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. 

Clio Nearing completion

It's been a bit of a while since the last update on the clio 182 championship car I've been slowly building. Since the last update in April we've manged to pretty much finish the car, the original aim was to have it entered into the victor Meldrew race at brands hatch but unfortunately it was looking like a bit to much of a rush and when your expecting to be hitting over 100mph rushing the last few bits probably isn't the best idea. Instead the plan will be to have it ready for a trackday at Snetterton on the 3rd of December.  

Since the last update we've carried out the following:

1) Fit a nice carbon Corbeau revolution seat with extra low mounts and TRS six point harnesses 

2) Fit a 4 litre OMP plumbed in fire extinguisher system 

3) Fitted the new K-tec racing championship spec coilovers and solid front top mounts 

4) converted the front hubs and driveshafts to cup spec to allow for the championship spec coilovers to be fitted

5) Convert the car to the cup alternator set up which removes the ac pump as required by the championship regs.  

6) Installed the MSA electrical cut off switch

7) Installed a rainlight 

It looks like  

Thruxton - 24th September 2016 - PBMW rounds 15 and 16

Well it's been a few weeks since the last rounds of the 2016 Production BMW championship rounds at the Thruxton circuit near Andover. My first visit to the circuit since a Ferrari driving day almost 20 years ago. Due to the limited number of race days on the circuit the Production BMW championship hadn't had the opportunity to visit the circuit in some time.

The chance to race at Thruxton brought out a couple of old faces, Stuart Waite and Rob Manger who just happen to instruct at the circuit along with some chap called Tiff Needell.

Due to restrictions on track time at the circuit there was no Friday testing although we were fortunate to be driven around the circuit for some sighting laps, Many thanks to Rob Manger for being on chauffeuring duties.

On Friday afternoon a number of cars were power tested on Ray West tuning's rolling road in order to provide data for the championship coordinators. At this time it was discovered that my car was running lean on full throttle due to a worn airflow meter, wonder if this had contributed to the slight down turn in results in the second half of the season. Being a simple device Ray west was able to make a temporary repair.

The results at Thruxton meant I finished the 2016 championship in 5th position just 1 point behind David Graves in 4th.

I already have a long list of changes and maintenance jobs to be done so that I can start the 2017 season with the best chance possible of building on the positive results of 2016.

Silverstone GP - 11th September 2016 - PBMW rounds 13 and 14

There had been some confusion as to whether the Silverstone even would be a points scoring event for PBMW and unfortunately in wasn't  until a few weeks before that it was confirmed. This presented a couple of issues as I'd already committed to entering the revolve 24 hour bike race on the brands hatch GP circuit with 3 friends and as the number f rounds had increased to 16 we would all now drop out 3 worst rounds, reducing the advantage I had due to constancy (although Matt Swaffer had more reason to be upset as he'd effectively won the championship had Silverstone not been included) Unusually the TTRS and PBMW grids would race at the same time with the PBMW's starting 10 seconds behind.

The busy weekend was never going to be the best preparation for Silverstone,In order to not let down the rest of my revolve 24 team I did 4 hours on the push bike around brands hatch between 3pm and 11 on Saturday and then jumped in the truck to drive up to Silverstone, eventually arriving a 2.30am and desperately trying to get some sleep before qualifying. 

Ended up qualifying 11th out of 20 PBMW's with a time of 2:46.493 a little off of the times I was expecting. 

Had a good race 1 battling with Owen Darch  and Paul Beaurain eventually finishing 8th on the road although this will become 7th for championship points as the 4th place finisher Ben Anderson was a guest driver.  Fastest lap had also dropped to 2:45.908 which was a little closer to my expected times. 

Race two was a long battle with Mark Palmer and Rob Cooper, another great clean race where I finished 7th with  my best lap time falling again to a more respectable 2:45.054 unfortunately not quite able to drip into the 2:44's which the car is more than capable of.  

We now have just 2 rounds left at Thruxton in a couple of weeks. When dropped rounds are taken into account Will Davidson and Matt Swaffer will go into the event tied on points and battling for the championship. Harry Goodman lies in 3rd with myself, Mark Palmer and David Graves battling for 4-6th positions in the championship 

Brands Hatch GP - 28th August 2016 - PBMW rounds 11 & 12

After the disappointment of the accidents in the previous days TTRS race in was time to put that behind us and get on with the qualifying session for PBMW. Ended up getting stuck in a bit of traffic in qualifying which was going slightly slower than I'd have liked but not slow enough to make passing easy. Eventually found some space and was able to qualify in a slightly disappointing 12th position with a time of 1:53.391 which is my best ever time around the GP so that was some good news.

Race 1 was non stop close but fair racing with Andy Strong and Gregor Pryor, Ended up finishing 10th o/a my worst result of 2016 although one I'd have been happy with in 2015.

Race 2 didn't really go to plan as I headed into paddock hill side by side with Harry Goodman he locked up and went straight on into the gravel. I think this slightly put me off my line and I ended up loosing the back end, felt like I might get it back but unfortunately in wasn't to be and I to found myself in the Gravel at Paddock Hill, so having rushed back from holiday to make Brands Hatch at the moment neither of the races would count as we all have to drop 2 rounds each year.