Time Attack 2009 & Snetterton Review

It’s been a couple of days now since the last round of 2009’s Time Attack series and, truth be told, it hasnt really sunk in that I am now the Time Attack 2009 Club Challenge Champion.

The work put in within the last two weeks by myself  to get the car ready then decide to run a hitherto totally untested dry sump system had kind of distracted me mind away from thinking about how far I had come with the car in the last year or so. Still, the zen performance dry sump was in place and Paul from Zen was convinced it would work – initial tests on the road he was absolutely right and it was working perfectly.  It was time to get the rest of the car ready and get me ready to bring home the title.

I had done most of this to-do during the week but there were one of two bits left over from my list that unfortunately had to be done the day before the event. Nige and the rest of the Pinders were coming to ours for the weekend of the Snetterton round and this meant that together we could get them done – thanks Nige for helping to change brake lines to some lovely HEL stainless braided lines, change and bleed the brake fluid and generally get all the ’stuff’ sorted.

Cheers also to Jon and Fezza for bringing all of the E85 that I would need for the weekend from their local Morrisons and for the banter back at base

All that was needed then was for me to map the car.  Luckily Nige was willing and able to sit in the passenger seat and following instructions from me got a map fairly close to where I needed it within a very short period of time. Live mapping with the Solaris ecu is really a god send and saves a huge amount of time. We also discussed various settings for the map switches to allow me to run various levels of boost / aggressive timing/fuel etc should I need to in desperation but the plan was to stick to a known and comfortable level for the car for the morning sessions before upping the ante when it counted. No issues at all during mapping.

So …. saturday night and car loaded up, cleaned in the dark and food time and try and get some sleep.  Luckily so much work both on the car and ‘proper’ work over the preceding week meant sleep was just 1 second away at most times… before I knew it – it was the morning of the big day. My home track, the one I had done more than any other in the world.

I hadn’t driven since March on a track day with tuition from Phil Glew but felt confident in my knowledge of the circuit, the lines and the car – it just needed to work as expected.

Getting to the track was easy enough, although a bit of chaos in the pits themselves which meant that i was getting a tad stressed with set up and last minute check time was by eaten into by faffing around – thanks again Nige for taking on duties in that area and for my wife Rachel for putting up with my general edginess (understatement) LOL.

Team Zen arrived on cue and whilst the whirlwind that is Team Zen unpacked, the guy from Rapid Media set up the camera system in the car and matt (www.2clearbuckets.com) gave the car some TLC to make it gleaming for its big day.  It was show time…

Off out into the warm up and all was not well, every time I put my foot to the floor I got a horrid misfire the car missed several beats and it scared the sheet out of me, then the boost hose popped off and I headed into the pits to be greeted by Paul from Zen and the guys who set about getting it back on in record time to send me back out. Half throttle was the order of the day for warm up as a result of the misfire but I still surprisingly managed to equal my best ever time around Snetterton. Russ Paton (2nd in the championship and the only guy that could beat me) on the other hand seemed to be flying and doubts entered my head as to whether I could actually do this.

With only an hour between warm up and practice I set about trying to locate the source of the issue in the map that wasnt there the day before – it looked like the crank sensor voltage was dropping outside of the range to pick up a signal and the ecu thought the car was stalling at 7000 rpm ! It wasnt I adjusted the range and crossed my fingers that it would do it and headed out for Practice.  By this time friends and family had made it there and they were all expecting great things aswell as witty/relaxed conversation from me.  Sorry on both counts everyone.

Practice came and so did the misfire again. Balls. I knew I wouldn’t be able to solve the issue during the session so used the time on track to get the corners nailed, lines comfortable and settle myself – or at least try to. I came in from the session seeing Russ in the 1.15’s – way quicker than I thought I could go and felt beaten. Phil spoke to me about the lines I had been taken and reassured me that they were spot on – just needed to believe. Liz got my head straight in true lizzy fashion by telling me to snap out of it granddad (or words to that effect). Paul and Pat also had a look at the issue on the ecu/car to see if our collective minds could solve it – we all agreed what the issue was and the necessary changes made – it HAD to work.

Julian and Nige had been looking after me and the car superbly (as had Rachel by feeding, making coffee and generally keeping me upbeat about it) – I had to pay back that faith and support in qualifying. An agonising wait and eventually we get out on track. I put my foot down out of the pit lane … no misfire… hmm.  Ok, maybe this will be cool. I give myself some space ont he warm up lap and nail it but the Reynolds Sierra comes out the pitlane late and blocks Scott Robson in front of me, then I catch him in the Esses costing a lot of time.. I could feel it slipping away. I was angry – not a state that I normally like to drive in, but keep on it for that lap – i needed something on the board to count. I do the lap and carry on for hot lap 2 – yeah felt good but caught Scott on the straight and decided to pass, this took me off line and trying to keep on it too long – I missed my braking point and had to bail out and down the escape road. Calm down Duncan. I gave up on that lap and went past the pits and the pit board said P2 – OMG ! Even with the hold up… perhaps I could do it. Next lap it said P3.  I needed P4 or better and P5 in the final to win the series so had to do another hot lap to try and do it.  This time, I had a clear run, good speed around the important parts and came across the line and carried on for another hot lap but then the red lights were out and it was end of session due to an exploding reynolds sierra. I came in and I was in P1 with Russ in P4 – if it stayed like that the title was mine.  There were 6 mins remaining of the session so decided to sit it out and wait as it was working and I wanted to keep it that way for the final but quietly hoping that I could get it wrapped up in quali. A very long 5 mins once they were out there saw Russ improve his time but not by enough… my 1.15.3 was enough to secure 1st in qualifying and overall series win !

Lots of jumping around in the Team Zen garage by all and sundry ensued as Zen had also got P1 in their qualifying session just afterwards – it was awesome to see them come back so strongly after the bitter disappointment of brands hatch. It takes real resilience to do that and they have it in bucket fulls. A great team to have on your side.

Anyway – the final.  Half tempted to just drive around with anti lag on and waving but then curiosity struck and I wondered whether it would be possible to get what is still my daily driver into the 1.14’s.  I vowed to give it a good go and headed out.

hot lap 1 – 1.15.1 and the pitboard showed P1 as I crossed the line to start hotlap 2 – I was happy and the car felt immense and totally connected to the road. I took even more speed into Coram and still it gripped, spat me down the hill to the chicane and onto the finish straight.. yeah that felt sweet. if any lap would do it – that had to be it.  Pit board said P1. I did a few cool down laps checked the board and gathering myself for one last go – maybe it could go quicker still. i started another hotlap and my mind was elsewhere and the car was too, I was missing apexes by miles, but I kept going through that lap and decided to come in on the next lap – I wasn’t going to get any quicker today 1.14.999 was my time and I was over the moon … but Russ Paton pulled out a stormer just on my coming in lap and right on the chequered flag to beat me and take the win. Oh well – he deserved it – he had been on it all day and the 1.14.3 he got was simply stunning.

So – that was it. Just Zen to do their part and bring home the Pro win. Phil Glew had been on fire all day and a win was always on the cards although a change of weather caught RCM out and ended up taking away the massive fight between RCM + NOS and Zen + handling that would have been very interesting to see. I am over the moon for them – the late nights they put in with me in the last week to help get the dry sump system set up whilst rebuilding their own car (all outside normal customer hours) is humbling.

So – the awards ceremony and normal champagne madness and some cracking trophies and chatting to fellow competitors, friends, family, well wishers, team and basically everyone it seemed and it was time to go home.

What a great year ! – It wouldnt have been possible without the help and support of many many people …

• Paul / Liz and the team at Zen Performance and all of Team Zen (what a great team)
• Mark at Lateral Performance
• Pat and Charlie – Solaris
• Alyn at AS Performance
• Daren at AutoBodyworks
• Gary at Keith Michaels Insurance
• Julian and Donna from CJS Norwich
• Jon at GW Autoserve in Ipswich
• Ben at HEL
• Matt at 2ClearBuckets.com

With invaluable support from

• Ren
• Nige / Lou and the Pinders
• and especially #1 Supporters – Rachel & Annabelle

and everyone that has followed my progress through the year and wished me luck or said well done.  It takes a lot out of you emotionally and it is the support that keeps you going.

Thank you and who knows what the future may hold

ps – sorry about the huge amount of words and small amount (ie none) pictures – not had a chance to go through and sort pics out to go with this yet.  There will be some added though.

‘Live’ In Car Video again from Snetterton

I am pleased to announce that Rapid Media will again be providing a live in car video feed from my car (and Zen’s) to a large plasma screen in our pit garage.

There will be two cameras; one forward and the other facing the driver as per the previous installs at Silverstone and Brands Hatch.  These will be beaming live pictures back to a huge 42 inch plasma screen as seen below.

We have found the footage extremely good quality and very useful in many ways.

Brands Hatch 2009 .. review

Venue: Brands Hatch Indy Circuit
Date: June 28th 2009

The date set, venue set and round 4 of Time Attack 2009 beckoned..

After the mad panic and huge amount of work going into round 3 at Silverstone, it was refreshing and lovely not to HAVE to do anything pre this round. This didn’t stop one minor tweak though… in preparation for the forthcoming diffuser it was time to raise the exhaust up to exit the rear bumper. You will see the new exit below:

Unlike Silverstone, Brands Hatch is much more of a handling circuit and with ZEN Performance’s superb history of winning this round I was confident of a great result.  Plans were made ages ago to get practice in prior to this round as I had not driven it for 20 years and then it was in standard MG Metros and MG Maestros on a corporate day… I had a lot to learn and booked Phil glew’s services to teach me.  Having had his tuition already this year I have seen the huge difference that his tuition has made to my driving, confidence and speed.  All set for the track day and totally gutted the day before when the organisers called it off… oh ffs !!  With work already scheduled nothing else could be arranged so I would have to made do and learn as best I could from the track time available on the day.

Saturday:

Picked up a borrowed trailer from Andy Stevens (cheers mate) and Julian (CJS Norwich) and I prepared the tool kit for the sunday and were going to head down there in the morning.  Easy day doing basic last minute checks but great to have Julian as my right hand man and his superb Jeep there to do the lugging duties of the car and gear.

Car loaded and a nice relaxing meal and sleep ready for the early start.

Sunday:

A great drive down passing Olly Clarke but getting blitzed by Team Zen who flew past us beeping horns and waving – we thought that was a good omen.  Hopefully not the only time Team Zen would go past RCM…

We arrived in plenty of time and unpacked and with loads of time before our action started, there was time to clean the car from the spray on the roads on the way down from the fenland mist and make all checks (again) to the car, set up the live in car camera system (from Rapid Media again), chat to everyone and fine tune tactics for the day with Paul from Zen.  This has been a superb partnership this year and without doubt has made a huge difference to the ability to get the best from the car (and me).

It was sorted… the plan was to win.

Julian was accompanying me in the warm up, not for anything other than a huge thank you for his help – he is ever cheerful and great to have around when my mind is often cluttered with thoughts of self doubt.  The car was great, the bad-ass Zengine was purring and everything was going to be great. Relax… have a sausage roll

I learnt the hard way last year that warm up was not a place for heros – it was for test and warm up so I was not disappointed with being well down the leader-board. I was hardly on full throttle. No point of breaking it or crashing it in this session.  Traffic was horrendous in this session with so many cars out on track on such a short track.

Warm up dealt with and a minor tweak to the suspension setting from those that we ended Silverstone with to cure some mild oversteer I had going into clearways.  This was needed at Silverstone to help in the complex but wasn’t here. We knew everything else worked perfectly.

Time to watch Team Zen’s pro car blitz the field… oh bugger just as we were ready to watch, the car had stopped on track and was catching fire. Oh bugger again. The mood in the camp was down. VERY down. So much work had been done to get the Zen car there, it was ready, readier than it had ever been but a small component failure had caused their day to be over. The whole team was gutted but I was now absolutely determined to bring some smiles to the pit garage and get the top slot for the team. Sure it wouldn’t be the same as their own car be there but such is the spirit in Team ZEN that it is all for one…

Practice and Rob Barnes came around to say would we mind the top 10 cars from club playing out on track with the club pro and pro cars to give everyone more space.  Hopefully we wouldn’t hold the pro guys up but it would even the two sessions out and give everyone the best chance of track space for the hot laps.  I jumped at the opportunity and to be able to share track space with the cars in that class was an honour.

We headed out for practice with the pro guys and this confused a lot of people, I got texts, answer machine messages galore from onlookers that were there and those at home watching the live timing screens on the TA website and not seeing me there.  I am sorry if I didn’t answer them

Practice went well and I followed Jonathan Faull for most of it.  The car was understeering a bit more now (although not much) so towards the end of the session I headed into the pits to check tyre pressures, temps and tweak the suspension.  Unfortunately the session was cut short so I didn’t get back out but I knew the adjustments would be spot on.  I ended up in P1 in club challenge with a 53.8  I was very pleased as I felt there was more to be had.

In car video from this session:

Duncan Graham – Brands Hatch practice session 2009 from Duncan Graham on Vimeo.

Qualifying and we were out with the Club pro and Pro guys again. I headed out after most of these as I did not want to be interfering with their times and hogging the first slots in the pit lane.

So.. this is where it started to count.

Out lap and then 2 flying laps, the second quicker than the first and I had a 53.3 That ’should’ be enough but I kept circulating checking the pit board for updates and cooling the tyres/car ready for another flying lap.  The tyres were hot but as I was learning lines better and getting to grips with the car the two were counteracting each other.  The car was spot on.  It was in the elusive sweet spot of total predictability. It turned when I wanted, stopped well, grip galore and I was having fun.  Another pair of mid 53 second laps and the rain was starting to come down.  I tried for one more hot lap but as soon as I went into paddock hill I knew no-one was going to be going quicker on that track at that time than my previous time so i aborted the lap and came into the pits and chill.  P1 was mine and the job was half done with the nearest challenger a way behind.

The wait for the final seems to take ages when there is nothing to do or fix on the car and we hadn’t touched it all day apart from bleeding the brakes after the warmup.  It was faultless and running gorgeously.

It was great to chat to everyone there though, chatting to my sisters and their families, play with my niece and nephews who were cheering me on whilst my wife and daughter were up in cambridge (my daughter was competing in the Cambridge Triathlon – I was as gutted to miss that as she and my wife, Rachel, were to miss Brands…)

On with some uber sexy wheels (thanks Paul and Liz) and it was final time and we were out with the club guys again.  Paul and I had sorted tactics and I got to the start of the pit lane before everyone else ready for the start of the session.  This was it. I was determined to get the top slot for the first time ever.

The final went like clockwork apart from coming down the start finish straight for that first hot lap as cars were still coming out of the pits. Paul had warned me of this but it seemed to be like a parting of the waves and I just kept driving with everyone jumping out of the way on their out laps. Thanks so much chaps and especially Marco and I think Steve Linton that I was pretty close to around Clearways … ooops Lap 1 was 58.8 as a result and not enough so I kept on it for lap 2 and improved to 53.8 .. P1 but could it stay that way?

I checked the lap board on the lap afterwards and it showed me as P1 – thanks Steve for that and the team for giving you regular updates to hold it out every lap. I kept going around slowly keeping out of the way to try and cool tyres down and then put in another hot lap – 53.3 better. Still P1 and time running out for the others but my nerves were starting to get frayed. Calm down Dunk. More slow laps and then another blitz … 53.1 yes. That felt good.

I came around again and the lap board was still showing P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1

My mind was jumping ahead of itself and I had to drive fast to get my head clear of stupidness. Another hot lap and a little bit scruffy with a 53.3 but all good.

Lap board says P1 still there cant be much time left surely !!!

Next lap.. checkered flag .. OMG !! I bashed the steering wheel with a release of emotion and thought of the pain and anguish over the last year and a half to get there… or had i done it…. the lap board was gone. Oh sheeet. Bugger.

Into the pits and Steven was doing his Michael Jackson dance – then I knew I was speechless and shaking with adrenaline. It does that to an old man like me lol. YES !!

I was overjoyed (i still am) and couldn’t thank my family, sponsors, supporters, helpers, and team enough.

Best of all, Team ZEN were smiling.

Not being known to celebrate on the podium (cough cough) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSX-aNgWsE

Sooooo close to a first win at Silverstone

Well, what can I say…. a hugely stressful and tiring 2 weeks between Knockhill and Silverstone but it was worth it.

With only 2 weeks to play with the guys (and Liz) at Zen Performance with my help (and often hindrance) were putting in hours that really shouldnt exist in the day unless partying to get it ready along with getting their own race car ready for this round. Their commitment and determination is contagious as there were times when I would have given up and said sod it – it just aint worth it. It is though and they pulled me through. Red Bull and Coffee helped hugely too

The new Zen build engine using Lateral Internals was never going to get much running in before being used in anger for the first time but we had hoped for more than 50 miles ! It was not to be though but this wasnt a huge issue as it felt good and VERY strong and had much better oil pressure than the old engine ever had ! These guys really know how to build engines and with Laterals internals being proven at the highest level I was feeling confident it would cope with an early baptism of fire

The day before and it was finished with the ‘running in’ oil and time to swap to proper fully synthetic Millers 10/60 CFS (thanks Alyn at AS Performance) and time to sort a few other outstanding issues… namely brakes. New Performance friction PF07 compound had been fitted but they had opened up a small crack in the K Sport discs due to the heat that they generate from their awesome stopping power so it was necessary to swap discs to the compbrake discs that Zen had been using and re-bed the pads in on these. This cured the judder and would give me proper brakes for Silverstone – yay

Car, safely tucked away in the Zen garage overnight and it was time to party ! As it is the local event to Zen, Paul and Liz threw a barbeque for Team Zen and friends of Team Zen at their house. A simply superb evening with great friends full of nerves and anticipation for the day to come.

An early start, cup of coffee and away to the circuit in convoy with John Stevenson, Steve Darley, Julian (CJS Norwich) and time to set up the car and gear in the garage.

At the track we were met by Graham from Rapid Media who was going to be providing live in car video from my car and the Zen Performance pro car onto a huge 50 inch plasma screen in the pit garage. We had seen this system a few weeks earlier testing at Silverstone and both Paul and I loved it and how it could assist in seeing what was happening on track to help with pit turnaround time as well as improvements, spotting gaps in traffic and telemetry comparisons. Graham and his helper swiftly set up the cameras in our cars and the aerial on the roof of the building then out with the plasma screen. It was a great sight in the pit garage and looked the dogs danglies with a crowd of people around it all day. We also got the full days video afterwards – i will upload some shortly.

Session 1 – Warm Up
Julian jumped in with me in the warm up session and we headed out, laptop at the ready to check all was well with the car. It seemed fine but soon developed a misfire under boost, suspecting a popped hose I headed back into the pits to find the vacuum hose had come off the fuel pressure reg so it was running lean. Luckily running E85 Bioethanol the car coped fine with this and the only symptom was the misfire – no det or damage. Hose re-routed and secured but it was the end of the session. Apart from that all was great.

Zen in their own car headed out and it was great to see Matt Allison giving the car a great chance on track and topping the leaderboard. The testing and time on the car had been worth it and Team Zen were in a great mood.

Session 2 – Practice
This was the time to test the car in anger for the first time. I headed out and used some track space to make the first hot lap count to see the potential of the car and to heat the tyres up and have a hot lap back into the pits so that we could set pressures. The lap felt nice, planted but still within itself. I rolled into the pits and Paul said P1 … with a 1.04.5 WTF – I couldnt believe it. Pressures sorted and sent out again to try out on another hot lap.

This time I rolled back in with a 1.03.7 and Team Zen were as amazed as me. Car set up was working spot on, the car felt solid, the lines right and engine the strongest it had ever been. There was still more to come though I felt but there was a slight oil breathing issue that needed solving so the session was cut slightly short for me.

I finished this session in position 1 – I had never done this before – it felt good but it didnt count at this stage. Qualifying and the final count so more of the same for quali….

Session 3 Qualifying
Breathing issue solved by Richard, Tim and Julian and we were ready for it. Being at the top end of the pitlane was a distinct disadvantage and meant even though I had left the pit garage early there were already cars queuing to go out ahead of me – getting free track space was going to be hard. We had swapped to the better rubber for this session but the temperatures were hot and track temps were playing a big factor in how quickly the tyres were going beyond their best. First lap out had to be the one.

I made lots of space on the out lap behind Russ Paton – a good 4 seconds gap coming into the complex and nailed it. Far too hot into copse meant I was 6 foot off the apex but still foot to the floor, I hoped that didnt cost any time so kept on it. Braked later in the complex and was flat from halfway round luffield through 3rd, 4th, 5th and over the line. This time I spotted my braking point better, ran tighter into the apex and wider on the exit but caught Russ into Luffield (who was also on a 2nd consecutive hot lap) and nearly collected him coming out of luffield as it seemed like I could get the power down much earlier – unfortunately I had to back out of the power. We crossed the line nose to tail with inches between us. Time to cool down and head to the pits to see the score.

Team Zen were jumping with delight – P1 again with 1.03.6 on the first of the laps. That should be enough to do it. A quick check over and off out again for a couple more laps to cool it all down and keep an eye on the pit board to see if the positions changed. They didnt so I didnt attempt another hot lap – into the pits and session over. I had done it, WE had done it, it felt great and 50 points in the bag from this session. Shane WAS beatable. He had improved on last years times and was full on it and we had beat him in this session fair and square. More of the same for the final and hope that Shane could not find the gap to beat me.

Time now to cheer on the Team Zen car in their quali session – to get the real feel of the to and fro and tension you REALLY need to be looking at the time boards. First Olly and then Matt would put faster and faster laps in… the tension was building….. it went well with P1 at the end and a huge cheers came from the garage when the clock ticked over for end of session. WOW !

The time to the final seemed to drag and drag with endless (it seemed) public track time and thankfully nothing to do on either car apart from checks and minor fettling. Time for sun bathing in the glorious Silverstone weather, chatting with friends and groupies

Session 4 – The Final
The one that counted and again I was stuck halfway back in the pack and thinking about how to make enough space for 2 hot laps on the bounce.. Shane was behind me so i knew it had to count as he was going to be giving everything he had to beat me. Space made on the out lap and GO for it. Lap 1 was a flyer, rock solid and felt smooth too. Lap 2 and it wasnt to be, I had caught Marco in the complex and as tempting as it was to undertake him on the complex (in the space he gave me) I decided to back out of it for fear of reprisals from TA and Silverstone circuit management. Into the pits and they tell me 1.03.4 (quicker still) but Shane had done 1.02.99 bah grr.

Regroup in the garage for a mo and watch the board develop. No-one else was getting near our times so it was between Shane and I for the win… Out for one last push feeling confident there was the 0.4 seconds in the car (and me) for the win. The first hot lap out was a 1.03.8 close but not good enough but the second lap had to be called off due to red flags and session stopped early … nooooo. I will never know whether it could have been but I guess that is motorsport.

Over the moon with 2nd place and it is just reward for the hours of effort, late nights and fantastic support from sponsors, friends and family alike.

I am in a clear 2nd place in the championship now with 2 rounds left – this could go down to the wire.

Zen were out next and nip and tuck again with Olly until Olly turned up the NOS to storm a mind blowing lap in and push Zen into P2. The superior handling of the Zen car just couldn’t live with the extra power that RCMS had given it in the final unfortunately and we had a pair of 2nd places to celebrate.