Retired from Vee

Yes I've sold the car (at the end of 2013). It had been sat in the garage for a year and it was time to sell it rather than letting it rust away. A racing car belongs on a track and not sat in a garage. It was a sad day to see it go but the next owner promised to be out next season with it. In 2014 I didn't see them out once....

It didn't take long to sell but then its all about timing. Just after the end of the season and very few Vees up for sale on RaceCarDirect all helped me to shift it in less than a month.

I sold it for £4K including the trailer. That's not bad when you consider the car cost me £5K back in 1999 and the trailer I bought new from Brain James for £1,300 in about 2006. I maybe could have got a little bit more but the car had been sat in a garage and needed an overhaul so I think it was a fair price.

This is a photo taken at my last race...Donnington 2012 with my family. The person missing that helped the most is my trusty mechanic Ian who was the one taking the photo.

Nice Photo at Brands (prob 2010) at Druids...I used this to advertise the car. A nice action photo is what stirs the emotions and gets the car sold !!!

Its now been a couple of years since I last raced. Would I go back to it ? I think I will. Would I go back to Vee ? Maybe,

BTW - after my fall my hip never recovered and after a year of it getting worse I decided to have a replacement. Ceramic and Titanium. Its so much better now. I walk with hardly any limp and no more pain and clicking from the hip. I wish I had it done 6 months earlier. This is what it looks like now...

Donnington 2012 - the last race

The previous race was Brands Hatch. The race was one of the wettest races I've ever been in. Its open cockpit and you expect to get a bit wet if it rains but it was like sitting in a bath. I couldn't see much. Nobody could. So I just circulated and finished. I can't say I enjoyed that one. But as Phil Liggett once said "You don't here the winner complaining". Precisely.

Donnington 2012 in June I thought might be my last race. I was thinking of doing the later Donnington race in September but that would be close to the date when Poppy was due.

I love Donnington and going out onto the circuit you always feel you are on a proper circuit. Then its down to business and practicing. I was very rusty and I remember Craner was flat but I was lifting a little on the last bit. I knew I shouldn't be doing that but its hard to sometimes keep you foot in. A few more laps and I would have got it. As a result I was 27th out of 35. I was looking forward to the races and some overtaking.

The first race got going and it lasted a lap for me. I was coming down the main straight when I lost all power. I made it around Redgate but there was no power and I pulled off. I think a wire had fallen off the coil. An easy repair so I was going to be out the next day. I had a forward and rear facing camera and with a bit of editing I got a neat but limited sequence of action.

The second race was 2 short races. This is what has cheesed me off about Vee. Lots of red flags. The first flag I missed and nearly went into the back of James Conyers. Then in the second part I spent too long behind James. He has a good engine and I don't so it took me a while to get past and time I got past the others had gone. It could have been a lonely race but if the group ahead started battling then I am sure I would have caught them and joined them. Anyway its all academic because someone crashed around the pit entrance and another red flag...

Results on 750MC website

This is a photo taken at my last race with my family. The person missing that helped the most is my trusty mechanic Ian who was the one taking the photo.

Taking a break...

I was out mountain biking going down a rocky descent when my front wheel got trapped and I fell off. I fractured my hip. I was whisked (well it took the ambulance crew 2 hours to find me) away to hospital and they operated and put some screw in. 3 days later I was back home. I've already done 6 weeks of hobbling around. I am not sure how long it will take to recover. Life and racing is on hold...

3rd in class

17th overall. Good race full of overtaking. I was slow off the start and got mugged. Then grabbed 4th instead of 2nd and got mugged again. A little slower lap time probably due to not doing the tyre pressures. Tweeking the carb for tommorrow and hoping for a little more speed and another trophy .

Snetterton

Just finished practice. 19th out of 30. Not found too many people liking the new circuit. Nice new tarmac - super smooth.

Brands race report

An enjoyable day racing. It was quite a relaxed morning with scrutineering in the garage at 10:20. Practice kicked off an hour later and I think the marshalls had had one too many coffees and were energetically waving flags all the time. Mostly yellow and blue but then a red one at the end. It was difficult to get a clear lap and I tried to latch on to passing cars of the top guys to pull me a long.. My cockpit timer was still configured for silverstone - so it would wait 1 minute before checking for a timing beam and since the lap around brands is less then a minute I was getting lap times of 2 laps. So I had no idea what I was doing. A time of 56.68 was ok considering the last 3 laps were all under yellow at MacCleans because a car was parked with driver in on the outside.

Mid race tweeks involved putting in the right amount of petrol. I pumped about 10 litres and put back in exactly 10. We also lowered the car, gave it a clean, fitted some shoter air intakes and got the camera working. For the race I got a good start and passed a couple of people further up the field who must have started in third or did the classic 1st to 4th change. After we sorted outselves out I was following Lee Levett going into Paddock Hill Bend and I could see in front 2 cars spinning. Lee started to spin which made me think there must be oil on the track but my car stayed rock steady and I slowed a little while Lee did his spin and exited the track. Another half a lap and the red flags were out. So having made up 5 places in 1 lap it was back to square one. On the restart there was a huge gap in the grid on the right hand side. I think the spinners had been allowed back into the race but not in the original grid slots which is a good decision. In the past drivers who have stopped a race then have got a second chance by going back to the original grid slots was wrong and unfair for the rest of us. On the restart I passed another 1st to 4th gear type starter but was passed by a green car and that's where I stayed for the rest of the race. We quickly pulled away from the group behind me and I came close to overtaking a couple of times but I didn't get alongside in a good place to make it stick. Showing my slight lack of racecraft and also I am not good enough on the brakes. Both I need to work on for the next meeting at Snetterton. I finished 17th and I improved my lap time to 55.48. I was also under my qualifying laptime for almost every lap and I did 5 laps within a couple of tenths of my fastest lap - so good consistency. Throughout the race I could see a group of 3 in front and my target for snetterton is getting into that group.

In the scrutineering after the end of the race we had to remove the restrictor plates - why bother. If I am finishing 17th and breaking the rules then I am very poor at cheating. Anyway we duly took them off and checked.. Got the ride height checked and finally the weight. Without driver 391 (minimum is 375) and with driver 488 (min is 465). 97 kilos for the driver - that will come down as the summer comes and I do my other hobby - cycling both on and off road but I am 6ft 4 tall so there is a limit to how much weight I can lose without looking like a bean pole. Since it was London Marathon weekend I'll mention that I did the marathon and soon after completing it I joined a gym and I found the gym assessment the other day - I weighed 12.5 stones or 80 kilos. So with helmet and overalls that would come up a couple of kilos to 82, so I could take off 15 kilos which would bring me down close to the weight limit. Food for thought......who mentioned food !!! Also be looking at how much petrol was left in the car to get an idea of fuel economy and maybe save a kilo or two there.

Race day

20th on the grid. 3rd in my class. 56.68. Session red flagged with someone parked on the circuit. Just getting in to the swing of it. Should go quicker later.

At brands

Parked in the garage for the night ready for tomorrows meeting.

Brands Hatch prep

I could do with making a fuel stick so we know when we've got 9 litres in the tank. 6 or 7 for the race and a couple left for the scrutineers if they feel like really testing Shell Optimax fuel is what it says on the can. Its nothing sophisticated... its just a stick with a mark on it that you dip into the tank via the fuel filter. If the mark is above the dipped wet petrol mark put in some more and if its over just leave it. Its not F1...its club racing.

The front suspension had a bit of surface rust. Rust and a racing car should never go together. Its an uphill battle trying to keep a vee clean when using an open trailer. So its out with the hammerite and a brush. I was looking at the results this morning - looking good. All that DIY....I joke...I've painted 3 rooms in my life...has improved my painting.

Postive ex f1 drivers and Pirelli

I am liking the Coulthard and Brundle partnership. I liked Coulthard comments which highlighted the difference between a positive racing driver and a negative pundit (Ted Kravitz). When Button's engineer said that the maximum anyone had done on this Pirelli was 15 laps and he planned to do 18 laps - Coulthard read that as a challenge, Ted saw that has a message to slow down. I wonder how Button read it. I am not sure that seeing Pirellis disintegrate and drivers having to do 4 or 5 stops is good for the company's image. How many people are going to know they were asked by the teams to produce such a tyre. This looks like bad PR - watch our tyres fall apart 20 times a year in front of the biggest TV audience. I wonder if Pirelli said to the teams - how about screwing up one pit stop a race that they would comply or anything that makes them look bad. All this technology with opening wings and kers is not needed - isn't it so simple - just stick on big tyres and make the wings out of mesh so they look like they do now (which isn't exactly very pretty but at least there is some space for the sponsors logo) and reduce the downforce so you don't need to be a fighter pilot to follow. Also put some springs on the cars too but probably not as much as Petrov would have required to keep that on the ground. Revert them back to 1982 levels of downforce and sit back and enjoy.

Odd smells

At silverstone there was 2 distinct odours in the car. Cow poo and burnt rubber. Most laps nothing and then you would be hit with a strong smell of either. The burning rubber was not me pressing the red button and releasing the nitro stored cunningly in my fire extinguisher (oh j'sus the cat is out the bag now) and lighting up the rears. No it was some essex boys drifting some Nissan 370Zs near the track. The cow poo smell I can only assume was from some excited cows watching my killer overtakes (yep 3 Ffords down the straight who might have been coasting)... either that or somebody was using some very old fuel...

Price of petrol

At silverstone petrol station you can buy endurance 102. Now if you think normal petrol is expensive then look away. 290 a litre. I wonder when normal petrol gets this expensive will people still carry on driving aimlessly around ?

At silverstone

Taking a rest between sessions. The sun is out. Track is very busy with formula fords testing for tomorrows start of their series. Car is running but wouldn't complain if i was quicker. Main thing is its going well and we live to fight another day at brands next weekend.

Winter is over

Friday morning and off to silverstone.

The winter rebuild season is over

Here are some pictures. Testing at Snetterton on Friday the 13th. Eekk.

Donnington Park

I woke up in Donnington park service station and flung open the curtains to my room and found myself looking in on the service station but I could see outside that it wasn't raining yet. 10 minutes later I was driving to the circuit under a very large black cloud. It was going to rain but when !!!

The previous night I had dropped the car in the garage and left Ian at the circuit in the Minnebago. :) I've not got any photos of our infamous folding caravan (Rapido Confort for all you anoraks) but here is one I found on the web... Checkout the haircuts and their window opens !!! Snobs ! They must have a Confort+

While routing around for a photo I found this. Who said all Porsche drivers are bankers !!!

Anyway it bucketed it down 10 mins before going to scrutineering. It stopped pretty quick and we got through scrutineering and back to the pits, dry and with no drama.

First practice and the track was wet/damp but drying out. Everyone skated around for a few laps. Very entertaining with the car wiggling around wanting to break traction. Then I got into a groove and caught up with Graeme Kiddy but then I got stuck in a rut behind him. I was just getting use to the conditions and the track was drying and there was more grip and I thought I need to push now and then the chequered flag came out. I need to put an egg timer in the car to remind me when the session is finishing. Ah well, reasonably happy and quite enjoyed it.

The next practice session was way quicker and so they split the grid. Session A on one side and session B on the other. It put me just behind the middle of the grid.

Ian wielded the spanners, changed the oil and fiddled with the front brakes. During the lunch break it had chucked it down again and so the track was back to wet/damp again for the race. The first 3 seconds of the start was going great, I got of the line well with not too much wheelspin and was closing rapidly on the guy on front and then I missed second gear. I might as well have found reverse because everyone went past. So it was catch up time. I nipped around sombody Senna style around the outside of Craner and then the next few laps picked off 4 or 5 cars. Then there was a long gap to the next gaggle of cars and it initial looked like I could catch them but then the track was drying out and I didn't push hard enough. A few spinners and retirements meant I picked up about 4 more places.

Well I scraped into the final at the back of the grid. An ok start (I found the gears) and I had a lap of keeping John Bowles behind me and then I overtook Robert Cowburn and Richard Potterton (who nipped off the circuit for some grass tracking). I was slowly catching the next car (Peter Gregory) but it have taken me 5 laps to do it. Then on the last lap I figured out a decent line around Goddards (the chicane thing at the end of the lap) and posted my fastest lap. A bit late, ah well something to forget until next year :)

Good weekend, despite the weather. Still need to sort out the tracking, the car pulls to the left but with the bits of string and a few tweeks, I am sure we'll be flying at Silverstone. Can't wait

No video from Donnington. Well I do have some but we all had to sign a very serious letter saying that if we did publish anything they would fine us 25K - so that's how they're going to pay for the GP.

Brands Hatch Formula Vee Festival

I dropped the car down to Brands on Friday night. We had a few jobs to do. At Snetterton the car was close to the noise limit. So we thought it was time to invest in a new silencer. Steve Glasswell told me about the silencer used by many and at 35 quid from Merlin Motorsport it was a bargain. So Ian fitted it while I fueled it up, fitted the battery, fitted air intakes and fitted
the bullet camera.

Saturday was an early start, 7:45 scrutineering and a 9 am practice. During practice I tried Paddock in 3rd and 4th. Third gave me more grunt on the exit but in the dark recesses of my mind I remember taking that corner in 4th and Surtess was also 3rd (very close to changing up) but again I remember taking that in 4th changing up about 3/4 along Cooper straight. The car felt good through Graham Hill and Surtess and ok through Paddock and Druids but quite tail happy through Clark which meant I couldn't get the power on as hard I would have liked. There was also a lot of tyre squeal when I hit the brakes in McLaren.

The fastest I've ever been around Brands was a few years ago and it was 54.5. I didn't go in with any expectations and I thought the 56.30 I ended up with would either put me near the front of the heat or the back of the final. Well that time lined up 3rd in the heat and my second fastest
lap lined me up 3rd in tomorrow's heat.

Before the heat. We had a few jobs to do. The track rod on the front had come loose (even though Ian had tightened it before the practice). The few milli of tow out was probably causing the mega tyre squealing on the brakes into McLaren. Also the back hub seals had been leaking and it was clear a bit was getting on the rear left. So Ian changed them.

For the race I lined up 3rd on the grid in what I thought was the grid slot but was waved forward. Then the officials realised their mistake when everyone had been grided up. Everyone needed to go back - for me it was just 5 metres but for others it would mean 50 odd metres. With not very much communication I didn't see too many drivers reversing up. In the end the scrutineers came up with the idea of everyone doing a lap and then regrid again. And that's what we did. Then a green flag lap and we were ready to start. Off the line I got a reasonable start and I was closing a little on Jon Storer but I could see Paul Smith closing much quicker and he nipped past on the inside. He also got past Jon and I tucked in close behind Jon. I could see in the distance Miles Southerton spinning and then I could see Jon starting to spin. I came off the throttle a little and went wide and picked my way past both spinners. I didn't have to worry about the big distance to Paul and Alan for very long because the race was red flagged.



On the restart, no Miles in front of me. Again I started ok and again I could see Paul Smith gaining. This time I went to the right and he just came around the outside of me. I held third around Paddock and I could see Paul and Alan fighting it out with Paul getting past Alan at Surtess. Over the next few laps I lost places at Paddock and at Druids which I didn't defend well - I needed to defend better there. Nick Brown nipped past and I was determined to stay with him and hopefully get the place back (and a few others). Then to my surprise the chequered flag came out. I never saw a last lap board and the race seemed quite short. Nobody told me it had been reduced to 8 minutes and there was no last lap board (one of the beauties of on board camera).



After the race with the engine leaking some oil. Ian was sure it was the engine seal next to the flywheel. I had been getting the odd/faint slip of clutch. So with some time available we whipped out the engine and changed the seal and clutch and popped it back in. Bye bye oil leak. Sunday morning we were going to do a little bit of setup. We thought of dring to some where it was flat. We started the engine and then unplugged the slave and the engine died. A bit of frantic head scratching and Ian with the meter out discovered a knackered cut off switch. Alan Harding came to our rescue with a switch and with it fitted it started and stayed running but no time to check the setup.

For the race, I was again third and this time I didn't have Paul Smith behind me. I got an ok start and nipped past Jonathan into Druid and then the next lap Alan spun at Surtess and I had the lead. Way hey and a bit of gap behind me and then out came the red flag.



On the restart I was second on the grid and got another ok start and think was gaining on Alan. I followed him close for the first lap then Jonathan nipped past me and the obligatory Paul Smith and finally John Townsend. With Paul off there was a group of us and it was shaping up to be a ding dong battle and then the red flag came out. A quite nasty one at Druids with a car upside down.



I queued up for the final and the 2 reserves in front got in but not me. So that was my weekend racing over. Bit pricey - 275 quid for about 15 minutes of racing but then you lose some, you win some. Pembrey and Snetterton I got 4 races at each of those meetings.

The only thing left was the parade. Good to take part and wave at people.

Donnington Track Day

The next Formula Vee meeting is Donnington in a little over a weeks time. Rather than test my Vee around Donnington I decided to do a track day with BookaTrack and hire one of their Caterhams. Killing a few birds with a single stone.

1) My brother in law (and mechanic - Ian) gets to drive around - 2nd drivers are free
2) I get a practice of Donnington a couple of days before the meeting
3) I sample a Caterham
4) I sample a Trackday - bit wary about this one. I always find when racing driving around on my own it gets a little boring. And also without the racing element i.e. trying to overtake the car in front at all costs, battling for road space as opposed to the waving past of the car behind.

Going to be fun. Looking forward to it.

Tow Bar fitting

I had a towbar fitted today to my new car. One of those detachable ones. I was hoping (expecting) the cover I had bought to cover the hole in the bumper. It didn't. Or to be more precise it would but the towbar link part pertrudes about 1 cm.

Not too bad a job. If you buy a Leon Cupra and try to fit a tow bar then expect shoulder shrugging and many tow bar specialists not knowing if a towbar fits at all. It was a choice between this one (a Brink) or the Witter one (which Witter says wont fit but I found someone in Horsham who would fit one). I went for Brink because it was 50 quid cheaper and the bumper cover supplied by Seat would cover the hole. Ho hum. So its going to need some cutting down of the cover to cover up the hole on either side.

Opening Post

Move with the times.

Problem - I've a website which I dont update.
Solution - Use a Blog. And then put a link on Dowson Racing's title page to this blog. Then I keep the blog up to date (easy because I can do it anywhere, anyplace, anytime). Its convienent to post and not much messing around with HTML.