Scottish HillClimb & Sprint 2011 Season-Starring Me!

Vipernet

Vipernet

Vipernet

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,869
Location
2 doors down from Subo
My father and I have been particpating in a range of budget motorsport for the past decade or so. From classic rallying in our MG BGT and Mk2 mini, autotests in a sylva striker and mk1 mr2, to dragging my mr2 turbo we've always enjoyed seeing what gets us our best bang for buck!

We'd both taken a back seat (npi) from the motorsport scene after my mother was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago. She'd always been supportive about our racing but would never come to watch as she deemed it "too dangerous" :)
After her passing in October last year we decided to go back to motorsport in order to have something to focus on to rename the team "CHS Racing" in her memory.

Hours and hours were spent on piston heads and the like, researching cars, different classes and competitions till we finally settled on something that would give us our best bang for buck - A bike engined single seater :D

1.jpg


The car itself is an OMS RA powered by a Kawasaki ZZR1100 engine. This picture was taken at Knockhill on a little test session the day after we bought the car. Note the crap paint scheme and lack of a front wing :)

Here she is with all the panels removed and my father imitating an overweight Scottish Stig!

2.jpg


There are number of sprint and hillclimb circuits local to us such as Kames, Ingliston and the infamous Doune Hill climb so we entered ourselves into the Scottish sprint and hillclimb championship and the Lowland sprint and hillclimb championships. Being complete newbs to the sprint and hillclimb scene the cost of entering these championships is waived for newcomers!

Anyway, before the season began we pretty much stripped the whole car down and renewed every nut and bolt we could. A quick repaint in British Racing green along with some lotusesque badges and stickers and she was ready for her pre season shakedown at trackday at Knockhill :D -clip here -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksJuzoPd9ac

Having never driven a car with wings before the ammount of extra grip and downforce you get is phenomenal. Going down the back straight at Knockhill I could feel the car getting pushed into the ground :) One major problem we encountered at Knockhill was cooling. By the end of 4 laps the temps were off the scale :eek: We hoped this wasn't going to be an issue for our sprints and hillclimbs as they only last between 40-90 seconds each there not allowing the temps to get up too high. We were wrong.....

So far we've done the first 2 events and I'll post up event logs later tonight, and for those that are interested the whole list of events we hope to enter is here - http://www.scottish-sprinting.co.uk/events.html

But for now I'll leave you with pic of me from yesterday at the Doune Hill Climb

3.jpg
 
Sounds like a fantastic hobby for you to get into with your Dad. Looks amazing fun and very rewarding.

Interested to get updates about the events you go to!
 
Round 1 - Kames

The Kames Complex was built by members of EACC in the early 1980’s and opened in 1984. It is still owned and operated by the Club. The track was resurfaced in 2000 after a 3 year project with the help of Lottery funding as well as funds from other motorsport clubs.

The track is a testing 800m long 3.5m wide tarmack surface with generous run-off areas. One "run" is timed as 3 laps from a standing start if running clockwise, or 2.5 laps if used anti-clockwise.

Many people dislike this track as its very small and tight. Others call it a drivers circuit for its pure technical requirements. I've driven it once or twice before in fwd cars and fairly enjoyed it.

Anyway, was pretty nervous when we arrived, couldn't eat much but was buzzin on red bull :) We had a few practice runs in the morning in preparation for 2 timed runs in the afternoon. My father posted a "safe" 96.69s first practice run whereas I did a 92.13s. On the second practice run was when the problems started: because these events run in class order and we double enter there is literally no time between driver changeover. Although the tyres are hotter for me the engine is roasting. When I sat on the line for my second run the temp gauge was already at the max of 110. Car seemed fine for first lap but then I started having trouble changing gears. I posted an 87.45 compared to my dad's improved time of 88.01 but as I pulled into the paddock the car dumped its coolant all over our pit bay :(

After some lunch the engine had cooled down enough to be refilled and we hotwired the fan to run constantly. My dads first timed run went really well and he posted an 86.91, but again I jumped in the car and the temp gauge was at the max. First lap I couldn't get it into 4th and by the second I'd lost everything apart from 1st and 2nd and posted a poor 89.22. The same happened again in my last timed run even although my dad took it easy on his run but improved slightly with an 88.34 - not bad for using only first and second! Bouncing it off the limiter all the way down the straight probably didn't help the cooling issue! :D

Anyway, finished last in class behind my dad :mad: But it's still points on the board as not everyone attended the event so I'm not last in the overall leaderboard! :D I still really enjoyed my first sprint event and I know there is loads of room to improve throughout the season at Kames.

Only got one video of my last timed run but I can't post it without some editing as I'm cursing and swearing at the end :rolleyes: But here are a few pics I took of my father.

4.jpg


5.jpg
 
That looks like great fun, sounds lovely in the vid as well :)

Do the 'sidepods' actually have inlets or are they just covers, can't quite see in any of the pictures, nor where the rad(s) are?

Bike engines do have a habit of running quite hot, my race bike will run slightly over normal all through a race and as soon as the race is over and I'm slower/stopped in the garages the temp just shoots right up, that's with no fan though but obviously the races are right at the front of the bike in the airflow...

Any chance of a rough costs estimates, car/tyres/licence?/entries etc etc
 
Thanks for all the replies guys.

We solved the cooling issue by changing the radiator. Before it had a small thin radiator which sat inside the left pod. But the orientation of it meant no air was getting pushed through it, just over it. The side pod hasn't got much space and the closest radiator we could find that was slightly thicker was one from a fiat ciquecento thingy. However, after some test fits we finally found a "curved" radiator from a yamaha R1. £30 later we fitted it into the sidepod at such an angle that the air is getting pushed through at least some of the radiator as you can see from the picture below.

rad.jpg


After some replumbing we ran the car for a good 30min and the temp never went above half. Time will tell if its going to work permanently but at least for the Doune hillclimb she was utterly perfect; I only had the fan on waiting at the start line and then flick it off for the run and back on after the run for a few minutes to let her cool.

I'm collecting some videos and pics from Doune for my report later tonight, including some onboard footage - unfortunately the vibrations made the camera point down a bit so you only really see the front wing and not much of the road :(
 
SKILL said:
Any chance of a rough costs estimates, car/tyres/licence?/entries etc etc
Click to expand...

Car - £5k

Trailer - £2k

Tyres - Slicks are £900 a set and last a season, wets are slighltly less. (Proper Avons)

Licence - You only need a National B Speed licence for sprints and hillclimbs - £45 iirc from the MSA

Club Membership - You need to be a member of a local club to enter most of the events. We're members of the East Ayrshire Car Club, fees approx £30 for the year.

Entries - Most events are over the weekend and cost £80 per day or £140 for the whole weekend. Thats the avergage prices at the moment but I suspect it'll be nearer £200 an event when the British Round of the Series is held at Doune.

Fuel - This is probably the biggest cost for the weekend. The race car only used 2 gallons over the whole weekend, but to fill the towing vehicle to get to each event costs a small fortune!

Clothing - For competition cars you need approved overalls, gloves, shoes and helmet. You don't "need" shoes and gloves for non race cars but they are recommened - Overalls were the most expensive - Cheapest I've seen were £250 or over £1k for your AlpineStars race suits. Helmets aren't cheap either and they are very picky about helmet standards - my dad has had to use my helmet so far as his bike helmet wasn't on the approved list!


Can't think of much else just now but any other questions please ask :D
 
Good to hear you got the cooling sorted :)

And cheers for the prices, interesting to compare to the bike racing, bit cheaper in some places and more expensive in others, and yeah the fuel, got a van that gets around 30-32mpg, so doing a race at the furthest race, Snetterton ~210 miles each way, makes the diesel costs quite a chunk of the overall cost, and that's the most boring part of the weekend :p
 
Round 2 - Doune


The Doune Speed Hillclimb Course is recognised as one of the sports premier venues "The King of Hills" in Britian and hosts two rounds of the British Speed Hillclimb Championship and four rounds of the Scottish Hill Climb Championship annually.

The Course was designed by Ray Fielding and is of 1350metres in length. It has been altered in length twice since 1968 and today is 30 metres less than the original distance. The first event was held in April 1968 and Raymond Mays opened the course in June of that year.

The Hill was resurfaced in January 1992, a new paddock established in 2000 and a Paddock ring road installed in 2002.

The first Hill record was set by Sir Nicholas Williamson driving a Brabham BT21C in June 1968 at 48.84 seconds. Average Speed 61.82 mph.

The current record set on 21st June 2009 is held by Scott Moran driving a Gould 3.5L GR61x NME and stands at 36.15 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXtIt4xd_Y


Let me first start off by saying I've never been so nervous about driving before. Doune hillclimb is exceptionally intimidating!
We were told by several people that to do Doune as you first hillclimb is a brave move, let alone in a single seater! It's VERY narrow, very fast, and although the sharp hill at the end doesn't look too steep in the youtube video, they say that in a single seater your feet are higher than your head :eek:

The Saturday was planned with 2 practice runs in the morning followed by 2 official runs in the afternoon. This didn't give us much time to learn the hill and prepare ourselves. Suffice to say my father and I took it very easy on our first practice runs posting a 65.35 and a 56.13 respectively. I was fairly please with my 1st run, lots of places to improve on, the car felt stable and controllable but the tyres were a little off. I solved this on the next run by copying everyone elses burnouts just before the line :p

My father improved on his first time by 3 seconds with a 62.12 but I could hear him hesitating all the way up the hill. The commentator made light of this and suggested he was saving the car for me :) I improved with a 53.8 but fluffed 2 gearchanges on the way up so I knew I could improve for my timed runs.

Come lunchtime I was still really nervous and could barely eat. I wished I could've relaxed but I had to improve on my morning times. That's the thing about these sprints and hillclimbs, although you are in a class competing with other people, your main competitor is yourself. I tried to zone out, listen to some music, infact I smoked a whole 20 deck of fags that day compared to my usual 5 :(

The official timed runs started at 13:15 and we had a long wait to be called up. I gave my father a little pep talk and reminded him he was still 9 seconds slower than me :p This seemed to have an effect as he posted 2 consecutive 57.5 second runs, 5 seconds quicker than his practice runs. :)

Before I could start my timed runs things were halted by a crash in one of the single seaters at the first corner. Turns out he'd tried to go flat out round the first corner lost the back end went up the wooden armco and almost flipped. The car was a write off but everyone including the marshalls were ok. Picture below courtesty of Ross Cumming - check his flickr for full sequence of pics - http://www.flickr.com/photos/7383374@N02/5628157721/in/set-72157626518590246/

crash.jpg


Undettered by this I posted my fastest time of the day with a 51.92 :D But didn't improve on my second timed run, after my foot got caught under the throttle pedal for litterally a milisecond, but that was enough to screw up my run.

Some pics from the first day:


wait.jpg



str.jpg


And a video compilation of various starts, I'm the first one in the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3REZ19IN1E


Day 2

My father couldn't make it for the second days running as he preaches most Sundays, so it was left up to me and my mechanic Iain Murray (local friendly mechanic that sponsors us) to run the car for the day. The weather was much better than Saturday and people were talking about the possibility of records being broken after some exceptional times in the mornings practice.

My aim going into the weekend was to break a minute and I did that fairly comfortably on my first run. After looking at the times in detail it seemed there were a few people in front of me posting 50s and 51s and a group of 4 posting just under 50s, with the "elite" posting under 45s. According to the time sheets my 60ft times were good averaging 2.25s better than most in the class, but I was losing out significantly in the first sector by over a second, then keeping pace in the last sector. I took from this I really needed to be virtually flat out after the first corner to the first sector marker. I tried this and even lifting a bit I posted a 50.3 and a 50.6, almost below the 50!

Was pretty gutted I hadn't broken the 50 in my first timed run as that would've taken the pressure off me but after downing 3 cans of redbull I was pretty high and ready for anything :D

I got a good start with v.little wheelspin, got round the first corner and sank the boot. I kept reciting "don't lift, don't lift" in my head as I approached the next bend.

I don't actually remember going through that bend or any other corner after that as I think the adrenaline took over. Everything just seemed to click into place after that corner, I think it was a combination of the red bull or just the extra speed I carried through the corner but the car just seemd to glide through every corner after that. The commentator said I was sideways coming over the brow of the hill but I don't remember that. All I remember was the timing screen reading 49.3s :D:D:D

I was so pumped after that run I immediately wanted to go and do it again and improve! Sadly I have to wait until June before I get another chance, but Doune is now my favourite bit of tarmac anywhere. If you ever get the chance to drive Doune you should, it's such a buzz!

top.jpg

Me at the top of hill

down.jpg

Me driving back down the hill.

brick.jpg

Celebrations!
 
Round 3 - Ingliston

A former racetrack in the 1980s, Ingliston is currently used as a showground including hosting the annual Royal Highland Show. It only regained it's track licence from the MSA last year but it's no longer a circuit as the grandstand now takes the place of what should be the pit corner. Although short, it has a set of esses, a long straight and a tight hairpin.

INGLISTON1.jpg


As you can see from the map there are two different finish lines. This was due to a single seater crash just over the finish line on the first day. To be fair it almost happened a few times. Drivers were pushing hard to the finish line, which was on the exit of a corner, and then lifting off whilst looking for their time and spinning out. As a result they moved the timing boards and the finish line back a bit to try and stop this happening on the Sunday.

CRASH2.jpg


Day1

I had been looking forward to Ingliston for two reasons. Firstly it's only 10 miles from me so I didn't have to get up at silly o'clock, and secondly there are plenty of run offs with no walls to hit like Doune!

My father wouldn't be participating this weekend as he's walking the Kintyre Way to raise money for Marie Curie, but I was accompanied by my brother in law who is now my official tyre monkey :p

The first morning was quite a rush as they changed the running order to suit the faster cars to let them cool for the Top10 run-off at the end of the day. This meant I was among the first up and there was literally a 30-40 turnaround time between runs. I posted a high 50 second run on my first practice and knew instantly I would beat my sub 50s target.

The quick running order and excellent organisation meant we got 3 practice runs in before lunch and I beat my target time of 50s with two mid 48s runs :) After a quick bacon roll, we refilled the car, topped up the oil and rechecked the tyre pressures. In terms of tyres there are two major problems at Ingliston: Firstly, you're not allowed to warm the tyres up by way of wheelspin just before the start line - this sucks as the first section is a set of esses for which tyre pressure and temperature are essential, and Secondly is the amount on stones that get picked up during runs that have to be cleaned off after every run. You can see from the picture below how bad the course must have been at the start of the weekend before that racing line appeared :rolleyes:

ing4.jpg



Getting more confident in the car I pushed harder for my timed runs. Although I knew I could have pushed the car a bit harder I figured I didn't want to push too hard and have no car to race the next day. Regardless I posted a 47.10 then a 47.03. I should have dipped into the 46s but I didn't quite get the braking point correct for the hairpin on my last run and understeered out, but it felt faster up to that point.

Here's a quick video taking by a fellow competitor of me off the start for the first of my timed runs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvwRCbmbtCI

Day2

I was a bit disappointed the track got shortened the second day as you couldn't theorectically improve on your previous times. But this did mean all new course and class records would be set :D

Again we managed to get in 3 practice runs in the morning and I posted 3 consistently improving times going from high 45s to low 44s. The suggestion by others in the paddock was the new course was about 3 seconds shorter than the longer course which made sense and proved I was still dialled in.

At lunch I looked at the times from the morning practice and I was sitting 6th with the top 3 seperated by just over a second in the 41 and 42 second range, with 4th and 5th doing high 43 second runs. Although you're really only racing youself at these events it's hard not to get competitive and I was pushing for a top 5 finish.

ing2.jpg

Me Leaving the start line on my first timed run.

I went for it on my first timed run and really flung the car through the esses. I could feel the car almost skipping but the back end stayed very planted. I almost went flat out through the slight right onto the back straight and was topping out 5th gear before downshifting like crazy for the hairpin. I posted a 43.27 on my first timed run and almost virtually replicated the run on my second attempt with a slightly faster 43.24. :D

In the end I finished 4th in class, quicker than my two targets, so was exceptionally pleased with that. I can't wait to see the championship standings to get a look at how far from the bottom I'm not :)

I'm getting more and more confident with the car and it's handling. I think I performed better at Ingliston because of the wider track and run offs in comparison to the tight and enclosed hillclimbs. It's just a mental thing I think, but in the mean time we need to get the car setup with proper geometry. As you can seem from some of the pics below the tub is actually scraping on the ground going round some corners, and under braking I'm not convinced one wheel is out of alignment. So I'm going to hunt for somewhere that can accomodate a car like this for laser alignment and get it properly setup for the next race at Kames on the 22nd of May.

ing1.jpg


ing3.jpg


ing5.jpg
 
Round 4 - Kames

Was really looking forward to returning to Kames after a terrible first round there. My father had other commitments.....again, and so did the sunshine. :mad: It was raining and very windy when we arrived and the forecast wasn't good.

Having never driven the car in the wet I wasn't looking forward to it. I spoke to a few of the guys in the paddock and they suggested I keep my slick tyres on and not to use my wet tyres as I'd wreck them. There was no standing water on the track and it seemed to be draining off quite well so it made sense. The elite guys had intermediates on but our budget doesn't quite stetch that far :p

I totally fluffed the start on my first practice run, giving it way too much revs and just spinning the wheels. At speed there was actually a fair bit of grip which I think was just down to the wings and downforce but in corner exits any bit of throttle and the tail was wagging. There were a couple of offs into the gravel and grass by a few of the other single seaters on slicks so I was just glad to complete my first run without incident.
With a lowly 104.15 seconds on my first run I got more confident with the car and by the last lap on the last practice I had the tail out all the way round the top hairpin to improve to a 98.29.

With lunch brought a break in the rain and the track started to dry up. :)
Although still damp I was able to push much harder than in the morning and did a vastly improved 86.47 followed by an 85.73. Still loads of improvement to be had though, I was liffting way too early for one of the corners in particular and could never get the turn in just right but I had the hairpin nailed everytime.:)
The only other point my mechanic made was my terminal velocity over the finish line, the fastest part of the course. Everyone else in my class were consistently posting 90mph+ over the line where as my best was an 82mph :( This could either be due to too much downforce, my gearing, lack of power? Or maybe I'm not getting out of the hairpin down the back straight aswell as I think? :p

Regardless I must be doing something right as I came 4th in class again with a new PB for Kames :D

The next event for me is back at Kames for a double header with one round counting towards the Lowland championship and the other for the Scottish. So I'm looking to push harder next time and pray for for good weather :cool:

Some pics from the afternoon when it dried up a bit!

Standard mk1 1.8 mx5 - best time: 105.38
k1.jpg


1380 Morris Mini GT - best time: 94.11 (new class record!)
k2.jpg


Rover Metro 1396cc - best time: 95.12
k5.jpg


1380 Mini 16v - best time: 101.48
k6.jpg


k3.jpg


k4.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom