dbRacing - NSSCC Race Report Knockill 29th September 2002

NSSCC Race Report - 29th September 2002

Practice

This was to be my first visit to Knockhill for two years and we always enjoy taking advantage of the different food and beverages on offer. Knockhill is a very friendly circuit and when the race meeting is on a Sunday they have general testing on a Saturday and will also scruitineer your car to save hassle the following morning. Very civilised !

Knockhill is a quite bumpy track and it was likely that more work on suspension settings would be required to get the car working well. I had a couple of trouble free sessions and the lap times dropped from the 67 seconds mark down the 64's and finally low 62's. A quick comparison with the times from the last time the Porsche Classic were at Knockhill showed that I was over two seconds faster than I had been in the RS and would have had a top 4 position on the grid. A reasonable afternoons work.

The next morning practice was very early and we were on track just after 9 o' clock. With the cool autumnal air I hoped than I could sneak into the 61's and went to the collection area early so I could be first on track. The practice session itself was incident free and it took 3 laps before the Escort Cosworths caught and passed me on their way to posting a time in the 56's - contrary to expectations and the impression gained by driving it Knockhill is a power circuit. I improved my time from the Saturday session to 62.11, not quite on target but good enough for 8th.

Race

My old rival David Cox was just behind me on the grid with John Parton in close attendance and Chris Springall just in front. With the V8 power of his Morgan I expected he would make a quick getaway and I might be able to follow him through the field. Either that or I would get past him from the start !

With no green flag lap and a rapid change of the lights quick reactions were necessary for a good start. Chris Springall did make a good start and had made up two places before we arrived at Duffus Dip. I tried to follow him through but did not have anywhere near enough power and simply remained in 8th place. After driving through the chicane the lead cars were already pulling away as their higher power and lower weight came into play. The last corner of the circuit is a 60 degree banked righthander which has any number of different lines through and therefore provides good overtaking opportunities. David Cox was right behind me and so I moved to the right to defend the line without compromising the exit too much. David was determined to attempt a pass and indeed found some room and outbraked me to move me down to 9th. I lost a lot of time here and for the next couple of laps I chased David whose car was emitting oil smoke. I thought he just wanted to make it more difficult to see the track in front for me but it turned out after the race that he had overfilled the sump. I was confident that I was quicker than Coxy but the differential was quite small and I had John Parton on my tail.

After practice I had increased the tyre pressures by 1 psi at the rear and expected to benefit from better balance as a result. By the third or fourth lap this was proving not to be the case and as the tyres warmed understeer which had not been there in the morning began to develop. This was severely compromising my ability to negotiate Macintyres and my lap times were about 1.5 seconds slower and overtaking would be more difficult as a result. By the end of lap 5 I was ready to pass Coxy and sold him a dummy by feigning a move to the inside. This meant his exit speed was compromised and I took the high road while he took the low road and I arrived afore him. (Translation..... I turned sharply round the outside and moved to the inside of the circuit to pass him under acceleration while he was forced to the outside and a slower exit).

I thought this would give me the chance to break away from Cox and Parton but Parton had watched my move and passed David on the following lap. John caught me quite quickly and yet again at Taylors another overtaking manoeuvre was attempted. I was quite comfortable that I had forced him into a slower line but he came out of the corner and simply outdragged me up the start/finish straight and into 8th place. I really didn't understand this as I though his 2.0 litre Honda Integra would not be that quick. Talking to him after the race I found out that he has over 20 hp more than me, carries 80kg less and being a normally aspirated car has a ton of torque. Oh well, I'll remember that for next time.

I tried to stay with Parton put he simply pulled away in to the distance as his lap times improved into the 61's and mine remained firmly rooted in the 63's. One of the Escort Cosworths suffered from a power problem and I passed him with just two laps to go and finished in 8th place, just where I had started.

If you would like to see a couple of video clips of this race visit the video page.