Race 5 – 2019 – Anglesey
What a picturesque circuit, the 8-hour slog of a drive was definitely worth it. Once you arrive the road rage immediately dissipates into a nice Horlicks moment smile.
Rain on arrival was a tad ominous, but it cleared up nicely for the next day of racing.
Qualifying had the perfect conditions, dry but cool which suits the Formula Vee engines well. In fact, the best lap times were had during this session. A red flag broke the qually into two parts, but we were still able to get some good running in. I qualified 17th for race 1 and 14th for Race 2.
Race 1
A solid but unspectacular start saw me hold my position by the end of lap 1; the reliably fast Ross Price had to start the race in second gear due to gearbox issues, but quickly regained his grid position through the first corner.
I managed a lunge into Rocket corner to put myself neck and neck with my teammate Vaughn on lap 2; then after some good road positioning I managed to lead the pack of midfield cars for a good number of laps until eventually I couldn’t hold them off. Vaughn Jones, Ross Price and Alex Jones slipped past putting me back in 17th.
The scrapping up ahead saw some spins from Vaughn and Alex, and I was gifted 2 places putting me back in 15th.
Due to a track limits 5 second penalty for Andrew Cooper, my final position was 14th of 29 cars.
I felt pretty good about that and was looking forward to a better Race 2!
Race 2
Feeling confident, I had another good start, but heading up to the first corner we were greeted with contact between a few cars up ahead.
Evasive manoeuvres were required, and following the lead of Andrew Cooper and Vaughn, a dart to the right put us off track into ‘the safe zone’. Turning our Vee’s into lawnmowers temporarily we re-joined near the back of the pack… game face on…
Whilst I was regaining places, the very fast Ian Jordan (who was also playing catch up) went for the undercut move into the Banking. As his car swung back I flinched to avoid contact between his right rear and my front right. Losing control, I was facing the wrong direction (again) and feeling frustrated I beckoned the other cars past.
Replaying the situation in my mind, had I not steered erratically then most probably I would have been alongside Ian without any contact whatsoever. Something for the experience bank.
The Race pretty much turned into a damage limitation exercise, and I brought her home in 22nd place.
Overall, I was quite pleased with the weekend, I think I had flashes of pace which is a good start, consistency is definitely something to improve on…Roll on Snetterton!
Race 5 – 2019 – Snetterton
After Anglesey I decided to switch over my gearbox as it wasn’t holding in second gear. Having to steer one handed through hairpins / tight esses with the other hand on the gear lever was hampering my driving through those sections.
Due to the tight turnaround of just 3 weeks, it was a close shave making the Race. I was pleased that I was an entry on the sheets.
Arriving on the Friday, we did a track walk in the early evening…
Wow this is a long long circuit; a good lap time is in the region of 2:20 mins!
Race 1
In qualifying I noticed the new gearbox wasn’t very happy when trying to change down the gears going from high speed to low speed…Lot’s of nice crunching noises…ouch
Some theoretical adjustments didn’t really work for Race 1, and I ended up retiring the car and watching the rest of the Race from the pit lane.
Being a double header, I had to act fast to try and get the gearbox to a useable state.
Race 2
After consultation from the Formula Vee establishment, some clutch adjustments were made to hopefully alleviate the issue. At low speed through the paddock the gearshifts all felt smooth and easy, I hoped this would be the case in the Race.
But then…the heavens opened!!
The Race was a wet wet wet one. It was like watching dancing on ice with people who cannot ice skate!
Some pretty poor driving on my part saw me finish down in 18th place, so needless to say I was pretty disappointed with the days results.
But to put everything into perspective, at least I didn’t have an engine failure, write off my car, or have to escape from a fire – much like Peter Cann had to at the end of qualifying!
The goals for Silverstone will be:
- A working car
- Trouble free races
- No spinning!!!! Yes that nugget again.