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28 Oct 2019, 08:34 (Ref:3937284) | #26 | ||
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Qualy on Saturday morning was horrible - rivers running across the course down the Craners, and particularly at the Old Hairpin where it was almost luck of the draw whether you got oversteer, understeer or just lost it altogether.....I was pushing to pass the quicker of the Dolomites and ended up going side by side round the Old Hairpin, got better traction going up to McCleans and passed him then hit the standing water as I entered Schwantz and disappeared across the grass before rejoining halfway to Coppice, way behind the Dolly again. I think very few didn't have some sort of moment......Qualified 27th out of an original 40 (although one or two had packed up when the conditions weren't improving).
Rain had eased a bit for the race, but still very tricky as you can see from the livestream (our race starts an hour into the coverage). I took over half way through and managed to keep it on the island, gradually improving my times until with a few laps to go I started catching a group of quicker cars that were bunched up trying to pass some relatively slow cars - a white 944, the Capri and the Dolomite. This let me catch up and I was able to dive down the inside of the Dolomite on the left-hander of the Esses, and was shaping up to catch the Capri when a Skyline flashed past me down the pit straight, then stood on the anchors as the Capri fell off into the kitty litter at Redgate - 2 places gained in a few hundred yards . I was then gaining about 2-3 seconds a lap on the Porsche, closed on him through the Esses and was hoping to pass down the pit straight when I spotted the chequer, so finished 23rd, about 1.5 seconds behind the Porsche......and very relieved to have survived..... Huge Kudos to the marshals who were performing live snatches at virtually every corner, in atrocious conditions...... |
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Richard Murtha: You don't stop racing because you are too old, you get old when you stop racing! But its looking increasingly likely that I've stopped.....have to go back to rallying ;) |
29 Oct 2019, 06:48 (Ref:3937429) | #27 | ||
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Nice report, Richard. I hope our favorite surfer Andy is dry now…
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Celui qui est parti de rien pour arriver nulle part,n'a de merci a dire a personne.Pour ceux qui vont chercher midi a quatorze heures, la minute de Vérité risque de se faire attendre longtemps. |
29 Oct 2019, 07:53 (Ref:3937439) | #28 | |||
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Quote:
I enjoyed my race. Started 37 out of 40 but finished 27 ( there were a few non finishers and we are the slowest class cars!!!!). Had a good battle with a couple of cars and finished having stayed on the black stuff with all 4 wheels pointing in the same direction that they started in. Most strangely, i was awarded a trophy by the Donington Park Race Association Club - the “Spirit of the club award”, i think. In this instance Awarded for services to promoting the club and club motorsport, i think. I dont think there is anytruth in the rumour that it was awarded for the driver who lives closest. Previous winners have included, Kelvin Burt, Dario Franchitti, Jamie Spence, Jamie Campbell-Walter, Ian Flux, Mike Jordan etc. Gulp. Must admit to having got a bit of dust in my eye when they announced it! Its a proper silver trophy, too. Needs polishing!!! I am slightly embarrassed, my wife is very proud (so am i, but dont tell anyone). Dont think i have ever won anything before, except the occasion when none of my class mates finished! Last edited by andy97; 29 Oct 2019 at 07:59. |
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29 Oct 2019, 10:30 (Ref:3937452) | #29 | ||
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Well done Andy and obviously a most deserved extra award. Just out of my curiosity, when me meet next time can I shake your hand of kiss your shoes? Can I call you Andy or Your Altitude may be… No worry for the trophy, I'll bring the polish for you but only if you supply the labour! Basically we could use the boiling water from your tea…*Drink on the house!
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Celui qui est parti de rien pour arriver nulle part,n'a de merci a dire a personne.Pour ceux qui vont chercher midi a quatorze heures, la minute de Vérité risque de se faire attendre longtemps. |
29 Oct 2019, 11:44 (Ref:3937463) | #30 | ||
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Actually, we had a great (ish) day on the Saturday, despite the rain! Without wishing to blow my own trumpet too much, I am a bit of a whizz in the wet and always perform way above where I'd normally be in the dry.
And so it proved during the morning qualy session, where I finished P5 and P1 in my class by over three seconds. I was happy with that, and duly started the very wet race from P5, looking forward to a good result and hopefully a class win. What's that they say about pride coming before a fall? On the very first lap, exiting a very slick Coppice, I spun onto the infield grass (more accurately described as a swamp by this stage) and just about managed to keep up enough momentum to crawl very slowly back to the track in what seemed like a lifetime as I watched the entire field go by, and therefore rejoined in (I think) 35th and last place! Talk about shooting myself in the foot! However, as stated, I am handy in the wet, so I got my head down, vowed to make no more silly mistakes and see what could be recovered. By the end of lap two, I had passed nine cars! By lap three, about another four or five, and by the time I came in (early - about 10 minutes into the race) for my mandatory pit-stop, I was already into the top half of the field. After a good pit-stop (thanks Richard!), I continued my recovery drive, and by around two-thirds distance I was into the top ten and only one car in my class (from six or seven I think) remained in front of me. I caught and passed that one with around four or five laps to go, and continued to pull away, finishing the race back where I'd qualified in P5 overall and winning the class by over 40 seconds! So I was, as you can imagine, well pleased with that. After finding myself in last place on lap one, even I didn't think I'd be able to pull that off! I was definitely on a mission. Moving onto the night race - things didn't quite go my way in that one, despite having qualified in P4 out of 40 cars. But the qualy was done in the wet, and for the race, it was beginning to dry out a little, and as it did, my advantage began ebbing away. So even though I managed to be second fastest overall in the night race free-practice session, I couldn't maintain that through the race. A spin at the bottom of the Craners (the one place where it was still very wet) whilst involved in a fight with the DB4 and a back-marker, which put me on the grass and left me with few options if I wanted to avoid coming together with the Aston (wouldn't want to be having that conversation with the owner of a car worth upwards of half a million!), cost me around 10 or 15 seconds and a few places. Follow that with two safety car periods which robbed me of time to make a comeback, and then finally another last lap spin when another back-marker shut the door on me at Coppice, causing me to spin and drop out of the top ten - subsequently finishing in P11. But a great race and very different in the darkness. An enjoyable experience overall - would definitely do it again given the opportunity. |
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"Light travels faster than sound - that's why, at first, some people appear bright... until you hear them speak!" |
29 Oct 2019, 12:07 (Ref:3937465) | #31 | ||
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Congrats to Andy for your award - well deserved I'm sure
I think Paul's comments serve to reflect what a friendly yet competitive club CSCC is - we met Paul through racing in Future Classics and have become good friends - despite him being way quicker than us! - and as he indicated Club members help each other out - whilst suited and booted and waiting to take over our car at the pitstop, whenever possible I help Paul's wife Sue to assist in Paul's pitstop - we actually regard it as a mini-competition of its own to try to get him in and out as quickly as possible - and normally are in the top 3 or 4 crews.... Can you imagine Lewis's pitcrew helping Vettel's pitstop ? |
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Richard Murtha: You don't stop racing because you are too old, you get old when you stop racing! But its looking increasingly likely that I've stopped.....have to go back to rallying ;) |
29 Oct 2019, 12:35 (Ref:3937471) | #32 | ||
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I can't even imagine them helping with Bottas' stop..
Great meeting, some lovely machinery , some excellent driving in horrible conditions and , in contrast to many other series, huge grids too. |
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29 Oct 2019, 12:40 (Ref:3937472) | #33 | ||
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29 Oct 2019, 12:49 (Ref:3937474) | #34 | ||
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Richard Murtha: You don't stop racing because you are too old, you get old when you stop racing! But its looking increasingly likely that I've stopped.....have to go back to rallying ;) |
29 Oct 2019, 22:29 (Ref:3937551) | #35 | |||
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Quote:
This time we were indeed third quickest pit-stop, less than a second behind the second quickest. Can't complain at that for a bunch of old duffers! We didn't manage to repeat the trick in the night race, so that must have been Steve's fault! |
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"Light travels faster than sound - that's why, at first, some people appear bright... until you hear them speak!" |
30 Oct 2019, 07:13 (Ref:3937570) | #36 | ||
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What is the length of your race and what kind of pit stop do you make? Richard, do you have pictures when at pit?
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Celui qui est parti de rien pour arriver nulle part,n'a de merci a dire a personne.Pour ceux qui vont chercher midi a quatorze heures, la minute de Vérité risque de se faire attendre longtemps. |
30 Oct 2019, 09:40 (Ref:3937596) | #37 | |||
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If you dont have to change drivers, the single driver must get out of the car, shut the door, open it again and get back in. There are club officials on hand to make sure belts are not undone too early, and are done up correctly. A 60kph speed limit applies in the pit lane. |
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30 Oct 2019, 13:57 (Ref:3937641) | #38 | ||
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As Andy says....as for pictures.....If you have a look at some of the youtube videos you'll get an idea - this one for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zELTUe5edh0 Pit stop window usually after 10 minutes and before 25 minutes, pit lane speed limit usually 60 kph - and it is checked! Engines have to be switched off on stopping and not restarted until the new driver's belts are fastened, and usually a marshal will be checking that belts are properly fitted over the HANS. |
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Richard Murtha: You don't stop racing because you are too old, you get old when you stop racing! But its looking increasingly likely that I've stopped.....have to go back to rallying ;) |
4 Nov 2019, 18:10 (Ref:3938586) | #39 | ||
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I guess the 50" from the video is a good result. May be the fix limit, one or two minutes is better for safety reasons but less fun. HANS device doesn't help in this matter making the belts difficult to do up for the driver.
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Celui qui est parti de rien pour arriver nulle part,n'a de merci a dire a personne.Pour ceux qui vont chercher midi a quatorze heures, la minute de Vérité risque de se faire attendre longtemps. |
6 Nov 2019, 14:01 (Ref:3938875) | #40 | ||
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Gerard - there has been much discussion within the club over the years about how the pit-stops should be conducted.
There are basically two factions: those that want the current system of doing it as fast as you can, giving an advantage to those who can manage it quickest, for whatever reasons. Then those who would prefer a simple mandatory timed stop of, say, one minute, meaning that no one gains or loses (assuming, if you're changing drivers, that you can actually manage it in under a minute! I guess most could). The club are actually intending to have a formal discussion about this very matter over the winter, so whether things will change as a result remains to be seen. The club maintains that the majority have always wanted the current system, but I'm not sure that opinion is reflected in the paddock when talking to other drivers, so who knows? We'll see what happens... |
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"Light travels faster than sound - that's why, at first, some people appear bright... until you hear them speak!" |
6 Nov 2019, 14:59 (Ref:3938883) | #41 | ||
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Thanks for the interesting answer and point of view, Paul. Dont you think the Hans system brings new habits? To be perfectly safe it can take a while sometimes. But the contest you have is much sympathetic, a race in the race involving more than the driver. Vox populi, vox Dei as they say!
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Celui qui est parti de rien pour arriver nulle part,n'a de merci a dire a personne.Pour ceux qui vont chercher midi a quatorze heures, la minute de Vérité risque de se faire attendre longtemps. |
6 Nov 2019, 15:37 (Ref:3938893) | #42 | ||
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Certainly many many drivers were in favour of not having a time limit for pit stops over the 6 years i was on the Committee inc the 2 or 3 when i was a series rep, and in addition to the reasons given above, there was a strong feeling from many that it introduced a team element in to the race, and it wasnt just the drivers that were responsible for a result.
Of course, safety is paramount and whilst i wouldnt say we havent had close calls I would say that we do have a lot of observers and Stewards monitoring for unsafe behaviors and cars have been prevented from leaving the pits if deemed unsafe. Hans devices add a slight complication but i dont find them an issue. To be fair, how many pit lane incidents have there been in 12 or 13 years? I genuinely dont know of any. Interestingly, though, in Magnificent 7s there is a 1 min statutory pit stop, and this is because the confines of the 7 cockpit and cage mean that this is deemed to be safer. As a 7 driver now, i appreciate the rest that the 1 min stop gives me, but if i returned to saloons ior GT type cars I would very happily have the unregulated pitstop & dont feel they are unsafe. |
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9 Nov 2019, 15:31 (Ref:3939452) | #43 | ||
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Photographer for the CSCC You can sleep in a car BUT you can't race a house!!! |
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