Ever since Formula Vee I have been looking forward to racing in the Edwina Overend Trophy. I wasn’t able to do so in 2008 after my brief appearance at Cadwell Park and so I was pleased that this year it also included a round of the Midland South Formula Ford Championship.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect when we arrived as I was not able to test before hand. In actual fact, the last pre-race weekend test day I did was back in Anglesey. Anyway, I did a 10 lap shakedown in 2007 in the car (albeit with Brands Hatch ratios) and I was reasonably confident I could be on the pace within a few laps. We also had two qualifying sessions – the first for the Midland South race and the second for the Trophy race.

Qualifying

First qualifying was exploratory, refreshing myself of the circuit and working out where we were on setup. The consensus was: we were too soft, struggling for traction at the hairpin and the brake pedal was a bit too long. Anyway, I set a time good enough for 2nd on the grid, two tenths off Ed Moore.

For second qualifying I went out with a brand new set of brake pads (thank you Nick Brown!) and these took six or seven laps to bed in. For the remainder of the session I didn’t get a particularly clean lap and I wasn’t able to get within 2 tenths of my previous time. However, I qualified third, behind Quartermaine and Moore.

Race 1 – Championship race

Just as we were preparing to leave for the assembly area for race one it started to rain – much like it did at Silverstone. It was enough to unsettle your nerves about staying on dry settings but not enough to justify a change to wet. We decided to stay on dry settings even if the circuit was damp at the start of the race.

I made a good start and was able to go to the outside of Moore into Gerrards for the first time and gain the lead. Conditions were damp and it was very difficult to tell at this point how hard to push, how the braking zones would be and where the grip was. I told myself that the circuit wasn’t wet, driving as close to normal as I could and I was consecutively over a second per lap quicker than anyone else at the start. On around lap five the conditions were improving and I think I was a little slower to react to the change than the chasing cars. I lost a bit of time passing a back marker and by the half way point of the race Moore had caught me, with Quartermaine and others in close succession.

At this point I knew that for what ever reason I wasn’t as quick as Moore but could hold on if I defended correctly. I decided to go to the inside at Gerrards, the Esses and the Hairpin and forget about lap times. As Moore became closer, the chasing pack behind caught him making it a close, four car train. Moore got alongside me on every straight, at times his wheels were actually in front but as I had the inside line I could just run deeper into the corner and hold the position.

With only a few laps to run Quartermaine got past Moore at the Esses and I had a few car lengths gap. Quickly after, I saw Moore spin on the exit of the Hairpin and I knew at this point the race was mine and I was elated at taking my first lights to flag victory in Formula Ford.

Before I had even unbuckled my belts in park ferme Ed Moore had lifted my visor and promptly told me that in the next race, he would put me into the wall and break my legs. He then continued for some time with an onslaught of similar profanities until I left back to the paddock. All I will say on the matter is that to me, for a driver of Ed’s calibre, experience and maturity to feel he has to act in this manner is somewhat pathetic and the respect I had for his achievements is sadly lost.

Race 2 – Edwina Overend Trophy

After a short break, it was time for the Edwina Overend Trophy race. By this time the circuit was dry but it remained overcast and dim.

Starting from third position I made a decent start but had nowhere to go in order to make a pass and I slotted in behind for the run around Gerrards. I stayed very close to the second place car of Quartermaine. I struggled to get alongside him on the straights but felt I was probably stronger on the brakes. Conscious that Moore was getting away at the front I dived down the inside at the Hairpin on lap two and made the move up into second position. At this point Moore had a two second gap and I set about trying to reduce it.

For the next fifteen laps I pushed as hard as I could to try and catch Moore. We exchanged lap times and I reduced his lead to just over a second before I lost time behind a number of back markers. Unfortunately, I could never make up the time I lost at the start and I finished 2nd but did take fastest lap in the process.

So, I got my first win – not the trophy race I wanted but a good result none the less. The entry was not great but to beat Ed Moore at Mallory Park in race one and then later to be faster than him to take fastest lap is a good indication of our improving pace. I think that despite the win, Mallory Park has proved to me without doubt that we are very short on engine power (and I will blog on this more over the next few weeks). I think that Moore had about 5 car lengths on me on every straight and it is costing me between 5 tenths and 1 second per lap. I think this also accounts for our relative performance in National races.

My next outing is this Saturday at Donington Park for the rescheduled Midland South race from earlier in the year. It will be another tough meeting with no testing, having never been around the Grand Prix circuit before qualifying. Finally, thanks in advance to Nick Brown for the brake pads for the coming weekend!

Related posts:

1. Formula Vee: Victory at Mallory Park! (Video)
2. Race Report: Mallory Park (UK Formula Vee)
3. Formula Ford: Silverstone Review

The programme is headed by sports car driver David Brabham (son of three-times World Champion Jack Brabham) and aims to develop drivers with the skills they need to progress throughout their careers,  such as physical training, mind coaching, career management, sponsorship generation, promotion and media presentation.

A second tier to the programme was added for 2008 and the MSA British Race Academy give six other drivers access to similar facilities but whom are at earlier stages of their careers (this arguably, is more appropriate to me). The chosen Academy drivers were Jack Clarke (finishing 4th in Formula Palmer Audi), James Cole (finishing 10th in British Formula Ford),  Ollie Millroy (finishing 21st in Formula BMW Europe) and Rupert Svendsen-Cook (finishing 13th in Formula BMW Europe).

In the name of transparency, I thought this year that I would post my MSA British Race Elite application online (well in advance of the 28/02 deadline).

I would like to think my application will be considered with optimism. In 2008, I didn’t really have much of a confirmed racing calendar, however this year is different. What’s more, I’d like to think that there are not many drivers applying who have won a national single seater championship, been Autosport Number 1 Club Driver of the Year and were part of major university’s Sports Bursary scheme for three years.

The Application

Personal Information

Name, Date of Birth, MSA License Number.

Statistics

Height: 179cm
Weight: 68kg
Do you smoke? No
Do you drink? No

Achievements

Academic Qualifications

University of Essex (2005-2008)
BSc Computer Science (First class)
2005, 2006 and 2007 University of Essex Sports Bursary Student

Colchester Institute (2003-2005)
BTEC National Diploma IT Practitioner

Gilberd School, Colchester (1998-2003)
GCSEs ommitted.

Racing Achievements

2007 Autosport Number One Club Driver of the Year
2007 UK Formula Vee Champion:

Formula Ford 1600 Festival:

Teams Driven For

• UK Formula Vee: AHS, GAC and Mark Dunham Racing
• British Formula Ford: Remita Racing
• Porsche 996 GT3 (Testing): Team Park Racing / Quaife / Racecar Engineering
• Formula Palmer Audi

Committed 2009 racing programme

• National Formula Ford 1600 Championship
• Midland South Formula Ford 1600 Championship
• Trophy Events:
  • BRDC Golden Helmet (Knockhill)
  • Castle Combe Carnival
  • Formula Ford 1600 Festival
  • Walter Hayes Trophy

Your Ambitions

I believe I have demonstrated my potential and I am keen now to prove myself against other talented drivers in more high profile series. I am sure that given the opportunity I could win at the highest level in single-seaters, touring cars or sports cars. In addition to this, I believe I work harder than any of young racing driver in the country both in order to fund my racing and in preparing myself physically for the year ahead.

Formula Vee has spawned champions at the highest levels before and I have prepared an appendix demonstrating how competitive Vee really is today. The data also demonstrates how successful I was in 2007 and why I believe I deserve the opportunity to take part in the MSA Race Elite scheme.

Related posts:

1. MSA announces new addition to its elite programme
2. 2009 Dunlop Race Academy – Good News for British Motorsport
3. Racing Steps Foundation: 2008 season review

Going into this weekend I had no circuit knowledge. Having elected to skip the Oulton Park round last year, an afternoon of testing on Friday had only two objectives: learn the circuit and refine a setup.

A broken head stud was the result of a single installation lap in the first of two sessions. Later, during the second session, the oil cooler was ruptured by a stone and a rocker gasket began to leak, ending what was a very difficult day in which I managed just half a dozen laps of the picturesque circuit.

On Friday evening we reappraised our situation. I had come to Oulton Park with the clear intention of winning. I wanted my fourth straight pole position and I wanted to make up for the mistake last time out at Silverstone. However, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. I still did not know the circuit well and with only a handful of laps, we approached making changes to our setup with some trepidation.

As far as I was concerned, the objectives had changed. Martin Farmer, last years Oulton Park winner and my only championship threat, was clearly fastest on Friday with the new 2008-spec GAC engine. With only ten championship points separating us going into this weekend, I had to focus on damage limitation. For me, we decided, there was nobody else in the race.

During qualifying, I stayed close to Farmer. James Birch put in an early quick lap to take provisional pole position whilst Farmer and I continued to improve our times. The session ended with Farmer improving on the final lap to take pole position. Birch ended up second whilst I was was third.

We were ahead of Farmer up until the final lap and considering the relative lack of circuit knowledge we had, it wasn’t a bad result. The car was also distinctly unpredictable and we later discovered a broken trailing arm. Since lap one of qualifying we were running extreme camber on the right-rear wheel, almost certainly a result of taking the heavy kerbing through one of the two chicanes. All things considered, I was relatively confident.

Lining up on the grid, I still had just one goal in mind: finish ahead of Farmer. For the first time ever, I was ready for big picture racing.

Over the green flag lap I was somewhat concerned with the car. It sounded more “throaty than normal and I concluded it was probably a small piece of dirt in the carburettor. What’s worse, the oil light had come on as I took my grid space.

I had an average get away but lost momentum as Hands came across to cover the inside. As I was swamped by many cars, I decided to err on the side of caution early into the turn one. I was down in sixth position but as we swooped through Cascades and down the Lakeside straight for the first time I was not particularly concerned. It was a train of cars: Hands, Farmer, Birch, Jake Oliveira, Sam Oliveira, myself and Ryan Lindsay. It didn’t think it would last and so I sat back for a lap to consider the car.

Over the opening lap the oil light continued to flash. Rationalising that I wouldn’t still be running if I really had an oil pressure problem, I figured it too was a victim of hitting the kerbing hard all weekend.

Exiting Lodge corner for the first time and we began to concertina together. I got alongside Sam up the hill and was past in time to take a somewhat normal line into Old Hall. Hands and Birch were alongside one another at the front, as were Jake and Farmer directly ahead of me.

Jake Oliveira and Farmer continued to run side-by-side down through Cascades and I managed to get to the gearbox of Jake before Farmer had a chance to close the door. Approaching the Shell Oils hairpin this time and I was back into 4th position but most crucially, ahead of Farmer.

I decided to start defending. After all, I did not have to win the race and even if the front three made a break, it didn’t matter to me.

We continued to go wheel to wheel over the next lap, Farmer getting to my outside before Old Hall. He couldn’t make it stick and fell back into line for the run through Cascades. Once again, on the run down Lakeside Straight, Farmer rocketed to my outside before Island Bend. Taking the outside line, he appeared to get on the marbles and he under-steered off the circuit and onto the grass. I could hardly believe my eyes and as I began to brake for the hairpin he was out the sight of my mirrors.

I continued to search my mirrors for any signs of the works GAC. Before we had even reached the Knickerbrook chicane I was confident that if he was still running, he was considerably down the order.

Sam Oliveira was now glued to my gearbox. Having reappraised the situation and still holding reservations about the reliability of my car, I moved over to let him past rather than risk fighting unnecessarily. What’s more, by following him, I would be almost certainly be dragged back to the front while continuing to conserve my own car.

Sam was having his own difficulties and as he went through to my inside at Druids, his car was quite literally on fire. Being a sportsman, he let me back through and I continued to reduce the gap on my own.

Exiting Cascades again and it was now Birch who was to fall by the wayside. Suffering an engine failure, this promoted me back to where I had started in third position.

As I negotiated Island Bend for the third time I could see the stricken car of Farmer in the outside wall. Once again, this changed the dynamics of my race. With a ten point lead originally and a DNF giving Farmer only 1 extra point, I would need to score 18 to take the title, the equivalent of finishing fourth. As I was currently running in third position, I concentrated on keeping consistent and conservative. Ryan Lindsay was keeping me honest and his constant presence in my mirrors gave me little hope of relaxing entirely.

Related posts:

1. Formula Vee: Victory at Mallory Park! (Video)
2. Formula Vee: Pole Position, Fastest Lap and 2nd at Silverstone
3. Formula Vee: Pembrey (Video)

Race Commentary

Friday testing suggested quite how close Saturday would have been. The full GAC team were out in strength, with ex-BTCC works Toyota driver Ian Flux testing Farmer’s car during the morning. Daniel Hands returned to the track after his Brands Hatch misfortune and to the best of my knowledge, Farmer, Hands and myself were separated by a matter of hundredths all day.

Come Saturday and the forecast of rain, qualification was neither wet nor dry. Damp patches covered the circuit but as I was in the second of two sessions conditions were invariably better for me. However, it was of little advantage as Martin Farmer, James Birch, John Hughes and Jake Oliveira all contested this session too.

As the session got underway, I settled in behind Birch, Hughes and Farmer and quickly worked up to the front, using each of them as a spring board forward. After four laps the session was stopped due to oil down between Brooklands and Copse. Whilst waiting for the session to be restarted I was told that I was fastest by eight tenths, ahead of Farmer. Knowing that Farmer would also be told this, he would certainly be pushing hard once we got going again.

By the time the session was resumed, circuit conditions had improved. However, the remnants of oil at Brooklands meant I couldn’t improve on my previous best lap. Never-the-less, neither could Farmer and it was good enough for my third consecutive pole position by little over four tenths of a second from Martin Farmer and James Birch.

The Clerk of the Course later deemed that the two sessions had different enough conditions to justify staggering the results and so joining me on the front row would be Sam Oliveira, with Ian Buxton and Martin Farmer making up row two.

So, an hour before the race the rain settled in, the full extent of which I did not know until we made the grid. Large puddles of standing water lined the circuit, at Copse, Beckets and Brooklands.

Getting off the line was a struggle in itself. Even the most extreme clutch finesse gave too much wheelspin. Sam made an equal start but by the time I made second gear, Ian Buxton had already jumped us for the lead.

Benefitting from an absolutely storming start, he moved to the inside and led into Copse for the first time. Feeling the need to make it back to the front I got to the outside of Buxton under braking for Brooklands and we ran side by side until I had the inside line for Luffield.

Now back in front I could start to think about running at my own pace. Unbeknown to me was that as entering Becketts on lap one Farmer had touched wheels with Birch, spun and was now trailing at the back of the field.

I started to push reasonably hard but it was short-lived. I stretched out a sizeable lead over Buxton on that lap but after making the apex at Brooklands, continued to aquaplane off towards the gravel. Realising the potential that I would get beached was high, I got back on the throttle fractionally before reaching the end of the track. This gave me just enough momentum to power through the gravel, over the grass, across the tighter, disused Luffield corner, over some more grass and to rejoin just behind Buxton in the middle of the corner.

I had lost a few seconds to Buxton but remained in second position. After regaining my composure, I decided that I needed to chase down Buxton for the win as I had no idea how Farmer was progressing.

Within two laps I had caught him and in the process set a new fastest lap, 1.2 seconds faster than his and a second faster than anybody else. Starting lap six and on the run down to Becketts I had a think about going down the inside of Buxton. We were millimeters apart and on the exit I was completely out of shape. I couldn’t hold it and spun. Keeping the engine running I had to wait for Birch, Lindsay and Oliveira to pass before I could rejoin. It was at that point that I realised Martin was no longer towards the front.

So I got lucky. Yes and I admit it. The red flags were thrown due to an incident between Alan Robinson and Ankit Love at Luffield, therefore on count back, I retained second place.

Martin struggled to make up positions and finished down in 18th position, scoring just three points. He will now drop that round, his worst finish of the season and with my 22 points for second place and the extra point for fastest lap, I have retaken the championship lead and have a ten point buffer heading into the final two rounds.

However, whilst the dynamics of the championship have changed (I can now finish second to him even if he wins and gets fastest lap), it is far from over. A DNF at Oulton Park or Snetterton would put me largely out of contention, albeit not mathematically, but practically. It may only be 30 minutes of racing but there is a long way still to go.

Overall, I can’t help but be slightly disappointed at myself for not winning. I was quickest in qualifying and in the race by a sizeable margin. The truth is, the conditions caught me out.

Congratulations to Ian Buxton on his first win of year. He may not have been the quickest but he did manage something I didn’t – he kept it on track.

Next up, Outlon Park.

Related posts:

1. Formula Vee: 3rd at Oulton makes me Champion (Video)
2. Preview: Next up, Snetterton
3. Preview: Castle Combe (UK Formula Vee)

Pole Position Lap

Race One

Race Two

Related posts:

1. Formula Vee: Victory at Cadwell Park! (Video)
2. Race Report: Brands Hatch GP (UK Formula Vee)
3. Formula Ford: Brands Hatch Review