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The TV calls…
Live TV returns after 50 years
Live television coverage returns to the Castle Combe Circuit after a 50 year gap, with the hosting of the Motors TV Live Race Day on Monday May 2.
The meeting will be beamed live to the TV screens of viewers in 39 countries and is the first time an entire event has been broadcast from the circuit. The last live broadcast was at a motorcycle meeting in May 1961, whilst in 1955 the BBC covered both the start and finish of a Formula 1 race there.
Spectators at the Wiltshire track have an added bonus for the event with giant TV screens at Camp and Quarry to help them keep track of even more of the action than usual.
As is traditional at Castle Combe, the accent is on non-stop action, with a packed programme of generally short races, where sprinting to the finish will be more important than pacing and preserving tyres.
Nevertheless, with two races for each of the circuit’s home grown championships for saloons, Sports & GT cars and Formula Fords, there will need to be a delicate balance in the first races between car preservation and ultimate pace. With the last meeting just seven days previous, some of the teams will already have been burning the candle at both ends to bring their machines back to full health, so expect to see a few tired looking mechanics in the paddock. With the season barely one meeting old, it is a little too early to comment on form, but inevitably the star names will be filtering through, especially with the added bonus of live TV exposure for their sponsors.
The quality of the entry for the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 race makes picking a winner a tricky business. Reigning champion Marcus Allen faces all the opposition he overcame last year and has the 2009 championship winning Spectrum to help him, run by the circuit based Wiltshire College.
One of his fiercest young opponents, Felix Fisher from Bridgwater, returns for one of his sporadic outings this year in his Van Diemen RF00, whilst former double champion, Ed Moore from Melksham, has his new Ray GR11. Also Ray mounted is local Castle Combe man Andrew Jones, his GRS07 most at home in damp conditions. The list of top names goes on, with 2010 Carnival winner, Rob Hall, back in the Swift, Bath’s Chris Acton the 2006 class C title holder, in the Ray GRS08, Saltford’s Steven Jensen with the Spectrum 011C and in class B, David Vivian from Bradford on Avon in the Wiltshire College Swift SC92.
The circuit’s Saloon Car championship adds a couple of (BMW) Minis to the mix for the first time headed by reigning Sports and GT champion, Mark Funnell from Trowbridge. With his penchant for driving his race car to meetings, Mark is following in the footsteps of double C class champion, Julian Howell from Radstock, whose BMC Mini was also road registered.
With a theoretical limit on the effective power two front wheels can deliver, the eyes are on the progress of the new rear wheel drive 3 litre BMW 130i of Ditcheat’s Kevin Bird. Relying on turbos for their oomph are the likes of double champion Tony Hutchings from Calne in his Audi TT and Southampton’s Adam Prebble in the Rover, whilst the normally aspirated runners such as Bristol’s Mark Wyatt, the reigning class B champion in the Astra and Bridgwater’s Tony Dolley in the Peugeot 206 rely on all round driveability.
Class B sees the Peugeot 106’s such as those from reigning champion, Nick Charles from Yate and David Kift from Bristol versus the Fiesta of Bath’s Guy Parr. Russell Poynter-Brown defends his class D title in the immaculate Corsa 1.4. In the new mildly modified class, the Honda Integra of Melksham’s Simon Norris should be worth keeping an eye on.
The Sports and GTs will provide the fastest races of the day with the Radical sports racing cars likely to be out at the front. Simon Tilling in his Radical SR3 will be fending off those such as a busy Guy Parr in the Nemesis. In the highly modified class, the Darrian Wildcat of Chippenham’s Ian Hall is aptly named with its monster 5.3 litre V8 ready to pounce. He will have the Lotus Exige of Stuart Dixon from Bideford to contend with.
Always welcome are races for Minis. This time the Mighty and Super Mighty championships provide their version of ultra close BMC racing. Last year, Louise Inch clinched a poignant victory in the Mighty Minis at the scene of her grandfather Chris’s death at the circuit in 1980 from a heart attack in qualifying. Louise even beat her father Paul, who had qualified on pole. Scott Kendall and Neven Kirkpatrick shared the Super Mighty honours last year.
The Kumho BMW championship is open to any production BMW sold in the UK, its four classes offering a relatively low cost entry into motorsport, with the added bonus of rear wheel drive. Garrie Whittaker has won all the races so far this year in his E36 M3.
A combination of cars and drivers from the circuit’s own championships and the visitors will also feature in the various ‘open’ races, where more or less anything goes.
Monday’s action starts at 8.40 am with qualifying, racing getting under way from 1.00 pm.
Admission prices are again held at £15 for Adults, £7.50 for OAPs, £2.50 for Paddock Transfer, whilst accompanied children under 16 are admitted free.
For further information, visit the Castle Combe Circuit online at www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk, Facebook or Twitter.
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Snetterton 2011 race report
Well it was a disappointing weekend in many ways, but other ways it was good, at Silverstone 2 weeks before I had slid off into the wall, and damaged the left hand side of the car quite a bit. After getting advice from the company that built my suspension, about the rear end feeling loose, they advised me to lower it down to get more travel out of the dampers, this seamed to work as the car did feel more planted at the rear, but I would of preferred to do this testing on a test day rather than the actual race. The issue was that the test day was full, and the car then could only be tested on the actual race and qualification laps (not ideal).
I set a lap time of 2:32 for qualifying but for the first race my best lap was 2:35, and for the second race the best lap was 2:34, this could of been down to many things, one for sure was my confidence level, I think it had been hit after the crash at Silverstone, and I had not slept well for the weekend, and did have a head ache during the Sunday, I want to look again at the suspension and maybe raise it a touch, to remove a rattle that started to occur (and was a little off putting, I think its the helper springs not holding the spring in place properly when its not loaded), also the exhaust is making a little noise, I think the rear rubber mount has broken off.
The plan this weekend was to be more of a test session, but I was over 10 seconds of the leaders pace per lap, now considering this circuit was 3 miles long, and we normally race over 1 mile circuits, so I also think as soon as I had fallen of the back of the pack, it was very hard for me to catch back up, the pack can pull you along. I felt I did this last year also at snetterton.
Now we have to prepare for the next race, in 2 weeks time on bank holiday monday at castle combe, the difference with this race is it will be on live TV, so I had better try to get it right here 🙂
The car is fixed :) and we are out again racing this weekend
Well after a long 2 weeks the car is back to being nearly straight, and currently is just awaiting the number board to be put back on (that will happen tomorrow.)
Again at Snetterton we have the garages (like at Silverstone) but from what I have been told the ones at Snetterton are not as big, but at least we will be dry inside if there is any rain (if there is rain I may have to purchase some new tyres 🙁 )
Also After speaking to John at black art designs (www.blackartdesigns.com) he suggested to remove the oversteer and loose backend that I am experiencing that I should lower the car down a little, so on his advice I have lost some ride height, and probibly will now have to call in at B & Q and purchase some blocks of wood to help the car on and off the trailer, but we will see that tomorrow when I load up in preparation for Snetterton.
As with Silverstone the races at Snetterton are going to be on sunday, with the signing on, scruiterneering and qualifying on the saturday morning, so we will be milling around in the afternoon and mainly just chilling. I am hoping to have a new toy to play with this weekend, which should enable me to see better when to change gear, and also if I am doing better on the laps, as I will be getting direct feedback on my lap times, in real time.
Silverstone this weekend…
Well its that time again, the season opener is this weekend at Silverstone, and as in time honoured tradition my todo list is still large, with items like buy more tie clips, to remove the redundant wires that were in for the rear number plate lights (that the car does not have now)
As we have a strange weekend with qualifying on saturday just before midday, then 2 races on the sunday, some of the other racers are thinking about going karting, I may just take the time to chill a little and do some of the little time consuming jobs that always get left.
She lives…
Well today was the time to say if I had a working car or not. After the last race of last year the race car has been parked up, and not moved, the battery removed and put on a slow charge to keep it alive. Today was the day that the battery got reunited with the car and I tried to start the car, first mistake was I forgot there was still the immobiliser on the car, so had to turn that off, then on the first try the car turned over (I had removed the connector to the coil pack to ensure it turned over before I attempted to start the engine) Once the car had been turned over and no issues were seen, I connected up the coil pack lead, and the car started on the first go. It actually started a lot easier than when we were at Thruxton, I guess this is to do with me taping up the two large holes in the inlet tube. I have located one of the samco hoses on ebay that was too good to miss to replace this pipe, and as they have a lifetime guarantee then in the long run it should be cheaper than just getting a replacement BMW part.
Also whilst it was not raining (at present it does seem to be raining a lot) I took the opportunity to change out the water pump, thermostat, change the oil, and fit a new ancillary belt. Another change I thought I would do is replace the engine mounts, the ones that are in there are 2 years old, and have been subject to a lot of abuse with the old engine spouting oil from an unknown location, and then during a race, they do get a little more harshly treated than if they were on a standard road car, and for the piece of mind, and the price of the new mounts it was a no brainer.
The next item is the tidying up of the wiring (again, it feels like this is never ending) I want to replace a couple of original BMW connectors with some aftermarket ones, this will allow me to shorten the cable length at the same time, but this will have to wait till we have some dryer weather.
Its started again…
Well as we are now well into 2011, I thought I better start to do some work on the car, I started off by getting the fire extinguisher serviced (as it was 2 years old, and they need a service every 2 years). At the same time I also bought a new battery as the old one had a few issues in 2010 when I left the alternator cable off at one race, this caused the battery to go very flat.
So the weekend was here, and I thought I would take off the rear brake lines to attempt for the forth time to get them converted to braided hoses (I keep getting lines that are too short, or not the correct fitting), but with the amount of rain falling I did not feel like lying on my back under the car in the wet, so I went to the local GSF shop and purchased a few parts required for a full service.
- Oil filter
- Fuel filter
- Spark plugs
- Thermostat
- Water pump
- Exhaust gasket
- New belt
The plan was to do the service on sunday the day after the awards ceremony for 2010, but as I did not have the oil with me, that was forgotten about.
What I did do though was remove all the graphics, and stickers that were on the car for the last 2 years, as this coming year we are going to have a different look. Some stickers came off with a little heat with no issues, but others (that shall remain nameless) were a right pain, and did not want to come off at all.
After getting all the stickers off, I thought I would start the car, its not been run since november. 
When I opened the bonnet though I noticed that the air intake pipe that goes from the air filter to the throttle body was slightly broken, this could of been attributing to the starting issue that I was experiencing at Thruxton in 2010. So we now have another job to do, I have the new hose that I got over winter from a friend that was breaking there car, but just have to find it now, and fit it.