This is going to be a very quick post just to update the blog:
Was a good weekend, but didn’t fare too well in the results. Qualified 10th out of 14 and finished 9th in race 1. Race 2 was a bit different. I was literally driven off the track by narrowly avoiding a collision and then went very very wide at another corner later on the race. Finally, I almost ran out of fuel when the engine suffered fuel starvation on the penultimate lap.
As there were only 13 runners I figured it was better to finish last than to not finish at all! It’s the first time I’ve ever almost run out of fuel. I can only put it down to a combination of not having a working fuel guage (it’s abag tank so I have to use a dip stick to measure), a very long 2.9 mile circuit with much of the lap at full throttle, and a red flag incident causing an extra two laps to be put on.
And that was about it. I hope Brands Hatch will be a better result. And I’ll make sure there is enough go-go juice in the tank too!
Here is a clip of my near miss:
This weekend saw the opening round of the Caterham Graduates championship take place at Silverstone (National circuit). It was a fairly bright weekend, although a little bit on the windy and chilly side. I had never been around Silverstone before and had considered testing on the friday, but at about £250 for a full day – and no half day options – I just felt it was a bit too pricey!
So the only practice I would have was to be qualifying. It went fairly smoothly. Start off slow, learn the circuit, see what others are doing and then try to do it quicker! Unfortunately it wasn’t quite quick enough but better than I was expecting. I qualified 13th out of 18 for the first race, and 14th for the second race.
The racing itself was quite intense. I got a storming start and made up a few places before the first corner. It was pretty much nose to tail racing for the duration and I was able to make up quite a few places. At one point I had even got up into 4th place! Unfortunately I was unable to hold onto it and moved up and down the pack before finally finishing in 7th place. However this was upgraded to 6th because the race winner was disqualified for being underweight after losing two rear wings. I also came close to losing a wing after getting tapped by Andy. Fortunately I caught the car as it got thumped and just kept my foot down expecting to see the wing missing in my mirror but it was still there. It was a bit damaged but nothing that can’t be repaired with a bit of filler.
Race 2 was a similar affair, although I think I put a bit too much fuel in the car and didn’t feel quite as competitive. Normally, I try to finish a race with 2 – 3 litres left in the tank as you may need a bit extra if there is a restart for some reason. This time there was about 8 litres left. Not a huge difference but still an unneccessary 5kg of weight as I already have lead in the car to ensure I can withstand the loss of some bodywork. Although I do try hard to make sure that doesn’t happen!
It was still a great race though and I finished in 9th place. So a good result and a better start to the season than I was hoping for.
The next race will be at Snetterton, on the new SN300 circuit configuration. So that will be interesting. Hopefully I can continue finishing in the top 10!
In the meantime you can watch the Silverston race 1 highlights.
