Birkett 6hr Relay, Silverstone, 24th October

I decided this year that I would dip my toe in the water with the 6hr relay and join the 'RGB PUPS' being all the new boys in RBG this year.
This is a big event with about 55 teams of all sorts of different cars, both road and pure racecars and of course all differing speeds. It promised to be exciting racing because of the differentials in speed and, in theory at least, the RGB cars (of which there were 4 teams) should be amongst the quickest on the track.
Unfortunately for us, the theory was blown by the weather. The conditions were dreadful for almost the entire race with constant rain.
Ok, here goes racing driver excuse no.23 - RGB cars are too light, and the tyres too crap in the wet for us to get any grip at all. All the 'tin tops' could drive round us like we were standing still.

I must say it was quite an experience. The grip was almost non-existent. I managed to spin during each of my 3 sessions - each time at Copse. This earned me a few comments back in the pits! On at least two occassions my spins were compete 360s - I meant to do that of course - just to keep the crowds interested!
I know I have done a couple of other races in the wet, but this was a real challenge for me. For my readers who don't race, driving in the wet in a very light car with lots of power and very poorly adapted tyres is a bit like...well scary for one thing. You know how you can balance a broom handle, end on, on the end of your finger quite easily. Now try it with a pencil! That's a bit like the difference between driving in the dry - where you have a progressive loss of grip on the limit which allows you to correct with gentle steering corrections - and driving in the wet where a loss of grip usually means a sudden and complete loss of control and maybe a spin.
If you happen to be close to a barrier at the time you have no chance of avoiding damage.
Fortunately for me, the worst grip was either at Copse where there is loads of run off, so a spin is not catastophic, or at the Luffield hairpin where the track was very greasy but at least you are going very slowly anyway so a spin is usually quite gentle as was the case with quite a few cars in front of me on several occassions. The scariest corner was Woodcote which is normally where you are accelerating hard onto the straight in fifth. In the wet this was a very delicate point where a tad too much on the throttle sent you into oversteer and if you don't catch it you can spin straight into the pit wall at 70-80mph. I had a couple of sideways moments there but just managed to stay out of trouble.
One of the telling few laps that I did during one of my sessions was behind a Locost car. Normally these can't keep up with us because they don't have the power, but in the wet it was a great leveler. I spent a couple of laps following this Locost and we were clearly both having the same problem with lack of grip as we gracefully slid round the corners at the same time. As soon as I pulled off line slightly to try to power past, I simply could not get the power down. The car would wheelspin all the way up to 5th, and I had to be so sensitive on the throttle that I was no quicker than the Locost even on the straight. The track did dry a bit during that session allowing me to get past on the straight, only for me to go into Copse a tad too quickly and spin again. Doh!

Anyway, the good thing is, we all finished without any damage. We were well down the field, and I don't even know what my lap times where, but we can put that one down to experience and have another go next year.

Some pictures to follow.

Well that's it for this season. Catch up with me next year!

Mallory again - 11th October

Well that was an interesting day.
Lots of track time, but I'm not sure that I've really improved at all since last time.

I entered the allcomers race as well as RGB this time which meant an extra practice as well. The morning practice sessions and the allcomers race were wet. I have had very little experience in the wet..and it showed.
I had a 'memorable' moment in practice when I span exiting the essess. That is a very modest left hand kink where you would not even think of losing it. However there was oil on the track and it was exceptionally wet. I did a 180 degree spin straight down the middle of the track, fortunately without hitting the grass, and ended up facing the wrong way. There was nothing immediately behind me so a quick spin round and back up to speed without much drama, but on reflection I was very lucky not to do any damage.
Still, I managed to make the 5th row for the allcomers. I was expecting to get lots of practice overtaking slower cars. Rather embarrasingly it didn't quite work out like that. I was overtaken into the essess by an MR2 and then an MG Midget!! Racing driver excuse no.43 - heavier cars are better in the wet!!
Anyway, as the track dried a little bit I did at least catch them up, but failed to get past them. My lap times were quicker than them in the end but they beat me fair and square. Not a good boost to my ego!

Anyway, on to the RGB race which was dry by then. Not my greatest performance. I dropped back from the leading pack a bit on the first lap and then spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. Being mainly out on my own it was a bit of a dull race. That may reflect in my lap times. I did a 52.23. I've done 51s here in the summer. I think everyone's times were a bit slower, maybe something to do with the weather being cooler, but I think also that I wasn't in an immediate battle with anyone.

So in the end i was 14th on the track and 4th in class (a par performance given that Derek was a DNF).

So that's it for the RGB championship.
I've ended up 5th in class and 16th (or maybe 15th = if i'm being generous). That's out of 10 in class and about 30 odd regular competitors overall so exactly mid field really!
Not bad I reckon, given that I have done nothing in terms of set up on this car and am still learning. Oh yes, and I'm the highest placed front engined class A car! That's got to be worth something hasn't it!

Maybe next season I can step it up a bit. I'm going to have to come up with a plan over the winter to make some step changes in my performance.

Before that I have the Birkett relay which is a 6 hour event at Silvertone on the 24th October.
6 cars, 6 hours with all types of cars, both road legal and race only cars. There are a bunch of RGB teams so it should all be very close. Looking forward to that.