Spa Francorchamps - July 2018 - 750mc club enduro

It was a chance conversation with Jody of climax motorsport which brought around the opportunity to share a stunning BMW E36 M3 with it's owner Edward Christie, not only would I get the opportunity to race an M3 but I'd get to race it on one of the worlds greatest circuits, Spa Francorchamps.

We arrived on the Thursday which was my first opportunity to set eyes on the car and it immediately became apparent that there were going to be some issues with me fitting in the car, the winged race seat was clashing with the roll cage and was far to high. Given that it was also to close to the steering wheel for either of us, we opened to removed the seat runners which made the seating position just about bearable although driver changes where never going to be the fastest.

As it was to be my first go in the car we opted to do the optional test sessions on Friday morning although this session was unfortunately compromised by red flags it still gave be a little time to get accustomed to the car, a best time of 3:09 was recorded, not really where we wanted to be but gave something to build on.

Come qualifying I went out for the first and immediately found myself going better, 20 minutes in and the car was handed over to Edward with a best lap of approximately 3:01, still a little way off what I wanted but I had to respect that the car was being used on a 'you bend it you mend it' basis and I really didn't want to have the embarrassment of damaging somebody else's race car.  The second half of qualifying was again compromised with red flags and being cut short so Edward was unable to  better my time.

The first race took place on Friday afternoon.

Donington Park - 17th September 2017 - Production BMW rounds 11 and 12

Having missed rounds 9 and 10 at Brands hatch the pressure was on for a good result at Donington Park, in the championship tables with dropped rounds allowed for I was sitting just behind Mark Palmer and a little further behind Dave Graves so 4th or 5th in the championship was still achievable with good results at the Donington and Snetterton.

Headed out for qualifying which went fairly well finishing 4th overall behind, Matt Swaffer, Will Davison and Owen Darch with a best time of 1:57.935.

Had a good start and heading into the chicane was neck and neck with Owen Darch as be both got on the brakes there was a minor touch and we slowed more than expected, turn into the chicane and was collected but Mark Palmer who hit the passenger side read quarter unfortunately spinning me round where I was collected by Rob Cooper on the drivers side rear wing. Unfortunate but I should feel lucky that no one hit the passenger compartment as this could have been a lot more serious.

And that was the end of 2017 for me, unfortunately the car is too badly damaged to realistically be rebuilt before Snetterton. It should be repairable but I'd rather take my time and do the job properly and also replace the front wings and valance at the same time, so it 2018 the car is looking as good as new.

Silverstone GP - 2nd July 2017 - Production BMW Rounds 7 and 8

It was back to Silverstone for 7 and 8 of the production BMW championship but this time we were on the Grand Prix circuit. Whilst it is great to be able to race on the GP circuit it does bring a slight issue, well I say issue more of a challenge in that we share the grid with the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons. This means the slower of the PBMW's need to keep and eye on their mirrors as the front running E36 M3's will be coming up to lap them towards the end of a 20 minute race, it also means the PBMW front runners have to deal with the traffic that it the back of the TTRS grid.

In recent years a welcome 20 second gap has been tried out and seams to help at the TTRS race car get a couple of laps in before the front running PBMW's are looking to make their way through the pack.

I headed out out for a busy qualifying session consisting of 54 cars, including 29 Production BMW's  early on Sunday morning with a aim of a time somewhere in the low 2:43's, obviously a 15 minute qualifying session doesn't give you all that much time to get many laps in especially when you only have 140BHP. Finished the session with a 2:43.462 around 1s behind the fastest PBMW lap of Will Davison, which left me 3rd in class with a healthy 1.1s advantage of the 4th placed David Graves.

As we had two grids the TTRS grid goes on the conventional light system with the PBMW going approximately 20s later on the drop of a flag, I got a fairly awful start but managed to just about hold 3rd place from dave graves despite a little touch down at the club chicane. I managed to build up a bit of a gap whilst Dave battled with Mark Palmer and by the time he'd started to close it it was a case of managing my way through the TTRS traffic without loosing too much time, after 20 minutes I managed my first PBMW podium at Silverstone.

Race 2 followed a very similar storey to race one other than on the second to last lap I very annoyingly locked the rear brakes, a tiny mistake meant I lost momentum going through the chicane and Dave Graves nipped through to take 3rd place.

Silverstone National - 4th June 2017 - Production BMW Rounds 5 and 6

After a cracking start to 2017 and Cadwell Park and Brands hatch we headed to Silverstone for rounds 5 and 6. I had a good start to the weekend with some friday testing again helped by Stuart Waite. We hadn't been on the National circuit since 2012 when my best lap time was 1:14.667. Following the Friday test it was looking like this would drop into the 1:12's

Qualifying went well, time of 1:13.012 wasn't quite in the 1:12's I'd hoped for but was good enough for 4th on the grid and meant I would be starting on the inside line into the first corner.

Race 1 I got a good start moving a head of Owen Darch and taking 3rd, managed to hold Owen off for the first 6 laps but on lap 7 he passed. By the 10th lap the rain was falling and I'd started to gain and put a lot of pressure on Owen but despite breaking early he never made enough of a mistake to allow me to make a real attempt to get past and I therefore had to settle for 4th, by no means a bad result but kind of wished I'd manage to hold onto the final podium position. Times had also fallen to a best of 1:12.958 which meant I'd achieved the goal set on Friday.

Race 2 was not to go quite so well, in fact it was probably the worse result I'd ever had in PBMW, on route to the grid whilst warming the tyres there was a loud bang which would appear to be the diff failing. Limped the car into the pit lane for my first DNS in 6 years.

Annoyingly this rather messes up the season, of the 14 races we are allowed to drop our worse to scores from the overall results, however I already need to miss 2 races and therefore needed to have a clean run for the remaining races.

Brands Hatch GP - 21st May 2017 - Production BMW rounds 3 and 4

As with the first 2 rounds at Cadwell Park I had opted for some Friday testing for rounds 3 and 4 on the Brands Hatch GP circuit. Unfortunately due to limited use of the GP circuit the practise was on the shorter Indy circuit, still a small price to pay for the opportunity to race on the full GP.

As before I had Stuart Waite with me desperately trying to get me to listen to instruction!, it has to be said it's not easy to get used to having someone else in the car but well worth while. Times weren't great but setting fast times could come later

Come Sunday I headed out to qualifying at the front of a 30+ car grid of E30 320's and set about seeing what could be done, times were generally an improvement on last years and surprisingly it Will Davison a while to catch up from 2nd out of the pit lane. Once he was close I opted to hold back, let him past and see if I could learn a thing or 2 by following. Something He'll possibly not allow to happen again as I managed to pip him to 2nd on the grid behind Matt Swaffer, the first time ever I'd been on the front row of the grid. Best time of 1:51.258 was over 2 seconds faster than I'd managed in 2016.

I guess I was under no illusion that Will was likely to come past at some point during race one but he could have waited until the second corner, However the moderate disappointment of being demoted to 3rd was quickly over come when for the first half of the race I was able to stick with the lead pair, towards the second half with the tyres feeling well used Will and Matt where able to pull away slightly. With David Graves and Mark Palmer battling for 4th and 5th behind me it became a bit of a cruise to 3rd, although one eye was always on the mirror watching David Graves slowly making up some ground.

Race 2 was not to be so uneventful a great start by Mark Palmer but him in front of me after the first couple of corners but I wasn't keen on giving up the place so a pretty close battle had begun, I got along side exiting Druids on the second lap and therefore had the inside line into Graham Hill bend, however a coolant leak from another driver was to make this corner a lot more entertaining and we touched resulting on us both briefly ending up on the grass at the exit, despite getting back on quickly David Graves had managed to get passed, I got a bit of run on him, up on to the GP loop but had to back out annoyingly letting Sam Strong, Mark Palmer and Rob Cooper through meaning by the end of the lap I was running 7th. A busy race saw me climb back up to 4th before the end of the race for some much needed points.

I believe excluding Marshalling points I'm now running 3rd in the championship which is a great start to the year.

Destination VLN

It's probably not an unusual feeling for any racer to have a strong desire to race on the legendary nurburgring nordschleife and I must confess it's been a fairly long term goal. The obvious choice being in the VLN series. 

After a fair bit of research and discussing the option with a friend who already runs an E36 M3 in class V5 it would appear that it's almost affordable in the lower classes and with that in mind I found a low millage BMW E36 318is to use as a base car for class V2. It's very early days but the plan is to be out in Germany in 2018, fingers crossed this long term goal can be achieved. 

The car is a 1995 version so have the M42 1.8 engine rather than the later M44 1.9 which would have pushed us into the V3 class  (up to 2.0l)with much faster hot hatches.  

Cadwell Park - 23rd April 2017 - Production BMW Rounds 1 and 2

It was a late start to the 2017 Production BMW championship with the first 2 round being at Cadwell Park at the end of April. Rather than running in the Production BMW's sister series, the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons on Saturdays I have opted to try Friday testing with the help of Stuart Waite to try and show me how things should be done.

Friday testing had gone well with a best time of 1:48.2 which is a good improvement on my previous best of 1:50.230 the help from Stuart was really making a big difference.

Sunday came and we headed out for an early qualifying, luckily due to the complicated calculation to assign qualifying order I found myself heading out 6th out of 25 cars, a particular advantage on a track as tight as Cadwell. By the second lap I only had Mark Palmer in front of me and could settle into setting some consistent times, unfortunately turning into the Gooseneck for the third time Mark locked up, took at slightly alternative line and managed to smash the sump on the curb, emptying its contents on the outside of the corner. This left me with a clear track in front, running third for most of the session I was eventually pushed down to 4th with a time of 1:47.698. This would give me 4th on the grid for race 1, my second best time gave me 5th on the grid for the second race.   

Race one got off to a slightly annoying start with far too much wheel spin, luckily I was not the only one but 1/2 of the first lap was spend side by side with Owen Darch who'd started in 5th. Only at the Gooseneck had I finally managed to get back into 4th. which despite Owen's best efforts I just about managed to hold on to until the end of the race.

I started race 2 in 5th place due to the new way qualifying works, despite getting a much better start I couldn't get past Owen who had this time started in 4th and also lost out to Andy Strong. The whole race was a mixture of trying to put pressure on Andy and Owen whilst also constantly having my mirrors filled with the ever fast car of Dave Graves. By the end on an exhausting 20 minutes I finished the race in 6th place.

I believe this leaves me 5th in the championship and very much looking forward to Brand Hatch GP.