Lydden Sat 9th April + Race Report

[fatcat]

Yee Haaaaa - our own section for racing ! Right, SEMSEC are running at Lydden this Sat - probably too late to enter now but always good racing to watch. There's a sprint in the morning, don't have any details at the moment, sorry. Racing in the afternoon starting at 15:30 ish (qualifying from 13:30 ish) - there'll be se7ens in at least 3 races. I'll be out in a rented R400 - OK I know I don't fit properly in anything less than SV/CSR so don't laugh too much and listed in the supp regs: Merrick Linnett will be there in another R400 - fresh from his maiden win at Brands last weekend Derek Parker in a 1.8 Zetec se7en Mark Burton in his very quick 250bhp Westfield John Hill in a 1.8 zetec se7en John Dewing in a 2 ltr Westfield David Peters in a roadsport A and I think some others will be there too, e.g. Julian Sage in an R500 - v. fast at Brands last weekend So if its not actually snowing, come down and support the caterhams against the westfields or something.. regards fc Edited by - fatcat on 12 Apr 2005 15:21:25

[fatcat]

Right, here goes, an attempt at a race report for the SEMSEC meet at Lydden on 2nd April.

 

The day dawned bright, sunny and very cold but at least the snow flurries of the previous evening had vanished. It was starting to look like an excellent spring day as I got down to the circuit – perfect for racing. Now as my CSR isn’t ready yet, Hyperion had kindly arranged for me to rent an R400 for the day. The car came with an engineer, Mark, to make sure I didn’t trash it by putting oil and petrol in the wrong ends – obviously my reputation for mechanical excellence has spread far and wide. So while Mark dealt with the car with great efficiency & expertise, my responsibilities were wisely limited to sorting the coffee & bacon rolls.

 

This is my third season racing and while I’m hardly an old pro yet, I have learnt that it’s important to get your excuses in early if you want to be considered as a proper driver. Well, this R400 is a good car and quick in the right hands too but there was a small problem. Well actually it was big problem. Me. All 6’3” and 110kg of me to be precise. I don’t really fit in an R400, particularly one set up for someone much smaller than me. So out comes the foam seat and I’m sitting on the floor with my back hard against the rear panel. Pedals are on their furthest setting but still a bit too close. Shins are nestling tightly up against something solid under the dashboard. I try and get out, but can’t. Thank God for removable steering wheels. I try again, manage it this time with lots of puffing and heaving and the loss of a small amount of skin from the kneecaps…Hmmm…..Comfort ? None. Bruises ? Everywhere. Driven the car before ? Nope. Expecting podium finishes ? You must be joking. But going to have fun ? Definitely.

 

Time for qualifying so I climbed back in, squeezing through the roll cage and wedged myself behind the wheel. Various other drivers like Merrick and Mark Burton came over to watch this process and made helpful comments about axle grease, tyre levers, engine hoists, etc. Thanks chaps !

 

Bloody hell the pedal box is small. Out we go for the first session. Brake for the first corner and discover that I’ve hit the throttle and the clutch as well. Try using just my big toe on the pedals. Better, only get two pedals now instead of all three...

 

Suffice to say that the qualifying sessions were used to try to adjust the car to fit me and for me to get some feel for how the thing handled. Qualifying times ? Er, let’s not go there, OK ?

 

Time for the first race, the SE Sports & Saloon Car Challenge. At the front of the grid we have Louis Davidson in his very quick Radical Prosport, then Leigh Parkes in a 2 litre Nemesis (that’s a car not a rotund wind-up merchant just in case you were wondering) followed by Tim Covill in a Mallock P20. Next up was Merrick Linnett in an R400, Julian Sage in an R500, Charles Harvey-Kelly in a Radical SR4, Mark Burton in 250bhp Westfield and then me. Finally there was Andrew Silman in another 250 bhp Westy and Martin Bewsey in a Radical Clubsport. Lights out, off we go. I got an unusually good start and jumped 4 places as we accelerated down into Pilgrim’s Drop but then nearly lost it completely as we went round into Chessons on cold tyres and dropped 5 places. Bollox. For the rest of the race I then proceeded to drive atrociously and was lucky not to end up in the gravel or worse. I came in ahead of the SR4 and the Clubsport but that was little to be proud about as the Clubsport driver was new to the car & circuit and the SR4 spun at the top of the hill. In the midfield, Merrick(R400) had shot off into the distance pursued by Julian(R500) and Mark(Westy). Eventually sheer horsepower played its part and they got past him with Julian just getting the better of Mark at the flag. Up front, the Nemesis took the honours from the Prosport and the Mallock.

 

Back to the paddock for petrol and bacon rolls. Put my team manager hat on and gave myself a bollocking for driving like a cretin.

 

Race 2 was mainly tintops but also included David Peters & Mark Pratt in a brace of Roadsports. Well I’m pleased to report that these two showed the rest of the field a clean pair of heels, lapping all but one of the tintops. David took the flag by a mere 0.3 sec but Mark got the fastest lap by just over a tenth. Nice one guys.

 

Race 3 was a bit of an amalgamation of 1 & 2. At the front of the grid we had Louis (Prosport)and Leigh (Nemesis), followed by Merrick (R400) and Julian (R500), then Charles (SR4), MarkB (Westy), me, Andrew (Westy), Martin (Clubsport), John Dewing (Westy), David (Roadsport) and MarkP(Roadsport). Lights change and off we go. Fairly clean start by most of us but Charles (SR4) is a bit slow away and blocks me so Andrew (Westy) takes advantage to pass us both. The race then settles into a series of groups. Leigh (Nemesis) & Louis (Prosport) fight it out at the front with Leigh taking the flag by 4 secs. Mark(250bhp Westy), Julian (R500) and Merrick (R400) have a private midfield battle, finishing tidily in that order, ranked by horsepower ! Charles spins again and drops to second last ahead of Martin but behind David and Mark P in their Roadsports. Andrew & I have a race long battle – he’s on comedy tyres from the sprint in the morning so I’m much faster into, through and out of the corners but once his tyres grip, he pulls away on the straights and grabs the defensive line into each corner. Tried going round the outside a couple of times but the lurid oversteer of the Westy makes that too risky. Very frustrating. He finishes ahead of me by a tenth with John coming in 4 seconds behind.

 

Generally a better race for me, at least my driving was much better and I was starting to get to grips with the car – obviously that bollocking from the team manager made a difference.

 

Race 4 was tintops again but without any se7ens. It was stopped after 7 laps when one of the Mini’s took a bad one. I didn’t see what happened but I’m told that when accelerating down the hill out of the hairpin, one of the leading cars got a wheel on the grass and started to lose it. The pack scattered to avoid contact and the Mini went backwards into the central banking halfway down the hill – hard. The medics & marshalls were there almost instantly and did an excellent job. They took it slowly because the driver was hurt – apparently his seat broke or something. Anyway, I spoke to the Doctor after the event (good guy, drives an RS6) and thankfully the driver was OK, just very bruised and shaken.

 

Race 5 was the John Taylor Handicap Championship. This is always great fun if utterly confusing so a few words of explanation may be useful. The handicapper looks at people’s times in other races/qualifying sessions and then assigns a start group and a number of laps to be done to each car. Groups are started at 5 or 10 secs intervals on the drop of a flag. For example, Leigh and Louis started some 30 secs ahead of me but had to do 12 laps while I only needed to do 11 laps. If the handicapper gets it right then we should all have a big pile up on the finish line.

The mix of cars in the race was marvellous, try this for size: Nemesis, Prosport, 2 x R400, R500, 250bhp Westy, 2 x Roadsport, 2 x Escort RS2000, Mini Cooper Works S, MX5, Sierra Cosworth, BMW 320, 3 x old Mini’s. These were divided into 6 start groups with cars having do 12, 11 or 10 laps. The key is how quickly the faster cars can get past the slower ones which means there’s massive amounts of over-taking for anyone in a se7en – great fun. And of course no one has a clue what the positions are right up to the chequered flag. A couple of drivers, who shall remain nameless, got a bit confused and went too early with the group ahead which mucked it up a bit but it was still huge fun. The race was won by one of the old Mini’s, with an Escort and the MX5 coming in behind. I drove tolerable well by my (low) standards for the day and came in 5th which probably should have been 4th if the jumpers were knocked back by 10 secs. But the result doesn’t really matter, its not that serious a championship. Everyone drives their nuts off on the circuit and then we all get together for a coffee and a joke in the paddock afterwards – or just laugh at me trying desperately to get out of the R400. Club racing at its best.

 

[Rachael]

Top race report - thanks for taking the time and trouble to write it and put in on here. It's great to know what other racers are getting up to - rather than just the Grads / Academy people.

 

Good luck with your next race.

 

Oh and my partner is really tall as well - we have some video of him trying to get into a grads car with a cage - much hilarity for the rest of us, for some reason he didn't seem to find it quite so funny though! 😬

 

Rach

 

Joint Cambridge AO - apparently 😬

[Tight fart]

Hope to join you soon, I joined semsec just after Xmas to do the series this year but a house purchase has put a stop to ALL fun at the moment.

Got to get the car going as well now after cracking the sump at Tesco's

 

A7 RDP

pics here

[MING]

great report FC sounds like a lot of fun thinking of having a go at this semsec stuff myself (only thing that puts a slight downer on it for me is its mostly all on one circuit and it's not exactly local to me ☹️)

 

hi Richard (tight fart) how's life i think the "bird" should be a little quicker now (i found nearly 50bhp on the rolling road now if i could just loose 20/25kg i'd be getting close to average )

 

ming 😬

 

so many supercars so little time!!!!!!

[Tight fart]

I could loose 25kg as well, But I am just about to open a bottle of red and sit down to some lamb chops so not that much chance

 

A7 RDP

pics here

[MING]

yum yum and yum again with cream on top 😬 we should never loose sight of the fact that the faster we go the more potentially dangerous it is so by living and eating well we are being very very responsible now where did I put that corkscrew ❗

cheers ming 😬

 

so many supercars so little time!!!!!!

[Archie Procter]

Nice one FC!

 

Andrew

 

My 2.0VX track car is for sale here

[stevefoster]

Sounds great FC. Almost enticed me out of retirement

 

Hants (North) and Berkshire Area club site here

My racing info site

here

 

 

 

[fatcat]

Steve - so how do we convert "almost" to actually getting you back on the grid ? 😬

[stevefoster]

Firstly I need to cut my long commute. Spending so much time in the car each day I don't want to be driving miles to circuits at the weekends. This will happen when my office relocates nearer where I live.

 

Give me a paid drive 😬 Or a mechanic / share a drive option...

 

Hants (North) and Berkshire Area club site here

My racing info site

here