Daniel Brown - Britcar GT - Silverstone

Monday, 30 March 2009

Silverstone 28.03.09

Dan Brown has signed up to race in British GT with Mosler Europe, but his experience is mostly single seater based (Formula Palmer Audi). We tested with Dan at Magny Cours a few weeks ago, and also at Silverstone International with a full Mosler GT3 specification car, but we decided that rather than him jumping straight into Oulton Park British GT for his first GT race, we would give him a try out in Britcar in the Silverstone 2 Hours. The added benefit was that we also supported the Mosler Challenge class that is within Britcar.

Qualifying was pretty horrible, with wet / dry changing conditions, and we didn't manage to get the right lap on the right tyres, but more importantly we got Dan in my 'Tiger' Mosler for the first time and bedded in (we didn't let him test on the Friday as he is still at School and we don't want him losing class work time!). We qualified 8th, no reflection at all on our pace, just bad, although maybe good luck as it turned out, as our poor grid position influenced what we did in the race.

For the rest of the day, up to 15 minutes before the start, it rained, hailed, sun shone, dried out, hailed again, etc etc. We didn't know what to do. So at the last minute I hedged my bets and went for soft spring set up, high downforce and intermediates. We had to take the car to the support race pits to line up, and Mark Sumpters Porsche arrived on pole on slicks. At the same time I was hanging over the pit wall looking at the track. It was wet, but the sun was blazing and the wind blowing hard. The track would be dry very quickly. We had no time to change tyres as we were onto the track straight away. Mark Sumpter stuck Inters in on the meantime (!). We headed on to the track to line up, and I dived straight for the pits for slicks. 8th on the grid hardly mattered, and with a pit stop being a mandatory 90 seconds, we didn't want to have a tyre change after 5 laps of the race....

There was a degree of nervousness from the crew at my decision (I have made spectacularly poor calls before!) and the stress was rather heightened when the exit light pit lane marshall said that he had been told that I couldn't start until the pack had completed 1 racing lap. Knowing that this was complete rubbish, I waited for the pack to come past from the start, and then left the pit lane past the red light and an irate Marshall! I figured I would argue about it later. The 2 or 3 cars behind me were held a while longer until they too drove past the misguided (or possibly deranged) Marshall.

No black flag for me on the first lap (The Clerk of the Course congratulated my team manager on getting me out at the perfect time!), so I got my head down. The track was already nearly dry, and I needed to get the temps up on the tyres before I could push. It wasn't long, and I can tell you the feeling of smug satisfaction as I powered past car after slithering car on destroyed wets or inters was marvelous!

My smugness hit 'unbearable' level when I passed Fluxie in the KRM Mosler for the lead, who graciously moved over for me, knowing that that part of the race was over for him.

I subsequently ploughed around for 70 minutes, having a ball, until the 60% max driving rule came into play and it was time for Dan to get in. By this time we had a 3 lap lead (as we hadn't yet pitted) . Being a cheapskate, I had elected to leave the same tyres on for Dan (sorry mate, but at least you find out the hard way about what its like getting a hot and sweaty GT car for your stint). The car was too soft and was itself slithering around somewhat, and the tyres not at their best, but with the mandatory maximum of 50 litres topped up in the tank, and a perfectly executed pit stop by the team, Dan made a perfect exit from the pits to now lead by 2 laps.

Dan immediately set some fast laps, but realised that the tyres were well past their best, not helped by the soft springs, so he backed off a little to make sure he made no errors (bright lad!).

25 minutes later Dan was back in again for his final stop. We only needed about 10 litres to finish, but it still took 90 seconds (and Driver had to exit car). Dan resumed, now with a 1 lap lead. His first GT race went exceptionally well. He even let Michael MacKinnerney through in the Eclipse Mosler rather than risk getting racey.... without being instructed to by me (I always hate telling drivers to let cars past, but I was really thinking about it).

2 Hours came and we had won, still by a lap. It was a great feeling, very satisfying. Everything had gone perfectly. Dan had won his first ever GT race. I had won my first race after passing the 50 years mark.

Watching other teams pit stops it became very clear how we made so much extra time on people. Enough on that subject.....don't want to give too much away : )

In 2 weeks time Dan has his first British GT race at Oulton Park. Joined by Stuart Hall!