dbRacing - Donington Park race Report October 18/19th 2003

Donington Park Race Report October 18th-19th 2003

Practice

Following the bitter disappointment at Oulton Park we had identified that the problem was caused by nothing more than failed fuel injectors. This was confirmed on the rolling road after we swapped the two worst injectors for two from Gills road car. We ran the car up and apart from sounding sweeter we knew it was better when the car started climbing out of the rollers ! Good news in a way but a little annoying as new injectors had been installed just two months ago. This gave me the opportunity to go for pre race testing at Donington on the Thursday.

I went out for the first session and the car felt very good. After just six laps though I was braking for Redgate when the car started sliding and I noticed a huge plume of smoke behind me. Was it the dreaded head gasket failure ?. Obeying the racing drivers homing instinct to return to the nest (pits) I tried to nurse the car back but the car was pretty much undrivable due to the contamination on one of the tyres so I pulled off to the infield at Craner Curves when I noticed the oil warning light come on. Waiting for the end of the 50 minute session to be recovered delayed any opportunity to see what had gone wrong, which was actually pretty obvious. One of the oil cooler lines had failed dumping the contents of the sump all over the right hand side of the car. For fans of Mission Impossible my next task, should I choose to accept it, was to drive round Derby searching for someone to replace the oil line and to find some replacement Mobil 1. Mission accomplished, and sporting a new greasy look hairstyle, I managed to get the car back together just in time for the last 30 minutes of the session.

The final round of the year was a big meeting with Formula Palmer Audi taking the top billing, along with the whole of Paddock 1. The programme was very relaxed for us with a 2 o'clock sign on, 4:30 practice and races on Sunday morning and mid afternoon. Practice was a straight forward affair with no dramas. One of the front suspension legs had been rebuilt and I could feel that the car was suffering from a turn in problem which compromised my time a little. I was running as high a seventh overall for much of the session but traffic interfered on my final lap just at the time when other people put a quick 'un in so I ended up qualifying 6th in class 14th on the grid ahead of Tom Segrue and Colin Ingram. This was a little further back than I had hoped for, but at least I was in a position to make good progress forward in the first race. The final task of the evening was to tweak some of the front suspension alignment to eliminate the turn in understeer for the morning.

Race 1

Sunday morning arrived and fortunately we were not the first cars on circuit. We lined up on the grid, Mark Rogers in front of me, Tom McHugh to the right and Tom Segrue behind. Was I to be the meat in a Tom Sandwich ? The lights changed and I made a decent start, though not as good as Tom McHugh. Rogers seemed to miss a gearchange on the run down to Redgate and from my position in the middle of the track I had McHugh on the inside and Segrue passing me on the edge of the circuit on the outside. In front there was a plume of tyre smoke from Craig Rapp's car, he moved to the outside of the circuit taking White with him, Brown rotated in front of them as Rob Williams disappeared off into the gravel. I virtually came to a stop behind Segrue and we were only able to continue after Coombs and Ingram had gone past into the distance. Richard Harrison sneaked through too, in his new 3.2 Carrera, but I managed to get past him on the outside run down through Hollywood towards Craner Curves.

I followed Tom Segrue, and for the first lap or so I seemed to have the quicker car and I almost got past him on the exit of Copse, but then he started to pull away and made a good move to pass Mark Rogers. A couple of laps later Segrue had caught Coombs and passed him at Copse after an initial attempt at McLeans. The run down to the chicane was interesting and Coombs came out in front, but this was only to last until Redgate when Tom outbraked Coombs and made it stick. This left me with the task of getting past Rogers. I soon found that I was having a pickup problem as at key places like the exit of the chicane and Coppice. His 911 just had tons more grunt and pulled away from me, just like the S2s were. By now Richard Harrison who had dropped back had regained pace and was now behind me. I was not only trying to pass the cars in front but compromising my lines to defend from Richard. On lap 4 I allowed the recovering Rob Williams an easy pass at Redgate judging that would be the least costly choice for me against him in what was clearly a faster car on the day. Later that same lap we all passed Colin Ingram who had given it a bit too much welly on the exit of Coppice and had spun to the infield.

For a few races now I had suffered from a baulking gearbox. Parts had been ordered for a rebuild but were still on backorder from Germany and the problem was getting worse with third gear proving very noisy to engage. I hoped that it wasn't going to seriously affect the race. By the halfway point of the race Rogers had passed Coombs and I was now right on his tail, with Harrison snapping at my heels behind. On lap 8 I carried more speed on the exit of Coppice and almost pulled alongside under braking for the chicane. Coombs accelerated out of the bend and in what was going to become an all too familiar occurrence simply blasted down the finish straight towards Redgate building a 40 yard lead in the process. By the time we were back at McLeans I was back with him, but on the exit of Coppice he would use the torque of the S2 to simply drive away from me, and then repeat the injury on the run to Redgate. Meanwhile Richard Harrison was snapping at my heels, particularly under braking for Redgate.

Lap 11 saw Rogers pass Tom McHugh, who all three of us had been making steady inroads into the whole race. Coombs was next in line but not close enough to make a move and although I had closed up on both of them, the last two laps of the race saw my performance drop off so that was where we finished. Segrue had worked his way up to 3rd in class, I took 8th , with Richard Harrison snapping at my heels behind .......

Race 2

Based on the experience from race one I decided that the car was too rich and so decided to lean the mixture off to improve acceleration. Would this improve things, was my ear sensitive enough to choose the right adjustment to make to the mixture ?

With a 5 hour break between the races there was plenty of time to wander round the paddock, talking to other competitors and everyone was trying to work out who needed to do what to win the Championship. Whatever the maths were, everyone knew it was going to be very, very close.

At the start I had the S2s of Coombs and McHugh in front of me and the 911's of Ingram and Harrison behind. No exactly an appealing choice as this meant that I was going to get swallowed up by the 911s' and if either of the S2s had a bad start I would probably get baulked.

One car that certainly didn't baulk me was Paul Coombs. He was moving forward before the red lights had gone out and jumped the start, though this was not spotted by any observers. McHugh meanwhile got a good start to stay in front of me but as expected we both lost out to Ingram and Harrison who went down the outside. Colin seemed to find a lack of grip there and went off into the gravel, taking a similar route to Rob Williams earlier in the day. Tom McHugh was in front and I closed up on him on the run down to the Old Hairpin. Getting the power down on the exit was now key and I pulled even closer on the run to Coppice. Wondering if Tom was aware of how close I was I kept a tight exit from McLeans to try and pass him going up the hill, but he had seen me and moved to the left to block. Richard Harrison had seen his move and similarly moved over to block which meant they were both on the inside, and I could take the true racing line.

The car surged out of Coppice, and Tony Brown had spun off to the outside compromising everyone's lines, but as we went under the Dunlop Bridge I passed McHugh and was also gaining on Harrison. I drew at least level with Harrison, but as he left his braking late and I wasn't clearly in front I gave him the room and he shot past me on the inside while I took the slower outside line. Nevertheless I had taken one place back. Pete Morris in the ex Mike Salmon 968 now came into play. I initially thought it was Tony Brown, and not wanting to interfere with the overall championship I pulled to the left and let Pete Morris through. I then surprised myself by keeping with the pace of both of these class 1 cars for the next half a lap, by which time Pete was angling to get past Richard. Yet again on the exit of Coppice Pete Morris made his move and I followed through, drawing level with Richard in the braking area. This time I was on the inside and so should be able to keep the place, at least that was my expectation. I really thought Richard might have learnt something from his Silverstone accident earlier in the season when 3 cars were totalled, but it appeared not as he turned in, either blind to my presence or simply not caring. My reactions were quick enough to avoid contact, but I took the first part of the chicane with the full car on the grass on the wrong side of the marker posts. You can see a short video clip of this too. Naturally I did not maintain the position ! For the next few laps I kept closing in on Richard, who was also chasing Coombs, but didn't really get close enough to make an attempt to get past and now Tom McHugh was pressuring me from behind so I was also having to take defensive lines.

Richard looked to have the pace to pass Coombs, but he never made a serious attempt so any possibility I had to pick up the pieces from their battle never appeared. The remainder of the race was largely processional, but close, with the gap between Harrison and myself see-sawing between 5 and 25 yards. McHugh had a couple of goes at passing me into the braking area for the old Hairpin after Craner Curves, each attempt was repelled, though the closer attention on the last 3 laps meant that Harrison got away a little more at the finish.

So, the last Porsche race of the season in many ways had ended well. The finishing position of 7th in class was quite poor, but for the first time since May the car had performed well, and the straight line speed was good enough for me to battle with the S2s for a whole race. Speaking after the race Tom McHugh commented that he just couldn't have found a way past me, that I didn't make a single mistake in the race and if he had gone faster at any point in an attempt to pass me, it would probably have resulted in him going off the circuit too. Thanks Tom, that was a really nice comment to have made. I left the circuit a remarkably happy bunny.

Now what about those 911's..... that's for next year !

Championship Results

You are probably wondering just what happened with the championship results. Well, David Rothwell did exactly what he needed to by winning class 2 in both races which gave him the overall championship. Back to back wins, he's surely moving to class 1 next season.

Meanwhile in this years class 1 honours were going to be shared between Colin Broster and Tony Brown. Brown had the advantage and needed to finish 5th or better to take the top spot. His spin at Coppice on the first lap didn't help, and with bonus points on offer for the final round there were a few drivers competing in new cars in class 1 for the first time. This didn't help Tony, and with no apparent adherence to team orders in the Harvey Racing camp, Tony finished 6th. That left Tony and Colin equal on points, so scores were then counted back, number of wins - equal, number of seconds, equal, this was close, but finally resolved when looking at the number of third place finishes. Colin had the edge and took the class 1 title. No Championship is won or lost at a single round so Tony should perhaps not feel so aggrieved by the events and results at Donington, but I'm sure he finds it hard to believe how such a commanding lead was lost in the latter part of the season. Well done to Colin though, and I think both of them demonstrated good, hard, but most importantly clean and fair racing throughout the whole season.

Full details of the final standings can be found on the PCGB website.