Full Write up from Go4itracing!!
Martin, Alex and Kevin have all give us great updates and on board footage this week on social media so don’t forget to check out what it I like for the drivers first hand https://www.facebook.com/pages/Go4itracing/595531487241043.
Great write up from MX5 City Sponsored Go4itracing!!!
Definitely worth a read!!
Full Croft Report where one of our MX5 City sponsored drivers got a podium win!
@Go4itracing Well Done guys!
Sometimes whispered as being the best kept secret in British motorsport, the initially unassuming Croft circuit in North Yorkshire is an immensely fun and exhilarating experience.
Long straights and sweeping curves make for a fast circuit that fully engages each driver in wrestling their protesting machines as the G-forces pile on.
The “Clervaux” corner at the end of the long main straight can be very tricky to master due to high entry speeds, while “Tower” seems to unsettle the car on approach at a most inconvenient time!
However, the “Jim Clark Essess” are fun and flattering to even novice drivers, leading into “Barcroft” which requires both respect and courage to attack at speed. “Sunny In & Out” can easily fool drivers into forced errors, but rounding off each lap is the infamous “Hairpin” which despite being perhaps the tightest and slowest corner in the BRSCC Mazda Championship calendar, can still manage to shake many a driver’s ego!
“Go4it Racing” team veterans Martin (No.23) and Kevin (No.41) were out in force flying the sponsor flags of Pollock Lifts, MX5 City, Creative Design and BizSmart.
However, on this occasion Alex stepped down meaning that newly ARDS qualified stalwart team mechanic Liam Brown could demonstrate his talent behind the controls of the blue, recently rebuilt No.32 – resplendent in its dedicated “Pollock Lifts” sponsorship decals!
With a test day before the race weekend at Croft, the BRSCC were hosting a qualifying session followed by three races evenly spread over the two days. However the weather was intense, varied and wildly unpredictable to such an extent that Liam’s first ever racing experience was a rollercoaster of thrills and horrors………..
Test Day: The day before the racing consisted of four test sessions for the three MX5 drivers, who were again supported by Jez, Adam and Alex (when they weren’t drooling over the motorsport exotica roaring past out on track!)
Kevin elected not to test but Martin was once again getting the measure of the circuit, occasionally switching from his usual “banzai” style to a more moderate pace in order to help Liam find the best lines, braking zones and turning points.
That said, Liam’s hours behind a simulator were paying dividends as he hardly seemed to need the guidance. Lap after lap became consistently quicker as he began to hold pace with some of the seasoned drivers out testing that day. By the middle of session four Liam had posted a massively impressive 1 minute 45 seconds for a lap which, for a complete rookie, was extraordinarily close to Martin’s lap times!
Apart from a brief lock-up into Tower which flat-spotted the tyres – namely due to a harsh lesson from a bump in the track causing loss of traction just when you need it most – the test day was a resounding success for Liam. He was buzzing and healthily frustrated with a desire to improve, but the team were wholly impressed with his performance.
Fortunately the weather had been steady save for a few sessions of light rain, meaning that Liam was able to find his groove in the dry conditions. The next day, however, was not so kind.
Qualifying:
North Yorkshire is perhaps not best known for temperate and predictable weather – that Saturday it did nothing to improve the notion! The rain came down thick and fast with rain droplets seemingly the size of marbles! However, it would just as suddenly break into blazing sunshine only to revert to firm winds and rain again. From the point of view of deciding on which tyres to use, it was a nightmare for every driver. They did not want to slip and slide on dry tyres in the wet, nor overheat and lose grip from their wet tyres in the dry. It was a ridiculous lottery as much as a matter of judgement.
Both Martin and Kevin put in respectable times with both of them qualifying in the top 10 for the first time together – Kevin scoring his highest ever qualification in 9th overall.
Liam was wary of the conditions having practised in the dry. The racing line in the wet is vastly different to that taken under dry conditions and as such the track was suddenly an unknown factor again. However, his fears aside, Liam once again put in a fantastic demonstration of raw talent and qualified in the top half of the grid. Martin was like a proud father towards our team mechanic turned race driver!
Race 1: See Liam’s onboard footage here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmSfS0LUdPg
Leading up to the first race, the rain stopped, clouds cleared and the sun beat down meaning drivers set up their cars for dry running and proceeded to the assembly area. But the weather had played a trick, when abruptly the rain returned. In the assembly area there was a mad rush as some of the drivers tried to get back to the paddock and swap out their dry tyres for wets, but many simply had to stay where they were and hope that softening off the dampers was of sufficient help with maintaining traction.
Unfortunately a combination of limited “dry tyre” traction in the wet and spray blindness at the start of the race saw several MX5 race cars, including Kevin’s No.41, career off the track and into the gravel at turn one. Fortunately Kevin was recovered and able to re-join the race, finishing high enough to stay in the “A” class race.
In the “B” class race, Liam was finding that he had the pace, but was at the mercy of his comparative lack of experience to the other championship drivers. This led to on occasion not recognising opportunities or not knowing where to gain an advantage over other drivers, but he learnt quickly. A perhaps questionable driving line by another competitor ultimately contributed to Liam briefly spinning the car, but he soon recovered the car under its own power. Frustrating for sure, as it could have meant a top five finish, but that is often the nature of racing and being his first race in the wet it was all about gaining that valuable experience.
Race 2: During race two, both Kevin and Martin put in solid performances, finishing 16th and 5th respectively, but also marking Martin’s steady rise up the grid!
Liam had another interesting race, but also fell afoul of inexperience again. As the race unfolded, an accident occurred and yellow flag conditions were introduced. All drivers are meant to progressively decelerate to a safe and fully controllable speed in order to allow for any hazards they may encounter up ahead. Unfortunately, an experienced driver may well have a different view of “controllable” compared to a rookie. As such, upon seeing yellow flags, Liam dutifully backed off of the throttle only to be jumped by three other competitors with greater momentum once out of the safety zone. Another frustrating and hard lesson had been learnt, but this was not unusual as it had been the same for Alex during his first races at Silverstone during the start of the season.
Race 3: See Kevin’s onboard footage here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-YIPd0XQnw See Martin’s onboard footage here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G8aUHhb3YE
The third and final race proved to be the most action filled of the whole event.
Martin flew off the line at the start of the “A” race and took the inside line to dive through to third place by only the second turn. Brian Chandler was up front leading the pack in a league of his own, but Darren Lewis and Martin (closely harassed by Sam Smith) were in hot pursuit until, against all odds, Darren misjudged a turn and momentarily left the track. Martin seized the opportunity to move into second place only to find his mirrors still full of Sam’s dancing MX5. Eventually Sam made his move and despite a close fight with Martin, was able to gain second place seeing Martin finish a very respectable third.
For Kevin’s part of that same “A” race, he was determined to make it count after the calamity of race one. Hooking up and firing off the line to also take the inside line into Clervaux, he jumped several grid positions as a number of cars ran wide. Finding himself slipstreaming while simultaneously defending from those chasing mere feet behind, he was eventually ambushed himself on the inside line of the Hawthorn corner sequence. An ever changing “cat-and-mouse” battle lead to both drivers co-operatively working together to advance on the pack ahead. Although the race ended before that tactic could come to full fruition, it none-the-less ended with six of the drivers so close in pace that they’re fastest lap times were separated by only 0.2 seconds - a good solid drive and the best of Kevin’s weekend finishing 13th.
In race class “B”, Liam had an enormously fun battle with Paul Austin. He had to focus hard on driving defensively but was making excellent progress. Suddenly there was contact at the Hairpin as the tail end of 32 escaped Liam’s control leading to a wide yaw across the track. Paul did his best to react, but had been following so closely that there was still a forceful impact by his nose cone into the left door and tyre of 32. Battered and rattled but quickly recovered, Liam pressed on to chase down the lost position. Unfortunately the collision had caused a slow leak in the rear left tyre, causing the last few laps to be an entertaining affair while he fought with the steady loss of predictable handling. Damage and issues aside, Liam still finished very respectably in 9th.
Debrief: Overall a great race weekend for everyone involved and Liam was especially grateful to the team for their support during his first steps driving competitively in motorsport. For a rookie he did exceptionally well and the raw talent suggests there is a great promise of things to come.
The next event is the legendary Donnington circuit in mid-October where Alex will be back racing with “Go4it” and hoping for a top five finish in the season’s final event of the BRSCC MX5 Championship.
It not just the racing……. A paddock full of race teams of an evening is never short of surreal moments; but the prize has to go to Paul Austin from Austec Racing who, one party fuelled evening at Croft, donned some roller-skates and put on a randomly dynamic show madly akin to watching a World Cup Rugby prop perform Swan Lake – only at speed and backwards! Bravo!
Take a look at what our sponsors do… we couldn’t race without them! www.mx5city.com www.pollocklifts.co.uk www.creativetouchdesign.co.uk www.biz-smart.co.uk
If you’d like the chance to follow in Alex’s tyre tracks, take a look at our competition website www.go4itracing.co.uk