RDS Racing Britcar Class Win
Britcar Snetterton 24th July 2010 – Mixed GT and Production class race.
Following on from a podium in it’s promising first race the Race Data Systems M3 CSL took it’s maiden class victory in only it’s second race, a mixed Britcar Production and GT race. The format was a 4 hour race but the Production classes would take the flag and peel in to the pitlane after 2 hours leaving the GT cars to fight it out for the remainder of the race.
Nathan’s report:
During one of my regular phone chats with Simpson Motorsport it was mentioned to me that Britcar had been on the phone trying to get entries up, I couldn’t really afford it and Manny was unable to make it but I was desperate to race again. I fired off a few emails to people I thought might be up for sharing the car, one was at a wedding, one was on holiday and didn’t reply until too late and one came back and said that he’d be interested. Barclay owns an M3 GTR, also run by Simpson Motorsport and has raced for a long time in a multitude of series, owning cars such as silly powered Sierra Cosworths and full works touring super tourers etc, I’d met him at Silverstone and he was a really nice guy and someone who obviously would be a safe pair of hands for a much slower car than he is used to. So I had a second driver…
A few frantic phone calls to see what jobs were still remaining on the car and a decision was made to test the car at a Silverstone trackday a few friends were attending 8 days before the race day.
One of the final jobs on the car was to hook up the BMW diag computer and clear all the codes, hmmm, some of the codes couldn’t be cleared. Looked like a sensor had failed but that was replaced and the issue was still there – time was short so we’d have to test the car without ABS. Test session was fun, I went out for a quick session on slicks to see how it felt, then it started hammering down and the car was switched to wets, Manny became slightly over excited and completely disregarded the rules for trackdays, out braking people, overtaking on the right etc, he got told off. One of my primary concerns was seeing what was the effect of the work we had done over winter on temps, also the new diffuser completely covered the diff so wanted to see what the temps were like on that given the replacement costs of a Drexler diff. Diff hit 119 C, gearbox was brilliant at only around 70 degrees but engine oil temp still seemed really high at 144! We took the sensible approach of validating the data on the dash and measured temps of the oil return lines and various other points, safe to say that either the BMW ECU is sending out very high figures or the AiM dash’s CAN decode is wrong and the actual figures were miles lower than the reported ones, a fix for this is in hand. Nothing broke but the power steering wasn’t working at low rpm, fine out on track though. So, the car ran on slicks and wets without major issues and we could go racing….
The week of the Race:
I spoke to Drexler and Castrol and based upon that info we decided to add a duct in to the diffuser to further cool the diff (it is running a pump and front mounted cooler anyway), neither were worried by 120 degrees but we wanted more headroom.
The DSC \ ABS issue was taking a while to fix, it wasn’t the sensor so it was wiring or the DSC pump, after much going back and forth it was sorted, the diff duct was done, the power steering system bled and the car was ready to race…
At this point I was massively indecisive, weighing up the cost versus the misery of not doing it, verses my fear of the speed differentials (it was a mixed production and GT race so out there with Moslers and 430GTC amongst others and a huge grid, 36 cars initially), on Wednesday I finally pulled the trigger and we were good to go! No testing due to costs but there was a one hour free practice in the morning and qualifying was 50 mins.
Sorted insurance out then on Friday evening in a strange replay of every ‘ring trip and track day I have ever done I spent ages running round the house searching for my license. I’ve never had an easy journey to Snet and this was to be no exception, took me an hour and twenty mins to go one motorway junction as there had been a crash on the M4. Knackered I arrived at the circuit to find the Simpson’s guys and a friend, Sean having a beer next to the truck and we headed to the hotel to meet up with Barclay who’d flown in from Scotland.
Dinner and an early night was the plan, by the time we’d eaten it was dinner and a late night but hey ho, Sean left the TV on and I went to sleep, I was woken up every hour by the TV and by 4:45 I finally gained the common sense to turn it off.
6:05 on race day and the alarm sounds, followed by be setting a new alarm for 7 mins later much to Sean’s amusement.
Arrived at the track and Julian and Joe from Simpson Motorsport got stuck straight in, the awning is opened, the car unloaded, wheels changed and we were told what to do and when, driver sign on at 7:30 and briefing at 8:30, I got suited up before the briefing following the rush I had last time and it was miles more relaxing, out from briefing and in to the car, noise test passed and out on to track.
The plan was for me to work some heat in to the car and check everything over before passing the car to Barclay to do the majority of the session to learn the car. Last year my best time on new tyres in qually was an 18.2, and Manny did a 17.5. 2nd lap out I did an 18.0 with 80L of fuel on board and using tyres from last years race, things were looking good. Barclay went out and went faster and faster before settling in to times a few tenths above mine, really consistent. Diff temps were reduced massively by the duct too, maximum of 109, looking good.
As soon as the car was back in the pits the guys collected the race wheels and bolted them on, stiffened the ARBs and fuelled the car for qualifying, I was convinced I could get the car in to the 16s if I tried…
Qualifying time came, endurance racing is less dependant on grid position but there is an ego side of it too so I was pretty keen to see how fast we could go, I was hoping to stick us 2nd on the grid, the Bullrun Seat looked too quick from previous result sheets. The plan was to save the tyres and do 5 laps each rather than pounding round and round.
Oh. My. God. On new slicks with the ARB changes the car felt amazing, first lap to put some heat in to the tyres, second to feel for more grip and push harder then go for it. I did a 1:15.9, 2.3 seconds quicker than last year! The next lap I had the predictive time on the dash down to 15.2 but caught a slower car on the entrance to the esses which messed that up. I radio’d in and said no point in me staying out in the traffic, pitted and handed the car to Barclay. Same story, few tenths behind but massively consistent. Car came back to the pits and chuffed, we were second in class and 25 out of 33 cars that qualified. Directly in front of us was the Class 1 Ginetta G50 GT4 and directly behind the Class 1 Seat Supercopa of BPM. Manny rocked up during qually and was assigned the job of pit stop timer and assistant to Sean in dishing out abuse.
I elected for Barclay to start the race, figuring that his race experience, traffic management and consistency would be perfect, I was right. The cars formed up on the grid, did a formation lap and the lights were out, we were racing. Wow. His race craft is something to aspire to, he overtook the Bullrun Seat to take class lead whilst fending off the Class 1 Mitsubishi Evo and BPM Seat from behind. The Evo eventually made his way by but it has really made be realise about how assertive I need to be, really useful. Constant 1:18s from a car starting with 110L was brilliant race pace too.
Just as the pit window opened a safety car was deployed, it looked like it was going to be a long one as they were waiting for a truck to collect a car, Barclay pitted and handed the car to me. The 2nd place Escort Cosworth leapfrogged us during the pitstop so I arrived at the back of the safety car train with that in front of me and a Mosler weaving around behind me. The radio proved invaluable, allowing Julian to let me know who was on the same lap as me and who not. The safety car restart was a good introduction to the world of rolling starts with the added excitement of out of position GT cars behind me and wanting to make their way through whilst I was trying to get the Escort, within a lap I was past it and trying to open the gap. The car didn’t feel anything like it had in qualifying, just loose, maybe tyre pressure or something or I was plain overdriving, really struggled with lap times though, the Bullrun Seat came past me and unlapped itself, it’s quicker driver now at the helm and trying to ruin my day, he was lapping around 1.5 seconds a lap quicker than me and it was gonna be close…
On the exit of the esses an MX5 span right in front of me and I had to come to a full stop, looked in the mirror to see a sideways Ginetta miss the back of me by about an inch, eek, honestly was waiting for the crunch.
Fair to say that the car is hot without aircon too!
With around 25 mins or so to go I was going down the main straight when I saw a Ferrari 430 leaving the esses with a huge trail of fire behind it, coming out the esses you could see oil down, a class one e46 M3 hadn’t noticed this and left the circuit at the bomb hole, my first experience of hitting oil on slicks, scary, no grip at all.
The Ferrari ended up parked on the apex of Coram on fire and the safety car was deployed, the SC had gone out in front of the Bullrun Seat so although I was a fair way back in the train I had purely by luck gained back the time he’d made on us. Then they released all cars up to me, oh fuck. I was following the SC with a train of cars behind and the Seat was en route to the back of the queue, winning the race was going to come down to the timing of the lights going out and the race restarting, the Seats ability to negotiate though numerous slower cars whilst being overtaken by numerous GT cars, how long the 2nd placed Escort could hold him off for and how long I could keep him behind. I was bricking it, Julian telling me to keep heat in the tyres whilst giving me info on how long remaining etc. Then close to the end of the race they released me and a load of cars behind me from the SC and off I went to catch the train, no idea how or why this happened but after a couple of laps catching the train I then did one or two laps behind the SC before crossing the line to take a class win and 11th overall at the 2 hour mark. Delighted.
Massive thanks to Simpson Motorsport for building an epic car, Sean and Manny and of course Barclay who needs most of the credit, a great drive.
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