Zwartkops 28th July 2007
SuperHatch & SRA
Friday practice day turned out to be a nightmare, I’d fitted the long overdue replacement air filter on the SuperHatch Ford Laser, unfortunately it was slightly different to the existing filter cone, and unbeknown to me was too close to the ignition coil, went out for the first practice session and after only two laps the engine suddenly cut going through turn four but then came back to life half way up the hill, a smell of electrical burning made me immediately pull into the pits to investigate, on opening the bonnet nothing was obvious until I ‘wiggled’ the filter, the sparks showed me the problem !. Further investigation revealed a burnt wiring harness all the way from the coil through the engine bay and through the bulkhead into the car.
The rest of Friday was spent rewiring the ignition system, thanks very much to Ann, Gavin and Andre for rushing round to organise wires, and especially to Braam, without his help and advice I would probably not have managed to get it all sorted out. I got finished about 4:30, just in time to scrutineer and get 3 or 4 laps in, didn't get any practice in the Locost.
We arrived at Z nice and early on Saturday to be greeted with an icy strong wind, back to winter we thought, luckily the wind died down during the day and it was much more pleasant ater mid morning, the day was going to be hectic with the SuperHatch and SRA races being one after the other on the event, the necessary paperwork was sorted to allow me to leave post race early and arrive at pre-race late, the plans for Ann to organise the cars in the right places were made and things looked set. SuperHatch qualy was first and I was disappointed to only manage a 1:18.6, over a second off my best, n=however it was enough to make pole in class B, so that was one point in the bag !. Reverse grids based on the previous races put me on the second row of class B behind the two Opels of Claudette and Mel, as usual behind the Class A and Class N guys, I knew my main ‘challenge’ in class B came from Gregg in his ex-challenge Golf, and I was adamant to get a good start and not get bogged down in traffic, the lights went out and I was away, Mel had a bad start with lots of wheel spin so I managed to get my nose between the two Opels as we went into turn one with Claudette on the inside, I suppose I was a bit overeager trying to take the gap as when Mel came in to take the normal line through turn one her rear wheel hit my front wheel, which bumped me over and my front wheel made contact with Claudettes rear wheel, a bit of bouncing about but we all carried on fine, Claudette fell back and I got Mel as we went down the back straight, so I was in front of class B at the end of the first lap.
I was slower than normal, not sure why, and I could see Gregg catching me all the time in my mirrors, he was on my tail very quickly and we had a few laps were I managed to keep him behind me but the inevitable happened after getting slowed down passing one of the N class cars he got inside me on turn five and despite a few brave attempts I was unable to get back past him so I finished second in class B, early in the race Mike Andreka (Class A) had a big spin on turn four, kicking up huge clouds of dust from the inside of turn four, this was rather scary as you couldn’t see anything of the track ahead coming out of four, Gregg and Claudette were called to the COC apparently they both overtook Mel under the yellow flags, it was decided that as the yellow situation was particularly dangerous with the lack of visibility they were both penalised 30 secs and moved to the back of the grid for race 2, so I ended up taking first in class.
Race Two start, again reverse grid, went uneventful after the first race, and an awesome start from Claudette at the back saw her get in front of me so we came out of turn two with me in 6th in class B, some late braking at turn 5 got me two places up to 4th, the next lap I got on the inside of Mel for turn 4, so I was up to third, all the time watching Gregg in my mirrors who was following me all the way, some ‘defensive’ driving by Quentin forced me to go round the outside of turn two and pull alongside him for three, the laser is stronger than the Polo so by turn four I was into second right on the tail of Neil (The Racing Rev) in his Golf, Neil was driving very well and I followed him for the whole of lap three not getting any opportunity to make a move, lap four I managed to get inside him into turn two, he pulled a lovely ‘swap over’ move and we came out side by side with him on the inside of turn three, we went up the back straight, through turn four and all the way up the hill door to door, turn five was quite hairy as Neil had the inside line and he wasn’t backing off, big respect to Neil, anyhow having the better line I managed to get enough space to close the door through turn six and finally into first. In my mirrors I’d seen Greg had had some trouble getting past Quentin and was now battling behind Quentin and Neil, this made me feel better and I concentrated on chasing down Gregory (Class N ). Gregory had been having a good battle with Andrew (Class A), and when Andrew got flagged for smoking he pulled aside and let us through, this had slowed Gregory down for the back straight and I caught him quite quickly, I tried the inside of turn five but was unsuccessful, the inside of turn eight so us side by side down the pit straight and with the better line through turn one I was in front, chasing down Ishmael in the Class A Golf, the Zwartkops Golf is much stronger than the Laser and despite trying a couple of moves I could see I wasn’t going to get past easily, checking my mirror all the time I had pulled quite a gap on Greg who had got stuck behind Gregory in the Class N, I relaxed for the last couple of laps thinking it wasn’t worth wasting the race trying to pass a Class A car, so I crossed the line on Ishmaels bumper to take the win, 8 seconds ahead of Greg. Maximum points for SuperHatch should give me a good lead in class B and put me first in the overall Championship, after Fridays woes an excellent result.
The event schedules causing the panics of jumping out of the Laser and into the Locost for back to back sessions all day worked pretty well, Ann had the cars organised so there was no delays, the only one problem came with qualifying, we’d left the Locost parked ready for me to jump into, the handbrake on the Locost has always been prone to sticking, so I don’t use it, somebody had obviously seen the handbrake off and put it on for us, so when I jumped in and got strapped in to go the handbrake was locked, it must have been quite a funny sight for anyone to see, me in full race gear crawling round under the back of the Locost to try and free the handbrake, I eventually got it free but was quite wound up by the time I got to pre-race for the SRA qualifying, qualy didn’t go too good, got a lot of traffic and ended with a 1:16.2 and qualified with one car between me and Gavin ( 1:15.3).
Race one rolling start wasn’t good as the guy in between me and Gavin obviously didn't realise we should be two abreast, and he sat smack in the middle of the track behind Gavin, the race went OK, Brian (Sports 2000) was behind me, he's usually a good second or two a lap quicker than us so I left room on the first lap for him to go through, unfortunately he was much slower than usual so I spent the next 4 laps trying to get back past him, which I eventually did finishing some 2 seconds behind Gavin, 7th in class and 15th overall, although a best lap of 1:14.4 was quicker than Gavins best of 1:14.9.
The second race ended up being an awesome race, I was alongside Gavin for the start but he had the inside to turn one and I came out behind him, a couple of Sports 2000 got me on the back straight and got between us, they were just too quick on the straight and held me up in the corners, Gavin was starting to pull away from us and about 5 laps in he'd pulled almost the length of the back straight away from us, then one of the Cobras got stuck in the gravel at turn five and the safety car came out, I was lucky and saw the SC board at the top of the hill, I came in straight away for my compulsory pit stop, 3 minutes seems such a long time sat there watching the cars go round, but the Safety car stayed out for the whole session, I came out of the pits just in front of the safety car and managed to pull back a good half lap on the 'train' before the safety car came in, plus I then had a good 5 or 6 laps of clear track, I could see Gavin was about half a lap in front (on the track) and I was steadily gaining ground on him when we had another Safety car, as I went through one under yellows I saw the SC exiting pit lane and Grant Orbell came through much quicker and passed me, he immediately raised his hand in apology and waved me past, so I was first in line behind the safety car, knowing I was probably not leading the race I made sure I would be clearly visible in the safety cars mirrors, as I hoped as we exited turn three he waved me past, so again I'd been lucky and had lots of clear track (under yellows) to come round and catch the back of the train, the SC came in before I'd caught the train but I had made up over half a lap on them. I saw Gavin had pitted under the second safety car and a lap or so after the safety car came in he came out of the pits right in front of me, we then proceeded to have the most awesome battle for 15 laps, we swapped places dozens of times, had quite a few scary moments, particularly in turn one with me getting inside Gavin several times, there is virtually no difference between the two cars, the Locost having slightly better low down torque and the Westie having a better top end, I lost count of the number of times we entered turn five side by side, the spectators in the clubhouse must have really enjoyed the show. The whole 15 laps we were in the high 14's low 15's and real close stuff, got to have been the best advert there could have been for Locost Racing.
We eventually got the last lap signal from the start line, and I'd made my plan, it all went well with me getting through turn four right on Gavins tail, having done this before I knew I'd get a tow up the hill and could beat him on the brakes into 5, unfortunately Russel in the Backdraught Cobra caught us up on the hill, and as we'd been doing all the race, we both waved him to pass us inside at 5, he got past me and alongside Gavin and then made a real mess up of his braking and clutch going through the corner, this put us all completely off balance and he slotted in between me and Gavin for 6 and 7 which totally messed up my 'strategy', we crossed the line with me right on Gavins tail, the most awesome race I've ever had, and I was not at all disappointed to be behind Gavin, we’d both had a great race.
I knew my 'pit strategy' had been good and I'd had some luck with the safety cars, so I was eager to get the results, my pit stop had worked, I'd managed to pull a lap on Gavin sometime during the stops, so I finished one lap ahead of Gavin, second in class SR3, and 7th overall, Gavin finishing 5th in class, 10th overall, again fantastic results for the Rocams.
The day was finally topped off with the proverbial cherry when at prize giving I found out I'd taken first place in Overall Index of performance for the SRA race.
Another great days racing at Zwartkops, as always the event went of well, with a great atmosphere, just confirming what we all know that Zwartkops is without doubt the best venue in the country. The Rocams performed without a hitch and carried on their great reputation, I can’t wait till we have more Rocam Locosts out there, there’s going to be some awesome racing.
Come on guys get them cars finished !.