Donington Historic Festival May 2014

Donington Historic Festival May 2014.

Races :-

RAC Woodcote Trophy. 1 hr

Pre 63 GT : 1 hr

Historic Touring Car Challenge:  Race 1 = 30mins Race 2 = 30 mins.

Cars:-

Aston Martin DB2 Lightweight (1951 Le Mans Team car specification).

Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV Group 1 ETCC.

Drivers:-

Glynn Allen

Julian Bailey-Watts

Race Mechanic:- Darren.

Initial Race Prep & engine build Aston DB2 :- Four Ashes (see link on right)

Race Prep :- Fast Car Clinic

Pit Crew:- Jonathan, Ben, Darren.

Historic Touring Car Challenge 1966 to 1985.

This was the first time Julian and I had raced in this car, in fact it was the first time we had ever sat in the car, which is always a worry in a high profile race with mainly professional drivers.

Qualifying:-

We expected to be well off the pace as the car was not quite ready although Fast Car Clinic did a good job to give us a car that ran well over the weekend. We just need more power and torque, as the handling and brakes are excellent.

Grid = 18

Position = 17

Best Lap = 1.37.341  (6 secs per lap off the pace).

Race Results = 

Race 1 :-

Position :- 14

Best Lap:- 1.34.130 ( 4 secs off the pace).

Class 1B :- 4th


Race 2:-

Position :- 13

Best Lap :- 1.33.841 ( 2 Secs off the pace)

Class 1B :- 5th

The Alfa was great fun to driver and handled very well, we just need more power down the straights was the car was slow to pick up in 4th gear which I think was losing us about 4 secs a lap.

Julian drove very well and consistently, while my lap times were more mixed mainly due to the clutch pedal which on right hand drive Alfas comes out of the floor at a right angle and causes me some problems with the gear change.  Jonathan & Darren helped sort this out in stages but will need some more work around the problem.

The engine ran very well but was using oil so we will have a look at the piston rings and values and guides.

Pre 63 GT Race 

Qualifying:-

Grid :- 29

Position :- 26

Best Lap :- 1.33.731 (Best ever lap time at this circuit in this car).

Class C :- 3rd.

Results:-

Grid :- 29

Position :- 20

Best Lap :- 1.37.716 (JBW)

Class C :- 3rd

Drum Brake Class :- 1st 

For the race we put on new tyres all round as we were having problems getting the wheels tight on the hubs.

I drove first and it took several laps to scrub the tyres in and build up some speed, but just as the tyres were coming in there was a safety car for about 5 laps. Once the safety car period had finished I had a real problem of getting grip and could not match or even get close to the qualifying times.

Julian did a great job getting up to speed and brought the Aston home in 3rd in class and first drum brake car in the race.

We had a great race with the Porsche 365A of Wright/Clark, with some very close racing and much over taking. We just managed to get in front of them to take the Drum Brake win.

RAC Woodcote Trophy Race

Grid:- 30

Position:- 29

Best Lap:- 1.38.917

Class C :- 7th

We took it easy in qualifying as we new we had an issue with the front drums which were cracking very badly and we had very little left on the rear brake shoes.

We decided to change the front drums for some old ones which were not cracked. This in hindsight was a big mistake as the drums were not round and in the first lap of the race the car juddered violently on braking at the front end.

I decided to race without using the brakes and just managed to hang on at the back but once the leaders started to come through and I needed to brake I came in as it was not safe.

It was a pity as the car was running very well and we could have made are way through the field, as we new we had good pace in the car.

Thanks to Darren for doing all the extra work on 2 x cars over the weekend and for FourAshes for transporting the Aston to and from the event and race prep on the Aston.

Next Race :- Spa Sixties Endurance 2 hrs including Pre 63GT. May 2014.