Condition of the GP track at Brands on 15th April

[Al Weyman]

Picking up on a comment by Zeferelly on the 'Rubbing' thread and not wishing to hijack that thread, does anyone who raced on Saturday have any comments on the poor condition of the GP section of the race circuit. We in the BARCse Saloons were first out and though dry many went off in practice and I understand request were made to clean the surface but were rejected on the premise of a hose pipe ban(???).

Apparently the muck on the track had been left by contractors vehicles and it was indeed very dusty which turned to mud in the afternoon. It was also mentioned that the organisers were not happy with the situation and had lodged a complaint but I do not know if there is any substance to this story.

I think as a racer paying a fair sum of money to compete on the track we should be entitailed to at least experience it in reasonable conditon as apparently even very experienced drives fell foul of the conditions and came off when they would normally (one assumes) be well within their boundaries.

Hose pipe ban or not when something becomes possibly dangerous surely that would not be enforced, if someone had a nasty one because of the conditions I wonder what the legal ramifications would have been.

[graham bahr]

as a committee member of Barc se i'd rather not comment on the track condition, except to say that with the possible exception of rod everyones quailifying suffered and the final grid was somewhat upside down as a result. and that it was infact a big result that race 1 turned out as good as it did.

[Al Weyman]

I can't disagree with that but I wonder what the guy in the (£1m?) Lola T70 would have made of it if he had got it past the noise meter (ouch). Don't get me wrong, I think it is up to people to drive to the conditions but it obviously caught some out.

[chezza]

I have no idea what the circuit was like as I didn't make it out to the loop. Drivers are supposed to make what they can of the conditions but you guys shouldn't have to deal with mud and stuff on the circuit.

[archaic gold]

No mud; just dust!

[Eric Falce]

On the third lap of practice the car went straight on at Stirling,punctured o/s/f tyre,on inspection there was a hole in the centre of the tread, no comment!

[andypipe]

I managed a total of 1.5 laps, so cant really comment

[mig]

As a driver you expect to race in all conditions snow,sleet and rain but as Brands is one of our premier circuits it would of been nice for it to have been cleaned.The paddock was being swept on Friday it is a shame they could not clean the GP loop as well.

[Rod Birley]

The Brscc have taken this up.

[Snapper Baz]

Watching the cars through Westfield and Dingle Dell-the constant spray behind all the cars in the afternoon was a plume of brown muck-yuk!

[Al Weyman]

Hey Snapper what happened to photos of my car I see everyone elses but me, was it too quick to catch on camera :-).

[archaic gold]

I still say the track was only dusty at Stirlings, but I also would say that at least 20 cars over the course of the day went through the gravel trap at Sheene Curve exit scattering gravel all around Stirlings bend.
My Marshals plus myself were continually sweeping the tarmac between sessions. I thought Competitors were supposed to stay on the 'black-stuff'?.

[Al Weyman]

No you are incorrect IMHO, it was very dusty and dirty on the lefthander entering the hill up to the main straight.

[archaic gold]

Sorry, not with you! The bend before the Main Straight is part of the Clearways complex and a right-hander - perhaps this is why drivers kept going off the Circuit all over!!

[Paceracing]

The dust started at Westfield bend, through Dingle Dell and Strirlings' (where it was at it worst) and went all the way to the bridge at the end of the GP loop where you re-join the indy circuit.

Infact, under the bridge on the right hand side was still a large wet pool of mud extending roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the way across the track making overtaking particularly dodgy at that point.

It was far from ideal, and although the onus is on the driver to drive within their ability, there were an awfully high number of minor off's at that part of the circuit throughout the day, (Graham Richardson damaged the engine on his Nova when he fired it off at Dingle Dell and the gravel from the gravel trap jammed in his cam pulley and snapped the cam belt and broke a cam follower).

Brands isn't exactly cheap and knowing that Mr Palmer likes to present a tidy circuit, I bet he would have gone banannas if he knew how bad it was.

Jason.

[Al Weyman]

Cause its not a right hander, its a left hander when the GP loop is used, Surtees its called, just checked.

We cross posted Jason, I agree 100% with what you just said.

[R59]

Originally Posted by archaic gold

I still say the track was only dusty at Stirlings, but I also would say that at least 20 cars over the course of the day went through the gravel trap at Sheene Curve exit scattering gravel all around Stirlings bend.
My Marshals plus myself were continually sweeping the tarmac between sessions. I thought Competitors were supposed to stay on the 'black-stuff'?.

When I came round on my first lap of qualifying, where we were the first qualifying session of the day, I thought that I'd taken a wrong turn, and ended up in a new housing estate that's just about to be built.

As for staying on the black-stuff - the comments levied earlier in this thread all show that the black stuff was indeed brown, making the demarcation between "our bit" and "your bit" very difficult indeed, especially if you're on sticky slicks that pick up the dirt and end up with deminished grip - dangerous levels of dirt I'd say, especially when you have more than the average amount of hamsters running around under the bonnet.

I hope that JP addresses this situation, as if it were BSB they would not run on it, until it'd been cleaned properly.

He wouldn't race on it, why should we?

I'm sure Mr Cross felt right at home....

Rob.

[Snapper Baz]

hang on Al' and all...have had to do some urgent aviation writing and stuff for a mag deadline...more Brands pics to be added over the next day or two if all goes to plan!

[Stephen Green]

Have you guys thought of writing to JP about this yourselves? He takes these things very seriously and may not have been aware of the problem?

[graeme]

Beat me to it - drop JP an email - he's very responsive to this kind of stuff

[Al Weyman]

I got the impression some may have already done that Stephen but can't confirm it, there was some expensive stuff out in the Sebring so no doubt they were not too impressed either.

[Spectator]

Originally Posted by Paceracing

Infact, under the bridge on the right hand side was still a large wet pool of mud extending roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the way across the track making overtaking particularly dodgy at that point.
Jason.

I was standing just after the bridge during practice and one of the sport 2000 cars had a big off there doing a lot of damage which looked expensive. As you say the track there was wet and muddy and did resemble a building site despite the best efforts of the marshalls.
One of the camero's ( 69 or 65 I think) in the top hat salute broadsided across the gravel trap and parked parallel to the arnco on the first bend going onto the GP loop on his first practice lap. He did his qualifying laps behind the pace car before racing started.
Earlier poster mentioned a hose pipe ban. Thought that only applied to domestic users so why was the track not cleaned up properly?

[zefarelly]

the Camaro @ Surtees suffered from a jammed throttle, a lucky escape with 600 shetlands under your boot.

it was the GP section that was woeful, and it wasn't dust, it was dry clay/mud that turned to chocolate milkshake, I spoent 2 hours just washing my car on Sunday, to see experianced racers crash out on green flag laps isn't normal regardless of the weather conditions. the buzzword in the paddock was rallycross

I believe Top Hat passed comment officially, and the BRSCC have also done so

[archaic gold]

I must correct another post, in that the Sports 2000 that went off big time under the Bridge towards Clearways managed it because the Steering Wheel came off in the driver's hands!!

[archaic gold]

In reply to 'Al', yes the turn at Surtees into the GP loop is a left-hander! In your statement, you said the turn onto the Main Straight; that is called the Brabham Straight, and I was correct in saying it would be a right-hander coming OFF the GP loop.