Well what a race weekend! Did you wave Phil? I lost count of the number of people who did, one of the nice consequences of driving an old bus and race car
After a bitterly cold night camping over at the circuit (a comical sight of people scraping ice off race cars in a paddock...) yet again Ian and I found ourselves in the drivers briefing for those who hadn't driven at the particular circuit before. One of the slightly odd comments made by the Clerk of the Course was he hoped the forecast snow didn't arrive as this would make the fast and flowing Donington slightly more tricky. Well Mother Nature ignored him because just about right on forecast the white fluffy stuff started falling from the sky. I've never raced in the snow before
so you can imagine mixing this little cocktail can't you? Race cars going very fast, opening race of season, newly screwed together car, 1 degree Celsius and snow falling from the sky. I counted 8 spins in practice. And two "cutting the grass" - the euphemism used when someone returns to the pits with their car covered in grass and mud, having had a "moment". Grass is lethal in the wet - it's so greasy that there's less friction than the track, so you actually speed up if you spin onto it. And if you didn't hit the tyres or wall then you had a gamble on getting out - the 924 who merrily overtook me then spun onto the grass a lap latter sat haplessly spinning his unweighted rear wheels two feet from the edge of the track - race over.
It was a slightly odd race weekend in that the Guards series was oversubscribed by quite some margin for the first race of the season. To give everyone a chance to race they bumped the smaller capacity classes to Road Sports (70's and Historic to give the full 40 minutes racing and to accommodate two driver entries like ours, so Ian and I had our own separate races). This meant I was racing against '70's Alfa GTVs and a Bertone, a Ferrari 308GTB, Lotus Elan's, Porsche 924's, Lancia Monte Carlo's, Datsun 204Z's, a Maserati Bora, Ford Capri's and the like. Yet again we were the oldest car (by some 10 years) and the only one on drum brakes. Practice was in the pouring rain, in a newly screwed together car and new motor with only 39 miles on it, so I used the session to learn the circuit and put more test miles on the motor. Ian and I agreed a rev limit of 5,000rpm for the day in deference to the new motor. We classified 35th out of 36. At least not last. More importantly the car felt great: very tight, much more predictable and "chuckable" and with a lot more traction and free-revving ability from the engine. Early days though as it was hardly a weekend to explore the limits of the car.
So with snow falling the lights for the race extinguished and I dropped the clutch - rear wheel drive and rear engined, we shot past 6 cars before the first corner - what a start! Three abreast round the first corner and all I can see is the rain light of the cars in front. The spray from the cars in front means I'm driving virtually blind. An Alfa Romeo GTV in front of me is struggling to put the power down through the exit of the corners, so I give it a bit more juice in second out the chicane and get the jump on him. Now neck and neck down the straight, the first right hander is looming. Now it's time to play chicken. He's got the inside line but will have to brake harder - I leave my braking a moment longer and put the nose of the 356 ahead, then start drifting into the corner early. He backs off and the ploy yields another spot. We have a proper old ding-dong of a race before he gets past me when I let a faster car through, damn! There are a couple of spectacular spins during the race but they recover, and then towards the end of the race a couple of huge shunts, in particular is Andrew Bentley (one of the Guards front-runners) who stacks his MGB into the wall and does a lot of damage to it. And as soon as it's started it's over. I classify 25th out of 36 starters. I'll take that thank you very much, especially on a circuit I didn't know, in appalling conditions, and with a self-imposed 5,000 rev limit.
Ian's race was against the historic Road Sports, so competing against older Lotus, Triumph TR2 & 4, a lovely AC Aceca, an MG Lenham Le Mans coupe, Ginetta G4, Turner Mk2 and the gaggle of MGB's again. He had qualified near the back (I think about 30th out of 33. Fortunately the snow and sleet had ceased and the sun and wind had dried much of the track. Uncharacteristically the drag-racer fluffed his start, so the usual half a dozen early places wasn't forthcoming. Ian had a right old race against a gaggle of cars before having an off onto the grass on the second to last lap after being pushed wide by faster cars taking the racing line - he managed to hold it all together, not spin and rejoin the race without losing any places, but the car finished a rather muddier shade of red than it started! There was an unusually high attrition rate which wasn't surprising I guess, as a drying track tempted people to push harder: fatal if you got off the racing line onto the still wet edges of the track - Ian classified 21st out of 33. Again a great result and one consistent with a picture that seems to be emerging for us of qualifying in the bottom one or two, but making up 11 or 12 spaces through the race to finish mid-pack.
Next up is Silverstone International on the GP circuit in May - we miss the Easter Thruxton meet because of family commitments. Hopefully it will be dry and we'll be able to give the car a proper stretch of it's legs! A few pictures of the weekend - I would post the whole race (we record them in-car) but I've no ideas how to get them from my Mac onto You Tube to then show them here - any technical help would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve
In the pit garages:
Rainer Becker's lovely Porsche 910:
Ian in assembly area prior to practice:
356 in the pit garage waiting to go out:
