Stripes

It is a well-known fact in the go-faster community that putting stripes on your car makes it go faster. I mean, take a look at the evidence. Buy a normal Ferrari F360 and its pretty quick, but when you want to go racing you need a Stradale - which has stripes. This fact was even known back in the sixties. Carroll Shelby knew about it. When he built his Daytona to beat Enzo Ferrari's 250GTO he knew it had to have stripes to stand a chance, so stripes it had. And it of course beat the 250.

So it should have come at no surprise to me that once I put stripes on my car it would go faster.

Most folk use the Christmas break from racing to fettle with their cars. Some change cars completely, as seems to be the manner with the Porsche contingent. Others change engines, upgrade suspension, removed weight or generally try to do things to their cars that will make them faster. Of course this often means they actually go slower as they now have to re-learn their car, but eventually they do go faster.

My car had been so reliable during the last season that I was a little reticent to fiddle with anything. I knew the car was still much faster than I was, so the fettling actually needed to be done on the driver more than the car. Still, it is almost considered bad form to pitch up on the first race day of the season with exactly the same car as last year. What are you going to chat to your fellow drivers about if you do that?

Then I discovered the secret of stripes. A brief googling confirmed that pretty much all sports car manufacturers that produced a go faster version of their standard car had a version with stripes. That was it then, I simply needed stripes. Since my car was vinyl wrapped and not painted, adding stripes was ridiculously easy. I contacted the "vinyl man" who came around to the house one afternoon and literally an hour later I had stripes on my car. Of course, one cannot simply add a bunch of stripes across the top of the car, everyone does that! Striping is an individual thing. Luckily the Harper body has a number of "angles" that lend themselves quite nicely to striping.

My car created quite a stir when I arrived at the track, bright and early on race day.

Showing off the new stripes - Photo courtesy of Dieter

Qualifying was a rather early 8:30, but the day was warm and bright. The preceding week had seen some furious testing on the track, as last minute changes were tested by all manner of cars and drivers. Thus, I was expecting the track to be nice and grippy with some fresh rubber having been laid down. I was following my semi successful approach from last year of going out earlier in the pack to get more clear laps. On this occasion I ended up around sixth in line. Lap one was just to get a feel for things again. By lap two I could feel the track was nice and grippy so coming into lap three I gave it beans. The stripes clearly were working as the lap timer proudly presented a 1:24 lap time. I was well chuffed with that, so as soon as the faster cars started to appear, I pulled in to the pits. I had managed five laps, two of which had been sub 1:25's. Things were looking good for the day. I was especially pleased, as I still had my last season's tyres fitted which were starting to show serious signs of the last years abuse. Why, you may ask, did I have a well used set of tyres fitted. Well, that will all become clear in the next blog entry. There is some scheming afoot, is about all I can say.

Anyway, my stripe induced lap time put me firmly at the front of Class D for the first race. Now, Class D had been somewhat depleted towards the end of the year, with the last couple of races only managing to produce two or three cars in D. Today was a little different, as no less than five cars lined up, and that was with two usual drivers, Hennie and Craig, being absent. Craig, it should be noted, is on the hunt for two extra seconds as he totally rebuilds his car for this season. We had some new folk joining the fray too. There was Robert, in his red and white Lotus 7, who had raced the last race of last year, showing a rather indecent turn of speed, and then new boy Clinton who had not even bothered to spend more than a couple of qualifying laps in Class E before posting a time in his rather well sorted Lotus 7 that punted him somewhere near the top of Class D. I can see this chap is going to be trouble this year.

Jean was also back racing after a two year sabbatical. He had brought his absolutely stunning Nardini, all painted in Ford Focus orange. Paul, of the burning GT40, was also present, but without his car, and promised to have his Grand Dame together for the next race. 

A side view of my stripes and Jean's Nardini next door

Race 1 was eventually called and we all lined up for the rolling start. True to my adage of starting slowly I managed to allow Alan's turbo charged Type 5 and the R8 past in Turn 3, but, more to the point, Martin also snuck past going into Turn 2. This would not do. This was the battle for Class D leadership. I set about making the stripes work for their living. On the second lap I had managed to reel Martin in and I took him going down the back straight. Ahead now was the Class C R8, so I set my sights on catching him. This was all going rather well until I thundered into Turn 1 on the third lap. A small black object lying on the track caught my eye just as I hit the brake marker. There was no chance of swerving at this point since I had the small issue of dumping around 100km/h in the space of 50 odd metres. I only just missed the object with the right front tyre, but the back right hopped up over it. Since the car was under heavy braking at this point it did a nice little side waltz kind of motion and shot from the right to the left of the track in the space of a couple metres. Thankfully nobody was trying to out brake me on the left, else two would have become one. I was convinced I had punctured a tyre, so backed off completely with the intent of circulating back to the pits. However, half way around the track, and once everyone had passed me, the car was feeling fine. I decided to pull in anyway and ask the marshals to check my tyres. I now have an inkling of what it must be like to be handed a drive through penalty. The pit exit marshal checked my tyres and declared them all still inflated, waving me back on to the track just ahead of Louis in his Lola. 

I was now a little annoyed.

The hard work my stripes had done earlier in the morning had been dashed by some small car part dropped on the track by another car. There was nothing to do, but to put my head down and chase whatever I could find, with serious intent. I let Louis past in Turn 2 and decided to use him as a rabbit. Louis normally laps around 1:22 so I had little hope of keeping up with him, but the incentive was there. What followed was a brace of 1:24 laps as I  wrestled and flung the car around the track by the scruff of its neck. Eventually, on the final lap, I caught up with Cyril in his Chevy powered Porsche 944 and took him on the back straight. Great, now I was at least not stone last!

The race duly ended with me bringing up the rear in Class D, but having posted the fastest Class D time. Ah, the irony of racing. Back in the pits we gave the car a good going over, but no apparent damage was found, so we called lunch and headed to the club house for some much needed refreshments. 

Now, our standard procedure for the second race grid positions, is to draw lots from a bag of numbered blocks. We do this during the drivers briefing in the morning and I had drawn number 6. Considering there were only five cars in Class D for the day, and adding to that, my position in the first race, my location at the rear of the grid was pretty much cemented. I would have to do it all in Race 2 if I was to have any hope of kicking off a good season of points for the year. 

But I was little worried. After all I had stripes!

Race 2 rumbled around and we squared up entering the main straight. I had Robert's Lotus 7  ahead of me and Martin's turbo rotary powered Lotus 7 next door. The lights went out and I floored the throttle, slapping Martin silly with some V8 grunt. I was focused on the rear of Robert's 7 trying not to rear-end him when a thundering black beast slid down the centre of the track and into Turn 1. That would be Hennie in the Corvette then. Hennie was a new comer to Sports & GT's, but by no means a new comer to racing. He had been campaigning his black Corvette in the Fine Cars section, until he was deemed too fast and booted out. He raced a few races with us last year, but his times were firmly in the Class E category. Clearly he had not been sitting around during the Christmas break, and he did not even have stripes! 

The Corvette locked up its rears in the corner, slid slightly and thundered out the other side. I was so mesmerised by the spectacle that I forgot to block the wily Martin who snuck past on the inside again. Bugger that for a joke, I thought, and tried to squeeze Martin out wide on Turn 2. Unfortunately I was not close enough and had to yield. I knew I was faster than him in a straight line, so figured I would just wait until the back straight and dish him up a torque sandwich. This all went according to plan except my race craft, or rather lack thereof, let me down. Instead of retaking the racing line into Turn 5, I stayed wide. Predictably Martin and I exited the corner side by side and he edged ahead onto the straight. I mumbled a few descriptive words and gave chase, trying to take him on the inside of Turn 1. We had started to catch quite a gaggle of cars now and I had to back off owing to the fact that Turn 1 was rather full. No problem, I thought, I just had to repeat the previous lap. Which is what I did, exactly, including the bit about letting Martin through again into Turn 5. I know, the definition of insanity and all that. The mumbling was a little louder this time around. There would not be a third time! Or at least that was the plan. I did a replay of the previous two laps, but this time slammed the door firmly shut in Martins face, almost rear ending Ant's Type 5 in the process. Coming out of Turn 5 I headed towards the pit wall in an attempt to take Ant, but he squeezed me out. I tried to criss cross, but was too late as Martin shot past both of us. My plans for winning Class D were not exactly going according to plan at this point. I tracked Ant around the back of the circuit and took him on the back straight. Ok, now just for Martin. Again! Meanwhile, the rest of the Class D guys were getting further and further ahead. Time was running out.

It was time to toss a little caution into the wind to see what would happen. Martin drifted towards the pit wall on the main straight, taking the racing line into Turn 1. I slipped left and speared into the corner on his inside. I had tried this once before going into Turn 5 and had almost taken Paul's GT40 out as I spun off into the bushes. Thankfully, this time I managed to control the squirming rear end and pulled out of the corner still ahead of Martin. I took the exit line, closing the door on any aspirations he might have and bolted up to Turn 2. I checked my mirrors and knew I had finally subdued the annoyingly fast 7.

Ahead I could now see Robert and the Corvette, so it was chase time. I reeled Robert in slowly, catching him at the end of the back straight, but just not enough to pass. He was awfully quick though Turn 5, but not quick enough, and I oozed past him on the inside down the main straight. 

Two down, two to go. Things were looking up.

There was now the small matter of a 5.7 litre Chevy to contend with. I was later to learn that Hennie had spent the Christmas break stripping an incredible 175kg out of his car. To put that in perspective, it's the same weight as my entire engine! I slowly caught up to the black beast, noticing that it was not that quick through the corners. On the straight, however, we were pretty much level pegged. Into Turn 5, I was on his tail under breaks and my lesser overall weight got me almost past him on the main straight. But not quite. We cornered through Turn 1 side by side, then a rush of blood seemed to infuse Hennie's brain as he waved me past into Turn 2. I suspect he mistook me for the Juno coming up to lap him. Either way, I was very thankful. I suspect the interior of the Corvette was probably a little blue once he realised it was me and not the Juno.

Now there was only Clinton left and he was going to be a major challenge. He had been showing some rather embarrassingly quick times, and as I finished the lap, the timing board announced only two laps left. I figured we were probably lapping within half a second of each other which effectively meant I had no hope of catching him since I could not even see him yet.

I lost a bit more time as the two leading Porsches blitz by and I made a few nooby errors with gear selection. I was beginning to resign myself to second place as there was still no sight of Clinton's 7.

Then I was treated to an entirely different sight coming into Turn 4. The corner was mostly obscured by a fabulous cloud of brown dust. As I entered the corner the dust became thicker. I backed off and strained into the cloud for signs of anything on the track ahead. T-boning somebody in Turn 4 would definitely end in tears. Then I caught a glimpse of a silver 7 slithering to a halt on the grass. The track was clear so I booted the throttle and ploughed through the dust storm. It took a few fractions of a second for my brain to twig that it was actually Clinton who had so effectively pulled a David Copperfield move on Turn 4.

I crossed the line at the top of Class D and well chuffed. It was one of those rare races where I had won by actually catching and passing people instead of mechanicals claiming them. Ok, two places had been handed to me, so it was not all down to my rather mediocre skill. But a win is a win as they say, and his particular one was rather satisfying.

The race 2 win put me third in Class D for the day, which, considering my race 1 performance, I was more than happy with. More to the point though, was the large field of cars around the 1:24 to 1:25 mark. Reviewing the results at the end of the day showed that two Class E drivers, Hennie with his 'Vette and Nick with his Lotus 7, had broken into Class D. Thus, once Hennie (the other Hennie with the Lotus 7) and Craig were back in the fray, there would be nine contenders in Class D. This would make us the most densely populated Class in the entire field.

I suspect some really good, close racing will be on the cards for the next race day. I just hope no one else decides to go put stripes on their car.

Here are some videos of the action. Well, ok, race 1 is a little dull, but race 2 is quite fun.

Sports & GT - Race 1

Sports & GT - Race 2