It's true. A rolling stone does indeed gather no moss. Unfortunately, for the last couple of months I have been a rather stationary stone. Consequently I am covered in moss. This was proved rather embarrassingly a few weeks back when I rolled out onto the track again for the first time since my moss gathering began.
Ok, so I do have an excuse. All racing drivers, however wannabe they are, have excuses. But, seriously, mine are good. You see, I decided to make some changes to the car. Most folk do this over the Christmas period, when there is lots of time to get everything done. Me, I decided to do it mid season. And not just a small change or two. No, a complete change of the wheels, hubs, brakes, pedal box and clutch. Of course, all for good reason.
Thing is, it always takes longer to finish than you think, especially when you are making significant changes that require aftermarket parts to be matched to an existing system. Anyway, subject to Craig's considerable skill and dedication, the niggles where all eventually sorted out and the car was ready. At this exact point I decided to go overseas on holiday with the family. So, by the time I finally drove out of pit lane, some three months later, and the Saturday before race day, I could hardly remember which way the track went, let alone how to drive my car.
Thankfully, the brain does appear to have some sort of muscle memory and within a couple of laps things started to come together. Now, the main reason for doing all these changes was, obviously, to make the car go faster. At this point in the practise session things were not looking good. I was barely managing to break 30's let along storm in the 23's as I had been hoping. It was time for an egg and bacon roll and some expectation reassessment.
The second practise session yielded somewhat better results as I realised the car had much more grip than before (due to the wider tyres) and much better brakes. It was now a matter of finding the limits, without crashing into something hard, all the while adjusting the brake markers. By the end of the session I was back to lapping around 25's. Not stellar, but at least back to where I was before. It was only during the third, and last, practise session that I started to realise the car handled quite a bit differently. We had upsized the front tyres from 195's to 225's. Consequently, the car had a lot more grip on turn in. I had been driving as before, balancing cornering for the slight understeer I knew the car had. I was rather euphoric about my massive discovery, so much so that I promptly spun going into turn 3. It was a neat spin though, the marshal hardly had a chance to bring out the yellow flag, before I had completed my unscheduled 360 and was scampering down the track again, a little less euphoric. I managed to sneak in a high 24 during this session, but was now painfully aware of the fact that the car was very different to what it had been, and I would essentially have to learn it all over again. This moss was proving to be rather sticky stuff.
Thus rolled on race day. It was a long weekend so numbers were a little down. I figured this was a good thing since it would mean less things for me to hit. I arrived nice and early and parked up next to Paul and his GT40. Paul was eventually back after his fire induced rebuild, but was having all sorts of small issues so was not expecting to do that well. The car, I must admit, looks awesome. It now sports a much racier look, with low front defuser and aggressive rear arches over its massive slicks. As always it sounds as good as it looks. The GT40 really is one of my all time favourite cars.
The Harper contingent was made up of myself and Alan in his turbo powered, slick shod rocket. Thankfully he was way up near the top of Class C. Craig, who was still rebuilding his car and Ant, who was running his new engine in, came to watch with Ant promising to be back for the next race day. Class D was therefore only four cars, myself, Cyril in his new GT3, Rob in his neat Lotus 7 and Nic, also in his Lotus 7. Nic had always been down in Class E and was seldom a concern for me. Clearly Nic has no issues with moss attachment as he seems to have found an indecent turn of speed with his little Lotus.
Qualifying was called and I again applied my, so far, fairly effective strategy of going out mid field. I had five clear laps and managed to notch up the fastest qualifying time for Class D. I was not all that elated, since it was only a rather yawing 26. Most of the others in Class D had run into traffic issues. Still I was on pole, so to speak.
Not that it lasted all that long. As a matter of fact, by turn three of the first race I had been taken by Cyril and had Nic dangerously close behind me. Still, I was not concerned and set off after the GT3. A brief glance in the mirror down the back straight confirmed my thoughts as Nic receded behind me. I set about the rear of the Porsche, but he was too quick down the straights. Passing would have to be a corner manoeuvre. At the end of the front straight I gave a cautionary glance in the mirrors just in case there was something there and almost missed my brake marker. My mirror was full of Nic and his 7. There was no time to figure out how he had overcome my massive torque advantage and ended up glued to my rear, it was now all about staying ahead. And so the race progressed. I tried to badger the rear of Cyril's Porsche as best I could while trying to fend off the increasing insistent Nic. By the time the chequered flag fell I was panting like a rabid dog, but had managed to hang on to second. Predictably, lap times were not spectacular, as they seldom are when you are covering lines all over the place, but it had been a great dice and that, after all, was why we were doing this.
A post race investigation revealed Nic had only added slicks to his Lotus, the rest all coming from his rapidly improving race craft. The family duly arrived for lunch and we headed to the clubhouse for a break and catch up with the other drivers.
A couple of hours later we were back and lined up for race two. I had surprisingly drawn pole in Class D for this race so was up front again. I was determined to make the Harper as wide as possible and keep both the Porsche and Nic behind me from the start. Alas, it was not to be. While I was on pole for Class D, I was also behind Class C and on my side of the grid this meant I was behind Paul and his GT40. Paul had been struggling with handling issues the whole day and was being ever so ginger into corners. At the start, the lights went out and we stormed to turn 1. I was on the inside of the corner and ended up boxed in by the GT40 up front and a string of cars passing me from behind. By the time I exited the corner I was stone last. Things can happen fast during a race. I quickly dispatched the GT40 into turn 2 and set off after the rest of the field. After a lap or two I managed to catch and pass Rob in his Lotus and slowly reeled Nic in. I was much quicker than him on the straights, but he out braked and out handled me on the back side of the circuit. Eventually after around six laps I was about ready to deal with him. The plan was simple, I would catch him down the back straight, brake as late as possible into turn 5, then overpower him down the front straight and make the car nice and wide going into turn 1. Easy stuff, now just to execute.
Everything went exactly according to plan until turn 5. I braked late, turned in using my, now much improved, front grip and promptly lost control of the rear. You see, while the wider front had eliminated the slight understeer characteristics of the car, it had somewhat exaggerated the tendency to oversteer. And with a 60/40 weight split, once the rear let go, you needed to be a much better driver than me to catch things. Half way around the spin I did at least have the presence of mind to hit the clutch and keep the engine running. The car skidded to a halt backwards off the outer edge of turn 5, the shower of gravel bouncing musically off the back of my helmet. Through the dust I could see Rob sprint past. I cursed a bit and got the car going again, bolting off down the straight only to be met at the end by a marshal furiously waving the "change in surface" flag. I could actually see the oil on the outside of the straight, right about where the brake markers started. The thought did flash through my mind as to what would have happened had my plan succeeded. If it had, Nic and I would have been side by side at that point and one of us would have possibly ended up smeared across the barrier wall way past the turn 1 run off. We do over 200km/h at the end of the main straight.
After that, the race deteriorated into more of a cruise as turn 2 showed similar oil slick problems. Finally, after another lap, the race was red flagged and we headed back to the pits. The oil presented a bit of a conundrum for the marshals since none of the cars had shown any signs of massive engine failure usually associated with this amount of oil on the track. To mimic the Exxon Valdez you really had to spectacularly destroy your engine or gearbox, both events producing smoke clouds that would make a small WW2 tank proud. But, no smoke there was, which is why the marshals took a bit of time to notice the oil. Thankfully, it was with enough time to alert most drivers. The slick rendered turn 1 unusable and hence the race was stopped.
At the end of the day I managed to snatch a third over all, so was fairly pleased with the proceedings. I had at least managed to provide some entertainment for the crowd as well as Nic. More to the point though, while the actual race lap times were nothing special, my nifty lap timer proudly presented theoretical 23's for both races.
All I have to do now is string a couple of good sectors together per lap and I should be near the top of Class D again. That is, of course, assuming I can keep the car pointing forward! In the meantime I'm off to find some industrial strength moss remover.
For those who want a good chuckle, check out my parking manoeuvre in turn 5 here.
The full races can be viewed here for race 1 and here for race 2.
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| The structure for the new top mounted pedals. Much stiffer than before! |
Thankfully, the brain does appear to have some sort of muscle memory and within a couple of laps things started to come together. Now, the main reason for doing all these changes was, obviously, to make the car go faster. At this point in the practise session things were not looking good. I was barely managing to break 30's let along storm in the 23's as I had been hoping. It was time for an egg and bacon roll and some expectation reassessment.
The second practise session yielded somewhat better results as I realised the car had much more grip than before (due to the wider tyres) and much better brakes. It was now a matter of finding the limits, without crashing into something hard, all the while adjusting the brake markers. By the end of the session I was back to lapping around 25's. Not stellar, but at least back to where I was before. It was only during the third, and last, practise session that I started to realise the car handled quite a bit differently. We had upsized the front tyres from 195's to 225's. Consequently, the car had a lot more grip on turn in. I had been driving as before, balancing cornering for the slight understeer I knew the car had. I was rather euphoric about my massive discovery, so much so that I promptly spun going into turn 3. It was a neat spin though, the marshal hardly had a chance to bring out the yellow flag, before I had completed my unscheduled 360 and was scampering down the track again, a little less euphoric. I managed to sneak in a high 24 during this session, but was now painfully aware of the fact that the car was very different to what it had been, and I would essentially have to learn it all over again. This moss was proving to be rather sticky stuff.
Thus rolled on race day. It was a long weekend so numbers were a little down. I figured this was a good thing since it would mean less things for me to hit. I arrived nice and early and parked up next to Paul and his GT40. Paul was eventually back after his fire induced rebuild, but was having all sorts of small issues so was not expecting to do that well. The car, I must admit, looks awesome. It now sports a much racier look, with low front defuser and aggressive rear arches over its massive slicks. As always it sounds as good as it looks. The GT40 really is one of my all time favourite cars.
The Harper contingent was made up of myself and Alan in his turbo powered, slick shod rocket. Thankfully he was way up near the top of Class C. Craig, who was still rebuilding his car and Ant, who was running his new engine in, came to watch with Ant promising to be back for the next race day. Class D was therefore only four cars, myself, Cyril in his new GT3, Rob in his neat Lotus 7 and Nic, also in his Lotus 7. Nic had always been down in Class E and was seldom a concern for me. Clearly Nic has no issues with moss attachment as he seems to have found an indecent turn of speed with his little Lotus.
Qualifying was called and I again applied my, so far, fairly effective strategy of going out mid field. I had five clear laps and managed to notch up the fastest qualifying time for Class D. I was not all that elated, since it was only a rather yawing 26. Most of the others in Class D had run into traffic issues. Still I was on pole, so to speak.
Not that it lasted all that long. As a matter of fact, by turn three of the first race I had been taken by Cyril and had Nic dangerously close behind me. Still, I was not concerned and set off after the GT3. A brief glance in the mirror down the back straight confirmed my thoughts as Nic receded behind me. I set about the rear of the Porsche, but he was too quick down the straights. Passing would have to be a corner manoeuvre. At the end of the front straight I gave a cautionary glance in the mirrors just in case there was something there and almost missed my brake marker. My mirror was full of Nic and his 7. There was no time to figure out how he had overcome my massive torque advantage and ended up glued to my rear, it was now all about staying ahead. And so the race progressed. I tried to badger the rear of Cyril's Porsche as best I could while trying to fend off the increasing insistent Nic. By the time the chequered flag fell I was panting like a rabid dog, but had managed to hang on to second. Predictably, lap times were not spectacular, as they seldom are when you are covering lines all over the place, but it had been a great dice and that, after all, was why we were doing this.
A post race investigation revealed Nic had only added slicks to his Lotus, the rest all coming from his rapidly improving race craft. The family duly arrived for lunch and we headed to the clubhouse for a break and catch up with the other drivers.
A couple of hours later we were back and lined up for race two. I had surprisingly drawn pole in Class D for this race so was up front again. I was determined to make the Harper as wide as possible and keep both the Porsche and Nic behind me from the start. Alas, it was not to be. While I was on pole for Class D, I was also behind Class C and on my side of the grid this meant I was behind Paul and his GT40. Paul had been struggling with handling issues the whole day and was being ever so ginger into corners. At the start, the lights went out and we stormed to turn 1. I was on the inside of the corner and ended up boxed in by the GT40 up front and a string of cars passing me from behind. By the time I exited the corner I was stone last. Things can happen fast during a race. I quickly dispatched the GT40 into turn 2 and set off after the rest of the field. After a lap or two I managed to catch and pass Rob in his Lotus and slowly reeled Nic in. I was much quicker than him on the straights, but he out braked and out handled me on the back side of the circuit. Eventually after around six laps I was about ready to deal with him. The plan was simple, I would catch him down the back straight, brake as late as possible into turn 5, then overpower him down the front straight and make the car nice and wide going into turn 1. Easy stuff, now just to execute.
Everything went exactly according to plan until turn 5. I braked late, turned in using my, now much improved, front grip and promptly lost control of the rear. You see, while the wider front had eliminated the slight understeer characteristics of the car, it had somewhat exaggerated the tendency to oversteer. And with a 60/40 weight split, once the rear let go, you needed to be a much better driver than me to catch things. Half way around the spin I did at least have the presence of mind to hit the clutch and keep the engine running. The car skidded to a halt backwards off the outer edge of turn 5, the shower of gravel bouncing musically off the back of my helmet. Through the dust I could see Rob sprint past. I cursed a bit and got the car going again, bolting off down the straight only to be met at the end by a marshal furiously waving the "change in surface" flag. I could actually see the oil on the outside of the straight, right about where the brake markers started. The thought did flash through my mind as to what would have happened had my plan succeeded. If it had, Nic and I would have been side by side at that point and one of us would have possibly ended up smeared across the barrier wall way past the turn 1 run off. We do over 200km/h at the end of the main straight.
After that, the race deteriorated into more of a cruise as turn 2 showed similar oil slick problems. Finally, after another lap, the race was red flagged and we headed back to the pits. The oil presented a bit of a conundrum for the marshals since none of the cars had shown any signs of massive engine failure usually associated with this amount of oil on the track. To mimic the Exxon Valdez you really had to spectacularly destroy your engine or gearbox, both events producing smoke clouds that would make a small WW2 tank proud. But, no smoke there was, which is why the marshals took a bit of time to notice the oil. Thankfully, it was with enough time to alert most drivers. The slick rendered turn 1 unusable and hence the race was stopped.
At the end of the day I managed to snatch a third over all, so was fairly pleased with the proceedings. I had at least managed to provide some entertainment for the crowd as well as Nic. More to the point though, while the actual race lap times were nothing special, my nifty lap timer proudly presented theoretical 23's for both races.
All I have to do now is string a couple of good sectors together per lap and I should be near the top of Class D again. That is, of course, assuming I can keep the car pointing forward! In the meantime I'm off to find some industrial strength moss remover.
-xxx-
For those who want a good chuckle, check out my parking manoeuvre in turn 5 here.
The full races can be viewed here for race 1 and here for race 2.
