Super Spa Racing

The 400 mile trip from the UK, under the tunnel to France and then into Belgium took the best part of a day.  As you approach the town of Francorchamps you get a sense of how hilly it is, with tall pine forests surrounding the area.  The size and scale of the circuit dwarfs anything in the UK - even Silverstone. 

Arriving early evening we dropped the car and trailer at the circuit truck park, where Englsih and Dutch cars were starting to assemble, before heading to our accomodation in the town. 

various photos credit michael@mtsweb.be

After an early start Friday morning, we got access to the track and setup,  sharing an F1 pit garage with 4 other cars over the weekend. We didn't need to shelter from any rain, as was feared for October,  the weather was warm and sunny the whole weekend. 

Friday practice was an open pitlane track day and our plan was to do several 20 min sessions for each driver.  We ran with 60 mins of fuel (nearly a full tank) to match race conditions as we have never needed to before. 

We knew the track from our simulator work on Assetto Corsa but it's always a bit different in reality.   You can't simulate the compression through Eau Rouge and cresting Radilion which is completely blind (all you can see is the sky) it's so steep! 

Around the back of the circuit it's steeper down hill too and the off-camber Double Gauche drags you away from the apex very easily if you get your corner entry line wrong. 

In between sessions we signed on for Saturday and Sundays racing, had our car scrutineered and had our kit  checked for the relevant FIA standards.  Our first drama was when Garry's suit was rejected for not having the required FIA hologram. A quick trip to the Spa Race shop and he was back in business (wallet considerably lighter obviously).  

In the afternoon sessions we started to feel a vibration on the left front wheel under hard right cornering, so limited our running to one more session each knowing we couldn't change a wheel bearing on site - but we're confident it would hold together ok.

Mike set out fastest times of the day and was more confident up Eau Rouge and pushing the limits on braking points. At 135mph we need less than 100m to go down from 5th to 3rd at 60pmh at the end of a Kemel straight. 

Saturday Practice and Qualifying

Saturday brought 30 minutes of free practice and then the same amount of official qualifying after lunch.  The first was disrupted by cars going off causing red flags - we both got some running though. Our fastest lap was similar to Friday at 3m03s but we knew more was possible from our Friday data and best sector times. 

Qualifying was also stopped after just a couple of laps for a red flag.  With so many cars on track we mirrored Dutch driver JP's tactics in his Sonax Cayman, waiting for all the cars to get on track and going out in the gap they left.

clear track tactics in qualifying

It turned out they had pit radio watching the circuit live tracker to ensure the best gap possible for a clean and traffic free hot lap. 

We got as clean laps as possible so improved several times and ultinately to 2m57.9 to qualify 31st of the 52 cars.  We were pretty happy with that knowing we lost over 1s in the last corner with 3 cars of different speeds arriving on hot laps together. 

Saturday night was an Anglo-Dutch BBQ night at a restaurant out in the countryside. This went down very well with everyone. 

Sunday Race 1

Sunday's two 1hr races were going to test our car mechanically and there wasn't much time between for repairs so we had to be on our game.  Whilst normally we would be called to the assembly area over the tannoy - this is an FIA event so things just happen at the time indicated on the live timing system. 

The pit lane opens for 5 minutes for you to get to the grid.  Nobody will wait for you or chase you up!  If you miss it - it's your problem. 

The safety car was so quick the green flag lap was almost flat out race pace before concetinaing at the bus stop into our 2x2 rolling start formation.

 

The lights went out as we came down the straight. With so many cars the train was still rounding the final corner.!  Some cars didn't event catch up in time. 

Loosing a couple of spots being careful around La Source the first time under green was ok and the race picked up from there. Garry was faster than several cars in front but couldn't pass a bright green dutch 968 to make progress. 

Race 1 - mix of Boxster and 968's

The safety car came out for an accident and due to slower cars in front we never caught the back of the safety car train, passing the pits just before the pit window opened.  Everyone else pitted at least part under safety car but it was green when we came around again for our stop, costing us a lot of time. 

After a fairly relaxed pit stop (2m Vs our usual 1m) Mike was cleared to leave the pits by our crew (Dad).  After negotiating Eau Rouge safely it was a case of getting up to speed quicky.  The next laps were a little scrappy as faster cars caught him in awkward spots. 

He made a good overtake judging the gap to the car in front to get the slignshot over the crest at Radilion and down the long straight, as they were blocked by a slower car. A few quicker laps followed, but tyres were starting to struggling in the last 10 mins.  Mike got down to 2m58s on the penultimate laps as the fuel reduced.   

Finished 27th, fastest Lap 2m58.5s.

Sunday Race 2

With not much time between races we were under time pressure to bleed (the pedal felt soft in race 1) and clean the brakes and wheels.  Then when tightening the wheel bolts a wheel stud sheered off just 30mins before the race.  We carry spares and the tools to change it and after a bit of a struggle with blunt drill bits, we got it changed very quickly. 

We were ready just as the pits opened to go to the grid however our fire extinguisher wouldn't arm - the battery was flat and it took another 2mins to change - we just made it before the pit closed. 

Mike got a clean get away on the rolling start, holding position and followed several cars up Eau Rouge closing along the Kemmel straight.  On the second lap around cars went off into the gravel and the safey car was out.   

The marshals cleared the cars quickly but then decided to spend 10 more minutes putting cement dust on all the oil around half the circuit which caused the crashes.  They hadn't bothered cleaning it up from the race before us and the race really shouldn't have started with so much oil on track. 

Mike did get a couple of laps green racing before handing over in the pit stop and after a couple of scrappy laps meeting slow cars at the most awkward spots Garry started to improve.  He was ~10 seconds behind and catching the group in front at 2s per lap with 5 laps remaining it was going to be close.  He overtook a Cayman and got onto the back of the group just as the last lap was signaled.  

Catching the group in front on the last lap

Unfortunately the grand stand finsh was denied us, as the GT4 Caymans lapped him, one tagging the back bumper breaking the exhaust and the gap was back to 2s which was just too much to get back.. 

Finished 22nd best lap 2m55.0 Vmax135.4mph. 

Our first trip abroad has been a journey and a half to say the least. The preparation was hard work, and so was the weekend with the travel involved too.  

But racing on such a big stage, at arguably the greatest F1 track in the world with such a large and diverse grid of Porsche's was a truly unforgettable experience. 

A massive shout to the All Dutch Porsche Racing Club who are an amazing group of racers, who made us so welcome and looked after us over the weekend.

The #46 drivers (left) and piut crew (right)

Snetterton Mixed Fortunes

We had a mix of fortunes at Snetterton in August where again the CALM All Porsche series had another bumper 30 car grid. 

After the disasterous performance in the wet a year ago year we were glad about the dry weather forecast for the weekend.  

We qualified in P13 after being unable to improve our first flying lap due to oil on the track at the Bomb Hole corner and then the tyre wall being pushed into the middle of the track at Hamilton which also spread grass and dirt everywhere causing a localised yellow flag. 

Mike was going to race both short 15minute sprint races, with Garry taking the longer 40m race on Sunday. 

Race 1 Saturday 

Mike got a decent start vs the cars around him and held his own around the first few laps. 

Sensing two cars in front were earlier and more tentative on the brakes a move around the outside of the infield Agostoni hairpin nearly came off - but the door was firmly shut - nearly driving us off the circuit.  

Mid way through the race, an opportunistic move up the inside at Oggies nearly came off, but a mis-shift on the exit let the car back through. However the pass was finally setup for the first corner where again we were much later on the brakes giving us an 11th place finish. 

Race 2 - Saturday 

Mike had to navigate a bumpy few first laps with cars driving aggressively to hold position. We picked up rear bumper damage and lost a few places to faster cars coming through the grid. 

Mid race, with a clear track, his lap times improved and Mike reeled in the car in front making the pass on the last lap at Oggies again.  A great drive to finish p10 and 6th in class after various retirements in front. 

Starting P10 for Sunday's pit stop racegave us an  outside chance of a class podium if everything went our way. 

Race 3 - Sunday

Garry's start was immense moving up several places on the outside only to be hit side on navigating the first turn as cars inside were squeezed.  The shunt caused damage to the sill and door and the lost momentum allowed four cars by.  The second lap saw worse to come when cars braked early for the hairpin in front and caught out on the dirty line we hit car the in front.

Somehow the car still drove ok and Garry navigated through the field to 7th place as the pit window opened. 

Motorsport UK officials cast a probing eye over the front end at the stop, and although severely bent the bumper and bonnet were held firm in position by the bonnet pins and all three radiators seemingly undamaged. 

The second half of the race was less eventful, Garry getting clear track and driving to the limit of the car and our ability posting consistent 2m13s laps. He was caught by faster 2nd drivers and finished P8 overall - 6th in class.  

We are good second or two a lap off the fastest drivers and cars in our class so finished about the best we could. 

We have just over 6 weeks to repair the car and ready it for our first European round at Spa Francochamps in October. 

Brands GP with V8s

We teamed up again with the Bernie's V8 series to max out the grid for the Brands Hatch GP circuit. 

The meeting nearly didn't go ahead due to the no. of marshalls needed at Silverstone for the F1 but the clerk of the course managed to make it work with reduced no's and a clear message to drivers to keep it on the black stuff. 

Qualifying went very well - with our car setup unchanged from Anglesey. Mike did his mandatory 3 laps and handed over to Garry to try and set a time for the grid postion. 

After a banker 1st lap which would have qualified us in approx 20th, the safey car was out for 2 laps for a car in the gravel. It started raining but not quite enough to affect the track - you have to mentally block it out so you don't slow down unnecessarily. 

After we went green again, dropping back to find some space worked and we crossed the chequered flag with a 1m46.0 time. This jumped us to 10th overall and 2nd in a bumper class of 15 Boxsters amongst the 46 car grid.  A decent time given we only had 3 flying laps. 

Race 

If qualifying was a great success, our race was the opposite.  A band of rain was forecast right about our race time and it started just as we needed to head to the assembly area. We dithered over changing to our wet tyre set banking on the rain being light or at least short. Once we were in the assembly area it was obvious it was neither and a 15min delay to our start time only soaked the track further. 

After good start holding position on the first lap , it was evident we couldn't run with the pace of others who either chose the right tyre or at least had tyres which coped better with standing water.  We slipped back position by position and resigned ourselves to just keeping the car on track (which was pretty testing at times) and ensuring we finsihed. 

Our pit stop was leisurely and although a drying line had appeared in places by then the Nangkang tyres just don't like any sort of damp conditions.

We finished down in 25th place, 2 laps down on the leaders. The silver lining was a final novice driver race signature for Mike which will allow him upgrade his licence to 'Race National' level & is now eligible to race at Spa later in the year. 

_________________________

In hindsight we knew our tyres were no good in any sort of damp or wet conditions. We had tested them at Snetterton over a whole range of wet conditions., so it should have been a  very easy decsion to run with our Michelin tyres.  We will learn! 

Full Race Onboard Video

https://youtu.be/0kMbOZoIjR8

Full results book

https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=MSVR/2023/232751v8c.pdf

Anglesey Race Bonanza

We drove the 275 miles for our first ever trip to the Trac-Mon circuit at Anglesey in North Wales.  We had a full day of testing on Friday, before a triple header race weekend.  The weather for once was great - 20+degrees with lots sun and a light breeze - perfect conditions.   

A lot of different series had the same idea and we were joined by the Teguiwa Enduro cars for our 6x 20 min Friday testing sessions which meant dealing with both slower and faster cars on track.  

 

Mike did the frst 2 sessions - mostly learning the track and adapting the to the International layout which we'd not tested on Assetto Corsa.   Garry then did the middle two, with Mike completing the day.

We worked on tyre pressures and temperatures as this was our first outing on the Nangkang AR-1 tyres - Assessing the pressure increase from cold so we end up at the optimum hot pressure and not overheat them 

We made a couple of stiffness changes to the suspension whilst being mindful of the tight corners around the circuit so we needed the car to rotate well.  We also experimented with different gear choices - 3rd instead of 2nd through the banked turn 2 and onto the international straight.  Sometimes 3rd can feel slow - but being smoother and carrying more entry speed can be faster overall.  

A failed wheel stud caused a minor issue during the day - but we carry spares and the tools to drill out and extract them so we only lost 5mins of track time as a result.  Kerb abuse on the rear left wheel is the likely cause. 

Setup for the weekend

Winding out the remains of broken wheel stud

Qualifying

Over 30 cars spanning three decades lined up for qualifying on Saturday - which was an awesome sight and the biggest grid in the CALM All Porsche series to date.  

Mike did his mandatory 3 laps and gave Garry just over 10 mins to set a fast time.  After a couple of aborted laps due to traffic we gained 2s over the line to jump up to 10th with a 1m43.5s lap.  A little dissatisfied but accepting that was pretty close to the limit from testing. 

Variety of Porsche Models in CALM All Porsche Trophy

On that fast lap and the cool down the exhaust was very noisy and on investigation afterwards rather than a loose joint (that we expected) we found a major problem - the catalytic conver was snapped in two - oh!

After much asking around the paddock had drawn a blank we set off to the nearest Euro Car Parts that had one in in stock - *Chester* which was a 180 mile round trip!  

We'd all but given up on making the afternoon Sprint Race as a result  - however MTD Motorsports managed to weld the two pieces back together as a temporary repair and with the help of other drivers we got it refitted with 5 mins to spare.  Great support from the paddock to get us on track. 

Sprint Race 1

I got a good start off the grid jumping two rows but got squeezed on the outside so couldn't hold all of the gain. Once into a rhythm I passed several cars  but couldn't make the jump into the 1m42s lap times the front 3 Boxsters were setting. They were 10s up the road by then too, so. I managed the gap behind to bring the car home safely over the last 5 mins of the race. 

The catalytic converter held together and I finished well in P6 overall and 4th SP2 (Boxster) class. 

Just after the race finished the replacement cat arrived back - so it was a late evening finish

by the time we'd switched them over properly.  

Sprint Race 2

It was cooler on Sunday am for Mike's sprint race.  Starting P6 - he slipped back as expected but found the 2nd group of boxsrers fighting for 10th-16th places and not only kept up but picked them off as they made mistakes with some nice overtakes. Lap times improved by another second in what was a first really competitive race - finishing P14 overall and 9th in SP2 class was a fantastic drive. 

Passing on the outside onto the Intenational Staight

The Mid-Pack Boxster Fight

Pit-Stop Race 3

The final pit stop 40 min race in the afternoon was touch and go with heavy rain forecast but it hadn't arrived come start time so a full dry car setup was in order.  

Mike started and despite getting off the line well -  lost couple of places initially.  He followed the mid pack Boxster group as planned and ready for an early pit stop so we could undercut the group by getting our faster driver on track earlier. 

Unfortunately a Cayman spun into the pit exit barrier causing the safety car to come out - so everyone pitted together - it was mayhem - and we lost 30 secs to a front group of cars due to the unlucky timing.   

A mistake with our seatbelts cost us another 20 seconds - so as the safety car ended we were still way off the back of the train down in 26th position. Garry did his best to make up places  but as the rain that was due started to become more persistent it wasn't  worth risking any heroics.  We finished where we started. P14 and 9th in class. 

Overall it was an awesome weekend of racing at a really fantastic track that has a bit of everything in its layout.  We got good performance from the Nangkang tyres and overcame some tricky mechanical issues.  Mike picked up 2 race finish signatures for his licence so just has a couple to go before he can upgrade - which will be needed if we go to Spa later in the year. 

 

Getting ready for 2023

The off season was dominated by a frustrating problem with the car which took us several months to identify and resolve.  

We raced at Snetterton at the end of July 2022 and it was such a disaster we didn't even post a race report on here!

Last minute wet weather combined with using worn tyres with a dry suspension setup meant we couldn't keep the car on track, qualified poorly (15th / 23 cars) and to cap off the weekend the engine kept cutting out during the 2nd stint of the race causing our first DNF for a long time. 

wet snetterton

The track just didn't take well to the first major downpour after many months of scorching weather in the UK.

In qualifying the weather changed dramatically to the point visibiltiy was so poor and there was standing water everywhere.  We spun several times unable to register a decent lap time - despite knowing the track well and having driven and raced many wet lap before.    

In the race it started raining as cars lined up on the grid, and when they arrived at he back of the circuit on the green flag lap it had been raining heavily and almost caught some drivers out.  We started ok and tip-toed round but the car spun with the gentlest push on the throttle in the in field section.  It was ridiculous! 

By the driver change point it was drying out and we set after the posistions we'd lost making good ground until the engine kept cutting out.  We hard to park as it wasn't safe with cars in close proximity at the speeds we race.  

Back home the car would run for a few minutes then stop. We went round in circles for months looking at air, spark, fuel - the core ingredients for any engine to run but to no avail. No Porsche error codes showed up and everything checked out.   

We eventually found a loose earth bolt to the knock and flywheel sensors and assumed this was the problem.  Having observed slightly low fuel pressure we had also ordered a replacement VDO fuel pump as well.  On changing this found the old one clogged with gunge in the bottom of the tank and not even strong enough to empty the tank of fuel. Bingo we have our culprit!  

new pump fitted in clean tank

With that solved we completed the usual winter maintenance of new brake discs (Pagid) and pads (Mintex),  oil (Millers Motorsport) and filter change and a brake fluid flush (Castrol SRF). 

Bleeding brakes using tyre pressure bleeder

New tyres were a must and we shed the old Toyo 888s for a set of Nangkang AR-1 (from the motorosort approved list 1b) which have a stronger sidewall and are less prone to overheating in the longer 40 minute races.   Thier wet performance is worse than the Toyo though and given our experience at Snetterton last year and with potential trips to Anglesey (wet) and Spa (very wet) we opted for a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4 (list 1a) tyres as a better all round tyre to use in the the wet. 

We had a new power test done which confirmed the engine is running well and making good power and torque through the rev range.   We should clock in around the 170 rear wheel bhp / ton mark for the Calm All Porsche series.  

power testing

A pre season shakedown track day was completed successfully.  The car ran faultlessly and we got plenty of wet driving practice   With the weather ranging from monsoon to just wet we have a good idea of the cross over between the two tyres and when to use the different sets based on track conditions. 

 

wet track

dirty car follwing a day of wet running

We are racing for the first time at Anglesey in May and the car just needs a clean and the series sponsor stickers fitting and we are ready to race.