Seeing The Season Out

Forgot to write about the last meeting of the year then wandered off to the States for 3 weeks and forgot to write about it when I got back, so here's a much belated update to finish the season out!

The last round was in mid October and Gordon duly lined up in the car, the three of us pretty determined to have the team finish what had been a very busy year. With Rory having got through the September meeting in one piece, we were hoping for a calm end to the season with no-one doing anything too daft through the field after the chaos the two previous meetings had seen.

Gordon hadn't been in the car for quite a while but still put in a surprise 10th quickest of of the 23 cars on show in the morning familiarisation, though he elected to start in the "gentleman's grid" which starts behind the main field of pros but ahead of the rookies. The weather was very tricky and through the day the rain came and went with it being very cold and windy indeed, making conditions difficult. As it happened, the field was well behaved this time and the races mostly passed without incident, Gordon finishing 21st in the first heat after having to avoid a wild Mervyn Wilson with a stuck throttle then a late spin and 20th in both the second heat and the final. He was then awarded the Driver Of The Day trophy as the driver from the gentleman's grid to have scored the most points. As it turned out these maths were a bit flawed but by then it was a bit late and the trophy was his!



So there you have it. The "Class Of '07" team made it through the year even though it took two cars to manage! We hit the highs with Rory's race win and Gordon's trophy and the lows with the original car being destroyed and my trip to hospital. All told it was a lot of fun despite the down points and the fact we were all still talking to each other at the end of the season can only be a plus! I'll more likely than not write up a story about the year for ScottishClubRacing.co.uk and Wheelspin Magazine at some point in the next few weeks too seeing as the 2007 article proved fairly popular.

The 2009 season looks like being a quiet one for me on financial grounds - I'm sure it's a story everyone's familiar with for their own reasons in the current economic situation. Add to that I'm not 100% sure what's happening with my current job beyond the winter. I'm going to renew my racing licence though so maybe I'll try to get out in one of Aly's cars once or twice depending on various factors. Supporting the BTCC and Brtitish GT Championships in the last few years was fun so maybe I'll try for that. I believe Rory and Gordon will be looking to carry on in some way too.

Couple of shots to finish up for now - Gordon at the last meeting (the light was awful as you can see) and a pic taken of me with the car in August just prior to the very race it was wrecked.

See you in '09.

Mark II hits the track.

First things first, here's the video of the crash in August:



I warn you, it's not pretty. That said, they do gloss over the fact three of us were injured pretty much entirely in that kind of "All's ok!" way club motorsport tends to cling to. Bad things don't happen. And if they do, try not to mention them too much.

Anyway, as far as I'm aware, there was little left of the old car to make into a new one but with it being one of Aly's track cars - we broke it, so we bought it and a new one has been built. It was completed and hit the track for a shakedown this Friday just prior to the next round of the Championship and as Rory was determined to keep going, he hit the track. He did well, especially in the first race where he actually led for a while before dropping back while he got used to the car. Still, three solid results were had and most importantly given recent events he brought it back with no dings... Here's a couple of pics of the new incarnation:





I dunno if I'm expecting too much when I say once again there was a lot of trouble in the races. A gentleman's grid was introduced to have drivers who aren't on the pace of the big boys start in a grid of their own at the back ahead of the newcomers and this saw the potential for slower guys bunching the field reduced. The slower guys are generally the scapegoat even though those standing at Duffus on any given raceday would tell you the problem at the moment is more the aggressive and occasionally kamikaze driving style sometimes on show. Indeed, there were two red flag incidents with Ali Thom's day ending backwards in the wall off the main straight with the roof ripped off and big rear end damage, and Sanford Imrie being flipped onto his roof at Clark. Frank Hynds received a bump on the arm after a big pileup at Clark which saw a number of cars damaged while Rich Crozier had the left side wheels ripped off his car in another first lap crash at the bottom of Duffus. Even father and son Marshall took each other off the road! If you add the national series crash at the BTCC meeting that saw Derek Pierce and another car rolling bigtime, that's massive accidents in the last three outings of Legends at the 'Hill. Hope we have a quiet finale in October.

Last but not least, well done to Carol Brown on winning the Championship with a round to go - great stuff!

Fleeting moment of notoriety.

Recovered from the aches and pains now, the week after the crash wasn't much fun. Went back to work a week later (couldn't really afford much downtime) which was uncomfortable but ok. Still waiting to hear from Aly about the car, that said he had a lot of repairwork to trackday cars to do and preparations to run some cars at the BTCC meeting last week so the wreck is probably still in the corner of the garage awaiting salvage. Really not looking forward to the bill (neither is Rory) as the car was totally fecked what with the rollcage being cut through to recover my remains so it's going to be a big one.

Here are my moments of fame in Autosport and Motorsport News the week after (click for readable versions):

Going out the wrong way...

In true Hollywood "Police Chief retiring in 2 weeks" style, my last race weekend for the time being ended in disaster. I'll post more thoughts later but the traffic stats for this blog have shown quite a few people have looked at it in the last couple of days so I've copy & pasted the forum post I made at SCR.co.uk and I'll post more thoughts a bit later when I feel up to it.

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Couple of days on and I'm going to be feeling it for a while but nothing lasting it seems which is a relief - my neck, back, shoulders, arms, finger joints and right ankle are all very sore though and I'm getting a selection of pretty bruises too!

As Mike Strong says, the car's clearly a gonner but given that they had no option but to take the roof off while I sat there muttering about back pain and elephants being orange that's not a surprise. I recall the initial incident in that when we reached Duffus Andrew Donald was turned across the front of my car and we ended up going very slowly off to the left of the track, at which point (due to a further accident taking place behind us) Sasha had to dive left and slammed straight into the back of me at full pelt. I got a brief word with her at the hospital as I was leaving and she says she saw me with about 10 feet to go so could barely do anything about it.

When she hit the world just exploded around me - it was utterly brutal. I recall more impacts (one of which being Alex Knight as he was sent into three rolls, so I'm told) as my car pinballed across the track to where it ended up on the outside of Leslie's in the gravel but I lose 2 or 3 minutes at this point as the next thing I really remember is the roof being removed and being surprised at how many other cars there were sitting in the gravel around me. F1 driver time as I'm lifted out on the board with blankets held up and up to the medical centre, my lower back really starting to hurt so it's off to hospital when another ambulance arrives (Sasha having been taken away in the one already at the track.) After all the tests and so on I get the all clear for any bad injuries at which point I foolishly demanded that my parents drop me off at the track so I can let everyone know I'm ok and so I can see the Legends Final and pick up my roadcar. Once the adrenaline started to drain though I really started to hurt but did manage to do all this and now I'm at home for a few days, sore but at least with everything still attached.

I can't tell all the marshalls and rescue guys on here just how grateful I am for all the work they do now that I've been at the (very) sharp end of their work - I know lots of you read the forum so PLEASE let your fellows know just how much I appreciate all they do - you're the real heroes out there, drivers be damned.

Just so that my thanks list covers (hopefully) everyone, here's the post I made at the SMRC forum:

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"Just a quick note to thank all those involved in the rescue work and marshalling at Knockhill on Sunday with regards to the big legends crash - my recollection of events is still on the hazy side but I do recall all the concerned faces throughout and hope thanks can be passed on to all the fantastic marshalls and rescue crew at the circuit along with the medical staff I encountered en route to and at the hospital. They all made a very unpleasant situation as easy-going as could be expected. Thanks as well to Nick Clarke, Ian Forrest and anyone else who stopped by before I was taken from the circuit. Nothing broken in the end but I'll be feeling every joint and muscle for the next while, that much I do know. Aly Hunter builds quality cars and for that I'll always be grateful given the impact involved.

Also, thanks to the SMRC and Knockhill staff who gave my parents information and guidance as best they could too straight after the accident. Your help was much appreciated."

Farewell To Arms

My last race weekend of 2008 got underway today with two practice sessions in the legend. The first session was on a sodden track coated in oil so I couldn't really learn anything but the second was in the dry and the car felt good. Aly Hunter seemed to think I was doing ok too so that gives me some confidence for tomorrow if we get some dry running.

Fingers crossed for a good day!

Solid Day

Good day for the #07 in the hands of Gordon this weekend - he took it easy on the first laps of the two heats to stay out of trouble and brought the car home in 14th and 15th places followed by 13th in the final, avoiding a pile-up out of Scotsman/McIntyre which would see the red flag fly.

That's it until the August 3rd meeting which will be my last run of the year.

Next round is this coming weekend with Gordon at the wheel of the #07. In the meantime, here's a video of one of my two incidents on April 27th. The other wasn't really caught by the cameras so I probably wont upload it.

Winners!

I know the part played by myself and Gordon was fairly minimal, but we're still on a high after Sunday's events and the fifth round of the Championship as part of the Scottish Speedfair event.

For various reasons I couldn't be at the track on Saturday when the first heat was run but the race was a dnf for Rory due to a perceived problem with the gearbox which thankfully turned out to not be the case. Plus for whatever reason the brake balance had been moved all the way back so he's lucky he didn't crash the thing before he realised.

On to Sunday and the second heat in which he started towards the back and stayed there for most of the race, unhappy with the pulling power of the car in a straight line where he just couldn't compete. Clearly something wasn't right so in the big gap between the two races while Knockhill sent endless parades and track demos out various things were tried. The engine was rebuilt between the last race and this one so something had obviously not gone to plan. Thankfully, as it would transpire a second or so a lap would be found by changing the oil.



So on to the final. Due to the fact the final is made up from the results of the previous two heats, Rory started a promising third as the only one of the quick drivers to have a really bad day. He managed to jump the two rookies starting ahead of him and proceeded to vanish into the distance while the quickest drivers had to fight quite hard to get to the front. Indeed, it took 8 of the 10 laps for that to happen, Carol Brown eventually appearing in second but unable to close the gap with Rory winning by a pretty decent margin!

There were joyous scenes in the paddock afterwards as Rory had his entire family on hand and it's fantastic that the group has achieved something, especially as Rory was our only realistic chance of a really good result - though we'd expected a possible podium or two, not a race victory!

Controlled Agrression Or Just Rough Driving?

So, the double header went ahead as planned as alternate fuel supplies were found. My feelings after the day are still a bit mixed so I'll try not to say anything I'll regret.

Round 3 was held prior to the lunchbreak with Gordon at the wheel for the first time in 8 months. He was a bit nervous about going straight into the races but given the relative lack of funding all three of us have, he couldn't test on Saturday (which I did with nothing spectacular to report - still off the pace I'd gotten up to last year which is a worry.) He got up to a pretty good speed in the warmup though so started in the grid, running pretty well in the first round and avoiding a big accident that happened right in front of him towards Clark, that said however myself and Rory's worst fears were realised when he vanished from the field with a couple of laps to go, eventually showing up on the back of a towrope in the paddock. A broken oil cooler was the issue and it was quickly replaced in time for him to get out again for the next two races which he got through both of with no further issues, setting a very impressive laptime in the final.

During the lunchbreak I was a little tense about running in the three afternoon races that made up Round 4 as Rory and myself had been really surprised at all the rough driving that was going on all down the field - quite apart from the two largish accidents that happened in the morning (Colin Atkinson needing a little medical attention after an airborne moment which ended his day completely and trust me, could have been much worse as it happened right in front of us and was close to being much bigger) there had been a huge number of aggressive moments with a lot of take and not a lot of give.

Still, drew 5th for the first heat and got underway, trying as hard as I could not to get swamped by the field. It was going quite well until I screwed up my braking for the hairpin and went deep into the corner, holding the outside lane so that I wouldn't get in the way. Right. Next thing I know impacts are coming and Alex Knight's car jumps over my front-right, tearing off the fender. The upshot was that I was left sitting in the gravel but after a push from the marshalls I meandered back to the paddock, the steering feeling to me like it was way off - turns out it wasn't - just dust, gravel and my inexperience making me think it was. I'll have to wait for the TV coverage to find out what actually happened there as I heard three different versions from three different people (one of which was very unflattering to one of the cars which hit me) but I really can't comment on it until I find out. Pic by Linz Gordon follows:



The second race was quieter as I was starting at the back but I made a terrible start and fell right to the back but managed to repass Ericco Palazzo into MacIntyres. After that I just had to watch in amazement as broken down and crashed cars proceeded to litter the track, only 15 cars actually finished in the end so I picked up my best result so far of 14th.

The final had me start third and given that this was my last race for the next 3 months or so I decided to try going for it. Nice idea I suppose! Got a decent start and managed to grab the racing line and only lost a couple of spots on the first lap. Then on the run up to Clark on the second lap whilst side by side with Rich Crozier, Chris Hynds lost a fender ahead of us. It landed on the road ahead of Rich and he jinked left to avoid it, clipping me and sending me off into the gravel. Got a push out by the ever-excellent marshalls and (in a bit of a raised state of adrenaline) pounded round in what had become something of an extended test session. One moment of note when the leaders lapped me was when John Marshall passed me at Clark only to go straight on and rejoin right ahead, but we got away with it.

Was pretty annoyed with Rich over the incident and made the mistake of not cooling off a bit before speaking to him afterwards and feel a bit of an idiot for shouting at him which hardly helped the situation. Sorted it out between us afterwards though and thankfully the car was fine, though it ended the day looking a bit battle worn.

There's been a lot of dicussion about the aggressive driving and the gulf in driving ability between those at the front and those of us towards the back among the drivers recently as the legends is really becoming a pro-am series these days. There are some extremely quick drivers and those who've come up from karts and may be eyeing futures in motorsport at the front and plenty of novices and those of us who are just out for some fun at the back and the way we all get mixed together in the big grid that currently exists is leading to occasional problems. Guess we'll see where that goes.

As for me, I get a big break until the August 3rd meeting until I'll be racing again, though I might get a go in the Saturday tests if Rory and Gordon don't do them just to keep myself in practice - and I need all I can get.

Results from April 28th meeting. Why I'm called Matthew by SMART Timing this time out, I'll never know!

Double Header?

The question mark is over all this stupid fuel-shortage stuff which wouldn't be a problem if unions didn't insist on the impossible almost constantly and the public didn't all flock like sheep to the petrol stations and swallow up all the supplies even before the strike begins!

Anyway, assuming Aly can source the required juice as Knockhill have said they wont supply him as normal for this weekend, the plan for this event had been for me to test on Saturday, Gordon to do the Sunday warmup and then the three races for Round three in the morning and finally me driving in the three races of Round Four in the afternoon.

Fingers crossed!

Long Weekend

Showed up on Friday to get re-aquainted with the car and did so, thought I was getting back into the way of things.

Saturday kind of showed me that wasn't - in the morning warmup I had trouble stringing coherent laps together but I was still feeling rusty so expected it. We were the last race of the day after the first British GT race of the weekend and I had drawn at the back and got a little left behind. Found myself fighting with Mervyn Wilson and Kenny Thompson (both newcomers this year) but was starting to wonder how long we had been going - I was sure we'd done 8 laps. With cars starting to litter the side of the road I was sure something was up and with my mind wandering slightly and (as it turned out) my brakes overheating, I had a massive spin down Duffus Dip. Got going again just as the top five or so lapped me and toured it back in for the last few laps, sure that the race had been a lot longer than it should have.



Turns out there was a misunderstanding with BRSCC who run the British GT Championship and therefore this meeting somehow getting the impression we ran 15 minute races. As this became 15 laps, a couple of cars had run out of fuel along with others suffering overheated brakes and tyres and possibly even engines. This led to Tony Caig (who led at 8 laps when a standard legends race would have ended) losing everything when his engine blew. A vote was put to the drivers afterwards and the preffered (but by no means unanimous) decision was to go for a result after 8 laps. It obviously made no real difference to me in terms of results so I just voted for what I thought made most sense - i.e an 8 lap result given that the last 5 laps had just been a comedy of errors as we all fell off all over the track. Obviously the top five finishers after 15 laps weren't happy with this idea and you can understand why.

In the event on Sunday morning the BRSCC decided that a 15 lap result would stand with regard to working out the grid for the final. Whether the result will stand for the SMRC Championship points, I don't know. Anyway, the second race was the first of the day and thankfully it was dry. I'd originally meant to be starting second but this became pole when Scott Hynds couldn't get started in the pitlane alongside me. I got an average start and this meant the quick guys mugged me pretty quickly and before I knew what was happening I was in the midfield. There was a lot of hard driving going on with a lot of wheel-banging and I was "moved" out of the way once or twice. Still, the race went well and I finished right with Murray Ford and Jason Ogg who had suffered a couple of offs.

The final was also thankfully dry and I was second again but things went much the same way as before and a pretty poor start meant I got pushed wide at the top of the hill and got a bit freight-trained. Had a few fights as I went backwards but was soon at the back again. Tried to follow Aly Hunter and Kenny Thompson but they dropped me in the last couple of laps. Finished 22nd of 24 finishers. Best lap of the weekend was a 65.1 so about half a second slower than at the end of last year which is a bit dissappointing but then it has been six months. Hoping for better things in two weeks when I'm driving in the second round of the double header.

Results can be found here.

Ups, Downs and All Sorts.

Almost impossible to believe it's a year since the start of last season but my debut year has been and gone and year 2 started at the weekend. As practice on Saturday got underway and I stood beside Lance Gauld and Rob Johnston (Radio Knockhill commentator), I commented as Rory went by on his first lap out of the pits in our car that I was going to feel uneasy watching someone else racing it. Sure enough, 15 seconds later the red flags came out and Rory didn't come back round... turned out he'd hit the tyre wall on the outside of Scotsman chicane and been pitched head on into the perimeter tyrewall. The car came back on the flatbed looking a bit crumpled at the front but thankfully a few cosmetic repairs and a new left-side steering arm and the car was ready for the second session in which Rory was able to go 6th quickest.

Here's Rory and his trophy for the day: the bent steering arm.



Sunday morning was wet and cold, but started really well. After being 6th in the morning warmup, Rory had a good first race. He was challenging for a podium finish when another driver put himself and our car off the road but Rory still recovered for fifth place at the end. The second race saw Rory with podium-pace again but David Thorburn spun directly in front of him and the avoiding action put him to the back. He still managed to fight back to 12th which in a field of 26 was really good.



Then in the final things went a little awry. After a poor first lap he found himself towards the back but along with Oliver Mortimer he quickly worked his way through the midfield. However with 2 laps to go he and Oliver got hooked on the pitstraight and in a cloud of tyre smoke both went into the tyrewall. The car suffered some front-end damage but wasn't too bad, Oli however suffered a fair amount of damaged bits and pieces.

Even with the DNF in the final we ended up third in the "Team Championship" standings for the day which was a good start.

Next up is my first shot in the drivers-seat at the British GT Championship round at Knockhill. It's going to be a three-day deal with testing on Friday aftenoon, warmup and a single race on Saturday and two races on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to taking part in a big event again. The timetable of events for the weekend is here.

The First Round.

Just a quick note about the weekend with a full report to follow: it was a weekend not without incident (four of them to be honest) and on two separate occasions the car came back from the races needing repairs but the results weren't too bad. The first two races could have had Rory and the #07 on the podium but he had to settle for 5th and 12th and a potentially huge crash at the end of the pit-straight could have had dire consequences in the third race but we possibly were a little lucky despite not making the finish.

Full details to follow.

Various pre-season things.

So, just to finish the below post off completely, I'm driving at the 2nd, 4th and 7th rounds this year. That's the British GT Championship support round over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of April, the afternoon round at the double-header meeting on 27th April and the August 3rd round. All are at Knockhill of course. The reason for the first two being so close together is that Rory kindly swapped the British GT round for one of my standard events as he'd drawn both of the "Big" races.

To get a little more seat time, I'm going to try to make it down to the track for the test days before Gordon's rounds as he's only doing the race events this year. I've had a frankly rubbish 2008 so far so I can't wait to get back to Knockhill in the Spring and get the motorsport under way again!

I wrote a report for SCR covering my first year in racing and so forth, can be seen here.

And finally - a video of my brief stab at glory in the final race of 2007! - video

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Got down to the "official" Legends test day to see the car for '08. Myself and Gordon could only show up at the end of the day due to work but Rory was out on track in the car and set some pretty good times whilst bedding in the rebuilt engine. It's had a bit of a lick of paint to signify the "Class of '07" idea as you can see in the pic below. We've worked out who's racing when as well, I'll cover that shortly but I'm pleased to report I managed to get the support round on the British GT Championship bill in April which should be cool.

First round is on March 30th where Rory will be at the wheel with myself and Gordon in our "support" role. We're all showing up the day before to learn the basic stuff we need to learn to keep the car ticking over on racedays.

Quick vid.

Forgot to link to this video, it's quite amusing if you want to hear the TV commentators having a go at my amateurish attempts at racing. I've made my excuses for this several times already, it was very wet, I braked too late, locked the wheels and ploughed straight on like a numpty. Yeah, yeah - I know.

Link

2008

It's been a long off-season but we're approaching the end of January so we're starting to reel in Springtime, slowly but surely. SMRC events are due to start on March 30th this year, I'd assume the "official" test day will be a couple of weeks beforehand.

My plans for the year are falling into place bit by bit - last season was a lot of fun but extremely expensive (no-one ever said motorsport was cheap though so I've no complaints), I probably couldn't afford to run a full year again, though before I'd had much chance to think about it, Aly Hunter called the three scholarship drivers into a meeting at a cold and windswept Knockhill last month, just before Christmas. Given that all three scholars (myself, Rory Bryant and Gordon Mann) all probably couldn't afford to run ourselves, his proposal was that the three of us share a "team" car over the '08 season, each running at three rounds (should be a nine-round season again) and the other two drivers acting as "support staff" for the car when they aren't driving. To get the "Class of '07" concept going he (with some additional help from the SMRC) was able to offer us a pretty good deal in terms of finances so we should be good for the season. The "team" concept was taking off at the end of last season so there should be lots of cars with multiple drivers. The three of us worked out a deal with regard to how we'd decide who was running when, how damage costs would be paid etc etc and now it's just a case of agreeing the details with Aly and waiting for the season to arrive.

No British Touring Car support round this year sadly - seems the National Championship frankly stole the slot from us having seen how successful the Scottish Series was, but I guess it reflects well on us that we caught their attention. Still a shame to be binned like that. On the plus side, we've got a support slot at the British GT Championship (making a welcome return to Knockhill after a couple of years away) in April so whoever draws that particular round when the three of us get round to doing so will be getting the "prestige" event of the year!

Roll on March.