- 24,309
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
Croix-en-ternois • July 15/16th • Mk1 Lotus Cortina
Well, it all started off with a clash of dates. I was due to be away on holiday from July 8th -15th but the race was on the weekend of the 15th & 16th with a day of practice on the 14th. I managed to persuade Mrs Cracker to finish the holiday a day early (i owe her big time for this) on the Friday so i could travel down to France a day late, missing the practice but getting there just in time for qualifing (just).
Following a long, slow and very hot (no air-con!) journey back from North Wales i got home at around 7pm on the Friday, getting to bed for around 8pm to try to get a little sleep before setting off for Dover at around half-past-midnight. Unfortunatly the hot weather and the abnormal bedtime ment i got probably no more than an hours poor quality sleep and woke to my alarm feeling pretty crappy. A quick shower and i was off. The M1, Britains main motorway artery from north to south, was unfortunatly riddled with speed restricted roadworks, as was the London orbital M25 so my plan of getting a couple more hours 'kip' in Dover was foiled. Got to the ferry port at 5.30am just in time to get a ticket and onto the ferry to France, cutting things finely.
This is where another element of my 'could have been better' weekend came into play. I'm not a great traveller whether as a train, plane or car passenger but i'm a much worse sailor, a slight ripple in the water and i'm turning green. The short Dover-Calais crossing was what could be described as 'choppy' and not long into the voyage i was starting to feel quite queasy. An hour and a half latter and i was certainly glad to get my feet on dry land. My dad met me at Calais having travelled up from the circuit where they'd been since Friday morning, to give me a lift down. Around 30 minutes into the hour long journey to Croix circumstances took over and the motion of the van had me ordering a stop so i could re-discover the contents of my stomach - thankfully i'd not eaten for 12 hours so there wasn't much to see.
Anyway, we got to the circuit with just enough time for me to sign-on and jump into my thick flame-proof underwear (high neck, long sleeves and legs) 2 layer nomex suit, thick balaclava, high-top boots, nomex gloves and helmet - just what you want to wear when the temp's in the mid to high 30's (100+F) and you're about to do a 'work-out' in a largely unventilated tin can for the next 15 minutes or so and you've just been sick and not really slept for 24hours* 👎
The plan for the weekend was for my step-bro to race on the Saturday (he had a mate coming to watch) and me to race on the Sunday. Qualifing was a 25 minute affair so he went out for the first 10 minutes and i go out for the last 15ish. Although both my dad and step-bro had driven the car on Friday, it had been at reduced revs to run-in the freshly re-built engine and on old tired tires. Neither of us has raced for almost 4 years, although he has done a dozen or so trackdays in his Exige, so when we qualified 7th - a second and a half off pole we were quite pleased. It took me 2 or 3 laps to get re-aquainted with the cars handling, power and grip but it soon came flooding back and i was soon lapping at a pace not far off what i'd done at the track 5 or 6 years previously. Unfortunatly everyone else has 4+ years development on us which accounts for our average qualifing position*. But considering i'd been throwing up less than an hour before it wasn't a bad effort.
(*see, racing-driver excuses already!)
I'd thought i'd be able to get my head down for a couple more hours between qualifing and the race but it was too hot in the van so i sat and rested for a bit before getting itchy feet and set off to take a couple of pix of the circuit whilst empty.
The run down to the first corner
The run up from turn 3, under the bridge (where you always feel like ducking with it being so low) towards the blind turn-in for turn 4
Turn 4
Turn 6 the view up from turn 5 and the view down the main straight passed the pits. Turn 6 is an ultra-tight hairpin that only an aerial photo can illustrate just how tight it is, see first pic
Looking back up to turn 6 (taken from viewing platform on top of the pits)
Race time. Step-bro is suited and booted but has been sunbathing between quali and the race and is now feeling a bit crappy - its touch and go whether i'm going to duputise for him and he race on the Sunday instead (this is a point worth remembering...)
His lack of recent race experience shows once the lights go out and doesn't manage to give it enough revs to get away cleanly (5000 is the recommended figure, any less and the engine bogs down), looses a few places into the first corner (it's a really scary place to be if you've not done it for a while). Once the first lap or so is over and the field spreads out he begins to take some places back. I'd decided to watch the race from various vantage points around the track instead of the usual watching from the pits - so i could take some pix.
You'll have to excuse some of these pix - my new camera seems to prefere auto-focusing on the catch fencing rather than the action going on behind it
I was watching from near the bridge when i noticed he'd not been passed me when he should have. Then he came into view - something didn't look right. He wound his way through turns 1, 2 and 3 then towards me....
oh dear!
I ran back to the pits to see what had happened. It turns out he was running with another Lotus Cortina closely behind and they were both catching a Mini. One of the Hillman Imps had begun dropping oil and the track had become pretty slippy. The two Lotus Cortinas had caught the Mini into the tight final turn. My step-bro lost traction in the oil when he put the power down coming out of the turn, the car fish-tailed and was caught by the second Cortina who was trying to avoid the Mini sending my step-bro into the gravel. It wasn't as bad as it looked, although the wing was badly bent it hadn't damaged the suspension or make the bodywork fowl the tire - so he carried on. A racing incident, the only blame laying on the Imp for not pulling off the track, Imps being rear engined means its hard to tell if your dropping oil until you slip on your own a lap later!
Unfortunatly the impact pushed the second Cortina's steering and tracking out forcing a retirement.
Not much damage on the surface, but enough to make the handling undrivable at speed
My step-bro finished 8th in the end, but 1st in class - so not too bad considering. After he pulled back into the paddock it didn't take too long, with a bit of genius intervention, to get the wing looking straightish again - in fact at the end of the weekend we got a trophy for best repair!
A good day's racing over and my race to look forward to on Sunday afternoon 👍 👍
I had two choices for my Saturday evening's entertainment, keeping in mind i'd had practically no sleep since early on Friday morning, thrown up and subsequently not eaten much - and it was bloody hot too.
A) Sit around by the motorhomes, having a BBQ and maybe 1 or 2 beers, talking about the racing and enjoying the evening sun, then getting a good nights sleep?
or
B) Go into the local town with my step-bro and his mate for beers and French/Anglo relations and probably much less sleep?
.....like you couldn't guess which choice i took
Five o'clock the following morning and we're rolling out of a French nightclub in the middle of nowhere, getting a lift back to the circuit with some French birds who'd persuaded us (they didn't get much resistance) to go there in the first place. The sun was already showing itself by the time we got dropped off and the three of us staggered back to the already hot tent we were to be sleeping in.
Four whole hours later and i'm woken by the sound of cars warming up (about 3 meters from my head) ready for Sunday's first race. I crawl out of my sleeping bag at around half ten, down a couple of ltrs of warm water and sit in a corner of a field watching the first race and generally gathering my thoughts.
It's too hot so i head back to the van to try to get some sleep in the shade. Unfortunatly it's hotter than it was the day before and the cocktail of 5 hours sleep in a 48 hour period, hot weather, nausia from travel sickness, little food from a lack of appitite and a generous dose of French lager - all nicely mixed up with a few hours of beer-fueled dancing means that cat-napping is never going to happen 👎
Things don't really improve and i have to ask my step-bro to deputise for me - what an idiot i feel.... 👎
Still, he has a good race, spoiled slightly by mistakenly failing to select first gear on the grid and ending up stoodstill while the rest of the field tear-off, wondering whats wrong before finding first and begining the chase half a lap or so down on the leaders. Red mist ensured he put some good laps in and was soon catching and passing the back markers. He ended 8th again but had the 4th fastest lap less than a second down on the fastest lap of the race. I watched the race from the shade of one of the pit garages so took only a few pictures.
Still, we live and learn.
On a brighter note we've got a couple of two-driver semi-endurance races at the Silverstone Classic in a couple of weeks on the Historic GP circuit 👍 then Spa in September 👍 👍
Watch this space....
Good job on the repairs, lucky it wasn't any worse! Shame you never got to race, but Silverstone and Spa await!
