Category: Racing

Jaguar Car Club Race Meeting
Classic Jaguar World XJS Challenge (Dennis)
JCC Jaguar Challenge (Adam)

• Rain, rain and more rain.
• Dennis gets his first podium and trophy.
• Mad race for Dennis, who was one of the few drivers to keep it on the black stuff
• New tyres tried. Inconclusive due to the weather.
• Protests!
• Adam is denied a race chance.
• Adam only gets five laps.
• Adam 7th fastest overall in qualifying.
• Adam annoyed, especially as the following day brought sunshine.
• First race meeting attended by Aunty Val and Derek.

Scrutineering
The usual checks. Although extra care was taken in checking the lights. A good idea as the weather looked a bit dodgy at this stage. We both managed to sign on, get scrutineered and have our first timers briefing all within the allotted time.

“Get the three laps in” so that we could start the race was the advice of the RAC Steward and this was certainly the advice that we followed! It was the first time out in the wet proper for me and I had no desire to find out how slippery the grass was! Due to delays my session was shortened to only 10 minutes. Only enough time for four or five laps in these conditions. Not much preparation for the race considering that I had never driven in anger in in the wet before or at Cadwell!

I went out of the pits just behind an Ultima and also a Elise and just in front of a Saloon. I was happy with this as I thought that the Lotus and Ultima would disappear leaving me with a clear track. The Saloon behind was driven by one of the J.A.Garage drivers Nick Gwiuitt. He had already been out in the wet in Cadwell park earlier and races a lot so I thought that he would be a good person to judge my speed against and also see the lines with. As it turns out I never saw hardly anyone again! I never saw Gwinutt after leaving the assembly area and was only passed by three of the quick modified cars. The Lotus was holding me up at first! I decided to back of so that I could have some room, but found I soon caught him up. I eventually went past him on one of the straights. It was very slippery out there and I had a small moment when I braked to late for the Mountain section. This caused me to lock up and run wide, but was not a great problem. In the end I was 7th fastest overall ahead of some far more experienced drivers, which pleased me!

Unfortunately the Race was cancelled.

Dennis finished third in class and got a trophy.

MG Club Race Meeting
Classic Jaguar World XJS Challenge

Adam I had to miss Rockingham as I was in Linz presenting a paper on Quantum Dots.

“Dennis Ashmore was unfortunate to suffer a BIG spin exiting the chicane” – JEC report.
This was followed by a great comeback drive taking the chicane faster and faster.

Practice resulted in fastest in class. Everything was looking good for the race. I was particularly please with compliments that I received from fellow drivers – encouraging the new boy. I even managed to keep up with some of the modified cars.

My good start was spoilt by grabbing fifth instead of third half way round the lap. This dropped me to third in class. I had a good battle against Jim Shea and Nick Gwinutt. Shea was blocking in an extremely effective manner. He was quicker in a straight line, but I was much much better under braking for the hairpin. On one lap I had an attempt, but he squeezed me and I got out of it. A lap later I completed the move despite a small amount of contact while we where in the corner. I then easily pulled away after this. In my chase of Nick Gwinuut, we both had a moment when we found a car half way across the track in the final complex. Nick said that he had a slight contact with this car, but I managed to avoid it by a few inches. I had a few attempts to get past Nick into the chicane and also the quick first corner. He was always able to hold me of on the straight due to his superior power, but I could get alongside him under braking for the first corner. Each time he was just able to turn in normally and keep the position. Good racing. I had a great attempt into the hairpin which resulted in a half spin and I lost out. It felt as if he had tagged my rear half, but This was later denied! Although it wouldn’t have been surprising if he did as we were so close. A couple of laps from the end I had a go around the outside while we were being lapped. This was, shall we say, optimistic and I ended up on the bad cambered part of the track. Keen not to lose the back end like I did in Saturday’s race I let the car run wide onto the grass. I completed half the corner on the grass and rejoined without losing a place. In the last couple of laps I caught the class leader again, but it was too late for any more overtaking attempts. On the slowing down lap signals of congratulations and respect were exchanged between Nick and I. The battle had been extremely enjoyable and the marshals applauded our efforts.

“That is never on” – Dennis describes Adam attempted overtaking around the outside.
“You camped at Brands, in March” – fellow competitors at dinner.
“Bangor is not on the map” – Mum

Jaguar Car Club Race Meeting
Anglesey
Classic Jaguar World XJS Challenge (Dennis) & JCC Jaguar Challenge(Adam)

A fairly non-eventful practice. I knew less about Anglesey than Brands or Donington, but it’s shortness meant it was easy to learn. This was the first time I’d been out before my Dad and I tried to relate my experience. Even simple information about which gears to use for each corner can be extremely useful.

The two leaders took each other out early on. The first lap was quite scary because somebody went of on the run up to Radar. He kicked alot of dust up and for a couple of seconds I couldn’t anything. Should I keep my foot in and risk hitting somebody, or back of and risk being hit? A compramise served me well. I had a huge spin a few laps from the end. Ended up on the outside in the first corner. The camber is bad on the outside and this caused the spin. I stalled the engine and it took me sometime to restart. This happened at the corner where Ruth, Mum and Dad were watching! Eventually finished eleventh and one place short of being mentioned in Motorsport News. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!

MG Car Club Race Meeting
Classic Jaguar World XJS Challenge (Dennis) & Proteus Sportscars Jaguars (Adam)

Off to Brands, With the sole intention of not being last!

We travelled down on the Saturday, towing the car with a truck. Arriving at the circuit at about 7:30pm we put up a borrowed tent we had never seen before in the dark! We are not normally campers. We then enjoyed an expensive sausage meal and the delights of Karioke in the circuit club house! Early to bed as we would lose an hour to BST.

The nice RACMSA scrutineer said everything was in order and offered some advice about increasing the padding on the roll-cage. The noise test was passed easily, only 92db. The car is clearly not loud enough!

Lining up in the assembly area was strange! We have in recent years organised the assembly area for the Jaguar Car Club meetings and overall we were impressed with the job the MGCC did.

About to leave for first practice. Dad waved off by Andy and Adam.

The practice went well with my laps time decreasing every lap (see figure). I got my first taste of the quick guys coming past me and looking out for the blue flags. A couple of Listers shot past me going into Paddock Hill. Graham Paddick’s Kougar looked quite impressive also. Somebody spun and caused a red flag which almost halved my practice time. There was also a driver who kept dropping oil and ignoring the black flag to bring him in. The pole position man, Eike Wellhausen, suggested that the number under the black flag was hard to read. My fastest lap meant I lined up third from the back (21st) on the grid. Overall I was quite happy with the time considering that I had only done six flying laps of Brands in contrast with all the experienced guys. All the other novices had been at Brands earlier in the week getting some practice in! (excuses, excuses I know but I’m using the old “racing against more experienced drivers” excuse – I wonder if I’ll still be saying that after seven years of being in this category?). Slight hint of oversteer (not that I know anything – yet) which was originally identified by Dad. Consultation with the pit crew resulted in Andy softening the rear by taking a couple of clicks off the rear SPAXs. Again we are all pretending to know what we are doing.

The Race

Just before I was about to leave the assembly area it started to rain slightly! Fortunately it stopped before I reached the grid (especially with only having six dry practice laps!). I concentrated hard on locating my grid space, not wanting to do a Fisichella! My start went extremely well and with experience I think I could have overtaken many cars into the first corner. Even though I was ideally placed for this I decided that caution was the order of the day. Paddock Hill is scary enough without trying out new things on my eighth time through it! In the end I held my position. A similar thing happened going into Druid’s hairpin. I was on the outside, but decided just to fall in line. Another potential overtaking opportunity was ignored as I continued to play myself in. Then at Clearways on the first lap I completely messed it up losing seconds to the pair in front. They were having a great battle in their XJS and D-Type and potentially slowing each other up. I decided to concentrate on not losing any positions and found that the car behind was in no danger of catching me.

So in the early stages I got my head down and tried to close on the cars ahead. I was just beginning to do this when as I was coming across the start/finish on the beginning of my fourth lap I noticed a waved yellow in Paddock Hill. A XJS had spun and parked it in the gravel on the exit of Paddock Hill by the dip. Soon after this a full lap caution period began. In the novice drivers morning briefing we were told to drive around with care at about fifty miles per hour. This I did, although I found that this wasn’t really bringing me any closer to the pack because the gap actually widened as it looked like I was the only one who had seen the yellow/black quartered flags. Eventually I drew close to the pack, but not before the leaders caught up to me!!! (as I was the next driver to be lapped by the quick guys). The first few seemingly ignoring the signals to slow down – although, of course, they had not been at the novices briefing in the morning. This then caused a problem for the restart. The rules state that racing can’t resume until you cross the start line on the lap when green is given . Technically most of the pack, including myself, had to complete almost a full lap before we could start racing even though the leaders were going for it again. However the following lap saw the premature end of the race as someone else put it in the kitty-litter (on the 9th lap out of 12).

I was a bit disappointed to have had a shortened race with actually only four laps of racing in it. However I thought I acquitted myself well. At least the race had a lot of different situations in it, which is good for the experience levels. Roll on Donington. We have decided to try and get some practice in there before the race in June, so hopefully we can be just a bit further up that learning curve before the race begins.

“Montoya-esque weekend” – Dave referring to Adam’s lack of track time. Adam was quite pleased with this comparison!
“Paddock Hill is the most awesome corner in British racing…” Dennis ponders the description before practice.
“Chaos reigned … amid general disregard for black and yellow caution flags…” – Motorsport News 28/3/2001 commenting on Adam’s race.