ORIGINAL: AndrewS
Hi Neil,
Congratulations in competing in your first race; conincidentally my first Porsche race was at Mallory Park - it was the only race I ever did there.
Good luck at Silverstone next weekend.
Regards,
Andrew
Thanks Andrew and everyone, it is a relief to get it out of the way. May well be the last time I go to Mallory as well after that experience. I got a side swipe/nerf in practice which was a wakeup call, mind you he seemed to have a big off in the race as he was parked on the barrier after Gerrards later. Then the rain came, I have never driven anything on any track in the rain and yes I hold my hands up I did feel completely lost, 2.5 secs slower than in testing really should have been no more than 1/2 a second or so.
The race itself was the best bit, I felt much less nervous then in practice the lights went out and I got away really good must have passed at least 3 cars but may have been 5 can't remember just got through the next 2 rows, then hit a massive blockage of cars going into Gerrards. From where I was sat it looked 'entertaining' up ahead with cars all over the place. The track was still very greasy in the first few laps so all I felt comfortable doing was gradually building the pace back up. I am sure I got another 2 cars somewhere in the first lap but they got me back in the next few laps. Then after about lap 7 or 8 I started to feel more comfortable to push on and chase down the cars ahead which I am sure I was doing. On either lap 9 or 10 just when I was starting to get into it and the track was drying out, I heard a loud band coming out of the hairpin and the seat went all floppy. Pulled straight into the pits but Alex couldn't fix it. It was still attached but had pulled out part of the factory thread on the floor at the front left, leaving the front left part rocking up and down, not much as the bolt was still in there but enough to make the seat feel very floppy. At that point it was either climb out of the car or carry on to the flag to make use of the half hour or so of track time left.
Pretty gutted really in the result for me but its all vital experience and seat time in the car.
Did I enjoy the race? well up to the seat problem the answer is definitely yes, passing cars is a lot of fun [
], spending 1/2 hour driving around being overtaken all the time not fun [
].
Did I learn a lot about driving the car? Well yes again. I learned that I was doing more or less the right thing testing the other week except Gerrards, this weekend went much better in that corner and tried a different braking line off the straight which much have worked when I had the big surprise of catching Alex Eacock at one point there in the first 1/3rd of that corner. This though is the big point I have to deal with at the moment and something I talked to Pete Morris about. It is very hard to get ones head around how it is you can be as quick in some parts of the track as someone else that somehow manages to be between 3 and 5 seconds a lap faster overall !!!
Paul F has that saying, unfinished business [
]. Roll on Silverstone and this time I will just get in and drive the car how I know and not try and reinvent my driving [&o], and it better be dry or else [
].
Congratulations again Mark, you would have won that race regardless of the 30 seconds penalties on others, I could see your car look fantastically nicely balanced through the corners and your confidence level is sky high right now. Well done mate.
