dbRacing - NSSCC Race Report 3rd November 2001

NSSCC Race Report - November 3rd 2001

Practice

In what is becoming a regular event, the NSSCC headed south to Silverstone for the BRDC Winter Warmer event. This coincided with the 2 driver Bill Taylor Memorial Race, organised by the Porsche Club in the name of one of its stalwart competitors who died of cancer in 1991. A memorial fund in his name was set up and this annual event raises about £20,000. The weather reminded me of Sweden, with clear blue skies and crisp air.

I had arranged with newcomer to the NSSCC series Wayne Jackson that we should take advantage of both events being together and so we arranged for a late entry into the Bill Taylor race using his Porsche 968. The race itself is run on a handicap basis, with the organisers attempting to equalise the performance of cars ranging from standard 924s to the latest GT3. The seat in Waynes car is not moveable, and I am a little taller than him so my driving position was very different to the one I would have chosen. He went out first, and as you would expect on his first visit to the circuit his initial lap times were slow but he quickly got down to a respectable 1.13. After a 5 minute changeover I took to the circuit to see what time I could get. As I drove down the pit lane I changed into second gear.... and realised I had never driven this car except round the garage or paddock. I soon found that having 6 gears was not a problem, but that sometimes less is more as I was continually confused about the actual gear I was in because the 968 has a standard layout, whilst the Carrera GT has a dogleg first. The car handled fine, though I found that the low down torque seemed to give a tendency for the back end to step out. I completed the practice recording a time of 1:11, which I was reasonably happy with.

Twenty minutes later it was time for the NSSCC practice session. I left the collection area almost at the back was immediately on the pace and passed about 8 cars before I completed Luffield ! An enthusiastic entry to Copse led to a tail happy 924GT on the exit and the car powerslided beautifully on cold tyres. My second lap was a 1:12 and the time just kept dropping until at the end of the session I had recorded a mid 1:09s time, quicker than I had ever been round Silverstone before.

Race 1 - Bill Taylor

We received the handicap time, and found out our target time was to be 1:08. If we were going to have a chance of winning the handicap race we would have to drive like the wind. I suspect this was partly because the organisers thought we were running on slicks, and not the treaded tyres we were. Wayne decided to drive the first stint, and we arranged to do a driver change on the half hour at the mid point of the race. His times continued to improve and he was regularly in the 1:12/11s and on one lap managed a mid 1:10, but another 968 which had qualified behind us , ( and had a target time of just 1:09 on slicks !) had overtaken and pulled out some distance. At the driver change I climbed into the car and set about trying to make up some places. The car seemed to be a little tail happy and the tyres were obviously hot. Though I did manage to overtake a few cars including a 964 my lap times did not improve from the morning session and the car felt hot, though the water temperature gauge was fine. I decided that the sensible thing was to start short shifting the car and try to maintain as much momentum through the corners as possible. At the end of an otherwise uneventful half hour I returned Waynes car undamaged and we checked his fuel levels for the NSSCC race. The final result was that the other 968 which shared the garage with us won the race.

Race 2- NSSCC

This race included the A and E cars so a grip position of 6th was a good place to start from. Away from the line I managed to get ahead of Simon Blankley in the braking zone towards Copse and pulled out a small lead on him. As his tyres warmed he began to gain ground on me. His Escort was making some time up on the National Straight, but then taking yards out of me through Luffield. For the next 5 laps there was to be a dash towards Copse. On the exit of Copse I had pulled out another 20 yards which he regained over the remainder of each lap. Speaking to Simon after the race I suggested that I was hoping that he would try to stay with me through Copse on one lap, and then end up in the gravel - he agreed that is what would have happened if he tried.

My lap times were not as good as in the morning, and the car did not seem to pulling well. Simon came past me on the 6th lap on pure straightline speed and then extended a 100 yard lead before the race ended. On the cooling down lap I looked at the boost gauge and saw that there just wasn't enough puffing going on. Ah well, the last race of the season ended in a class win, with another trophy for the cabinet and more ideas on how to make the car quicker.