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Forum LockedRichard Bacons experience driving BMWCC car

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    Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 11:10am
Richard has been driving the Automac built and run - BMWCC decalled Class D BMWRDC Kumho race car.....these will also be covered in Total BMW Magazine from Cadwell on so that should be great with action photos also - if members want to attend and see the cars close up come along to the races as advertised on the club site or BMWRDC website
 
See below for each events report written by Richard based on his experiences


Edited by Cabrio - 10 Jul 2011 at 11:27am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cabrio Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 11:28am
Silverstone
Snetterton
Castle Combe
Brands Hatch
Croft
Cadwell
Rockingham
Oulton
Pembrey
 
Reports to follow
 
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Silverstone - Round 1 and 2
 

Kumho BMW Championship – Round 1 – 2nd & 3rd April

 

The bright sunny morning of Friday 1st April marked the start, for me at least, of the 2011 Kumho BMW Championship. As a new entrant into this accessible, exciting and competitive domestic racing championship I was itching to get started. Last year I had completed a number of test and trackdays in the Automac 318is BMW with Neil McDonald, on hand to give helpful encouragement and advice. I’d also had the opportunity to test the water with a one off appearance in 2010 at Oulton Park, bagging a 5th and 6th place finish in class D.

 

So, what will hopefully be my first full season kicked off on a dry and clear morning after what had seemed an eternity waiting for the day to finally arrive, and after a brief chat and a check over the car we took to the Silverstone National Circuit (Friday testday). The learning curve is always going to be a sharp one in the early days and I was instantly surprised at how different the car felt on track to the memory I had from our test session last year. Then the car had felt planted and had inspired confidence but this morning it felt skittish and uncertain. Sure the tyres were cold and brand new with a slippery top layer on them for the first few laps, and the track was yet to absorb any of the heat the sun had to offer, but things certainly felt different and after a few laps we quickly returned to pits. With the Class D cars, the closest to production BMW format of any of the Kumho classes, there is clearly a limited number of changes that can be applied to the car. But that’s certainly not to say that those limited changes can’t make a big difference. Lesson number one - “tyre pressures”. After a morning of making sure we were heating the tyre equally across its surface and reducing the pressure until we thought we had gone a bit too far we crept one psi back up the scale the car felt 100% improved. The stability on the brakes has always felt good in the past and that had now returned. We raised the back of the car a little more and the turn in inspired confidence, mid-corner understeer was limited and we could get on the throttle earlier, pushing the car out of the corner in Maggots and Woodcote. All in all a good day, a lot learnt and a best time of 1:13.77.

 

Saturday the competition really began and I arrived pleased with the progress we had made on the Friday and felt well prepared for our 20 minute qualifying session. In many ways the pressure pre-qualifying is as high as it gets all weekend with a limited time to find the limit of yourself and the car, not push to hard and overdrive it and in the process set a time which could define your weekend. Fortunately the session was dry and we could carry over all of our experience from the previous day but it was also colder than it had been for the majority of Friday’s running. Upon leaving the pits competition for track position was furious and I battled hard to pass the two or three cars immediately in front of me and keep one at bay who was also looking to make progress. After three laps the tactic had paid off and we found ourselves with clear track for the remainder of the session. The cooler temperature had allowed more understeer to creep back into the car from the previous day, especially in Luffield, but on the whole the car felt good. At the end of a fault free session we were 3rd in our class of 13 cars with 26 cars in total qualify for Sunday’s race. I felt reasonably happy with my time, although I knew I was losing some through Copse with not enough commitment on the way in to the turn that was then penalising me all the way up to Maggots. Maybe, a perfect lap would have gained us 0.5 second and moved us one place further forward on the grid but third felt pretty good for race one, and importantly on the inside line for the first turn!

 

Sunday equalled race day for rounds 1&2 of the championship and it was an early start with the Kumho cars up first on the bill with a 09.50 start time. Excitement was running high and I was looking forward to getting underway. As we went out on to the track for our out lap followed by our green flag lap I worked hard to get some heat into the tyres to guarantee me some grip into the opening few corners. My tactic was clear, I was in the front two rows for my class with the faster class A, B and C cars directly ahead, they would get away quickly, opening up the road ahead and all I had to do was to get off the line, stick to the inside and slot into 2nd thorough turn one. At least that’s what I thought. Best laid plans and all that! We formed up, the lights when first to red and then off and away we went…but I was standing still, at least that’s what it felt like, with too many revs and far too much wheel spin. By the time I’d killed it off and got back on the throttle cars were streaming past on all sides and I’d moved from 3rd to 8th by the exit of turn 1. With the game plan binned it was time to see what we could make from our new situation and I felt it was important to pass cars quickly in the early stages when the pack was still tightly bunched and other drivers might be more easily distracted. Within six laps we had clawed our way back to fourth with most of our passing taking place into the Luffield complex, where my car was stronger and later on the brakes than most of our fellow competitors. After nine laps we had managed to pull a bit of a gap and were running in reasonable clear air, but then the understeer became a little worse and at the same time the pace of the car behind a little better and I was suddenly under real pressure, moving off line every lap to defend my position and going slower and slower as a result. The defensive tactic was working though and on lap twelve I came up to lap one of the backmarkers. Conscious I was under huge pressure, I knew I couldn’t afford to be held up and had to be quick and decisive. As we entered the second part of Luffield, 3rd gear, around 50 mph, the car I was lapping was two car widths from the racing line and it was clear he had seen me and was giving me space to come though, and he wouldn’t cost me much time to clear. But unfortunately not, he was just wide, hadn’t seen me and moved back across to take up his racing line. I lifted and we made the lightest of contact which was enough to spin his car and deposit it in the gravel on the outside of the bend, with me free to continue. I’m not sure what happened to the car that had been right behind me up to that point, when I looked in my mirrors he wasn’t there, and therefore we had a trouble free run to the flag finishing 4th in class and 13th overall.

 

The Kumho Championship applies the finishing positions from race one to form the starting grid for race two and I lined up in forth, fortunately still on the favoured side due the staggered grid. Mindful of my less than impressive get away in race one I was keen to show some improvement this time around. Tyres warmed, lights on, and then away. The car moved off the line perfectly and I could feed the power in quickly and without any drama. Into the right hander at turn one, on the inside line we were second…and then we took a hard hit on the left of the car just behind he front wheel. The car immediately started to slide and I just managed to keep it pointing the right direction and everyone else managed to avoid me. Net result, 4th down to 9th within a few hundred yards of the start; almost a carbon copy of race one, all be it with a very different cause. For the rest of the race we then battled away and fought our way back up the order and were 4th in class once again when we crossed the line, 14th overall. Despite some late on stress caused by the fuel gauge showing next to nothing for the final 6 laps it was again a fairly trouble free run.

 

So all in all a reasonable first weekend and I wouldn’t mind betting I did more passing for position than anyone else across all classes! But tinged with frustration as the opportunity was clearly there to finish in the top three in both races. The first race was a missed opportunity which was purely my mistake and the second we were the victim of some pretty “hard” driving from one of our fellow competitors! But “racing’s racing” as they say and we will take our experience and our points on to Snetteton in two weeks time. Our car and my experience mean that we are not at a point to win just yet but I feel I’m driving better and better the more time and experience I get in the car and Neil tells me he might have some ideas for the next round including spoiler to improve handling, that could make us go a little quicker. The newly developed Snetteron 300 circuit will be a new challenge for all of us on the 16th & 17th March so watch this space!

 


Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 4:28pm
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Snetterton - rounds 3 and 4
 

Kumho BMW Championship – Round 2 – 15th & 16th April

 

On the 14th of April things got a bit more tricky for the Kumho BMW Championship as we all made our way into Norfolk on the eve of Round 2 at the newly developed Snetterton 300. With all due respect to the Silverstone National Circuit, it very quickly became clear that this weekend brought something completely different; a challenging, technical and intimidating race track. Even with my limited experience I had to marvel at what has been achieved here with this new three mile layout, a truly awesome challenge.

 

Fortunately we had once again taken the decision to test here on the Friday before the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC) event that spanned the weekend and were blessed with almost perfect dry conditions. With the new track being opened so recently (March 2011) it was soon apparent that all chances to test here, regardless of car or championship, are highly prized opportunities and we took to the track on Friday morning alongside GT 3 Porsche 911 and F430 Ferraris as well as more humble competitors! In what was the first of four equally busy sessions.

 

Firstly this is a very busy lap compared to Silverstone. Lots of corners of varying angles and sizes, lots of gear changes and lots of opportunity to make a mistake. Secondly there are two or three points on this track where bravery would clearly be rewarded with lap time. Fast sweeping right or left hand bends into tight slow corners with raised curbs that switched back the other way. Coram followed by Murrays and Brundle followed by Nelson being the prime examples. Other parts were just an absolute blast and a sheer pleasure like the flat out fourth gear sweep through the Bomb Hole or the lightest touch on the brake before flicking the car into Hamilton. It was exhilarating. Jonathan Palmer, chief executive of circuit owner MSV said “I wanted every corner to either be a really exciting driver/rider challenge, or produce a good overtaking opportunity”. Well, I think it’s fair to say, “Job done!”

 

For those that read my Silverstone race report you will have heard me say that whilst you can’t change a huge amount on a class D BMW car in the Kumho Championship, due to its strong ties to the production model, that is certainly not to say that what you can change can’t make a huge difference. But the challenge for us was two fold here because I couldn’t ask Neil at Automac Ltd (who runs my No. 81 class D car) to start making changes until we could establish what difficulties were down to the car and what were down to my lack of experience and unfamiliarity with the circuit. No surprise that in the early stages it was definitely the later that was causing the majority of the problems! But, by Friday afternoon I was making progress and we were able to start playing around with cambers, ride heights and spring settings to try and improve our car and my confidence. As I said, confidence around here is definitely rewarded. Pleasingly, just like Silverstone, we had arrived with a set up that was “so so” and finished with one that felt absolutely great. Our new rear wing was definitely a net benefit around here, the brakes once again felt stable and the car felt very drivable by the time the day drew to a close.

 

Saturday heralded the official start of the weekend and just before lunchtime, in bright, dry conditions we took to the track for the 15 minute qualifying session. Once again, and as I expect will be the case all year long, the first few laps of qualifying pretty much resemble a race situation as everyone, in all classes, battle of track position to give themselves the best opportunity in the 15 minutes available. Either by luck of judgement, we found some good space and were able to complete four of our six laps at a good qualifying pace. I also mentioned in my Silverstone report that it was early days and we are obviously competing against some very experienced and very strong competitors in our class and therefore it was great to find out at the end of the session we had qualified on pole for our class (of 12 cars), by 1.2 seconds placing me 9th out of 21 competitors overall. It felt absolutely great to take the top spot so early on in the year and was completely unexpected, and I should pay a sincere thank you to Neil for the excellent work he had done on the car in the previous 24 hours to make it possible. Sunday couldn’t come quickly enough!

 

Sunday morning was dry and the forecast for the day was good and I arrived early at the circuit for our 9.50am start time. Having thought about it the previous evening I expected to be under serious pressure from the very beginning but the best form of defence is attack and if I could get into the first turn ahead of the rest then I just had to go for it and try and pull a gap rather than approaching the race with a very defensive mind set. But, unfortunately, whilst the get away wasn’t the disaster it was in race 1 at Silverstone it still left a lot to be desired! I was third on the run down to turn two. Halfway round the first lap I had established myself back in second and went about catching the leader. It quickly became clear that we not only had the pace to run with the leader we were actually faster at a number of points around the track and on lap five I got a great run out on the sweeping left hander at turn three and pulled to the inside on the run down to the hairpin at four. As we arrived deep in the braking zone the leader started to close the gap more and more taking a more direct line to the apex of the hairpin and we inevitably touched. He spun and I moved into the lead unscathed. From then on I led for five laps but soon, after a fantastic recovery drive the pressure was on me again and four laps from the end I slide a bit wide coming out of the Bomb Hole and was demoted to second which is where I finished, crossing the line 0.217 seconds behind the leader which is about a car length plus a foot in real money! It was a great race, from start to finish, and although I was far too hot and pretty out of puff it felt great to finished in the top three for the first time and to have come so close.

 

In race two your finishing position from the previous race decides your grid slot. By now it was late in the afternoon and even warmer. Despite only being around 16-17 degrees the heat in the car even on the green flag parade lap was something else. I dread to think what 28 degrees in the height of summer will be like! This time the start was much better, maybe to good as I had to then back out of it as some of the Class B cars were slower to get away. On the exit of turn two I was still in second place. Unfortunately our car wasn’t quite so strong in the afternoon with quite a lot more understeer making it hard to attack in turns one and seven where we had been so strong in the morning. Also, in my efforts to stay in touch I made far more mistakes in the afternoon, and only just kept the car on the road at one point, breaking too late into Brundle at the end of the back straight. After that little moment I had slipped to around 4 seconds behind the leader but still with a healthy gap to third which is how it finished a few laps later.

 

All in all a great circuit, a great challenge and a great weekend and I hope (and think) we might have got a few people talking with pole and two second places. After two rounds (four races) in we have climbed to equal 2nd in the class D points table on 52pts (versus the leader on 60pts with 4 wins) and 5th in the overall standings. Most encouragingly Neil and I are working better together all the time as the experience grows and we now know the Automac car can take the fight to the leader! Roll on Castle Combe in a couple of weeks.



Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 4:26pm
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Castle Combe - rounds 5 and 6
 

Kumho BMW Championship – Round 3 – 2nd May

 

On the 2nd May the Kumho BMW Championship made good use of the second bank holiday Monday in as many weeks and assembled at Castle Combe near Bath for round 3, race 5 of the Championship with the added pressure that this weekend’s action would be broadcast live on the Motors TV channel. Unfortunately we hadn’t had the opportunity to test our car in the run up to this weekends meeting and therefore, for the first time this season, qualifying would be my first experience of the track. That said we did find time for a quick track walk (jog!) first thing Monday morning. After the thrill of Snetterton two weeks earlier it was hard to get too excited about the historic Castle Combe circuit with Quarry, the first real sequence of corners after the start line, offering the main challenge on the lap. A flat out left kink followed by a fourth gear right hander; a good technical challenge.

 

I took to the track for our fifteen minute qualifying session running the same set up on the car that we had used to good effect at Snetterton. Despite a good deal of You Tube research and the early morning walk it took several laps to begin to feel comfortable. As lap time started to fall away and I carried more speed into the corners it became clear that we had three main issues we would battle with all meeting; a lack of track time, an unusually high amount of understeer and many of the corners being “between gears”. Both of the chicanes were prime examples, too fast for third gear but horribly bogged down in fourth. We could only hope every body else in class D was suffering the same. However lap by lap we gradually improved apart from a couple of laps from the end when I briefly tangled with another car whilst overtaking on a quick lap, nudging them into the bright yellow rapeseed covered infield leaving me to carry on having collected a dent in the front left wing. By the time the flag dropped we were unfortunately, although not entirely surprisingly sixth in our class and 14th out of 26th overall.

 

By the time our start time arrived we had made a few cosmetic repairs, and made some setup changes to improve some of the issues we had had in the morning session and took up our place on the grid. Fortunately my get away was good. The car inched forward off the line; the wheel spin was minimal and I jumped up into fifth on the long run up to Quarry. But, after a great start we then settled into what would be the defining period of the race, battling with a slower yet more powerful class B car which now separated me from the rest of the class D pack (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th). Lap after lap I was later on the brakes and carried more speed into the corners, catching the car ahead and having to wait an age to get back on the throttle only to emerge fully from the corner and watch the class B car then use its extra power to disappear up the straight. Because the class D cars are relatively low on power, momentum is everything, and the scenario above, repeating itself three or four times a lap, was the kiss of death. After a third of the race I got past which wasn’t a huge improvement as I was now defending into most corners as the B car stalked me along the straights, but it did at least give me the chance to go after the 4th place D class car and see what I could do.

 

We were gaining very gradually when all of a sudden the 4th place car spun exiting the second chicane and I was past. A little later the ever present B class car sneaked by, removing the barrier between me and the recovering spinner in fifth. For the final five laps I was under massive pressure and fought hard to maintain 4th place. Fortunately I was lapped for the third time by the winning class A car with two corners to go thereby avoiding the need to defend for another tough lap.

 

Whilst slightly disappointing 4th felt like a good damage limitation drive on Monday afternoon in what had been a long and very hot race; and unlike some of the other leading class D contenders we loaded the car back on the trailer at the end of the day with relatively little damage following our qualifying tap. But, in order to be in the hunt at the very end of the year we need to start winning and reproducing some Snetterton form. Brands Hatch is up next and the short Indy Circuit will no doubt be congested and frantic. Here’s hoping for a good result.

 
 


Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 4:27pm
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Brands Hatch
 

Kumho BMW Championship – Round 4 – 14th & 15th May

 

The dry weather continued for Round 4 of the Kumho BMW championship, all be it only just at times, and we arrived at Brands Hatch on Friday 13th with grey and over cast skies to start our days testing ahead of what would be races 6 and 7 on Sunday afternoon. Brands Hatch also marked my home race (if there is such a thing!) and it made a nice change to have a forty minute commute into the circuit. It is also one of the few tracks The Championship visits this year that I am familiar with having driven around on a couple of occasions in the last few years. So, with all that on our side Neil and I arrived with high expectations for the weekend ahead, but unfortunately it would turn out to be our toughest weekend so far and one that I hope we can look back on at the end of the year as our low point of the season.

 

An overheating issue first thing or Friday morning, before we had taken to the track, put us on the back foot before the weekend was really underway. The cracked radiator pipe that resulted was unimaginably difficult to get to and as with many things in life it is sometimes the most simple and least expensive problems that take the longest and are the most time consuming to put right. It took us most of the morning to remove the damaged part and then source and fit a replacement and I owe a huge thank you to Neil at Automac for his patience (that never faltered throughout!) and hard work and Bexley Motorsport for kindly supplying us with the replacement we needed at short notice to get us back underway.

 

With the morning missed we were slightly up against it in terms of me getting up to speed and building my familiarity with the circuit and having the time to discuss and implement changes in order to get ourselves close to a competitive lap time and what we hoped would put us near the sharp end of the grid on Saturday. Despite the short 1.2 mile Brands Hatch Indy Circuit being reasonable easy to learn and understand it does also presents its own quite unique challenges. Paddock Hill bend (turn 1) being the first that greets you. A sweeping right hander with a semi-blind apex at the turn in point and a section of track that then falls violently away down the hill. A significant challenge and one that goads you into thinking you’re not being brave enough until it suddenly tells you you’ve over stepped the mark. The Druids hairpin and Graham Hill bend that follow are enjoyable enough before the real thrill of Surtees and Clearways at the end of the lap. Flat out in forth through that final section with the car skipping off the left hand curb on the way into Surtees before braking and guiding it into Clearways; that was the highlight of the weekend and something you could never grow tired of.

 

As Friday’s test session drew to a close it was becoming clear that despite “firming” our car up and lowering it down a little, to improve the response at turn in, the bullet proof and direct front end that I’d enjoyed at Silverstone and Snetterton earlier in the year had deserted us slightly. It was also clear that in order to get the best from the car this weekend I was going to have to adjust my driving style and approach. Obviously the front wasn’t working as well as we would have ideally liked and there was no point in relentlessly throwing the car into the corners in the hope that “this lap it might be different”. The technique I had tried to employ in the previous round of trying to carry as much corner entry speed as we could had to now change. It was time to go slower, be tidier and clean up the corner exists to improve the overall result.

 

On Saturday that sky looked threatening and we were all keen to set a competitive lap time before any potential rain came down. It is also a very short circuit at Brands and therefore there was every chance that this could represent the greatest qualifying challenge of the year in terms of getting track space to set your best time. Despite those concerns the session was uneventful apart from a big sideways moment on cold tyres when leaving the pits at the very start! It was so nearly over before it began but in the session I was able to find good space for at least six of my fifteen laps posting a best time of 58.512 seconds on my final attempt. The firmer settings had definitely helped and the time placed me third in class and seventeenth overall on the all important right hand side for tomorrow’s race. 

 

It was still dry and a little brighter on Sunday and our first race start time was 10:55am. It’s hard work from the very beginning at Brands with cars being brought straight onto the grid with only one green flag formation lap to get heat into the tyres, and a short lap at that. My start was a good one and after two or three laps I briefly moved into second and made a half hearted attempt at the lead before thinking better of it and holding station, but then things started to go wrong; “the curse of the B Class cars” that had been so damaging to our race at Castle Combe two weeks ago returned. Me, plus the other three front running D Class cars were right in the mix with two slower B Classers and I dropped down to forth and then got the two of them sandwiched between me and the front three in my class. Once again it proved to be fatal. Our lower powered class is all about momentum through the corners, carrying the speed and the slower B’s put pay to that, only to power ahead on the straights. I passed them a few times in the corners and held the position for a few seconds on each occasion before we remerged on the straights. Unfortunately the D Class cars are so equal that a couple of hundred yards between you is often too much to come back from in the time available and I finished 4th for the fourth time this year.

 

It was a long wait until race two that afternoon and I was keen to improve on the earlier result. The start was boisterous with my car getting of the line well, as did the 5th place car starting on my outside; we touched briefly going into turn one but we both continued. What followed was seven minutes of hard racing with the front four of us running together once again only for the race to be red flagged due to a car stranded in the gravel in a dangerous position on the outside of turn one. Waiting for the restart felt like an age and once again a fairly hectic affair as a class B car had stalled further up the grid and we all moved frantically to avoid it and somehow got by. Later on that lap I was forth (in class) through the Druids hairpin and had a faster exit than the car in 3rd place and took a position on the right hand side of the track, the preferred line for the left hander (Graham Hill bend) that followed. The 3rd place car then moved right as well, trying to improve his entry into the following corner, and I held my line. We touched, sending his car across the front of mine and into the barrier on the right hand side of the track. Fortunately it had barely slowed my progress and I continued in 3rd, but I was sorry to have been involved in the incident that had put one of the usual top three runners into retirement.

 

Pleasingly my pace was a lot more competitive in race 2, the B Class cars from race one had found some speed and were out of our way and despite slipping to 4th again after a few laps the top four (with a new addition) were once again battling together. All was well until two third of the way through the restarted race I came under pressure from 5th. I moved to the inside this time going into Graham Hill bend on a tighter line which meant taking 3rd gear and compromising my speed on the exit. As I accelerated out of the corner and pulled 4th gear the following car slammed squarely into the back of me, hard. We both continued we no obvious drama but it was instantly clear something was wrong. The car was immediately down on power and as I lifted off the throttle into Clearways at the end of the lap the engine stalled and locked the wheels spinning me round. I recover but it was clear my race was finished. As I rounded Druids on the very next lap the engine cut again and I parked up on the grass on the exit.

 

It was a disappointing end to a fairly disappointing weekend. DNF’s in our championship have a big impact and are quite hard to recover from, but if you are going to have one I suppose it is better to have one early in the year rather than later and we are not yet half way. The main concern now is what has broken on our car that caused me to retire, and with no chance to test between now and the qualifying session at Croft in two weeks here’s hoping we are able to put it right.



Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 3:55pm
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Kumho BMW Championship – Round 5 – 28th May

 

After work on Friday the 27th I set off from Chelmsford to start the long slog up the A1 to Teesside in preparation for the Kumho BMW Championship’s visit to Croft. With strict noise rules governing the circuit, resulting in a limit to the number of days it can be used each year, there was no prior opportunity for any of us to test and although the BARC event would span Saturday and Sunday, all the Kumho activity would be squeezed into an action packed Saturday with qualifying followed by two twenty minute races.

 

On first impressions you could be forgiven for not being overly enthusiastic about the North East’s offering to the UK Motorsport scene, but what Croft lacks in terms of basic amenities it certainly makes up for on track! Despite the lack of testing it was great to be back at a proper circuit, with right and left corners! With sequences of bends that have to be mastered as one in order to achieve the best overall lap time and with variety, something which has been a little lacking in some of our recent visits (in my humble opinion!) Soap box aside it presents a great challenge. Floating the car through Clervaux and balancing the over steer through Hawthorn was only bettered by the flat out dash from the exit of Tower Bend, through the Jim Clark Esses and through Barcroft before trying to slow it all down for Sunny In; a great sequence of bends.

 

Brands Hatch hadn’t been the best weekend so far, the car had felt difficult and at odds with the track which, coupled with how the races panned out, had made for a difficult weekend all round. So at Croft I hoped I could bounce back; immediately the car felt really good and very “drivable” which is a huge plus on an unfamiliar circuit. Even so, qualifying was the most difficult of the year so far. Initially it took a long time to get some space and quick lap after quick lap was interrupted by another competitor before I finally got some clean air only for the session to be red flagged after a Class A car hit the wall hard on the fastest part of the track just before Barcroft; fortunately no one was hurt. The re-started session brought more of the same, either I caught slower cars, faster cars caught me or I made errors on the few clean laps I had. My final effort was my best and I lined up 5th in class for race one (16th overall).

 

Going into the first race I felt pretty good. Despite the grid position my car felt strong and I was confident I could make progress in the race. Unfortunately after a string of good getaways in recent rounds the jinx returned. Purely my mistake once again and I dropped back to 9th going into the first corner. Over the next few laps I climbed back to 6th without to much trouble before I delivered my next error of the weekend. Pushing too hard in the complex at the end of the lap I slide wide out of the first of two right handers, nailing the strategically placed group of tyres on the outside and putting a big dent in the left front corner of the car. In the first instance I thought I was about to retire for the second consecutive race but fortunately the damage seemed more cosmetic than mechanical and although the car wasn’t the same I was able to carry on having dropped back to 9th in the process. Then a stroke of good luck, the race was red flagged due to another accident between a Class A and Class B car and we all formed up on the grid awaiting the re-start. The final fifteen minutes were fairly uneventful. I took full advantage when the lights when out, picking off another place into the first corner and climbed up to 5th by the finish. It could easily have been worse and in many ways I was lucky to finish at all, but at the same time it was very frustrating as two personal mistakes had put pay to a better result with a car that felt well capable and now we had a race against time to repair the damage before race two later that afternoon.

 

A great thing about this championship, and all the lower national motorsport categories I expect, is that no matter now competitive everyone is on track, in the paddock everyone is happy to help out and do what they can to get a fellow competitor back in the running. To be honest, our damage was more cosmetic than anything more serious, but even so, a big thank you to everyone who mucked in. In race two my start was good and I’d passed two or three cars by the time we were making our way down to Tower Bend. When we got there I had to quickly manufacture a missed braking point into an overtaking manoeuvre and luckily the space was there and the car gripped and I was up to 3rd as we headed to the Esses. A few laps later I tried to hold off a fast starting Class D competitor who was making his way from the back of the grid and we both braked far to late into turn one, making our way across the gravel. I lost two places in the process although the other car who had travelled across the gravel with me would retire in a few laps with a broken radiator. A few laps after that would come mistake number ??? as another spin dropped me further down the order. I fought back for the remainder of the race and finally finished 6th in class.

 

Croft, just like Brands had become another frustrating weekend. Here the car had felt good, not good enough to win necessarily but certainly good enough for any of the other places that were up for grabs. The circuit was great, fast, challenging, technical and exciting. Unfortunately I had been the weak link in this round, pushing too hard, over driving and getting scruffy with a series of avoidable mistakes. It also marked the half way point of the season, and despite recent disappointments it’s been an absolutely great experience. With the same competitor winning every Class D race so far this year and leading the overall championship, first in class is pretty much out of the question, but with five more rounds to come, second is still very much up for grabs and I’m due a change in fortune sometime soon (I hope!)

 
 


Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 4:30pm
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Cadwell as published in Total BMW
 

Kumho BMW Championship – Round 6 – June 12th

 

On Saturday 12th June the Kumho BMW Championship rolled into Cadwell Park to start the second half of its 2011 campaign. Yet another fantastic track for our championship to visit. Cadwell has everything, fast corners, slow corners, lefts, rights and enough gradient to last you a life time. All of this is packaged into a narrow, tree lined track, nestling in the Lincolnshire countryside and famed for its bike racing rather than cars, where the barriers are never far away.

 

After a dry morning and a wet afternoons testing on the Friday we went into Saturday’s qualifying with reasonable confidence; keen to do well as this would be the first exclusively Class D race of the year.

 

In the dry session I found good clean air and managed to secure third on the grid for the afternoons opening race.

 

It stayed dry for race one and after a good clean get away I held my position around the opening few laps. After hounding and being held up by second place I was frustratingly pipped, falling to fourth before inheriting third place on the final lap with a spinner in the first three.

 

No sign of the sun for race two. I got a great get away in the wet conditions, almost too good in actual fact as three abreast doesn’t really go at Cadwell and I got squeezed up the hill into turn one, electing to get out of it rather than dabble with the super slick grass. This cost me a few places, which I regained over the following laps, before getting bundled off the road in the closing stages and falling to fourth. Despite setting the fastest lap in the closing few minutes, with a time that would later be just 0.309 seconds off the fastest Class A time that afternoon, there was nothing I could do and crossed the line with yet another 4th place for my collection.

 

Despite the disappointment in the final race Cadwell had been a pleasure. A great track and some good close racing in our own individual races. I hope its not another ten years before we are back. Rockingham next and with second place in our class championship still very much on the agenda it’s time to make some serious progress.



Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 3:53pm
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Rockingham 2011
 
Kumho BMW Championship – Round 7 – July 3rd

 
On Sunday 3rd July I set off for round seven of our championship; destination Rockingham Motor Speedway. It’s a grand name and a grand facility, but most importantly, as a racing circuit (and Europe’s fastest at that) it completely delivers.

 

Sunday was action packed but pushing for a fast time early in qualifying nearly proved costly. I carried good speed through the long left hander called Gracelands and got a big slide on the exit with the back of the car braking away. I gathered it together and set a time that was good enough for a slightly disappointing 4th in class.

 

I had a great start in race one and was immediately three abreast with 2nd and 3rd all the way around the banking of turn one. It’s a long slog down to the first braking point for turn two (“Deene”) and I arrived a little deep and slotted back into 4th. I took 3rd a couple of laps later. 1st and 2nd were unfortunately long gone and 4th was falling away and I ran in clean air for the middle half of the race. In the closing stages I started to come under pressure from a fast charging Class D car fighting back after a troubled qualifying. With two laps too go I went to cover the inside on the fast run down to turn two but as we got into the braking zone I lost him in my mirrors only to see him re-appear down the inside and pass me in a good clean move. I crossed the line in 4th.

 

In race two I had another good start and once again I was challenging the cars ahead going into “Deene”. It’s hard to make it stick down there as the track has a natural funnelling effect into the corner on the opening lap and I came out having slipped to fifth. Again the leading two cars were able to move away but the next three, with me at the back of the line, ran in close proximity for lap after lap. Around the half distance mark I managed to make a pass stick in the quick S bend section made up of “Chapman Curve” and “Pif-Paf” moving into fourth in class; but the car I’d passed was clearly faster along Rockingham’s massive main straight. All I could try to do each lap is move him to the outside and then trust the fact that my car was better on the brakes into turn two. The tactic seemed to be working despite some epic battles, one of which saw us stay side be side for four successive bends in the middle of the lap; great racing and I was very pleased to see the chequered flag having raced flat out from start to finish. In fact fourth had never felt so good.

 

It had been a good weekend. I’d driven two fault free races and set best times within two tenths of one another in testing, qualifying, race 1 and race 2. There is a big gap now until Oulton Park in seven or so weeks and it will be nice to return to a track I raced the car at for the first time last year. Hopefully a good omen!

 


Edited by Cabrio - 06 Aug 2011 at 4:33pm
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