For those of you who've been following my racing via the Region's section of Porsche Post, I thought I'd put up a video from one of my races this weekend at Brands Hatch. It was the fifth round of our 2013 season with our first chance of a full grid and three races over the two days. I couldn't get a slot on the Friday practice day so had to go straight into qualifying "cold" on the Saturday - but at least I know the circuit pretty well! I'd set myself a target lap time and beat it by 1.5 seconds in qualifying - a big margin on the little Indy circuit.
Race 1 on the Saturday turned out to be both my scariest and most exciting race to date - because I stalled on the grid! As anyone who has visited the circuit knows, the start/finish straight isn't flat and my row was pointing downhill. My race car doesn't have a handbrake (to both save weight and maintenance) so you have to do a bit of a balancing act with the pedals to avoid too much rolling (which can get you penalised) and inevitably the car will roll a little as you anticipate the red lights going out. Despite not having any problems last season, this time I simply didn't have enough revs when I let the clutch out and she just cut out. Not much you can do in that situation apart from frantically try to get it started, without flooding it, and hoping - praying - that no one hits you! Fortunately everyone was awake and avoided me and each other!
Where it left me was completely last out with the task of catching and passing as many as I could in 20 minutes. And I reckon I did pretty well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pclQuTlABRI
Races 2 and 3 on the Sunday were considerably less eventful but I did manage to improve my best lap each time, and even grabbed a Class A scalp in Race 3, putting me 13th in the Championship - which is where I finished last season. Our next round is on Saturday 31st at Oulton Park - a circuit I've only been to 4 times - but at least this time I have the test day booked. I seem to recall the grid isn't flat there either...
Chris | 88-racing.com
Race 1 on the Saturday turned out to be both my scariest and most exciting race to date - because I stalled on the grid! As anyone who has visited the circuit knows, the start/finish straight isn't flat and my row was pointing downhill. My race car doesn't have a handbrake (to both save weight and maintenance) so you have to do a bit of a balancing act with the pedals to avoid too much rolling (which can get you penalised) and inevitably the car will roll a little as you anticipate the red lights going out. Despite not having any problems last season, this time I simply didn't have enough revs when I let the clutch out and she just cut out. Not much you can do in that situation apart from frantically try to get it started, without flooding it, and hoping - praying - that no one hits you! Fortunately everyone was awake and avoided me and each other!
Where it left me was completely last out with the task of catching and passing as many as I could in 20 minutes. And I reckon I did pretty well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pclQuTlABRI
Races 2 and 3 on the Sunday were considerably less eventful but I did manage to improve my best lap each time, and even grabbed a Class A scalp in Race 3, putting me 13th in the Championship - which is where I finished last season. Our next round is on Saturday 31st at Oulton Park - a circuit I've only been to 4 times - but at least this time I have the test day booked. I seem to recall the grid isn't flat there either...
Chris | 88-racing.com
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