12Hour ENDURO at Snetterton in WINTER

tbc

Race Report – Oulton Park in the rain and sun

Another wet weekend, until it dried up!

We took two cars out on the test Friday, Nathan and Clive had a great day in the dry running the full circuit ready for Saturday (Race Day). Matt at Tracktoys was there making sure all was running smoothly. Some decent lap times and some fun on track.

Saturday we awoke to some damp conditions from the overnight rain. We had some car decal work to complete so we spent two hours from 6.30am striping up the cars and making sure race numbers were correct for Nathan 102, Clive 27 and Harry 198.

Scutineering and sign on at 7.30 was a mess, with all cars for the day trying to get done early. Qualification at 8.30 was damp but the weather felt like it was going to improve, we used wet settings for suspension and tyres nonetheless and even though Clives times seemed ‘just plain wrong’ we took them as they come and got on with it. Nathan managed a 2m 11 and Clive a 2m 12 even though his data onboard showed a 2m 08.

Race 1
Nathan and Harry both with some experience, were thrown into the deep end of ma5da racing when the heavens opened 1 minute before race start. We had correctly predicted the rain but who could have seen te deluge that lasted for 20 minutes making lap times 30 seconds slower and visibility virtually zero. Both Harry and Nathan managed to complete the race finishing 18th and 23rd out of 32 cars in what only can be described as shocking conditions.

Race 6
Clive in car 27 had to wait until after lunch for his first race and even though it proved to be a fun 20 minutes, with loads of overtaking it ended with a DNF due to his wayward rear bumper which was mullahed by a car at Druids half way through the race. His poor qualification position on the grid was eclipsed by his top 10 lap time but after. A few unseen black flags he eventually pulled out after his rear bumper fell off to have quiet word with the stewards.

Race 10
Saw Nathan and Harry come head to head again. Poor start by Nathan not helped by a dodgy clutch, meant at his superior starting position ended up with him trailing Harry into Old Hall. They managed a few laps toe to toe followed by a big spin by Nathan but he cameback to finish 21st just 2 places behind Harry. Harry meantime was busy defending his position on track whilst being ‘hunted down’ by an angry larger who thought he deserved a place further up the grid. It took 4 laps and some mx5 ‘mating’ before he deservedly got passed so Harry could concentrate on keeling Nathan at bay.

Race 11
Clive alone in his race. Dry track for once meant that Clive form his back of the grid position managed to work his way through the pack to finish 13th but his best time showed he was top 8 material. Just shows the power of a good qualification.

Overall a good weekend again, some great fun and good racing. Matt and Gemma at Tracktoys have the cars set up perfectly and the new colour scheme seems to be working by attracting some welcomed attention.

See you all at Knockhill.

Race Report – A Very Wet Castle Combe

We had a bit of a shock or rounds 7 & 8 of the Ma5da Championship a Castle Coombe. After a dry and very pleasant Friday test day, racveday on Bank Holiday Monday turned out to be a wash out.

The rain started at 7am and stopped at 5pm. We were wet from 8am until we went to bed. But more importantly our 4 cars raced all day and survived!

We had Clive Bailye 27, Martin Thomas 102, Terry Buckel 111 and Chris Fellows in 198 and they shared between them 12 races and 6 qualification sessions in one race day. Martin and Clive not only entered the Mark One races but also were entered as invitational cars in the Mark 3 Cup races of the day. Chris and Terry kept themselves busy with just the two Mark One races.

Qualification

Without wet track practice this was always going to be a lottery. Poor Chris and Martin had only had one dry day in the car and no wet practice at all. Terry and Clive had had a bit more experience in the wet but still not easy. The drivers managed to qualify as follows;

Clive 5th, Martin 7th [Invitational Cup round]
Clive 2nd, Martin 21st, Terry 29th. Chris 31st [Mark One Championship]

Races

The days timetable got a severe shock due to problems with the TSL Timing equipment. First change was that the invitational mx5 Cup race was run first and Martin managed to hunt down Clive by posting some quick lap times as the race moved on until getting on his shoulder and then putting his car onto the grass and narrowly avoiding taking out half the field. He managed to rejoin finishing 10th whereas Clive managed 4th even though Martins fastest lap was 0.4s faster.

Moving onto the Championship races, with our 3 cars all competing in 2 races each we had a busy time getting them in and out and patching them up in between.

Race Report – Rockingham

It has been a steep learning curve for the team but even steeper for the drivers it seems. We got to Rockingham on Friday 15th April for an early set up in the Outer Paddock and a little bit of test time on track to bolster up the testing that we did here back in March.

We only had two cars running here as opposed to the planned 5-6 cars per event from now on but nonetheless it was a hectic weekend.

Clive in car 27 had a good test running suspension that was not working to its best. In the evening we swapped suspension supplier on his car to see how this altered the ride for race day but this meant poor old Matt at Tracktoys had a very late night in under the awing before retiring to the luxury of his double bed in the 6 berth Winnebago that we now have negotiated use of for the season.

Sunrise on Saturday was glorious and the day was going to prove to be a hot and exciting day. We had a busy morning and busy late afternoon broken up by lunch and a long Britcar race meaning the team had 5 hours of ‘thumb twiddling’ to do.

Qualification

Qualification at 9.00 and 9.20 and the guys managed to not really make the most of them if we are honest. Terry lost a bit of time by not getting onto track until 5 minutes were up and subsequently did not get anywhere near his best testing times with traffic proving and issue. His times would put him on row 13 for both races so with 24 cars ahead of him. Clive managed to set a decent qualifying time whilst adjusting to is new suspension meanwhile half way through he had a severe overheating problem which meant he only set 4 lap times.

Time to Race!

Race 1 saw Clive just manage to get to the grid after Matt a Tracktoys sorting out his thermostat.. Clive’s start was less than perfect with a car in front false starting and making him hesitate. The race slowly however got better and better as Clive managed to pick up places with some decent overtaking and good pace around the banking and into the hairpin. As the race got to the last third it was obvious Cive was just getting faster whilst everybody else was either battling and loosing ground or getting slower as their tyres went off. Clive finished on the heals of the 6th car with only a short gap to the second car with a best lap of 1m41.3 which would prove to be 6th fastest out of the 63 entrants, after Tom Roche ran away with the race at the front.

Terry’s first race was an equally average start but he did pick up some places with some brave overtaking and some aggressive but fair driving around the banking. Terry managed to slowly pick off car after car whilst managing to not get retaken himself and eventually at one point got to 20th from starting 25th. Excitement got the better of him however and a lack of concentration, I guess, resulted in a trek onto the dirt and grass followed by a spin back onto the tarmac in the face of oncoming cars. Thanks to a bit of luck and some good driving by the other drivers, and then Terry in getting going, he managed to rejoin and take up where he left off but at the back of the race and gain some places back eventually finishing 24th.

Terry’s second race in the late afternoon was an equally adventurous excursion with him having a much better start getting up 6 places in the first few corners. Gaining places every lap or two was the order of the day getting him up to 11th at one point until eventually some late braking at the hairpin lost him some places and then he got collected by another car with only one lap to go meaning he ended up with a DNF and a little bit of front end damage. Terry’s best time proved to be 1m42.8 which was 7th fastest in race 7 which shows the measure of his improvement over the day.

Clives last race was a step up again and gradual gains in places meant he finished in 6th place from his 13th start. The race pace wasn’t as good as the last race but keeping his head and maintaining gained places without loosing them meant that nobody on the grid went past him for very long.

Aftermath

Lessons learnt! Well firstly well down Tracktoys in getting both cars in such great shape for racing, for getting Clive’s suspension how he wanted it and for getting Clive’s car back ready for race 1 after the overheating.

Secondly we have stepped up a gear in race pace for sure. Both a Clive’s and Terry’s times are improving quickly and race craft developing very well. Both drivers managed over 15 place gains overall during the races with some impressive lap times when traffic allowed it.

Thirdly, we need to sort out our qualification. We need to concentrate on better positions so that we can make the most of the races by being on the grid in the right spot for our speed. Not easy but it is our next big target which should allow us to try for podium places in the next month.

Finally with the new Winnebago and awnings we have the space and equipment to make the weekend work better. We might need another hand or two when we get 4 cars on the grid at Donington in May but otherwise all is looking well……..and we are having real fun.

Anybody wants to join us, we have spaces in our two hire cars available at Castle Coombe in May, Oulton Park and Knockhill in June and Snetterton in July.

Off to Rockingham…….

ShimmyRacing have two cars competing at Rockingham on the International Circuit tomorrow, Saturday 16th April. Terry in 111 and Clive in 27 will be putting their earlier test days to good use and getting us into the news and points table of the Ma5da Championship series. Here’s the new paddock set up.

The Longest Day!!

What was meant to be a gentle introduction into mx5 motorsport became an epic battle to get cars onto the grid. We turned up at 6pm on Saturday (well most of us did!) and decided to set up close to the paddock but outside as Britcar teams were still set up and it was a bit of a free for all in the garages.

It took us a good few minutes to understand how to put an awning up, but the Rhino ones we have were top spec and we soon had a tied down shelter and unloaded most of the gear. No stickers/decals so we decided we had to do that in the morning!!!!!

Shot off to the Green Man for dinner around 9pm and met up with our new race driver Martin Thomas and his mate Nod. Probably drank too much and stayed up too late especially as the clocks changed and we lost an hour sleep.

Race Day Sunday

We got there early and realised we were set up alone as everybody else had buggered off into the paddock……..bollocks! Well we weren’t going to change location now so we completed unpacking and got the cars ready for qualifying. Series decal stickers were proving hard find. Word had it that Blakey (series organiser) had them in his Camper but nobody wanted to wake him. Loads of metaphors sprung to mind but hey ho….we would have to wait.

Sign on and scrutineering went well (well done Matt). We had one issue and we had a hans harness for car 102 (Martin Thomas) which was not suitable for a non-hans driver, but thanks to MichaelP we managed to swap one from his mx5 and got passed. We managed to get all the decals and numbers onto the cars, not necessarily in the right places or straight.

Now comes the tricky bit! ……Terry Buckel and Clive ‘Days of Thunder’ Bailye had entered a further set of 2 cares and 1 qualifier as invitational cars on the back of the mx5 mark3 grid. All very good experience but it meant they were on the track EVERY HOUR OF THE DAY!!!

 The Important Bit!

So just to be clear, the races that matter are the Ma5da Championship races, all mark 1 mx5s. The mx5 Cup is essentially a mark3 race with space that we got on the grid for £100/2 races. In the Championship there are so many mark 1 cars that after qualifying the cars are split in to 4 group (A-D) and two different groups race each other in each of the 4 races (2 races per car)

Ma5da Championship

http://www.tsl-timing.com/brscc/2011/111231.pdf

Qualification

Clive 13/45 at 2m47.8

Martin 25/43 at 2m49.2 (first time he sat in the car)

Terry 35/43 at 2m52.3

Race 9

Martin started 26th and finished 18th out of 41, best 2m46.8 (+8 places) Terry started 36th and finished 28thout of 41, best 2m48.9 (+8 places)

Race 11

Clive started 13th and finished 16th out of 36, best 2m47.9 (-3 due to big spin)

Mx5 Cup (Invitational)

Qualification (first session of the day)

Clive 21st at 2m49.6

Terry 25th at 2m51.3

Race 8

Clive started 21st but DNF (found the gravel!)

Terry started 25thand finished 17th, best 2m48.1 (+8)

Race 13

Clive started 21st Finished 11th best 2m45.7 (+10)

Terry started 25th Finished 20th best 2m48.0 (+5)

Conclusions!

The positives are we made it home, relatively unscathed. The cars are in one piece (with minor panel damage ……on every panel). The drivers are much more experienced and have managed to get some serious race practice and overtaking training. Let us not forget Terry has never raced before and Martin Thomas had never sat in an mx5 before (well not that he would admit to). Clive obviously lives in his mx5 at the moment….

The negatives were only few, but it was a shame the last race was cancelled as all 3 cars were going to race – together. But the safety of the guys trapped in the two crashed cars on the race before was far more important and we believe they are ok and were sent to hospital for check ups after one being trapped in the car for over 20 minutes. Qualifying was poor and we need to learn to get the best out of our few laps to get as high up as we can on the grid.

The Drivers

Clive managed to get better and with a good qualifying effort in think will be pushing top 10 and above in his races. The times certainly suggest this but as we know the mx5 needs to get some certain ‘love’ as you drive it and this takes time to understand and to get the best out of the car. I am sure we will spend a;; year looking at changes to the set up, tyre pressures, timing, shaving tyres, fuel loads but we ALL know it is about learning the car and not scrubbing speed.

Martin Thomas in his first time in the car was on the money. He never put a lap in above 1m 50 and was had the fastest lap time of our team until Clive’s last lap in the Cup race. A real shame the last race again was not run. Well done Martin, you looked comfy in the car by the last race. Maybe toooooo comfy.

Terry Buckel was the stall wart of the day. Three races and two qualifications and steady improvement and no dramas, although he nearly threw his toys out the pram when we were suggesting he was going out to race with 4 kg of fuel!. I think Terry will steadily pick up speed and race craft and maybe on his second outing at Rockingham on 16/17 April we can get him higher up the grid on qualification and see him up to the bumper of Clive ‘I’m Droppin’ The Hammer’ Bailye.

Well done Matt and Gemma at Tracktoys, the cars were well set up and food was well cooked. Thanks Mr and Mrs Housey for helping out. Steve is already talking about accelerating his training to get on the grid at Donny in May. I hope the guests enjoyed the racing, chatting, food, drink and entertainment. Cheers John for the pictures.  Sorry all for the swearing!

Lessons learnt – less burgers, real coke, better qualifying, new harness.

Drivers reports will be posted soon.

Until next time at Rockingham on 16th and 17th April.