The Bill Gwynne Rally School at Turweston Aerodrome features a sequence of sweeping left/right bends and two hairpin bends on a tarmac base with mixed levels of mud to give different speeds through the corners.

From the passenger seat it looked like pretty hair raising stuff; the back end in a perma-drift to steer the car and very little action with the steering wheel except at the hairpins. I wondered how long it would be before I could be that confident behind the wheel and my chance to find out soon came round. It only took a couple of corners to know that these cars are really easy to drive; they are so predictable that it’s easy to control the slides. As soon as I sat down for my second run the instructor said “What have you driven before then?” although I genuinely think anyone would be fast in these cars but perhaps it was the speed with which I got to grips with the car that gave me away.

By the end of the afternoon I was really giving it some stick, swinging the back end through all the corners and attacking the hairpins. There’s no doubt that rallying gives you a bigger satisfaction than racing because your car control is far greater. I’d love to try a proper rally stage at higher speed; I might just have to sign up for their course in a 260BHP Suburu Impreza!

Alan

I went back on the Saturday to attend an MIA seminar on “How to Prepare a Race Winning Car”. It was very insightful to how a top flight team prepares a race car and I took away a lot of useful tips. I also had a crack at the Caterham Donut School; yep, how to donut a Caterham in 15 minutes! I had already been told that it takes a lot more than 15 minutes to learn how to do it properly so I wasn’t expecting much but I managed to get it spinning around a cone a few times but it’s not easy. Getting it spinning is easy, just dump the clutch, but it’s then backing off the revs enough so that the car doesn’t just snap round instead of rotating in an arc which is the difficult bit. I’m quite tempted to do their drift school if and when funds permit.

On the Sunday I went with the family, including Alex, for the first time. Everyone had a great day and I kept my promise to buy a car – yet!

It was quite late in the year before I’d decided to go sprinting again and as a result I only managed to get out three times (see News reports). It was good to get some seat time in a fast race car but if you add up all my 60 second laps of Curborough it comes to just 10 minutes racing for the whole year! There’s no substitute for the real thing when it comes to circuit racing but getting out there and doing something, anything, was very important to me. In terms of success it was actually very good and I collected some nice silverware for the trophy cabinet.

I’m not sure what I will be doing in 2012 but my aim is to not buy any more race cars that I don’t intend to race! I’d like to think I could do something more than sprinting but it’s probably still a bit too soon; I can’t remember the last time I had a chance to do anything in the garage, but we’ll see…

Alan

I decided that I would make a minor change to the front dampers and wind them to full soft in an effort to give more bite to the front end. During checking of the car before scrutineering I noticed that the one of the rear trailing arms was very loose, allowing the back axle to move considerably. I was quite sure this would be the reason the car juddered when taking up drive; something which has drawn comments from competitors in the paddock from day one. Still it gave me something to do – it just wouldn’t have been the same otherwise!

On leaving the paddock for my first practice run the juddering was gone but this meant the clutch engagement was vicious, very snappy, and I couldn’t move away without using lots of revs. I decided that the plan for the first run was to go flat out, no point cruising as I needed to learn the car on the limit. Turning in to the first corner the front had loads of grip and even stepped the back end out which woke me up! It was a similar story throughout the rest of the lap, the back-end kept stepping out and it was a real fight to keep it on the tarmac. It was particularly loose under braking, which was disappointing as I thought that with the rear axle tightened this problem might have gone away. I recorded a 61.60 lap at 97mph, not bad for a first run!

The n/s rear had been making some nasty noises throughout the run and going back to the paddock I could hear metal touching tarmac and assumed it to be part of the exhaust. On inspection the rear trailing arm mount had ripped itself of the axle. It is welded on and with no equipment on site there was no option than to pack up and go home to fix it. Unfortunately my welder had developed a fault which meant it didn’t have the power to create a strong weld and I knew that the temporary fix would not last another run. I returned to the track after missing the second practice run just in time for my first timed run.

I knew this would be the only run I would get so I had to make it count. Unfortunately the weld broke as soon as I left the line and the rest of the lap was a battle to control the wayward handling. The commentator was quite impressed with the sideways style but it didn’t help the lap time. I managed to record a 61.40 at 99mph which was better than I thought it might have been and good enough for 9th fastest time of the day. I was the only entry in my class so there was no competition to compare my time against but it would have been nice to have had a proper attack at getting under 60 seconds. Highlight of the day was John Bradbury in his Gould setting a new course record at 49.11 seconds at 135mph – wow!

There are lots of things to do on the car; I just need to find some time to get it all done. That’s it for this year, roll on 2012!

There were lots of things on the “To Do” list after my first event in the Matador but due to time contraints all I had chance to do was target the suspension settings. A check of the camber confirmed what my eyes were telling me which was that both front wheels had nearly 2 degrees of positive camber. The camber was so far out that it wasn’t possible to get enough movement on the upper balljoint to get the 2 degrees I was looking for and had to settle for 1 degree. A check of the front geometry also showed that the track width was different from one side to the other so this was sorted along with the bottom balljoint retaining bolt that was allowing 1” of travel without actuating the suspension. Hopefully these changes will help sort out the wayward handling and provide more bite from the front end to improve on my previous best time of 61.61secs.

The forecast for the day was initially looking like rain at about 10am and then on the morning I checked it and it had changed to 10pm which was great for me since I have no wet tyres! The weather looked great as I arrived at the circuit to a paddock full of Caterfields everywhere; I was definitely the odd one out! Just before the event I had managed to get some new brake pads, EBC greenstuffs, to put in to help bring the brake pedal up and to give some much needed bite to the brakes so I set about changing the pads – I’ve always got to have something to do on race day!

Due to the pad change the first run would purely be exploratory to see if I had any brakes and to check the handling. The car was much more positive and the brakes were completely transformed but required a lot more finesse than before to stop them locking. For the second run I gave it some death but it was a scrappy run simply due to not being used to the handling and brakes but the power wasn’t quite there either resulting in a 63 second run at 97mph. On arrival back at the pits the radiator promptly spewed water everywhere and the header tank was boiling away for about 5 minutes! I noticed that the vacuum hose to the MAP sensor had become detached and also the fan fuse had blown. Fortunately the engine seemed fine and after replenishing the water I was ready for another run.

Then it rained. Bloody weather forecasts! The track was completely wet for the first timed run and on slicks it was a joke so I was sideways everywhere and had to back off down the straight resulting in a 70 second 80mph run.

So it was all down to the last run. A quick tweak on the tracking for more toe-in to steady the car under braking was all that was required and lots of concentration for a good run. Fortunately the weather dried out and although the track was damp in places it wasn’t sufficient to cause any major problems. The run was quite good but I could have been more aggressive on the brakes and some of the gearchanges weren’t too good either. The time over the line was 60.16 and 99mph, a good 1.5 second improvement over last time shows how well the changes have worked. It was good enough to be the fastest Curborough Championship contender at this meeting and I received a very nice trophy too!

Next time, more improvements to the gearchange and hopefully break the 100mph barrier and get below 60 seconds.

I had entered in the Sports Libre Class for up to 1700cc cars in the fifth round of the Curborough Lifeline Sprint Championship, a 2 lap event. There are some Championships that have Sports Libre categories up to 1400cc, which would be better suited to my 1197cc engine, but unfortunately the 1700cc class is the most common. I was therefore going to be up against some serious competition in the form of Les Procter and his OMS (think Radical) Hayabusa engined car that’s been bored out to nearly 1600cc! Talk about taking a knife to a gunfight!

The first outing in the new car, the Matador (Mallock) motorbike engined sprint car, was always going to be a baptism of fire. I didn’t have chance to test the car or even drive it more than a few feet before the event so what could possibly go wrong? Things didn’t start well when I tried to get the car in the new box trailer the day before the event and managed to badly bruise my ribs when it made a bid for freedom when it was half way in the trailer and I was at the access door at the front. All I could do was leap in the trailer and grab the front wishbone and got slammed in to the door post as the car tried to drag me through the door! Then came the fun part of trying to work out how to stop it from disappearing any further out the trailer without letting go of it but in true MacGyver style I managed to make a strap using my belt, shoelaces and wristwatch one-handed to save the day (either that or I just moved the front wheel to wedge it against the side of the trailer – I forget which).

The forecast for the day was light rain and then heavy rain which wouldn’t have worried me at all if it wasn’t for the fact that my choice of tyres are slicks, slicks or slicks. Fortunately the rain that was forecast for the morning held off and I managed to get to the track on time and through scrutineering without any issues, which is a novelty for me.

The day then took on a more familiar theme when I tried to demonstrate the engine to some interested spectators and the car promptly decided not to fire up and flattened the battery in the process! This was the first time I had had any difficult starting it and it was also the first time ever that I have not taken my Jumpstart pack with me, despite looking at it in the garage the night before and thinking “Should I bother taking it when this car has an alternator/generator…” Clearly the answer should have been “Of course you idiot!” and I just wondered if I should have just stayed at home. Fortunately Mr Procter was able to lend a jump start and I got the car going in time for the first practice run.

There is no rev counter in the car and with no experience of motorbike engines it was hard to judge how many revs I needed to get off the line cleanly. The advise from Mathew was to give it plenty and it would fly off the line. So that’s what I did, and boy he wasn’t joking, that car shifts! First gear was pretty breathtaking but second gear was just as savage and the first corner came round really fast. Trying to handle an unkown car at race speed can be difficult with some cars; others just feel natural and inspire confidence. This one felt very at odds and wanted to drive all over the road and I wasn’t convinced that it was due to the power either. The power down the straight was awesome and the flatshift worked a treat with the sequential gearbox. It was even more exciting at the end of the straight when the brake pedal went flat to the floor! Fortunately I wasn’t giving it full beans on this first run and was conservative on the brakes; it really could have been a big off. I pootled round to the pits and started investigating the problem.

The car had been fitted with reconditioned callipers early this year and had not been run since so I assumed the problem to be an air lock, particularly as the front hose appeared to be kinked. A quick bleed of the brakes was needed but the other thing I didn’t bring with me was a brake bleeder or brake fluid! So it was a trip back home to get all the things I should have taken with me in the first place. By the time I got back and bled the brakes I had missed my second run but the session was still going. With some more assistance from Les I got out again out for another run, thanks Les!

Once I’d got in the car I could tell that the problem was still there but at least the pedal wasn’t going all the way to the floor. I gave it a bit more beans but I was still cautious with the brakes and recorded a time of 65.26secs and 95mph over the finish…nice!

The brake problem was traced to a leaking brake calliper fitting and the brakes were sorted just in time for the first timed run. This time I was in “Attack” mode and tried pushing in the corners. The car still felt wayward and the throttle had a very snappy action which made it difficult to have a smooth run. The grip on turn-in wasn’t as good as I was expecting and it hurt the run out on to the straight which meant the top speed was up by just 1mph to 96mph but the time had dropped to 61.81sec, a good improvement.

For the final run I put more positive camber on the n/s front and adjusted the tracking to give toe-in as it looked to be toeing out a huge amount. Then it started raining….a lot. So much so that Les Procter decided that another run would not improve his time, a stunning 56.10, and packed up! I decided that I would go out again to see if my tweaks had made any difference and sod the rain! As it happened the track had mostly dried out by the time I lined up and although the track was slightly slower I still managed to improve on my time by two-tenths with the improvements to the car being very effective indeed. I got way too much wheelspin on to the final straight and it hurt my top end speed, down to “just” 94mph.

With a proper set-up on the car (all my settings were done by eye and I have since found out that my tyre pressures were several PSI too high) and with some work on the brakes and gearchange, I think a sub-60 time is on the cards…but a 56 second run isn’t! However, as it turns out under the championship rules you can only win one award. So Les Procter got FTD which meant I inherited the Class win! Well I’ll take ‘em any way they come but it’s a bit of a head-scratcher as to whether to try and do anything to get on terms. I have been looking at turbo kits for the Blackbird….

By choosing sprints, and hillclimbs if desired, it means I can keep within a similar discipline to circuit racing and hopefully when I eventually go back to the circuits I won’t have lost my touch. Testing for sprints and hillclimbs is quite rare and is not usually available the day before an event therefore it suits my needs perfectly. Needless to say that sprinting is against the clock therefore there are no other cars on circuit to hit!

The Curborough sprint course is just 15 minutes away and is a regular venue that I visit to see the interesting array of cars that go sprinting; anything from roadgoing Vauxhall Corsas to big V8 powered single seaters. It’s not the most exciting venue and I remember sprinting there in my first year of motorsport and finding it rather underwhelming compared to other circuits on the calendar. However I thought that if I could find something more interesting to drive than the roadgoing Opel Manta that I used back then it might make it more exciting, so the search for a suitable car began…

First on the shopping list was a Jedi Mk4. These motorbike engined single seaters are rapid and ideal for sprinting. I had one particular car in mind and despite numerous offers a deal couldn’t be reached. A Mallock derived car called a Matador came on the market which had been used for sprints which had been fitted with a Honda Blackbird motorbike engine instead of the usual Crossflow and it had big slick tyres. The car looked exactly what I was looking for and I agreed to purchase the car over the phone. I made the trip to Wakefield to see Mathew Suttcliffe and the car was exactly as described so the deal was done.

So all I need to do now is get booked in to an event at Curborough to see if the car makes an ordinary track more interesting!

The first to go was my Subaru Impreza WRX, a completely standard blobeye model in a rare metallic green and it really was an excellent example. I never got on with the handling though; it always felt nervous and snappy with no feedback through the steering. The road noise was intrusive as well and in the end I thought I’d see if it would sell and put I up for sale along with our long-term tow car; the Jeep Grand Cherokee. There was little interest in the Scoobie so I decided to get rid of the Jeep and put it on the Bay of Temptation. Typically, a couple of days after it was listed I had one enquiry on the Scoobie and the guy bought it there and then! So then there was just one vehicle left that I could use…my VW Camper that was away being painted after it’s 12 month bodywork restoration.

I chased the camper up and got a garage to put it through the MOT, no mean feat when it required nearly £2k of parts to get it through….ouch! It was a few days before Xmas during the severe cold that I travelled to Kettering to collect the van. It was an interesting drive back up as the prat that sprayed the van hadn’t refitted the door seals, window seals or retaining trim. It was the coldest, noisiest trip up the M1 I have ever experienced! For the next few months any spare time was spent putting the van back to some kind of order and it turned in to a real time vampire, not to mention a money pit!

The first race car to go was the Formula Vee Mk2 that I raced at the end of last year. It was a well sorted car with a strong engine but it was a bit tired and I wanted to improve the aerodynamics and induction system. Around the same time another Mk2 came up for sale that had all the improvements done to it and was in much better condition. So I put the car up for sale with the intention of moving in to this other Mk2. I received a lot of interest from Europe and the car eventually went to a very nice chap in Belgium.

The next car to go was my long-term project, the Peugeot 106 Rallycross Stock Hatch car that has been on the go for the last 10 years! It was eventually finished to a very high standard and was a superb car. I never got the chance to try it as I didn’t want to risk pranging it so it was sold for a ridiculously low price to Sean Smith, completely untested and he is due to race it in this year’s championship.

By this stage the campervan was nearing completion and by using it as a daily driver I managed to get the reliability and driveability to a satisfactory level. The camper really needed a new interior to complete it but by this stage it had already cost me far too much money so I decided to cut my losses and run before it cost me even more money. I had loads of interest in the van and it has now found a new home in Weston Super Mare.

The Bay of Temptation struck again and I soon became the proud owner of a Rally Opel Manta with red top XE engine, quaife 4 speed straight cut box and LSD rear axle. It was a potent bit of kit and I had grand plans of restoring it back to its former glory.

Reality soon hit home after the birth of number two son, Harvey, born on 18th May. Since then I haven’t seen the inside of my garage or a spanner! All plans of car restoration and racing weekends soon went out the window and the acceptance that this won’t be on the cards for the next few years.

So next up on the forecourt was the second Formula Vee Mk2 Scarab. Again the enquiries were from overseas and this time it went to Portugal. Second up, and with much regret, was the Opel Manta. Much like the camper I could see this being a money pit if I didn’t carry out the work and there was no chance of this so to avoid the temptation it too had to go. Because of the condition of the car I decided to sell it to a rally specialist to avoid the countless questions about the car. It now lives at Fuzznagg rally in Hull; Gavin is a really nice bloke and I can highly recommend them.

In between all this was a flight to Scotland to collect my current daily driver, a Mitsubishi Pajero, and a car trailer. There was also the purchase and sale of no fewer than 5 car trailers too!

There is still one more car left to sell, a Fiesta RS Turbo, and no doubt there will be a race car of some description back on the drive soon.

So it has been busy behind the scenes but not much happening on track. I will try to rectify

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!

My last outing in the Legend was to be at Birmingham Wheels raceway on a Saturday evening. The day had been preceded by my usual last minute preparations and in true style I arrived at 6.00pm, thoroughly missing the practice which started at 2.30 and the official practice at 5.30pm – why break the habit of a lifetime? It wasn’t too bad actually because it had been raining in the afternoon and the track was still wet when I arrived and was very, very slick so practice would have been pointless anyway.

Out on track in the first heat and I finally got to start from the front – woohoo! The starts are more tricky because the green flag gets dropped whilst still going through turn 4 and getting the power down is seriously tricky and I was sideways most of the way down the straight and had to change gear mid powerslide too! The inside of the track was horrendously slippy and the car understeered all the way to about halfway up the lane. Turns 3 & 4in particular had an oil slick on it and the understeer was absolutely chronic. It soon became apparent that there was only the outside lane to drive and that overtaking would be very tricky. I did make a move down the inside and promptly understeered in to the car on the outside – oops! I did manage to put some good laps together and found some grip and with the inability to overtake I managed to come home in 8th place!

The second race was better but turns 3 & 4 still had a very slick line and it took a few laps to find the grip. I managed to get a good start but there was a yellow flag caution after 3 laps which brought the pack line astern. At the restart I got caught up behind the 75 car on the outside and the whole pack streamed by on the inside and I couldn’t get to the inside to overtake; I literally had to let everyone go past to drop in behind the last car. I managed to gain a few places after I got back up to speed again to salvage 10th.

The feature final was held on a terrible track after the demolition derby boys did themselves proud with oil just about everywhere! I made a reasonable start and got past the 75 car (phew!) up to 5th. After a yellow flag period on lap 3 the fast guys were on my tail and I was soon down in 8th place. There seemed to be incidents going on everywhere and I ended up with more knocks and dings than I had collected all season! Circuit racer Stephen Treherne got past plenty sideways on lap 13 so I gave him room to come past and he promptly slid in to the 365 car right in front of me and I had to anchor up on the straight to avoid a pile up which let several cars past to leave me in 10th. I managed to get past the 57 car to move up to 9th and had a close battle for several laps before contact sent me spinning to the infield and a very close call with the banking. I lost my rhythm and with cars going out left, right and centre I decided to bring the car back in one piece and cruised to the finish. Due to the huge attrition I still managed a respectable 10th and the car still had all four wheels on it – just! It was a hugely frantic race and I felt very lucky to have escaped a lot of close calls without serious damage.

So that’s it for Legends, the car is now back in the safe hands of Racecarsdirect boss Keith Whalley. It’s certainly been an enjoyable experience piloting these rapid cars and it’s something that I would love to do again in the future but only when I have more time to dedicate to the sport to work out how to set them up and get the most out of them.