Tatty Old Bodged Racecar (2015-10-15) - Season End - 7th :(

[Altrezia]

Yep, you can use any 318/320 - cab, saloon or tourer - at least I think so!

[_Jay_]

I had a 320 cab before, wish I still had it (long story) Maybe that's a route for me to go then. When is your next event?

[Altrezia]

The next round is at the end of the month at Cadwell Park, but I can't make it (money!) so probably Oulton park in July.

[_Jay_]

Was trying to work out if would be able to get to an event to see it in action, but dont think Oulton Park could be any further from me if it tried lol. Out of curiosity, how much is it to enter each event?

[Altrezia]

Brands hatch is in August mate - that's the one to go and see as it's at the Lotus Festival which is a great day out on it's own

Each round is only about £300, but it's the travel, hotel, fuel, tyre and repair costs that add up.

I think I am roughly spending £1000 per weekend all in.

[_Jay_]

Can get quite costly, but the thrill it gives is probably second to none, so worth it at least. Will try and get down for that one, not too bad to Brands Hatch, and havent been there in a while.

[Altrezia]

I've spent the last week or so taking the rear of the car apart. I noticed a knock from the rear end, and it turned out to be the rear trailing arm bushes. I thought I may as well replace the drum brakes with discs while I had the rear arms off, and got to work.


I bought a rear disc setup from a guy on E30Z.
It looked alright at first glance, but as soon as I started looking closer it was obvious that the calipers would need rebuilding, and the handbrake bits would need replacing, so that was the first job.
I also decided to rebuild my front calipers too since it's easy and cheap.














After the calipers were re built and painted, I removed the bushes from the arms, and fitted the new ones.




I then got to work fitting the rear end to the car. It's a funny job - it's easy in theory, but everything is a bugger to reach, and there are loads of things to remove. Handbrake cables are a bastard as they rust in place. Brake line connections round. Then you get close to the end and you realise one of the arm bolts will foul on the fuel tank and the beam needs to be dropped anyway.. I wish I'd done that to start with as it would have been easier!
Re-fitting was easy enough as I knew where everything went.












I then bled the brakes (with the help of Nicky!) and the pedal is now nice and solid.. finally!


Next job - replace the gearbox and linkage.

[Altrezia]

I’ve now finished the gearbox and linkage swap.

Getting the box out was easy enough - after raising the front of the engine the bolts aren’t too hard to reach (with the starter motor being the exception!). Pulling the box free took a little bit of effort, but once it was free it was easily dragged out from under the car (with only about 2mm spare before hitting the underside of the car!) and then taken away to loot the shifter parts from.



I then gave the new gearbox an oil change, cleaned it up a bit, and went to re-fit. This is a real pig of a job compared to the removal. Getting the splines lined up and the box properly in place took me hours. I worked alone on the car, and finished fitting it at 11:30pm in the pitch black. 10 minutes after I finished was the biggest thunder storm I’ve ever heard, so I suppose I got off lightly.

Anyway, the day after I finished fitting the ancillaries such as the starter, the clutch slave and the rear support, and then I set on the gear linkage and short shifter.



This is where I hit a slight snag - I followed a guide online for refurbishing the linkage and it had missed a few parts out that I wanted to replace - I got on the phone to Mark at Cotswold BMW and ordered the missing bushes.

While I was waiting for the parts I spent a bit of time freeing up the suspension, and lowered the car about 1 or 2 cm all round. I will get it corner weighted soon, so freeing it up was mainly for that, but I knew I wanted it to sit a bit lower anyway.

The parts for the shifter linkage arrived today so I fitted them to the car. Changing gear now feels so much nicer!! The gearbox and shifter linkage have made probably the biggest difference to the car out of anything I’ve done to date. It feels brand new.





After fitting the linkage I re-attached the propshaft and exhaust, and then bolted the wheels on and took the car round the block to see if everything worked. Nothing fell off, so I’ll take it for a longer drive tomorrow and see how it feels.

So far, so good.

It’s nice to have the car back on it’s wheels again. Also; weirdly the car feels TINY now it’s not up on stands - really low.

[Altrezia]

Just posting this to keep the log complete.

Since the last update I have replaced and fixed a few minor things.

I have replaced a broken stud in the exhaust manifold, which was from the rear-end bash I received at Rockingham.

I have replaced an air intake boot, and MAF (switched back to my old MAF, as my engine wasn’t running amazingly).The boot had a hole, so I decided to swap that over too.



I replaced a cracked headlight.



I have replaced the bolts that hold the ballast in.



I also tidied up the wiring for my GoPro (and added wiring for a 2nd, rear facing one), as well as the mandatory driving standards camera.



And that’s about it.

[Altrezia]

You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned any racing lately. I have run out of cash for the moment, and we have had to miss the Cadwell Park round, which was at the end of June, and we will also be missing the Oulton Park meeting too, which is held on the 19th of July.

It’s a huge shame to miss out two of the UK’s best circuits, but that’s life, I suppose.

We’ll be back out in August at Brands Hatch to race on the mighty GP circuit. Can’t wait

[appletree]

Thanks for keeping the log upto date, good reading about sombody having fun, or not as the case may be...

[G-Bear]

Some sterling work there. Very hands on. All very inspiring...

[Altrezia]

Quick update. Since the last one I have passed my B+E trailer test, so I no longer have to drive the car to and from the track.

With this in mind, the car can now be a bit less road-suitable, so I lowered it down a bit more, and tweaked a few other things.

I've also fitted new interior door pulls (as I managed to break my last ones!) and done a few other little tweaks.

I then whisked the car off to EDMsport on a trailer I borrowed from a fellow PBMWC competitor, and had it corner weighted and a suspension geo setup. I also had it power tested, and found that it has only got 133bhp.. 12 down on the power limit.





Next weekend we are out at Brands Hatch on the fantastic GP circuit. I've never actually driven it, but everyone that has says it's amazing. I can't wait to get back out in the car!

[Altrezia]

This weekend was rounds 9 and 10 of the Production BMW Championship which were held at the fantastic Brands Hatch GP track.

I had not driven the track before, so entered the car for not only the PBMWC rounds, but the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons qualifying and first race, which were held on the Saturday.

We set off for the track on Friday lunchtime, using a trailer lent to us by Kevin Hodgin, a fellow (and very kind) PBMWC competitor. The trailer made everything so much easier, and also took away any worry of a crash at the track, since we could bring the car home either way. The M25 was busy, but we arrived at the track at around 4pm, to be greeted with a rain shower. Thank god we had already decided it looked iffy and booked a local hotel.

The marquee was set up quickly, and the car taken from the trailer and popped under it. We then said our hellos to everyone, and escaped to the hotel.



Saturday TTRS & Qualifying

10:05 TTRS Qualifying. Saturday morning was the Toyo Tires Racing Saloon races. We started with qualifying, and if at first I was daunted by the track, by the end I was having great fun. I qualified 6th in class (28th overall), out of 21 PBMW cars.

14:10 - TTRS Race. I decided to start the race from the pitlane, along with championship front runner Gary Feakins, to avoid any crashes in the non-championship race. I made it from the back up to 33rd position out of 47 entered cars.

18:05 - Production BMW Championship Qualifying was the last session of the day. After a good showing in the earlier races I was pretty confident. That was a mistake. I made a huge balls up in qualifying and pootled around following another car, without really thinking about the actual driving and ended up 18th. Urgh. I had work to do the next day in the race!

The evening was spent watching my on board videos, and videos of other’s on YouTube and trying to work out where I could gain time. Everywhere! I fell asleep nervous about the long day ahead. THEN I WAS RUDELY AWOKEN BY A FIRE ALARM! Yep, not the best night’s sleep ever.

Sunday - PBMWC Races

Sunday morning arrived and I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Gary, who looked at my lap and told me what I should have been doing, and how to improve. - Top bloke.

Just before the race we had a huge downpour of rain, just in time to spice things up a bit. The Atom Cup race before us had a safety car and was eventually red flagged.

12:35 - Race 1 was good for me but it didn’t start that well - I made an awful start, shifting from 1st to 4th gear without realising and thinking that I had a broken engine.. after realising my mistake I was off and down into 30th place, or so.
Luckily for me (and nobody else) the front half of the grid decided to throw their cars into the gravel on a slippery Clearways. The race was red flagged, and we would eventually re-take the grid to re-start from our original positions.
My 2nd start of the race wasn’t much better, but I realised what I had done and managed to shift back to 2nd without losing too many spots. I had some good battles including a great one with Simon Bassford (and some robust defending from one or two other cars causing a bit of damage to my car) but managed to claw my way up to 9th at one point, before making a mistake on the final lap, and that combined with fuel starvation caused me to drop down to 12th position. I feel this was a great effort, as I really tried to drive in a more agressive and focused way - it worked! Yet another top ten finish escaped me, but we’re getting consistently close now.



The paddock atmosphere was a bit strange after the race, with over half of the field having new dents and crash damage. The race had eight retirements, which is unusual for our series. I was one of the lucky few!

17:05 - Race 2 wasn’t so good - we didn’t have time to fix the geometry of my suspension for the race, so we left for the grid with the wheels pointing in rather random directions. The car was tricky to drive, and despite my best efforts and a great battle with Dave Graves (the #33 car) I slipped down to 15th position. I could still see the 10th place car over the finish line, but I was probably 10-15 seconds behind them. The end of the race was really hard work - because the car was harder to drive, I got more tired and the last 2 laps were full of mistakes.



Still, another great weekend with fantastic people, and I’m now trying to find the funding to get the car to the final two rounds, plus a bonus non championship round at Silverstone GP in September.

Thanks for the help to Rob, Simon, Gary and Hannah, as well as Mark Palmer too! Nicky was fantastic this weekend, doing my tyre pressures and being my dogs-body. Brilliant.

Also, thanks to Jon @ SnappyRacers and the Graves gang for their photos!



------------------

Race 1 Video:
[youtube][/youtube]

Race 2 Video:
[youtube][/youtube]

[LondonTom]

The driver of the silver car in race one - someone needs to have a word!

Decent lines pal.

[B7]

Cars looking well Alex. And a good read. Well done.

[Altrezia]

Here are a few more photos by Jon @ SnappyRacers.com.

[Altrezia]

Earlier this week I took the car over to Gary Feakin's workshop, and had the tracking set up. It was well out and we suspect something is bent after my contact at Brands with another competitor. With limited time and funds available, Gary set the tracking as close as he could, and we'll sort anything bent things after the season ends in a month's time.

This weekend I spent some time checking the car over, making sure bolts were tight, brakes were good and fluids were correct. I gave it an oil change, and also changed a few nuts and bolts around the car that I wasn't happy with.

The only changes for this round are new wing mirrors (as at brands both sides decided to throw their glass up the track), and a removed sump guard. I weighed the guard while doing the oil change and decided it was worth removing for good. I hope it doesn't come back to haunt me!

I think I should really replace the engine and gearbox mounts, since they are clearly knackered, but I've run out of time now so they will have to do

The next race weekend is Lydden Hill on the 4th of October, followed 3 weeks later by a weekend at the Snetterton 300 track.

[Altrezia]

So I changed my mind - I decided that as I'd forgotten a few bolts that I wanted to check, and to do that I'd have to get back under the car, I may as well replace the engine and gearbox mounts too.

I bought standard-fit items, as that's what is defined in the regs, but I am hoping this area of the regulations will be relaxed next year, so I can put some stiffer things in place.

The old mounts were shot, too. The metal 'frame' had come away from the rubber and they looked very short and squat when on the car. The new ones are still too soft in my opinion (even for a road car!) but at least they're new and in one piece.

Anyway, mounts are now fitted, bolts are checked and we're good to go.. I hope!

Oh, and someone asked if I was taking it banger racing. Thanks.

[Brianmoooore]

There are steel cups available that fit around these engine mounts on some models, which will limit engine movement, if you can get them past the scrutineers.

[Altrezia]

Thanks Brian. I'll look for some of those if the regulations don't change. I imagine that if they are a BMW part, then they should be fine in the regulations.

[rix313]

I imagine that if they are a BMW part, then they should be fine in the regulations.

Dump an S14 in there then ;) haha

I hadn't read this for a while. Didn't realise you'd done so much

[Altrezia]

Lydden Hill - Round Report

Lydden hill is a small track in Kent, full of cambers, hills and late apexes. For a short 50-something second lap, it's quite complex. That, and the track surface is the most abrasive one we race on, it also has pot holes and other strange tarmac dotted around. A challenge!

9am - Practice: We started the day with a 15 minute practice session as most of us hadn't raced (or driven!) at Lydden before. 15 minutes, the first group out on the dry (and dirty) track. The session went well, and I ended up 5th out of the twelve guys in the practice.

10:40am - Qualifying: Now slightly warmer, and still dry, the track was looking perfect for qualifying. I decided (somewhat stupidly, with hindsight) to use my old worn tyres as they felt OK in the practice. I managed three laps before crashing my car into the tyre barrier after a moment of oversteer I failed to catch. Bugger.



Initially I thought my weekend was over, Simon and Rob from Gary's squad came to help pull the dents out, check the car and steering over, and gave me the all-clear to re-scrutineer and get back out for the race. Dave and I then checked the tyres, scooped out some gravel and we were ready. Fantastic!

13:15 - Race 1: The first race was a struggle for me. I wasn't confident in the car after my qualifying excursion, and I had decided to use my old tyres just in case I had another issue and didn't want to ruin my good set. Let's just say that 7 year old tyres don't work too well at Lydden.

I slipped down straight away after another bad start (something I really need to sort out), had a good battle with Rob Cooper, but then slipped back from him and brought the car home in 11th. Points, but not a good finish after a 9th place start.



14:45 - Rain: Oh my word, this was proper rain. Sideways. Puddles. Lagoons! I had already decided to swap the car to the newer tyres for Race 2 since I felt I had no grip at all in the first race, but now it was a no-brainer.

15:20 - Race 2: Starting 11th on the grid is still a good place for the series. You can see the front, see the 'fast guys' and have a good view for rhe first corner. Normally. In this rain, as soon as the race starts, we would be able to see nothing. Very exciting! I really like this part of a wet race. Wet is a great equaliser and it gives everyone a chance to get points because the good and bad cars become more closely matched in performance.

The lights went out and we were off. I made an average start, but luckily started on the inside for turn 1 and could simply hold my line to not lose out. The whole pack turned into the first corner as one with spray everywhere. I love it like this.



Wet driving in our E30's makes them feel like they actually have some power. You need a smooth throttle, quick steering and full concentration.

The race was one of two halves for me - the first half of the race was exciting with some overtake on some guys and also losing out to others. I then fell back a bit from the pack. At this point I decided that I was not going to sit by and let another top ten slip through my fingers, and pushed. I clawed my way back to the pack of cars in front, in the last 3 minutes of the race I caught, and overtook three cars putting me 7th. YES! Finally I had made it into the top ten.



Yet again I wouldn't have even made it to the races without the help of Gary Feakins, and his fantastic team - so many thanks to Rob Howe, Simon Turner and my friend Dave Gill who all helped massively over the weekend.

We're back out at Snetterton in just 3 weeks.

Qualifying video (and crash):

Race 1:

Race 2:

[Altrezia]

Today I spent a few hours giving the car a quick check over, as well as fixing a couple of issues and making sure we were ready for Snetterton.

I replaced the towing strap, which annoyingly got destroyed by the marshals pulling me out of the tyres at Lydden - it had torn the fabric of the strap.

Replacing the strap meant pulling the entire frontend off the car, essentially. Bumper, grilles, valance, and a few other bits and bobs. No major incidents along the way, but a bit of a pain to access just one bolt.





After that I gave the car a bolt check, checked the pads and fluids, and then fitted the new bootlid and shift light I had bought over the last few weeks.





I think I could do with replacing the rear pads already which is a bit of a shock since they've only done two rounds of the championship, but they're not expensive.

Oh, and I didn't bother to replace the front wings - I thought that if I got rid of the dents now, I'd probably only go and smash it up at Snetterton. I'll do it over the winter break instead.



Ouch

Other than that, I think we're as ready as we're going to be without spending any serious money.

One week to go!





(The car looks much nicer in photos than it does in real life..!)

[appletree]

Nice write up, thanks!

[Altrezia]

The final round of the championship was held this weekend at Snetterton.

I was racing in both the Production BMW Championship and the Atom Cup, so had lots to do and think about. I've covered the Atom Cup already here.

We arrived at Snetterton and set up the car and marquee on Friday, then went to play with the Atom and left the BMW to it's own devices. I had a text message from Gary whilst sitting in our hotel room later that evening, saying that he and the guys had saved my car from being eaten by the marquee. The wind was so strong it destroyed the frame, and it was only good for the bin. The car was fine, though, and apart from getting wet, this was the only BMW related disaster all weekend!



Saturday, 4:30pm: Qualifying was on Saturday afternoon. We were to be last out on track, just as the sun was starting to set. I hadn't driven the BMW on track yet, but had spent almost 2 hours in the Atom. Boy was it different. I out-braked myself into the final turn on the first lap in qualifying, meaning I had a scruffy start to the session. I got my head straight, and put in a time for 8th best, which is my best qualifying of the year. There were just 4 tenths covering 4th on the grid to 9th, so it was going to be a super close race.

Sunday, 11am: Race 1. I started from 8th on the grid, and as the lights went out had a good initial get away, until I cleverly slotted the gear stick into 4th instead of 2nd. This was a feature of my car from Brands Hatch and Lydden Hill, which I had forgotten about after driving the Atom. It put me back down into 13th, and I had to race my way back up to my starting position of 8th. Argh! I would have loved to get a top 6 finish, which I think was achievable if I had not ruined the race from the start.

Sunday, 3:30pm: Race 2 was another frustrating one. I started from 8th again, as that was where I finished race 1. I had a good getaway, and was fighting around lap 1 - I made it up to position 6, and then made an error while having a great fight with Andy Gay and Andy Bailey - and fell right down to 12th after slipping off the track at the same point that I had done in qualifying. I battled my way back up to 10th.

With the final race of the weekend complete, the season was over. Stu Waite had won the championship, with Gary Feakins 2nd and Harry Goodman 3rd. All three had dominated the year, with fantastic speed and consistency. Well deserved and many congratulations to them all. I think I have secured 10th place in the championship (out of 43 entrants) which I am over the moon with for a first attempt at racing, and only doing 5 of the 7 rounds (I'm not 100% sure, as I find it hard to work out the points with dropped scores).

It was almost exactly 12 months since I had bought the car, and now I'm sat here writing this with a year under my belt, a top ten finish in a championship, and an amazing bunch of friends that I have made along the way.

I can't wait for 2015.

Many thanks to everyone that helped along the way. Nicky, for being an amazing wife, and Lucy for being the perfect daughter who never complained about being sat at a cold race track. All the PBMWC competitors, organisers and families who made me and the girls feel very welcome, and the people outside the series who gave great advice and encouragement. You're all fab.


Race 1 Video
[youtube][/youtube]

Race 2 Video
[youtube][/youtube]

[Altrezia]

The official points are in now, and I was wrong, I placed 11th. Damnit!

[Altrezia]

2015 - Round 1 - Silverstone GP

Over the winter I spent some time with Gary Feakins Racing, trying to improve the car as much as I could, for as little as possible. We changed the suspension, the brakes, wheels and made some setup adjustments. We also found that I’d been running huge positive toe-out on the rear, which was the probable cause of the horrid nervousness and snappy oversteer.

We arrived on Thursday lunch time at Silverstone, and entered the car for scruitneering. It failed - the rear of the car had a roll-bar between the rear turrets (and did have all last year) but the scrutineers decided that because it was mounted onto a mounting point of the roll cage, and wasn’t part of the original cage, it shouldn’t be there. We had to remove it - and weld up the hole that was left behind. This was a fun task to do in the paddock, but amazingly TopCatsRacing, a Marcos endurance racing team competing in the Britcar 24h had a welder, and one of our competitors (Rob Cooper) had some metal we could use. Gary lent a hand and welded up the holes, and the car was cleared for the following day’s racing.

I was a little apprehensive about the weekend because we would be sharing the track with over 50 cars - a combination of Production BMW, and the Toyo Tyres Racing Saloons - 31 PBMWC cars, and the rest made up by M3s, Jaguars and other random race cars.

Qualifying came by, and I concentrated on getting a good lap - last year I realised that I was spending qualifying subconsciously following cars around, and not really trying to set a hot lap. I managed a 2:44.8, putting me 4th in class. Not a bad start to the year. Unfortunatley, I forgot that we needed 2 hot-laps in qualifying because of the shared-grid, so I only managed 7th in class for race 2 because of a much slower 2nd-fastest lap. Still - both spots were better than any previous qualifying position I’ve managed!

Race 1 started really well - I dropped to 6th at the start, but battled my way back to 4th and was holding station without any real pressure, until the last lap where another competitor managed to creep up, get past and then I went for a gap that closed on me meaning we both span off and I ended up 8th. A rookie mistake from both of us. With hindsight I wish I’d just held 5th, but in the heat of the race I wanted 4th and the gap looked inviting! Shame about the damage (wheel, tyre, wing) but that’s racing.

Race 2 was damp to start with, and I dropped from the 7th position to 8th, but managed to end up in 6th position after a strong and error-free run to the flag - with an extra lap I may have even made it to 5th! I should have been braver at the start.

I left Silverstone miserable, wishing I’d performed to the car’s potential - I really think the car could be a podium finisher now, and I just need to learn how to drive it. That said - last year the car was holding me up and this year I can improve - that’s exciting.

We’re racing at Brands Hatch (indy) in 3 weeks.

Race 1 Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPoMAbTXujM

Race 2 Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIQVy_S8A2U

[Altrezia]

Round 2 of the Production BMW Championship was held at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, on the short Indy layout.

I arrived at the track on Friday morning, and enjoyed a nice sunny test day before the race meeting, with the aim of learning the track as I'd not driven it in anger before.

Sunday morning arrived and with it qualifying - with 34 entrants on track it was a traffic heavy session, and getting a clear lap was hard work. Annoyingly, I never managed to match my time from the Friday practice session, and ended up 7th on the grid.

Race 1 followed, and I started on the 4th row. I had an average start, and was in 7th or 8th going into druids. The race was close, and the leaders were in sight for most of it. Past champion Dean Spurr was right behind me for the entire session, and we shared very similar pace. About half way through I made a bit of a lunge on another competitor causing them to spin at Druids, and they rolled back into my car causing damage, but we were both able to continue, I then chased down George Sealey who made a slight error and let me slip by. In the final few laps I was chasing down Jack Gabriel and over the line we were just 4ths apart. A jump-start penalty for Matt Swaffer in 3rd allowed me to steal 4th position at the end of the race. My best result yet!

Race 2 was exciting - starting on the 2nd row! Unfortunatley I made a real hash of my start, and was back into 7th into Druids. Balls! I followed Sealey around for much of the race, who was being slightly blocked by Mark Palmer for the whole race, with Spurr again right behind me. I did get overtaken by Alex Osborne during the race, but kept the pressure on and he made a small mistake letting me past again. I finished in 7th.

All in all not a bad weekend results wise, but I felt frustrated in both races because it was a hard track to overtake on - for me at least.

Now we have a 2 month wait for Snetterton in July.









Race 1:
Video lost by GoPro

Race 2:
[youtube][/youtube]

[Brianmoooore]

One of my favourite ongoing threads on here! Brilliant stuff; keep it coming.

[JungleGus]

Great read! Almost inspiring....

[rix313]

Snett will be good plenty of chances to overtake and take that spot on the podium

[Altrezia]

Round 3 ”“ Snetterton 300

This weekend was interesting - Gary (from Gary Feakins Racing) and I decided to enter ourselves in the TTRS relay race on Saturday in advance of the PBMWC round on Sunday, to get some track time. The relay race had a mandatory pit stop time, and we could decide when to do it - other than that, it was as normal.

Qualifying went well with Gary on class pole, and me in 2nd, meaning a front of class start for the race, and we went on to win both races - my first time on the podium! If only I could pull that off in PBMW! We finished off the day with a BBQ in the paddock - there are worse ways to spend a Saturday.

Sunday came around, and it was time for PBMWC. The important races.

We woke up to rain - as expected. I softened the car, upped the tyre pressures, and we went out for qualifying. The track was getting better with every lap, at the same time as confidence, and the lap times kept coming down. On the final lap of qualifying I was 1.7 seconds better than my previous best lap at the half way point, but frustratingly a spinning car in front put the lap to an early end as I had to take to the grass in avoidance, leaving me in 7th for the first race.

The sun came out, the track dried, and the race was due to start. I had been worrying about my starts since Brands Hatch 2 months earlier, and I really felt the pressure when sitting on the grid. 33 cars were starting the race, and if my normal bad starting trend was to continue I could easily drop from 7th to 15th or so before turn 1 - I had to get it right. I followed advice from Gary, Mark and Jack, and managed to get away without any drama, and actually kept my position for the first time in all my race starts. I thought I’d got a great start, until I had a nice speed-boost-shunt form behind pushing me forward - Mark’s start must have been mega!

The race was hard fought, and I had some brilliant battles with Mark Palmer and Ian Russell. I ended up finishing in 6th spot, after Dave Graves had a fuelling issue on the last lap - poor bugger!

Race 2 came around and the rain had returned. I was starting on the outside in 6th. I managed to get a good get away, and pulled along side Rob Cooper into turn one - I had a slight slip and dropped back in behind, but into turn two everyone seemed to slip around and I managed to get into third - I was hoping to keep it and to claim my first podium, but I managed to totally fail to use the wet line anywhere, despite thinking I was doing it properly at the time, and after a great battle with Rob Cooper and Matt Swaffer I dropped back down to 5th position. Still a solid result, but I can't help feel that it was a missed opportunity. Watching the video is painful - if I'd just done this-or-that differently I would have been right there to claim the champagne.

An enjoyable weekend, without any contact or damage, and some good points for the championship.











Here's the first lap in the wet:

[youtube][/youtube]

[Steve]

Brilliant, can't wait for more updates.

[Altrezia]

Round 4 - Brands Hatch GP

We were racing at Brands Hatch again for round four, but this time on the GP circuit. 37 BMWs racing through the Kent woods.. exciting!

I entered the Racing Saloons races on Saturday to get some extra track time, as I hadn’t driven on the GP track since 2014’s BH GP round. I qualified 3rd in class with a 1:53.1, a way behind Gary Feakins and just behind Mark Palmer who beat me by just 4 hundredths! The race went well with me finishing just behind Will Davison in 2nd place (Gary decided to start from the pits and got held up by traffic), and whilst I was annoyed at not winning, I had found another second from qualifying and was pretty happy with the car.

Sunday rolled around, and it was time for PBMWC qualifying. The car was the same as the previous day, fuel was in, and I was ready to go. With 37 cars scheduled to race I knew it would be busy, so promised myself that I would be ”˜on it’ from the get-go, and would overtake rather than hanging back for a gap. We had a delay whilst a few crashed GT cars were scooped up by recovery vehicles and it gave me time to think about the track, and my plan. The pit exit opened and we were out - I tried to do what I could to get past some slower cars, but frustratingly they didn’t yield even with blue flags and I felt the session was busy with traffic and it was hard to get a good lap in.

I pulled back into the pits at the end of the session very disappointed with my performance - I was hoping for a 1:51.x, but only managed a 1:52.5, so thought I was probably going to be outside the top ten. It was a lovely surprise to be called into the weighbridge, which is normally a good sign, and even better when Nicky sent me a text message with a screen grab showing that I was in third position for the race. Unexpected! I was in disbelief for the lunch break!

During the lunch break I was nervous - my starts are normally rubbish, and I really had to nail it - this was the best chance I had so far of a good result and I didn’t want to throw it away. Over and over in my head were clutches, handbrakes and hill-starts.

The race came around, and I was sat on the grid, waiting for the lights. They came on, and went off and it was time. Amazingly, I got a great start, and actually had the chance to challenge for 2nd place into Paddock, but decided to not take the risk, and followed Will Davison round, whilst defending a little from the gaggle of cars behind. After we got out onto the GP loop through the woods, the pressure from behind had started to relax and I focused on looking forwards and putting in good lap times, beating my qualifying time on over half of the race laps. The race was long, hot and hard, but the lap times were consistent, and while I was dropping by a few tenths per lap from the two out front, I was also breaking away from those behind me. Matt Swaffer and Matt Wileman were the closest to me, and kept the pressure constant for most of the race, but held on and came home with a very excited scream of joy to my first podium in 3rd place. So much work had gone into getting this from myself, Nicky, and the guys at Gary Feakins Racing. My first podium. A trophy I will treasure forever!

The second race was going to be fun. My aim for 2015 was a podium, and having achieved that, I was now high in confidence, and planned to fight for every position. The race started, and I got an average start - I was overtaken by Matt Wileman into Paddock, but held my spot from everyone else. The race 20 minute race was then hectic - Matt and I battled for the whole race, swapping positions almost every lap, with some hard but mostly fair racing. We finished with Matt in 3rd and me taking 4th position, separated by just 0.161 seconds across the line. I was annoyed at not getting a double podium, but it was the best race I’ve had so far, my eyes were aching from being out on stalks for all of it.

To come away from a track I don’t love, with a 3rd and 4th feels amazing. The car was loose but fun, and the speed is coming together now. Gary, Rob, Hannah, Clyde, Rich and Grant at Gary Feakins Racing all did a great job helping me during the weekend, and the car was faultless. Their help and coaching has been invaluable over the last 12 months, and my progress is a real credit to them. Thanks to Ric and Mads for coming to watch - perhaps a good luck charm? Also want to thank the wonderful Nicky who puts up with my tantrums and moods when things aren’t going so well.



We’re out in 5 weeks time at Donington on the GP circuit and I wish it was tomorrow. I can’t wait!









Here's my race 1 video, please excuse the noise at the end ;)

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Race 2 video soon, having issues uploading..