Well, after a six months of hard graft and a final month of even harder graft the first round of Time Attack appeared as if from nowhere. The car was finished in time and even had a couple of hours testing to iron out a couple of issues. I however was far from ready, having not driven the car for well over a year. Feeling full of confidence, I was not!!!
With the car loaded and the van full of tools, a friend of mine and I left for Cadwell after work on the Thursday. It was good to know we were at last on our way, however the weather reports for the weekend were not filling me with joy. On arrival at the circuit late at night the heavens opened and we started putting up the marquee. Soaked to the bone we turned in for the night. It was 2.30am.
Test Day
7am and we were up again, ready for a good day of testing and making more changes to the car. Scuffers rolled in at 8 and we all headed off for breakfast bap, a chat and to attend our briefing. As soon as we were done we made the decision to get on with some changes before going out. First off we hooked the computer up to the gearbox ecu and made some fine adjustments to the shift settings. This was followed by the car being strung up to check toe. The rear end was altered and the front left alone, apart from some camber shimms being bolted in place. Then we also treated the car to drop of 5mm at the back and 10mm at the front in order to get the front splitter working more efficiently.
All done with the pressures set on my new Kumho V70a’s, Scuffers and I headed out for a gentle blast to bed in my new tripod joint. Well, I thought it was going to be a gentle blast!!! After half a lap we were already moving at speeds that were making me feel a little ill. The car felt good and we came in for a break. We were happy that all the upgrades were again working straight out of the box and that we had no balance issues. The car was very, very stable at all speeds, especially the back end and we were therefore able to back off the rear wing to it’s lowest downforce setting to try and gain some straight line speed.
Now it was my turn and time to re-learn the car and the circuit, ready for competition the next day. As I’ve already said, I haven’t driven the car what I would call properly, for quite some time, let alone a car that has had some major changes both mechanically and aerodynamically. Brands Hatch had highlighted some faults and I hadn’t really had enough seat time. I have to say I was really quite scared!! Anyway, I got in and headed off, telling myself to stop being a wimp. Within a few laps I realised I had nothing to worry about. It was like being with a really good friend who you haven’t seen for a while. We just picked up where we left off at the end of 2010. What an awesome machine!!!
After a while I came in. Scuffers and I had a chat about the car and I think we both got a little bit excited about it. Dave Porter had come up for the day and now got buckled up ready for a few laps with Scuffers. Watching them pound round the circuit was a sight to behold. Simon was making every single car out on track look slow, although I knew they weren’t. I think Dave liked it and it was nice to see his reaction to the car and to have someone else there who could appreciate what’s gone into it. Simon and I then had another chat about the car and got even more exited about it. One thing he said made me realise we had created something quite special.
“F**k me, this thing is fast”.
Happy with the car, even though I still hadn’t had all that much time in it I called it a day. Besides, it was now raining. And related to this, one major problem I had now fully realised was the fact that I had been given some very bad advice about which wet weather tyres to buy. My Yoko AD08’s were going to be lethal in the wet and rain was forcast for competition day. Feeling really stupid about my lack of research and very worried about driving in the wet with these tyres, I made a decision to drop out of the first round if it was going to be declared wet. There was no way I was going to risk my car, myself or causing a dangerous situation for another competitor who was on proper wet tyres. Feeling depressed about this for most of the evening we did a few more bits to the car, had a nice barbie and went to bed.
One thing that did cheer me up in the evening however and something which will stay with me for quite a while, was watching Olly Clarke, son of Roger Clarke in the Roger Clarke Motorsport ‘Gobstopper’, pound around the circuit in one of the late test sessions, in hard rain. There was no fear, no hesitation. He had the circuit to himself and was going around at speeds that one wouldn’t think possible in these conditions. The sound and sight of the Gobstopper going down the pit straight at full throttle, through standing water and at well over double the national speed limit, was something else and made quite an impression on me.
Competition Day
After a good nights sleep I awoke at 6.30am, took an anti-sickness tablet that I for some reason now have to take for such days and got up. I was instantly depressed by the fact that it was raining and went around the paddock, asking around to see if anyone had any wet weather tyres I could buy. Not even the tyre trucks on site could help. Oh well I thought, let’s just pray for the rain to stop and for the track to dry out.
The car was given a little spruce up with a wet rag and off to the driver briefing it was. This cleared up a few questions I had and we were ready for the morning warm up. Lining up in the holding area for the first time made me realise what I was going to be out on track with and having followed the build blogs of some of the cars I was next to made me feel a bit uneasy. There was some serious machinery. As soon as we got on track I felt better and made myself some space to learn the lines. Again the car felt good but there were areas that were still greasy and damp which weren’t good for my confidence. After the 20 minute session I came in. My fastest recored time was a 1.45 I believe. Brilliant I thought, a whole 2 seconds less than my winning time in 2010!!! I was wrong and in completely the wrong time bracket. My best time in 2010 was a 1.37. How the hell am I going to make up 7 or 8 seconds I thought?? Surely I wasn’t going that slow.
Some time passed and it was almost time for the practice session. However, it had been raining hard and the track officials declared the conditions as wet. I opted to wimp out, leave the car in my marquee and made my way down to the club house to watch the rest of my group go out. Not a good feeling and my seat time was trickling away.
The skies, although looking gloomy, decided not to release their slippery contents onto the racetrack. It was going to be a dry qualifying session and I was thrilled and feeling much more confident, although still unsure of how I was going to reduce my laptimes by such a huge amount. This session was for points and again, we all lined up in the holding area, the Pro and Pro Extreme cars on their fresh slicks, engines burbling, adrenalin pumping. We all went out and warmed our tyres for a lap or so and then everyone’s lights started to go on, signifying that they were on a fast lap. I had found some space and headed over the mountain ready to go for a fast lap. Lights on I exited the last corner at full throttle in 2nd onto the pit straight, the new Wavetrack LSD doing a great job, flat-shifting into 3rd, then 4th, then 5th before dabbing the brakes and turning into the first corner. This was my first properly angry lap and the car seemed to come into its own, all the various race parts teaming up to get the car around the corner safely. This lap gave me lots of confidence and I got a good idea of how much I was going to be able to trust the car. One thing was very apparent and that was that the tyres were quite staggering. They would not show any sign of struggling with what I was asking of them and could clearly take alot more.
This session left me with a very low 1.34 lap, some 10 seconds faster than my last session and over 3.5 seconds faster than my fastest time in 2010. 3.5 seconds is a hell of alot of time, but the best thing is that I knew I could still go much faster. Bear in mind that my time was only 2 seconds off Steve G’s outright Time Attack lap record at Cadwell in his much, much more powerful and better driven Audi Exige. If I was a betting man, I would say that with another few sessions to learn the track better I would be able to achieve a 1.31 dead. I dread to think what Scuffers would have managed given the chance, as he’s considerably faster than me. So, I was top of my class by over a second and pleased with my time.
An hour or so later and the weather was still looking good, ready for the finals. I was really looking forward to improving on my qualifying time and headed off. As before, I warmed my tyres, found some space and turned my lights on, ready for a fast lap. Straight away the lap started better and every turn and braking area was improved on compared to the last session. Things were looking good until I came around the fast left hander into the turn before mountain. There was a car on a cool down lap. I kept my foot in, braked as late as I could and went round him. I knew this had ruined my chance of going quicker than before but kept on going. The lap was still a 1.34, but I hadn’t gone quicker. My next lap was also hindered. I set off on another fast lap and again managed to find more pace through the corners, however going round the long right hander in the back section of the track and shifting from 3rd into 4th my gearbox decided not to play ball and left me in neutral. I struggled to get drive again, but managed to get back to my garage and parked up. This was obviously an electrical glitch as my gear display was going balmy, the potentiometer most likely at fault, as it tells the GCU what is going on.
Desparate to know if the one time I had set was fast enough to put me in first place, I headed down to the timing office. Eventually the results came out and I had indeed done enough. In fact I was second on the whole board, including the 2 slick classes. The war of attrition had taken its toll and some of the other cars had broken down, unable to finish the day. I was chuffed with the result, although gutted I didn’t have the chance to go quicker. The second place car was however only a couple of tenths behind, so I had been lucky.
All in all a great first event for me and the car with a 1st place.
The engine performed brilliantly with its improved breathing, making a noticeable difference to its power output.
The aero changes, although mostly home-made, but with input from Simon McBeath worked very well.
The brand new EPTuning sequential gearbox is an outstanding bit of engineering and has performed brilliantly, although let down by an electrical part from another company. Bear in mind that the box in my car is the first of the production batch to run in the world, in competition, with only a couple of hours of testing. A true testament to the amount of work Scuffers and Geary have put into it over the last couple of years.
The tyres are a revelation and anyone who tracks their Exige/Elise should try them. You will never go back to anything else. (wet conditions excluded)
The Quantum dampers have been left completely untouched from 2010 and have soaked up everything thrown at them. They are utterly brilliant.
The gearbox electronics are already being sorted and the next round is at Knockhill on 10th June. I cannot wait.
Pictures and short video to follow.
