Silverstone International - Easter Sunday

[BS25]

Hi All,

The ARCA season starts tomorrow on the Silverstone International circuit (uses the GP circuit Wing Complex as a base). We will be there with the 33, feel free to come and say hello if you are there! Its an interesting day as British Superkarts are also racing at the same meeting.

Qualifying is at 9.00

Race 1 - 12.05

Race 2 - 15.20

Live timing - http://livetiming.tsl-timing.com/151431

[Johnboy]

Good luck chap . Give them hell

[Marlow Sud]

Show them what a 33 can do Bryan. Should be a bit warmer tomorrow. Wishing you and BLS good luck and every success.

Brgds,
Simon

[BS25]

Had a very enjoyable and successful day! Having looked forward to the season starting it was somewhat annoying to develop a bad case of man-flu last week, I hadn't shaken it off so decided against camping in the paddock! I'm not sure that a roadside room in Towcester Travelodge was a great deal better but I did get more than the 4 hours sleep of the night before!

This was to be our first run of the car with new front brakes (calipers/discs/pads), revised suspension rates and a slightly altered seating position. Also new was an in-car laptimer using GPS rather than a trackside beacon. It also featured predictive timing - this proved to be very useful. The main aim of qualifying was to bed the brakes in but surprisingly I was quickly upto speed and within the 20 minute session I set a time 1.5 seconds quicker than I had been round the International circuit. I was actually on pole until the last lap - the GTV 3.2 Supercharged of Graham Seager went quicker on its last lap. I was nearly a second quicker than my likely rival - Chris Snowdon in his 2.0 16v 33. Chris is a very quick and experienced racer and had been testing in his car at Silverstone a week earlier. He was also racing his GTV6 at the recent Goodwood Members Meeting.

I got a good start and was able to outbrake the GTV and take the lead at Turn 3. I held the lead until Lap 4 when Graham came blasting past on the Hangar Straight - I was quicker through Copse but couldn't re-pass going through The Vale and into Club. However, next lap I did and held the lead again! Graham again came past on the Hangar Straight and I repeated the overtake going into Club again. Graham again got past on the straight and stayed out of reach, building a gap he got a better run through the cars we were lapping. I could see Chris Snowdon catching me in the other 33 - he too was getting a better run through the traffic and recovering from a slow start having dropped to 4th behind a 156 GTA. The gap closed right down but over the last two laps I was confident I could stay in front and was able to do so without too much trouble - almost catching Graham in the GTV as he slowed for oil at Club (156 cracking its sump jumping the kerbs). We crossed the line with 3 seconds covering all 3 of us - a good clean close race!

Race 2 was even more fun! I had another good start but wasn't able to get past the GTV on this occasion. Chris had made a much better start and got past me in the complex prior to the Hangar Straight. I was able to get by under braking into Stowe and held second for the next 4 laps until I didn't defend robustly enough in the complex and he got past. We then circulated within a second of each other for the rest of the race - he having more grip/traction in the tight bends (he runs 18" wheels with 235 width slicks - mine are 15" with 205 slicks) - though I was quicker in the fast corners and had better straight line speed. In all honesty I could have been more forceful but Chris placed his car very well and the first meeting of the season is no time for a do or die lunge! I was only 0.3 seconds behind at the flag and was very happy with 3rd overall - and a faster race lap. It's usually small car v big car so it was great to be in a race with another small car! The GTV was only 9 seconds clear of us - not bad considering the GTV has a power advantage of approx 150 bhp and loads more torque from its 3.2 supercharged engine. Its good variation though and I'm sure we will all be evenly matched at various circuits through the year!

In summary, the brakes worked excellently - really confidence inspiring, the suspension changes also worked well with no unexpected vices. The predictive laptimer was really useful - helping with knowing when to abort a lap (very F1...) but also with pacing through laps in the race. I had spent several hours through the winter watching some of my in car footage from last year and implemented various changes at several corners. All the above rolled together helped knock 2 seconds off my previous best - it all counts.

Thanks as ever to my Dad for all his hard work through the cold winter, Shrew (and Jixxer) for transport and support, David Cannard (who also used to race/rally a Sud) and Ralph Bee (who along with my Dad gave me driving lessons when I was 17!).

I am in the process of uploading my footage from Race 1 but was annoyed to find that the micro SD card in the Go-Pro hit its limit with 6 laps of Race 2 still to run - more capacity required! When it's uploaded I'll post a link.

Next event is Rockingham on 2/3 May - we are on with the British GT's so it's a good one to be at!

[BS25]

Here's Race 1 - it all looks very slow - especially the first few laps on cold slicks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R7NxawVw8k

[PETROLHEAD]

Hi All


Bryan, you beat me too it!


finally having found some time (and energy!) to get online and write up about the weekend, you've gone and done it for me, so i thank for you that amongst other things too mate! cheers!

pretty much would have written just the same but from a third person wing top view, and my passing video footage with Jixxer's tourette like commentary would be a lot less pleasing on the eyes but maybe worth comedy value! lol!

needless to say we both sound a little passionate and emotional supporting the BLS 33, but Jixxer's mid race advice to Bryan would more resemble Grand Theft Auto rather than cunning race play!


A great weekend, results speak for themselves, all men and machine safely home across the lines, and new van and trailer working out too, so JD!


I will say a little bit about the other stuff that was going on, because it did add up to a really varied weekend, really really interesting stuff.


Most notably were these Cooper formula 3's, with 500cc single engines such as Manx Nortons

and one of the oddest suspension set ups i've ever seen (JB, thats where your Bull-Worker got too!)

[PETROLHEAD]

Then there were the multi-class of Superkarts, from 2 stroke 125cc singles, twins, 250cc, and 4 stroke 450 singles mostly from KTM moto-x donation i think

They were all ruddy quick, and it was lovely to smell some 2 stroke in the air again, i've missed that for a bit!

and just to give Kev Flashback Nightmares

Jixxer thought it looked "Cool" so he was sent back to the camping confinements of the van to write a 1000 word essay on "Why it was a good job it was only a Beetle shell running a 4 hour endurance race!"


on the tablet!

[Marlow Sud]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
Nice work team BLS.
I wish I could drive like that without man-flu let alone with it.
All the best,
Simon

[Kegsti66]

Nice one guys, all the best for the season.
Love the footage.
Thanks.

[Veesix75]

Well done Bryan, a result like that at Silverstone is a good sign for the twisty circuits, wins at Cadwell and oulton on the cards.....

[Johnboy]

Great result chaps and top write up of the weekend
Interesting cars and surspension setups lol

[Oxfordshire driver]

Well done Bryan/Team BLS!
Great video and great results.
Would be interested to know how you arrived at the purchase of the AIM, did you consider others or was it recommended?

Cheers,
Malcolm

[BS25]

Thanks everyone!

Malcolm, I particularly wanted something that would have the predictive capability as I think that's a really useful feature. Racelogic do one but it's considerably more money so really it came down to the AIM Solo having all the features I wanted at a reasonable price. You can also download the data to AIM's software which gives acceleration, braking and cornering G as well as sector times. The Solo DL has the ability to link to most motorsport ECU's so you also get engine and vehicle data capture.

I'd not heard anything bad about the Solo and my findings last weekend confirmed that for myself. I'm just waiting for my laptop to be repaired so I can geek out on the sector times - I usually do this the old fashioned way using the footage from my Go-Pro, a stopwatch and some carefully selected points on the track!

[Ted27sud]

Totally agree with Bryan regarding the Aim data logger.

I started using one last year in my Formula Ford and find it invaluable. My team mate, who has raced FF's for decades and has won numerous championships, had one fitted as well so it was fantastic to see the overlaid data showing speeds and times, etc. I learnt massive amounts in testing and found lap times came down. It also graphically showed how much time is wasted by overdriving in slow corners and underdriving in fast ones.

Anyone serious about getting more performance should invest the £200 and get one. Also, checking data against Go-Pro footage can make you cringe when you review your last race/qually/test!

Cheers, Ted