The 2011 PCGB Club Championship
- Thread starter paulf968
- Start date
Steve Brookes
Moderator
Good luck to all the 964s.....oops wrong forum! [
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Hey Paul. Car is as sorted as it can be to start with. The car last raced in 2008 for about 6 rounds of the Club Championship pedalled by Roger Pearce. Had geo done and a number of essential regulation updates. Not had any track experience in my hands. So going straight from 964's to 968's. Not sure how we're going to split the drives. The qualification is going to be a problem. Both drivers need to get a qualification time within the 15 minutes or a driver ends up at the back of the grid. How's that going to work? Some track laps are long and some pit lanes may be long. Just belting-up will take time. So we'll see what happens. Best to do some driver change practice on Friday - Le Mans style! Not expecting any banzai laps or podiums - just finishing will be a major achievement - will be great to mix it with you seasoned racers and take it from there. See you there. We're in pit garage 12 on Friday. P.S. Might need to loan some pads again! [
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paulf968
New member
the good news is that not all quali's are as short as 15 minutes -- IIRC you only need to do an out lap, then a flying lap and an in lap to qualify (but check this) -- and as you say it is a short laptime at Brands, so with a bit of belt practice you should be OK a tip, whoever is the biggest should go first [] always easier to tighten belts than loosen them !! if you need pads you know where to come ! -- garage No 15
] always easier to tighten belts than loosen them !! if you need pads you know where to come ! -- garage No 15
Steve Brookes
Moderator
Hiya Paz, unfortunately not many by the looks of it because trackday and holiday bookings clash with those that are in striking distance for me. I'll probably get to more of the FC races than the PCGB ones [ORIGINAL: PazHOW VERY DARE YOU!! Which races will you be attending Steve? [ORIGINAL: Steve Brookes Good luck to all the 964s.....oops wrong forum! [
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paulf968
New member
Hi, Mark -- glad you enjoyed your weekend. My quick summary of what happened at Brands. It was an action packed weekend for this opening round of 2011, many factors came into play so quite a lot to report. Firstly mechanical gremlins: McAleer was due to race but word arrived on Friday evening that he had cylinder head issues and was not going to make it down from Yorkshire. Higgins tested Friday but his 968 developed engine woes, apparently it dropped a valve seat and this lunched the head AND the block - no racing for him again. Purdie in the 2nd Paragon car had engine issues in his 964 during testing, including a small fire and an exploding distributor cap (unrelated !) Race 1: Peter Morris lost his clutch off the start line, some issues with his flywheel as well DNF - Miles Maserati had a gearbox issue reported as a broken bell housing, he must of banged into something quite hard to do that DNF. Both had no further involvement. I'll get the 'in race' antics out of the way now. Main fun and games was in Race 2. Ellis and Speed were joined at the hip down the Cooper straight early on, ended up on the grass at Surtees with various panels dented. Both finished though. Our hero Mark K got a tap from behind by a red 944 (ironic eh!) at one stage -- this was enough to lose it going into Surtees, he recovered to finish with his immaculate paintwork thankfully untarnished. Quali: For me this was dominated by the stupidity of losing the car through oversteer deep into Paddock bend -- I almost caught it but the gravel sucked me in after the second correction attempt! I was lucky as after the dust had settled inside the car, I could then see the starter button! got the engine going and managed to tip toe my way back on track. Gravel everywhere and after quali lots of drivers wanting me to pay for new windscreens! Bennet who was out for the first time in his 968 was not so lucky, later on he did something similar to me but at much greater speed. The gravel stopped him but it also stopped the engine -- broken cambelt and damaged pulleys. That was the end of his racing aspirations at Brands. Pole was Sumpter (911SC), followed by Morris, Demetriou and Hilliard in 968's all in the 54's. I only managed a 55.9 & Mark close behind in a 56.4. We had to do lot of cleaning up in my car, including re-fitting 3 of the tyres as stones where trapped in the beads! RACE 1. 17 starters and 2 DNF. Sumpter got away and despite being pushed hard by Demetriou all the way held on to win. Ben was therefore 2nd with Harrison 3rd and Hilliard 4th in the 968. I struggled to find the pace I enjoyed in testing and got 8th with Mark sniffing all over my rear bumper. RACE 2 Now 15 starters and it became almost a re-run of the first race but with 3rd and 4th swapping. So, Sumpter, Demetriou, Hilliard & Harrison. I went back to a stiffer front ARB, which helped confidence but was not actually quicker -- despite that got 6th (5th in class). Mark did overtake me early on in a smooth move at Druids, but then had his own moment at Paddock and I got past again, he then brought it home in 12th after being tapped off as mentioned above. results here [link=http://www.tsl-timing.com/mgcc/2011/111453.pdf]http://www.tsl-timing.com/mgcc/2011/111453.pdf[/link] So the event delivered zero points for quite a few drivers, however Sumpter is well away in the Championship with 2 wins. Demetriou is challenging hard in his 'Team Hartech' 968 as the circus moves all the way up to Croft for racing on the Easter weeeknd, 23rd and 24th April. See you there if you can make it. NB There will be testing on the Friday, so come and see that if you want as well.
What a buzz! The testing and race days were such a high. So much to do as well with us joining the GT3 Challenge grid for the day too. Thanks for your support and advice Paul. We made some great progress over the weekend cutting 8 seconds off our first lap-times. We were delighted with our day. We met lots of new people and had some great encouragement. [][][]
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A brief race report I've also posted on the 964RS forum: We attended the test sessions on the day before which comprised of only 4 x 30 minute sessions. We used the sessions to optimise the tyre pressures. With the pressures too high, after about 6 laps, I could feel the rear of the car squirm under braking for Paddock Hill Bend only. Some cars span off on out-laps. Our strategy was to get track time and stay on the black stuff. We walked the track on Friday night which was a great help. The track is very 3-dimensional with huge inclines and cambers that you just don't notice sat in the car. On race day: the car performed faultlessly. It used about 1 litre of oil over the whole day. As our lap times dropped, by 8 seconds, and consequently the tyre pressures increased: we had to drop the tyre pressures again. Mixing with the GT3s was awesome. Has to be the best seat to view the action. Some skill required to gauge where they are going to pass you without ruining your own line. They lap you every 5 laps so lots of concentration required. The marshalls were superb with plenty of notice with the blue flags and applause on the in-lap. Finished 9th out of 11 starters. Chris Finished 6th out of 9 starters. Car 91 was on the score-board - awesome The Club Championship was great fun - finishing 14th out of 15 starters. Chris finished 14th out of 17 starters. We had to avoid lots of spinners and off-roaders! One of the HRDC cars dropping oil all the way along the Brabham straight didn't help anyone and my eyes were on stalks watching cars wheel-spinning and sliding on the oil/dust in front of me at the race start. It was a daunting prospect to drive a 968CS for the first time on the track, our first ever visit to Brands Hatch and our first ever testing sessions, scrutineering, qualifying and racing - all in 2 days. Only 5 hours sleep a night recently. Tremendous encouragement received from Paul Seagrave, Paul Folwell, Richard Ellis, Chris Dyer, Dave Forrest, Tim Speed, Paul Winter and Malcolm Scott. It was great to have our friends Laurence, Des, Lesley, Ivor and Elaine join us in the pit garage.
Report from Baz @ Hartech. A great start to the season and vindicated all the hard work carred out by the team before the event with both cars finishing both races and two seconds, a 6th and 8th and a fastest lap - now on the points trail! Very impressed with Paul follet's organising skills (and driving) and of course Ben Demetrio's superb driving - almost beating the very experienced Mark Sumpter in a very well sorted out 911 I believe he has owned for several years - run by Paragon - with all their years of experience at the race track - that we lack. I say the "team" because there are quite a few different people assisting in different areas (but more of that later in the season - our secret for now) but well done everyone - keep it up! The day was not without incident - some clutch problems, handling (as always) difficulty getting off the line (compared to a 911 with its weight at the rear) etc but with a fastest lap and closing on the leader in the shortened second race (finishing within 1 sec of him in both) the performance has to be more than we expected despite Ben Demetrio's brilliant driving skill and effort. With third place being some 16 and 26 seconds further back (race 1 and 2) there were clearly two quick cars and drivers battling it out for the honours this time ( I expect more competition next race meeting if they get their cars sorted out in time). Paul Follet also did very well finishing 8th after sliding off at Paddock and 6th in the second race. Ben's car is due back here today for us to look into improving the clutch for starts, re-setting the pitch of the car, altering the anti roll bar strength for Croft (and then doing all the geo and corner weights again), checking over the whole thing and getting it ready for Croft (which I believe may suit the 968's better). I am really pleased we had a reliable event (especially when so many others had problems) but I am not so naive as to assume this will always be the case - just grateful we had such a good start to the season but getting ready to cope with a more hectic outcome some day soon. Baz _________________ http://www.hartech.org.uk
[] I found some nice photos on snappyracers.com,really enjoyed the weekend good to see some new faces well done to team viva-veloce, just getting to the grid is one of the hardest parts of motor racing.some hooligan parked their orange 968 in the gravel causing a chip to the windscreen buy that man a broom,see you all at Croft Paul
] I found some nice photos on snappyracers.com,really enjoyed the weekend good to see some new faces well done to team viva-veloce, just getting to the grid is one of the hardest parts of motor racing.some hooligan parked their orange 968 in the gravel causing a chip to the windscreen buy that man a broom,see you all at Croft Paul
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