dbRacing - Castle Combe Race Report 15th September 2002

Castle Combe Race Report, September 15th 2002

Practice

This took place just 15 minutes after the Porsche Open practice and so I had only enough time to put some fuel in the car and make a modest alteration to the suspension settings. Within half a lap of taking to the circuit again I could feel that this setting was much more like the settings that had proven so good recently and the lap times fell. There were few cars on the circuit close to me that I could use a judge my relative speed but after making a small mistake in one of the corners Patrick Pearce caught me and I decided to give chase and see what sort of improvement I could make. As we rounded camp corner the startline marshal was reaching for the chequered flag and so I just missed out on getting another lap in. I was timed at just under 1:20 seconds, still two seconds of pole but 3 seconds better than the Open practice. Definite signs of improvement, though my time was only good enough for 11th on the grid. A good start and rapid negotiation of Quarry on the first lap should give me the opportunity to get to some of the higher places........

Race

Being in a midfield position was not the best place to start the race with a long run up to the first corner meaning we would be braking from above 100 mph. I hoped that I would be able to make up some of the time lost from the standing start on the run up to Quarry. This was to be the case but not exactly in the way I had planned. Rod Carman had taken Pole with Tony Brown in second place. As he had done before Tony left the braking too late for the crest after Avon Rise and continued in a straight line across the grass. Colin Broster by his own admission simply followed Tony, and both took a shortcut across the corner. Tony then spun as he came back on the circuit and lost time. Colin though came back onto the circuit and promptly took out the cars of Steve Jaques and Ian White. This caused havoc as at one point there were three 911s in a row across the circuit with no way through. The next car through was Richard Lambert and I followed him through the gap. Steve was unable to continue but Ian White continued to drive his car. This was to have a material impact on the race. If you want to see the above action in pictures there is a video available on the Porsche Club Website here

By now I was up into 6th place with the lead cars not too far in front. More suspension mods had been made and the car was feeling quite good. I was looking forward to the chase but expected that the race would be red flagged. At the second time round Quarry the track was clear and so there was to be no red flag. Rob Williams was just behind me but I was so focussed on catching the cars in front that he was able to pass me under braking for Tower. Slightly annoyed with myself I put him under pressure through the following chicane and came out so quickly that the back end started to break away. Under braking for Camp I closed the gap significantly and was prepared to get the hammer down early and pass him on the run up to Quarry (we are doing around 75 mph round Camp Corner). This was not to be the case as Rob spun on the exit !

I had to make a quick choice, should I go to the right or left of him, and decide in which direction would he finish his spin. I decided the least risky choice would be to go to the left and off the circuit onto the grass and down the pitwall where Gill would get a very clear ( and very nervous) view of me !

Fortunately this was a successful tactic for avoiding damage but lousy for my race ambitions as 4 cars passed me while I was mowing the grass. As I rejoined the circuit the oil flags were out and I could see a very visible oil line round the whole circuit right on the racing line. Ian White had suffered a broken oil line and deposited the contents of his oil tank round the whole circuit. From this point forward the race was effectively over as it was impossible to use any of the normal racing lines. The exception wasd that that Rob Williams recovered and caught me on the last lap. I did just enough to keep him behind me and crossed the finish line in 10th place overall, 6th in class just 0.2 seconds ahead.