Brands Hatch (Indy) 2 September 2006

“Andy Holden was the star, but not the winner, of the Dunlop Tuscan race. On a drying track the polesitter pitted for slicks at the end of the warm up lap and re-joined two laps down. He was five seconds a lap quicker than the others, but Marc Hockin and 5 others still led him at the flag” Autosport Magazine, 7 September 2006

Testing

We made a few small alterations to the car following the Donington meeting last month. The seized diff was overhauled and refitted and the rear brakes – too large when combined with the 10” wide wheels – were swapped for smaller, lighter 2 pot versions. We also fabricated a lightweight carbon fibre front air dam to try to reduce front end lift at speed. All tyres were purged of compressed air and refilled with nitrogen to make the pressures more stable at temperature, and finally we re-balanced the car on our new computer scales.

With all these changes a test was required – so it was off to Brands on Friday for an afternoon session. This proved invaluable – it took time to establish a new front/rear balance on the brake bias adjuster, but the biggest issue was this combined with the effect of the air dam. Without additional ducting the air dam prevented air getting to them causing the front brakes to overheat.

With the dam removed the brake temperatures dropped to an acceptable level, but the pad wear in two 20 minute sessions was ferocious and new pads would be required for race day. In addition we learned a great deal about the tyre pressures when using nitrogen – in fact without the test we would have struggled going straight into a race.

Lap times were a fraction over 50 seconds and were consistent with and without the air dam. Things looked very promising for the Saturday race.

Race Day

The overnight rain eased, but more was forecast throughout the day. Tyre choice would be tricky!

A grid of 15 cars would compete, but the absence of Tim Hood and Darren Dowling unfortunately took away our real competition. The track remained dry for qualifying and we were quickly lapping sub 51 seconds. A second run gave us a fastest lap of 50.273, just under 2 seconds faster than second placed Steve Glynn. Dean Cook was experiencing engine problems and although he qualified third, unfortunately would be unable to race.

A further casualty was Cliff Jobson in the distinctive yellow Tasmin – in his efforts to match the faster Tuscan and Griffith of Walden and Hockin, he overcooked it on the exit to Druids and hit the tyre wall.

So we had our second consecutive pole position in the Tuscan Challenge – albeit this time with diminished opposition.

The forecast rain now started to fall and down in the lower paddock the tarmac was certainly wet enough to warrant wet tyres. The whole field elected to fit wets (other than one driver who didn’t have any!) and we assembled in the collection area as the rain stopped and the wind picked up. Looking at the track a dry line was starting to appear and I became increasingly convinced that slicks were the way to go. Too late though - we were shepherded out on track, which was as I thought, almost dry on the racing line.

As we were waved off for the green flag lap and down through Paddock Hill bend, it was obvious that wets were the wrong choice and this race would destroy them. Also in the back of my mind was that if the qualifying times were anything to go by, this wouldn’t be much of a race and I should win by a considerable margin.

I decided to speed up, dive into the pits and change to slicks, knowing this would put me a lap down. However, the extra speed from the slicks should enable me to catch and pass the entire field – a win would be on, but would be much more of a challenge.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot that we were an engineer down (Charlie unable to get to the circuit in time) – and despite the best efforts of Andy, Bob, Yvonne and a very helpful chap who happened to be standing in a pit garage, I was two and a bit laps down when I regained the track - race win effectively forfeited.

I set off determined to give a good showing, but also not wanting to throw the car off on a track that was still quite wet in a couple of places. After three laps the tyres began to heat up and we could start to push on, and the lap times started to tumble. Scything through the traffic avoiding the odd spinner it was certainly interesting – we recovered the first lap down on lap 10 (our 8th lap), by which time we were some 5 seconds a lap quicker than race leader Marc Hockin.

I was staying off the painted kerbs which would be very slippery, but despite this and the traffic our fastest lap was a 51.469. The race win was gone, but I could still un-lap myself in the remaining time – until a grinding noise spelled the end of third gear. I tried a combination of 2nd and 4th, but changing up between the two without engaging reverse was tricky and losing me even more time, so we remained in 4th gear for the final 4 laps. Interestingly, even with just one gear my lap time would have been enough for 4th in qualifying.

We finished in a disappointing 7th place, but within 4 seconds of regaining the lost laps. That was a big achievement, but the fatal error in the timing of the decision to change tyres gave away what should have been a comfortable win.

With the benefit of hindsight I should have elected to start from the pit lane on slicks and not take the grid for the green flag lap – or of course simply stayed on the wets. Either option would have given us the win by a margin.

As a small consolation we provided a lot of entertainment – overtaking almost constantly. On balance though, the team deserved a win for all their hard work, and I have to apologise for throwing it away with the wrong call on tyres.

One to chalk down to experience…

Next Race

Saturday 7 October 2006 at Oulton Park