Time Attack Silverstone

Forum for discussing motorsport events & participation
Post Reply
User avatar
gambler
Posts: 1245
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:51 pm
Location: Dumfries

Time Attack Silverstone

Post by gambler » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:33 pm

Struggling for time as its Brands this weekend, here is the wee report from Creep Book

Silverstone Report- Late! The dog ate it, honest. They say the best things come to those who wait. Unfortunately this does not include my race reports. My limited grip of english for engineers has improved not a single iota since my last disjointed rambling... Here I go anyway.
Silverstone National has never been my favourite circuit. Its just some long dull straights joined together with some pretty dull corners with the odd quick corner thrown in to stop you falling asleep at the wheel.It does have 2 toilets in every garage though, shame we were out in the bloody car park though as it was the trax show and the pits were used by the traders to sore shiny things and big speakers in. The event was set to be a tough one as Richard Marshall was looking to increase his winning streak and had bitched me on the speed traps all year and Simon Deaton in the Porsche cup car had put a lot of miles in racing at Silverstone, getting plenty of wins, what that car lacks in power, it makes up for in massive mechanical grip. The guys at RA had hoped to get some more aero on the car for Silverstone but were just too busy with customer work. That always has to be their priority, racing TA cars is all very fun but it does not pay the bills. It is a testement to their work that the place is always so busy with people bringing cars from all over the country to be worked on at the workshop and body shop.

Warm up - The plan was just to go pretty steady, get used to the circuit as I had not driven it since 2009 and I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast! Luckily, I had put in plenty of laps at the simulator at > iZone Driver Performance <. 3 quick laps and I had got the feel of the car and some data to be getting on with, so we parked up the car. After chatting to Philip Russell and Andy Napier, we made some changes to the set up to get the car handling the way that suits my driving style.

Practice - I headed out for a few laps to get a feel for the changes, quick trip back to the pits to adjust the suspension settings and the car was properly dialed in. It was turning in laser sharp with no understeer and very controllable on the throttle. I just felt that the grip was not quite there. A look at the data logs had shown that the super soft slicks had fallen off the cliff quicker than expected and were producing 20% less grip than they had at Cadwell. All we could do was swop them front to back and see if any more grip could be found. The car is pretty well balanced so had taken a lot of life out of them both. Oh well, you can only piss with the co** you have got,so we would make the most out of what we had.
Qualifying - It was now time to turn up the boost, take a big can of man up and put in some quick times. Turn 1 is copse, a very fast right hand corner. I braked as late as I could, only to find the brakes a bit cold. Missed the apex by... well, most of the cicuit and barrelled across the run off area,(like a hero ;)) collecting all the nice slippy marbles of rubber. Oh well, a quick lap was wasted so time for some experimentation. Could I take maggots flat before braking for the hairpin. I was soon to find the answer was no and managed a slide that Gigi Galli would be proud of. The thing about slicks compared to road tyres is that they grip like mad and then spectacularly let go, always exciting, especially at 150mph. I then remembered that I was not plaing Grand turismo or in the EDC so got my head down for some clean fast laps. Traffic was a bit of an issue but managed to qualify 2nd in class. A look at the data logs had shown that we were running a fair bit down on boost. 1.6 bar rather than the 2+ that we should have been running. It turns out this was a faulty wastegate and could not be replaced. Lap time was just on the minute but i was confident of a 59-58 given a clean run. Marshal was on a 57 and was going to take something special to beat

Final - We had decided to go for a strategy of 3 single flying laps with plenty of cool down time in between. This would mean I could get the most from the engine and tyres and hopefully avoid traffic. I had practiced this strategy at Izone and also at home on the computer and had the timing of the laps down to a tee, making sure all the available time was used. 1st flying lap and I met traffic on 3 corners but pushed on to log a banker lap. Similar time to qualifying so should be pretty safe. Another couple of laps to cool down and it was time to try again. Slower cars on hot laps at Copse and Luffield. Traffic is a pain but its the same for everyone and its your job as a TA driver to find space and manage traffic. Luffiled was a pain though as the drifters had covered the outside of the circuit in marbles. It was now time for the last flyer. I made sure that I had plenty of space and the end of the session is always quiet only to be met by a red flag, finishing the session 2 minutes early. I made my way through the profanasaurace on the way back to the pits, disappointed in myself for not getting a clean lap. Back to the pits to find out that we had gotten P2, a great result and sweaty man hugs were dispatched to everyone whether they wanted them or not!!!
Thanks again to Andy Napier and Richard Deas from RA Motorsport Developments for giving me the opportunity to drive their awesome car, it just gets better and better every event. The car never needed a spanner on it all day. Victoria Nicholson for looking after the coms and myself, toughest job of them all. Andy Forrest for the great job on mapping the car. Andy also deserves a special mention for returning to TA to take on the big boys and kicking some ass in his drag car.... Seems to do corners pretty well too. Phil and all the guys at RA for all the great work on the car, Graeme Jeram and Whiteline Flatout for making the car handle Lee Child and Vp Racing Fuels-uk for their great fuels Neil Riddifordit Izone for always finding time around my busy schedule Daren Bezant from ABW for the awesome job on the body and everyone who supports our wee team on the amazing journey we are having in time attack. I really appreciate your support.
Apologies for anyone that I have forgotten to thank and any lovers of the english language for my blatant abuse of it in my race reports.
Brands this weekend YEA BUDDY!


Image

Image

Image

Image
S1 Elise - Shed spec
330d - Dog carrying spec
640d - Grown up spec
Astravan Sportive SE - Supervan spec

User avatar
gambler
Posts: 1245
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:51 pm
Location: Dumfries

Re: Time Attack Silverstone

Post by gambler » Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:36 am

S1 Elise - Shed spec
330d - Dog carrying spec
640d - Grown up spec
Astravan Sportive SE - Supervan spec

Post Reply