dbRacing - NSSCC Race Report Croft 24/25th August 2002

NSSCC Race Report - 24th / 25th August 2002

Practice

This weekends meeting was a DDMC affair and part of the programme included the Dutch "Youngtimers" series, which from what I could make out was for touring cars from the '70s including Ford Escorts, Triumph Dolomites and even a Saab 99. Also attending the meeting was me in my own '70s car the 911RS. The 924GT was still being repaired after the Silverstone meeting and it was a great opportunity to get the car out of the garage, lower the suspension, check it over, put some decals and race tyres on and see how both the car and I went.

Practice was in the morning and the sun was shining as we took to the circuit. The first couple of laps were taken quite tentatively as I took the opportunity to get reacquainted with the car and see how the Michelins worked on the RS. I was very surprised by the amount of turn in and responsiveness from the front end of the car. Within a coupe of laps I was beginning to feel at home, but, the fastest part of the circuit at the Jim Clark Esses and Barcroft were proving to be difficult to adapt to, requiring precise steering movements to avoid mid corner oversteer. Overall though the car was handling nicely, and the new shock absorbers I had fitted at the beginning of the year seemed to be working well.

I had a target to get below 100 seconds, but with a slow track and only 9 laps the best I could manage was a 100.68 which put me in 13th place on the grid, right in the middle of a gaggle of cars with Graham Saul in his Renault Spyder less than 0.1 seconds ahead, followed by me, Mick Starkey and David Cox, all within 0.03 second. This was going to be an interesting race.

Shortly after practice the weather changed for the worse as a thunderstorm opened over the circuit. This caused the suspension of racing as the circuit was waterlogged. Everyone in the paddock became similarly waterlogged as we swapped tyres and I mounted my Pirelli P Zero wets.

Race 1 - Saturday

The first of the NSSCC Class B/C/D races was brought forward after the postponement of the Sports 2000 race. I was looking forward to the start, with the track still being wet and the rear engine of the 911 to give good traction. As the lights changed I surged forward as though the other cars were stood still. I had forgotten just how stunningly quick the 911 is off the startline. I passed Springall on the row in front and Dyson in a Porsche 968 who was another row in front. Things were very sensible into Clervaux and all cars got through without any contact. John Parton in his Honda Integra was in front of me as we started to eek out a lead from most of the following cars. The first time into Tower I took a look at going past Parton, but decided that it would be a little bit risky and held back. Simon Baker in his XR2 loves racing in the wet and he just dived down the inside and past both of us. I expected he was going to continue off the circuit, but with a full armful of opposite lock he took the corner rally style and came out ahead of us both. The next couple of laps were uneventful as we extended a lead of about 30 yards over the following pack, but Mick Starkey was charging hard in his XR2 and beginning to close. I made a couple of attempts to get past Parton and eventually forced him into a mistake in the complex which gave me the chance to take the position. It wasn't until I passed Parton that I realised how much he had been slowing me down and within a couple of laps had extended a lead of 50 yards.... though Mick Starkey had also got past and the difference between us ebbed and flowed at around the two seconds mark.

On around lap 5 one car had gone off at Tower and another had broken down at Sunny In. The problem was that this second car was almost precisely on the racing line and so the Black / Yellow flags were brought out to signify that we were to reduce speed and the leader was to act as a pace car. This took another three laps during which Simon Blankley in his Pug 205 pulled off, with an engine misfire I believe, promoting me to 7th place.

At the restart I got a good run to Clervaux, and was almost in a position to challenge Andrew Morrison in his very new and shiny MG ZS for 6th place, but Chris Springall who was having huge handling problems was there at the same time as we lapped him which made the move impossible to make. Mick Starkey meanwhile had lost out on the restart, but was gaining quickly as Morrison and I negotiated Hawthorn. A glance into the mirror showed the Morgan spinning on the exit of the chicane, which subsequently turned out to be his third spin of the race. Morrison had got away a little and extended his lead over me as I negotiated the Jim Clark Esses a little too tentatively. I was about to turn in at Sunny one when I just caught sight of Mick Starkey alongside me on the inside. He obviously had really gone for it and I had no choice but to cede the corner to him. A little annoyed I chased them both, but with just one lap to go I didn't quite have the pace and finished the race in 8th. I was content with that result as it proved that I could still peddle the 911 reasonably well, even in the wet and the fastest laps of the majority of the cars in front of me were no more than 1 second faster.

Race 2 - Sunday

The second race of the weekend started from qualifying positions rather than the more normal finishing positions from the previous race so I was back in 13th place again. Sunday was a dry day and I was looking forward to the dry race as the wet race had given me confidence in driving the RS. Could I get such a fantastic start though ?

The lights turned green and I almost ran into the back of Chris Springall as he pulled to the right in front of me. Clervaux was busy and Mark Campbell took advantage as we rounded Hawthorn and passed both Chris and myself. At the end of the first lap I was on the back of the leading group in about 12th place, having lost out to the two Escort Cosworths which had started from the back of the grid.

The Morgan is very quick in a straight line, but not so good under braking or cornering. I overtook Chris in the Complex, only for him to surge past me on the main straight before I almost outbraked him into Clervaux. After being held up through Hawthorn, and seeing the pack draw closer from the rear I took a good run through the chicane and passed him under braking into Tower one lap later. Next was Mark Campbell in a BMW 325 he was testing for a friend. By the time we had come round to the end of the lap I had caught and passed Mark under braking for Clervaux. For the next couple of laps I started to push harder as I pulled out a gap and more importantly closed on the next group of cars being Craig Swales in his Renault 5 GT Turbo, one of the Cosworths and Alaistair Dyson in the white 968.

Each lap became successively faster and as I passed the start for the beginning of the 6th lap I had taken another 6/10 second from my lap time and was just over the target 100 seconds time. The next lap was planned to be quicker. At the first bend I braked later and firmer and carried more speed through Clervaux, taking advantage of the inside kerb. I accelerated hard through Hawthorn and carried more speed onto the old start finish straight. By this point I was already about 4/10 of a second faster than before. I had made up about 20 yards on the group ahead of me and the ailing Red Escort Cosworth was now less than a second ahead as I started braking for Tower. The car did not slow down, instead the front end started weaving all over the road and I began to reduce the gap to the Escort far quicker than was planned. I wasn't sure exactly what was wrong with the car, but it wasn't slowing down from the 115 mph you are doing at that point and , with the end of the track just yards away I threw the steering to the right to try and scrub some speed off. This had the advantage of taking me away from the barriers, but the waterlogged grass did nothing to slow me down, but, unlike Silverstone the gravel trap was very effective and I stopped less than 15 feet into it.

At first I tried to reverse out of the gravel, and did manage to reverse to the edge of the trap, but the slippery grass and incline at the edge was too much and I was stranded. Time to leap out of the car and seek protection with the marshals. Then things got really frightening. I could see a huge oil slick on the circuit where I had had the braking problem. Trouble was everyone else was having the same problem as each competitor came snaking to the edge of the track. At that point I think I might of raised my voice slightly (I apologised later) because all I could see happening was one or more cars leaving the circuit and joining my car in the gravel trap with expensive and dangerous consequences. The Slippery Surface flag came out and shortly afterwards the race was red flagged to allow my car to be recovered and stop anyone else leaving the track.

I must admit that I initially thought the Cosworth had laid the oil down, partly because they have a tendency to be leaky, but when we were retrieving the car one of the the oil coolers was found to be separated from its mountings and leaking. At first I thought this was due to the impact into the gravel, but Terry Wright later advised that the oil slick left the track and followed me towards the gravel trap. The conclusion was then that the cooler had broken away / leaked and I had spun on my own oil. This is one of the disadvantages of the dry sump lubrication of the 911's. With 15 litres of oil to lose it can make a real mess.

At the point when the race was stopped I was in 10th place and had the race run to it's full distance of 20 minutes plus a lap I might well have finished in 7th. That would have been an excellent result.

Race 3

Race 3 was an end of day allcomers race which I had entered for. Given the amount of time allowed, the amount of work that would have to be done to bypasss the oil cooler and the trials of the previous weekend we decided just to pack up and go home gracefully.