race 2. I found myself in 12th position out of 15 cars for both races. With some more decisive overtaking at the start of the session I'm sure I could have done a little better but I was about half a second off the pace of the real mid-fielders, some of whom have been racing for years, so I shouldn't have been too disappointed. As the clock ticked down to the first race I was still pretty calm; my biggest concern was that I couldn't find Mel anywhere! We looked at the video from qualifying, chucked some fuel in the car, checked the oil, torqued the wheelnuts and waited. As the start approached I stayed remarkably calm and I was no more nervous than I am before a sprint run. Maybe this was because I had gone through it all so many times before in my head, maybe it was because I intended to stay out of trouble, but there was no fear of the unknown which I had expected. It took a while to sort out my belts. I am using a HANS device and it can be a bit awkward, mainly because you have to have your helmet on before you do up the belts so you can't see the buckle. Thank you Mel for putting up with my rattyness at this point and helping me out. Then we went to the dummy grid and waited. I got really annoyed with myself as I had forgotten to switch on my video camera so I thought I wouldn't be able to record my first race which would have been a huge disappointment. I couldn't reach the camera to switch it on myself without taking my belts off and I wasn't sure I'd ever manage to do them up again due to the HANS so I gave up. Then I got the attention of a lady who was there with one of the other drivers and she started for me. Phew. We continued to wait while some BMWs were dug out of the gravel. I think we sat there for almost 40 minutes. Finally we got moving. To keep things moving as quickly as possible for TV, the races all had rolling starts. We started behind the Mega Grads and the Union Jack was used to start the race. I never did see the flag, I just went when the other cars started to accelerate. I was on the left side at the start so went around the outside at the first corne which worked a treat. I won't describe the whole race as you can watch the video for that, but in summary I got into a nice battle with one other car for the first part of the race and then another car fell back towards us after an off at the chicane. Ther acing was very clean, fair and fun. Even the Megas lapping us weren't too bad. I finished behind the two cars that I been fighting with but had a great time in the process and was pleased not to have ended up in a big pack. In the second race I found myself just behind 3 cars that were battling hard, two of them being the same crs that I was racing earlier in the day. I was easily keeping up but didn't feel confident enough in my racecraft to get too involved so I sat behind them and had a go occasionally if I got a good run on them down the straights. On the last lap I held back into the chicane so that I could get a run on them down to the flag as they were battling off line, holding themselves up, but it wasn't quite to be. Immediately after taking the flag I ran straight over a discarded wing, smashed my numberplate (which had been kindly made for me by a colleague) and bent one of the nose mounts under the car (which I don't use). Amazingly, no damage was done to the nose other than some slight scuffs. I will post the videos as soon as they have finished uploading (which is taking a while). So lessons learned: I don't yet feel comfortable enough running really close behind someone in braking zones and through corners - that will come in time I'm sure and is quite sensible while I learn basic racecraft. I need to pull out of the tow later to make the most of the slipstream. If a move isn't going to come off I need to get back onto the racing line rather than sitting in the middle of the track like a plonker. If you lose the tow of the group ahead early on you are stuffed - I am susceptible to this through not following closely enough. Qualifying is very important if you rely on the tow to keep up with the car ahead. There is loads of grip on the dirt beyond the kerb at the Old Hairpin. I need to find another half a send or so to mix it with the mid-field properly. Side by side down the Craner Curves is not as scary as it might look. The car is pretty much on the money. As we are not going to be testing much we will struggle to get anywhere near the front but we can have an awful ot of fun trying. Results and times can be found here. So it was a tremendously succesful day in terms of fun, even if the results were nothing to write home about. Thank you to everbody who came to see me and especially to Gibbo, Lisa and Dad for your support. Finally and most importantly, thank you to Mel for letting me do it. Over to you Mark....... Edited by - Matthew Willoughby on 1 Apr 2012 10:53:06 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Dave Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Good write up and I could relate to so much of that in my first year. I think the main difference was how nervous I felt before hand! Well done, look forward to watching the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 I've just found out that all of the drivers who competed at Donington will get 500g of sausages posted to them by "Simply Sausages", as part of the company's sponsorship of Donington Park. I think that's my best result of the weekend! The video of race one is now 88% uploaded so, assuming the website doesn't crash, it should be viewable shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Lynch Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Well done Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 After 3 hours the video upload has failed. Time to try again.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigyb Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Massive respect to that man! Can't wait to see the video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James_Russell Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Quoting Matthew Willoughby: I've just found out that all of the drivers who competed at Donington will get 500g of sausages posted to them by "Simply Sausages", as part of the company's sponsorship of Donington Park. I think that's my best result of the weekend! Blast! It was an April Fool's joke 😔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 I can't believe we fell for that! Videos coming soon, I promise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 Race 1 here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 Sorry about the video quality, I had to reduce the resolution for it not to exceed the maximum file size. Race 2 now uploading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Willoughby Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 And race 2 is here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlymoFraser Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Well done Matt, I feel quite envious, did look fun. I hope your employer is paying you well for their prime position in your video 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigyb Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 About 10 mins in, looked like you really nailed that lap. excellent to watch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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