dbRacing - Brands Hatch Race Report June 15th 2003

Brands Hatch Race Report June 15th 2003

Practice

Brands Hatch was warm & sunny, with clear skies. Most people would see this as a positive thing, but I am no sun worshipper having a tendency to take on the appearance of a lobster after a few hours in the sun, but more importantly than that the car does not like high ambient temperatures. Although sign-on was early morning, we were not due on track until 11:15 giving the sun plenty of time to get the track & air warm.

I had been testing on Friday and though we lost one session due to a succession of off track excursions and red flags I was able to familiarise myself with the circuit quite quickly. Last year at this circuit I was 4th on the grid with a time in the mid 55's. During testing on Friday I wasn't focussing on outright lap time, but more on getting a suspension setup which was well balanced and inspired confidence. It really took all day to get to that point but during a very busy final session I was constantly getting baulked by other cars or had to compromise my lap time slightly to allow faster cars through. The result of this was that I never had the opportunity to see what the car was capable of and my best time was in the low 58's a disappointing 2 1/2 seconds slower than last year. Race day being Sunday this gave me all of Saturday to think about what I needed to do to get somewhere near the front row pace.

Brands being such a small circuit means that finding space is important and being early in the queue can give that vital extra lap. I made my way to the collection area and the usual suspects ( Brown & White) were at the head of the queue with Fothergill behind. After been kept in the car by the marshalls for about 10 minutes fully suited up with my 3 layer Nomex suit & Nomex top I was already hot before a wheel has turned in anger. We left the pit lane to go onto the track and the cars in front pulled away quickly as I drove down the pit lane slowly & suffered from turbo lag as I went onto the circuit. That was good news as it meant that I now had a clear track in front of me. I made good use of the space and quickly improved on Fridays times, so much so that in the early laps I was in the top 6 overall times and actually caught Marcus Fothergill in his class one 3.2 Carrera. I think this inspired him as he responded and started to pull away again. Half way through the session I got some overtaking practice as I came across some of the slower class 2 and class 3 cars. Satisfied that I had the rest of the track covered it was now time to get more aggressive under braking for Paddock Hill bend. On the 11th lap I left the braking later and found that I still had more to come but on the next lap the chequered lap was out. Our 15 lap practice had been cut short so further improvement would not be possible. The good news was that I had improved my time by 1.3 seconds since Friday with no other changes to the car. This was significant as it meant that for the first time this season the balance of the car was fine and more time would likely come from my increased confidence with the setup of the car. My time was good enough for 7th in class, 15th on the grid, but with 6 cars within just 0.2 second the race was going to be busy.

Race

I was guided into my position on the grid in the collecting area but was greeted by waved arms as I took up position. There had been a mistake in the collecting area and I was moved back two places on the grid. The two easiest places I would ever be likely to get had been taken away. Almost no point on the start finish straight at Brands Hatch circuit is level, so the start would involve the use of the handbrake to avoid rolling forwards at the start.

As the lights changed to green I dropped the clutch but the revs dropped, I went off boost &the cars of Jackson and Berry flew past me from the row behind. Paddock Hill bend is usually interesting on the first lap and we all bunched together as we swept down the hill in close formation, but with no contact. I had managed to keep Adam Egar in his 911SC behind me but knew that the defensive inside line would be needed on the run up to Druids. Relieved not to be hit up the rear under braking I had made a little space on the exit of Graham Hill bend but Adam had better acceleration on the exit and he dived down the inside at Surtees.

By the end of the first lap there was a train of about 12 cars all separated by less than a second, hustling for position. It was to stay like this for a couple of laps but the race had developed into a number of battles for position. I wanted to make forward progress but had Egar and Berry to contend with so Coombs and Segrue managed to pull away. After another two laps Egar passed Chris Berry and started to pull away from us. On lap five I made my move on Chris under braking for Paddock Hill and set about catching Egar. Catching was one thing, but passing him was going to be a different matter. I found that I was quicker than him through Clearways, Paddock Hill and Druids, but the combination of torque / gearing of the SC gave him a huge advantage out of Graham Hill bend. It was to be so for the next 18 laps of the race as we toured in close formation, never more than a second apart, even when Craig Rapp was just in front of us having returned to the track after a spin in his 3.2 carrera. Adam made the most of the concrete embedded in the grass on the exit of Graham Hill Bend on quite a few occasions causing me to have to brake on one occasion when he fishtailed widely on the exit. I also had a couple of attempts at passing Adam down the start finish straight attempting to take advantage of my greater exit speed, but the high ambient temperatures were not helping my car and by the time we arrived at the start line our speeds were identical. Passing him was therefore going to be a matter of taking better advantage from lapping cars or a daring move under braking into Paddock Hill. Towards the end of the thankfully longer than normal Brands Hatch race at 24 laps race other cars / drivers seemed to be suffering from the heat and were making mistakes and falling off. This meant rather a lot of yellow flags around the circuit. As we approached Clearways on the penultimate lap I knew this was the time to make the move. I pushed early and hard on the apex and got a good run on Adam, this time managing to pull alongside him, most importantly on the inside line. The approach to Paddock Hill is bumpy, and the inside line is not the traditional racing line so it was a matter of getting the right balance between being the last of the late brakers and throwing the car off the track !

The braking was judged just right as I hit the brakes fractionally after Adam and took the position. Now it was just a matter of keeping him behind me by taking the inside line at Druids and making sure he couldn't take the place back again at Surtees. I had done enough and after another mega exit from Clearways had managed to pull about 25 yards on him as I took the chequered flag for 5th in class, just 5 seconds behind next placed Rob Williams and had further improved my lap time by another half second.

Speaking to Adam afterwards it was clear that we had both enjoyed a good clean race. The car had handled better than it had for a long time and I felt comfortable with the car for a change. It was just a shame that I hadn't entered any more races that day.