General:
The season upto this weekends races at Snetterton have exceeded all of our expectations. To come away from the first 2 endurance races for the Mazda RX8 with a win at Silverstone and a 2nd at Brands Hatch is testament to the quality and reliability of the car whilst in relatively standard form. We knew that Snetterton would be a totally different proposition with 2 long straights each with slow corners before them. Acceleration, traction and power are the fundamental requirements at this circuit, together with good balance for the awesome 'Coram' corner which is taken at full throttle and on a 'knife edge' of grip.
Qualifying:
The qualifying session was shorter than previous meetings and gave only 20 minutes for us, and all the other teams, to have a minimum of 3 laps per driver and set a quick time. It was therefore very important to ensure a clear lap early on and to make no mistakes, as it was unlikely we would get a second chance. The team did well ensuring that Steve Guglielmi, driving the second Mazda RX8, and myself were the first cars onto the circuit. I dropped back from Steve on the out lap to give both of us space. Our second flying lap was a 1min21.3sec which at the time was quickest in class and 3rd overall. This, I felt, was the best we could achieve and handed over to Natasha. At the end of qualifying we were 2nd in class and 8th overall out of 19 cars. We were all relatively pleased with this position although we knew that improvements were needed to catch the Renault Clio of Griifin/Simmonds which had posted a time of 1min20.1sec. A debrief of the session ensured the engineers and team knew how we should improve the car and work begun. It should be remembered at this point that the Mazda RX8 is new to this racing series and we are competing against cars that have been tested and developed over several seasons.
Race 1 - Saturday 21st May- 3hour endurance:
The weather was very unsettled as the start time of 15.00hrs approached. A very heavy shower 20 minutes before the start of the race dictated that wet tyres were to be fitted, which all teams did. I took the first stint of the race which we had decided would be split into 2 x 1? hour stints with a fuel stop and driver change at mid distance. The track was extremely wet and greasy, which meant many cars were spinning and out braking themselves. We were not having any problems with the handling of the Mazda RX8 which was outstanding to drive and gave me confidence to push in the braking areas and through the corners. Unfortunately though, this was not enough to make up for a problem with dampness causing a slight engine under performance. This actually turned out to be a very minor problem that was identified and rectified but at the time was losing us a lot of ground on each straight.
The Safety Car was brought out after about 40 minutes of racing due to a car being left in a dangerous position. I communicated with our race engineer over the radio and decided that this could be an opportunity to gain some time by an early switch to slick tyres. This was a gamble on my behalf, as much of the circuit was still damp but a drying line was appearing fairly fast. By changing tyres under a Safety Car period you lose less race distance in the pits than if the same stop is made under race conditions. The next 10 laps were entertaining to say the least. The track was still too damp for the slick tyres and I had to keep all of my wits about me just to stay on the circuit. However, the track then dried significantly enough for our slicks to give us a 3 to 4 second a lap advantage. This for me was the highlight of the race as we rapidly gained the ground back that we had lost whilst in the pits and were the fastest car on the circuit.
Unfortunately though, another downpour left us having to pit again at the 1 hour point and a decision to revert to wet weather tyres and to handover to Natasha.
This had been probably the hardest hour that I have ever spent on a circuit. The Mazda RX8 performed exceptionally given the tricky conditions and we were one of only a hand full of cars that hadn't spun or had a drama of some type. Our position of 3rd in class and 12th overall was not a fair representation of our pace as we had been the only team to have had a pit stop to change tyres at this point. The fact that we held the fastest lap in class at this point of the race proves this.
Natasha did second stint...
The result of 2nd in class and 6th overall was just reward for the team and proved how driveable the car was in these atrocious conditions.
Race 2 - Sunday 22nd May - 1 ? hr
At last………blue sky and a dry circuit !!!
We lined up on the grid in the finishing positions of the previous day.
Natasha did a good solid first stint which gave me a chance to capitilse on.
We had an early pitstop to change over which meant that when I entered the circuit I had a clear track and an opportunity to put in several quick laps before the other teams pitted.
Our pace was extremely quick with laps regularly in the 1min20's, which was due to the improvements made after qualifying. By the time the other teams had pitted we had gained enough distance to have 'leap frogged' them without having to overtake them on the circuit. The car was very well balanced and a real pleasure to drive. The lap times were consistently around a 1min21sec once I had settled into a reasonable pace, by which time we had the fastest lap in class of 1min20.5. This again is testament to how consistent and well balanced the RX8 is, the fact that we were able to lap at only ? second off the limit for nearly an hour. I had a very entertaining dice with the class B BMW E46 320i which had my friend, Jamie Wall, at the wheel. It took a few laps to finally shake Jamie off before being able to settle down again. We quickly took the lead in class from the Honda Civic of Armstrong/Watson after which the team requested I back off to a 1min23sec lap. This is normal during endurance racing as the team have sight of the position and speed of all of the other cars in the race and will modify the strategy and instruct the driver accordingly. Unfortunately, the Mazda RX8 was performing so well that as much as I tried to follow this instruction, the car would not lap any slower than 1min22 and I settled into this pace.
For the last 15 minutes of the race I understood my position to be 1st in class and 2nd overall which was truly excellent. I was then shocked for Shaun, our race engineer, to radio me on the approach to the chequered flag telling me the great news that we were in fact 1st overall !!. I must have blown his eardrums out with my ecstatic response !!!
Our race pace had been very quick with an average speed over the whole race of 83mph. This includes stopping for a driver change and shows the speed and reliability of the Mazda RX8 and its Renesis engine.
2 class wins, 2 class seconds and 1 outright win from 4 races so far... can't wait for Brands Hatch GP circuit in June.
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