Croft circuit near Darlington would be the setting for round 5 & 6 of the 2018 Formula Vee UK championship. Despite the 245 mile drive from London, I was really looking forward to driving at the circuit I’d heard so many good things about from other drivers. Fast sweeping sections, high speed chicanes, big braking points – the recipe for fast excitement.
The weather for practice was nigh on perfect, dry and not too hot. Perfect for the air cooled nature of the cars. I’d made some adjustments to the rear suspension to firm it up a bit more than it was at Brands (increased damper bump and rebound, fitted a new rear zero roll spring). The rest of my preparation focused on learning the circuit via PC race simulators which I can’t recommend enough – no funny surprises when you get there, and you already have an idea of braking points in your mind. Wunderbar.
Qualifying
Wowzers! The yellow Storm felt like a whole new beast compared to Brands Hatch! The small adjustments to rear suspension had made a hell of a difference, that sensation of accelerating off in a boat with the front lifting up (picture an old American Cadillac peeling away) had disappeared. The car felt well planted at the rear – I could feel what the tyres were doing through my buttocks (yep that’s a good thing) and overall I felt more connected with the car which brought me more confidence. The car also felt bitey in the braking zones.
Things were going very well until I experienced a sudden loss of power from the car; I can only describe it as what felt like a sudden loss of fuel – no choking or spurting however; the engine sounded fine (I had put fuel in it right?). It just slowly ground to a halt. I coasted it next to a marshalls post and watched the rest of qualifying come to an end.
Afterwards, the marshalls were about to radio in for a recovery truck when I thought ‘let me just try and start it up to see what happens’. Funnily enough she burst into life, and I drove back to the paddock – no problemo. Clearly there was a gremlin on board I had to exterminate before race 1.
I qualified 18th of 28 cars for race 1 and 20th for race 2 so things were definitely moving in the right direction post Brands.
Race 1
I gave the carburettor jets a good clean before race 1 hoping that would resolve the fuel delivery issue I had, however just 3 corners in the car died on me in the same manner as before. I just about managed to get it restarted so I could drive it to safety and out of the way. Many thanks to the ambulance crew at Croft for giving me a push!
Alas, I would just be a spectator for this race. I had an awesome view near the camera crew just at the hairpin before the pit straight. It was a great race to watch which gave me some comfort in spite of the DNF.
Fixing the Car!
Now what the hell was wrong with my car? Fuel lines? Fuel filters? The carburettor? The ignition coil? Who knows! From speaking to various people in the paddock the symptoms indicated any of those issues.
Now this is where I have to say a big thank you to everyone who gave me a hand and some excellent advice to get me back on the circuit for race 2. In no particular order:
- Glenn Hay
- Team Porkpie (Chris Wilsher, Sam Engineer, Martin Snarey)
- Tim Probert
- Caroline Jones, Vaughn Jones
- Alan Harding, Greg Wright, all of AHS!
- John Bowles (on an international phone call)
Formula Vee is definitely a friendly series with some great racing to boot. Thanks for all your help.
In the end we replaced all of the above suspected failure points. Only pushing the car around the track would reveal whether or not the problem had been resolved.
Race 2
I was apprehensive on the start line for race 2; wondering if she would fail on me as per qualifying and race 1, or work like she was built to.
I got an average start but lost quite a few places in traffic (something I need to work on), but my prayers were answered as the yellow Storm didn’t quit on me, in fact she never felt better!
As the race went on I started to gain more confidence, a great battle with Richard Rainbow #20 which lasted a few laps unfortunately ended in Richard spinning out at Hawthorn Bend which led me onto chasing Neil Aldridge #36, a quick dive down the inside just before Complex and I was past him, next target was Ian Rea #14 who I managed to catch just before the red flags were waved. Seems I switched on the pace towards latter stages of the race.
Overall I’m pleased that I know I have more to give, I just need to find a consistent way of unlocking that pace.
More bum in seat time required…
Next report – the iconic Silverstone!