Oulton Park Hartech Boxster result.
Discussion
For those interested we had another great weekend for team Hartech, our 2 Boxster S cars and our drivers Ben Demetrio and Marcus Carniel too - a 3rd, 5th and 7th is excellent - both drivers with fastest laps less than a second behind the winners and only 4 * Club sport cars faster.
But we had a real problem because this is our first time at Oulton with these cars and in the wet (and they have only had one race before anyway) and it was the first race for Marcus (previously injured and still nursing a damaged shoulder) - very tough in such slippy conditions.
All the weather forecasts (up to and including Saturday morning) were for dry weather - so when it was wet for qualifying we were caught out a bit but bought wet tyres only to realise we had no opportunity to scrub off the release agent (that makes them super slippery) for the very short qualifying session and with no experience of the cars in the wet at Oulton – decided instead it was safer to run with the dry tyres that they had used testing in the wet at Silverstone over Easter – in case a slip up scrubbing the cars in resulted in damage (unlike most who qualified ahead of us who got two great late qualifying laps in) and this put us a bit further back on the grid than you need to compete at circuits like Oulton Park - just one of those things where driver safety had to come first and that a second season will have records for but not when you are driving a new car at a new circuit with no previous references to fall back on!.
We also had no idea what our fuel consumption would be in the wet at Oulton Park (as it was dry in practice the previous day when we carefully worked it all out) so we had to run heavy (rather than risk being underweight) - but we will now know those figures next time out there.
With all our main rivals (except perhaps Pete Morris) having cars that have been raced for years and at all the circuits and different conditions – and Pete’s car clearly faster on the straights (a big help in the wet when you cannot accelerate much out of the corners) I am very well satisfied - well done everyone! All the cars that beat us (bar one 968) had more torquey bigger engines.
I had to feel for the EMC team after showing such promise with their new 996 car again and still not getting the result they deserve - hopefully their luck will change soon (before that model receives the weight increase I think it should have to equalise all the car’s performances).
Well done to our team of technicians too for getting the clutch out of one car and checked between races (checking a rattle that was a loose rivet and fixing it) – all 5 working together in harmony in difficult conditions and getting the car running OK for the last race.
Lots of work for us still to do before Donnington in 4 weeks time - to try and get some more out of the cars (within the rules of course) to try and find that extra second quicker we need.
Baz
But we had a real problem because this is our first time at Oulton with these cars and in the wet (and they have only had one race before anyway) and it was the first race for Marcus (previously injured and still nursing a damaged shoulder) - very tough in such slippy conditions.
All the weather forecasts (up to and including Saturday morning) were for dry weather - so when it was wet for qualifying we were caught out a bit but bought wet tyres only to realise we had no opportunity to scrub off the release agent (that makes them super slippery) for the very short qualifying session and with no experience of the cars in the wet at Oulton – decided instead it was safer to run with the dry tyres that they had used testing in the wet at Silverstone over Easter – in case a slip up scrubbing the cars in resulted in damage (unlike most who qualified ahead of us who got two great late qualifying laps in) and this put us a bit further back on the grid than you need to compete at circuits like Oulton Park - just one of those things where driver safety had to come first and that a second season will have records for but not when you are driving a new car at a new circuit with no previous references to fall back on!.
We also had no idea what our fuel consumption would be in the wet at Oulton Park (as it was dry in practice the previous day when we carefully worked it all out) so we had to run heavy (rather than risk being underweight) - but we will now know those figures next time out there.
With all our main rivals (except perhaps Pete Morris) having cars that have been raced for years and at all the circuits and different conditions – and Pete’s car clearly faster on the straights (a big help in the wet when you cannot accelerate much out of the corners) I am very well satisfied - well done everyone! All the cars that beat us (bar one 968) had more torquey bigger engines.
I had to feel for the EMC team after showing such promise with their new 996 car again and still not getting the result they deserve - hopefully their luck will change soon (before that model receives the weight increase I think it should have to equalise all the car’s performances).
Well done to our team of technicians too for getting the clutch out of one car and checked between races (checking a rattle that was a loose rivet and fixing it) – all 5 working together in harmony in difficult conditions and getting the car running OK for the last race.
Lots of work for us still to do before Donnington in 4 weeks time - to try and get some more out of the cars (within the rules of course) to try and find that extra second quicker we need.
Baz
Full results from the TSL Timing website (PDF file) http://www.tsl-timing.com/brscc/2012/122232pcb.pdf
I'm relaxing today courtesy of Speckled Hen, Ruddles and red wine and can't actually walk straight anymore, so perhaps shouldn't write too much now, but hey-ho, I'm reclined on the sofa so I should be ok with a blackberry keyboard (and a nearby glass of red).
I'd just like to say how much I enjoyed driving the car and working with the team this weekend. Typically I wasn't too chuffed with my performance (but I've won races outright before and felt the same, if I've been driving defensively to win), but the results were actually in line with an accelerated version of what I thought our aims should be from the beginning (with a new car, of an un-tested type in the championship) - namely: top 10, top 5, podium. Ben got top 5 and a win at Brands, then a podium at Oulton, where I got 7th and 5th - decent enough given the conditions and both the cars were in one piece at the end of the meeting - sadly there's a few others for whom this was not the case. We know the areas where my car can be improved and they should be straightforward to rectify so it should be onwards and upwards from here.
The team did a great job, their enthusiasm backed with skill and experience of the cars, and them gaining knowledge from the specific experience of racing as we go (rather than letting anything get to them), made it a pleasure to work with them all too.
My thanks to them all, and Baz too of course. Here's to next time out!
I'd just like to say how much I enjoyed driving the car and working with the team this weekend. Typically I wasn't too chuffed with my performance (but I've won races outright before and felt the same, if I've been driving defensively to win), but the results were actually in line with an accelerated version of what I thought our aims should be from the beginning (with a new car, of an un-tested type in the championship) - namely: top 10, top 5, podium. Ben got top 5 and a win at Brands, then a podium at Oulton, where I got 7th and 5th - decent enough given the conditions and both the cars were in one piece at the end of the meeting - sadly there's a few others for whom this was not the case. We know the areas where my car can be improved and they should be straightforward to rectify so it should be onwards and upwards from here.
The team did a great job, their enthusiasm backed with skill and experience of the cars, and them gaining knowledge from the specific experience of racing as we go (rather than letting anything get to them), made it a pleasure to work with them all too.
My thanks to them all, and Baz too of course. Here's to next time out!
THanks guys for a fun day and some great racing it was really interesting to see how a pit crew works especially when under pressure with a clutch problem ,I can't believe how quick you dealt with it and got it back on the track with time to spare
Keep up the good work I'm sure the silver ware is on it's way good look with the next race
Keep up the good work I'm sure the silver ware is on it's way good look with the next race
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