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9th July - Rockingham Race 1: |
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I'd never been to "The Rock" before
and would have no time to practice before hand, so it was with quite a lot
of apprehension and expectation when we pulled into the enormous complex.
What a place, as you come through the tunnel into the inner pit area the
oval circuit comes into full view, surrounded by vast Grandstands
capable of seating over 50,000 spectators. It's a spectacular venue and
quite daunting when you've never been there before. Also, it's one of the
only (if not the only) UK circuit where you race anti-clockwise! Tim and I
decided it would be a good idea to walk the circuit to help us at least
get our bearings and a rough idea of breaking and turn in points. Given
the nature of the oval circuit, three were no "landmarks" as such to guide
you for breaking points when turning into the infield section. Also, given
the different levels of the infield, there are a number of totally blind
corners. It was certainly going to be fun if a little challenging but with
a qualifying session and 2 races there would be time to improve along the
way.
Having got through scrutineering with out problem, the car suddenly developed an electrical problem which kept cutting the engine off. Fortunately Terry was able to track this down to a loose wire which he fixed and moments later we were lining up to qualify. I took the first couple of laps very slowly in order to try and memorize the circuit and get a little heat into the tyres and then I began to build the speed up. It seemed that the idea's Tim and I had when walking the circuit were going to be nothing like reality, in terms of picking lines and how far up the banking we could hold the car around the final part of the oval. On the fastest part of the oval, my bonnet was lifting by a good six-eight inches and I was concerned that I was in danger of it flying off! The Infield section is really quite technical and it's going to take a little time to get the hang of it. Still, my fastest lap time, of 1min 15.7secs was not too bad but was slower was Marc, who had tested here on the Friday and Graham was 3/10ths of a second quicker too. So the aim for race one was clearly to get ahead of these two, and to get my times down to the 1min 13secs area.
Race 1: For the first lap of the race, we have to continue through the oval bend one and on to the next corner for the hairpin entry to the Infield. After that lap, we will be turning into the chicane as normal. This should give me a chance to get a quick getaway and to get ahead of Marc and Graham. Lights out, and away, bit of a slide, but not too much, and a good start. So too did Marc and Graham and with five of us bunched up for the hairpin, there was no way past at this point and no room to get by through the Infield. I had noticed some possible overtaking spots and clocked them for lap two. Sure enough, on the exit to the final chicane and back out onto the oval, I was able to slip through on the inside of Graham and tuck in behind Marc on the apex. Now I had to find a way past Marc, and it seemed a similar move would be my best bet. It took another three laps to make the gap and find enough extra speed to go past him. By now, we were catching the back markers and the traffic was stopping me from putting a gap between me and both Marc and Graham. On lap 8, Marc had a go to take his place back, diving in tight left on the first hairpin, too fast- he couldn't hold it requiring me to take evasive action as Marc spun off. The back markers cleared a little now and I was able to put in my fastest time of 1min 13.5secs and pulled out a five second lap from Graham over the next few laps, securing me third place. It was a good race and I felt quite pleased with my performance. My data logger, showed that my theoretical best lap time was 1min 11.5secs, which was encouraging and proved I could go faster still. My aim for race two therefore was to get into the 1min 12secs area. Click to view Rockingham Race Two
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