Getting Closer
Last weekend I took part in my second Formula VW single seater race meeting.
Our expectations are still low, so myself and the team were not expecting any fireworks. The aim was to just pick up some points and avoid trouble.... unfortunately that wasn't to be.
The FVW brigade hadn't done any testing before this national event. Even though we were racing in my home town I had never done any fast laps around the Killarney race track.
We had three 15 minute sessions on Friday morning and then went straight into qualifying. On Saturday there is one warm-up and then two heats of racing. So all in all I wasn't going to have much time to get to know the track.
The practice sessions on Friday proved difficult to get into any type of groove. Drivers were spinning off or stopping on track which caused many red flags and compromised our track time severely. I reckon out of the 45mins we would have on track we only got 25 - 30 of them. During those 3 sessions I was between 8th and 5th quickest. Our pace was slow compared to the front runners but looking at the data we knew where I could improve on my driving.
Qualifying would be the first time we strapped on a new set of rubber, up to that point we were doing 1:14.7's and the top guys were lapping in the 1:12.5's. Our aim for the session was to be 6th and to find about 1 second on the new tyres. So out we went and within 2 laps another red flag popped out, this was starting to get incredibly frustrating. Luckily though the delay was not long and we all managed to get out to set some quick times. In the end we found 1.6 seconds with the new rubber and just missed 6th place by 0.3 of a second.
Overall we were happy with the lap times but a bit disappointed that we didn't nail 6th place. We had a debrief and discussed the areas which I could improve and also decided on a few setup changes. Saturday couldn't come a second too soon!!
The next day I woke up feeling fresh and super keen to take on the challenges of the day. In morning warm-up we had improved considerably, our times were quicker than what we did in Qualifying and we were 6th quickest. Our targets were being met and I had clearly improved my pace from the day before.
We left the car setup as it was and just prepared for heat 1. Unfortunately heat 1 didn't last very long for me though. The pole man, Micheal Stephens, spun going into turn 1 and started rolling back onto the racing line, I had chosen the inside line into the corner and was up to 5th... I saw Micheal rolling down on the line and tried to take avoiding action. It wasn't to be though as he kept rolling onto the line and I collected his gearbox with my right-front wheel. We were both out of the race. Charming.
Thankfully though I have a great team and by the second heat the car was 100% fixed and we were raring to go.
I made a tentative start taking into consideration what had happened earlier. I'd rather lose a place or two now and then make it up towards the end of the race. The decision proved correct, I had dropped to 8th but started making my way up the field. Our pace was really good at that point, I had started catching the guys in front of me. Slowly but surely I worked my way up the order and all of a sudden I found myself in 4th and catching 3rd and a rapid rate!
With 4 laps to go I was right under Cristiano Morgado's gearbox. I spent a lap behind him trying to see where I was faster then him. I realised that turn 2 was going to be the best place to overtake him, its a tight 2nd gear right hander. There are two lines into it, you can either go in deep and take a late apex or you can bomb into it and apex early. Cris was going deep and my natural line was early so I effectively had an open door.
I decided after being behind for one lap that the move was doable, I dived for the inside and held my line. Cris never saw me though and carried on turning to the apex. We touched which resulted in my front wing getting taken out. I never knew it was gone though and carried on racing, although I had some chronic understeer! After the incident my times dropped by 2 seconds and I slipped down the order to 5th.
At the end of the race we discovered that my best lap was the second quickest of the race, so we are clearly making progress.