Sprinters go racing

[Nick Chan]

Matthew, great write up. Shame I couldn't make it over but I watched the footage on Motors Tv (thanks Michael for the heads up) and I winced at some of the crashes - wallet busting for some and right at the start of the season. Glad you escaped with such little damage relatively speaking. Hopefully I'll see you or Mark at one of the other races later in the year.

 

Nick

[Matthew Willoughby]

Thanks Nick. The accidents were all in Supers and Megas, which is not surprising given that there are far more of them than there are Classics.

 

The more I watch the videos, the more mistakes I see. If I can rectify some of those mistakes next time out I will hopefully move forwards a bit.

[myothercarsa2cv]

Sounds amazing and the videos were great I'd be bricking it myself, especially when cars come across you Well done, perhaps I'll pull my finger out and go sprinting

[skydragon]

And Mr Gibson....??

[Matthew Willoughby]

Mark's in action this coming weekend.

[skydragon]

Duhhhh! Sorry, thought it was this weekend past.

[Mark Gibson]

Thanks for the reminder Matthew, I had almost completely forgotten about it being this weekend

[James_Russell]

Good to see you aren't nervous or anything, Mark!

[garybee]

Best of luck for this weekend Mark, hope it goes well

[Lisa Beezer]

Good luck Mark! Wish we could have come down to support you this weekend - looking forward to hearing how you got on.

Lisa

[skydragon]

Good luck!!!

[James_Russell]

I think this thread needs a bump

[Matthew Willoughby]

I agree James. Come on Mark, everybody wants to know if you trashed my car or not............

[Mark Durrant]

Matthew

 

I am sorry to report that I saw one classic return to the paddock on the back of a lorry

[Mark Gibson]

Sorry, only just been trusted to go near computer equipment after the excitement of the weekend.

 

I am pleased to say that Matthew's car sustained no damage over the weekend

 

I had a fab time. Qualifying was daunting having never driven the circuit in that car before but there were only 15 cars on track so it was easy to find space to learn the lines. After the 15min qualifying session I qualified 12th out of 15 for both races and was within 2s of the pole time but was still learning the circuit and how not to kill myself by flinging the car into paddock hill bend flat in 4th gear on list 1As 😳

 

Race 1 was good but not spectacular. I was the only novice racing driver in the field and remembered to launch when the red light went off and not wait for a green to appear like a novice in a different race did on Saturday

 

Within a few corners, I inevitably lost the lead group and got embroiled in a 3 car battle for my 12th place slot. I was overtaken into Druids hairpin (my braking point and line were terrible) but managed to get the place back by slipstreaming prior to paddock hill bend only to lose the place again at Druids later in the race. I finished 13th but learnt a few valuable lessons. Firstly, you are only close to the car in front if you think your nose cone is touching their rear panel - if you come out from the tow earlier than that then you are unlikely to get past. Secondly, just because you qualify 0.3-0.5s quicker than someone, doesn't mean you will shake them off your tail and they will get past if they are quicker than you at one particular corner or get a good tow from you down a straight.

 

I had a lot to think about on Sat night and had a plan to put into effect for Race 2 but that all evaporated when I found myself plum last by the time I went into Druids hairpin (now my least favourite corner!) on lap 1. I was fuming (and knew Suz would kill me if I finished last) and had the bit between my teeth and set about catching the cars in front. I overtook 14th place by getting a good run out of Graham Hill and into Surtees and then overtook 13th place under braking into Paddock Hill bend (my favourite overtaking manoeuvere and favourite corner) but the gap to 12th was pretty big. I then had clear track and a target to catch and set my fastest lap of the weekend (1s from the pole time) and caught 12th a few laps from the end. While in the process of slipstreaming towards Paddock I saw the last lap board and decided to go for it. I wasn't clearly past by turn in so we ended up going through the corner side by side (evidence here - thanks to Michael for a great shot) which wasn't ideal and we stayed side by side right up to Druids but again - i lost out. In the end I was classified 10th rather than 13th again because of a time penalty and a couple of offs for others.

 

To anyone still reading (sorry for the length of this), to summarise - I had a great time. The Grads are a great bunch of people, really friendly and happy to help with tips, lines etc. But in the race they are firm but fair. Racecraft is going to take me ages to learn but the thrill and level of thinking/planning required to get past someone at approx 100 mph (my average lap time was over 70mph in a 100bhp VX seven on list 1As) that doesn't want you past is pretty special.

 

I still have a fondness for sprinting/hillclimbing but to anyone that thinks I would find it boring after racing - Brands Hatch was great but I don't remember seeing any trees, bridges and reservoirs by the side of the tarmac like there will be at Llys y Fran in 2 weeks time 😳

 

But, I have been well and truly bitten by the racing bug and I am currently planning on competing at Anglesey in June 16-17 (it will be nice to be there in the summer for a change!) and Thruxton on 28-29 July.

 

Thank you again Matthew for the loan of the car and for the massive technical and emotional assistance over the weekend. You are a star.

 

James - well done on a brillant weekend. 2nd and 3rd place for the races was excellent and truly well deserved from what I heard from family and friends spectating. Thank you also for your help in the build up to and during the weekend.

 

Thanks also to any other Grads reading this who I was able to meet and chat with at Brands - you all helped make my first race weekend so much less daunting.

 

Back to you Matthew for Rockingham on 19th and 20th May. I will be there cheering you on and would be great if anyone else could join me

[robmar]

Mark great report

 

Maybe in that picture if you had focused ahead rather than trying to stare your competitor out would have been better 😬

 

Also I am sure Suzanne wouldn't really have killed you if you had finished last 🤔 or would she 😬

 

Rob

[Mark Gibson]

Nice one Rob 😬. I think it was a rookie thing to do - i looked to see if I was about to slide into him as I was a bit out of shape because he was compromising my exit at Paddock Hill Bend - I am sure the more experienced guys sense the closeness of a competitor without actually having to look 😶‍🌫️

 

Some more photos of the weekend (thanks to Michael Calvert, Mark Durrant and Rich Anderson): here

 

As for whether she would have killed me - I doubt it, I just don't think I would have got as big a hug as the one I got in one of the photos above!!

[skydragon]

well done Mark.

 

I want to see the video!!! 😬

[JEM]

Yes, well done Mark.

[Matthew Willoughby]

Hmm video. I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera after race 1 so we missed all of the race 2 action. Sorry again, Mark

 

I'll upload the race 1 footage as soon as I have time.

[David Horne]

Great report well done!

[taffyracer]

once it's in the blood it's there for life, good write up

[James_Russell]

Glad you enjoyed yourself Mark You acheived so much with only 55 minutes of tracktime, especially considering the car was unfamiliar and belonged to somebody else! I see you shaved over half a second off your race 1 lap time by the end of race two- no doubt next time you'll be well and truly in the pack.

 

Thanks for your comments on my races. They really were my best efforts yet but then again I know Brands Hatch better than any other track so I suppose the challenge will be performing better at the circuits which are new to me. Judging by what I heard from spectators, race 1 was an especially entertaining watch!

 

Matthew, I'm very much looking forward to Rockingham and I hope you are too. I know the circuit reasonably well but I'll be doing a full days testing to try a few tweaks so I suppose I'll see you there Friday afternoon/Saturday morning?

[Matthew Willoughby]

Time for a bit of an update.

 

Mark is next out at Anglesey in a fortnight.

 

More excitingly (well, for me anyway) is that I've entered the end of season races at Spa Francorchamps 😬 Mark doesn't know if he is going to join me yet, but we can do one race each if he wanted. I'm very excited and it's still over 4 months away.

[KSS]

now that sound good