Given our two current racers on the boards had their second race weekend, I thought I'd share the report with you guys. Graham hope you don't mind.

Saturday saw a lovely bright start from our house at 7:30 when the rain started pouring down but by the time we got to Brands Hatch it was clear and looked likely to be a good day out.

We set up the trailer and car and then Andy, Graham's brother; mechanic; and all round nice guy turned up folowed shortly after by his brother. Who I won't mention here had forgotten half of his race kit. Oops!

So the day kicked off, the car's were set up and all as good to go until Jo's car was questioned at scrutnieering for only one rain light working. A quick fiddle with the bulb and all was cool.

Practice started just before lunch time and as you can see from the link below it was a lovely sunny day.

Just for the record Jo is car #36 and Graham (GE2) is car #37

Disclaimer - it was very windy and it was the first time I'd used a camcorder in anger.

Qualifying part 1

after a short spell with the guys back in the pits due to an off by another car the session restarted and the guys went out again.

Qualifying part 2

This put Jo ahead of Graham on the grid. The nice thing about having video footage is that we can do near live feedback by playing it back directly through the Landcruiser's head unit.

So after some fettling of tyres, pressures etc we sat around for a while watching some racing BMWs, old 3 series, some Jag XJS', some XJ6's and Daimlers including a massive shunt right in front of us where one stoved another into the barriers enough to make the marshalls question the validity of the crash structure afterwards.

So the race kicked off all went very well for the first stint...

Race part 1

Here are a few stills from the first race taken between the vid files..







As the racing continued G and Jo were very close and the redmist certainly set in for a Mr Ewings as can be seen in the following clip (he's the red caterham)

Race part 2

So Jo took the points and beat Graham and after much red faces in the paddock the cars were retired for the evening..

 

Are you going to write up day 2

The video -> Landcruiser thing is v cool, we have our own mini 2 row cinema !!

 

What with Saturday all done and dusted we returned to Brands on Sunday morning all prepped and raring to go. That was of course with about 5 hours to wait for the race.





Now G and his brother decided it was time for weight reduction, off came G's rear number plate, so of came Jo's Then the coup de grace (sp?!?), Jo finally listened to me (not bad after 4 years) and out came the passenger harness. A couple of kilos saved there

Waiting around at the track wasn't too bad given the plethora of races going on. More BMW 3 series, then a Morgan race to name but a few and it really was cut and thrust all the way in each and every one of them. It may be slower than F1 but far more to see in comparison. The Morgan's sounded like Spitfires and have a real oldy world charm. It wass nice to see these cars bewing used in anger.





So the weather was drawing in - was it going to need wet spec tyres or what? In the end both cars went out on wets for peasce of mind and good job really cos it started lashing it done when they hit the grid.

The race started cleanly and Jo go probably her best start so far, each time before this G has been doing excellently and always been putting the pressure on Jo. He certainly gets into race mindset from the get go. By Druid's G was in the lead and Jo was a close second. (please remember that I see this as a race between theose two as the other caterhams in their class are things like R400s whereas these guys are only putting out 130 bhp.

 

Starting to.... please see above

 

How's the sunburn!

 

Must be really bad the speed he's typing..

 

Well this is how the 2nd line of my post is phrasing is concenred. my arms are really quite sorte having spent the whole of Saturday in the sun.

As for the race, as the rain continued to plummet down the track conditions got worse and worse however the drivers were doing a great job of keeping it together, until about lap 7.

After several laps of closing in on a Cossie Sierra Jo was dropping down the hill Druids and had firmly got the bit between her teeth and span coming out of Hill. Vid to follow...

 

So Jo ran wide on Cooper straight, put her tyres onto the rubber matting outside of the kerbing and span in kinda slow motion. When I get the vid file up you can see for yourselves tonight.

She crossed over the track and slid into the barrier backwards and gave the car a bit of a thump. The rear section of the suspension and body work needs some attention but nothing is too bad.

I ran from the top of the Desire Wilson grandstand all the way round Paddock hill bend, up round Druid's (Christ that's steep!) and went to see her - to put this into context it's about 3/4 mile and I was knackered.



She was a little shaken and her head is sore but generally she's ok.

Graham went on to set some great times and finished his race.

These posts have been biased towards Jo as I don't want to steal G's thunder from posting for himself but hopefully we'll hear from him soon.

I'll post the second race vid this evening and you can see her off in all its splendour.

 

The experts had a quick look and reckon rear chassis and boot skin (the obvious stuff), and possibly the de dion tube and ears - it needs to go back to Arch to have the chassis sorted out and I'm going to have it modified to accept a HANS device too; one of the things that went through my head as I connected with the wall was how much head movement there was for such a slow motion impact - born out by the fact I'm still dazed and confused today although a lot better !

Stuuuupid girrlll !!!!

Still it was fun up until then, with lots of "racing", well from my novices experience it felt close anyway! From the video we all look miles away from each other! We were being held up by a Sierra Cossie (on slicks) in the corners who just booted it in a straight line. I reckon I would have had him given another couple of laps, and G and I had some overtaking action at the beginning.

It really is lots of fun!

 

Oooh, thread already!!

Mega busy at work right now, I'll be back later