Silverstone race report.
Turbo Mini Forums

Ok, back on planet earth now.

So living just 20 miles away from Silverstone, I head in early doors leaving at 6am, with Mates Nick and Daniel for for bit of help.

Arrived at the circuit at 6.45 ish, started to put up the big green tent some of you may remember from many AvonParks, then the heavens open, lashed it down with high winds for roughly 20 mins and got soaked to the skin.

So pretty sorted by 8am, with everything upacked and in it's place, looked at my paper work and Bollocks!, missed drivers brief at 8 am! I ran over to race control, signed in, grovelled and arranged to be at the 9.30 breif, but qualifying was ay 9.45, so i had my work cut out.

So we rushed of to scrutineeering and guess what?...Failed!..Wrong Harness!!, new rules this year!

In a panic i drove the Metro to the main gate, dumped it there, ran to Grand prix Racewear armed with my wallet and forked out on a Nice new FIA 2006 spec TRS 6 point harness, £140!

Drove back to the paddock, met up with "my team", gave them instruction to fit the harness and re scrutineer the car, by this time it is about 9.15.

I shot off to my race breif and left the boys to it.

All breifed and signed in, i ran back to paddock met up with the car and the boys, adjusted the harness, easier said than done and eventually was ready to qualify. By this time the metros had all left and and had started qualifying. I shot of to the assembly point and was let onto the circuit by the freindly very organised officials....

So the track was wet mainly, with on a couple of almost dry parts, this obviously made it a little slippy. The wet doesn't bother me, lets face it everyone is on the same pice of tarmac.

I have never driven Silverstone before, but did find some great footage in car of the National circuit, the short circuit not the F1 biggy. To be honest the video helped very little, yes it gave me an edjucation of how many bends and what order they are in, but it did seem very different for real.

Anyway drove a few laps finding my feet and learning, then began to build it up. I had quite a few cars spin in front which made me loose my rhythm, but i found a few traffic free laps to get some good times in.

Qualifying results follow link

http://www.msttiming.com/singlesession.asp...silverstone.gif

So i qualified in pole by .718 of a second, to be honest i don't think very many people were too happy about a novice winning pole on his first race.

I then had 4 hours to kill before the racing, time to check over the car. We checked the shock settings,bleed the clutch for the hell of it and re checked the tyre pressures. I discovered the shocks for qualifying were all over the place, my man Nick had forgotten his clockwise and anticlockwise mixed up!. The plan had been to soften the car up for the wet qualifying but he got it all wrong, i had 2 shocks on No.9 and the other 2 on Zero!!!

Race time!.....all prepped and focused to follow the crowd and was lead to enter the circuit first being pole sitter(nice feeling!)

We drove to our positions and got ready for the warm up lap, we got the 1 minute board, the 30 second and then the green flags were waved. I did'nt go to silly, just a bit of weaving and bit of left foot braking under power to warm the brakes and just tried to stay focused.

On completion of the lap, we formed back up and waited for the off. Being inexperienced, i had forgotten the starting proceedure and got a very poor start, i was waitng for a warning board, that did'nt happen as that is just for the warm up lap, the lights went from red to green and i was'nt even looking at the lights!...

The 2 class C cars in 2nd 3rd position on the grid got a lead, but having the inside line, i kept my foot in and out braked David Javes to take 2nd place.

I followed No.52 Simon white for a lap very closely and just got my rhythm back, then piled on the pressure to him, i looked down the inside of him into copse, then braked and let him have the corner, but to my suprise he ran very wide onto the runoff and i had 1st position. David Javes then followed me closely for a lap, he was quicker than me in a couple of sections where he would real me in, but i kept my foot in.

I don't know what happened to Javes, but i saw White back in my Mirrors. White has a very quick car but in my opinion lacked the handling so i held him at bay.

The last lap board came out on lap 10 and i knew i had a fair lead on white, i gave the pit wall a flat out 7500rpm close drive by being the show off i am and drove a full pace into cospe then eased off a little knowing i had a comfy lead.

All the time White was in my mirrors getting closer but never too close and i took the checkered flag..WINNER!

After the race i was invited back into the scrutineering bay, where the car goes up on the ramp and is fully looked over for illegal mods of which there are none, but still a tense time.

All was fine after a tense 20 minutes and i was officially the winner of the first round of the MG mtero cup.

Race results link below.

http://www.msttiming.com/result.asp?table=...silverstone.gif

Thanks to EVERYONE who turned up and especially to My buds Nick and Daniel for helping out.

I was was very nice racing knowing that people where trackside willing me on.

Thanks.

JF.

**Next round is Cadwell park on SATURDAY the 22nd of APRIL.**

Edited by giallofly on 2nd Apr, 2006.

congratulations! must have done well to win with a start like that!

more exciting than eastenders, well done!!!

haha. having a piss is more exciting than eastenders. but racing is more exciting than have a piss.

i hope this becomes t norm..
u writing up the races as its a great read!!! especially as i cant make the races
Well done!

well done again big fella,
new harnesses,! they only do it to make monety out of the poor competitor bastards...


carl

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

Fantastic. Planning on coming to Cadwell to support you.

well done again buddy!

Team Racing

Well done m8, must be a fantastic feeling.

well done, the championship is yours

Edited by Arno on 2nd Apr, 2006.

The race was astounding, however beofre reading that I didn't know what you'd overcome to do it, like the shocks and being late for qualifying - that must have made the adrenaline work more!

Well done mate, I'm super proud of you!

hey nicky, fancy a job as Jons brolly dolly????.lol.

carl

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

Well done John you must be like a dog with 2 dicks
Top boy what a way to start the season
Hopefully more wins to come

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c248/spe...er1/mini007.jpg

If it a'nt broke don't fix it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done Jon, very happy for you.
So youre the next Baldwin eh?
Vicky says "Love Shack Baby"
Paul & Vicky

I seriously doubt it!

Certainly excellent work Jon, well done !!

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

good luck for cadwell park in three weeks time

1293 Turbo mini

Well done jon, top result.

I bet that did upset the regulars, nice one !!

all been well, me and tom will see you at cadwell

excellent!

well done mate, I bet you were glad to get onto the track after all the setup stresses !!!

once again well done mate

Richie

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MikeRace, Mini13

Nice one Jon,must have been a buzz of a lifetime, like the race report.
What a bastard with the scrutineering,I'd have felt like going home.Must check my harness for the new sprint season.

Graham.

Sprint and hillclimb cars are exempt from the new harness regs.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

Well done Jon. Great result.

Dave

!!!!! blimey did'nt he do well.

Well done Jon

-MINI CLUBMAN 1380 TURBO-