OFFICIAL TEST, THRUXTON

Although Round 3 of the championship is not for a couple of weeks at Donnington Park, the next outing for me and the Welch Motorsport team was at Thruxton and the official test day for round 4 due to be held in the middle of May.

Its been a number of years since I last drove a race car around the circuit, labeled the fastest track in the UK. I was lucky enough to be working there late last year on a drive event and managed to complete a handful of laps in a road car. All be it way before the decision to race this year. I was hoping that this might give me the edge over some of the other drivers as testing at Thruxton is very limited.

As per usual the day was scheduled to have two test sessions, one mid morning and the other just after lunch. We were able to use brand new tyres as the compound of the rubber has to be harder to cope with the huge amount of degradation to the tyres. Some circuits are much harder on the tyres than others.

The first few laps of the session were ideal to just check the car over, do a couple of slow laps to make sure that everything was in order and the car felt stable. The setup of the car is different for nearly every circuit, however Thruxton is even more unusual due to the high speeds reached at certain parts of the lap. As the session went on the, grip increased more and more as the tyre rubber started to embed itself into the track. It only takes a few cars just to clean the track and lay new rubber, the temperature of the track was also increasing, so the times were going to improve.

By the end of the first session I was fourth quickest and a look at the data between the two sessions revealed that I could carry more speed through to fast part of the track, and als brake a bit later at the end of the straight.

I was suffering a little bit of instability under heavy braking and the car did seem to move about a lot throughout most of the lap.

The changes that were going to be made would give the car more grip where needed, but not too much as it is important to allow the car to move about a bit, otherwise it just isn't fast enough.

At some point it is necessary to leave your comfort zone and rely on what comes naturally. If that is going to happen then Thruxton is the place.

With all the changes made and a new set of front tyres on the car, it only took a few laps to get up to speed and record a faster time than in the first session. Just like a qualifying session at a race meeting, the best performance of the tyres is usually in the first couple of laps. Although it is nice to record the fastest time in a test day, it is important to establish a good setup for the race meeting, thus allowing the tyres to last and ultimately be fast during a race.

By the end of the session and, which was pleasing, I was third fastest and completed that lap time on the very last lap of practice. This was a perfect situation to be in as the setup was ready for the race meeting in four weeks.

ROCKINGHAM, RACE 2

The second race on the Sunday looked like it was going to be another dry one, until the very last minute. The weather had been threatening all day long, dark black clouds circling the track and about two minutes before the start of the race the heavens opened and the rain started to fall.

Some of the teams changed to wet tyres almost straight away. My initial thought was to stay on slicks as the track is prone to drying very quickly, the wind was also quite strong. As the rain continued to fall I could see the team making my wet tyres ready and then the car was plumbed into the airline and the air-jacks lifted the car ready for a change.

I still felt that the track was going to dry and, similar to the first race of the season if the track were to dry then slick tyres were going to be much faster by the end of the race.

Thankfully the team were never going to change the tyres as they also had the same plan.

Two minutes later the signal was given to make final decisions and head out onto the circuit for the formation lap. It just so happened that everyone made the same choice and the entire grid was on slicks.

We were given an extra lap to find out what the conditions were like and to get extra heat into the brakes and the tyres. As the track was wet it was unlikely to give the tyres enough friction to warm them sufficiently, heating the brakes up more then usual helped put some heat through the wheel and therefore into the tyre.

Just like the first race I started from the right hand side of the grid, on the racing line, so I had planned for a good start. All of the races so far in the day had been dry and that meant the racing line in the corners was likely to be very slippery due to plenty of rubber being put down onto the track from the other formulas, especially the touring cars. 

As the lights changed, similar to the first race I got a great start and planned to go around the outside of the turn 1, off the racing line. I felt that there would be more grip there. Thankfully it was a good decision as the car on the inside of me spun and almost hit the safety wall. Being off the line allowed me to carry more speed towards the second corner and therefore make a further overtaking manouvre moving me into 5th place.

As I kept a tight line through the second corner I made an extra place. Everyone seemed to be taking it very carefully, but the car had so much grip and allowed for me to brake later and accelerate earlier. The rest of the lap was fraught with contact between a few of the cars and more overtaking. I managed to get into second place briefly before getting pushed onto the grass and dropping back to sixth by the end of the first lap.

On the second lap I got a good run onto the straight and through turn one to make it upto 5th again, and then completed exactly the same move to take fourth on the next lap.

Throughout the next few laps positions changed and I dropped back to 6th. I continued to make the places back at the end of the main straight in the braking area, being careful not to lock the brakes and spin.

On the 5th lap the I began to hear a noise coming from the rear of the car, it did sound a little like the suspension knocking as I cornered. What I didn't know was that the fire extinguisher had worked its way loose and was bumping the mount that held it in place.

As I made a move to go back into fifth the mount broke and the extinguisher flew to the front of the car and smashed into the bulkhead next to me, some what catching me by surprise. As this happened it distracted me enough to miss my breaking point and slide wide  dropping dowen the field to 9th. for the rest of the race the extinguisher proceeded to smash itself around the car as I cornered, accelerated and braked. It was lucky that it didn't break the valve. as it broke most of the plastic electric switches in the car.

The race seemed to last for ever form that point onward and it ended up with me finishing in 9th position.

It wasn't exactly how I had planned the race to go, as I was fast enough in those conditions to be racing for a podium position. But at least the damage was only inside the car and easy to fix for the next outing. 

ROCKINGHAM , RACE 1

So far the weekend had been a bit mixed as far as the weather was concerned. Very cloudy, but every now and again the sun would break through raising the temperature of the track and air considerably, then for the clouds to return and the temps to drop again.

The first race was scheduled for the Saturday afternoon, and so far the rain had stayed away, so it was a dry race, and slick tyres.

Starting 8th on the grid meant I started on the outside of the track near to the safety wall. This is the normal racing line, therefore it is the cleanest part of the track and has the most amount of grip. This was perfect as I needed to make up a few places as soon as possible while the tyres were cool and everyone else was being a little cautious.

As the lights changed, I got a great start and made up a place almost straight away and then another place on the way around the first lap.

On the second lap there was a bit of contact between the cars in front and I was able to make up another place, so by lap 2 I was into fifth.

All seemed pretty good, I was closing in on the group of cars in front and was planning on making a move as soon as I could so as to not loose the momentum.

On lap 4 I got caught under breaking as I locked a wheel and ran wide loosing a place, but I had the pace to run at the speed of the leaders providing I didn't have any more trouble from the small flat spot on the front tyre.

As the race went on there was a few changes of position up front and  I managed to capitalise making it back into 5th place. It wasn't going to last for too long as the flat spot had got worse over the past few laps, and it meant that every time I braked heavily the wheel locked up when the flat spot met the tarmac.

Eventually this was to end up in contact with another car in an overtaking attempt, that bent the steering and the suspension making the last couple of laps very difficult indeed, and dropping down the field to 8th, where I ended up finishing. 

ROUND TWO, ROCKINGHAM QUALIFYING.

I was going to use both of the qualifying sessions on the Saturday as a further opportunity to increase the knowledge I had of the track, also build up more confidence in the car and learn  more about the fine art of driving a front wheel drive saloon car.

As with the first round of the season at Brands Hatch, there is a structure to qualifying and therefore the process is crucial to the outcome of where you end up and, what happens to the tyres that are supposed to last for the whole weekends racing.

The best of the tyre's performance are in the opening laps when they are at the correct temperature, soft, and therefore producing the most amount of grip. If the tyre temperatures get too hot then the grip is lost and the tyre surface quite literally melts, making the car hard to drive and consequently slow.

During the day there were two qualifying sessions and the first race of the weekend. So a busy day lay ahead. The first session gave me more time to learn the track without overdoing the use of the tyres, which made every lap very important. 

By the end of the session I had completed 8 laps, made a couple of visits into the pit lane, to swap the tyres around on the car to equalize the wear rate.

The end result was 8th on the grid. Not too bad considering 24 hours earlier I had only seen a picture of the track.

The second Qualifying was much the same. Try to learn as much as I could form the car, the track and from the processes of the qualifying period. Although I have raced before, due to the length of time I have been out of competitive motor racing it is always advisable to use these early race meetings in the championship to maximize track time.

This session I, again, completed 8 laps and qualified 8th for the second race. This meant that in both races I was due to start from the outside of the grid, which in fact, at Rockingham, is the cleanest part of the track as it is the racing line into turn 1. So I was looking forward to a good start and maybe making up a couple of places before the first couple of corners.

ROUND TWO, ROCKINGHAM, OFFICIAL TEST

The second round of the championship was always going to be the hardest for me, as I am still learning the best way to drive the car, and also this is a track that I haven't driven on before.

The first few laps of practice proved to be just for sighting and installation, as some new parts had been fitted to the car after the opening race weekend at Brands Hatch. The track itself is part speedway, just like in the USA and part normal race track. This means that the car does have to be setup slightly differently than usual to cope with the high speed format of the banked corners.

For me, the track was a little hard to get used to, but with the track dry it helped to get used to the higher speeds the car is capable of, as later in the season the championship moves to much faster circuits like Thruxton and Croft.

The second session of practice was much harder however, as the weather had changed and the rain had begun to fall. so it was time to find out just how much down force the aerodynamic package on the car had to offer.

The banked bend at turn 1 should be full throttle wet or dry, but of course it does depend on how brave you are. I have to be honest it did take a few laps to build up the confidence to achieve that.

By the end of the day, I was able to lap the circuit not too far off the pace of the championship leaders and those that are far more used to the cars, so I felt good about the day and was looking forward to the qualifying sessions the next day.