If you hate reading then scroll right to the bottom to view our VLOG of the weekend....

We had a great result in the TDC at a very wet Oulton Park, which you can read about it here. Round 5 of the MSV Trackday Trophy, brought us to Silverstone, on the iconic GP Circuit, the same as you see the Formula 1 and Moto GP at. Unfortunately we won't be lapping anywhere near as quick as them!
As it is a World Class circuit, we get detailed analysis of sector times and speeds. Sector 1 takes us from the Start / Finish at the Historic / National Pits all the way to end of the Hangar Straight, Sector 2 ends on the Wellington Straight and Sector 3 completes the lap.

Normally we like to do the testing right before a race, but this time it was Friday testing and a Sunday race, which would mean a lot of hanging around on Saturday! So instead we booked on a Trackday with RMA at the beginning of August. Luckily for us the weather was more representative of the Sunday, with a mixture of light showers and sun, as opposed to the Friday test session, which was VERY wet!
On the trackday we managed a lap of 2:33.11 with an ideal time of 02:31.95. With the TDT having only been to the Silverstone GP circuit once before many years ago, we didn't know if that was going to be a good time or not! A video of the fastest lap is below.

We were testing the Yokohama Advan A052 (which we also tested at Brands Hatch in our Using a Racelogic VBOX HD2 for Tyre Testing Blog) to see how they coped with the long, fast right hand corners for a sustained amount of time. The results were not good, with a tyre completely delaminating after only around 10 laps. We spoke to Yokohama and they advised on running more camber and higher starting pressures.
Around 3pm we had an oil leak as we came back into the pits, which turned out to be from the gearbox, the end bearing on the Input Shaft had collapsed and popped the cap off the end. This is the 2nd time Silverstone has killed a gearbox for us!

The guys at RMA also took some great shots of the car on the circuit.

On to Sunday! We were confident that the car would do well as we had done a lot of analysis from the previous trackday, but the A052 Tyres were still going to be an unknown. We were starting with higher pressures in qualifying than we would like.
I was driving first, with the plan to do 3 or 4 hot laps then come in for Ryan to get into the car and settled, as he has spent a lot less time in the car and also on this circuit. The car felt great as I left the assembly area on cold tyres, so I decided to push early on. I could see on the VBOX that I had done a 2:32.7, but had no idea where that put me in comparison to everyone else. Matt came through on the radio stating my position and +5 seconds. I didn't hear what he said, so I was thinking surely someone hasn't done a 2:27! When I came around again, my lap time was almost identical (0.010s quicker!) and Matt told me I was P1 with a 4 second gap. I was over the moon!
After a 3 laps, I started to experience understeer, so radioed back to the pits to tell them I was coming in, and Ryan could get in the car to do his minimum of 3 laps.

As you can see from the above, it is not over until its over, and the huge gap I had over the rest of the field was reduced to 1.585s from Kester Cook in the Fiesta in 2nd, and 1.710s from George Wright and Simon Hogg in the Team Air Supply Porsche 944. Ryan's time was still quick enough for a Pole position but only just!

Surprisingly for a circuit with 3 long straights, favouring higher power outputs, two of the Class C cars were in 4th and 5th, and their speed at each speed trap was in the mix with the Class B cars.

As you can see from the speed traps, our car was not the quickest in a straight line, with the Porsche 4mph faster on the Hangar Straight, and 2.4mph on the Start / Finish. For some reason we did not get any data on the Wellington Straight, but I am sure we would have been 2nd or 3rd fastest. Our advantage is not just in a straight line!

So that was that, our first ever Pole Position! It was now ours to lose! Since I have done a fair few more races than Ryan, we decided he would start the race to get more experience of racing within the chaos of the first few laps.
We were not happy with how the Yokohama tyres had worn so made the decision to fit the Dunlop Direzzas for the race. We knew they would be a little slower, but as they say, 'to finish first, first you have the finish'!

Since Ryan started the race, I will let him continue...
So, Scott was being kind to let me start first, as it had not always ended well previously when I had first drive at Silverstone (See Round 3 and the Extra Race). The pressure was on. I told George in the 944 before the race that I would rub up against his new shiny paint and throw away the 6 hour EnduroKA race me, him and Scott were driving the following weekend if he did anything silly! He said today was for fun but next week is serious so he would leave me alone! haha
Starting from the front the first thing I noticed was how much I needed to bend my neck to see the starting lights and the man showing the boards. The 1 Minute board was held out so I started my timer, a few moments later the 30 second board was shown and then very quickly the 5 second board was shown, in the panic I forgot to change my race timer to the 'Pit Timer' setting, something which would haunt me in the not too distant future...
The lights came on, I bit the clutch a little too much and moved forward slightly, in the panic put the clutch in and within a second they were off and we were racing!!! Well, I was still fumbling with the clutch and ended up with a bad start, but only lost 1 place to Kester who is not well known for his good starts:

Next time I start I will use the handbrake like I would in a drag car, and make sure I grab 3rd gear properly too.
On cold tyres with not a lot of pressure (20psi) I knew I needed to take it easy, but when following the Fiesta I thought I would run into the back of him in places as he was taking it even easier than I expected to, despite the 2 of us pulling away from the other cars in the first few corners. By the end of the Hangar Straight the more aerodynamic Porsche had dragged itself and the Clio a little closer, but still not enough to cause me too much pain.
Village corner was always the one I hated during qualifying and a bad exit there puts you in a silly position for the loop, which then ruins the Wellington Straight. On this first lap I turned in and ended up exactly where I wanted to be, these tyres were obviously new for the race and behaved totally differently!
A decent run down the Wellington straight and a newfound confidence in the tyres meant an early brake from Kester into Brooklands was the only invitation I needed to have a lunge, taking my normal tight line into one of my favourite sections of the track. Making the move stick I carried first place all the way down through Maggots and Becketts where the gap was increasing until I braked a little early into Stowe and had a bad exit.
Vale Chicane was a corner where I was always much stronger than Scott during practice and Qualifying, but this time I went too deep and fluffed a 2nd gear change, meaning any advantage I did have was gone again. So head down and concentrate on the exit of Club, another section of track that I enjoy.
The small gap I made again was all lost turning into Village, the car just behaved totally differently and I went too deep. Not all was lost and a decent exit from the Loop would have not ruined the straight, until I decided to try to change into 4th going over a kerb and end up in Neutral, then 2nd and finally dropping it back into 4th at a too low RPM. I suppose I did it to give the engine a rest seeing as it had just hit 7000rpm!!!!
Losing 3 places on a straight so easily is very frustrating and I could imagine Scott's reaction sat at the first corner to see me fly past in 1st position for me to come through 4th this lap!
The orange and white Clio being a Class C car meant he could brake a bit later and carry a little more speed in certain corners, but on the straights I did not have enough to walk around him and he was quite aggressive in his defence if I tried anything cheeky! Being stuck behind him for a few laps made the leading pair pull away while the other cars behind got closer and closer.
An unexpected big front lockup two laps later flat spotted the tyre so badly I thought I had a puncture. Thinking if its not and I have too much pressure due to starting with 'over inflated' with a flat spot, I need to come in ASAP for the tyres bleeding down, get out of this battle and to let Scott have his turn! This was only 10 minutes in so I needed to keep my head down for another 5 minutes and not throw anything else away.
Still pushing I had a try to get around at Stowe but again the Clio hung onto the outside. Then out of nowhere into Brooklands where I normally do alright the Civic Type R goes for it and easily makes the move stick. Next time I need to be more aggressive on my defending before braking and that won't happen! Again this just means we have another car behind the Clio holding up the pack, allowing the BMW to get closer and another crazy late lunge at the end of the Hangar Straight put paid to 5th place. I have no idea how these guys can brake so late off line and still make it stick, we would end up in the gravel, so hopefully the Mk5 we are building will have all the toys like these cars and we won't need to pedal so hard to do what we are doing and can leave a bit of margin (See the first instalment of the Golf here).
At this point I knew we were close to the pit window, so I begged Matt on the radio to let me know when I could come in to look at the pressures and inspect the tyre.
Coming into the pits in 7th was not what I wanted to do and Scott was understandably less than impressed, but we knew from qualifying and then swapping tyres that our pace would not always match the guys who were now up front, at least with me driving. So all we needed was a perfectly timed 2:00 pitstop and let Scott do his thing and bring it home. Did I mention I didn't get chance to sort the pit timer at the start??

To say Ryan had messed up the pitstop timer, a 2:03 was not too bad, but a few guys managed bang on 2:00, more improvements to be made! Out of the pits, I knew I had to go for it! I came out in almost last position, but since we were the first to pit, that would all be sorted in the next 15 minutes as everyone else had to come in for their mandatory 2 minute stop before the Pitlane closed 30 minutes into the race. Until then I just had to punch in some decent lap times and hope to jump a few people during their stops. I had pretty much the track to myself until Lap 10 (shows as Lap 9 on the VBOX) when Nick White in the Class C Clio Cup popped out of the pits in front of me. I had a go on the entry to Maggots but had it a bit sideways so dropped back. I decided to make my move on the Hangar Straight by taking a wide line through Becketts and into Chapel, carrying as much speed as possible. I couldn't shake the Clio in the twisty bits, but when the track opened up, I was able to pull a decent gap.

Lap 11 (10 on the VBOX) I came around Copse to see the Porsche just exiting the pits. He was a bit further away than the Clio, so I could not make it through Maggots. I had another decent exit onto the straight, and managed to get alongside him, but he had the inside line so I had to yield. This little battle meant the Clio closed the gap on us, so I was looking in all the mirrors to battle and defend at the same time! I got a good exit out of the Vale chicane, and as the Porsche went defensive into Club, I drove around the outside and made the move stick without going off the track, unlike the Clio which made liberal use of the tarmac runoff on the outside!

It was pretty uneventful after that, I was struggling with the brakes locking easily into the tight corners, and the car did not seem to like turning right very much. Not ideal on a circuit with quite a few fast right handers! The tyre was screaming for mercy and pushing me wide, so I had to take it easy.
After all the pit stops were sorted, we were in 2nd place! I could see the Fiesta in the distance, but he was increasing the lead by around a second per lap so I needed to just keep the car on the black stuff at a decent pace and bring it home for a podium!

As you can see, our pace was a fair bit off qualifying, some of it definitely to do with the tyres, but during my stint, there seemed to be an issue with the differential locking up in the tight corners, so we need to investigate that before the next race. Kester was very consistent in the 2:33s when he was in clean air, whereas Ryan was battling constantly so didn't have much consistency, then during my stint, I was consistent but in the mid 2:34s, so the gap was always going to increase!

Everyone's speed increased this time, probably as a result of slip-streaming down the straights. We were only 5th and 6th fastest. No idea why we were still not on the Intermediate 2 trap!

Watch the full race here:

Next time out we are at Brands Hatch on the 31st August for Round 4 of the MSV Trackday Championship, a circuit we had decent results at last year, with a 5th in Class. You can read about it here. Thanks to Charlie B for some of the other great photos as well!

The VLOG is available here:

Vlog and Blog Cover photo taken by @nutsaboutminis