dbRacing - Rockingham race Report 14th October 2001

Race Report - 14th October 2001

The Circuit

This was anticipated to be an enjoyable weekend particularly because for the first time in a number of years I would have to learn a new circuit. The circuit is built on recovered land to the north side of Corby, Northamptonshire, and as we drove up the entrance road I was immediately impressed by the scale of the place. Having been to Indianapolis just 3 weeks ago for the F1 US Grand Prix I felt strangely at home once inside the inner paddock, with the superb grandstand seats, curved banking and vertical scoreboard for the first 30 positions.

There are at least 7 possible layouts for Rockingham, including the oval, and we were on the long historic circuit. This utilises about 1/3 of the full oval with a total length of 2.2 miles. After the start/finish straight there is a truly wonderful little chicane taken at about 90 mph, diverting you from the oval before climbing back onto the track and diving down the track into the infield area. The infield itself is quite open, but the need to provide track distance within the confines of the oval means that there are a couple of pretty boring hairpins which interrupt the flow. The hairpins are boring because the 911's always seem to have superior traction and get away from me !. First impressions of this new facility are pretty favourable therefore.

Practice

Testing had been arranged for the Saturday morning, and the circuit was actually pretty easy to learn, though it was apparent that lap times would fall pretty quickly as we began to take advantage of the kerbs. At the end of the second session I heard the all too familiar sound of pinking from the engine as I drove down the main straight. A quick glance at the coolant gauge (very quick at 130 mph+) confirmed that the engine was very warm. A quick check in the paddock showed that the fans were not working. Further investigation showed that the relay and fan motors were fine, but that somehow both connectors to the motor carried 12V. I decided that with the third session due in about one hour the best approach was to make up a quick wiring loom and rewire the fans with new circuitry. This task completed I ventured out onto the track for the final test session with the aim of setting a good benchmark time. As the time started to drop on the third or fourth lap I felt the engine losing power. The engine temperature was a little warmer than it should be and then it happened. The word for this weekend was going to be kettle. The reason for this was the my car had turned itself into perhaps the most efficient piece of machinery yet invented for turning liquid water into steam. Certainly that was the view of David Rothwell and Graham Burke who were the cars following me and driving into the localised climate of fog with zero visibility I was creating. Now I had two problems..... firstly a failed head gasket and secondly how to qualify for the race with just two hours to go.

In the event, the second problem was by far the biggest obstacle to overcome. There was sufficient time to re-torque the head bolts and I lined up at the back of the collecting area. The session was 15 minutes long, and I waited 8 minutes before taking to the track. My intention was to get one timed lap before returning to the pits and dismantling the car. However, the head gasket problem was so severe that I was unable even to achieve one lap and returned to the paddock after passing the start finish line just once. This left me without a time, without qualifying and still with a broken car. On top of that the race was oversubscribed. As I set to work on the car at 5:00, planning to burn the midnight oil, I sought confirmation that I would be able to qualify "out of session" the next day and race. I thought I had received that confirmation from the championship co-ordinator, but events the next morning proved otherwise. The rest of Saturday evening was spent replacing the head gasket, and eating take-away chinese, leaving the circuit at 00:30 Sunday morning.

After qualifying out of session on Sunday morning, the next two hours were spent trying to get a grid sheet that had my name on it. I'll keep a long, and very very irritating story short and say that in the event I was at the back of the grid with a 10 second penalty, while one competitor was unable to start. (at least initially)

As we assembled in the collecting area I was looking forward to the race, with the opportunity of fighting through from the back to a good and thrilling finish.

Race

The 10 second penalty meant I watched the other 28 cars stream away and I counted the ten seconds down. Unfortunately, the communication to the starter had been less than perfect, and after about 19 seconds he waved us away. By the time 2/3rds of the lap were complete I had caught up to the rear of the main field, but an incident at the first hairpin between Colin Ingram and Barrie Maskell meant the race was red flagged. We formed the grid for a second time, without them but with John Haynes, who was now eligible to start, and a quick discussion with the marshalls confirmed that this time the 10 second penalty would be just that this time.

By the time the first lap had ended I had already overtaken 4 cars, and with lights a-blazing overtook another two cars on the entry to the first corner chicane. I had fought my way up to about 17th place after three laps and was about to start passing other class one cars when the engine started to lose power. A quick glance at the temperature gauge revealed that the temperature had already risen to 3/4. I did what I could to maintain pace without causing further problems, but it was no use. I decided the most important thing was to keep the car going to the end of the race to claim any finishing points that may be available. In the end I finished second last, with just one finishing point. This meant that I had dropped from 5th to 7th in the championship in this last race of the Porsche Classic Season.

I obviously had something more fundamental than lack of operating fans causing the overheating. The car is therefore on its way to Strasse to be fettled for the race next weekend at Croft.