Formula Vee Winter Championship – Donington Park November 14th 2010
This time I had worked out my departure to the circuit so that I would arrive at the track with plenty of time to prepare the car and relax so that the day would be stress-free. That was the plan anyway. I managed to get as far as hooking up the trailer before it all went pear-shaped….the trailer lights weren’t working. And at 6am it was too dark to risk travelling without them especially with the box trailer you can’t even see the lights on the car either. As I pulled out the tool box and set about stripping the lights apart I thought “Here we go again…”
Once at the circuit (with working lights!) I managed to get a place in the AHS garage which was a bonus because I could enjoy the witty banter and tap them up for advice too! I managed to join the scrutineering queue last due to my late arrival but fortunately this wasn’t as much of a problem as it would normally have been because of the low number of cars entered (11 Vees) and I made it out for qualifying second in line. Even Alan Harding came up and asked if I’d shit the bed!
Qualifying
Being one of the first cars out on track is very important to get a clear lap and it’s not something I am normally blessed with! So on this occasion I thought I would adopt the same strategy as Silverstone (where it was starting to rain hence an early lap would be the quickest) and just go flat out straight away. It’s not my normal style but it certainly helps to blow the cobwebs away to focus the mind and makes the most of the track time. I let Steve Ough (AHS Dominator) take the lead because he had practiced the previous day so I thought I would use him to gauge my performance. The new track layout also meant it would take a few laps to find out what the new chicane was all about.
The car felt good and inspired confidence (which is a characteristic of the Scarab and the main reason for choosing one), even the wet line through Redgate where the back was stepping out quite wildly didn’t deter me from keeping my foot in and holding the slide. I was expecting to see the GAC’s and Storms come blasting past but I didn’t see another car all session. I knew that I hadn’t put in a really fast lap and Steve mentioned a target time of 1.19sec and from my on-board lap-timer I knew I was in the 1.22’s and a long way off the pace.
It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find out I had qualified third! It would appear that the track was slow for everyone but I knew the pace would be quicker in the race and that there were at least 2 cars behind me that I would struggle to beat (Ian Buxton and Tim Probert). Whilst checking the car over I found that the bottom of the front wheel could be moved in and out by 1 inch – massively effecting camber! The stud holding the lower torsion beam had come undone and allowing to move from side to side. Jason from AHS was soon on hand to provide assistance and was able to put it right before the race so once again a big “Thank you” to AHS.
Race One
Going out on the green flag lap I knew the car was going to handle a lot different and I almost spun twice just warming the tyres. I got a good start and passed Steve Ough to move up to second going in to Redgate. As I went down the Craner Curves I wasn’t sure how the car would handle and was too tame going in to the Old Hairpin allowing Steve back through. On the second lap Ian Buxton (GAC) also came past which just left Tim Probert (Storm) as the next likely challenger. I could see him about 6 car lengths back and I was pleased that I soon got to grips with the new handling and for the next 5 laps he wasn’t catching me at all. Then all of a sudden he took huge chunks out of my gap and I wasn’t going any slower! Tim admitted post race that he just wasn’t awake at the start and stepped it up a gear from half distance. I managed to keep Tim and the leaders in sight and was close enough to have a go at Tim in to the chicane on the last lap but he had me covered. This was how the race finished but I couldn’t believe the gap between us and the rest of the field and was really pleased that I was able to keep the leaders in sight. The car had felt really good and I was pushing the car a lot harder than I ever managed to in my old GAC.
Race Two
For the second race I sought advice from AHS on tyre pressures and made a change that I hoped would give me more grip on to the Dunlop straight and allow more speed to be carried in to the chicane. In the assembly area my curse struck again – the car wouldn’t start! The rest of the cars had disappeared and I had to get a push start from AHS – bless you guys! I made it to the grid by the skin of my teeth and I just hoped that the dead battery would supply enough sparks for the duration of the race…
I got another good start and managed to challenge for the lead going down the Craner Curves but Steve and Ian were soon past down the straights. The car felt much more stable in the corners and I was a lot faster than in Race 1. The leading trio weren’t pulling away and I was being held up though the chicane by Paul Taylor (GAC). I managed to pressure Paul for 5 laps and quite fancied a challenge for second when the engine started to lose power – nooooooo!!! I couldn’t believe it as it got harder and harder to rev the engine out and was only just getting in to fourth gear along the straights! I gave it some real charge through the corners and had a huge 80mph slide through Copse in an effort to maintain speed. I kept waiting for Tim Probert to come flying past but I didn’t know that he had spun and was miles behind. I could still see the leading trio but they were now almost the full length of the straight away. Watching the leaders going in to the chicane on the last lap and I saw the big bales go flying and a car in the gravel – third place was up for grabs!! I kept watching the car in the gravel (Paul Taylor) and prayed he wouldn’t get out as I negotiated the chicane with a huge bale in the track to take third place – woohoo!!!
I really enjoyed pushing the car and sliding the car around; you actually feel like you are going fast without looking at the lap timer. The feedback through the chassis and steering on this car is great and even though it had been months since the last race I was soon on the pace. It wasn’t until Monday that I even bothered to check the official results and found that in the second race I got the second fastest time, 1.19.71 vs the fastest lap (and new lap record) of Paul Taylor at 1.19.48. If would never have thought I would be lapping less than three tenths off the fastest lap pace but the car was great and the set-up and help from AHS was excellent.
That’s it for 2010, see you next year!
Tags: formula vee scarab
