Getting the car ready for Donington was always going to be a tall order. The list of parts that needed repairing after Brands was quite extensive to the extent that all that was left in the garage was a bare chassis. In typical racing fashion at 11pm the day before the race, the car was still not completed or loaded on to the trailer. A 4am start was needed to get the car loaded and over to Donington to continue the re-assembly. Fortunately, Alan Harding from AHS had kindly saved me room in one of their garages and offered his assistance to get the car ready in time for qualifying. It was a close one but we just managed to make it thanks to a 10 minute delay while the track was cleared. A big thanks to Glyn and Alan who helped me with the car.
Qualifying
The track was still wet but was drying out quickly. There not been enough time to set any of the tracking, camber or even suspension so the handling was interesting to say the least. I therefore trundled around for 3 laps to guarantee a starting slot before trying to be a bit braver. It took a couple more laps to get some heat in the tyres but once the grip came in the car was a bit easier to drive albeit the handling was still throwing up some surprises especially on changing direction. A respectable 9th was a good result, in fact just getting out on track was a result!
Heat
Due to the combined grid from session A & B my 9th place turned in to 18th overall and I lined up 7th on the grid for the Heat. Fortunately Jason from AHS spent considerable time setting up the geometry and suspension so I was looking forward to some better handling. I wouldn’t be able to find out just yet as it had been raining and the track was once again wet. I got too much wheel spin at the start and lost several places. The car was very nervous in the wet and it was a real battle to keep it on the track and lost further places, a spin also didn’t help, but as the track dried out I was soon able to start moving back up the grid. I finished in 9th place with 3rd fastest time and the car felt much better in the dry conditions.
Final
The sun had come out and the track was completely dry for the final and I was looking forward to a good race…right up until the remote brake bias cable snapped on the warm up lap. I had been moving the bias towards the front as I had backed it off for the wet conditions in the heat. The snapped cable resulted in the back brakes being partially stuck on and it was no surprise that I lost several places at the start plus a few more down the back straight. Fortunately the problem didn’t get any worse and I was able to continue racing right up until the second problem occurred. It’s rather odd but my helmet was lifting going down the straights to the extent that I couldn’t see and I needed to hold it down with one hand. I carried on for several laps but it was getting a bit too dangerous and I bit the bullet and pitted. This problem was one that I had experienced during testing at Snetterton but at no other tracks to the same degree. It was a problem in this race because I hadn’t done my helmet up tight enough but the long term solution is to get much lower down in the seat to avoid the air getting underneath the helmet in the first place.
After the pitstop I had the track to myself and decided to throw caution to the wind and push the car very hard to see what times I could get as I suspected that the engine was not producing the power as it was making nasty noises at high revs. I really drove the wheels off round the corners and enjoyed pushing the car to its limits. There was a bit more time to come in the braking zones but my best time was still 4 seconds off the pace and the leaders passed me a bit too quickly for comfort.
The engine is well overdue for a rebuild so the car is coming apart again, the brakes and seating position need looking at too! I have a feeling I’ve been here before…
