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TomK's first ever race!

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Fishy Dave
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by Fishy Dave » Thu Jun 08, 2017 5:46 pm

Seeing as this is a stand alone race with two 'M' owners taking part and the first ever race for TomK I felt it was worthy of its own thread. For those not wanting to read my waffle please skip to the bottom to watch the video!

As many of you will have read or seen here, I've enjoyed a good number of days with fellow Z4M trackday buddy TomK over the past couple of years. Chatting over dinner last year at Anglesey circuit I said that if he got his race licence and bought his kit that he could share my E30 race car in a two driver 45 minute 'Track Day Trophy' race. Fast forward 8 or 9 months and we find ourselves at Silverstone last Saturday, with Tom about to qualify for his first ever race! Considering he's only driven a few laps in my car on a couple of occasions he set some great times in the 30 minute session, for a time holding first in class D (upto 125bhp per ton) in a class including Fiesta, Ginetta G20R and MX5. Toms third lap out proved to be his fastest with a 1min 15.250. He handed over to me and I only improved by a little, with a 1min 14.062, enough for 26th on a busy grid of 36 cars, 2nd in class. The second hand Yokohama A048 tyres felt good, not bad for freebies!
I nominated Tom to be first driver, as I wanted him to experience the full excitement/terror of the race start! Game plan sorted: keep neat and tidy, as we expected plenty of penalties to be issued for track limits and remember that we have a two minute pit stop from 'pit in' to 'pit out'.
It was a standing start and Tom made a good one, soon trading places and looking like he'd been racing for years. Weird to look on at my own car racing! I waited anxiously in the pit lane, checking the live timing on my phone and really chuffed that we took the class lead and then broke away after getting past a more powerful BMW 330ci. Tom pitted on lap 16 to hand over to me. Perfectly understandably in the heat of the moment that Tom forgot to press the countdown timer on the steering wheel so we had no way of knowing how long we should wait in the pits before pulling away, fearful of a time penalty if the pit stop proved to be too short. As I got strapped in (helped by my work colleague Hannah) Tom shouted to me that there was a problem with the car and that it was cutting out. I'd not been aware of it judging by his laptimes as he was consistently in the 1 minute 16 and 1 minute 15s, even delivering a 1:14.5 lap.
I soon experienced the problem, with a fuel cut at Becketts, completely losing power for a second or more. This happened every lap to the end of the race at Becketts and Luffield, the two sharpest right handers, considerably slowing our momentum onto the following straights. To add to our woes the accelerator pedal had become dislodged from the floor sometime around the pit stop, so was floating in mid air, possibly as a result of anger at the car?! I could see the class rival in the green Fiesta closing every lap until it was right on my bootlid as I approached a gaggle of cars at Becketts. Very frustrating but there was no way I was going to be able to resist without the Fiesta accidentally running into the back of me. As the Fiesta pulled away each lap I could see the Ginetta G40R up ahead, assuming it must have made a better pit stop I tried to catch it before the end. Braking later and later to try to make up for the loss of power mid corner I slowly closed the gap. This took its toll on the brakes, with the rear pads crumbling and disappearing, oem pads clearly not up to the rigours and heat of 45 minutes of abuse! Metal to metal grinding was a bit uncomfortable for the last two laps but still managed to set our fastest lap of the race 1:14.514, just 4/100ths quicker than Tom!!!! This coincided with another class rival stuck at Becketts. Failing to catch the Ginetta as the chequered flag fell I thought we'd finished 3rd in class at best, but was pleased to chat to the Ginetta driver in Parc Ferme and find out he was a lap down after coming in for a penalty by mistake (intended for another driver)! So, we'd finished 2nd in class and would get a trophy after all. The class winner in the green Fiesta was 13 seconds ahead by the end.....our pit stop........was 20 seconds too long.
The cutting out was later diagnosed as a broken fuel pump in the tank, so the car was only being run on the swirl pot pump, hence the starvation in tight corners. IF the fuel pump hadn't failed, if the accelerator pedal hadn't become dislodged, if the pads had been better quality and if we'd have timed the stop in a different way we'd have won our class, BUT we finished second and that was a great result, particularly for Toms first ever race. Well done mate, over to you to tell the story from your POV. :)
The car was fixed over night, a report and videos of my PBMW races will follow on in the next day or two on the ongoing thread here:viewtopic.php?f=16&t=91757 .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WFt-J ... e=youtu.be

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TomK's first ever race!

Post by Lynchy » Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:37 pm

Congratulations :thumbsup: What a great day way to spend the day

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TomK's first ever race!

Post by Boris » Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:18 pm

Well done especially Tom on his first time out; I remember it well, funnily enough Silverstone with a grid of 36 and starting from a standing start, something everyone should try. :driving:

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TomK's first ever race!

Post by markplant » Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:20 pm

Sounds like a great day
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by RickRob » Thu Jun 08, 2017 9:00 pm

A great result. One place better next time!
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by Mr Tidy » Thu Jun 08, 2017 9:13 pm

Great write up Dave. :thumbsup:

Sounds like you both had a great race, and considering your issues that was a great result!
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by buzyg » Thu Jun 08, 2017 9:40 pm

Great write up. 2nd in Class :thumbsup: Nice one only one place to go from there. :driving:
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by TomK » Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:09 pm

Lynchy wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:37 pm Congratulations :thumbsup: What a great day way to spend the day
Indeed it was! Thanks so much for everything dave, and I guess also to the Z4 forum, without which I would most likely never have got this opportunity.
Like most of you I'd imagine there's an inner racer in me that has been itching to get out for some time now. The track days I have been able to do have taught me a lot about driving technique, however any kind of racing with other participants is strictly prohibited. It's been fun driving the car fast on track but frustrating at times due to the (fundamentally important) rules.
The dream of actually participating in a race was as dave said realised to some extent a while back now. Something I would probably never have got round to doing off my own back (at present logistically and financially owning and entering a season or even a few races is not really viable), so I have to say thanks again to dave for making it possible, a very kind/brave jesture and even if I never do another it will be a great memory for the rest of my life.
As to the race itself! What a great experience. Lining up on the grid the nerves and anticipation were powerful feelings. Of course, I fluffed the start, way too much wheel spin with no finesse on the throttle. Truth is the last time I did a full bore start was probably 4 years ago in a very different car, so I don't feel so bad about myself.
First corner (careful not to crash dave's car, a recurring theme in my head btw) and I lost more places but from there I gradually found my pace and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my stint... Until the fuel pump failed! Then things became less enjoyable and concerned about the car I came into the pits a few laps early, and whilst having earnt ourselves some time ahead of our class competitors I promptly threw it all away by not hitting the pit lane start stopwatch. Doh!
All in all an amazing experience and I thoroughly recommend anyone to give it a go. Driving a car fast is one thing, placing it on the track with competitive others close by is a whole different ball game!
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by flimper » Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:11 am

Top work guys :thumbsup: I sold my E30 320i a few years ago to a fella who wanted to strip and race it, if you see a dolphin grey F reg ending PBY, grab a pic for me!
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TomK's first ever race!

Post by Fishy Dave » Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:58 pm

I'll keep an eye out Flimper, there are a few Dolphins on the grid, but not many other cars on the grid have number plates. :) . Thanks all for your comments, if an opportunity comes up later in the year to share the car with Tom again we might post on here before hand. Hopefully the car will be reliable next time :oops: .
Funnily enough I didn't feel nervous about the risk of damage to my car Tom, probably because I trust your driving from all the trackdays. 8) Great to hear you enjoyed it as much as I did mate. :thumbsup:
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