Race Two – Snetterton – April 2011

A Black - Snet Race two 2 from Amanda Black on Vimeo.

Footage from Race Two. the quality is not good. We had a problem with misting on the camera lens. Hopefully the problem is solved for Brands Hatch. Most of the video is in double time to make it more exciting!

Qualified 9th – Finished 6th
Best finished of the season

Round 3–Qual 9th–Finished 6th

Race One – Snetterton 16th April 2011

7th in Championship Table!

I have moved up from joint 9th/10th to 7th in the Championship table. Pretty happy with that! Roll on Brands Hatch.

Snetterton–Rounds 3&4

Race 1 – Qual 9th – Finished 7th – Top best improver
Race 2 – Qual 9th – Finished 6th – 2nd best improver

Another amazing weekend racing with the Caterham Graduates Series. This time it was at the Norfolk circuit – Snetterton. Racing on their new 300 circuit.

I had great fun testing on the Friday. My first session out was amazing. The circuit was really challenging. The speed and direction changing at the end of coram took sometime to get use to. Also the late braking under the bridge. The infield section was interesting because of course no on had driven it before. My time throughout the day got better but I still needed to do some work! My best was 2:27.3 with the top runners running in the 2:24.

The weather all weekend was good and Qualifying on Sat was no exception. I ended up running on my own so missed out on a tow down the straights, however I think this was quite good as I could go at my own pace. I managed to qualify 9th for both races. I was very happy with this as I was faster that the Fridays testing. Qual time – 2:26.9 (Pole was a 2:23.4 by Paul Hawker).

Race 1 was started with a flag because we where sharing our grid with the Sigma cars (They had the lights). I was caught a bit napping as for some reason I thought we would get a warning board. Instead the lights went off for the Sigma’s, there was a long pause. I didn’t even see the flag go up! So I started when I saw everyone else start. Mental note made – don’t do that again!! I lost a place to Dan Lewis on the start but managed to get this back during the race. Andy Sagar went wide so gained a place there. Up front Paul Hawker had spun and got damaged so was unable to continue – so made a place there. I ended up catching a slower Sigma of Nick Dyer a fellow novice. I off took him quite easily but he had more power down the straight so got me back. I was much quicker in the corners but lacked the power everywhere else! He spun under the bridge and I was likely to miss him! I ended up finishing 7th – Very happy with that. Improved fastest lap 2:25.2. First silverware awarded for top improver.

Race 2 I again started in 9th and was praying for a better start. This time it was better but Dan Lewis still managed to overtake me. So I was down to 10th. The first lap was very close with people changing positions nearly every corner. Going into Montreal for the second time their were yellow flags. On the exit of the corner we found 2 battered Sigma Caterhams blocking the road. On the next corner the race was red flagged.

So my first red flagged race!! What will happen! We travelled back to the grid was was reformed to our original grid position. Much to the disguised of Dan Lewis, as he had managed to overtake me and we had both managed to overtake Andy Sagar. It was a restart with now a 12 minute race. The restart was my best start of the season – glad they are improving! This time I was able to keep up with the back of the top back. Dan Lewis had got in front of me, so I was back down to 10th. Andy Sagar went wide at Hamilton, came back onto the circuit and Dan Lewis took avoiding action and I went up past both of them into the next corner. I got a good tow behind Paul Hawker and Andy got a great tow behind me going down the back straight (Now called Bentley’s). Paul went defensive into bridge (now called Brundle) and I tucked in behind. Andy shot past me into the next right hander (Nelson) but was slower coming out. I was able to accelerate earlier and managed a tight line around Coram to overtake him back. Andy again went to overtake me into Murrays. I took a wider line and he was slow out and I managed a great tow down Senna straight and managed to overtake him back. By this time Dan Lewis had caught Andy up and they continued to battled behind me. A few laps later there was an incident further up between James Russell and Graeme Smith who made contact and went wide into Montreal. I was able to pass both of them. So I was now up to 5th place. I could see the very fast Graeme Smith quickly approaching me on the last lap. Unfortunately he got into my tow down Bentley straight and there was nothing I could do! Managed to finish 6th and improved my fastest lap time. This time 2nd best improver medal.

Overall another great weekend. Roll on Brands Hatch!

Preparation for Snett

For some of today and yesterday I have been getting the car ready for Snetterton. (Getting a bit too excited to be honest).

In summary. I have added additional stickers to the car. So many thanks go to -

‘For Your walls’ – Louth Framing
’Signs for the times’ – Skegness
’Glider Graffix’ – Glider artwork

I have also today added a lot of lead to the car. This will allow me to run the car with less fuel and less weight over the rear axle. This took me quite a bit of time because I had to weigh the lead and try and calculate how much I needed. (Think I have it right!) I also had to saw off the end of the bolts. Just what female teachers do in their holidays!! Hoping I will be able to get to the weighing scales over the weekend to see how much it weighs in total.

I have taken my tyres to a garage in town to get the reams transferred so that I will not have to practice with my race tyres on Friday. I’ll save them for the races. I have relocated my lap timer and egg timer.

Weather forecast for the weekend appears to be changing. This morning it was perfect and now it has changed to rain on Saturday. Hey ho. At least I have my wet tyres now!

Not long until Friday. Nice early start to look forward to.

Race Video’s Online

Unfortunately I have yet to buy a camera to record the races. However it is currently on the wish list. Thank you to other racers there are some on vimeo. Thought you might want to watch.

Race 1

http://vimeo.com/21938949 – James Russell
http://vimeo.com/21893596 – Dan Lewis

Race 2

Hopefully more will follow

Results & Standings

Silverstone R1/2 - Summary

Race 1 – Qual 7th, Finished 10th + Fastest lap
Race 2 – Qual 6th, Finished 12th

Championship Standings – 9th

Next round = Snetterton 16/17 April

SUNDAY: Race 2

Having to wait until the afternoon to go racing again was very hard. Today I had my supporters! Mum, Dad, Annabelle and Richard (Thank you for coming). The car was ready to go. Full of as much fuel as I could get it, to make sure that I was over weight at the end of the race. There was again a long wait in the pit lane before the start. I just could not believe that I had managed to qualify in 6th. The only tactics I had for the race was to get a better start. As we were waiting in the pit lane there were a few drops of rain. I just sat there thinking ‘Please don’t do this, please stay dry’. Luckily it did. Having a better grid position and being on the better side of the grid and knowing I had achieved the fastest lap time yesterday I was feeling that this was going to be more fun. I was not wrong.

Unfortunately at the start I had another poor start. It was better than Race 1 but I still lost places and this really does need to improve. I found myself at the back of the leading pack. I did not panic and just thought the race is long. I knew that as long as I didn’t loose the tow I would be able to catch them back up again. The leaders were dicing in every corner. This helped me to make progress. I slowly picked people off! The tow and slipstream was again amazing. I was really making sure I had a clean exit and on the power as soon as possible. This gave me an advantage going down the straight. One of the scariest moments was being on the inside of Copse knowing I had 3 cars to my left all wanting to get round in one piece! I had managed to work my way up to 4th place! Amazing. However going round Luffields things got a bit tight and I spun. Again. Apparently there was a big cheer from the stands. I was just glad the car was still in one piece and of course I could entertain the spectators!! I was however completely guttered to travel round to the start/stop straight to see the last lap board. Gutted! Oh what could have been!

But overall the weekend was truly amazing. I never dreamt I would be so competitive. Especially driving with 5 year old tires on!! I can not wait for Snetterton. We are driving the new 300 circuit so no one has raced there before.

The countdown has begun.

Well done Tigger! Thanks for looking after me and performing so well!

Fastest lap race 1

Wow what a start to my caterham graduates career. I qualified in 7th place. I was very happy with this for a first race. Grid size was 18. The car was again running really well. Qual was very difficult to get a clean lap in and I managed 1:14.3 which was roughly the pace I was running yesterday during testing. Qual is very tactical you need a slip stream to get a good laptime. So I let a few people past but then they got slightly in the way. So didn't really feel I got a clean lap. But very happy with 7th place.

Before our classic race we went down to Luffield to watch the mega's and super's race. This started to make me very nervous. It was a long wait for our race at 4:20. I got myself ready quite early but really there was too much time. We were grided up in the pitlane and we must have waited there for 20 minutes. My grid slot was on the right of the grid. I had a terrible start and lost about 4 places. The first handful of laps were amazing. It was so close and tight. At one point I had to run wide to avoid someones wing and lights bits! The tow down the back straight was great however it meant that we had 4 cars going into the next corner. People say f1 is boring. It is! Come and watch Caterham racing. Purely amazing. I knew I had the best view in the house but it was really entertaining. About 3 laps to the end I unfortunately spun. But still managed to finish 10th. I was disappointed with myself that I spun but I'd just driven my first race of the season and my 4th race ever. Was very happy. However driving back into my pit garage my mother told me I got the fastest lap in the race. Omg! How amazing. Something I had never expected. Unfortunately no points for fl. If I had performed that lap in qualifing I would have got pole! So all that is really left to say is "roll on Sunday and race 2!"

Morning of first race and qual

Wow. This time has finally come. It is the morning of the first race of the 2011 caterham championship at Silverstone. Had an amazing day yesterday during testing. The car was running very well. The weather held out who ch was a big bonus. Didn't want April showers this weekend! I spent the afternoon on probably mid pack pace. But who knows. Just happy to be keeping up with a few that raced last year. So, my targets for this weekend where to have fun. This has already been achieved! To get faster. I made good progress yesterday and hopefully that will continue today. The last target was to bring the car home in one. We will have to wait until tomorrow for that one.

Yesterday was amazing. We had garage 9c which was buemi's during the 2010 grand prix. I bought a new set of tires but they are going to be my wet set. Fingers crossed I don't have to use them! Testing ran as sessions. I was in group 1 with most of the caterhams. To start off with it was scary. The mega's and super's are so much faster they were overtaking in all sorts of places ! Once I had a bit more confidence it was fine. Copse is a great corner. Not quite flat but because of the wide run off you can really attack the corner. Maggots and becketts are interesting too. There is apparently two lines but just need to think about the striangt coming up. The tow you can get in these caterhams down the back straight is utterly amazing. It's almost like some has installed the f1 Kers button! Brooklands and Luffield. Some room for improvement here! Important part to get the exit out for the stop/start straight.

Really can't wait for what today is going to bring. First sign on, drivers briefing, scuritneering etc. All I'll say is...... I think it's going to be fun!