Castle Combe race report
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:41 am
The race weekend started with a 12 minute per hour sessioned trackday which was a joke but did teach one important lesion CC is Very slippy in the wet! 
Race day arrived and it was a wet one! Headed out for practice to find I was at the back of an 8-car train so dropped back and gunned it for a lap, repeating the process throughout the session. Felt like I had got a decent lap in but knew I could have gone quicker. As we filtered back into the paddock I was told my transponder had not worked. Oh crap, did I even have a time from the session? Made my way to the timekeepers who were able to confirm I had been timed using the timing beam. Very relieved I ended up having to rent a transponder as mine had apparently gone AWOL.
Was quite pleased with 10th on grid and 4th in class. Also knew that keeping Scuffam, Sean Bricknell and Andrew Kell behind me would be tough.
After the craziness of practice the wait for race 1 was painful. Like most of the grid I was busy cursing my wet settings during the green flag lap. Although the racing line was dry, offline was still greasy and very slippy no where more so than the grid. This meant most of the grid was starting on a wet greasy surface while those on the left were on the dry racing line.
Off the line Scuffam and Sean made the most of the grip disappearing up the left hand side. I made a really bad start with Andrew Kell getting passed and Any G practically pushing me along. Within a few laps the safety was out and I found myself with Gav in front and Andy G behind. Gav had not made it easy to get passed him up to the point so I set myself the task of getting passed Gav at the restart. After quite a few laps finally the safety car lights went out and I nailed it around Camp corner onto the main straight and was along side Gav by Avon rise and made the move stick – few
!(Avon rise is sketch at the best of times let alone when off line trying to pass someone) I then found myself with the best seat in the house as Andrew Kell tried to get passed Sean. Sean did an excellent job of making his car very wide and Andrew tried every trick in the book to get passed him. Finally after a few laps of this Andrew made it by 
.
The final 5 or so laps had me glued to the rear of Sean’s Exige. I had a bit of extra speed through the Esses and Bobbies but not enough to get passed. Really enjoyed the race especially lapping with Sean. Thanks to my bad start I finished 10th overall and 6th in class.
There was then another long wait for the 2nd race which was filled with watching the Palmer Audis. Due to the massive shunt at (I think) Folly in the tin tops there was an extra delay so we did not line up on the grid until 6pm and by now the track was very wet.
The decision was made to run the original grid based on Qualifying as it was easier to organise. So again I lined up on the grid and again I had horrendous start. The run up to Quarry was crazy with a massive wall of spray with only the car in fronts rain light to guide you. Amazingly the first lap was fairly uneventful. I then found myself at the back of a 3 car class B train with the now familure Black Exige of Sean’s in the middle and Ben leading. For a couple of laps it stayed like that as everyone was running a fairly defensive line making it hard to get track position. Finally Sean left a gap down the inside and I took it. 
I then focused on Ben’s car as he tried to defend. A few laps of this and I saw Ben had left a Elise sized hole on the inside of Tower corner so I took it but really sacrificed exit speed and getting very sideways so he was able to come back up the inside into Bobbies. This continued for a couple of laps until we reeled in Martin Roberts who was doing an excellent job of making his Elise very wide! Ben then over cooked it out of Camp corner and got a massive slide which then became a tank-slapper. I gave him room to sort it and it looked like he had so I nailed it, keeping well away from Ben’s car. Unfortunaily Ben then lost it spinning towards the side of my car until he was facing the side of my car. There was a huge CRUNCH and my car went very sideways very quickly. I managed to catch it and folly was very tense as I had no idea if all 4 wheels were still pointing in the same direction. Next lap I saw Ben was out of the car and OK.
Then it was the end of the race and I slowly toured back to the pits Sean came along side and we exchanged thumbs up for yet another great battle. I really did not know what to expect when I got back to the pits. It had been a huge crunch and at best I though I would be missing part of my rear clam. On inspection all my bodywork was intact! I then saw big chunks of green clam wedged between the wheel and tyre (I have a pic which I will post this evening). Ben had faired not quite so well with a chunk of clam missing from the front drivers side, thankfully Ben was OK. 2nd race I finished 11th overall and 4th in class.
Big thank you to Matt and Elgan for giving me a hand removing the clam from my wheel!
Everyone I talked to after the race had been in their own little battles and had had a great time. Had an amazing weekend bring on the next one!
Race day arrived and it was a wet one! Headed out for practice to find I was at the back of an 8-car train so dropped back and gunned it for a lap, repeating the process throughout the session. Felt like I had got a decent lap in but knew I could have gone quicker. As we filtered back into the paddock I was told my transponder had not worked. Oh crap, did I even have a time from the session? Made my way to the timekeepers who were able to confirm I had been timed using the timing beam. Very relieved I ended up having to rent a transponder as mine had apparently gone AWOL.
Was quite pleased with 10th on grid and 4th in class. Also knew that keeping Scuffam, Sean Bricknell and Andrew Kell behind me would be tough.
After the craziness of practice the wait for race 1 was painful. Like most of the grid I was busy cursing my wet settings during the green flag lap. Although the racing line was dry, offline was still greasy and very slippy no where more so than the grid. This meant most of the grid was starting on a wet greasy surface while those on the left were on the dry racing line.
Off the line Scuffam and Sean made the most of the grip disappearing up the left hand side. I made a really bad start with Andrew Kell getting passed and Any G practically pushing me along. Within a few laps the safety was out and I found myself with Gav in front and Andy G behind. Gav had not made it easy to get passed him up to the point so I set myself the task of getting passed Gav at the restart. After quite a few laps finally the safety car lights went out and I nailed it around Camp corner onto the main straight and was along side Gav by Avon rise and made the move stick – few
!(Avon rise is sketch at the best of times let alone when off line trying to pass someone) I then found myself with the best seat in the house as Andrew Kell tried to get passed Sean. Sean did an excellent job of making his car very wide and Andrew tried every trick in the book to get passed him. Finally after a few laps of this Andrew made it by . The final 5 or so laps had me glued to the rear of Sean’s Exige. I had a bit of extra speed through the Esses and Bobbies but not enough to get passed. Really enjoyed the race especially lapping with Sean.
Thanks to my bad start I finished 10th overall and 6th in class.There was then another long wait for the 2nd race which was filled with watching the Palmer Audis. Due to the massive shunt at (I think) Folly in the tin tops there was an extra delay so we did not line up on the grid until 6pm and by now the track was very wet.
The decision was made to run the original grid based on Qualifying as it was easier to organise. So again I lined up on the grid and again I had horrendous start. The run up to Quarry was crazy with a massive wall of spray with only the car in fronts rain light to guide you.
Amazingly the first lap was fairly uneventful. I then found myself at the back of a 3 car class B train with the now familure Black Exige of Sean’s in the middle and Ben leading. For a couple of laps it stayed like that as everyone was running a fairly defensive line making it hard to get track position. Finally Sean left a gap down the inside and I took it. I then focused on Ben’s car as he tried to defend. A few laps of this and I saw Ben had left a Elise sized hole on the inside of Tower corner so I took it but really sacrificed exit speed and getting very sideways so he was able to come back up the inside into Bobbies. This continued for a couple of laps until we reeled in Martin Roberts who was doing an excellent job of making his Elise very wide! Ben then over cooked it out of Camp corner and got a massive slide which then became a tank-slapper. I gave him room to sort it and it looked like he had so I nailed it, keeping well away from Ben’s car. Unfortunaily Ben then lost it spinning towards the side of my car until he was facing the side of my car. There was a huge CRUNCH and my car went very sideways very quickly.
I managed to catch it and folly was very tense as I had no idea if all 4 wheels were still pointing in the same direction. Next lap I saw Ben was out of the car and OK. Then it was the end of the race and I slowly toured back to the pits Sean came along side and we exchanged thumbs up for yet another great battle. I really did not know what to expect when I got back to the pits. It had been a huge crunch and at best I though I would be missing part of my rear clam. On inspection all my bodywork was intact! I then saw big chunks of green clam wedged between the wheel and tyre
(I have a pic which I will post this evening). Ben had faired not quite so well with a chunk of clam missing from the front drivers side, thankfully Ben was OK. 2nd race I finished 11th overall and 4th in class.Big thank you to Matt and Elgan for giving me a hand removing the clam from my wheel!
Everyone I talked to after the race had been in their own little battles and had had a great time. Had an amazing weekend bring on the next one!
