443 replies to this topic

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

First Track Test SO had our first chance to try these tyres out on track at Llandow last Saturday. Have been very worried that these tyres were going to unsettle the performance of the car on the limit, but I have to say after Saturday I am pleased with the results!! For those unaware, Time Attack have changed the mandatory tyre from Toyo R888's to Pirelli P Zero's. On paper a disaster but in reality it's not as bad as it sounds!! I must admit that the tyres cannot match the 888 in terms of traction, but once you accept this and start to explore the limit of these tyres you find that they ARE actually a very competent tyre!! Chasing some of the other VX's through some of the bends at Llandow made it clear that I will have to wind in my cornering speeds slightly but I was still able to eek plenty of performance from them so I'm hopeful for the coming races. The tyres did seem to 'go off' slightly quicker than 888's would so I am going to have to work on finding space out there to put down my best time and limit my strategy in terms of hot laps.

[luke.]

Will you be at brands both days Jimmy?? i will be on RnR then and wouldn't mind coming along to support the vx220 Are the tickets easy enough to book? As i have major problems with the internet over here. Cheers Luke

[SteveA]

Any pics of the H&T pedal? How much?

[techieboy]

Any pics of the H&T pedal? How much?

TAT Concept

[Duncan_F]

Booked my ticket this morning for round 1 at Oulton Park.

[Thurtene]

All the best for your season. Cheers! Joel

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

Race day!!

I was preparing to do most of this series on my own but from seeing what goes on in the pits I’ve realised that will not be practical. There’s just too much to do! I was overwhelmed by the guys yesterday and how they controlled the pit garage for me! Everyone had defined roles/responsibilities and everyone dutifully got on with it. I was under strict orders ‘not to touch’, (which was touch for me) but it gave me time to focus and concentrate on the driving ahead.

I was initially disappointed with the turnout. There was only 20 cars in club, and that was split into classes
9 cars in 4FI
3 cars in FFI
3 cars in RFI (RWD Forced Induction (my class))
1 car in 4NA
4 cars in FNAs
NO RWD NA’s….? Some of you guys should enter!!!!!!!!!!!

The cars throughout the competition were impressive though!!! Some of the budgets involved here are immense! Gerry Atkinson who was in the garage next door was driving a Factory Seat Lean Supercopa race car. This is a factory designed race car that cost somewhere in the region of £60k and is only his ‘temporary’ car he bought until his race car is finished. This sort of money is tough to compete against!! There are also a lot of BTTC cars entered, as well as some BTTC drivers. All meant for some nervous moments in the pits thinking I’d made a big mistake

Warm up

Sod it, I got out there first (in for a penny…). Was immediately blown away by Bo Nielson (defending FFI Champion) in his Astra VXR who disappeared into the distance so quickly I couldn’t even copy his lines. Ouch! A number of Scooby’s also picked me off a little too easily but I soon settled into a rhythm and made a few places back I’ve never driven here before so I was learning the track as I went but I was happy with the circuit. Didn’t have my transponder but pitwall timing put me in around 1:46.

Practice

A lot of the guys really piled on the pressure here and the times were falling fast! Mid session one of the Evo’s blew up and spread oil up the back straight through Warwick Bridge so the session was red flagged. Once they’d dusted the oil we were sent back out. I was the third car through and the cloud of dust thrown up was terrifying. Visibility was zero at a point on the circuit that’s usually around 110mph ish. I’ve put a vid in of this. Visibility looks ok in the vid but it wasn’t!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=157PuRLVSnU

Still experimenting at linking bends but took 2 seconds off my previous time 1:44.248 More importantly my closest competitor (Umar Masood) was at 1:46.338. Put me 14th overall, but leader in class.

Qualifying

Practice yielded some valuable VBox data so some different lines/techniques were discussed. A tad stressed on restart when a frayed SC belt was noticed last minute and was changed over within moments. Sacrificed my track position due to this and had to restart with a fair amount of traffic ahead of me. I just nipped into the queue ahead of Umar Masood though and soon picked through the slower cars and really hit form. Took over 2 seconds out of what I thought was a solid time and managed a 1:42.190 which took me to 10th overall and still 1’st in class. Masood hit some issues and only managed a 1:51.642 out of 6 laps. Confidence was on a high here as I finished within 7/100’s of a second behind Charlie Buttler Henderson in an ex BTCC car. Well happy with that!

Final

I was buzzing at this point and was really getting to know areas of the track where I could eek time back. I had a fair bit of breathing space in class so another hard session wasn’t required but I couldn’t be certain Masood wasn’t going to pull it out of the bag. He raised his game as I feared and managed his fastest of the day with a 1:45.646 but I was ‘on one’ and broke the 1:42 barrier I set out to achieve with a 1:41.769. 1’st in class and 8th overall which I was very happy with. Wish I had some open pit time there as there is defo more time to come off this in my car. Not much though

On a whole I was amazed by the amount of money involved in this series! The components involved in getting a 1.5ton car to corner with the agility and confidence that some of these did is immense! Chatting to Bo he spent nearly £5k on his shocks!!! I’m entering on a pikey budget with a cheap car that was built by ‘me and the lads’ so I’m happy to be mixing it with these guys (Bo finished with a 1:38.502).

My main reflection on the day was how well looked after I was! I quite literally could NOT have done it without the team behind me yesterday! Cheers again guys, all of you!! You are all welcome to help out in the future and I pray some of you do.

Here's my winning lap (nice and clear for a change)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iamWCm85-Ao

[ChrisS1]

Nice one well done Jimmy!! You must be more than pleased!!!! Didn't see any nose scratching though so I deduce that you could have gone faster

[fiveoclock]

Well done mate. What an excellent debut. I'm def going to do my best to be at Knockhill.

[VXT Tim]

Well done JJ, really pleased for you

[hairy]

Great drive JJJ! Really pleased for you!

[luke.]

Well in mate. How many cars entered altogether? I hope to be there in June when im back Cant watch the videos as it wont allow it over here

[garyk220]

Well done Jimmy. Really pleased for you after all the effort you have put in over the winter. It's a big buzz eh? It looks like your car has a bit more in it too once you get used to the event set-up and circuits. How did you find the tyres, did they last a sessions or did you have to cool them off in between quick laps? I'll do my best to get up to Knockhill and help out. Assuming not all of your 'pit crew' make the trip up.

[TheStotts]

Well done JJJ, fantastic result

[drpau]

Good stuff! Sounds as if it was initially a bit daunting but you settled into the swing of things. WHo was your pit crew? Guys off here?

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

Nice one well done Jimmy!! You must be more than pleased!!!!
Didn't see any nose scratching though so I deduce that you could have gone faster

Ha ha, I've got a few nose scratching vids I might post a few up.

Well done mate. What an excellent debut. I'm def going to do my best to be at Knockhill.

Come on up fella, it sould be a laugh!! Hopefully a number of us will be camping up there!

Well done JJ, really pleased for you

Cheers fella, I was thinking I'd better get the vids up quickly as you'd get narky

Great drive JJJ! Really pleased for you!

Cheers mate.

Well in mate. How many cars entered altogether? I hope to be there in June when im back
Cant watch the videos as it wont allow it over here

There were 20 cars in club, and that was split into classes
9 cars in 4FI
3 cars in FFI
3 cars in RFI (RWD Forced Induction (my class))
1 car in 4NA
4 cars in FNAs

Well done Jimmy. Really pleased for you after all the effort you have put in over the winter. It's a big buzz eh? It looks like your car has a bit more in it too once you get used to the event set-up and circuits. How did you find the tyres, did they last a sessions or did you have to cool them off in between quick laps?

I'll do my best to get up to Knockhill and help out. Assuming not all of your 'pit crew' make the trip up.

Not much more that my car could give through there! There is of course areas where I could go quicker though and I would like a few more runs through there to perfect it. From the vid it's not possible to see just how much the track undulates. With my suspension I was having to trail into a few of these points to prevent lift off oversteer (which isn't good at 110mph ). An awesome circuit though!!

Tyres were great!! they lack the 1 lap traction of a 888 but they seemed to last forever and would lef you stay out for a good while!! If I'm short on crew I will of course give you a shout Gary. At Oulton though they were not bothered so I had more crew working than had wristbands (thank god ).

Well done JJJ, fantastic result

Cheers

Good stuff! Sounds as if it was initially a bit daunting but you settled into the swing of things.

WHo was your pit crew? Guys off here?

Yeah the warm up session didn't inspore my confidence as I was picked apart, but those guys had been testing there the day before so I knew were going to start strong!

Crew...

Cliffie was the boss in there, making sure people were clear on what had to be done. Joe and Lee were in charge of my engine and fluids, Chris_UK was like my motivational coach. Calming me down and talking me through strategies/lines. Then there was a whole host of people (Ali MrsTechieboy etc) getting me drinks and looking after me TBH honest alot of the time I was just zoned out thinking when the guys were working away on the car and I didn't have to worry about a thing!

[chris_uk]

Jimmy, ill be at knockhill, i need to talk to you about getting up there, as i might jump in with you if you dont mind on the friday when you go up, as id like to do the testing (trackday) with you etc etc, but we can sort it closer to the time just keep a seat spare for me

[Crabash]

Knockhill is a little easier for me, hope to be there. Depending on work might make a weekend of it and stay over.

[VXT Tim]

Crew...

Cliffie was the boss in there, making sure people were clear on what had to be done. Joe and Lee were in charge of my engine and fluids, Chris_UK was like my motivational coach. Calming me down and talking me through strategies/lines. Then there was a whole host of people (Ali MrsTechieboy etc) getting me drinks and looking after me TBH honest alot of the time I was just zoned out thinking when the guys were working away on the car and I didn't have to worry about a thing!

You can liken yourselves to Lewis and his Macca boys. Lots of similarities to this mornings race it appears

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

Jimmy, ill be at knockhill, i need to talk to you about getting up there, as i might jump in with you if you dont mind on the friday when you go up, as id like to do the testing (trackday) with you etc etc, but we can sort it closer to the time

just keep a seat spare for me

Picking you up in Stoke aint I? Not a problem fella, you helped me loads yesterday you got the gig if you want it As far as yesterday went... I'm sure there was a spare red band floating around.... I gave them to Cliffie or Lee so not sure who had them.

Knockhill is a little easier for me, hope to be there. Depending on work might make a weekend of it and stay over.

We should be camping so bring a bivvy

Crew...

Cliffie was the boss in there, making sure people were clear on what had to be done. Joe and Lee were in charge of my engine and fluids, Chris_UK was like my motivational coach. Calming me down and talking me through strategies/lines. Then there was a whole host of people (Ali MrsTechieboy etc) getting me drinks and looking after me TBH honest alot of the time I was just zoned out thinking when the guys were working away on the car and I didn't have to worry about a thing!

You can liken yourselves to Lewis and his Macca boys. Lots of similarities to this mornings race it appears

I think that is a stretch too far for the imagination Great finish by Lewis today though Shame Webber picked off Jenson, but he was 'on one' big style at the end!!!!!