Race Review: Power Series - Round 4
Photo cred: Franky
A few things dawn on me regarding GTi challenge. Your equipment needs to always be up to specification. Running under power or overweight and you’re a sitting duck from the start. Everything needs to go right for a positive result. That’s motorsport. Your start needs to be perfect. Two of my three weren’t. More on that later but it boils down to the main point that everything needs to click on the day. Everything.
Let’s dial it back to qualifying. Being one of the first classes out on the track meant that we were being greeted by a rather green circuit. Green’s a term used to describe a fresh track that doesn’t have too much rubber on it. Me spinning out on Turn 1 in qualifying heading out validating that. My intentions were however clear. Try and get out as one of the firsts and then just drive.
Make no mistake here but spec racing is difficult. You don’t just arrive at any point of success. Whilst my performance feels rather sporadic in terms of ups and downs, it’s indicative of the space connected to growth. With 60% of my lap times in the 29’s now I feel that average will improve to 100% soon. The immediate goal is to break into the 28’s. We’re still 3kW under but the major issue is weight. 30kg over despite some weight lost (on myself) is the type of self-cannibalistic ballast we need to do something about if want to improve.
Even though I’m a firm believer in putting pressure on yourself to get the best out sometimes you need to take a step back and put things into perspective before jumping back into the task at hand. This I had done the previous evening which had set me in a more relaxed space and the positive result in qualification reaffirmed that.
Race 1 was red-flagged after a turn two incident involving two class C cars. Up until that point, one of the three starts was reasonably good. Grant and myself got tangled into a proper dice for 3 laps swopping positions with me ending in front at the moment of the stoppage. The restart, however, was rather unkind. We had replaced the clutch after qualification and the adjustment on the clutch pedal caught me out with the revs dropping just enough for the motor to stall. Now I guess paying school fees in this game means there must be a first for everything. That better be my first and last. Nadia tried her best to get around me as I got the motor fired up again but then there was contact. Hard contact. I believe my right taillight lens made it to the first corner before I did. From there on it was a fight. I managed to catch and make up 3 positions. Another lap and I’m certain that I could have made up another 2. Would’ve...could’ve...didn’t. Motorsport, my friends is a cruel mistress.
Race 2 - The quickest lap time of race one determines starting positions for the second race. P6 for me. From P3 to P8 was spread out over 0.9 seconds. It’s great to see a class deliver close action like that. Another botched start after 2nd gear not engaging meant I needed to bag 3rd and wait for speed. What lay ahead was another 8 laps of catch up. Again, I had made 4 positions before catching Grant again in a last 3 lap dice. This time however he defended like a spartan, and a mistake made with me out-braking myself into turn 2 on the last lap meant the gap was just too large to bridge.
I’m aware that my racecraft needs work. That will come with time and more races. I’ve always said GTi challenge is the “come to Jesus” moment where there’s nowhere to hide. The pressure is relentlessly immense. In that process, if you’re willing to go with it, you’ll learn and grow as a driver. More so than any other segment.
Photocred: Abri De Bruin
In GTi challenge, your total elapsed time for both races combined determines your overall position, meaning that I bagged P5 for the day. My previous best being P7. Along with that, the majority of lap times improving to the 29’s with a best-ever lap time of 29.5, there are many positives from the day that I’ll take out and look to work on. What is great for the sport is that everyone else in the class is putting as much effort into improving, be it driver coaching, more practice and car development and with more capable drivers looking to enter Class B, it looks like the competition will get stiffer. Best to put the wine glass down before the next race meeting on the 10th of July.
