dbRacing - NSSCC Race Report Donington Park 10th May 2003

NSSCC Race Report Donington Park 10th May 2003

Practice

It was an unexpected pleasure to be able to take part in the second round of the NSSCC Championship because when the entry forms were first published the meeting was a two day meeting, just like the meeting at Silverstone with the Porsche Club. Fortunately when the timetables came out both races were set to be one day events, one each day and I could compete in both.

Having been testing at Silverstone the day before I was well dialled into the car when we took to the track, but still in search of suitable suspension settings. Nonetheless for the first two laps I was probably the quickest car on circuit but discovering that the understeer problems I had at Silverstone were just as present at Donington. After about 5 laps I came into the pits to make some damper adjustments after the back end broke away under braking at the end of Starkeys straight. Removal of the bonnet revealed coolant over the header tank, which was obviously also finding its way onto my rear wheels. I made the damper adjustment, reset the header tank pressure cap and decided to see if there was any improvement in the handling...... There wasn't, more coolant on the rear tyres at the old hairpin meant a slow return to the pits away from the racing line.

The question now was is this a head gasket failure or a header tank failure. Inspection of the header tank revealed some micro cracks which I decided (not wanting to believe it was the head gasket) was the cause of the coolant loss. Fortunately PH Sportscars are just 4 miles up the road from Donington Park and so after a quick trip there I returned with a header tank from a 944 S2 which I would try to adapt to my car, the design and shape being completely different to the 924 turbo. After the provision of some heater hose from George Tweddles truck and advice from Tom Ferguson the header tank was permanently fixed in place and the car refilled with water. A very neat job it was as well !

When the times came out I had qualified midfield in 14th place, had I put in a more normal Donington time I would have been in a top 6 position so there was potential to move forward if the car was handling better.

Race

The weather forecast for the day was dry in the morning with occasional showers from midday onwards. As luck would have it there was only one shower that day and it happened just as we were moving into the collecting area. Murphys law rules again......By the time we formed up on the grid the track was wet and our race had been advanced because the NSSCC A & E race was postponed after a red flag to allow them to change from slicks to wet tyres. No such opportunity for us treaded tyre competitors to change settings.

Everyone edged away cautiously as the lights changed and though Redgate was crowded we all came out the other side facing the right way. For the first couple of laps almost all the field progressed at the same rate, but as people became more confident, particularly the front wheel five cars began to pull away. With one mind on the meeting at Silverstone the next day I initially had a small battle with David Hoyle in his Renault Spyder, but struggling against severe understeer and other handling problems I eventually settled for the position I was in and relied upon other people falling off to make progress up the field. When the flag fell I was in 11th place overall, 5th in class.

The next job was to load the car up and return to Silverstone for the Porsche meeting the next day. Not happy with the handling of the car I had arranged for Gills sister Debbie Hesk to meet Darren Collier from Redline Racing at my house. He was travelling down to Silverstone the next morning and was willing to bring some of my alternate springs with him. Thanks to both of them for the express courier service, it saved me a 5 hour round trip.