I was due to go to Mallory Park on the 14th April 2010 to assist Lenny Coleman, who purchased our championship winning Reynard 883 late last year, get used to his new steed, advising him on how to get the best out of the car, and to get the setup to his liking. Having someone on hand who knows the car, and how it reacts to various setup changes is a big help, and part of the Reynard sale deal was to be present at his first test.
However, as I was going, we decided that is wasn’t that much more effort or expense to take our Dallara with us and give it a brief shakedown test to make sure that the problems we suffered at Brands Hatch last month were cured. Leaving home at 5am was a bit of a drag, and confirmed for me why we now stay overnight at race circuits!!! The testing fee was also pretty reasonably, at £102, which made the decision is little easier to swallow…
The morning was split into three half hour sessions for single seaters (saloons were in the other sessions, and bikes were scheduled for the afternoon), and we opted to help Lenny for the first session, go out ourselves in the 2nd session (as well as helping Lenny if he needed it), and then to concentrate entirely on the Reynard again for the final session. There was a bit of drama to start with as the Reynard wouldn’t start – traced to a wire left of the battery that fed the ECU – but once that was found and fixed it started easily. Strangely the car hadn’t been run since December, which we think is an odd way to go about things prior to a test day!! Tyre pressures were set, and Lenny was strapped in ready to go.
A few laps later – probably his third lap – the Reynard pulled off the circuit near the final corner, but kept the engine running and limped back once the red flags were shown. The problem – the wheel nuts had come loose, and the left rear wheel had pretty much fallen off. Andrew, acting as Mono photographer once again, collected the wheel nut from a marshal, whilst we inspected the car – the wheel was totally unusable, but the brakes, hub and suspension appear to have been undamaged.
For his second session he went out on wets to bed them in a bit, but this would severely limit his speed and track time, as the wets would quickly break up on a totally dry track, but with only three safe wheels with slicks he had little choice.
Tony Cotton was also present, and by the end of the day put about 50 laps on the car, and increased his confidence and knowledge in driving it. As I wasn’t there to set lap times, I offered to drive around with him to see what he was doing right and wrong.
I went out in the second session and just drove around – no lap times were aimed at, and most of the time it was a case of keeping out of traffic. Eventually I caught up with Tony, and followed him for a few laps to see how he was doing. His lines were good, and his speed through the long right hander at Gerrards was particularly good. The Esses and Devil’s Elbow were a little less refined, but not far off. Tony’s main issue was remaining committed into the braking zones and turn-in points, but this will come in time – Tony has never raced a full on slicks and wings car, and I think he was doing okay considering.
After a few laps of this, I overtook him and tried to go a wee bit quicker than he had been going, but without pulling out a lead on him. As long as I didn’t lift off too early or take strange lines I thought he might be able to learn from me, as well as using me as the proverbial hare to chase. It seemed to work; Tony recorded his best laps whilst behind me, although he did have a spin at the hairpin due to being exuberant with the loud pedal. In the final session Tony eventually went quicker again, proving that he was able to put into practice the feedback we’d given him. Well done Tony!
Once Tony spun I sped up again, but still without ultimate pace in mind. I was very impressed with the traction out of the hairpin, and of course there were no g-force related problems as with the carburettors, so the car was more balanced in Gerrards and the Esses. All of which meant that my dash was easily showing 45 second lap times. My pole time in 2009 was a 44.1, and being a racing driver (sort of) I couldn’t resist trying a bit harder. Soon the dash was showing low 44s, even without really trying as I was concerned about the Silverstone tyres we were using. Finally, on a traffic-free lap pushing reasonably hard, I set a 43.65, which is around 0.5 seconds quicker than last year. Considering I didn’t have the incentive of grid position, and was on tyres that can be best described as ‘dodgy’, I think that’s very good. I would be confident of doing low 43s during the race meeting, perhaps even ducking into the high 42s, which is considerably under the lap record. And, unlikely the majority of testing claims, this lap time is a genuine one – no bullshit here!!!
To say we are pleased with the car is an understatement!
Tony and I ended the day happy with how things turned out, whilst Lenny was left with having to find a new wheel – yet he remained cheerful too!
