Brands GP looked set to be our best chance at securing a win in the first half of the season, the full GP loop offering a great mix of fast corners and technical sections that should play to the MX-5’s strengths. Alex had never driven the full GP loop before and with Friday testing being on the Indy configuration, we opted to skip it and instead Alex entered Saturday’s TrackDay Championship race as a guest in a hire car. This meant that Dave’s refresher on the track would be half of the (now reduced) 25-minute qualifying session.
Performance Link had spent a great deal of time fettling the car after Croft, making engine, exhaust, intake and suspension changes to help us maximise the MX-5. Their focus on the NC platform makes them the go-to place for upgrades on 3rd generation MX-5s.
The weather forecast looked good - although we were hoping for a little rain during the race to help us out a little more, it never came.
Alex started quali, the plan being that he would get used to the differences between Saturday’s hire car and the SD24 then hand over to Dave for as much time in the seat as possible to get back up to speed with a track that most racers rarely visit. By lap 3 Alex had us sitting on class pole, where we remained for quite a while with a time of 1:46.29. A safety car on lap 6 brought Alex into the pit for the driver swap and Dave headed out for a couple of slow laps behind the safety car train. Once the track had gone green again, finding some space was proving difficult with the much quicker (in a straight line) class A cars ruining the next two laps. Dave managed a single unobstructed lap 3 tenths slower than Alex but the team felt confident there was a lot more time in the car with a bit of clear track and a few more laps to settle in. We were just pipped to class pole by 5 tenths in the final lap of quali by Ash Moor in the #195 Civic, but would line up alongside them on the grid.
The Performance Link team worked their magic during the break between quali and the race to fine-tine the setup after Alex's feedback on the handling. A (shorter than normal) race of 75 minutes lay ahead of us, with a single refuelling stop. We decided to fuel the car to require a 20L stop with a fairly narrow pit window in the middle of the race. This would give us a light car at the start and make the stop relaxed as only one fuel jug is needed. We also had a 20-second success penalty for finishing 2nd at Croft which would further reduce the time pressures at the stop.
Alex took the start of the race this time. A fairly scrappy formation lap led to him being boxed in on the start and backed up into the cars behind. We had discussed exercising caution in turns 2 and 3 as the pack tends to compress a lot on the first lap and it is very easy to get involved in a race-ending accident, the #93 took advantage of this into turn 2, which dropped us down to 3rd and the slower class B cars caused Alex to have to lift on the apex of turn 4 which allowed the #66 to sail by on the straight. By the time he was properly onto the GP loop Alex was in maximum attack mode, the majority of the class A and B cars were away down the road and the race was into its rhythm. A bold move into turn 8 saw Alex snatch 3rd back from Subbiani in the #66 and from that position he could start to reel in the battle for 1st.
The scrapping #195 of Sam Moor and #93 of Jonathan Hayes were gradually getting larger in the windscreen until a number of cars fell off the track at once, putting Alex right on the tail of the battle for 1st. An opportune overtake by Moor on a slower class B car just before the safety car would prove extremely useful for the Civic in the race to come. Once the pack was back together the #195, a class B car, #93 BMW, Alex and then the #66 BMW were lined up nose to tail.
At the restart, Alex put the car up the inside in turn 4 and took 2nd from the #93 but the #66 was right on his tail. The slower class B traffic held up Alex’s progress through the GP loop - the section where the MX-5 makes most of its lap time compared to the BMWs - this allowed both Hayes and Subbiani to steam by at the end of the lap. Alex retook 3rd on the inside of turn 1 but Hayes stuck with him and attempted a move around the outside into turn 2, what must have been an unfortunate miscalculation of positioning lead to the BMW darting across to the apex with Alex alongside, launching the rear of the MX-5 into the air momentarily and immediately damaging the suspension on the #93. Initially, the car felt fine and Alex was able to get his head down to attempt to catch the absolute rocket ship that is the #66 BMW.
The squabbling for 2nd had allowed Moor to disappear from sight and settle into his own race in the Civic ahead. Alex was now hot on the tail of the #66, closing right in on each corner and then getting gapped on the long straights. A great run through turn 1 allowed Alex up the inside into turn 2, where the MX-5’s lack of mass and excellent chassis setup allowed him to brake super late and take 2nd place. From here he was in free air for the rest of his stint. The gap to P1 was below 10 seconds - the difference between our relative success penalties - this meant that if Alex could match their pace for the rest of stint 1, we should leapfrog them in the stops and then it would be down to Dave to hold off Sam Dennis during his stint in the Civic.
Alex’s pace was great, slashing almost a second off his qualifying time, so the team elected to keep him out until the end of our window. The stop was textbook, the team all performing their tasks as we had drilled earlier in the day. Dave was in and belted with over a minute of spare time on the clock. These races can be won or lost in the pitstop and it is testament to the professionalism of this team of friends and family that we are able to compete at this level. The team pushed the car back and Dave was out into the race with a little more wheelspin than initially expected…
The car felt a little odd initially on the out lap, but Tom informed Dave that he’d crossed a patch of coolant in the pits which was probably the cause of the wheelspin and the vagueness in the rear end. By the end of the lap, another safety car was out and a slow class A car ahead didn’t seem interested in catching the back of the train in any kind of hurry. Dave knew that at this slow speed, unless part of the train, the #195 would be let out ahead of us and neutralise the 10s advantage we had gained from the success penalties. Eventually the class A car figured out it needed to catch the pack and we closed up to the end of the train just as cars were being released from the pitlane. Thanks to having no success penalty to serve, the #16 Civic of Peerless & Stenning had leapfrogged us all and was directly ahead in the train, sitting in P1. The #195 was 5 cars behind and 3rd in class. This was going to come down to a 25-minute sprint to the finish!
The restart was initially uneventful, but heading out of turn 2 the revs soared but the car didn’t seem to oversteer. Something was wrong. Any application of power caused the car to crab and Dave had to counter-steer to keep it in a straight line. By turn 4 the team had decided to limp the car back to the pits to investigate. With the unscheduled stop, any hopes of a podium had disappeared, but every championship point is important so if we could finish the race, we were going to. The team attempted to tighten the driveshaft nut, believing that the impact earlier in the race had worked it loose to the point that it was no-longer retaining the shaft inside the hub and not allowing torque to be applied to that wheel. Unfortunately the spines were fairly badly damaged and no amount of tightening was going to prevent it from working loose again. By the end of the pitlane it was clear that we weren’t going to be seeing the chequered flag this time. The decision was made to retire the car and we officially finished 7th due to having completed enough of the race to be classified.
We now look to Snetterton on the 23rd June - a track that boasts two enormous straights where the higher-powered Civics and BMWs are more likely to shine rather than the MX-5. It’ll be on us to maximise our performance through the technical infield, and push our apex speeds as high as possible to compensate. The lack of any success penalty will give us a 30-second advantage over the championship leaders at the pitstop but we don’t anticipate that helping much over a two-hour race unless there are multiple safety cars!
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