Brandshatch (Rounds 17 & 18)

The BTCC returned to Brandshatch for rounds 17 and 18. This time we were running on the Indy circuit which from a spectator point of view has to be the best circuit in the UK. I was hoping that returning to a familiar circuit would allow me to get some solid finishes and possibly claw back some places in the production championship. However, the weekend didn't go to plan as I left with a 9th and a DNF.

Practice and Qualifying

Practice started the evening before with a walk around the Indy circuit with Gary Ayles. As I have mentioned in previous reports, part of touring car racing is using every last inch of track and then a foot or two more. The briefings always include a comment on corner cutting but a the end of the day if you don't and someone else does, they will post the quicker time. And so a walk round the circuit is essential to check out which areas can and can't be used Chief engineer Ian Blackman said that the team has always had problems setting up the car for the Indy circuit. In the first practice session we tried playing with the set-up to cure understeer around Druids and Clearways and I ended up seventh fastest on 52.8 seconds, 0.9 seconds behind the BMW of Norman Simon, its superior drive out of the slower corners was obvious. Its also interesting to consider how reliable the BMW has been this year with Norman using a single engine for the season. According to Norman this is because the engine is based on an ETCC unit which is designed to rev much higher than the BTCC imposed 8500rpm and as a result I very un-stressed. He says they struggle to get torque out of the unit but power seems plentiful. Compare this with the Alfa which is producing good low down torque but struggles to pit it down on the track but has proved to be sensitive to over-revving. I can't complain about top end power though as the Alfa's are always amongst the top cars for speed and on some occasions the Alfa has been quicker than the tail end of the super tourers. At Brands we were hitting around 125 mph before braking for Paddock hill, just a few mph down on the tourers. The second practice session didn't go too well. We played around with front camber but ended up going back to the original settings with some minor changes to ride height and tyre pressures. However, I also suffered a problem with the gearbox. I found myself in neutral as I entered Clearways, the box refusing to select 2nd, but when it did go into gear it removed one of the 6 dogs on second gear. I think the team will be looking for a new supplier of gearbox parts as we have had a few fail in this way through the season. The gearbox was stripped after qualifying to replace second gear and this revealed the evidence; five perfectly good dogs and one completely missing with a fracture which looked suspiciously like a manufacturing defect. There wasn't time to change the gearbox before qualifying and so I had to make do with a car which had to be held in second gear. When you consider that 3 of the 5 corners at Brands Hatch are taken in second gear you may appreciate what a handicap it was. The result was a ninth for race 1 on 53.057. I worked really hard in the second part of qualifying and was completely exhausted at the end but was rewarded with a sixth place on 52.6, 1 second behind the pole car of Norman Simon and 0.6 seconds behind Gavin Pyper.

Sprint Race

The sprint race started OK and I made a very good start making up a couple of places off the line. I think I'm getting the hang of the standing starts in the Alfa. I moved to the inside of the track for Duids but several cars went round the outside including my team mate Alan and Mark Fullalove who had started at the back after going off at Paddock in qualifying. I got past Alan at Druids and started to close on Mark Fullalove with Alan behind me. However, Alan seems to try hardest when chasing me and so we swapped places for a few laps. The race was littered with incidents and saw many laps behind the safety car. Unfortunately during the final outing of the safety car it came out in the middle of the pack. Some of the field was waved past until the two lead MGs were behind the pace car. By this stage the Super Tourers had started to lap the production class cars and so Mark Fullalove was behind the MGs running in 7th place with Alan and myself behind him. Mark was not waved past the safety car and so the lead 6 cars in the production class raced around to join the back of the crocodile and effectively gained a free lap. The race re-started and I was fuming inside my Helmet, the pace car had just ruined any chance I had of getting a decent finish. However, the race only ran for a few more laps and was then red flagged, perhaps as a response to the safety car confusion. Having started well down the grid, and with very few racing laps to try and make up places I was left with a poor result and I was determined to get a better finish in the feature race.

Feature Race

I started in sixth place for the feature race and so was in a much better position. At short circuits like Brandshatch Indy we get two green flag laps to warm up the tyres. Having said that it can be difficult to get the tyres warmed up for the feature race as the second half of the green flag lap is very stop /start as the safety car tries to bunch up the pack for a tight rolling start. The start went well and I got away with the lead production class group. The car was going well, especially strong through the fast bits but I was suffering with under-steer around Druids and Clearways. As the race developed I stayed with the lead group of 6 cars and pulled away from Mark Thomas who was running in 7th in his Honda. And then the engine started to miss fire at the top end. I noticed it first around lap 8, it started at about 8000rpm in 5th on the straight and got progressively worse as the laps passed. It then started to limit my speed on the main straight and up the hill to Druids. Mark Thomas overtook me into Paddock but I managed to get back past on the way into Clearways. Not that it lasted very long, and then suddenly the engine regained its life and for a few laps it seemed to have cleared. I re-took Mark and pulled out a small gap. Then 2 laps later it dropped onto 3 cylinders at Druids. It was still running but had no power and so I retired to the pits.

Conclusion

Not the weekend I was hoping for. The gearbox problems in qualifying had made it difficult to get up the grid, and the physical effort required to qualify 6th for the feature race was enormous. The sprint race was a non-event due to the constant pace car interruptions and then engine problems had bought my feature race to a premature end. However, racing in a BTCC race at Brands was a great experience. The place has superb atmosphere and I will never forget the feeling of flying into Paddock hill bend in the 156.