Mallory Park 11th of March 2001

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Circuit guide

For an excellent Mallory guide from Ten Tenths Motorsport click here.

Race diary:

Well, I can honestly say that I've finally experienced first hand the highs and lows of motor racing! Things started well with Karl and I taking a comfortable if somewhat rainy trip up to Mallory on Saturday (see build diary for final preparation of the car). My new-secondhand Isuzu Trooper was great for pulling my Ark Royal type trailer with weave only setting in at about 70mph. As I said it was raining on the trip up and I was suffering from a stinking cold so didn't feel like kipping in a tent in the paddock, so we splashed out and stayed in a local hotel. A few beers and some hot food inside us and we hit the sack looking forward to race day...

...Which started at 7am when we arrived in the paddock at Mallory. The skies were overcast and as we approached the circuit a steady drizzle started to fall. We pulled in to find several Locosts already there as well as the usual collection of 750 cars. We parked up and unloaded the car from the trailer which had made the journey intact - which is more than can be said for one unfortunate competitor whose tie downs had snapped allowing his Locost to smack into the jockey wheel under braking and rearrange the front :( Anyway, finally met some familiar names from the Locost-racing email group and with some sound advice (cheers Graham) got ready for scrutieering which was due to start at 8:30. Well, the usual first race/novice inexperience kicked in and despite Steve Deeks advice (MSA 'Go Racing' video) I managed to get a bit out of sequence in my preparation. The car didn't want to start and the crap battery (see later) was running low so Karl and I decided to push the thing back across the paddock to the scrutineering bay - a lot further than it seemed! Besides, starting the cars up that early isn't such a good idea if you want to keep in the circuit's good books. Anyway, we joined the cue 3 cars back and stood in the drizzle (which showed no signs of abaiting) waiting for the scrutes to start. Then I realised that I hadn't got my racing overalls and helmet so back across the paddock I went to get them from the car. No problem there. That is until I realised that I needed to have signed-on before I could complete scrutineering - doh! So another jog across the paddock to collect my licence and then a run to the competitors sign-on office to check-in to find a queue of about 10 people! Realising that I was holding up the scrutineering queue I asked politely wether I could jump the queue as I was holding up the scrutes and in true Clubman spirit they let me in. Licence handed in and signed on I raced back to the scrutineering bay to find a very happy Karl?!?!? Apparently the car had sailed through without a single comment (others were not so lucky or should that be well-prepared?) - result! Being my first race my helmet needed an approval sticker - a quid from all good scrutineers ;) So, panic over we pushed (again) the car back to our pits and waited for my brother and Martin to arrive to help with the spanners. Needless to say they arrived just as we had parked up the car out of breath and knackered. Good job I've been going to the gym every other day!

Next up was the new drivers briefing. Circuit regulations require that all new drivers to a circuit attend a briefing (miss this and you risk a licence endorsement and fine) just to give you an idea of what the track involves, what to look out for, marshall's posts etc. Practice/qualifying for my session (session 1 of the 2 grids of Locosts) started at 9:30 so I went to the 9:00 briefing. Again, very friendly and helpful Clerks of the course held the briefing and it was back to the car to get changed and ready for practice.

Well, I returned to the car to find it running sweetly with no problems (after a jump start from Martin's Alfa). Obviously I've got no setup data but with the drizzle still falling we ran with our standard shock settings which are quite soft anyway, and dropped the tyre pressures to 20psi front 18psi rear for at least some grip in the wet. The tyres were brand new so they were still slick with release compound from the moulds - I was definitely going to take it easy for the first 3 laps. You MUST complete 3 laps of the circuit to qualify for the race, no matter how slow and falling off before that will not make you popular with the Clerk of the course. So a quick change into my race gear and it was time to get to the assembly area for qualifying. Suprisingly un-nervous I drove the car round to the assembly area and waited to go out. Oil pressure was fine, temperature about 90 - everything OK. Lots of well-wishing by my crew (a BIG thank you to all of you buddies!) and reminders to take it easy which had become my mantra in those last few minutes. Then, we were off! I've never even been to Mallory before let alone driven it so I planned to just trickle round for the required 3 laps taking note of the marshall's positions etc., then up the pace a little to settle in and try and get some grip into the tyres. Needless to say, this made for quite a few blue flags for me (other driver close behind/trying to overtake). I checked my mirrors often and tried to stay out of everyone's way. It seemed like a lot of cars went past me which was a bit disheartening but I was determined no to fall off the track and just concentrate on finishing the session. The car was great and my old bugbears of low oil pressure and excessive temperature had gone away. Oil pressure was rock steady at just over 2 bar and temperature was in fact a little low at about 56 degrees! The first lap or so gave a tiny moment of misfire which I put down to..err dunno but it cleared up and I carried on. The car was handling beautifully neutrally with the only issue being a braking imbalance on the nearside front which pulled the car to the left under braking (which I knew about as the caliper is a bit sticky). Fortunately the drizzle had stopped and so I tried upping my pace a bit to get some better times in. Gerrards (1st corner after the start straight) is indeed a looooong corner with a slight bump on the exit although I was going too slow to notice it. It's a popular place to fall off though (sometimes with disasterous results as Phillip O'Halloran's car No.18 experienced - bad luck Phillip hope it's fixed soon) so I just tickled round it trying to find the limits which proved not to be very far away! A quick blast down the back straight and you're into the Lake esses which are quite straightforard well, except for when you go in too hot and oversteer and then overcorrection results in you facing the outfield!! Not a true 'spin' but a small moment which gave me a good soaking in the process. Up to Shaw's hairpin where being smooth is far quicker than giving it a bootful with loads of oversteer - spectacular, but slow especially with some fuel down on the wet surface. Then it's down through the Devil's Elbow which is the one place you DO NOT want to get it wrong unless you like Armco and you blast past the line and start again.

Well, before I knew it the chequered flag was out and qualifying was over. I'd survived and the car had finally managed a complete session (always stopped early at the track days). Feeling fantastic I drove back to the pits to smiles all round from the crew. Once the self-congratulations were over we dropped the tyre pressures by the 5psi they'd gained and waited for the times. The second session went out to find a drier track (my excuse ;) and I waited and chatted whilst the times were collated. Dominic O'Donnel was next to me in the paddock and was also out in session one, so after a quick chinwag and comparison of notes we trotted off to get our qualification times. I didn't care where I was on the grid (he lied) but I'd done my three laps and I could race!

Well, actually I'd managed 12 laps and was lying 27th overall out of 35. Given my total lack of testing and the wet conditions I was pretty pleased with this result, determined to do well enough in the heat to make it to the final. In fact, if I could hold 27th place then I'd qualify!

Definitely one of the lows of racing is the waiting :( The heat wasn't until 2pm so that left loads of time to chat to other Locost racers and their crews aswell as an opportunity to have a good look round at the other cars ;) Mike Topp held a Locost formulae briefing at mid-day to bring us up to speed on the positioning of the championship. Needless to say, with 44 cars entered necessitating 2 grids at Mallory, board members of the 750MC were sitting up and listening! Long may it continue. A general driver's briefing took place at 1:15 and before I knew it, it was time to get started.

Well, confident in the car and again, strangely calm, I drove back to the assembly area. It took quite a while to get things started and I started to get concerned about the rising engine temperature. So much so that when it got to 110 degrees I shut it off. Due to the dodgy battery I had kept it running as it's alot harder to crank over when hot (there's some sort of logic there I assure you!?!?). During this time I remarked to Karl that the engine was 'fluffing' with mild misfire which I could feel more through the seat of my pants than anything else. Strange how you can feel these things. Anyway, what about that bloody expensive Pacet Towfan? Martin checked and it was running - odd. Anyway, no time to worry about that now, the pack was moving out onto the track for the formation lap.

As I pulled away the car started sputtering, not panicking I kept going hoping it would clear. And clear it did. The car went smoothly round Gerrards and onto the back straight... where it happened again along with a load of backfire - NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Again, I kept the revs up which cleared the misfire and hoped it would clear before the grid. I coasted down from Shaws through the Elbow onto the grid. Distracted by this new problem I ended up too far to the right and had to manouver a bit to get on my place. A million and one thoughts raced through my mind (fuel shortage? - nope, filled it up before I went out, points? - nope, replaced with Optronic ignition, carburration - possibly, had no time to rolling road so who knows?). With dread filling my mind, before I knew it the 1 minute board was out, then 30 seconds (I was praying at this point) then red, then green lights and we were off! I span the wheels - doh! to get away but the engine seemed fine, into second and I was making up places then...... misfire again - BIGTIME!! As the engine coughed and spluttered the rest of the grid streamed past me, there was no clearing it this time and as I didn't want to get stranded round Gerrards (NOT a good place to leave the car) I took discretion as the better part of valour and raised my hand to coast into the end of the pitlane as the engine coughed it's last :(

The marshalls pushed my back into the safety of the pits and I was gutted. Completely and utterly gutted. How could 12 great qualifying laps dissolve into a race that lasted a sum total of about 400 yards :( There's no words to describe how disappointed I felt and as my crew walked up the pits to meet me their faces mirrored mine. The car refused to start with the weedy battery so we gave up and pushed it back to the paddock. An inspection of the engine gave no clues as to the problem and we scratched our heads. It was only when the plugs came out that a problem started to appear. They were well white indicating that the engine was running very lean. This went some was to explaining why it got so how so quickly and the misfiring and backfiring were classic symptoms of an overly lean mixture. But why hadn't it happened earlier in the day?!? Well, it was a good deal cooler in the early morning and the saturated air (hence denser) marginalised the leanness of the mixture. The engine hadn't got too hot and once running at speed the rad kept the detonation temperature in order. The real pisser is that had I killed the engine earlier in the assembly area I probably could have completed the race. Still, it might have costed me a melted piston so you have to look on the bright side. Still, 1st race, no signature and a DNF instead did nothing to raise my spirits :(

Depressed but not despondent, we walked up to Shaws to watch the final. Darryl Beckwith put in an excellent performance to keep Adam Wilkinson and David Garthwaite at bay to take the win. I was made-up for Darryl who I know put in a lot of effort (not to mention testing ;) for Mallory. I can only wish him equal success at the other circuits - good on yer mate!

I'd paid the price of not testing and not rolling roading and it hurt! I'm now left with the decision wether or not to race next week at Donington. Well, I've managed to get a session on Tuesday so, confident that this will resolve the problem (as well as replacing the battery and freeing off the nearside caliper) I'm going for it. Besides, testing at Donington costs a bomb. Again, my approach is to get 3 laps in then go for it. Any problems that then appear we'll try to sort out before the race. I'm determined to get a signature on my licence so hopefully race 2 will be more successful. Wish me luck!