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spawny whippet motorsport

 

Castle Combe

 

30th August 2004

 

Formula Vauxhall Junior 1600cc 16V. (Running in 1800 class with 2000 class)

 

Qualifying

 

This was my 2nd visit to Castle Combe and 2nd drive of the year in Andy Yeomans Formula Vauxhall Junior. Work commitments prevented me from testing as usual, so I started the qualifying on very old tyres and having to learn the track layout again. The car was terrible over bumps and oversteered badly whenever power was applied coming out of a corner, making a quick laptime impossible. I struggled through to a 1:16, over 6 seconds slower than last year in a misfiring TOM's on old tyres. This was very disappointing, but nonetheless good enough for 2nd in class, 25th overall. 

 

After qualifying, we examined the rear suspension and found that the car seemed to be over-damped, causing the springs to load up over bumps then just bounce. We changed the tyres to some relatively new ones and dropped the rebound setting on the rear dampers to minimum.

 

Race

 

In the race, I got a great start, picking up at least 6 places immediately, including the faster cars of Geoff Fern and the Dallara F300 of Phil Moore. Geoff outdragged me to the first corner and disappeared off into the distance, and I settled down to defending my place against 3 faster Vauhall Lotuses and Dallaras. The changes we had made to the FVJ had absolutely transformed the handling and the car was immediately 2 seconds a lap quicker. 

 

On the straights, the higher cornering speeds of the FVL's driven by Michael Kremzer and David Brown finally allowed them to get by me, then David Brown lost control immediately and span in front of me. I narrowly avoided a big shunt by guessing the direction he speared off to and turning the opposite way. I then concentrated on keeping my place in the race and not letting any other cars by. I finished in 15th place overall, 2nd in class.

 

 

 

 

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