|
 |
 |
|
|
Brands Hatch
07/08/2007
Brands Hatch
This weekend turned out to be our best weekend this year so far this year in several different ways. Firstly the crew were thankful for the fewer and less damaged cars, the weather was fine for all the three days we were there, our drivers put in some fine performances and achieved some excellent results. Our whole team seemed genuinely upbeat in their spirits and approach the entire weekend. At the start of the weekend’s activities (Friday testing) everybody behaved themselves virtually beyond reproach; there were a couple of red flags in the sessions but fortunately none down to our drivers. The only bugbear on Thursday was that we did not finish working until 11pm; we then did not arrive home until well past midnight and were back in the on the road at 3am.
Saturday
Saturday’s scrutineering started at 07.45 which meant a little too few hours shuteye but with everyone’s adrenalin at full flow the lack of sleep seemed to affect no-one. Our cars all passed the scrutes with no dramas, shortly after the call came over the loudspeakers and the paddock seemed to come alive with the noise of engines being fired up. Making a rare appearance at this meeting was Nick Brown who seemed to be chomping at the bit as he was at the front of the queue in the assembly area. Suddenly the marshal blew his whistle made circular motions with his index finger pointing skyward and sessions A drivers were driving down the pit lane ready to start the weekend’s activities in earnest. Martin Galpin quickly got into his stride who on his sixth lap put in a 52.63 sec. lap for what would turn out to be pole for the first final; next up was another Martin, Martin Farmer; he put in a 52.82 sec. time. Third fastest was reigning Vee champion Sam Oliveira on a 52.98sec. lap with James Birch on a 53.52; with the second best times of 52.83 (M. Galpin) 52.95 (M. Farmer) 53.13 (S Oliveira) and J. Birch on a 53.64, this meant the same front two rows for both finals. On paper this would seem to suggest that the win would come from the front three with James Birch very close to if not in front of them. Our next man (to Martin Galpin) was once again Ryan Lindsay in tenth position for the first final and thirteenth for the second, next of our runners was Simon Readman in his AHS Spider in fourteenth ( for both finals) Paul Taylor eighteenth ( again both finals). Neale Hurran lined up in twentieth with Adrian Weston (who was definitely our driver of the day on Sunday) in twenty second; Steve Ough and Stuart Feather were twenty fourth and twenty fifth. Miles Southerton would end up twenty eighth fastest giving him pole position for Saturdays heat, with the AHS returnee Alan Robinson in twenty ninth (1st practice) and twenty eighth (2nd practice). This gave us pole for both the finals and the front row for both heats, an excellent start to the weekend indeed. The first race of the program was the UK heat; Miles led them round to the grid only for the grid marshals to put everybody on the wrong grid slot not once but twice. Then someone of higher authority told the whole grid to go round for one lap to re-grid only for the marshals to repeat their first attempts to the same degree of success. When all were in place the race got under way with miles going round Paddock then losing it on the exit; this put him into Bob Higgins’s path who drove over Miles putting both into instant retirement and bringing out the first of many of weekend’s red flags. When the race finally got under way proper, Paul Smith from fifth position simply drove away from everyone else at approximately one point eight seconds per lap to win by over eighteen seconds from Alan Robinson. Behind Alan was a gaggle of cars comprising of Jonathan Storer, Charlie Reilly, Nick Brown and Tony Dowson. Impressively Paul Smith was the only driver in the fifty four seconds.
The final was always going to be a close fought dice, at the start
Martin Farmer got slightly better traction followed by Martin Galpin and Sam Oliveira. Coming out of clearways Martin Galpin got a run on Martin Farmer down the start/finish straight and dived down the inside at Paddock to take the lead. Martin held onto the lead but on lap five Sam had taken Martin Farmer for second, one lap later Sam passed Martin Galpin going into Paddock for the lead he would not lose. While Sam could not pull away and it seemed Martin Galpin was faster, Sam took the racing line and Martin Galpin had to settle for second with Martin Farmer third. These three drivers were a mere 0.32 second apart at the chequered flag with Ian Buxton a further twelve seconds further adrift in fourth. Behind Ian were five drivers ( Ben Evans, Jake Oliveira, Simon Robinson, James Birch and Ian Jordan) a with just a fraction over one point five seconds covering them. Our two next runners were Simon Readman and the ever improving Paul Taylor in eleventh and twelfth with Neale Hurren’s Challenger seventeenth. Adrian Weston was twentieth with Steve Ough twenty first, bringing up the rear was Alan Robinson and Stuart Feather in twenty fourth and twenty fifth. Sadly this was to be Steve Ough’s last race of the weekend as the cam lobe had sheared on his engine and his weekend was over. Also out of this race was Ryan Lindsay and Paul Smith, Paul was making an overtaking move on Ryan going into Paddock; both of them went wide going into the gravel. This resulted in an early shower for Ryan and Paul’s engine swallowing some kitty litter and retiring a bit further on the lap. For us there was work to do to prepare for the next days racing and of course the party to look forward to that evening.
Sunday
There were a good number of bleary eyes on Sunday morning. Fortunately though our first race was the UK heat at midday, for this we had pole with Alan Robinson but poor Miles Southerton could not make the grid. Miles previous days encounter with Bob Higgins precluded him from taking part. This race was notable for two things; the first was it ended being only four laps due to Peter Dunne being upside down at Druids. Fortunately Peter was fine if a little choked by fire extinguisher powder. The second was Paul Smith’s fabulous drive from stone cold last place on the grid to being first across the line for an absolutely fabulous win. Although Paul was helped by the red flags he had every right to have his Cheshire cat grin on his face, it was an excellent drive indeed-even for an Essex ”boy racer”. It should also be pointed out that Phil Waterhouse finished a race; this after all weekend fixing a misfire must have been quite satisfying for the Devon driver.
The final was what a lot of people wanted to see, would Sam do it again? The race started as the day before with Martin Farmer taking the first corner from Martin Galpin and Sam Oliveira, Martin Galpin’s car was making some strange noise; this turned out to be a broken exhaust. Fortunately for Martin this did not seem to affect the cars engine performance too much. On lap five Sam put a good move on Martin Galpin to take second position, however one lap later Martin Galpin had retaken Sam. It looked as though Sam was in trouble as he had dropped off the pace ever so slightly and so it proved to be the case. One lap later Sam had slipped back to fourth behind James birch in his MK 1V Scarab; on lap eight however Sam was back in front of James; perhaps his trouble was only temporary? This proved not to be, on the next lap both James and Sam’s older brother Jake had got by quite easily; it appeared to be only a matter of time until Sam ran out of luck once more at a race. Also at the end of lap eight Martin Galpin had passed Martin Farmer for the lead, whilst the two front positions would stay the same until the end of the race the luck ran completely out for the Oliveira family. At the start of lap twelve Jakes right rear suspension broke sending him off into the same tyre barrier that Simon Robinson went into last year. The people in the grandstand all gasped when Jake hit but were all visibly relieved when he walked unaided from his stricken car; indeed many of the spectators clapped and applauded. Ironically Sam had pulled off of the circuit on the inside just past the pit exit leading many drivers to think that they had had a coming together. After the first two there was a gap of ten seconds to James Birch with nine seconds behind him a group of four drivers consisting of Paul Smith, Steve Glasswell, Ian Jordan and our Ryan Lindsay. Simon Readman was in ninth with Paul Taylor putting in a good performance in tenth, Neale Hurren finished in fifthteenth and Adrian Weston nineteenth. Miles Southerton grabbed twentieth, Alan Robinson twenty first and Stuart Feather in his last UK championship Vee race twenty third. Team A.H.S. was very happy at the end of this race with four of our boys in the top ten. We were all smiling; there were also two races to go.
Next up although slightly late due to delays (red ones mainly) was the Vee allcomers heat. Our own Adrian Weston was on pole for this one with no other than a certain Andy Storer alongside him, Stuart Feather was in fourth slot with Tim Hill in eighth. Surrounding our boys were a gaggle of Irishmen and a Swede, if Adrian or Andy were going to win this they were going to have to fight hard. Fight hard they did! Adrian drove what was one of the drives of the weekend; we were wondering whether he would buckle under the pressure from the Irish contingent. None of us need have worried; Adrian did not put a wheel wrong or make one mistake to take the win. The other superb drive of the race was that of Arno Sommer; Arno started in last due to problems in qualifying. Obviously come the race he had sorted these out, Arno set about carving through the field from the off; he passed people with ease until he came to Nick Brown. Nick held his line and was actually faster on some parts of the track than Arno; it took Arno four laps to get past Nick but that was enough Nick had cost Arno four to five seconds. By the time of the chequered flag Herr Sommer was three and a half seconds adrift of our driver.
And so for the last race of the weekend; the Vee Allcomers final.
For this race Patrick Sherrington was on pole with Andres Serrano alongside, Joachim Lutz and Jez Clark formed row two. In fifth was nineteen seventy five Vee camp Ian Flux with the “still got it” Ian Jordan next to him. It was quite clear that the winner would come from one of these men. At the back two reserves got onto the grid number twelve ( Ken Kersham) and number seventy (Nick Brown). Patrick Sherrington pulled away to win by nine and a half seconds from Ian Flux and Jez with Ian Jordan fourth. After all the excitement of the previous races this one did not seem to have the same bite but nether the less was thrilling to watch. By this time the paddock was somewhat emptier and there were some tired eye and broken machinery as well as some happy people with smiling faces. May we say thank you to all the organisers for our weekend however small or large your input. Also a big thank you to the race marshals who pushed/pulled turned over, towed and whatever else they did to our cars. Also thank you to all the overseas competitors who came so far to add to the weekend and made it what it was. Thank you very much indeed.
Other thoughts?
What of Basher Bennett? Eh Mr Bennett? Spare a thought for Steve Ough- a long way to come to conk out terminally on day one. Adrian Weston’s strong drive in the Vee heat. Nick Brown’s wonderful crash helmet paint scheme of a baked jacket potato with baked beans and cheese. Why are there so many Martins at the front?
Hopefully Silverstone will be not too much of an anti-climax.
See you there.
< Click here to return to the news page |
|
