J N Sims 8/7/04

After blowing up the engine at the first race last year, we elected to miss the first race and start our year at Donington Park the following week.

Donington is a superb circuit with fast sweeps a long straight diving into a chicane and the awesome downhill sweep of Craner Curves, perhaps one of my favourite pieces of track in the country. Being a proper circuit, having hosted the European Grand Prix, Donington has plenty of room to run off, and vast gravel traps, so there is plenty of room to play. Unfortunately only being March and following the wettest February since records began the grass was very wet and might not offer too much traction in the event of an off.

We travelled up to the circuit, in Leicestershire, on the Saturday and whilst not heavy it snowed. Sundays forecast was for wintry rain, snow and a wind chill of minus five. It didn't disappoint. It was a touch chilly.

Practice was wet, not pouring with rain wet, but wet and it snowed on us whilst we forming up.

Being disappointed with my tyres last year I bought a lovely new set of Yokohama tyres that morning. These were by the trailer and not on the car - well you don't want to spoil them do you. They were also dry tyres and so of little use in these conditions. My wet tyres are also of little use and had the new tyres not been covered in mould release I would have been better off with them.

Round the first corner and down the hill into Craner Curves for the first time. Swooping left there was far less grip then I expected (far less grip actually means no grip at all) the back of the car went right, then it went left, then it went right again and then I lost count of which way it was going. Every body missed me and I ended up off the track on the grass. At least it would have been grass had it not been mud. I was stuck. The car wouldn't go forward so I resorted to my off road training and I tried backwards. It went backwards a bit and with gentle throttle blipping it started to go forwards at which point the marshals had waded their way across the swamp and pushed me back onto the track.

I was all on my own. Not having anyone to pace against, and not knowing how much grip there was, isn't the best way to try to find a good time on an unfamiliar track. Eventually some of the fastest guys caught me up and I was pleasantly surprised how I managed to keep with them. That was until I got to exit the old hairpin, within yards of were I went off earlier. The car went left, and right and left again (deja vu) and sideways for what seemed like 20 yards (yards is an old fashioned name for meters for the younger reader) Incredibly I stopped on the track. I must be getting better. As the dance started I thought, "I can't go off here again, the marshals will think I'm a right twit."

Practice continued, I shifted up to fifth gear down the back straight, remembered that fifth comes in at about 110mph decided I didn't really want to do 110 in these conditions a backed off again. I didn't use fifth again.

At the end of the back straight is an S bend chicane. In the dry you arrive there at 120 mph with huge brake cooking wallops of middle pedal. Not in the wet you don't. Fortunately having decided 110 was quite fast enough, and seeing a yellow flag, I was braking what seemed to be incredibly early, which was just as well. Someone had dumped oil (more oil) on the circuit, sending another car off backwards into the tyre wall. This destroyed the back of his car completely. There was no traction at all. Much cadence braking ensued and the car slowed sufficiently to turn into the corner except it didn't. Then it did, then it wouldn't go round, and then it wouldn't pull out. It was all getting to be a bit of a grin as no amount of steering, braking, or accelerating seemed to have any impression on the direction of the car. Fortunately much tippy toe gentle feeling of the controls managed to get me round the corner.

The chequered flag came out not long after that. Thankfully.

During the lunch time break we had a drivers meeting with the Clerk of the Course. Apparently a number of drivers had stated that the track was un-drivable. I don't know what percentage of cars has to go off before a track is deemed un-drivable but it would seem we hadn't reached that number. It was noted that conditions were very difficult, this further hampered by oil, petrol and aviation fuel on the track. Donington is next to East Midlands Airport and, with planes flying over all day, a degree of aviation fuel gets dumped. Normally oil, and the like, is soaked up by cement dust but the track was so wet this couldn't be done as it would just turn to cement slurry. Unless we had a good downpour to clean the track it would have to stay as it was. Be careful! That was a big help.

It didn't rain, it more dampened and snowed a little.

I lined up 26th on the grid but wasn't too disappointed as old rivals, Nigel Brown and Ian Creba, were only a row or two ahead and I always make up a few places off the line.

The lights went green, I let out the clutch and the car didn't move. The wheels just spun. The wheels usually spin momentarily on my blinding starts before griping and throwing me towards the horizon, except this time they didn't grip at all. Two rows of cars went past me and if I wasn't last into the first corner I wasn't far from it.

We all got through Craner down the hill and were sorting into an order. I was in front of fellow Westfield Racer, Edward Hasler, and wasn't feeling too disappointed. There was more grip than in practice but still not much. The car would try to snap sideways with anything more than the gentlest application of throttle, spinning wheels in any gear you chose.

I was chasing Trevor Atkinson in his V8 powered Phaeton and got very close to getting past on a few occasions. We were side by side a few times. A bit of racing at last. We were then muddled up with Robert Putnam and Trevor got away while I was stuck behind for a couple of laps. By the time I past Robert Trevor was well away. Then it started to snow.

It was not as much snow as blizzard; the flakes seemed to be going horizontal. Trevor had escaped into the distance and Edward was far enough behind that I didn't have to worry. It was just a matter of keeping it on the black stuff until the end and finishing 23rd (10th out of 13 in class)

I found out after the race that Trevor was from Yorkshire. He considered it relatively mild "Thou'll be wearing just'a vest today". Obviously far more experienced in driving in the snow than a "Southern Jesse".

Finishing with the car still in one piece I wasn't too unhappy. I was disappointed that I hadn't done better in practice and that I fouled up my start so impressively. I did get a bit of a race, but didn't get to play with my new tyres, which I hope will improve my performance over last year (if we get some dry weather). Donington is a truly great circuit in the dry, and I didn't relay get to play, but at least there was plenty of room when I did fall off.