79 replies to this topic

[bunsenburner]

A link to the full race video.

 

http://vimeo.com/94497955

 

 

Edited by bunsenburner, 09 May 2014 - 07:54 AM.

[ChrisS1]

Excellent stuff.

 

Looks like a very popular race series. Do you feel like you're in a 90s touring car?

[bunsenburner]

Only the other day Tim Harvey was on the phone again begging me for a drive! It is a bit old school, but great for keeping the costs down.

[bunsenburner]

Snetterton 300 Race Report

 

 

Qualifying was a bit of a disappointment as I was stuck in traffic for all but one lap.  Happily that one lap was half decent and I managed to qualify 13th of 42.

 

Because the Snett grid capacity is large, they managed to get all the Compacts in the same race, so there were no groups.  However this meant placing in the first race determined your grid position for the start of the second race.

 

Race 1

 

Once again I struggled to get off to a good start, this time the car in front missed a gear and I found myself boxed in as a crocodile of 6 cars filed past.

 

After 3 laps I’d managed to move up 8 places and was making decent progress through the field, sitting in 11th as I crossed the line.

 

I was hampered by poor brakes throughout race one with an increasingly longer pedal.  At the Montreal hairpin they were particularly bad and I ended up running too deep every time (5:35min, 8:05min, 10:30min & 12:55min) and the following corner was also compromised.  The brake pedal finally hit the back of the footwell and I really struggled to scrub off the speed.  Some firmness came back but rather than limp round for last couple of laps I decided to retire rather than risk any damage to the car in case they failed again.

 

Unfortunately this meant I started from the back of the grid for race 2.

 

 

Race 2

 

From 37th I finished 19th but unfortunately an incident at the Bomb hole cost me a couple of places and a fair bit of front end damage to repair.  I was passing a car on the inside of the bend when a car from behind lunged up my inside as I was about to take the apex.  With nowhere to go I was stuck in the middle of a sandwich which resulted in the innocent car on the outside being taken out, and the perpetrator getting away scot free (4min 40secs).

 

Driving standards across the Championship are now being seriously scrutinised as there have been quite a few incidents this season and the repairs are devastating budgets.  Hopefully the next round will give everyone some very close racing but nothing over the top.

 

I still need to work on my overtaking as I really struggle to get the car alongside in the right place when there’s someone with a similar pace.

 

Overall it was a mixed weekend, some decent pace but disappointing results and more damage to repair.

 

Next round Castle Combe!

 

Race 1
[media][media]

 

 

Race 2 – Video cut short as the GoPro ran out of Battery!
[media][media]

 

 

42 cars pile into the first corner!

 

Front end damage after R2

 

 

The TV coverage
http://www.bmwraceda...snetterton-300/

 

Edited by bunsenburner, 06 June 2014 - 09:11 AM.

[Pidgeon]

Shame about the damage, never nice.

 

On your video I wouldn't be too harsh on the inside car.  Your exit of the previous corner had been compromised (Guess that's not one of the Gazzard's driving their car?) and if you leave room, someone will fill it.  The Gaz car should have given you room, but if he wasn't aware of the inside car....

 

My new engine should fire up this weekend, I'll be at Croft not Combe but back for the Rock.

[Foxy]

On your video I wouldn't be too harsh on the inside car.  Your exit of the previous corner had been compromised (Guess that's not one of the Gazzard's driving their car?) and if you leave room, someone will fill it.  The Gaz car should have given you room, but if he wasn't aware of the inside car....

I would concur with the learned one. Perhaps you could've lifted and let Gazzard take the corner...?

[bunsenburner]

 

On your video I wouldn't be too harsh on the inside car.  Your exit of the previous corner had been compromised (Guess that's not one of the Gazzard's driving their car?) and if you leave room, someone will fill it.  The Gaz car should have given you room, but if he wasn't aware of the inside car....

I would concur with the learned one. Perhaps you could've lifted and let Gazzard take the corner...?

 

 

I'm not too bothered about the move, it's just that when he came up the inside there was only ever one outcome.  The Gaz car would never have seen the other one coming.  When I spoke to him afterwards he said he expected me to take the apex, so that's how much room he left.

 

Maybe if I was the one behind I might have done the same thing.

 

Anyway, good news on your engine build, hopefully you'll have better luck this time and it will last longer than 2 laps.

 

I'll be missing Rockingham because I'm on holiday, so I'll see you at Silverstone.

[Pidgeon]

No luck this time sadly, there's no compression on number one and I've had enough.  The 'progress' (read complexity) between the E30 and 36 is huge and clearly a chain driven twin cam is beyond my capabilities

 

The Compact will become another ornament on the drive for the remainder of this year.

[bunsenburner]

Another month, another round

 

 

 

 

Castle Combe had some great sunshine, a perfect day to be sat inside a steel box with all the windows up

 

I was sporting a slightly different livery after the new front end, but everything underneath was just the same.  Throughout testing on Friday the set up was getting softer and softer as the bumpy circuit demanded it and the lap times started to fall.

 

Qualifying ended early with a car parked in the barrier at some speed, but again I managed to get a half decent time putting me 11th on the grid.  The first race had me Black flagged after I failed to see the meatball flag when my exhaust fell off the hangars and was being dragged behind me.

 

I managed (somehow) to keep my standing and was listed as finishing 12th.

 

Race 2 I started 12th (as per my R1 finish) and managed to finish 10th.  I had a lot of close racing and I've now started to work on my race craft - not defending unnecessarily, using the switch back effectively, drafting (with team mates and competitors), and not being forced into an error when I've got someone right up my arse.

 

Progress at least!

 

Finally I'm at the right end of the grid, and there is certainly less drama there - so hopefully if I can keep up this performance I'll have less repairs needed between races.  I suspect though that getting into the top 5 will take some doing as the drivers up front have some pedigree.

 

I'm missing the next round at Rockingham because I'm away on Holiday, but I'll be back for Silverstone in August.

 

 

Televised race below

http://vimeo.com/99224260

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Claws]

Brilliant write up as usual! Glad to see that you are making progress through the rankings and are finding your feet Good luck for the next round.

[bunsenburner]

 

 

Silverstone International Race Report

 

I skipped the last round at Rockingham because of a mistimed holiday (a long story), but the drive from London to Italy made up for it in part with the speeds through Germany certainly faster than the 1.9ti is on track.

 

Damned Brakes!

I tested on the Friday and was really unhappy with the brakes.  The brakes haven't been the same since I cooked the fluid at Snetterton.  I now have such a long pedal that there's very little travel available from when it bites to when it hits the back of the footwell.  To try and bring back the firm pedal I've changed the fluid, then new pads, then discs, then calipers and finally the servo.  None of which have made any material difference.

 

The only way to bring the pedal up a bit is to pump it a couple of times before each corner.  The theory goes that when I ride over the kerbs the pads get rattled back away from the disk, so a gentle pump or two re-seats the pads against the disk giving me some brakes for the next corner.  I'm sure I'll get used to it but I find it massively distracting during the race and I don't feel very confident with the brakes.

 

Why can't I have my old brakes back 

 

Qualifying didn't really go to plan as when I finally got a couple of clear laps available I ran wide at my bogey corner Abbey.  For some reason it looks faster than it actually is and rather than sticking to a pre-determined braking point I tend to play it by eye and end up going in too fast.

 

I ended up 24th out of 46.  Annoyingly the decent set of test laps I did were over 1 second better which theoretically would have put me in 8th.  There's obviously more to racing than just being able to circulate quickly.  I need to make it happen every time regardless of traffic, weather, brake issues or anything else.

 

Race 1

From 24th I made a half decent start and bagged a couple of places by the first corner.  Throughout the race I managed to pick off a few cars and by the last lap I was in 15th.  If only the chequered flag was shown then because two little mistakes on the last lap let 3 cars sneak past knocking me back down to 18th.  I hadn't actually noticed that there were any cars so close behind me so I need to pay more attention to that, and maybe start to hone my defensive driving skills.  I must be making it easy for cars to pass me as the door must always be open.

 

 

Race 2

From 18th I made a great start and half-way into the second lap I was in 12th.  Unfortunately a couple of back markers had big smash just before they crossed the line which led to a red flag and a restart.  Normally a restart means cars are gridded up in the order they last crossed the finish line, however because the back markers crashed 5ft short of the line they had not yet completed a full lap and so everyone restarted in their original grid positions 

 

So how was the restart? I missed second gear and dropped 5 places 

 

I took back quite a few places and 2 laps from the end I was 19th. I was trying to line up a pass on the car in front but I got a bit too close.  The guy in front braked earlier than I was going to and it caught me by surprise.  There was no room to the outside of the corner so in avoidance I had to turn tighter which spun me sideways and I ground to a halt.  I was grateful nobody collected me as I was stranded on the apex for a few seconds.  You can see in the on-board YouTube (from 10m 40s) how fast the cars passed by (two over the grass in front and another two running wide behind).

 

Needless to say I lost a few places coming home a rather dejected 28th.

 

My mistakes seem to come in the closing stages of the race and I think it's mostly down to the tyres going off.  I am pretty tail happy, so I need to try and tidy up the technique and look after the tyres more.  Hopefully then I won't get caught out with a late spin or a run wide.

 

There was some good footage of my action on the telly at 9m 40s (race 1) and at 27m 35s (race 2) where the VX gets a mention!

 

Donington is the final round on 5th October so hopefully that will prove to be a good end to my first season but given the date it may be my first wet race!

 

 

 

Telly
http://www.bmwraceda...-international/

 

Race 1 onboard

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=7Xoc5EfywFo

 

 

Race 2 onboard

https://www.youtube....h?v=UAsOlAVZTMo

 

Crazy old horse!

 

The kids came along to support as well

 

 

 

 

[fiveoclock]

There seems to be a lot of exceeding track limits going on. Did a lot of people get penalised for it. The green car in race 1 ETL'd about 7 or 8 times, I'm surprised he didnt get black flagged

[bunsenburner]

They give us hell sometimes in the drivers briefing but with 46 cars on track they struggle to enforce any of it when so many are transgressing. There were a couple of 10 second penalties at Snetterton for the habitual offenders but that was probably a fraction of the time they saved or the places they gained. They need the resources to catch everyone every time. Hopefully the cameras being installed will do that. Without regular prosecutions it will just become a free for all. Even law abiding me gained a place by overtaking with 2 wheels past the kerb on the pit straight! That said one issue at a time - they've only just reigned in the excessive contact.

[bunsenburner]

To answer your question nobody to my knowledge was penalised at Silverstone.

[fiveoclock]

I raced last week at Silverstone and in qualifying there was oil spilt at Brooklands, I ETL'd twice there, the first time there was no warnig out, I then got pushed over on the first corner and lost my best lap for ETLing 3 times (bit of a pisser as without it I would have qualified with only 5 guest cars with big power in front of me). Guest cars!! Now there is something that pisses me off. They're quite strict on ETL in TDT and TT. Does still seem a lot of conatct in your series 

[GeorgeBC]

Looks like great fun! 

 

If you pump the brake pedal and keep your foot down does it hold pressure? If its not the fluid it sounds like a small leak from somewhere, does it loose any fluid? Have you not got the paid race team/pit crew still?

[techieboy]

One of your fellow competitors, James Winstanley (car 17), writes for Practical Performance Car (PPC) magazine and he's been doing a series of articles on his compact. He's been having brake issues too and I think he finally cured his problems with a new master cylinder after doing the rounds with refurbed calipers and multiple fluid changes. I'll dig out the last couple of magazines when I get home tonight and see if there's any more detail in them.

[bunsenburner]

Thanks Techie it might be useful. I just re-read my post and to forgot to mention my new master cylinder. I have noticed a few other cars dabbing the brakes before the corners so I know I'm not alone. I swapped cars for a few laps with one of the other guys during testing and the he said he found my brakes to be fine. But I drove his car and thought his brakes were sh!t. The race support guys can't find any physical fault and there's no leaks. Maybe that's just how they are now but I am still at a loss to understand how a high firm consistent pedal can change so much for the worse.

[bunsenburner]

Final Race!

 

It seems the end of the season has come around pretty quickly which saw us head back to Donington (thank god this time without the Melbourne Loop).

 

I was testing on the Thursday and we tried a couple of different brake pads to see how they feel and when we took out the Carbone Lorraines one of them had completely detached from the backing.  Happily this happened just as the CL Rep. was in the garage.  There was little he could do but hand out a free replacement set of fronts!  I even managed to get a few bottles of half price brake fluid too.  Also the firm brake pedal came back, although not as good as before it's a huge improvement.  I'm also getting used to tapping the pads back in place if I clatter a kerb hard.

 

 

All was going well until the pit wall just jumped out in front of me from no where.  The rear end looked like a dogs dinner and it's severe enough to rule out using it to race next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guys managed to straighten her out but there's only so much that can be done.  It might look a bit wonky but at least I would still be able to race so long as I don't get an over zealous scrutineer on the raceday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special guest was Paul O'Neil who was brave enough to enter the fray of club motorsport, so for us drivers it was really how many of us would be able to beat him.

 

 

 

As usual for most circuits the 43 drivers the grid was split into 3 groups with each race having 30 cars.  Once again I was unhappy with my qualifying time as I had 2 clear laps and managed to run wide on the first one and out brake myself on the second.  I ended 24th fastest which put me 16th on the grid for my two races.

 

Race one saw me make a good start and after 6 laps I was in 9th.  For the last few laps I was driving the defence of my life.  I had a quicker car behind me (James Winstanley) and ended up doing everything but weaving!  I barely spent any time looking forward only in my rear view mirror, driving down the middle of the track to prevent the chasing car getting up the inside.

 

 

 

The only problem with driving so defensively is that it slows you down, which increases the pressure from the cars behind.

 

 

Eventually I succumbed and after trading places a couple of times the leading car pulled ahead.  Having cooked my tyres driving as hard as I could I was a bit of a sitting duck losing 2 more places and limped home 12th.

What I didn't realise at the time was that the car I was chasing for 8th position was Paul O'Neil.

 

There's some good footage of my tussle from the car following behind.  The close racing starts at about 4mins 50 secs.

 

 

 

Continued..........

[bunsenburner]

..........Continued

 

 

Unfortunately the split grid meant that the result of race one doesn't determine your grid position for race two, so I went back to 16th position for the start.
Bouyed by my success at the start of race one I tried an ambitious move around the outside at turn one only to run badly wide and travel cross country losing about 7 places.

 

 

 

 

 



I managed to quickly gain back a few places and then settled into a battle for 15th.

 

 

I shook off the other pretenders and crossed the line in 15th.



TV Coverage
http://www.bmwraceda...-park-national/

There ends my first season and I've definitely caught the bug.  I'll certainly do it again next year with ambitions to consistently fininsh at the pointy end of the grid.

I'll need to replace the car for next season so I will be converting the donor car over the winter.  I hope to do most of the work myself but no doubt I'll run out of skill at some point and need to bring in some hired help.

I've managed to to strip the interior out of the car and I'm in the process of paring back all that unnecessary wiring.  Once I've done that I'll scrape out the sound deadening and respray, then set about removing and replacing the drive train before finally adding the cage and safety equipment.