Another day and another circuit! We had an almost perfect Saturday (just needed Ryan to keep P2!), so we were hoping for the same on Sunday. The guys stayed at Silverstone until around 8pm as we had the garage to prepare the cars, and luckily there was not too much to do as it was a pretty clean race. They then headed to Brand Hatch, which took around 2.5hrs at 56mph and managed to squeeze into a space in the outer paddock, where we would work from for the rest of the weekend.
After driving on his own yesterday, Ryan would be in with Dylan. I was going solo again for the shorter 75 minute race.

Below is the layout of the Brands Hatch GP Circuit, which is the same as they use in the BTCC, and as it was when the F1 circus visited here in the 80s:

The TT TDIs have a declared weight of 1177kg, and being in Class A can only have ~285bhp/ton, which works out around 325bhp on the Championship Dyno. Weight is without the driver, Diesels have a 1.05 power multiplier, and Petrol powered Forced Induction cars are required to run at 5bhp/ton lower than the class maximum (i.e. 295bhp/tonne for Class A), so we are ~10bhp/ton down on Forced Induction and 15bhp/ton on NA Cars.
The 750MC now uses TSL for timing.

Full Race Day Vlog

We have a full Vlog from the weekend, with snippets of the races:

ClubEnduro Qualifying

The last time we were on the Brands GP Circuit was last year for the Roadsports race, so with no testing, it was going to be difficult! At least that round I had driven the TT instead of the Golf, so I had an idea what a Class A car feels like around here. Dylan had beaten me in the RS3, so I didn't want to let that happen this time!
Ryan and Dylan were a bit on the back foot with it, as a shorter 25 minute qualifying session meant they'd only get 3 or 4 laps each. Not exactly a good amount to get your eye in and set a fast lap!
I'd figured Pole was going to be a mid-1:37s so was happy to be in the 38s pretty quickly, and needed to stitch a good lap together to stay up top. Every time I did a decent lap, Chris Bialan in the Jabba supported Cupra beat me, so that kept me on my toes! Eventually I pitted to check pressures just as the Cupra beat me by 0.2s.
Dylan had gone out first and really struggled to get a lap together with the traffic. He only managed 2 fliers before having to hand over to Ryan, and as he did, the Safety Car was deployed. This meant Ryan was stuck at a snail's pace, and they were stuck down the order with no chance of improving.
I stayed in the pits and decided to get the guys to put my new front tyres on for the race, so I could put a heat cycle through them. I figured if I waited for Ryan to say when he thought the safety car would be ready to come in, I could let it go past the pits, wait a few minutes then do a nice slow outlap, and hopefully have the track to myself. This worked perfectly and the safety car was in as I had the full length of the back straight empty in front of me. I prepared the tyres for a flier and then pushed hard, but fell short of pole by 0.071s! I still had clear air in front, save for a few cars so prepared again for another lap. As I got myself positioned into the last corner for a good exit, the blue flags started getting waved, I checked my mirrors and Ryan was there, I had messed up the end of his lap that was going to be an improvement. Nightmare! The clock was almost out so I hoped he had enough momentum to follow me through for one last lap. He did, and I crossed the line just over 0.1s up so on Pole, and Ryan improved his time, but not by enough to get them any higher than 10th.

It was a messy session for sure, and our fears that Ryan and Dylan would not get a good shot at it came true. We are going to have to change our approach to Qualifying for them when neither of them have done any running at the track. I don't think it will happen again this season other than Oulton, but we plan to do Friday testing there for the Saturday race anyway. The rest Ryan will have done Roadsports on the previous day at least.

The sector analysis did not seem to be working for all cars, so I could only see my Sector 1 and overall lap time. Some cars we could see the other sectors. I was over 0.2s quicker in sector 1, where the chassis makes more difference than the engine, so the other guys were making it up in Sectors 2 and 3, where power definitely helps. The Clarke BMW (Pitlane to P2 at Croft) was 0.4s slower than me in S1 but pulled back 0.3s in Sector 2 and 0.5s in Sector 3 on the Bialan / Mason Cupra.

As you can see, we were trading blows for Pole quite a bit, and I left it to the last lap to clinch it! I was surprised to be in the low 37s, but it shows how much better the TT is now even than last season before Spa, and it felt pretty mega then!

Qualifying Laps

Our fastest Quali laps are shown below:

ClubEnduro Race

Again there was no Live Stream by the guys at AlphaLive, but it is promised for the next round!

Another front row start for the weekend, but this time on the inside line. Ryan would be starting on the 5th row, but confident he could make it work from there as long as he stayed out of trouble!
Clarke in the E46 pipped the Cupra on the last lap to secure the outside line next to me.

As we had a double DNF more or less at Croft, we have no success penalties. James and Joel in the E46, who won at Croft, were not here after their engine expired at Spa in testing. Clarke had come 2nd so he had a 20s penalty, and the Schultz / Hampson M2 in P8 had a 10s penalty, both to be served in the mandatory 3 minute stationary pitstop.
I controlled the pace as the safety car peeled into the pits and stayed ahead into Paddock Hill bend. Ian Jones in the 117 Compact got a mega run and was around the outside and on my rear bumper into turn 2. I was cautious on the brakes and through the next few corners, waiting for the tyres to be fully up to temp. Jones showed his nose a few times but I didn't give him enough chance to get through, but I could see that the end of the straights and braking zones were going to be where he made his move.
Chris in the Cupra was giving him a hard time as well, so I knew that he would be defending as well as attacking - I needed to make a break for it! However this proved easier said than done as any gap I made disappeared on the long straights
Ryan?????????
On lap 3 there were double waved yellows at Sheene Curve and into Stirling Bend, then a BMW touching the barrier came into view on the inside. It looked like there was oil on the track in the braking zone. I checked my mirrors and saw Chris exit stage eight into the barrier on the outside, the safety car boards were out pretty quickly as there was a hell of a mess to clean up.
15 minutes of recoveries later, we were back under green flag conditions. I went super late to reduce the run Jones could get on me across the line but went into paddock way too cautiously. I was on the defensive again with a much smaller gap into Surtees that I would have liked. As we brakes into Hawthorn Bend, the BMW was all the way on my inside, exactly where I wanted him, as a switchback gave me the inside for the next 3 corners, and I got the place back. He then had to worry about the 444 Cupra or Blencowe and Norman, who had worked their way from 6th to 3rd.
I let them battle it out as I pulled a small but comfortable gap until disaster for Ian, their driveshaft snapping, putting them out of the race on Lap 14. I'd got a 3.6s gap on the 444 car by this point.
Ryan????????? 8th Lap 11 / 5th lap 14 / 3rd lap 15
I pitted on lap 15, to get the stop out of the way early. With the rules saying we can't pit under safety car, I prefer to come in, then have a long stint to the finish. We had what I thought was a decent stop, but it was 5s longer than Darren Ball, so we still have work to do, most likely on the pit entry and lane speed, as well as the pushback.
Ryan stopped on lap ???????????, just over 13 minutes later than me, just as the safety car came out! His stop was pretty slow as the guys needed to patch up the car after the incident at Druids. He was in the pits 12s longer than I was, so it gave Dylan a big job to do in his stint!

For quite a few laps I was in no-man's-land so I was on to the radio to Tom and Tye, asking what lap times our closest rivals were doing so I could keep up the pace and make sure that when all the stops were completed, I was in front. I eventually caught the #90 MX5 of Irving and Henderson that had been up there with Ryan at the start, but their pace seemed to have dropped off a bit, still I could not get through without a questionable move, and knew that they still needed to do their mandatory pit-stop so it was pointless.
By Lap 27 I took the lead when the Mazda went for the pits and at this point I was 18s ahead of #25, Darren Ball in the Capture Cupra. Dylan was 6th, 16s away from Ball in P2.
Dylan drove like a demon, and by lap 30 was 14s away, lap 32 into 4th and only 11s away. We had a notification on TSL that the car ahead received a 5s time penalty for track limits, so Dylan only had 6 seconds to make up now!
By lap 33 he was in the podium position, and 7s from the Cupra. Only 2 more to go! Another few laps later there was less than 5s between them, meaning Dylan was in a net 2nd position, amazing stuff.
I was just cruising now, trying not to drop concentration by going too slowly, which is very easily done. I was more interested in what Dylan was doing! On lap 36 the gap was back to 5.012s, some traffic halting his progress, but then the pendulum swung the other way, and DYlan took over 2.5s out of him, enough to secure the 1-2 the guys deserved for all their hard work!

FINALLY! What we'd hoped for all winter came to be, a 1-2 for the team. A real turnaround from Croft and proof that hard work does pay off! The mood was not fully positive as we still had the incident with the BMW to discuss with the Clerk of the Course before we could celebrate fully!

Our laps are below, with no sectors 2 and 3 for me and only a few for Ryan and Dylan, no idea why! Traffic meant I was not too consistent. You can also see how much Dylan got the hammer down in his stint to close the gap and take P2!
Our 3 main rivals dropped out mid race, it would have been much more difficult had they stayed in!

The lapchart tells the story, my early pit stop dropping us down the order but we knew we could pull it back!

Leading until Lap 14 when I pitted, it took until lap 27 to get back into the lead!

Again the sectors were all messed up so it's hard to see where our strengths were!

Nearly 24 minutes of safety car in a 75 minute race, this is the price to pay for racing on the historic circuits that punish mistakes with gravel traps and close barriers.

After an agonising wait, the decision was released, Ryan got away with a verbal warning!

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

There were no Lap Records set for ClubEnduro as this is the first time the Championship has run on the GP Circuit, so since I got the fastest lap in the race, that record is there to beat next time we are back on this layout!

The championship table looks much better now, the lonely point from Round 1 putting me ahead of the JC Racing BMW that dominated at Croft. The Team Dynamics RS3 has been consistently 4th so far, bagging the points. It will be one to watch out for towards the end of the season. Ryan and Dylan are 6th at the moment, so need some consistency to keep them up towards the top of the table.

The next round is at Snetterton on the 300 Circuit on 22nd and 23rd June, going back to Roadsports on the Saturday and ClubEnduro on Sunday, at the same track this time! Hopefully we can emulate this weekend again, maybe with a 1-2 in Roadsports as well!

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Elsey Motorsport Photography, @hugtakmedia and 750MC

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All the details and dates for future races we are entering can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.

01 07 2024

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