dbRacing - Pembrey Race Report August 31st /September 1st 2002

Pembrey Race Report, August 31st /September 1st 2002

Practice

Those of you arriving at this page from the Welsh Sports & Saloon Cars race report will know that I suffered an engine mounting failure in my first session of the day. You can read more about the Welsh Sports & Saloons Car Championship race here.

The WSSC practice was session two and Porsche Classic was session four, so I did not have enough time to replace the engine mounting before taking to the track again. It was time to resort to the Heath Robinson school of engineering and find whatever pieces of rubber lay in my toolbox and use them as a wedge between intercooler and body to prevent the engine moving around in the car. I took to the track at the back of the field and did the required 3 laps to get a time to qualify for the grid, all the while trying not to exert too much pressure on the chassis.

Initially I was held in parc ferme, but after pleading with the scruitineers to let me proceed to make repairs to my car they agreed to weigh me and let me return to the paddock to begin repairs before the session was ended. Not surprisingly my time was slowest of all and I knew I would have to start from the back of the field and make my way as far forward as possible to have a good position for the second race of the weekend.

Race 1 Saturday

The WRDA race had shown that the car was not working as well as expected. I usually get a good result at Pembrey and though I have been between 0.5 and 1 second quicker at each circuit this year the time I had done was still slower than 2001. I hoped that the close competition of the Porsche race would drag the time out of me.

I lined up on the grid in last place, which was a rare experience even when I competed in the 2 litre 924. As the lights changed I accelerated towards the 944 of Derek Gregory in front of me, but the bunching of cars and narrowness of the track meant that there was no real way through to make places up before Hatchets hairpin, with the exception of the orange 911E of Tim Slack. Nothing very much changed over the first lap and Derek Gregory was proving to be a little difficult to pass until I lined him up at Brooklands Hairpin and passed him on the run along Speedway Straight. The next two cars to pass were the improving class one cars of Colin Ingram and Fred Edwards. I passed Colin on the exit of Honda Curve and Fred on Brooklands Hairpin on lap 3, shortly after passing a stranded Michael Rigg on Dibeni bend. He had apparently suffered from a battery failure and with recovery proving impossible the race was red flagged. This left us all to line up on the grid again, including the mysteriously recovered Rigg and a restart was ordered over a reduced race distance, but surprisingly from race positions at the time the race was red flagged.

I hoped to make more places up from by improved grid position, but on the run down to Hatchetts Hairpin I lost out in the braking area and got squeezed in a sandwich between Gregory and Rigg on the exit and had to lift after body contact with Gregory. This left me in last place again. So much for a better grid position! The next 4 laps followed pretty much the same pattern as the first race start, though by lap four I was up to 12th place. The cars in front were Rigg, Smyth and Rothwell and on the run down the Park Straight I anticipated contact at Hatchetts Hairpin and braked early to be sure to be in control and take advantage of any developing incidents. In the event, the only incident was to involve me as without explanation my brakes locked up. I released the brake pedal (not an easy thing to do at 120 mph+) and reapplied the brakes but the wheels remained locked up. My car was aiming nicely for David Rothwells 911 SC and I managed to get some steering input to the left hand side of the track just as he turned in. I flashed past him at about 70 mph like a silver bullet and went cutting the grass down the exit road. Just like Croft last week I threw the car into a spin, which saved me from hitting the tyre wall at the end of the road and regained control with about 7 yards to spare. Gingerly I crept forward and everything seemed to be working so I rejoined the track....... just in time to be behind Tim Slack in last place. This was clearly not going to be a great race result for me. The rest of the race was taken at less than full race speed due to some considerable uncertainty about the brakes but I managed to get back up to 14th place passing Slack and Gregory once again.

Subsequent investigations found nothing visibly wrong with the car and so the only course of action was to bleed the brakes ready for the next mornings free practice / race.

Race 2 Sunday

There was an early morning practice session for which I made some front damper adjustments. The car felt a little better, but I did not achieve the times of Saturday but decided to use the same settings for the lunchtime race.

At the start I managed to get a decent getaway and powered down the left hand side of park straight and round the outside of Colin Ingram and Fred Edwards. On the second lap I passed David Rothwell at Brooklands and started to gain on Steven Smyth, with the class one cars of Williams, Rigg and White still in sight. On the third lap I really started to suffer from a handling problem which I had had all weekend but now seemed worse. The car was understeering at the front and oversteering at the rear, I may as well have been driving a badly set up 911, except I did not have the weight at the rear to provide traction and prevent breakaway. This was to cause a problem on lap 3 as I understeered round Honda Curve and ended up on the grass. This allowed Dave Rothwell past me again, and I decided that as there really was not very much speed differential between us that it was only fair for me to to leave them to their class two battle before I attempted another move. 3 laps later Rothwell spun at Brooklands and I passed him, there and took Steve on the main straight half a lap later. Broster, who had done well all weekend taking 4th in race 1 had spun on the main straight on the fourth lap and his front bumper was hanging off at one corner. With just two laps to go he caught me but such was my handling problem I did not even try to defend the line when he caught me at Dibeni bend and so I finished in 9th place, very disappointed with the Porsche Classic result both because of the positions and lap times obtained which for the first time were slower than the corresponding race last year.

Subsequent investigations have shown that some revalving of the new front dampers is required and they have been sent away for recalibration. Hopefully they will be back for the Croft meeting on 7th September, if not Castle Combe will be the place they get tried out.