Martin Galpin | Racing Driver | number66.net

A lot can happen in two days. On Sunday evening (06/02) I received a phone call and 48-hours later I was aboard Emirates flight EK0008 destination Chennai, India.

An unfortunate accident for Chrissy Palmer during the first championship weekend left a vacant drive. I would like to thank James Crofts for presenting that opportunity to me.

I arrived in India in the early hours of Thursday morning and first visited the Irungattukottai Circuit the same afternoon. After a brief introduction to the team I was given a seat fitting and prepared to go straight out on circuit for the final of two test sessions.

My first impressions of the circuit were positive. Irungattukottai is a fast, 3.717km lap with a healthy mix of high to medium speed corners culminating in a slow and technical final sector. The track surface itself is consistent but the topography of the area (porous and marsh) yields significant surface bumps that influence both driving technique and vehicle setup.

The MRF Formula 1600 cars feature a tubular Van Diemen chassis, 1600cc Ford Duratec engines and a five speed sequential Hewland gearbox. A tentative comparison to a contemporary Formula Ford is that the cars have significantly less power to their European cousins but feature more mechanical grip from larger Formula Three style slick tyres. Front and rear wings are an obvious addition with a conservative aerodynamic profile that offers a small but noticeable level of downforce at very high speed. Given the challenge of producing a reliable single seater in a South Indian climate any shortcomings are easily forgiven. Constructed and assembled exclusively in India they are a promising product of a fledgling Indian motorsport industry.

I managed 15 laps on Thursday afternoon and enough to initially learn the circuit. On Friday, we were given another single test session. I used this time to lightly scrub a set of new tyres and continue my acclimatisation with the environment.

The race weekend featured a morning warmup, qualifying and a single race on the Saturday and two further races on the Sunday. The entire weekend was broadcast live on Neo Sport TV.

Come Saturday morning and qualifying I had completed around 25 laps of the circuit. I had a morning brief with my race engineer and we decided that the best use of Saturday warmup was to gain more experience of the circuit. We are assigned eight new tyres for the weekend, four of which I scrubbed on Friday and I was to warm up on the second set.

During the morning, I felt confident and our lap times reflected that. I was third fastest and faster than pole position for the previous weekend. Our telemetry overlay showed I was losing roughly four tenths to the talented Jukka Honkavuori in Turn 1 but matching his pace for the majority of the lap, even stealing a few hundreths in the slower final sector.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning warm-up was the peak of my performance over the weekend. I struggled to reproduce the fastest lap times throughout qualifying, suffered a cut left front tyre and ended up 10th fastest.

The first race (Saturday afternoon) was equally frustrating. After making a positive start and gaining a number of positions, I made a small mistake at Turn 5 and dropped a rear wheel onto the marbles towards the edge of the track. This tiny error became more substantial when I hit the harsh exit kerb (that Palmer had hit previously) and subsequently broke my front wing, ending my race.

The two Sunday races were similar to each other, progressively moving a couple of places up the grid for each. I had a very positive start to both and aggressively passed cars over the opening laps. As the races progressed (30 minutes each) I found myself having to be more defensive than I would have liked. Over long runs I progressively struggled with worsening oversteer. Upon reflection, I probably took too much out of my tyres in the opening laps and suffered severely as they exceeded their operating temperature. What’s more, this compounded an already high work rate and my body found it difficult to adjust to the over-40° cockpit temperature. I finished both races in the lower top ten. Considering the circumstances this was not a bad result.

My first experience of India leaves me with no reservations for the success of the first Indian Grand Prix in October. The professionalism and standard set by series sponsor MRF Tyres surpasses any I have seen in Europe recently. Currently, I will be able to return for the two race MRF Formula 1600 Delhi Championship to support the Grand Prix weekend.

I will relish the opportunity to prepare properly and I really can’t wait to be back at full race fitness for a high profile race meeting. Just three weeks ago I had little hope of driving competitively this season and in that time I’ve travelled four flights, 11,000 miles, landed in three different countries and received a unbelievable opportunity for later this year.

I would personally like to thank Mr Rodricks and the entire MRF Tyre company, Jatin Choksi for looking after us in India, Julian Bernard (my race engineer), Kartik (my superstar mechanic), James Crofts, Linton Stutely and everyone else who helped me over the weekend.

© 2011 Hari Lakshmi Ratan

Martin with the best mechanics in India!

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