tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64170451101094788712024-02-18T19:58:43.193-08:00Hillclimbing in France Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-62721217973400036692016-01-13T10:43:00.002-08:002016-01-14T00:37:39.598-08:00New website is up & running!! <br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>o this is just a really quick update to say that the new website is now up and running at <a href="http://www.gocharliehillclimb.com/">www.gocharliehillclimb.com</a> so I will shortly be closing down the Google Blogger site... which feels kinda sad but the new one is bigger and better in so many ways, plus all the old blog posts are on there so you're not missing anything!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to thank everyone that's visited the site and followed me on here over the last 16 months - you've visited more than 25,000 times and from countries all over the world (as far as Russia, Australia and the US). The new site will shortly be running a translation feature so you will be able to keep up with GoCharlieHillclimb in 2016!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd love to tell you all the exciting news that's happened recently (did someone mention a TV series...?) but I don't want to spoil the surprises so I'll let you discover for yourselves ;D</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-69344803219431063772015-09-28T11:52:00.001-07:002015-09-28T11:54:14.862-07:00New GoCharlie website & winter work!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>k, so the season has come to an end but that doesn't mean that the things have ground to a halt at GoCharlieHillclimb - oh no! In fact I'm as busy as ever building a new website on a new platform for you guys to enjoy. This will not only look a lot better, but it will pack in videos, galleries and new features as well as all the posts from the last 12 months in updated form. All being well I'm hoping to launch it in the late October/early November - I'll post the new details on here so keep coming back for updates :D</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of this I've got the car booked in at <a href="http://www.jwaracing.com/" target="_blank">JWA Racing</a> in November for a series of work that should see it running in much more optimised spec for 2016. The guys there have been fantastic this year, helping me out with the rebuild and advice following my crash at St Gouëno, so I'm excited to be working with them over the winter. I'm going to spend some time there too so I can learn a few new skills, such as how to strip and rebuild the gearbox which will doubtless come in handy at some point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">As well as working on the car, I've got a few jobs to do to Herve, first of all fixing the engine problem that's plagued me all season, then hopefully a few other bits to make life at meetings less stressful - as always it will depend on how far my budget can stretch...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then I have a variety of ideas to continue building my profile and attracting new partners for the coming season, I'll keep most of them under wraps for now but it will be amazing if I can pull off what I'm planning! 2015 has been a fantastic season and an all round success, I never expected to go out and take class wins as this year was all about learning the car and the new hills, how the events run and now putting everything in place for a more focussed season in 2016. Having said all that, I did take a pair of podiums (fastest lady at Hebécrévon & St Ursanne) and had some encouraging finishes ahead of experienced drivers when running in the larger classes so things are moving in the right direction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I just got back from Loton Park at the weekend where I saw the British Hillclimb Championship draw to a close and caught up with friends I've not seen for 12 months. It was great to be back and hear what's happened this season, I've been so wrapped up in France that I've missed out on all the happenings in the BHC, Leaders & Midland championships. I spent one final night staying in Herve, thankfully I remembered to put a hot water bottle in my bed before I left for the pub as there was ice on the cars the next morning! I had been planning to compete but failed to get my entry in, and after the wave of fatigue that hit me after Turkheim (I've never slept so much since I was a student) I was happy to just be there spectating, the last thing I need is an off when I know I don't even have a prayer against the featherweight bike engined cars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've just been invited to a meet Rosemary Smith at a talk she's giving in October, she was a international works rally driver in the 60's competing in major events all over Europe, taking wins at the Tulip Rally and Cork 20 Rally to name just a few. I'm really looking forward to meeting her and hearing all about the glamour of 60's motorsport - competing in the Monte Carlo rally with your evening wear for the afterparty packed into a suitcase in the boot of your works Imp must have been pretty special. In some ways I feel perhaps it's the same 'have racecar & van will travel' spirit that's seen me happily through the year - I've never felt so free as I did roaming through France this summer, self sufficient and hungry for adventure. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm also hoping that she can give me a few pointers with my own career, right now I just want to keep the momentum going!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-47255306895516005292015-09-18T07:13:00.000-07:002015-09-18T07:13:05.616-07:00Turkheim 3 Epis: the final race<div style="min-height: 14px;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>hen I first sat down and looked at all the courses in the 2015 CFM brochure, the idea of a 6km hillclimb seemed pretty crazy, and was one of the most alluring prospects of a season racing in France. The fact that it makes up the final round of the championship and is also reputed as one of the most beautiful courses in the calendar just further heightened my sense of anticipation as I packed my bag for Lyon one last time. I’d found that learning the courses initially on YouTube and with a track plan was becoming easier, but of course nothing is ever as easy as it seems and the weekend had a few obstacles ready to lay in my path.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhME6cEGORmiVg7-yiovW8DKBm9d1rTTtZ7dWYwrgGMygcvGFrA8vyUG8o4qXzZ7N6JXJTYfjW6ZED_LE99DJx6ag5x90EhbBxCtXoFT_0UEJtMpyY8xRo92fDCLxxkdAyBd6hU34gnEhdW/s1600/IMG_3857.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhME6cEGORmiVg7-yiovW8DKBm9d1rTTtZ7dWYwrgGMygcvGFrA8vyUG8o4qXzZ7N6JXJTYfjW6ZED_LE99DJx6ag5x90EhbBxCtXoFT_0UEJtMpyY8xRo92fDCLxxkdAyBd6hU34gnEhdW/s200/IMG_3857.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unusually I was flying from Gatwick as there was no Thursday flight from Luton, so this meant getting the train down Wednesday evening and an early start the next morning. A friend who drives a Dallara was making the same trip and we ended up sharing a few too many drinks and having a late night, but when you’re excited and at the start of an adventure it’s hard to be sensible. Herve behaved himself all the way there, I kept at 2500 rpm as before despite wanting to get there sooner, but the paddock wouldn’t open until morning so there was no great rush. Turkheim itself is near the German border in Alsace and as you get nearer you notice the style of the houses changing, the spelling of towns becoming more Teutonic and that every field and hillside is given to vineyards. It’s very pretty and with a style all of its own, the picturesque villages could come straight off a chocolate box and the older buildings have a slightly tudor style and are painted immaculately in vibrant shades of pastel.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKHTEZMKtPZx8bY01nwOxWpN8pb6f74UTr5MO-pwrIEO7ocgtFxdcsNAggo5r16ggtPhpVDU2uluwCyTPI0eT3yrpF11NWW40ucxBljZoioUKGdv96crLPkbKu382-1mDM04ntYoevMdo/s1600/IMG_3860+copy+blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKHTEZMKtPZx8bY01nwOxWpN8pb6f74UTr5MO-pwrIEO7ocgtFxdcsNAggo5r16ggtPhpVDU2uluwCyTPI0eT3yrpF11NWW40ucxBljZoioUKGdv96crLPkbKu382-1mDM04ntYoevMdo/s200/IMG_3860+copy+blue.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I managed to acquire the use of a car for most of Friday and had about four sessions driving the hill, this tends to work well as I can work on the car inbetween and avoid getting overloaded. The first corner is a long fast right that has been fitted with a chicane in recent times – it must have been crazy before as I was approaching flat in 5<sup>th</sup> just shy of the limiter! After this you are into a series of fast 3<sup>rd</sup> gear bends and hairpins before the track starts to flow a little more. There are some tricky approaches into hairpins where you are flat through a kink to keep your speed up before diving onto the brakes as you go deep into the corner. Another one sees you accelerating flat out round a corner that suddenly tightens into a hairpin that then doubles back on itself – timing your braking here is critical as I learnt on Sunday morning… Then there is an incredible slalom section that cambers inwards where you can carry ludicrous amounts of speed, basically this hill has everything and it goes on and on.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEBjjt2eOPULRg2e3MR8WK_3hyphenhyphensQxk36LdJaiDeLFFRxXGWLsq0b3nPEVFEVieHjfCAgg1gWiKWjSaRF12KW5NVVYlPmTtk28I6GGrZ8RxTWIcCyz8obNFlmB3-6PMwHp8OIHINVvlxxns/s1600/_51A0457.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEBjjt2eOPULRg2e3MR8WK_3hyphenhyphensQxk36LdJaiDeLFFRxXGWLsq0b3nPEVFEVieHjfCAgg1gWiKWjSaRF12KW5NVVYlPmTtk28I6GGrZ8RxTWIcCyz8obNFlmB3-6PMwHp8OIHINVvlxxns/s320/_51A0457.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used the time between on Friday to fit the new hillclimb grade pads, this proving to be trickier than I’d hoped. The FR is known for issues with brake pistons binding, I’ve been cleaning them every Friday and was happy to have escaped any woes this season until now, but the wider pads meant that the piston was pushed further back into the body of the caliper and this caused issues. I’d planned to bed them in on the way to the start as you drive a long way to pre grille, but the fronts were too tight on the disk and sure enough any real pressure provoked a lock up even at 2<sup>nd</sup> gear speeds… remember that 5<sup>th</sup> gear chicane I mentioned? Come Saturday morning I took it especially easy on the first run, and everything felt fine and I figured that I must have given them a good workout as the car seemed to stop well enough, but my main concern was it grabbing a wheel on one of the difficult approaches (some are bumpy too) and firing me into the scenery backwards! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run two went well and I took ten seconds off to finish on a 3:03 with the class leaders running in the low 2:50’s. Sadly I’d been sidetracked with a lot of preparation and chatting to members of the public (a few PHers too!) and forgotten to charge the camera, this was a really critical oversight and one that I think cost me a few seconds in hindsight. On a longer course it’s vital to look back and see exactly which corners you got right or wrong, your gear changes or braking – you just can’t accurately remember enough detail to approach your next ascent with a mental list of pace notes to improve on.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU3hln36iJz_6e81QG318GpiTYJX6lPEvEEg9-tBTOCDnIawQHpz7l7AP016Pwp2ZAchjO26-C7u3IJKFW2YU4fXSoIyf6dE4uQRi9OBJfhAvNdGoo1ji8K_J05O4iNdDd93nEJDglTZ4y/s1600/IMG_3878.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU3hln36iJz_6e81QG318GpiTYJX6lPEvEEg9-tBTOCDnIawQHpz7l7AP016Pwp2ZAchjO26-C7u3IJKFW2YU4fXSoIyf6dE4uQRi9OBJfhAvNdGoo1ji8K_J05O4iNdDd93nEJDglTZ4y/s320/IMG_3878.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rain came over night, and the sky looked quite dark driving to the paddock that morning. Being in one of the last batches to go up I asked some of the earlier drivers what the hill had been like and got the general reply that it was slippy and pretty wet under the trees. I thought therefore that I’d treat it as a siting run and try to focus on a few corners that kept catching me out (one opens, another tightens, the third is in between) so set off about 8/10ths to quickly find that the track had now dried out. I upped the pace and started pushing harder, brakes working well until I arrived at the long fast corner that turns into the nasty hairpin a bit too quickly. Realising I was never going to make it round I just braked hard in a straight line and came to a full stop about a foot from a large rock, rolling backwards on the slope to drive off and finish on a 3:13. Chatting to a friend in the paddock he said ‘someone went straight on at that hairpin, did you see the big black lines?’ Yup, that was me…!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My two mentors this season - Paul Buckingham (left) & Colin le Maitre</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMzUSuD8HIYXM4vN-Tma0fi8tyTfOeIg6u6ElNvJDHwJDlGGIwbGEu2kU6LsP8nTOZ7kQL9urF96U3lEBW-O1dfU_c4bvwSvYFNTCXMvcy_viNbenJWHVWSJhR4VoKX9mk7H2S6Z51pTq/s1600/IMG_3899.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMzUSuD8HIYXM4vN-Tma0fi8tyTfOeIg6u6ElNvJDHwJDlGGIwbGEu2kU6LsP8nTOZ7kQL9urF96U3lEBW-O1dfU_c4bvwSvYFNTCXMvcy_viNbenJWHVWSJhR4VoKX9mk7H2S6Z51pTq/s200/IMG_3899.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still without video but having traced the problem to a faulty SD card, I went much harder now that the rest of the class had upped their pace and left me behind. Turkheim just goes on forever and it’s slightly strange being behind the wheel for so long. I still made a few slips going a gear higher than intended, but made my objective of breaking three minutes to set a 2:59, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT9rB_MQyN4" target="_blank">and now I had some footage to watch back too</a>. Having no electricity in the paddock meant that I didn’t have too much time to watch it back as I was having to clean the tyres manually with a surform, but I at least felt a little more focussed for my final drive of 2016… Once more I was lucky to have some assistance from a nice guy called Matthieu who borrowed my scooter to come up to the line and help with the slave battery – now essential as the one in the car is only good for around four starts. It’s amazing the difference it can make having someone to chat to at times like this, to keep you calm and smilling or just be there with you for company when you want to say nothing and focus on what you’re about to do.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZBlVdfOvK-tNGiIsGBeijdPu2f0tRQ4W2q-CE3fb5WovVLoIZuhJ3OH_yaQh7PogQluNtniD1r42Wx0_WoYOgA90SnFFdyhfR7CoEdHfEMGIOHuuz_3GwFVVwUsEnV73VYLJ0giegdVp7/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-09-18+at+08.10.05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZBlVdfOvK-tNGiIsGBeijdPu2f0tRQ4W2q-CE3fb5WovVLoIZuhJ3OH_yaQh7PogQluNtniD1r42Wx0_WoYOgA90SnFFdyhfR7CoEdHfEMGIOHuuz_3GwFVVwUsEnV73VYLJ0giegdVp7/s400/Screen+Shot+2015-09-18+at+08.10.05.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35nyen_charlie-martin-formule-renault-2-0-turckheim-2015_auto" target="_blank">Click here for AH Video Concept Highlights</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7J9SEQHCG2AdQIUd-4JiclHjNBg0I8RY9EtYwn051wKs_yRMEgS3HFjh6pOH822L0WJHRzY9Pr4s4_DZlPgSHZDhi5pQscP0qgl6geX5WLLIwK2FIayhcvrxPMW-qYnOTXFkQckwCLHM7/s1600/_CL_6924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7J9SEQHCG2AdQIUd-4JiclHjNBg0I8RY9EtYwn051wKs_yRMEgS3HFjh6pOH822L0WJHRzY9Pr4s4_DZlPgSHZDhi5pQscP0qgl6geX5WLLIwK2FIayhcvrxPMW-qYnOTXFkQckwCLHM7/s400/_CL_6924.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really went hell for leather, braking as late as I dared for the chicane mid-way between the 100m & 50m boards and nearly clipping the tyres on the way through – brakes definitely working now! I kept flat through a few of the faster corners where it just feels amazing to sense the car gripping as though it’s on rails, and tried to get the car turning in earlier at the hairpins, the nose just washing out wide a couple of times. It was so intense that my hands were shaking after I crossed the line, always a good sign that I was pushing 100%! I stopped the clock at 2:57 to finish 12<sup>th</sup> out of 13 drivers, which on the face of it doesn’t sound too hot, but when you consider that there were just over 3 seconds between me and the next seven cars it illustrates just what a fantastic class D/E7 is. It also gives me a lot of motivation for next season, I’m satisfied with my progression this year as I absolutely feel that my ability to drive the car has improved along with my </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pace in both the wet and the dry. I know there are a lot of areas on the car that can be improved, and I’m also considering some driver training over winter too.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAbnja16RsMDMMN8zvWyfmEr7YRJD8-mDOhBPpWC-kb8svqPK3S98HvTbcAoaMFrP_xbzum8bGjYjzeHV4Js89C_RQIZaegVMPEWAYW56X-Owp1azyOJE-DHGk3f09-JUt8w4zZO0DlKF/s1600/IMG_3913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAbnja16RsMDMMN8zvWyfmEr7YRJD8-mDOhBPpWC-kb8svqPK3S98HvTbcAoaMFrP_xbzum8bGjYjzeHV4Js89C_RQIZaegVMPEWAYW56X-Owp1azyOJE-DHGk3f09-JUt8w4zZO0DlKF/s200/IMG_3913.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The journey home was quite a tough one as after a weekend where I perhaps spent more time enjoying myself than I should have (it's the end of the season afterall...) I was rather tired. I had a demanding drive back from Colmar to Le Havre where I possibly set a new record for the number of double expressos consumed in an 8 hour period, Herve throwing a huge wobbly just half an hour in that resulted in me actually pleading with him 'not to do this today, please'. He changed his mind and perked up thankfully and I made my 10:30 ferry to Portsmouth that evening, collapsing into bed without any dinner. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArhpPXFdvUwMtwOE6J_HkYQS37hQFql_k09t5ta3A0BU0ZEptYj_CmPZVuBMV8REOowB2pvhdf1PZt5vOvSf8U10SFyOPyHjwXcIZQUqYpbTHlvQU5rGXrILTGmSPeGjtkgQuO6dko-0M/s1600/IMG_3919.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArhpPXFdvUwMtwOE6J_HkYQS37hQFql_k09t5ta3A0BU0ZEptYj_CmPZVuBMV8REOowB2pvhdf1PZt5vOvSf8U10SFyOPyHjwXcIZQUqYpbTHlvQU5rGXrILTGmSPeGjtkgQuO6dko-0M/s200/IMG_3919.JPG" width="150" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was woken early the next morning at 5am, the moon still bright in the dawn sky as we pulled into harbour, throwing on a hoodie at the last moment after being asked to vacate my cabin for the final time. In a journey reminiscent of Hebécrévon, my first race on the CFM all those months ago, I retraced my steps and drove straight to work for 10am where I completed a day in the office, looking slightly shellshocked on arrival. I had no snails, flowers or trophies this time (apart from the one I won at Les Rangiers), but I had the car in one piece and the greatest race season I've ever completed to keep me smiling for a long time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At times</span> I worried that I might feel sad at the end of the season (it’s often the case), and while I'm already missing everyone that I’ve met over the summer, I’m excited and focussed on 2016 to see what I can achieve with my first year in France now behind me! Woohooo!! :D </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-53492440479727198242015-09-01T05:13:00.000-07:002015-09-02T03:30:13.676-07:00Chamrousse: up in the clouds<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwwshGuaHLghXsDNSkfEctttZOM9HmMp4XpkOnHuA7BiEdFyvYKvMhlhngz1itorwBPZGYbfM8aZL1PVaZFL99wtrBvcC-hulPdeu4cizTyl-uFFmRibdWfRGhDD85yh-AkafxJIbpm3j7/s1600/11875116_10155955141440717_8908747536580828468_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwwshGuaHLghXsDNSkfEctttZOM9HmMp4XpkOnHuA7BiEdFyvYKvMhlhngz1itorwBPZGYbfM8aZL1PVaZFL99wtrBvcC-hulPdeu4cizTyl-uFFmRibdWfRGhDD85yh-AkafxJIbpm3j7/s320/11875116_10155955141440717_8908747536580828468_o.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span>or every race this year there’s been a defining memory that stands out above the others, the one that springs to mind first and each time someone mentions the name: St Gouëno - the crash, Vuillafans - the heat, Mont Dore - an unrelenting challenge. For Chamrousse it is without doubt the view. Just days ago I was perched literally on the side of a mountain at 1,750m, Grenoble twinkling in the valley below and the peaks of distant places framing the vast horizon in the distance as I worked on my car. Sitting on a upturned wheel as I cleaned the brake pistons and gazing out at what has to be the best view from any race paddock I’ve ever seen, I concluded that Chamrousse was easily living up to my expectations as one of the events I’d most looked forward to this season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having torn myself away from Switzerland on the Monday afternoon, my ears still ringing to the sound of a Lamborghini echoing in tunnels, the emotions and exertion of the the previous weekend finally caught up with me - after 4 hours on the road and running on fumes I arrived late that evening and collapsed into bed where I slept soundly for 11 hours. The following morning I woke to a foggy start, to be honest I’m not really sure where the day went but it took a little while to establish that I was in fact in 1650 (I hadn’t gone back in time), and after a quick trip to the syndicate d’initiative I took the moped to the gendarmerie in Chamrousse 1750, where I was kindly shown to a spot in what would become the paddock later that week. Catching some sporadic WiFi I also received an email from the championship co-ordinator to ask if I’d entered the event as they hadn’t received my entry. I phoned to say that ‘yes, I’m here already!’ and following a few emails and phone calls it was all cleared up, phew!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzioM9bG2Sp2UuvDeIFKvvUmWqA6itGvV4H9AJzW4djtAlnL04zMMhEOHE_Z1sHpRaZMkq9qYWwr4sMJiwPEGiyeRHRzGnY5NwdE1RiPo0u9ksEJ-BW8By4_JMiF9gYgbEBcKu4L9eKUOL/s1600/IMG_3448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzioM9bG2Sp2UuvDeIFKvvUmWqA6itGvV4H9AJzW4djtAlnL04zMMhEOHE_Z1sHpRaZMkq9qYWwr4sMJiwPEGiyeRHRzGnY5NwdE1RiPo0u9ksEJ-BW8By4_JMiF9gYgbEBcKu4L9eKUOL/s200/IMG_3448.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I fell in love with the mountains many years ago now, there’s just something awe inspiring about the scale of them and how it makes me feel, so I’d promised myself a day hiking, and Wednesday was the day. I set off with a full backpack, a fresh set of legs and a vague notion of where I was going - I had a map with some hiking trails on it and a plan to see as many lakes as possible having Google imaged them months in advance. Up in the clouds your are constantly on the receiving end of various types of weather that changes from one minute to the next, and on the initial part of my expedition I was mostly shrouded in fog and using a simple ‘up or down’ method to gauge the direction I was headed in... occasionally </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sideways too. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfb3_o1aM20e5FlLEaqAurqb37BFrclcBmDFHyeMrWCxIWYDllsmE3FE-_VU2dR51YW23UtZdqA1Yi7aVrZZzUUJjyYBsGQ7PIWzXNXPgCAREmYc2uWFze8g6_suwoVBykaE9h6AhElmc9/s1600/11889612_10155945188440717_4393627195856395693_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfb3_o1aM20e5FlLEaqAurqb37BFrclcBmDFHyeMrWCxIWYDllsmE3FE-_VU2dR51YW23UtZdqA1Yi7aVrZZzUUJjyYBsGQ7PIWzXNXPgCAREmYc2uWFze8g6_suwoVBykaE9h6AhElmc9/s200/11889612_10155945188440717_4393627195856395693_n.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I eventually found my way onto a trail and soon found myself on high ridge looking down over lake Achard, it really was breathtaking. I hiked for around 6 hours in total and had a fantastic day, one of the highlights being a close encounter with a bouquetin, an elusive mountain goat/gazelle-like animal with enormous curved horns that is rarely seen. Having left the path and scrambled down to yet another lake I sat for a while to have a picnic and enjoy the stillness before getting up to climb out of the steep valley. Clearly unaware of my presence and a little spooked (he was only a stone’s throw away) he took on a fairly aggressive stance and eyeballed me intently. I was convinced he was going to charge and ram me into oblivion so I gently tiptoed away while trying not to stare back at him as I took a picture to prove it really happened…</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrhCGTlKB54sQ4ZWeSuMDO6-FA12bwAN46g2mIfFKqCyfAkb67ibcz0lPeoPM0ldWqhpMA95ea-fR3eoX-l2c9BT9kNKkdqagJc2lakH9J71mZTSijWaa46j3TtZ6gmO_sZOSyxHKSYmn/s1600/IMG_3492.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrhCGTlKB54sQ4ZWeSuMDO6-FA12bwAN46g2mIfFKqCyfAkb67ibcz0lPeoPM0ldWqhpMA95ea-fR3eoX-l2c9BT9kNKkdqagJc2lakH9J71mZTSijWaa46j3TtZ6gmO_sZOSyxHKSYmn/s200/IMG_3492.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After another 11 hour sleep I rose to a blue sky day, and sat eating cereal outside in my pyjamas with the morning sun warming my aching legs. The previous days exertion had taken it’s tole, and I could feel muscles that I was previously unaware of running the full length of my lower half - ouch. The plan for today was to start recycling the hill, having three races back to back meant that with all the cramming I’d had to do to learn Mont Dore and St Ursanne, I’d reasoned it would be best to start the 4.8km of Chamrousse once I arrived to avoid overloading my brain with information. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhADR6AjEbZKPn0Go4yyHTCd6VBczM3yC9LEBNX3y229foxQp1PbJSRk00aV3NhKKlwIGA4qYz2iKG0uzr7m0BP8vBlKpkqqdD03Lu36LjF2qyJVLT1zyAS5kVPTeW0_mmR6agM8XsOhSBv/s1600/11896434_10155948778655717_7461262794767300519_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhADR6AjEbZKPn0Go4yyHTCd6VBczM3yC9LEBNX3y229foxQp1PbJSRk00aV3NhKKlwIGA4qYz2iKG0uzr7m0BP8vBlKpkqqdD03Lu36LjF2qyJVLT1zyAS5kVPTeW0_mmR6agM8XsOhSBv/s320/11896434_10155948778655717_7461262794767300519_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This worked well as there was plenty of time to learn the hill, and it really was worth the wait as it’s just like something off a computer game. One particular characteristic is the width which makes it very fast and leaves you a lot of space to run if you’re carrying a bit too much speed. The first half of the course is made up of four hairpins that well spaced and a fast set of flowing chicanes, the second half is more flowing and a little trickier to remember as the corners merge into one another - some tighten, some open and some are flat. However after Mont Dore my memory feels up to any test and I found it fairly easy to learn a line with countless (very slow) runs on my scooter. Friday was much the same, unloading the car to prep it for the weekend before going on a high rope wire adventure in the tree tops with zip lines running through the canopy.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QFxMb_XCi2whR9hswdQBQ6U1CQMgyZlqqsOUix_HHhLMjCT2MRkx6di6z_Ou8cYI-VjIkYIYwcvdg_qhCQDAMwGbW4JNavY3ss4CVtTU5-rvi3DnmjVBWLUHweTeaDqeVVtGookg6Qc8/s1600/_CL_2242.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QFxMb_XCi2whR9hswdQBQ6U1CQMgyZlqqsOUix_HHhLMjCT2MRkx6di6z_Ou8cYI-VjIkYIYwcvdg_qhCQDAMwGbW4JNavY3ss4CVtTU5-rvi3DnmjVBWLUHweTeaDqeVVtGookg6Qc8/s640/_CL_2242.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK86LXug1JBDzEfDc50fyfJJLWgMQ0WM7dSpGqgnVfXCEGJgk4zsC-7_QEUdzrRmaCJSkZedIXH_5FSyvsWay2Z8Ffbs4YKtbCTSXWqcKWB2rzx11IqR0g7RAIxrdp64mNdGb91xx7LHx-/s1600/_CL_2926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK86LXug1JBDzEfDc50fyfJJLWgMQ0WM7dSpGqgnVfXCEGJgk4zsC-7_QEUdzrRmaCJSkZedIXH_5FSyvsWay2Z8Ffbs4YKtbCTSXWqcKWB2rzx11IqR0g7RAIxrdp64mNdGb91xx7LHx-/s320/_CL_2926.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday was bright and sunny once more, and with two practice runs scheduled and a large entry including the VHC cars, we didn’t get on the hill until mid afternoon. Once again I had some help at the start line which is uphill, so it was good to have someone chocking my back wheel, cleaning my tires and connecting the slave battery to fire up the engine. My first run went well, although my gear indicator was playing up meaning that the display was telling me the wrong gear selection - I started in 2nd and bogged down. The cars struggle at the altitude, my FR didn’t seem to noticeably lack power although I did have to keep it at a light throttle at idle to stop it stalling which made negotiating the paddock tricky. I was suffering with understeer into the hairpins, the front end unwilling to dive into the slow bends but quite happy in the high speed corners. The latter half of the track is very bumpy in places where it’s been patched up after years of extreme weathering, meaning that you are sometimes wondering whether to take a deeper line to keep the car settled, it’s really a very individual thing as each driver’s car seems to respond differently depending on setup.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLsyOJTNitnyF3TCHEhz3CO2WgZM2uC0tEFWqZL410XnZTxJ-ozfLMTbN6_vYPKx5UAMDtn82IumsLZkxw7rMa5JnsDi1QVF8O-tvc-B8sF_g_wPRD5ZQpjVqhMtzEUrVTSIenIt4EbQs0/s1600/_CL_3425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLsyOJTNitnyF3TCHEhz3CO2WgZM2uC0tEFWqZL410XnZTxJ-ozfLMTbN6_vYPKx5UAMDtn82IumsLZkxw7rMa5JnsDi1QVF8O-tvc-B8sF_g_wPRD5ZQpjVqhMtzEUrVTSIenIt4EbQs0/s320/_CL_3425.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run two was much better, I committed fully to a few of the ‘flat’ corners and relied on counting down my gears into hairpins so I could keep my eyes focussed on the apex. Feeling like I’d finally regained confidence in the car I pushed hard to set a pretty good time (2:32) that put me 6th in a class of 10, boding well for race day. We had known all week that Sunday’s weather was going to be changeable though, and that rain was inescapable so it may come down to just one hot run…</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05rlb4JxuRUOaVF5563bUbr3sCiMR12huLAtiTF18uq0TxXBBmDCPgy2OQEB-DkJsVC1viDCsCrbw71BzLIfL82vX_8JZTL877m-xwsEE9RJ7is9H6OLEkkuHGACjGpuJIoLThn3EK6zh/s1600/_CL_3429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05rlb4JxuRUOaVF5563bUbr3sCiMR12huLAtiTF18uq0TxXBBmDCPgy2OQEB-DkJsVC1viDCsCrbw71BzLIfL82vX_8JZTL877m-xwsEE9RJ7is9H6OLEkkuHGACjGpuJIoLThn3EK6zh/s320/_CL_3429.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure enough I was woken early the next morning by the sound of rain hammering Herve’s roof, and sighed before drifting back to sleep without looking out of my porthole window - my ears told me what I needed to know. By the time we went for the first run the track was dry by as much as 75%, we had the luxury of driving down to the start line so at least had some idea of what to expect. I was running on slicks (as were most of the class) as the weather seemed to be clearing and by the time we went up it had improved, but I hedged my bets and eased off to post a 2:39, no use giving it everything now if its going to be dry by the afternoon. Run no. 2 was bone dry, I’d adjusted the potentiometer for the gear shift so I now had a positive reading every time I selected a gear - everything to play for. Much like my final run last weekend I really went for it 100% and gave it everything I had, having now found a technique to get the nose turning into the 2nd gear hairpins. I took all the flat corners flat, and I think there was only one where I perhaps bled off more speed than I intended to,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESKomY8Lc_s" target="_blank"> the car felt incredible - just gipping and gripping, what a feeling!</a> I set a 2.29 which although only good enough for 7th, was only 3 seconds away from 1st place in hotly contended class. To be so close to the front of the pack was a great achievement, and I was over the moon to break 2:30 too as this was my objective for the weekend - after three weekends back to back I feel like I’m really in the groove with the car right now.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6CiqeObwf8JsKpMpORSJKxwNNCbRrJw-YbUNkqQWmcUCA8JjpHYYaef9XwSR536wXdaGF1TTHbMNJErR67DKRH-aU7PgLFAOEA7cWazb6F22EHdRVy8dmTELD89EyPsLUOYxX9yT1ONJ1/s1600/_CL_1689.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6CiqeObwf8JsKpMpORSJKxwNNCbRrJw-YbUNkqQWmcUCA8JjpHYYaef9XwSR536wXdaGF1TTHbMNJErR67DKRH-aU7PgLFAOEA7cWazb6F22EHdRVy8dmTELD89EyPsLUOYxX9yT1ONJ1/s400/_CL_1689.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32ztqh_charlie-martin-formule-renault-2-0-chamrousse-2015_auto" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here for AH Video Concept highlights</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzy8ubzcH7dHmUx30X6bEnCLg-x0ZEoP1uRsZOK1WP-a2CXcoPqupv10pb23j8MVvyJxkoBMg68ojzimcOm531-DuNXBzZxTNk91aKcC9ke_pERG6tcxA5MeJ-t-UDCycW5LSOpuppdMw/s1600/IMG_3528.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzy8ubzcH7dHmUx30X6bEnCLg-x0ZEoP1uRsZOK1WP-a2CXcoPqupv10pb23j8MVvyJxkoBMg68ojzimcOm531-DuNXBzZxTNk91aKcC9ke_pERG6tcxA5MeJ-t-UDCycW5LSOpuppdMw/s320/IMG_3528.JPG" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final run was abandoned as the heavens opened and soaked the track for the remainder of the afternoon, so the weekend drew to a close on a good note once more. I’ve just ordered some new brake pads for Turkheim as I’ve been running circuit pads all season which are no good for hillclimbing, so I’m looking forward to trying them at the final 6km round of the season. I can’t quite believe we’re at this point, the year is flying by and the rollercoaster of my first championship year in France is drawing to a close - I’m sad in some ways as I’ve made so many new friends that I will miss over the winter. It was my birthday on the Monday so Martine Hubert and some friends kindly put a candle on a cake on Sunday evening, and some late night drinks soon saw us past midnight - it felt very apt to celebrate my birthday in France, the first of many I hope!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-24159796661788879772015-08-27T08:58:00.000-07:002015-09-02T03:33:18.813-07:00St Ursanne Les Rangiers: a dream come true<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>ometimes there are rare
moments in life when everything just comes together at the right instant - the
stars are correctly aligned in the heavens, karma is repaying you a favour, and
the world turns for you. I hesitate to sound melodramatic, but the weekend that
just passed has truly been one of the most unforgettable times in my life.</span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Long
since I started hillclimbing, I was watching videos on YouTube from all over
Europe and wishing as you do that one day it could be me hurtling up a mountain
road in something racey & exotic. Of all the videos I watched, there was
one name that came up time and again, and embedded itself firmly in my brain -
St Ursanne les Rangiers in Switzerland. There’s the iconic viaduct that you
drive under, les Grippons where the cars hurl themselves flat out through a
kink at faintly unbelievable speeds, the forest that throws corner after
unrelenting corner at you like a roller coaster and finally the hairpins that
give you that last minute test of nerves on your brakes. Frankly it has
everything, including a history that dates back to 1926, and once a year it
hosts a round of the FIA European Hillclimb Championship.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXXEsAauBiBCDT5Z_Ym3hCYNfgKbskjAmhHyTC-h2nSWbw40QFPSnHe1xz9_yAdoIkdx0UKS73SEP12r9poA4Mk8YVOC_IB-TB7ougJcEv79Fi3fOJQR-6P8-9jPRu3T8GMvHcz80bElK/s1600/11891258_993403317347277_4881152556034207268_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXXEsAauBiBCDT5Z_Ym3hCYNfgKbskjAmhHyTC-h2nSWbw40QFPSnHe1xz9_yAdoIkdx0UKS73SEP12r9poA4Mk8YVOC_IB-TB7ougJcEv79Fi3fOJQR-6P8-9jPRu3T8GMvHcz80bElK/s200/11891258_993403317347277_4881152556034207268_n.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It all started over a
few drinks at Vuillafans when I realised that being the weekend before
Chamrousse I would only need to take two extra days holiday having already
booked the week off to go hiking in the mountains. Some friends pointed out
that (contrary to my understanding) I didn't need an international licence, and
before I knew it I had an amazing sponsor (</span><a href="http://www.tectri.ch/pages/factsheet.php?lang=en" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tectri SA</span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) who kindly arranged my
entry! I booked my flight with Easyjet as usual and inked out a couple of extra
days on the holiday calendar at work when no one was looking, the rest was
simple. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully I’ve found a
cunning solution to Herve’s engine trouble which works 90% of the time and
requires keeping the revs between 2,000 - 2,500, I was thankful as it’s a 4
hour drive from Lyon and all the garages I tried to book for the repair where
full or had some other excuse. I texted my friend Fabien en route who kindly
met me on arrival - driving under the viaduct was a surreal feeling as I just
couldn’t believe I was really here! I was joining Team Macracer for the weekend
and so we all went for meal that evening before I got a lift to my hotel, which
made pleasant change from the confines of the van...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfiPg93h1HiFkAQwm7P8JLn1Wh5BHYFexJ1quZYHKJnn7b2bhMpnnMmrniiY6JS9JJRm2nkkwe14yV0jh9VM-7X5UsNuTmWtAoYrybvlZ40zWWnnJioCCw7G8JYKZ0CWxfeWxPUcbl_ggh/s1600/11900062_993403327347276_4262725091670159455_n+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfiPg93h1HiFkAQwm7P8JLn1Wh5BHYFexJ1quZYHKJnn7b2bhMpnnMmrniiY6JS9JJRm2nkkwe14yV0jh9VM-7X5UsNuTmWtAoYrybvlZ40zWWnnJioCCw7G8JYKZ0CWxfeWxPUcbl_ggh/s320/11900062_993403327347276_4262725091670159455_n+copy.jpg" width="314" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were looking at a
pretty mixed forecast for the weekend, rain was a certainty but at least I’d
had time to experience the car at the calmer speeds of Mont Dore the weekend
before. Indeed after the previous weekend at Mont Dore I was feeling less
rattled by the prospect of driving in the wet, albeit the speeds at St Ursanne
(5km) would be the some of the highest this season. We were parked next to a
large factory, some way from the start but with the protection of a large
covered area which would certainly make life easier. I set to prepping the car
and fitting the battery charger to overcome the issues from Mont Dore, before
getting ready to go and drive the hill on the scooter. I wasn’t relishing the
task as it was soaking wet outside, and as if by magic my friend kindly asked
if I’d prefer to use his 911 instead. ‘Of course that would be very nice, thank
you’ I said, and off we went. Although the scooter is better than nothing, I’m
quickly realising that it’s best used for zipping around the paddock - driving
the hills in a car makes a big difference to my ability to learn a line,
especially when you have an experienced racer sat with you. The forest part is
by far the hardest to master, if you come into a sector off line you loose a
lot of time - just search for </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxMZwfkQHco" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Hauser GP2 on YouTube</span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and you’ll understand
what I’m talking about! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That evening we all went
for a meal once more and it was a chance to meet the other members of the team,
which is really like a large family. It’s always a pleasure to be invited into
the fold and join a fun group like this, and we all had a great time even if I
did regret suggesting grappa as a digestif the next morning...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7moEW0Ck4JBGbzKPxVmyijfSgWdyRjqthmgEi9bq2L2sFpzezzA_lebA9k80ZkIbYBT_W4wI2wQOxLygUM0NSpOHNi9JYriCUNght_yhxi1JzMpYbRHLAFVP8DEj6yp52POQpIwPPHzgW/s1600/IMG_3244.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7moEW0Ck4JBGbzKPxVmyijfSgWdyRjqthmgEi9bq2L2sFpzezzA_lebA9k80ZkIbYBT_W4wI2wQOxLygUM0NSpOHNi9JYriCUNght_yhxi1JzMpYbRHLAFVP8DEj6yp52POQpIwPPHzgW/s200/IMG_3244.JPG" width="150" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday dawned bright
and dry, with a big entry the first cars were already making their way up the
hill at 7am while I was still comfy in my bed. I was nervous and had the
butterflies flapping in my stomach as I lined up in pre grille. Seeing cars in
the metal that morning that I’d seen countless times on the internet (Bruno
Ianello, Simone Fagiolli, David Hauser) felt a little like walking on to a film
set, I was a little starstruck to be driving alongside them but thankfully the
support provided by the Macracer machanics (Killian & Loic) helped me to
relax and focus on my driving. Having our own chef on hand to cook an
incredible Paella at lunch was fantastic, and an endless supply of expressos
helped ward off any fatigue from the fact that I eaten twice my normal raceday
calorie intake.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWvvQK8EhcoEJwStIrlZ6u8f3qoB818zWaoKpWCm24uC3Vnt9c3AsQ1AcrfTrG-VrAC4RsVQ8U9hKOkZ8JWr1f7foz7piffaOWHkaPI0O4jRh-BJPXIpRo-kVz6b1Gx6Ez22RT5NgHNQt/s1600/st%252520ursanne%252520gui%252520568.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWvvQK8EhcoEJwStIrlZ6u8f3qoB818zWaoKpWCm24uC3Vnt9c3AsQ1AcrfTrG-VrAC4RsVQ8U9hKOkZ8JWr1f7foz7piffaOWHkaPI0O4jRh-BJPXIpRo-kVz6b1Gx6Ez22RT5NgHNQt/s320/st%252520ursanne%252520gui%252520568.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5tqMhEhIowlimM7ZB0PX_7QVaOsRGd9V7DmaMAVO-dS2PKznXYZAraXFfgUpLIqPw9e4dGhjxz6NfaJC1WTMh6uI-ZleTePchbNcJcHOfV6vFAS5Ty73qSiNOmNW3LfyrD5J5X-06GEHm/s1600/st%252520ursanne%252520gui%252520171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5tqMhEhIowlimM7ZB0PX_7QVaOsRGd9V7DmaMAVO-dS2PKznXYZAraXFfgUpLIqPw9e4dGhjxz6NfaJC1WTMh6uI-ZleTePchbNcJcHOfV6vFAS5Ty73qSiNOmNW3LfyrD5J5X-06GEHm/s320/st%252520ursanne%252520gui%252520171.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This first run would be
my only dry one of the weekend, I nearly took Les Grippons flat but slowed a
lot through the forest as I tried to pick out the markers from Friday. Still a
time of 2:23 wasn’t bad for a first run, as shortly after wards the showers
started. Faced with a minimum 30 minute wait between the moment you leave your
pits and start your run, it can be tricky to pick the correct tyres for the conditions.
I was feeling quite gung-ho and was opting for slicks as most of the tarmac in
the pits had dried out, but my mechanics were advising full wets so I took
their advice which proved to be wise as the forest was soaking and the road
beyond it even more so. My gearbox jammed momentarily and I ended up in 6th at
one point, then I thought I was going straight on the first hairpin due to the
amount of water on the track! It’s a scary hill to drive quickly, the first
part through the garage is really fast as you fly between the railings and
rocks, before you open up not the straight. Here you’re flat in 6th for what
feels like forever before you peel into Les Grippons, lifting as little as you
dare in the wet. The feeling of relief when you exit the forest is immediate as
you know that the scariest and potentially most dangerous parts are now behind
you. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third practice went well
in the wet once more, if a little slower than I’d hoped, but instead I focused
on learning the line through the forest and making sure I clipped all the right
turn in points. In some respects the rain actually helped here as I was running
at a slower speed and hence had more time to place the car in the right spot. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAUlg8BApL_HCLcOmoRPGE8fd20P0ks7pVXqVrHlmxMyhJ5nMM38QzGH_QOow_HdNTszRA6NstVdY9lNeLlE2wpKFPYSxKRXXyOYDbULbOcZSQw_bWXGr0-FuIvm-cc9tCGjlPyc7mnLv/s1600/11870720_10207823543612535_7975487534303711031_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAUlg8BApL_HCLcOmoRPGE8fd20P0ks7pVXqVrHlmxMyhJ5nMM38QzGH_QOow_HdNTszRA6NstVdY9lNeLlE2wpKFPYSxKRXXyOYDbULbOcZSQw_bWXGr0-FuIvm-cc9tCGjlPyc7mnLv/s640/11870720_10207823543612535_7975487534303711031_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The exact nature of the
weather for Sunday was unknown, rain was going to be an issue but how much and
when was anyone’s guess. I was a little tired but eager to get going as the
morning was dry, although all hopes of a banzai run on slicks were soon dashed
as the heavens opened. At least I knew there was no risk of choosing the wrong
tyres, but my main problem was my visor fogging up off the line with rain
pouring everywhere, and tackling the Garage at speed is like threading a needle
- I had to back off a little before the fog cleared and I know it cost me time.
I was offline leaving the forest at the big left and then too eager to get on
the gas leaving the second hairpin, running wide. But even so 2:35 wasn’t too
shoddy, and put me 12th in a class of 25 and 3rd Formula Renault. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgODwowOZE59ue8x93PNQ7IbVQdsTPFGx2691hdXc8bigRvLE4twribrVRUrCCK3bH-09gjcBAfVJQmffXJwH_9DPFFjzNLe_2tLNlVdwCMDYvpD12-8aA6bX60UpX7_GBEimH4bcg0F_I7/s1600/IMG_3471.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgODwowOZE59ue8x93PNQ7IbVQdsTPFGx2691hdXc8bigRvLE4twribrVRUrCCK3bH-09gjcBAfVJQmffXJwH_9DPFFjzNLe_2tLNlVdwCMDYvpD12-8aA6bX60UpX7_GBEimH4bcg0F_I7/s320/IMG_3471.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time I came to
the second run I really had the bit between my teeth - the rain had stopped
meaning that I had clear vision and I was really finding my rhythm. In fact the
whole weekend I felt in top shape, and this is the first time since the crash
that I’ve really driven the car without any doubts in the back of my mind
telling me to slow down and be careful. Once again this weekend proved to me
the difference it can make having the support of a team behind you, and I’m
convinced that this is crucial to building my ability to focus as a driver next
season. Having the guys with me at the line adds something too - it just gives
you an edge to push even harder, perhaps there’s a feeling of not wanting to
let them down when they are all working to get the best out of you too. Either
way I drove my socks off on that run, the car just sliding a bit through les
Grippons which was pretty intense, but when I crossed the line I knew that
there was nothing else I could have done to go any quicker. Sadly I forgot to
charge the camera battery overnight </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZQ8ZmgSaXE" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so I only captured action from Saturday</span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">,
but I stopped the clock at 2:25 - holding on to my position and also taking
fastest lady, finishing 46 overall out 182 drivers. Jean-Jacques Maitre and
Fabien Bouduban also took superb results finishing 1st & 2nd in their class
(E2 Sportscars up to 2ltr) respectively, making a perfect weekend for all
</span><a href="http://www.macracer.ch/default.asp?MenuID=15646&PageID=11389" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">drivers in Team Macracer!</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be stood on the top
of the podium lat</span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">e</span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">r that evening, holding a trophy & bouquet of flowers was
such an incredible feeling, and one that will keep me smiling for a very long
time. I was interviewed in the paddock for <a href="http://www.grid1.tv/motorsport/article/hill-climb-heroes-st.-ursanne-les-rangiers">Mobil 1 Grid TV</a> and when
asked what my hopes were for the weekend I think I just said to finish above
bottom in class and not damage the car given the high speed and difficult
conditions at such an impressive course. So you can imagine that I was just
ecstatic to have the best result of my season, and I guess it just shows what a
happy & well prepared driver can do - I can't thank Tectri SA and Macracer
enough for an unforgettable weekend! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x332418_charlie-martin-formule-renault-2-0-st-ursanne-2015_auto" target="_blank">Click to see AH Video Concept Highlights from the weekend</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRjG3j3rx1PDaH02DSVeCm2AEX-01mo3iwqn_hRUhMGjpFfOcuVHy3tU3-j-4J9rDtDGz3IOGpZcssLdIJeNI-XGF4st-tj4OGlWnXZzk_TquX-40F1rUtq2xn-uuJFgBj1c6JwAAAd6om/s1600/IMG_3301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRjG3j3rx1PDaH02DSVeCm2AEX-01mo3iwqn_hRUhMGjpFfOcuVHy3tU3-j-4J9rDtDGz3IOGpZcssLdIJeNI-XGF4st-tj4OGlWnXZzk_TquX-40F1rUtq2xn-uuJFgBj1c6JwAAAd6om/s320/IMG_3301.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsL3OTA_MPyuQ1nt_J88A1zvXctO69A4lEo7xJ3rcZUPxSAmSf27_Se6sXlYAZanRN8jPmJKMevAyLDjrKWwFxGXQO-r35u7dl7Oe4QgR06mooZCbVvVtSlr0XKk7tJuVz2QiNfBpBPuUp/s1600/IMG_3296.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day I checked
out of my hotel, rather jaded following an evening of celebration involving
more grappa (like a moth to a flame) and champagne. Just when I thought life couldn’t really get any better and I’d already had my full quota of good times,
my friend picked me up in his Gallardo Super Trofeo and lent the keys to go
drive the course and surrounding mountain roads. I’ve always longed to drive a
V10 as the engine note is something that makes me grin like a child, and sure
enough I was doing just that as the angry exhaust note shrieked back at me from
rock faces and tunnels. I left Switzerland with some incredible memories and
high hopes for Chamrousse, where I’ll be spending the week climbing mountains
prior to the penultimate round of the season - based in a ski resort it should
another spectacular event!</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-23312773783784666262015-08-12T12:15:00.000-07:002015-08-13T02:55:58.169-07:00Mont Dore Chambon sur Lac: when the going get's tough<div style="min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZquxoo04sCv-lbeo43qfROK1XtbyRXLgKX4feMn0pXn6Rs0q5WQJx21jaDUf01aUamppuxVMxWPxnwfn8m6SYOrQvxy_E_IytMyCrNvdCW5MmSkT6buH-eRyx4xud6IJfHAzL77GaUWDB/s1600/_CL_0622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZquxoo04sCv-lbeo43qfROK1XtbyRXLgKX4feMn0pXn6Rs0q5WQJx21jaDUf01aUamppuxVMxWPxnwfn8m6SYOrQvxy_E_IytMyCrNvdCW5MmSkT6buH-eRyx4xud6IJfHAzL77GaUWDB/s400/_CL_0622.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>’ve never actually said a prayer before at a race weekend, but as the rain hammered down harder than I could quite believe and a </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">river began to run underneath my car (which was on stands...), I was just moments away from my first drive up Mont Dore and clutching at straws. The last time I saw rain of this magnitude was shortly before my crash last year at Val des Terres in Guernsey, when I tore the front off my Westfield on a sea wall... I’d been warned about the Auvergne by more people than I can count on both hands, mainly for the ferocious and bi poplar nature of the weather that can scorch, drown or blow you away all in the course of an afternoon!</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although not the longest course of the season (5km), it was by far the most daunting - you only have to look at it in plan view to realise that there is no beginning, middle or end, just one long snaking route with little to differentiate one corner from the next. Combine all this with a mercurial meteorological reputation at the best of times, and you quite literally have all the ingredients for the perfect storm. Oh and I forgot to mention that I would be there completely alone for the first time as neither Colin nor Paul would be competing - yes I know I go on about ‘enjoying a challenge’ but this was about to be a big case of be careful what you wish for...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As usual I had my initial bout of pre race hurdles to overcome, after updating the software on my iMac it greeted me on Thursday morning with the black screen of death (oh joy no onboard camera), but via some friends on Facebook I managed to fix it at the airport. Then Herve threw me another curve ball and refused to rev over 2,500 which meant that my journey time increased by over an hour and I had to crawl up the majority of the hills (more like mountains really) at 40mph. It has to be said though that I’m starting to find some masochistic satisfaction in the process of ‘winging it’, and the longer journey simply afforded me more time to gaze in wonder at the beautiful scenery that I was passing through. I’ve never been to the Auvergne before, but if I had to describe it in two words it would be Jurassic Park. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a wild and almost prehistoric look to the volcanic landscape - with peak after peak rising up dramatically from great plains, deep blue lakes and swathes of purple flowers mixed in with the lush green forests that pour down the sides of the mountains. I stopped a few times by the roadside to admire it all and take pictures, which perhaps partly explains my late arrival in Moneaux (I stopped in Chambon sur Lac to buy cake and water comme d’habitude). I found all the best spots were already taken, and so ended at the side of the road in a slightly remote location with no electricity to speak of and feeling rather cut off. I unloaded the car and gazebo after saying hello to a few friends, finished the sandwich I’d picked up from Prêt and settled down for the night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day dawned bright and sunny, and I rose early to make my 10am appointment at the Renault garage in Mont Dore. I drove the length of the course on the way there, and eventually found them a little early after driving through the pretty heart of the little town which was bustling with tourists and hikers. I had a quick nose round an old Renault V6 Dakar car that had it’s engine semi stripped on the bench next to it. It looked very evocative sat on stands in this little mountain garage, and seemed as though it had a few stories of it’s own to tell. They pin pointed the source of the problem (lambda probe) but sadly it couldn’t be delivered until Wednesday, and so I left empty handed, at the very least equipped with a part number and plan to fix it </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">between the next few rounds.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKB4e41_v3YNj3Tl04OkfHfX7c979_fZRHT0ppgDUXa90T0M9rgyw1luhA4_RrAHMs3txcocpaS6VRj3Le75CBQ-5FRF2vnd3SvvCzqemoXizYXEqivIflySb5hK421CN7kBONUaZQXF1m/s1600/11838645_991428457544763_968045746725513321_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKB4e41_v3YNj3Tl04OkfHfX7c979_fZRHT0ppgDUXa90T0M9rgyw1luhA4_RrAHMs3txcocpaS6VRj3Le75CBQ-5FRF2vnd3SvvCzqemoXizYXEqivIflySb5hK421CN7kBONUaZQXF1m/s320/11838645_991428457544763_968045746725513321_o.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moments later I bumped into my friend Sylvain who asked me If I’d brought my car for scrutineering in the town square. ‘No I didn't know about that bit’ I replied, as it suddenly dawned on me why I’d seen dozens of cars on trailers all heading in the same direction that morning... I repeated the trip after loading up, and bumped into Martine Hubert on the way home who kindly gave me a thorough lesson in a hired Clio. Being taught to drive Mont Dore in French in a left hand drive car when you’re quite dehydrated is a stern test of anyone’s concentration, but it’s extremely helpful having someone so experienced coaching you on a regular basis. We passed a few Porsche Cup cars and WTC spec Seat Leons coming in the opposite direction, no plates required in France I guess!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NNptPuL65RbNNa75GuRGKztBk2lpnW6SdOwonnvNTgn_q-zFH4zMHKj8qPrE_Q2GWTd5TEZXXPK8nANvZ9MqQyA9PyJOo-xExtL9CxqYmGMXd4tUDrSrNOVVLjixkNLqO218urCCwv3D/s1600/11845075_991428470878095_9136333005112639599_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NNptPuL65RbNNa75GuRGKztBk2lpnW6SdOwonnvNTgn_q-zFH4zMHKj8qPrE_Q2GWTd5TEZXXPK8nANvZ9MqQyA9PyJOo-xExtL9CxqYmGMXd4tUDrSrNOVVLjixkNLqO218urCCwv3D/s320/11845075_991428470878095_9136333005112639599_o.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That evening I met Sylvain’s friend Yann who lives nearby, as he was not driving he’d kindly offered to help me over the weekend. Little did I realise how crucial this would prove to be as the weather was about to go to Defcon 1, and sure enough a group of people came over and advised me to pack the gazebo away and load everything back inside the van before nightfall. ‘It’ll be fine’ I said, thinking they’d they’d just agree. Thirty minutes later it was all done, and as I lay in bed that night with rain hammering on the roof just inches from my head I was grateful they’d been so insistent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following morning Yann helped me unload, but we left the gazebo down and used the car cover instead as the wind can suddenly pick up without warning here. Not long before the first run the heavens opened just as were fitting the wets, and it was all we could do to dive inside the van and sit chatting while we waited for it to clear. Only it didn’t, it just rained and rained, harder and harder. Eventually I asked Yann if it was time to go, and with a pained expression and a nod he confirmed that it was indeed time to get wet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used to be very confident driving the Westy in the rain, but this was the first time I’d really used the new car in a downpour, so I opted to take it very easy and merely drive up on what was really just a sighting lap, only with very little vision. Since the car is now running a softer setup with no rear anti roll it wasn’t as bad as I expected, although a lot of the turn in markers had now been obscured with sponsors’ banners so I eased the car along and tried to choose a steady rhythm. Run number two was better as the rain had at least stopped for the main part, although the track was still sodden. I pushed harder but was yellow flagged for the car that had spun up ahead, and sure enough started catching it as the driver had backed off meaning that I was sat right behind him for the final few corners cursing as there was no way I was going to attempt a pass. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still the time was ok, but on the return down the hill the heavens opened and I might has well have sat in a cold bath. The battery had given up too, and this continued to plague me throughout the weekend (a</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">long with other electrical niggles bought on by water ingress), and I was pretty rattled by the time I made it back to the van. Having Yann there to help, keep me company and cheer me up was a massive boost and I don’t honestly know if I’d have made it through the weekend had I been running everything on my own. That evening he took all my soaking wet kit home to dry it out over night (even</span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> inside </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my helmet was wet!), picked up some more fuel and drove me to fill the water barrel so I could get a hot shower. Time and again I’m blown away by the helpfulness and generosity of the people I’ve met this season, I can’t thank him enough really.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The evening brought huge gusts of wind that shook Herve on his springs and made me feel like I was on a boat in heavy seas, but I have to say I’m always cosy and warm in there - I love my race van so much!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXJc396KmiKsd0drmSJNghwYB9Fa3WaI37ZacoCmvAfaXk8uR2gFCjZhsJuCMsaiOLhv1D2LD396UNkqsSlnjoKHYsdveCmdM_pVCLHoIR9-g0lgVmUXOsLmqTF2pK_Vwf5blDl4K_ebk/s1600/11232145_991428454211430_9034810012982241224_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXJc396KmiKsd0drmSJNghwYB9Fa3WaI37ZacoCmvAfaXk8uR2gFCjZhsJuCMsaiOLhv1D2LD396UNkqsSlnjoKHYsdveCmdM_pVCLHoIR9-g0lgVmUXOsLmqTF2pK_Vwf5blDl4K_ebk/s320/11232145_991428454211430_9034810012982241224_o.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday dawned bright and breezy, a huge rainbow was hanging right across the sky and filled me with hope for a better day. It was 11am by the time I got my first run and the track was bone dry at last. Mont Dore is such a technical hill, with so many twist and turns that can be confused in an instant that you have to be incredibly focussed to remember your way up it. It’s so easy to loose yourself momentarily, at which point you’re suddenly dealing purely with what’s happening in the moment and simultaneously trying to place where you were and remember what’s round the corner - like an actor forgetting his lines and searching desperately for a clue as to what comes next. When this happens you realise that the last corner was meant to be flat, you’re fast approaching a hairpin offline and in the wrong gear, and you’ve just lost a big chunk of time. It’s generally accepted that it takes three years to really be able to drive hard here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Run two was dry and looking good, albeit my gear indicator was playing up so the screen was reading 5th when was in 1st. I pushed harder and had a pretty clean run which took 5 secs off my previous time to post a 2:51:28, literally driving through the clouds in the final bends. On the way back down there was a rainbow that was stretched flat like an elongated stripe, and it shone through the mist in the valley. I’ve never seen anything like that before and it was so beautiful, but it also signalled the fact it had rained below and our final run would be on a drying track. I was as determined as ever to try and get into the 40’s but as I came through the trees after the first hairpin it looked very slippery so I backed off, losing quite a bit of time and knowing that I’d struggle to make it back. Sure enough I slipped back down to a 2:54, and was a bit flumouxed to see that some of the class had gone quicker, but then the car was in one piece and when I consider the scope for disaster I was happy with how I’d driven and handled what was undoubtedly the toughest race of the season so far. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Bukp6CUPo" target="_blank">Click here to see the final run from Sunday.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At times I’d really had to ask myself a few questions about what I was doing there, there were moments when it looked bleak and I had to dig deep to focus on the job in hand and keep my mind in the right place. Despite everything it was actually a fantastic feeling to finish knowing that I’d driven as well as I could under the conditions, and the very fact that it had been so challenging only made the weekend more memorable in the end. It has however made me realise that if I want to to improve significantly next season, I need to have some support with me - as without Yann there’s no way I could have applied myself 100%.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">You can see highlights from the weekend in the <a href="http://www.videoconcept.fr/magasin/fr/" target="_blank">AH Video Concept</a> movie <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x319603" target="_blank">by clicking here</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I flew back today (Monday), and am very excited to be getting back on a plane this Thursday to compete in the <a href="http://www.fia.com/events/european-hill-climb-championship/season-2015/2015-fia-european-hill-climb-championship" target="_blank">FIA European Hillclimb Championship</a> round at <a href="http://www.rangiers.ch/index.php/fr/" target="_blank">St Ursanne les Rangiers</a> in Switzerland. Although shorter, it’s an incredibly fast and spectacular course with much of it flat in 5th & 6th gear through woods with very little to reference one corner from the next. I was mindful of getting the car there in one piece all weekend, and I’m super excited to be entered under the sponsorship of <a href="http://www.tectri.ch/" target="_blank">Tectri SA</a> who have generously arranged my entry. From there I’ll be going directly to Chamrousse in the Alps for a week’s break with some trail running and hiking and the penultimate round of the championship. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Miraculously Herve ran without fault all the way back from the Auvergne, so I fingers crossed for a swift journey to Switzerland!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-86766477937211017282015-07-29T14:01:00.001-07:002015-08-12T12:18:20.385-07:00Support GoCharlieHillclimb on Patreon!<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>ith a full time day job as well as racing, the logistics of navigating France and simultaneously recording everything to share with you guys, my life can be pretty full on at times - it's no wonder I havent missed watching TV in over a year! I'm not complaining, I'm someone who likes to keep busy as I find life without a challenge or project pretty boring after a while, but nonetheless putting a decent blog together takes time and effort. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love making it and being able to share my experiences with you though, and it's been awesome seeing it come together over the last 6 months as the season has started - the races have racked up and the stories have unfolded (with quite a bit of drama too!). It's really helped having some very talented people to work with on the imaging side too, with Clément Luck taking some stunning photos and AH Video Concept making some fantastic & very atmospheric films. Viewing figures have been increasing and I'm nearly up to 20,000 already with half the season still to go - not bad for the first year :D</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only down side to this is that I'm currently running at full capacity in terms of the production costs, there is a whole lot more I'd like to do in order to bring you guys more of everything but I'm struggling to find anything left in my dwindling budget to make it...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is where <b><a href="https://www.patreon.com/gocharlie?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a></b> can help, so I've made a <b><a href="https://www.patreon.com/gocharlie?ty=h" target="_blank">video</a> </b>to explain exactly what it is and how you could help to support GoCharlieHillclimb - I feel like this is the beginning of something really cool and together we could make it even bigger & better !!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.patreon.com/gocharlie?ty=h" target="_blank">Watch my video on Patreon right here!</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The coolest thing about is that you guys can get directly involved with the blog, I love the idea of interacting with you and getting your ideas and input on the kind of content you want to see and read about. The second coolest thing is that based on the viewing figures, you could help make a big difference to my blog for the price of a chocolate bar! ;D</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-65356117632565325732015-07-08T12:45:00.002-07:002015-07-19T12:57:32.115-07:00Vuillafans Échevannes: Feeling the heat<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>part from lying on a beach somewhere exotic, I can honestly say I’ve never been so hot as sitting in my hot car, in full nomex and helmet with the outside temperature nudging over 40 degrees. Taking your mind off the fact that you are so hot and concentrating on the mountain that lies in front of you is a challenge in itself, and what a mountain it is. I must have drank 3 or 4 litres of water each day and staying cool was just never an option, at times it felt like an endurance event. Was it all worth it? I think the picture below should answer that question...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifyiymjI-6zevL6jbrvewIO9KTWLESRBYapwNQl1B3SQg5Q6p7HI8zAvOwGWypmmK1VUBwP5g5zNzpqdNcZlvreShDKiyg_HBoddCMuzW5bWIRvfBY8ytuK2dEG7oNZISDLBqvGsyi9WJg/s1600/IMG_2814.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifyiymjI-6zevL6jbrvewIO9KTWLESRBYapwNQl1B3SQg5Q6p7HI8zAvOwGWypmmK1VUBwP5g5zNzpqdNcZlvreShDKiyg_HBoddCMuzW5bWIRvfBY8ytuK2dEG7oNZISDLBqvGsyi9WJg/s320/IMG_2814.PNG" width="179" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Such is the regularity of the my pre race mishap that I’m actually waiting for it to happen each time now, like Groundhog day without Bill Murray or anything funny at all in fact. On Monday I learnt that French air traffic control had scheduled a 48hr strike, starting on Thursday which was the just the day I was due to fly - oh joy. I looked into various plan B options (£300 on the train!), but then at the last moment fate stepped in (or possibly a union) and the strike was lifted on Wednesday afternoon. “Fab news” I thought, everything will be fine now... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a scorching hot day as I touched down in Lyon, feeling pretty jet set as I strode across the baking tarmac. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got a lift to collect the van which started first time, upon which I gave Herve a loving pat on the dash to set off in the direction of Besançon. Now some of you may remember the issue I experienced a couple of weeks ago when the engine suddenly lost 50% of its power, that was easily fixed by turning the engine on and off?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it returned, with a vengeance after nearly two hours of driving. Initially the remedy worked, but the frequency increased and before long I was stuck crawling at 50km/h (on a hill I went down to 20...) as the old on/off trick wasn't working anymore. I pulled off at a Super U to get supplies, thinking maybe Herve needed some timeout, but he then refused to start and I was starting to get worried as my 7pm ETA looked unlikely. I called Philippe Prost, president of ASA Sequanie who run the event to ask advice. We’d spoken quite a bit on email and he’d kindly been the first person to tell me the strike had been lifted. I pulled over at a Peugeot garage who said they could help if necessary, but it turned out there was a Renault garage just 7km from Vuillafans in Ornans so I soldiered onwards and upwards, into the mountains, the sound of cow bells chiming over the warm breeze, my plan being to unload that evening and take the van in first thing the next morning.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCf8lfZ2uJOa3j3LJdSMNbjyWhkZPkUpLxKsWeTPMI19cHbUXHNqA_S3WfSRBHb4mCgFCK5XXxkpe9RaT_uMhXELv-dvUSSYnxOPirw7PICn9iRGQYz8XABtnDRole4XP3CSBucDQKaR2/s1600/IMG_2827.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCf8lfZ2uJOa3j3LJdSMNbjyWhkZPkUpLxKsWeTPMI19cHbUXHNqA_S3WfSRBHb4mCgFCK5XXxkpe9RaT_uMhXELv-dvUSSYnxOPirw7PICn9iRGQYz8XABtnDRole4XP3CSBucDQKaR2/s200/IMG_2827.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPE_ziByRMuAFlM4aFaXN4qbDY-Pxx2vg91YPDwVMJAMQPeLn8U60UhoRgpXDAeEMshT3OJdPkhsRCwuJenQ7NYrxX_nknAv_pUv4-SLHjo5mY8120KgopSZK5WAg51vNP1FhTWs6mSiS/s1600/IMG_2869.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPE_ziByRMuAFlM4aFaXN4qbDY-Pxx2vg91YPDwVMJAMQPeLn8U60UhoRgpXDAeEMshT3OJdPkhsRCwuJenQ7NYrxX_nknAv_pUv4-SLHjo5mY8120KgopSZK5WAg51vNP1FhTWs6mSiS/s200/IMG_2869.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I picked my way down into Vuillafans and my ears popped as I turned the final few bends to see the picture postcard village in the base of the valley before me. All my worries vanished at this moment, I was so happy to be there and in surely the most beautiful setting for a motor race anyone outside of Gran Turismo has ever dreamt of. As luck would have it I turned a corner to happen straight upon Paul & Colin with whom I set up camp in lovely little courtyard, just by the banks of the river. As someone who has a great love of mountainous scenery and the outdoors, I just can't get over some of the places I’m getting to race at this season - Vuillafans is the highlight so far. We went for a few cold drinks before unloading and had a BBQ, it’s hard to worry much in a place like this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next morning I phoned Renault Ornans at 8am sharp and I think I did a fairly good job of explaining the nature of the problem, they said I could come straight in so I drove the short distance along the route of the river. Philippe met me there and drove me back to the village as planned so I could spend the morning driving the hill on my scooter. In the cool of the morning I must have made four or five trips up before sessioning some of the longer and more complex bends, namely the long parabolic (flat) left and the long right, both of which can be seen clinging to the side of the mountain from the final hairpin as you look back down into the valley below. As usual I’d done my homework on YouTube but nothing prepares you for the full fat effect of 3D, gradients, bumps, gravelled sections (yes really!) and the shear length of a 4.8km hill. At some point during the previous week around half a dozen patches had been tarred and gravelled - braking zones, corner exits, there was going to be a lot of gravel flying around come Saturday morning...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At lunch time I changed the throttle cable in the car for the replacement I’d brought with me, a massive improvement that meant the on/off feel at low revs was long gone, but even in the shade of my gazebo I was absolutely baking and decided to put a bikini on and go for a swim in the river. It was ice cold but so nice, and I went in again early that evening as the heat was just relentless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Martine Hubert kindly took me for a few guided trips up to point out the lines, the do’s and the don’ts and this all helped me to build a picture of how I was going to approach my first few runs come Saturday. One lesson that I learn time and again at each hill is that no matter how much you prepare yourself, that first run is always a blur as you try to regurgitate all of your pace notes whilst simultaneously trying control, place and brake the car. Gears I leave until run number two, on run number one I just try to go with the flow and pick a pace that I doesn’t spook me too much, which is easier said than done at Vuillafans!</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to thank Philippe for taking me back to collect my van from repair once more that evening, it turned out to be a blocked fuel filter and the bill was fairly minor so I thanked my lucky stars (comme d’habitude) and went to meet some friends. Somebody pointed out that I’d been making an unfortunate habit of expressing myself by confusing “j’ai chaud” with “je suis chaud” - the former means “I’m hot”, the later conveys a fairly adventurous desire for bedroom action, not the best thing to say in reply to a greeting by a group of French drivers!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqqUHGnN8bjTe223W_fHRl6XIukHL0ZrT3b-k4eA4JgxG6U1n94wV4bjrl1alueOL1uRVn0XGWmUktZNf8wRGC5LXMqW_4GwnPG-PLhOktbJbiMSqvAoQhF-XJ1eF-rvbF1gOh8_BZ7qUe/s1600/_51A8312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqqUHGnN8bjTe223W_fHRl6XIukHL0ZrT3b-k4eA4JgxG6U1n94wV4bjrl1alueOL1uRVn0XGWmUktZNf8wRGC5LXMqW_4GwnPG-PLhOktbJbiMSqvAoQhF-XJ1eF-rvbF1gOh8_BZ7qUe/s640/_51A8312.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaIBnfEIOTrJrCy_w3XKQ1FSdJbk7XF8UNzwSx5sM-HSmWxXserGQ25h21dopT_LNG_lrlN2ZZYXuMlPxBREtOTKnWltfzR23261rvg3D5MeBnlnokhfVt12eP6vsca8hJNk4qk1Ras0D/s1600/_CL_8805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaIBnfEIOTrJrCy_w3XKQ1FSdJbk7XF8UNzwSx5sM-HSmWxXserGQ25h21dopT_LNG_lrlN2ZZYXuMlPxBREtOTKnWltfzR23261rvg3D5MeBnlnokhfVt12eP6vsca8hJNk4qk1Ras0D/s320/_CL_8805.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite a few final scooter runs on Saturday I was apprehensive about the first run - the heat was into the high 30’s and the tarmac in the paddock was sticky underfoot to such and extent that people were pouring water over it places where it was ripping up under race tyres (I lost a flip flop once or twice). I did at least have the benefit of a new camera, which turned out to be an excellent choice and one I’d really recommend to anyone looking for a decent bullet cam - the Roadhawk Ride R + is a really easy to use and very adjustable as it comes with it’s own software you can use to configure it on your laptop. Nonetheless it was a pretty hairy run as there was gravel pinging up everywhere, literally bouncing of the car, my helmet - it was like being shot at the whole way up and the car wasn’t finding much grip. Getting out of the car and making my way to the bar at the top of the hill (yes really) I felt pretty shell shocked and unsure how I was going to attack it as there would be only one more run that day and no practice on Sunday... everyone was saying the same thing though - gravel & no grip, tyres going off, so I consoled myself that we’d all had a bit of a mare and set about cleaning the Avons for run two. This went much better and I took ten seconds off to post a 2:23 - some of the gravel had cleared but with another hot day forecast everyone was saying the first run would be the quickest tomorrow as the heat would soon take the edge off the times... no pressure.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0PNgkNy23YDcweAN7VhHAwM517ynOWkmN3cecCPRR2eb3j33Jl1rcTP6yjSZRPzC0L7GkRS3pm_dm1dYfPYdVl_f_HblH0A-sxkT1CBQ__3HIk3I3i-PDMkYLoYEH1NRHtMFPVzf8Y49G/s1600/_CL_8856.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0PNgkNy23YDcweAN7VhHAwM517ynOWkmN3cecCPRR2eb3j33Jl1rcTP6yjSZRPzC0L7GkRS3pm_dm1dYfPYdVl_f_HblH0A-sxkT1CBQ__3HIk3I3i-PDMkYLoYEH1NRHtMFPVzf8Y49G/s320/_CL_8856.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Calmed by the cool of the morning I got off to a good start the next day and made my objective of breaking the 2:20 barrier to do a 2:18 dead, and although I’d not set the camera to record in time I’d managed to count my gears all the way and take the right line up the hill. The long left hander is just incredible, you approach flat in 5th to go round the first section without lifting before braking and dropping down a gear to turn in and then nail it flat all the way round and back into 5th, keeping tight on the inside to keep clear of the bumps round the outside. Likewise the big right above is similar as you have to keep your foot down on the way in until the stone wall becomes the railings, it’s hard to master both the line and more importantly your own sense of self preservation that is telling you to back off, but it’s a massive rush that goes on and on until you reach the finish and breathe a huge sigh of relief - what a hill.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYaUYInRPpxJVMZMTq62yLBNDtKhNhzX4TfoxddjlSAgatY-XJPNycRZRmZHOvnAHFS42rDbReMi_Mpj7atOYx0b4_3x8gWdi9CXetnLzMhFhTfh-KGJpCLMMfIXXCifqg6vPcjn0Bi_5H/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-08+at+07.15.46.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYaUYInRPpxJVMZMTq62yLBNDtKhNhzX4TfoxddjlSAgatY-XJPNycRZRmZHOvnAHFS42rDbReMi_Mpj7atOYx0b4_3x8gWdi9CXetnLzMhFhTfh-KGJpCLMMfIXXCifqg6vPcjn0Bi_5H/s200/Screen+Shot+2015-07-08+at+07.15.46.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYn30_BZTEM" target="_blank">My second and final run</a> came late in the day due to a crash that meant the third run was abandoned. Annoyingly I bogged down on the line, there was so much rubber laid down that it was hard to overcome the huge amounts of grip. In hindsight I wish I’d just redlined the car as I think this would have probably have worked, either way I think I lost a second. At least this helped the red mist and I really went for it, admittedly I still held back slightly on some corners I wanted to take flat but I have some big races to come and I need seat time right now, no heroics in 2015. It was a tidy run though and despite the poor start I finished on a 2:17:2 to place 7th in class out of 10 - not bad going after four ascents. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can see the AH Video Concept highlights from weekend <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ycuzu_charlie-martin-formule-renault-2-0-vuillafans-2015_auto" target="_blank">by clicking on this link.</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8IgDxlrxCzxM0tPj4VTNUtsJDWB6vwmvhLLUuJEc8MrWsVv9N0nBfqL3AuGwv0DSGNGnod9d7sD2_ayx1VDiRXjxjPwi5PNoelg6rQUGsSTSDxt7VykvYsejgV4J7635sGD3rOagiuknq/s1600/IMG_2928.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8IgDxlrxCzxM0tPj4VTNUtsJDWB6vwmvhLLUuJEc8MrWsVv9N0nBfqL3AuGwv0DSGNGnod9d7sD2_ayx1VDiRXjxjPwi5PNoelg6rQUGsSTSDxt7VykvYsejgV4J7635sGD3rOagiuknq/s200/IMG_2928.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time I’d packed up and been to prize giving it was pretty late into the evening, all things considered I wasn’t too sad to miss out on a third run - everybody looked shattered and we were all longing for a shower and our beds. Storm clouds were rolling in and that evening I sat in my van with the door open watching an incredible lightning display as it crept closer and closer, the thunder physically shaking the van. It took out the power and cloaked the village in complete darkness just as the heavy rain started, I love watching a big storm and fell fast asleep watching it from the comfort of my bed despite the din inside. The next morning I woke to find that quite a lot of water had blown in and soaked the bed, clearly I was dead to the world and nothing could have woken me as the elements waged a war outside. I reluctantly waved Vuillafans goodbye and set sail for Lyon, stopping for a coffee and a cake midway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was just thinking what a perfect weekend I’d had when suddenly the van lost half its power only a stone’s throw from my drop off point - aaaargh!! It might just be a hiccup, but the thought of a prolonged drive to Mont Dore at 40km/h made me grimace. Thankfully there’s a Renault garage there so I have their number at the ready… On Tuesday I phoned the garage in Ornans and spoke to the mechanic, he said something about ‘du merde dans le reservoir peut être’ so I may have to get the fuel tank drained if the problem recurs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I’m as undeterred as ever, in fact I’m trying to get an entry for the FIA European round at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxMZwfkQHco" target="_blank">St Ursanne Les Rangiers in Switzerland</a> this August. It’s an extremely fast hill and one that I always planned to do one day, if I can manage to cram it in this year it would be incredible, even if I have to drive there very slowly!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-73314680939184457732015-06-24T04:36:00.002-07:002015-06-25T23:59:34.883-07:00Beaujolais Villages: It's good to be back! <div style="min-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>ntense. That’s how I’d describe the two and a bit weeks that have followed St-Gouëno, I’d possibly add exhausting into the mix too. Despite me thinking that there was ample time to source, repair & fit all the parts required, it all came down the wire and I only loaded the car into the trailer on Monday at 10pm. On the positive side it’s been a good opportunity to learn more about it and how to set up the geometry, although having said all that it’s really not an exercise I can of afford to repeat this season (both financially and in terms of logistics as the car will now stay in France) so I have to proceed with a dash of caution from now on.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVQfIpr6rMt_60tcnUad5S4e0xITJdVx7WE2PnvrYjuSbtY5frUmwzmaUI6jBUxlquk5x4Z20wvRYVSbmmVmsFgyZisoyeSKRF_1Nj3BDNJUplUKDBo9SjTQJPDTYpr1ETjcUHvfYEDsE/s1600/_CL_7420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVQfIpr6rMt_60tcnUad5S4e0xITJdVx7WE2PnvrYjuSbtY5frUmwzmaUI6jBUxlquk5x4Z20wvRYVSbmmVmsFgyZisoyeSKRF_1Nj3BDNJUplUKDBo9SjTQJPDTYpr1ETjcUHvfYEDsE/s640/_CL_7420.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took me all of Wednesday evening to finish packing my kit into the van as I needed to double check I’d not forgot anything, so it was another late night as I crashed into bed, running on fumes as usual. I’d been to a wedding party on Saturday and whilst collecting a dress I’d pre-ordered early that morning, I was lucky to spot a big black mark across my shoulders while trying it on in the fitting room. I’d no idea it was there (I was crawling around under the car on Friday night) but luckily I managed to remove it before the party as it would have looked a bit random!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7R0qz1DG7KP2i2PWeZAvxh0aF6WaHLUguKwjOAZpWvhiL1rv2T183gXR59o_i1JVC6VUAfF3Ag43nxcicljRrFJ_bNO1F7BnIwA5vcmbTw_noml7sNL7Zif3ljaK6UeOMDDW919h5pqj-/s1600/IMG_2733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7R0qz1DG7KP2i2PWeZAvxh0aF6WaHLUguKwjOAZpWvhiL1rv2T183gXR59o_i1JVC6VUAfF3Ag43nxcicljRrFJ_bNO1F7BnIwA5vcmbTw_noml7sNL7Zif3ljaK6UeOMDDW919h5pqj-/s200/IMG_2733.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite having burnt all my midnight oil though, I was absolutely determined to get to Beaujolais Villages come Thursday - at 4km it’s the longest hill I’ve ever driven with fast 6th gear sections and all set in amazing scenery. For me this is how I imagine a picture perfect European hillclimb to be, and the reality was even better than I’d hoped for. I had what is becoming my usual ‘will I make it’ hiccup 20 miles from the Chunnel when my van lost all power and slowed to a crawl. I phoned a friend who told me to turn it off & on again (of course!) while rolling and thankfully this cured the problem (sticky turbo). I was then told I couldn’t use my ticket at the check in as I was not a motorhome, but I think the look of iminent physiological meltdown on my face saved the day as I tried to show them that Herve has a shower and windows. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1JMndoihZXGF-9F-C94sRm5ueH5O1nRb20_-nv0gZnb74BTa9JHeBTAPYm37JdkG8xcbGy2ALBqkdyZ6zEpu2vACAQJCEgzD6Qrt6zIKz526jMkKSxLKUC4Yuph7vTaII0Hjh-wfQ3q4/s1600/IMG_2738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1JMndoihZXGF-9F-C94sRm5ueH5O1nRb20_-nv0gZnb74BTa9JHeBTAPYm37JdkG8xcbGy2ALBqkdyZ6zEpu2vACAQJCEgzD6Qrt6zIKz526jMkKSxLKUC4Yuph7vTaII0Hjh-wfQ3q4/s320/IMG_2738.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arriving in Calais just after 7pm I made good time and managed to get past Reims (which is pronounced ‘rance’) by midnight and pulled over in a service station for the night. Up at 7am the next morning I travelled through the Champagne region, Dijon & Besançon before the first signs of mountains loomed into view. Gripped by the smell of adventure, any fatigue was long gone and I was surprised how fresh I felt as I began to wind my way up tight switchbacks through little villages before I arrived in Marchampt to the familiar site of liveried trucks and gazebos popping up like daisies.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoBgixQt8-l6DTeNO3wLzGpPxLiA4cTndRAfZpg3wdIe6FMaXLwlIM-w2dlH1nSJ33I6Q78bS1s01hJFnw9P7lXD4UdtIV3wolePS7O0VzpyS0hyphenhyphengL3fhgPnmharhWlpVH-CN4WWVmorX/s1600/IMG_2747.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoBgixQt8-l6DTeNO3wLzGpPxLiA4cTndRAfZpg3wdIe6FMaXLwlIM-w2dlH1nSJ33I6Q78bS1s01hJFnw9P7lXD4UdtIV3wolePS7O0VzpyS0hyphenhyphengL3fhgPnmharhWlpVH-CN4WWVmorX/s320/IMG_2747.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spotted a friend on his motorbike and followed him down to one of the paddocks and the spot that he’d kindly marked out for me the day before. It was a beautiful day </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and after unloading the car I followed Paul Buckingham & Colin Le Maitre up the hill on my scooter to get a first look at it. Although useful for learning the sequence of corners, YouTube never prepares you for gradients & cambers, let alone the breathtaking view as you reach the finish line and look back down on the village in the crease of the valley below. At that moment you know all the hard work and late nights were worth it, it really feels like I’m living in a dream at times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After ten or so runs that afternoon, Martine Hubert kindly offered to take me up the hill in a car she’d managed to borrow and show my the lines, turn in & braking points. She drives a Norma prototype in class CN3 with the most incredible sounding BMW 3ltr 6, and it was reassuring to be shown the right way to drive what is a very fast and demanding hill. Following advice from other FR drivers I softened the car a lot that evening, changing the springs and damper rates in the hope of making the car more forgiving and easier to drive. I’d had some good chats with Ski Academy Switzerland and had a plan worked out, part of which was to go at a steady pace all of Saturday and focus on my lines until I was happy to up the pace on Sunday, rebuilding confidence in the car as I went.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9flGY-9fbecJGCEhCKOvVaBwcP__7-da4OU9rY7E4k5SMNfITtE3uRex_G-7nxz2NiGcfn_rfpQkcrq7zTLlM8Yy9ruiy9aAAdZw1WHEXkOkKg1f5ypfkYa2ftdg-6YlfazyrYs4K1Z-z/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-06-22+at+20.17.45.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9flGY-9fbecJGCEhCKOvVaBwcP__7-da4OU9rY7E4k5SMNfITtE3uRex_G-7nxz2NiGcfn_rfpQkcrq7zTLlM8Yy9ruiy9aAAdZw1WHEXkOkKg1f5ypfkYa2ftdg-6YlfazyrYs4K1Z-z/s200/Screen+Shot+2015-06-22+at+20.17.45.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got up early the morning and ran the hill on foot, stopping to look at each corner and cement Martine’s pace notes in my head (as well as catch my breath!), I just hoped I’d be able to recall most of it once I got going. The course starts with an uphill section into a bumpy braking zone for a very tight hairpin that has an imposing granite wall on the exit. Not famed for it’s turning circle, I was apprehensive about getting round it and sure enough it took me quite a few goes to get it right as I would end up crawling to a stop and coasting past the final few inches of wall before accelerating. Thankfully a chap called Martin Jones had video’d some of my lines through it (he was on holiday touring the region) and this helped immensely - the transition from no lock to full lock has to be instant if you want to get a good run round the corner as any initial half turns just see you pushing too wide. As I thought the hill is a real test of your nerves, there are several corners that can be taken flat (apparently...) in say 5th & 6th gear which while you know the car should do it, committing fully requires some serious courage and I did feather on a few of them. On one occasion I cut a bit too much corner and the car hopped over a bump on the inside... you can imagine your adrenalin is running off the scale!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPq2XoAbxw1qNXm44tCQygirr8sHpmTbHpl4OuLOY6oHo-y03naeZAFI7c-7hB2UD0HqE7_70ms-Ri_hnjAaOVA1x7AZacM5gMtNrWLinbqUu-frvtIN_dlQND8rNJKjm0rviJM0G9Dxd/s1600/_CL_7037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPq2XoAbxw1qNXm44tCQygirr8sHpmTbHpl4OuLOY6oHo-y03naeZAFI7c-7hB2UD0HqE7_70ms-Ri_hnjAaOVA1x7AZacM5gMtNrWLinbqUu-frvtIN_dlQND8rNJKjm0rviJM0G9Dxd/s400/_CL_7037.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday finished well, my two timed runs were down on the rest of the 12 strong class but this was to be expected - following St-Gouëno I just wanted to build my speed gradually and get familiar with the softer setup. Come Sunday morning I pushed harder in free practice and felt comfortable to ramp up the pace, there is just so much to remember and get right that it’s like trying to recite a poem in your head as you simultaneously drive and control the car. With the sequential box I have to try and keep a mental record of where I am so I know how many downshifts I’m doing for each corner, looking down at the display is just dangerous. Next season I’m going to get big digital readout installed right in front of the wheel which would be a huge help. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sadly my camera packed up again so <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYNVMnTsYk" target="_blank">I only have practice day clips</a>, which is a shame as on my first competition run I knocked 6 secs off. I managed to take another second off on the next to finish on a 1:53, which given the circumstances I was happy with, the majority of the class seemed to be hovering around 1:49 - 1:50 with the top guys posting a couple of 1:47’s. I’d hoped for a 1:52 but the final run was a little slower despite feeling like I’d pushed a little more. Crucially the car was in one piece and I’d certainly given it my best shot so there were a lot of positives to take, along with the fact that the FR now feels much more stable and drivable at speed.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Les Dames de classe DE7! Estel, Sarah et moi :D</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Returning back down the hill after the final run was a memory I’ll never forget, the views into the valley, the crowds of people walking home in the road, all waving, clapping and smiling as we wound our way to the village. After the podium for the top three drivers and the champagne that inevitably got sprayed everywhere (I’m learning to stand back!) we all headed to the bar for a few cold drinks, my relief to be still in my overalls & smiling was tenfold. I wish I’d had my phone to capture the scene in the village at this point - race cars enthusiastically picking their way through the crowds as they return from parc fermé, trucks squeezing by and all mixed in with people cheering and enjoying a beer in the early evening sunshine, just fantastic.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBEt6NNBNwqzsbjrL21AFllPHsUuK76PCjLZsMgc5ImLWzYEVc9PaDronubE82KM5FZRzvgXr3LRiojP8HYlHca3aZXUt1gyAIRE6p4FLTQtGz7su4WDF_VtDovZf_MOsNk5b3ncGdyrS/s1600/AH+Vid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBEt6NNBNwqzsbjrL21AFllPHsUuK76PCjLZsMgc5ImLWzYEVc9PaDronubE82KM5FZRzvgXr3LRiojP8HYlHca3aZXUt1gyAIRE6p4FLTQtGz7su4WDF_VtDovZf_MOsNk5b3ncGdyrS/s1600/AH+Vid.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AH Video Concept have captured all the highlights from the weekend, you can catch all the action by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vgrmf%20smile%20emoticon" target="_blank">clicking here to watch the video</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDTvNGZohyphenhyphen9qMnoYafKXRNl8m3ZOM2xoueXdeTXQTdjklS3W_bNpAxVVRVOkycB___k5MeBVDU9ETJtKkskaUbre0l9PKTFGGy1jhH4Ke8VUJn8_oMsRfwqVd8HvK6MMKk3wzOp2oMs7L/s1600/IMG_2771.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDTvNGZohyphenhyphen9qMnoYafKXRNl8m3ZOM2xoueXdeTXQTdjklS3W_bNpAxVVRVOkycB___k5MeBVDU9ETJtKkskaUbre0l9PKTFGGy1jhH4Ke8VUJn8_oMsRfwqVd8HvK6MMKk3wzOp2oMs7L/s320/IMG_2771.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That evening I joined some friends for dinner in their motorhome, I wasn’t flying home until mid afternoon on Monday which turned out to be handy as we had quite a late finish. The next morning I set off for Lyon and picked my way up a mountain to descend the other side into an amazing vista as you could see for miles, it’s so beautiful I just didn’t want to leave at that moment. By mid afternoon I was off my flight and on a train home <a href="http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/roadhawk-ride-r-bullet-camera.html" target="_blank">ordering a new camera</a>, it feels slightly surreal coming back to a cold, drizzling England and picking up my mail at home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That said it’s only a fortnight until <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX00S1Mg0j8&list=FLlJWypDF2a-fCWa8AvjJB_Q&index=1" target="_blank">Vuillafans Echevannes</a>, which is 5km and apparently even faster (long, flat parabolic corners changing up from 4th to 6th) so I’d best get on Youtube and do some homework!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-11263330735154264412015-06-12T06:43:00.001-07:002015-06-12T10:09:44.697-07:00Coaching with Ski Academy Switzerland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he last few weeks have been a very busy time for me,
sourcing parts, taking others for repair and working on the car has meant that
I’ve had little time for much else outside of my day job (I did manage to mow
the lawn though!). Nonetheless it’s been a period of reflection and an
opportunity to think about what went wrong, what I could have done differently,
and areas where I could most benefit from some support. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Travelling on my own to and from races means that I have a
lot of time to think, and inevitably a lot to think about without anyone to
talk things through with. Sure I’ve already made some great friends but sometimes I reach the limits of my
linguistic ability and find myself wishing I had someone to confide in and work out what’s the best way to approach a particular problem, whether
that may be changing something on the car or just a quick pep talk to help me
focus, simplify things and give you a final ‘good luck’ before a run.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So with this in mind I’m really pleased to introduce the
latest sponsor to join the GoCharlie team – Ski Academy Switzerland who will be
helping me directly with coaching. They have a wealth of experience training
professional skiers to the highest levels including racers, using proven
techniques and have all the qualifications you would expect to get the best
performance out of you. As you can imagine there are lot of areas where the
two disciplines cross over, and with courses in the CFM up to 6km long there is
huge amount of concentration required (especially in my first year as I’m
simultaneously learning the car) to focus on what you are about to do and highlight the areas where you want to improve without overloading the information. This
could be remembering to take a different gear at a particular corner (there are
52 at Mont Dore…), or any combination of things in one instant as you compress
a great deal into a very short space of time – there’s a lot of
multi-tasking going on!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m very excited to be working with them, and their logo looks great on the car (engine cover & mirrors). We met up recently to
talk about the last three races then focus on Beaujolais Villages next weekend, and I'm already feeling
really positive about having them onboard - it should help my confidence too which took a bit of a knock after the crash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speaking of which I’m nearly there with the rebuild – I have
the suspension back on, carbon parts ready to fit tonight and then just the
setup to do. I managed to short out the electrics on the tail lift yesterday
while plugging the cable in, but I think I’m becoming more used to dealing with a
crisis though as it failed to panic me – it’s just a little hiccup! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So next Thursday I’ll be setting sail for the south of
France for race number 4 – wish me luck! :D</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-72484535514814933922015-06-03T03:20:00.000-07:002015-07-08T13:43:26.047-07:00St-Gouëno: Too fast, too soon<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>uddenly there was no noise, there was just a dreadful silence broken only by the distant sound of whistles in the background and the four letter word that was repeatedly filling my helmet. It almost seemed surreal, like this hadn’t actually happened - one minute I was driving flat out, the next thing I knew I was running into a bank as parts tore off the car with the front right wheel bent back at 90 degrees. I’d just crashed the car, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbxUj-2eaQE" target="_blank">this wasn’t meant to happen... </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The weekend started well enough, I’d had a relaxing five days spent running and cycling, being shown the best parts of Brittany by Martine & Roger who had kindly put me up for the week. There had been rain forecast for Sunday and although the severity of the weather reports was changing daily, the likelihood of it being wet was a certainty. Saturday meanwhile was set to be warm and sunny, and having competed at St-Gouëno last year with a fantastic result I felt more confident than before to push the car that day to see what kind of time I could do. In hindsight I’m kicking myself for not being more restrained - nobody wins in practice and this was a schoolgirl error when only last week at La Pommeraye I was telling myself to focus on consistency. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first run went well, I’d risen the hill that week on bikes and the scooter, poured over my previous videos and had the 3.2 km sequence of corners firmly lodged in my mind. St-Gouëno is quite narrow with no runoff and fast too through wooded sections, meaning that in bright sunlight you can be quite dazzled by the staccato contrast between light and shade. My first untimed practice went well if a little quicker than I’d perhaps intended, the box’ in the FR being that much quicker you often end up snatching a higher gear before slowing for a corner, compounding the feeling that I’m approaching quicker than a year ago. At Fer a Cheval hairpin I accidentally went deep under braking before the front bit and I let had the back of the car fighting for grip for the first time, but nonetheless the car felt good and when I timed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KK80G5xuD8" target="_blank">the video it matched my previous PB of 1:37 in the Westfield</a>. It was 11am and I had some time before the next two runs scheduled for after lunch, so did a few jobs like checking how much fuel that car had used and chatted with some other drivers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were a lot of entries that weekend, with six of us running Formula Renaults in class, and a lot of crashes meant that the meeting was running behind. My second run didn’t actually start until 5pm, albeit I’d been sitting in the car at pre grille and on the start line queue for over an hour by the time my run came. I’m not suing this as an excuse (that’s coming in a minute!), but for anyone not familiar with hillclimbing it’s worth pointing out that this can one of the biggest mental challenges to a driver as they sit collecting their thoughts. It’s one of the most crucial elements to this discipline of motorsport - to be able to switch </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">yourself into race mode from the instant you leave the line and drive flat out with your whole run already mapped out and visualised in your mind. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It takes a lot of concentration & focus to find clarity and block out things that can distract you (is the car overheating? Have the tyre pressures changed in the heat? I’m getting hot, etc), and when you are facing delay after delay it can really through you a curve ball. You get ready, go through your routine, close your eyes and visualise what’s coming, subconsciously you maybe start to breath slower and deeper as you tighten your belts one last time, edging forwards as the cars in front go one by one, your heart now beating faster as everything else fades away and there is just you, the car, and the hill you are about to drive. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then red flag, engine off and you have to wait. You maybe get out of the car after waiting five minutes and getting too hot, so you walk around and chat to someone, and go through the whole process again, perhaps quicker though as they now want you in the car and off to make up for lost time. At the same time your adrenaline level is going up and down, meaning that you can suddenly feel quite tired and almost doze off at times. It’s a scenario that you have to master like anything else, but I think maybe it got to me and I forgot what I should be doing and instead did what I wanted to do - see what was the best time I could do in the dry on a hill I’d already driven. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went off like a rocket, the car moving around underneath me from the first corner, by the 1.8km split I was over a second ahead of the next driver in class, I was on it for sure and although aware of the fact I was pushing hard everything felt good. Coming out of a fast left right I’d decided to take 4th instead of third on the previous run, and as the car started to straighten up at the exit I fed the power in a little early and the rear pushed wide. Correcting the slide caused the rear to hit the earth bank on the inside, breaking the lower wishbone. For an instant I thought maybe I would get away with it and and keep the car level, but the force of hitting the rear pivoted the front back towards the bank, and the car ran into it diagonally, ripping of the front wing and most of the front right suspension before coming to a stop. Marshals ran over to check I was ok, which thankfully I was so I got out of the car to have look at the damage. I was devastated and couldn’t believe what I’d just done, why had I gone off so fast?!! Deep down I knew the answer, I let the pressure get to me and drove too hard. The recovery lorry came and hoisted it up and I climbed in for a ride back, helmet in my lap thoughts spinning round my head. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in the paddock people came to ask if I was ok and figure out how to load it back into the van, which took quite quite a bit of work, and I’m very grateful as it helped me keep it together having something to focus on at that point in time. I just wanted to sit and be alone, but everybody was so kind and it picked me up - before long I was going through what could be saved and making a list of what would be needed to get the car running again. At one point it looked like we </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">could get the parts from another team as Krafft Racing had good stock of spares, but there was a critical part missing so we called it a day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday arrived with rain as predicted and it was cold and windy too. I attempted a lie in but my brain had other ideas so I emailed the various people I needed to prime for spares and repairs the following week. I spent the day chatting in the parc des pilotes and watching the action, it looked very challenging out there but even so I was sorry not to be driving. I focused on what was needed to get the car ready for Beaujolais in 3 weeks time - I will have the car ready for sure and as I sat replying to emails next Monday morning on the ferry home I’d priced everything up and should have the parts needed to start bolting everything back on at the weekend. Right now all I want is to see the car sat ready in the garage so I can get back out and start driving again.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2sebtv_charlie-martin-formule-renault-2-0-st-goueno-2015_auto" target="_blank">Here is footage of some of the better moments from the weekend courtesy of AH Video Concept :)</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-29976430124154814472015-05-28T01:55:00.002-07:002015-05-28T02:02:05.863-07:00La Pommeraye: Time to focus<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘Click clack click’ went the the new alternator on my van as I started the engine. ‘Hmm that wasn’t there yesterday’ I thought. It was the Monday before my Thursday ferry to St Malo, and yet again I was facing a potential disaster before I even set foot in France. The noise was so loud that there was no way I could even contemplate a 10 day road trip, even if I put the stereo on full volume I knew it was there...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Desperate calls to a very nice man in a nearby village paid off, he came out and fitted a new belt while I thanked my lucky stars - I was all sorted by Tuesday evening. I drove Herve to French class that evening jus to be sure and everything seemed fine, all I needed to do now was pack, which is easier said than done… I’d fitted some shims to reduce the negative camber on the front as it was running over 3 degrees and not getting anywhere near the edges of the tyres, and I ended up resetting the toe out & tracking too as the car hadn’t been running straight with the wheel at 12 o’clock. Setting the car up is a relatively new thing for me, while I understand how and why it’s done I always used to leave it to someone else with the Westfield. Being as I’m largely on my own at most events I thought that now is the time to learn as I like to be as self sufficient as possible, and on this type of car it’s very easy to access everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loaded onto the ferry at Portsmouth once more I met up with fellow hill climber Jerry Neary who’d made the initial journey to St-Gouéno with me last year, the event that drove me to follow my ambition and pursue a whole season in France. The overnight trip to St Malo is an easy journey as Brittany Ferries make it all an enjoyable experience, I took a few minutes to gaze at the sunset as we left port before getting some food. We sat up drinking red wine until we realised we were the only people left in the restaurant and called it a night, there was a big weekend to come!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIcDKpav3e8VU2QWi4WIPWrVrGklcoXUfWsMV9wO7hcxewpYLDYipEIg8xYw3I36EqfSnC56hI7V5bHeHn5s9MxMfrRfTIFfOXftB3GMPqF2uiAapHBlNO33Klkpw4a-NsoR_juloOWv4K/s1600/IMG_2405_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIcDKpav3e8VU2QWi4WIPWrVrGklcoXUfWsMV9wO7hcxewpYLDYipEIg8xYw3I36EqfSnC56hI7V5bHeHn5s9MxMfrRfTIFfOXftB3GMPqF2uiAapHBlNO33Klkpw4a-NsoR_juloOWv4K/s200/IMG_2405_2.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRqrY_VUvfufDxaKojymWignR1DE0lxAukAhy4KsD-UF3D_4uv-Jhl_0FCwU7wuiyU2bdpbiEjmgd563Kh_msv2g1i7N3TAjvzxHgZcTye98rxj2QVXsqLZ6Kxpn-MnJA2wOHz9eW0cyYy/s1600/IMG_2412_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRqrY_VUvfufDxaKojymWignR1DE0lxAukAhy4KsD-UF3D_4uv-Jhl_0FCwU7wuiyU2bdpbiEjmgd563Kh_msv2g1i7N3TAjvzxHgZcTye98rxj2QVXsqLZ6Kxpn-MnJA2wOHz9eW0cyYy/s200/IMG_2412_2.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Driving south from the ferry terminal you pass through some beautiful countryside, crossing the Loire before arriving at La Pommeraye and navigating your way to the Parc des pilotes. This time round there was electricity on site which made life very easy, and so I parked up next to a trio of Guernsey drivers who have been showing me the ropes after having competed in France for a long time now. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was just unloading the car as a large group of school children wondered up to watch (no pressure!) although I’m finally managing to relax with car on the ramps. After a few runs up and down the hill my first impressions where that it was as every bit as quick as I’d been told (although not on a 50cc moped) and steep in places meaning that you really don’t want to back off or brake unless absolutely necessary as any speed lost is hard to recover. We all went down to the banks of the Loire for drinks as the sun set on a beautiful evening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saturday practice didn’t commence until 1pm and I’d decided to reduce the toe on the front after having concluded with over drivers that I’d set it far too aggressively. Despite thinking I’d levelled the car I made a schoolgirl error of doing all this on the grass… the run that followed is possibly the most scary thing I’ve ever experienced as the car felt horrendous, I’d exarcebated the problems ten fold and realised I’d needed some level ground to do the job properly. I just managed to do this in time before the next run, albeit joining the pre grille in completely the wrong order somewhat to the dissatisfaciton of L’Automoible Club de L’Ouest. Thankfully the car now tracked straight and cornered consistently so I could focus on learning a very fast hill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll be completely honest and say that the enormity of the challenge I’d chosen, competing in France in a proper racing car, actually dawned on me for the first time that morning. This is very different to what I know - with the reality of learning a much longer hill at speeds well over 100mph now staring me in the face and I was starting to wonder if this was such a great idea after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a two more runs it started to click, and with my camera now working I could look back at my footage to see when & where I was going wrong. On the final practice I got stuck in 5th during the final part and couldn’t go down the box but later realised this was due to technique, but everything happens so quickly you really do need video at this level.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mBheR1l1yu_9Ta3qjlI_Q5LHUCEyqtujRLsa5JmXzV34RRlJ5g5ZYs3uNtMkwCXgMhGgK0K41FGkTn7_PCTtnyDsIsgNyQ5JhBSZGMDX5FsmKQBgfUCWsiRfP6dJAkNcBFk_iRHFtsxX/s1600/11049460_10153296433894547_4863808672837841375_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mBheR1l1yu_9Ta3qjlI_Q5LHUCEyqtujRLsa5JmXzV34RRlJ5g5ZYs3uNtMkwCXgMhGgK0K41FGkTn7_PCTtnyDsIsgNyQ5JhBSZGMDX5FsmKQBgfUCWsiRfP6dJAkNcBFk_iRHFtsxX/s320/11049460_10153296433894547_4863808672837841375_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday morning dawned with a foggy start and an untimed practice session which went well - I’d ran the course on foot on Saturday and really tried to get all the turn in points in my head. Soon after I was sat belted up in the car waiting for my première montée just as a large unseen oiseau dive bombed me and scored a direct hit on my hand! Unable to get out I hailed a passer by and pointed, ‘monsieur, avez vous un serviette s’il vous plait?’ He chuckled and took a picture with his phone. ‘I guess it’s good luck’ I thought, before somebody kindly gave me a napkin! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to say just how friendly everyone has been - pushing the car around the paddock, cleaning grit off the tyres before runs and coming over to talk or help out if at all possible. The whole adventure of competing in a different country is something that I find so exciting despite the slightly scary and unknown nature of what lies ahead at each round - where else does someone come and deliver chocolate croissants to the door of your motorhome each morning?! I loved France long before coming here and it’s leaving a big impression on me - <a href="http://www.videoconcept.fr/magasin/fr/" target="_blank">AH Video Concept</a> have been making some <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rli1g_charlie-martin-formule-renault-2-0-la-pommeraye-2015_auto" target="_blank">amazing montages which really give a flavour of the events.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how did the weekend go in the end? Running in a much bigger class I was chasing the whole weekend, and despite trying my hardest finished 4th out of 5, around 2.5 secs behind the top three - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT-VfE0kMa4" target="_blank">you can see my best run here</a>. I pushed as hard as I dared, which was quite hard now that the fronts were getting all their rubber down, and was very happy to finish in the 1:04’s as this was my target come the start of Sunday. With St-Gouéno the following weekend I was every bit relieved to finish in one piece too, more than anything La Pomeraye opened my eyes to the fact that I have a lot to learn, constituency and gradual improvement are the objectives for 2015! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With 5 days to relax in Brittany a group of us headed out for a meal that consisted of a very generous restaurant owner, a lot of free drinks and me wishing I’d loaded everything on Sunday evening… that’s another lesson learnt!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-1645034839643859412015-05-13T00:08:00.000-07:002015-05-14T00:00:39.130-07:00Hébécrevon: The Adventure Begins!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>t one point it looked liked the whole weekend was over before it even started. Sitting at work on Thursday, my van loaded to the gunnels, I opened an email at 2pm from Brittany Ferries to say that my overnight ferry from Portsmouth had been cancelled due to dockers strikes at the other end! Oh no, not now. Please this cannot be happening... My last two trips to France where derailed by strikes and airport bomb alerts so perhaps this trend is set to continue...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGI9wEzytCGDHHRC5FQJIVy6KcnTlnFjmM1lDZj89FwlnsAyNUiy8-BKDM-wOtMDcZu1HFvc0O-iAPDS7V4dHtExRb_Z8x7lSSWlINqbQwBCgaAACGaA_RON7aDzZUH3eV0nQiSXQH9rwJ/s1600/IMG_2222.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGI9wEzytCGDHHRC5FQJIVy6KcnTlnFjmM1lDZj89FwlnsAyNUiy8-BKDM-wOtMDcZu1HFvc0O-iAPDS7V4dHtExRb_Z8x7lSSWlINqbQwBCgaAACGaA_RON7aDzZUH3eV0nQiSXQH9rwJ/s200/IMG_2222.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully the nice people at BF got me onto the 7:45am crossing to Cherbourg and said I could park up in the ferry port overnight, so I set off to Portsmouth as planned and bedded down for the night, ready to be first in line the next morning. All in all it worked out pretty well as I was refunded the cost of the cabin and had fish & chips for dinner at the seaside - glass half full is how I roll! :D</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under an hour's drive from port, it was 2pm and sunny as I rolled into Hébécrevon to the site of race cars being rolled around the little village and gazebos popping up on any free bit of tarmac. My friend Greg Guille from Guernsey was there </span></div>
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me </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">around and got me up to speed with how the meeting ran (big thank you!). I parked up on a quite cul de sac and unloaded, before following Greg for a tour of the village on my moblilette along with a few runs up the hill. I was very excited and struggling to remember the names of all the people I was meeting, some I'd spoken to already over email so it was nice to finally put faces to names.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was at this point that I met my second challenge of the weekend - missing parts from my suspension. I'd noticed some play in the front left the day I loaded the car, and while unable to pinpoint it I thought I'd just deal with it in France. Didier Potet who runs a Formula Renault and helps organise the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">event kindly offered to look at the problem, along with his son Julien who was driving their car the next day. To cut a long story short there was about 1inch of play between the hub and lower wishbone due to the non presence of a circlip that locates the bearing... </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd like to thank Didier and the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">mechanics from various teams who helped me as without them the car would have been a non runner. With all the excitement and ensuing panic I missed lunch and dinner (and scrutineering) but headed to the bar in search of any food that might be available. The local beer is quite strong (6.5%), and there wasn't any food, but I met some nice people and spoke some slightly confusing French before eating some cake I had in my van and turning in for the night. 'J'étais crevé' as they say!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I rose early the next morning for verification technical at 7:15am, in this instance it meant pushing the car to the centre of the village (thanks again Greg) which was a memorable experience as the only noise was the birds singing their morning chorus. Jacques Tanguy, (who kindly advised me on entry rules for FR's by email last year) passed the car without a hitch so we wheeled it back and I went for a shower. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I may be the first person to use a generator at a race meeting to run a hair drier, but life is too short for bad hair even if I did get a few bemused looks from passers by! After the lack of food and car pushing I was feeling light headed, so on my way to the boulangerie I was delighted to find a stand BBQing sausages in fresh baguettes. I sat down and ate one before continuing on my quest for croissants and cakes, now feeling ready for practice. Just as it started to rain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lower section of Hébécrevon is a very narrow tunnel, with some tight corners and a chicane fenced in either side by armco the whole way. I'd driven it around 8 times on the scooter and it felt pretty tight, the idea of a wet first run didn't really appeal much but thankfully I had a chance to fit the wets before I was up. Lined up at two abreast for pre grille on the main road that runs through the heart of the village, you wait for some time as the cars are formed up before being sent down the hill in reverse order to the start line. With crowds gathered either side of you most of the way and children waving as you drive by, it's very different to the hillclimbing I'm used to back home. The first run flew by, my enthusiasm tempered by the slippy conditions, I concentrated on being smooth and taking it all in rather than trying to do anything silly - start slow/finish faster is how I always approach racing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At 2km it was an ideal hill to start on, the second section is quite steep - flat out on the approach as you climb through series of wide and fast left right, left right, corners. As it started to dry out I found a good rhythm, but the biggest issue and one that will take some learning is that fact that I'm used to turning in a lot earlier than I now need to. The FR corners and turns in like it's on rails, and the instinct to get the car tucked into the apex early is a difficult one to counter, time after time I found myself committing too soon (the last corner on my penultimate run saw me run right out of tarmac while flat in 4th, I only just held it) so I'll have to work on this over the coming weeks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As Saturday drew to a close I'd posted some encouraging times, at one point splitting the class so things were looking good as we received the news that there would be an untimed practice session on Sunday morning. Julien Potet was the man to beat, currently lying 6 seconds ahead and running on his home hill I wondered if I could close what seemed to be a big gap. We were all looking at a hot & sunny day for competition, time to make the most of the morning and get the Avons working!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl15lopLj2jxsWiHRHIL_Cz2HA9grf_Bj-HWpeErZgeF7sm4Aleoy7wo95XBnGQwRFKiyj6i4j6vY20x7jVhNrTEodkzNZjVZRNw6C3sAYk2uHlSgaR6ZbIDx3LHlkiKzYwDczq5Tpoka4/s1600/IMG_2271.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl15lopLj2jxsWiHRHIL_Cz2HA9grf_Bj-HWpeErZgeF7sm4Aleoy7wo95XBnGQwRFKiyj6i4j6vY20x7jVhNrTEodkzNZjVZRNw6C3sAYk2uHlSgaR6ZbIDx3LHlkiKzYwDczq5Tpoka4/s320/IMG_2271.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started the day with a quick scooter ride to the bakery once more to get food (and more patisseries!) for the day, before fixing coffee on the hob in the back of the van. It's really fun zipping around the paddock like this on little errands and it all adds to the atmosphere and feeling of being somewhere completely new and different. I did some checks on the car and had by now worked out exactly how much fuel I was using per run (1.5ltr), sadly the camera battery was playing up so there is very little footage to show but it will certainly be working for next time. Free practice went well, I pushed the car much harder this time and it just soaked it up, the back sliding out gently on a few of the faster corners but all feeling nice and neutral. I just took one run as I didn't want to risk anything without posting a time, and so we stopped for a few hours over lunch and had some time to mingle and chat with other drivers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Première montée went well with 4 secs between the three of us and me right in the middle, I desperately missed having the camera footage to take a closer look at my lines as I really relied on this at St-Gouéno last year to see where I could improve after each run. The second run came and I really went for it, taking 1.5 secs off and nearly losing it altogether at the final corner! The speed you can carry is unreal, not that I could sense the downforce but it starts to feel instinctive as you're just aware off the car finding grip like you've never known. With less than a second to first place and one final run I really felt like I might have a chance, sadly Julien had to withdraw with a mechanical failure so I knew <a href="http://www.ffsa.org/res_rallye.php?if=ES_4&if1=ES_4&if2=CUMUL_4&idEpr=4&id=2937&catCourse=Mont&typeCr=2%E8me+Mont%E9e+de+Course&typf=oth&typeCoupe=&typRes=tem&catCourse=Mont&liste=1" target="_blank">what time I had to beat</a> - Could I do it?!! Estelle Bouche was very close in third so I knew that one slip could mean losing a position - surely if I just pushed that bit harder... And then disaster, I stalled at the start! All I can say in defence is that the bite point on the FR is quite tricky to master, but I don't think I've ever felt so frustrated. I carried on and cruised up at 9/10's, close but no cigar. <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2q3glk_charlie-martin-hebecrevon-2015_auto" target="_blank">Click here</a> to see the video!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nonetheless to have such a great start I was on a massive high - the car had felt solid, predictable and really confidence inspiring. As I pulled up to parc fermé outside the main stage I was told that as I the fastest lady I would get a prize and sure enough I got called up shortly afterwards. You get given a manufacturer's cap corresponding to either Michelin or Avon to wear and I was very nervous standing in front of a large crowd. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Martine Hubert gifted me with a glass trophy that came in it's own presentation box, along with a bouquet of flowers and box of snails that are customary for Hébécrevon. When the time came to speak I kicked myself for not thanking Didier and the guys who got me running on Friday, but I managed to answer in French while doing my best impression of a rabbit in the headlights and evaded most of the champagne that got sprayed shortly afterwards!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I raced back to Cherbourg for the overnight ferry it all seemed slightly surreal, the sun setting over the harbour just another picture perfect memory to complete what has been an unforgettable weekend. I had to chuckle when I was stopped at customs before boarding and asked what was in my van. "Une voiture de course" I said casually, as the douanier raised an eyebrow - I showed him my trophy and flowers. "Ah oui, Hébécrevon!" he said with a big grin, and waved me through. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arriving back in Portsmouth for 6:50am I drove straight to work before coming home as normal and unloading. There are jobs to do to the car & van, no.1 being to take some negative camber off as the FR is running far too much at present and not getting anywhere near the edge of the front tyres. It feels quite frenetic as I'll be packing up at the weekend again, ready for a trip to combine La Pommeraye & St. Gouëno where I'll meet up with team Redline Performance for the first time. Fingers crossed there are no more strikes or bomb alerts!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-114509115396143662015-04-21T15:09:00.002-07:002015-04-22T08:14:07.335-07:00Cooking on gas & ready to roll!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>ith just 4 weeks to go now until my first full event in the CFM <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgVRV78zJvU" target="_blank">(Hebécrevon 9/10 May)</a> I'm as busy as ever, but a lot of the pressure I've been under the last few months has thankfully subsided as I tick more and more jobs off the list. One that loomed heavily in my diary and has been booked since October last year was commissioning all the electrics & gas in the motorhome, or Herve as he's now known :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A friend recommended a chap called Dave Butlin Caravan Services, and I originally went to see him last autumn to chat through my plans for the motorhome which, at that point in time, was nothing more than a bare shell full of giant spiders. I'm glad I didn't leave it any later as the next two free days he had were April 18 & 19th!! I immediately booked them on the spot, and have been working furiously ever since as there's nothing like a deadline to focus your mind. He stocks every kind of fitting and fixture you can imagine so I could relax knowing it could all be completed over the two full days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started with a wish list that included solar panels and a few other bits, but in the end I had to stick to the must have items - mains electric hookup, interior LED lights, sockets, boiler & pump, and all the bits that link it together. I bought a gas hob with grill off eBay for £20 that I can cook with out of the back of the van, copy of a Honda suitcase generator that I have fairly low expectations from but at £140 it should get me through this year (and run my hair drier!), plus a fridge that plugs into the cigarette lighter. I have a minimum 2 hour drive to most of the hill climbs so I can chill it en route and top it up over the weekend. I'm trying to keep it all as light as possible so it's bare essentials.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having said that by the time it was finished on Sunday afternoon it looked anything but bare. Dave's done a really tidy job and it's all a doddle to work, the boiler just fires up on gas (or electrics if you have mains) at the touch of a button and takes about 25 mins to heat the 9 ltr of water it holds. I have to say I'm ecstatic at the prospect of touring France in Herve, I had a hazy vision when I started of how I pictured it all coming together and the end result is every bit as good if not better! For one smallish person its perfect (ok I'm yet to try the shower but I'm quite flexible...), the colour scheme looks really cool and I think must have been inspired by the colours on my blog and the fact that it's currently Spring so there is bright green everywhere you look - it satisfies my inner earth child :D To have built 90% of it without any help feels like a big achievement, and for fear of sounding a bit sad I feel really attached to it, goodness knows how many cuts, bruises & broken finger nails I've had in the process but it's all plain sailing from here on - bon voyage!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right now there's not much left to do, I need to see the fabricator once more on Saturday to do a small bit of strengthening on the ramp extensions, finish painting the outside (with a roller - looks great from a distance), and just secure the last few things inside. I recently bought a few spare nose cones which need painting as am trying to put a whole front end together just in case, hopefully I won't need them but it's best to be prepared. The new fuel tank is and I have a few little jobs to do still to prep the car for it's first competitive outing - I was thinking how much I miss not having a rev counter as you're never looking at the numerical display and the engine note inside the car doesn't vary much in pitch. It may sound strange but during the test I found it hard to really distinguish between say 3000 rpm and 6000 rpm as the engine and vibration just produces this quite industrial sounding noise so I need to play around with the shift lights so I don't end up short shifting unintentionally.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipUsv4iQ5ZfcYD-HJl9MyvRfo-T5SJJPRwNuuPN13aA5NgxS2OsK1TXOdwAeU64LdMuOBO6af6mBYFAWWp01JSndShQ6TmfZsydxRSXj4Rt_uOfEPREeLZ6D92xIchpb2pTQK0MOtAcGcn/s1600/FullSizeRender-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipUsv4iQ5ZfcYD-HJl9MyvRfo-T5SJJPRwNuuPN13aA5NgxS2OsK1TXOdwAeU64LdMuOBO6af6mBYFAWWp01JSndShQ6TmfZsydxRSXj4Rt_uOfEPREeLZ6D92xIchpb2pTQK0MOtAcGcn/s1600/FullSizeRender-6.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm working on a using rally style pace notes to learn the sequence of corners for each course. By combining this with YouTube and the plan of each hill that I've drawn out in Photoshop from images off the net, I'm aiming to be able to close my eyes and visualise each hill in head. This is what I've always done before each run in the past and it definitely works well for me. I can then get more of a detailed idea once I get there and start adding in info like gears, etc. It feels a little like homework and is a bit geeky but I'm hoping it could not only reduce my chances of crashing but hopefully help me going quicker from the start - it worked last year at St-Gouëno.</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7YzvQFnMRfZbVNM4Prvdw5AifZyhfad5xczAnS0Azh0wOJpDR0Q3sqSJT9s4zrjMYGoCgT8aovaq-p75X2_Wg_DQjfm7DJpWcMsou36-b1tFTb0o7jVTI7yRmyX92m5IgxUuSd2cDXQ5/s1600/email.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7YzvQFnMRfZbVNM4Prvdw5AifZyhfad5xczAnS0Azh0wOJpDR0Q3sqSJT9s4zrjMYGoCgT8aovaq-p75X2_Wg_DQjfm7DJpWcMsou36-b1tFTb0o7jVTI7yRmyX92m5IgxUuSd2cDXQ5/s1600/email.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One idea I'm toying with is a vlog throughout the season as I'd love to bring the whole story to life with as much video as possible. It would be great to hear any of your ideas & feedback so please feel free to leave any comments below or on my FB page!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-65249626866518180932015-03-28T15:56:00.002-07:002015-03-28T15:57:17.312-07:00First drive at Blyton Park<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">6 </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">months, that's a long time to have to wait when you've bought a car you always dreamt of driving. There were fleeting opportunities to go testing with MGR in Spain, but timing and circumstances meant that this never quite came together, not for lack of trying. But that waiting is finally over (hooray!) and on Thursday 26th March I was as ready as I've ever been to set sail for Blyton Park - the van was loaded up at the weekend and nothing short of nuclear armagedon was going to get in my way!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd been checking the forecast all week, and sure enough I was looking at a wet start to the day. Initially I was a little frustrated as I had really hoped for a dry track, but after some pragmatic reasoning I thought it would be good to try the car in both wet & dry conditions and as it happened it actually worked in my favour - I'll explain in a minute. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Around 2 hours drive from Leicestershire, Blyton Park is an ideal place for testing - lots of runoff, they're very friendly there and have a relaxed approach plus there were only five of </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1UfXZ3tEugrsJk8fiTHXtMN2nCcbcnXXXs0ZTRto-2_XBWKXEAiaJAwMqx0CximZmJJ-qAqbHkZAfU4yL-Kfk-O1HvWBoyeqgkbHFtSWKxO9uWrdUqa_znnRJxhLDGogQu2kUHhiPIaa/s1600/IMG_1895_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1UfXZ3tEugrsJk8fiTHXtMN2nCcbcnXXXs0ZTRto-2_XBWKXEAiaJAwMqx0CximZmJJ-qAqbHkZAfU4yL-Kfk-O1HvWBoyeqgkbHFtSWKxO9uWrdUqa_znnRJxhLDGogQu2kUHhiPIaa/s1600/IMG_1895_2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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us sharing the track for the day so it was like having a circuit all to yourself. It rained pretty much all the way up but I'm quite happy driving the van (or Herve as I've named him), it's very comfy and easy to get around in and I've just bought a Garmin for France which meant I could daydream a little en route. I was travelling alone as sadly timing meant that I was without a mechanic, but as it happened SWB Motorsport were there for the day running a Formula Renault for Richard who owns and runs the venue - Nick and Mick (from Ginetta) really helped me find my feet so I owe them a both a big thank you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I went out I had the benefit of a few sighting laps and some fantastic advice from a chap called Eugene who was working with Richard on driver coaching. An ex racing driver who now focusses on instructing, he'd raced at Le Mans and come 3rd in class driving a Corvette in 1995 so I really listened to every bit of instruction & encouragement he gave me throughout the day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Starting off on the wets on a wet but drying track (it was very windy) the car immediately felt very communicative and friendly to drive - any oversteer was easy to catch, it felt very well balanced and not at all intimidating. Wow. The gearbox felt very intuitive with no need to clutch up or down and although it was tricky to get the car rolling from a standstill it all seemed to click quite quickly. After about 8 or 9 laps I decided to come in as it was drying out and I was mindful of cooking the wets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back out on slicks I immediately thought I'd not tightened one of the rear wheels up - was I imagining it? No the car was weaving in a straight line, ok straight back into the pits. I got out and started checking the wheels as a few people came over and explained. 'Oh yes cold slicks always feel like that, don't worry you just need some heat in them' I was told. Ok... So back out I went, and after a 3 or 4 laps I was getting into a good rhythm and suddenly a spin, out of nowhere. I set off and sure enough it happened again, unlike the session on the wets there was no warning and by the time it happens (there is virtually no steering lock) it's too late to catch. After about the third time I came in and had a think. It was cold and I don't think I was getting any heat into the tyres, so on the third stint I tried to build heat into them, but had a really scary moment going through the fastest part of the track - a fast 5th gear chicane when the car just let go. I was convinced I was going to hit something and wreck the car but I came to a stop on the runoff, thanked my lucky stars and made my way back once more. My confidence had gone straight up in the wet, only to come crashing back down - 'how on earth am I going to drive this up a bloody French B road?' is all could think.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was 1pm and I decided it was perhaps best to go and eat the jacket potato I'd ordered for lunch some time ago, so I headed indoors and tried to focus on what to do next. It seemed simply that I wasn't heating the tyres enough, so I made a concerted effort to work them harder initially whilst not pushing the car too fast, building my speed incrementally each lap and this really worked well. By lap 7 or 8 I was really flying and after two clear sessions like this I was back in my comfort zone. I carried on like this for a few more sessions and suddenly the car was my friend again, and although the slicks were no way near as progressive as the wets, once warmed up you could sense a slide and be on top of it (most of the time!) before it bit you.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOW_2YJB_Lysk3oqJIXDTJWRjN-bOndLBPC0xrW-5x7Glv3dZU1lzOUH8CG9vBreAw0ArZrvPus48N5ClXgVSO8grT9K0C-GwR448q0kslDsdz1uvOhOLrpe_o9Oq7fFA6Czr866Nk7mkG/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-28+at+22.28.35.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOW_2YJB_Lysk3oqJIXDTJWRjN-bOndLBPC0xrW-5x7Glv3dZU1lzOUH8CG9vBreAw0ArZrvPus48N5ClXgVSO8grT9K0C-GwR448q0kslDsdz1uvOhOLrpe_o9Oq7fFA6Czr866Nk7mkG/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-28+at+22.28.35.png" height="188" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't get over how incredible the gearbox is, it's so quick and easy to use - ok you have to keep a mental note of what gear you're in unlike an H pattern as you instinctively remember where you last left the stick but even so it lets you concentrate so much more on your line and braking. The brakes are phenomenal too, I don't think I locked up all day, they just felt very strong with great feel - after the first wet session I left foot braked all day and it felt natural (I've been doing since January in my road car so the practice has paid off!). Corning speeds through fast parts had my neck muscles straining, and the next day I really felt it (plus the bruises on my knees - padding required) and it really opens your eyes to what it's like driving with downforce, over the course of a day ultimately quite physically tiring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a great first test, although my confidence took a dip midway through the day this was perhaps a good thing - it's taught me to respect the car and my own ability. Aside from having enjoyed it immensely I think I've learnt a lot about the car's characteristics and it's given me a good starting point to build on. I'd thoroughly recommend Blyton to anyone looking for a test day, especially if it's your first time in a car like this and you don't want the risk of tyre walls and gravel traps.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBiP-Z2u03F9TXmNagcXdwSt3J5g2ZhMYhTQbvLanY8tsgICxFy3wutMDPc7aK5rLjUcwUp6dIQNXOJf6gCfVAxHxQYLYDJ6pmG0S15_zGHR5bX7SVUcIkGe_-b8Yk-EX7VwW8sNYqPndX/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-28+at+22.27.51.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBiP-Z2u03F9TXmNagcXdwSt3J5g2ZhMYhTQbvLanY8tsgICxFy3wutMDPc7aK5rLjUcwUp6dIQNXOJf6gCfVAxHxQYLYDJ6pmG0S15_zGHR5bX7SVUcIkGe_-b8Yk-EX7VwW8sNYqPndX/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-28+at+22.27.51.png" height="348" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I picked up a huge amount of practical advice from all the other teams while I was there and have quite a few jobs to check (including the toe as we found the right front was toeing in more than the left). I'm off to Loton Park this Easter for another test, this time on the Avons, after which it's only 5 weeks until Hebecrevon... time to finish the van!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-11480449790800294492015-03-23T03:43:00.000-07:002015-03-23T08:10:39.123-07:00All bases covered with Jelf Motorsport<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">D</span>espite the fact that everything is going to plan and I should be ready in plenty of time, there is one thing that has been nagging at the back of my mind and keeping me awake at nights - an issue that I've been meaning to get sorted for some time now: Insurance. I've put every penny I have into setting up the van (plus all the extra kit) and buying the car, so while I'm sure it will be fine in between meetings I needed to know that should the worst happen it's all covered.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnMeOumRfuW7VLQOhvnLsBqn0J0Nn_xaJyVXlyF0SRW-Q4ymLY3fNro4zkiGGg-VQgkSE9vCmICbY3c03DHfDhejtADk94Ei-Ht69AXVqjAIizCo8nDTSJu1NQ6IYUVidUE0xYqWcI94N/s1600/IMG_1890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnMeOumRfuW7VLQOhvnLsBqn0J0Nn_xaJyVXlyF0SRW-Q4ymLY3fNro4zkiGGg-VQgkSE9vCmICbY3c03DHfDhejtADk94Ei-Ht69AXVqjAIizCo8nDTSJu1NQ6IYUVidUE0xYqWcI94N/s1600/IMG_1890.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also need to make sure that I'm protected personally for medical cover - I guess we all have travel insurance for when we go away but sadly this doesn't cover you for competing in international motorsport (I did ask...). I've been putting it off for some time now, but as the season draws ever closer the time had come to start getting some prices together. I'd imagined that this would be yet another crippling blow to my dwindling budget, but after speaking to Jaz Bareham at <a href="http://www.insurance-partnership.com/schemes/services/motorsport" target="_blank">Jelf Motorsport Insurance</a> I was relieved to find that it's actually very affordable :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Because Jelf understand the nature of competing, travel and the storage that goes on between motorsport events, they can tailor the quote very specifically to your needs which ultimately means a better price for you or me. The Green Card policy I chose for transit & storage just bolts on top of my existing motor policy on the van, and covers the vehicle and all its contents (for everything from the car to my tools & HANS device) and covers it against theft the whole time it's in France. You can pay monthly by direct debit, or up front in one go - once you've got the policy in place all you have to do is let them know when you're going and you're fully covered, easy!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CXWlihJQFj0SseDAI73LfxCw52lh61gAPw6xtDVmUmFd2pK-njaAKDQERrOgoz9Zm-D0dEatw-IJWp4zlY4Mznpw0HDfqo30csI_44k4vlyrac_8NPNQFJqJE0gWvArNwhdeMPCLo7TY/s1600/trailers_for_sale_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1CXWlihJQFj0SseDAI73LfxCw52lh61gAPw6xtDVmUmFd2pK-njaAKDQERrOgoz9Zm-D0dEatw-IJWp4zlY4Mznpw0HDfqo30csI_44k4vlyrac_8NPNQFJqJE0gWvArNwhdeMPCLo7TY/s1600/trailers_for_sale_2.jpg" height="202" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">The medical cover I've taken works in the same way as would any normal travel insurance policy, you can also add on things like winter sports or World wide cover if you're planning on travelling further afield. On top of this you simply inform Jelf of how many events you're doing & where, the type of motorsport, whether you're pro or amateur and what you're driving. It's a really thorough scheme (I now have £5m of protection for medical costs & repatriation) and Jaz who arranged both policies was super helpful and made everything very easy for me. They cover all kinds of motorsport and have policies for pretty much anything you can think of, give </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">them a try on 01482 388 513</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So I'm happy to say that I can now relax in between meetings, and focus on enjoying the season ahead!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-75236978748483883112015-02-23T12:42:00.002-08:002015-02-23T12:43:37.218-08:00Touchdown!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>'ve been waiting for this day for a looooooong time. In some ways it's been quite strange having bought the car I've dreamt of owning all these years, to then not actually have it sat in my garage all this time. But then MGR weren't in a desperate need of the space and I was (my garage has been like a builder's merchants the last few months!) so it's worked out well. But today the day came to collect it, and I was very excited!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxEbhyphenhyphenR07GrDWjKCWDIU5fa2Ek4gNXwRDalLh-ENv6X66BKixgi1kCGlbV31ltpVdkAFu6PJA1t9FfCuu_65JJhgHe7dJa-VZeu4jr4355bO-sQxT6jLpsNiWMfEX85YwSEl31_bguT0t/s1600/IMG_1727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxEbhyphenhyphenR07GrDWjKCWDIU5fa2Ek4gNXwRDalLh-ENv6X66BKixgi1kCGlbV31ltpVdkAFu6PJA1t9FfCuu_65JJhgHe7dJa-VZeu4jr4355bO-sQxT6jLpsNiWMfEX85YwSEl31_bguT0t/s1600/IMG_1727.jpg" height="556" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicaxTmqSvHcDZa5qiW_LyJLqsHSrCD-Qgk9l8jHP5PsWPX-hhnWZZC2nyIKvu0cdIIy5U9mTe3FZOcxhSpLJuGqCpCLjKU-ulfeno8hmd1_6HKPwjT9oMV1HMV04c4GKI1igEFGcvZkMk7/s1600/IMG_1722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicaxTmqSvHcDZa5qiW_LyJLqsHSrCD-Qgk9l8jHP5PsWPX-hhnWZZC2nyIKvu0cdIIy5U9mTe3FZOcxhSpLJuGqCpCLjKU-ulfeno8hmd1_6HKPwjT9oMV1HMV04c4GKI1igEFGcvZkMk7/s1600/IMG_1722.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a bitterly cold day today, sunny & dry but freezing and the wind cut right through me as I pulled the van up at MGR. I'd spent the weekend working on it and emptied the garage as well as making some chocs on elastic that I can pull out of position from inside the van and securing the ramps. It's really not far off now and should be finished in good time - my knees are demanding a holiday and I've given up painting my nails until it's all done! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again I was nervous as we wheeled it onto the ramps, my fingers already numb from handling the extensions that were reluctant to go in the slots. I know it lifts the car but it's still slightly alarming to watch, albeit this time I was inside the van and made sure nobody was stood on board before pressing the magic button... </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I needed to know I could unload it solo once I got home, and after a little bit of manoeuvring it slotted perfectly into position. I could perhaps of fitted the floor slightly lower, but to be honest everything finished up exactly where I'd marked it without any near misses so I was really pleased and very relieved - rebuilding the floor at this stage was not an option! Like I really don't know what I'd have done, apart from go slightly crazy and have a huge meltdown.</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae_FJpq1xawLOuCeays1MrDJGAXOlhms-UtOh637B3yq3ttV7f-rQ8oE1V9yEN2cWRAi3bjqtlAD7OtU0GwbptXYdNN_fgpUjBEKw90qm_Bqeogs6tRSSdWAOvTnRo2PeRCQtoCRCilj4/s1600/IMG_1725.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae_FJpq1xawLOuCeays1MrDJGAXOlhms-UtOh637B3yq3ttV7f-rQ8oE1V9yEN2cWRAi3bjqtlAD7OtU0GwbptXYdNN_fgpUjBEKw90qm_Bqeogs6tRSSdWAOvTnRo2PeRCQtoCRCilj4/s1600/IMG_1725.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some elements of the van have been planned to the n'th degree and some have just come about by chance (and luck). One that I'm really pleased with is the fact that you can access all the storage down the side through the door. This means that if you stop at a petrol station to fill your Jerry can or you want to strap down the rear wheel you don't have to open the back up and clamber around.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3rfwb7iiKVvtecFzDaJr5J0a5lWG1_liwJjUR42cjYD3zdGGXMoyMt1ahDlk4zDr62cmqXeljgG9pdFtX7k3Q8Zj2tD7OIVv9eUrgwnUmJl2wo6aup7SHO6RKPoPojw3_ejIeKxB1fub-/s1600/IMG_1728.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3rfwb7iiKVvtecFzDaJr5J0a5lWG1_liwJjUR42cjYD3zdGGXMoyMt1ahDlk4zDr62cmqXeljgG9pdFtX7k3Q8Zj2tD7OIVv9eUrgwnUmJl2wo6aup7SHO6RKPoPojw3_ejIeKxB1fub-/s1600/IMG_1728.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unloading back at home it all went pretty smoothly. I don't know why - maybe because there has been so much building up to this point and as the first CFM round draws ever closer the pressure is starting to mount, but I just expected something to go wrong at some stage. I've never put so much work & effort into preparing for a race season, just getting to the first round will amount to over 6 months hard graft - every weekend, all the time spent planning & researching... I know it will all be worth it and I never stop thinking about the end goal, but sometimes it is a lot to put yourself through when you're doing it on your own and there is work, keeping fit, eating properly (you can't live on croissants) & housework mounting up. My house is full of car parts at the mo so I've given up being fastidious until Spring!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But today was one of those perfect days when the stars and moon are in the right position in the sky and everything just goes like clockwork (I even sold a machine at work between collecting from MGR & leaving early) sometimes you just need a little luck :D</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I even scored a home run when I drove by a weigh bridge on the way home, and held my breath as I waited for the figure... 3,120kg!! Fab news, it means that after the moped I still have 300kg to play with which should be ample. This is all the result of careful guess work, and some more luck.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seeing the car stood so low and and wide in the garage made it all feel so worth it, I know I can move it around on my own now and feel a bit more confident at the prospect of touring France this Summer. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ6pF_fOcK50aqir2bhYN6fz5NJKRuTr83aXp95I1O5JuHUQk3OAJ_wJ1wuWbYN_HRVC693U-zo_IFv_Nbv9KIMi8JjUIkUAqcgJtOPcR4pLBMBIPKKQwCDMDul2E9y1R2Gri3n4UlaFTz/s1600/IMG_1731+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ6pF_fOcK50aqir2bhYN6fz5NJKRuTr83aXp95I1O5JuHUQk3OAJ_wJ1wuWbYN_HRVC693U-zo_IFv_Nbv9KIMi8JjUIkUAqcgJtOPcR4pLBMBIPKKQwCDMDul2E9y1R2Gri3n4UlaFTz/s1600/IMG_1731+2.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I can start getting used to how it all works and fits together, familiarise myself with all the notes I made at MGR over Xmas and work out some kind of routine for spanner checking. I knew my old car like the back of my hand and working on it was so easy most of the time - you knew what to check and how to get to things. I'm sure the FR will be the same, but I'd like to have made a good head start before Hebécrevon...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0MGU2rfhxiguI3nv_JkmPolPZNLov6Invs-6fyURImLiVnaxMjItalHsBjKmZF_0BlJPJ6aBmFQGWYlyvjVnQ21Usp6MWh7EBcfTYEsJoA5GtKfesyVrI8sU3dIlYTqcdchQy2xPI7EbX/s1600/IMG_1743.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0MGU2rfhxiguI3nv_JkmPolPZNLov6Invs-6fyURImLiVnaxMjItalHsBjKmZF_0BlJPJ6aBmFQGWYlyvjVnQ21Usp6MWh7EBcfTYEsJoA5GtKfesyVrI8sU3dIlYTqcdchQy2xPI7EbX/s1600/IMG_1743.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next stop - testing!!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-6429290276189619122015-02-07T13:30:00.001-08:002015-02-07T13:33:48.546-08:00Burning the candle at both ends<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span> feel like I've been neglecting my blog lately, but to be honest I've been working so hard on the van that I've barely had time to think about much else - I've worked on it solidly every weekend since Xmas. Thankfully the backbreaking work (my knees need a holiday and I've lifted my own bodyweight in plywood) is paying off and it should be finished in good time! Evenings in the week have been spent working on my logo and putting PR info together to email out - I basically have two jobs but it will all be worth it come the Spring :D</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJp3d28ZWBN8S4ODWCgk1L5S9PkbjoPbyjmUg1uJYxTNv-cyYq2PCxE2wKkxB85-xT6Xodq0OsdTHWtSY7yZNEuCRq6fH5fn6iVuQek0jzcpEct1iXjEYw00MyLGcjLx_PntLMfyISu9wm/s1600/IMG_1579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJp3d28ZWBN8S4ODWCgk1L5S9PkbjoPbyjmUg1uJYxTNv-cyYq2PCxE2wKkxB85-xT6Xodq0OsdTHWtSY7yZNEuCRq6fH5fn6iVuQek0jzcpEct1iXjEYw00MyLGcjLx_PntLMfyISu9wm/s1600/IMG_1579.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhduEtnRlew_RcPgYp2IdNiSNNA9NE21R8Kfg3e9VaioIPJsINR0UDCHL_jSVZwGa9i2aBinmBcWmIGWbhVxwAJqHwtI7tfwP7y0isTUq99fNLQ0GcVl5KuokY8Np7OKVPwIDoTUTkatPs3/s1600/IMG_1637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhduEtnRlew_RcPgYp2IdNiSNNA9NE21R8Kfg3e9VaioIPJsINR0UDCHL_jSVZwGa9i2aBinmBcWmIGWbhVxwAJqHwtI7tfwP7y0isTUq99fNLQ0GcVl5KuokY8Np7OKVPwIDoTUTkatPs3/s1600/IMG_1637.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If all goes to plan I should even have time to apply a colour scheme to it (bright green for walls, white ceiling & grey for the carpet) similar to the colours on my blog I guess but it's more of a coincidence than an attempt to make everything look the same. I really want it to look interesting inside and painting it all white is too boring, plus I will just mark all the walls. I have the end plate bonded & bolted on now so the shower tray and shelves are the next step - the shower is laughably lacking in head room (1.2m!) but at 800 x 630 its ok for me as I'm only 5'8 and the hot water system I just bought will heat 9ltr of water in about 20 mins so I'm really looking forward to using it. Despite the below zero temperatures in the UK it's really warm in there, in fact it has more insulation than my house! I made a tyre rack on Friday night (rock n' roll), the aim being to get all the bits needed to secure the car and other bits completed ASAP so I can collect it early March.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cn_XNFRGoePLK7betdoinT1pkPxHqnTTUjkSU9OOwa-MLungXrk3sphyXJDV92cZkZ2i6n6JgMKkqjKNpLbZd0wyYImo44er_FqJqRCGDFHovVUQJnuAya2qASJnGFxfBTLWagUPnhMp/s1600/IMG_1628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cn_XNFRGoePLK7betdoinT1pkPxHqnTTUjkSU9OOwa-MLungXrk3sphyXJDV92cZkZ2i6n6JgMKkqjKNpLbZd0wyYImo44er_FqJqRCGDFHovVUQJnuAya2qASJnGFxfBTLWagUPnhMp/s1600/IMG_1628.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've invented a new game called 'how many times can you bang your head on the tyre rail in 5 minutes' too... To be fair though I'm really pleased with the way it's all coming together, I think I've managed to build it all relatively lightweight and the floor is really rigid now it's all bonded and riveted together inside. I'm getting fed up with the roller shutter door though as it's really hard to get it to close so I think I'll ask Josh at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jaf.fabrication" target="_blank">JAF Fabrications</a> to make me one out off ally and fit some gas struts - it will save more weight and act as canopy when it's open. Then it's just getting all the last bits together and figuring out where to stow it all before I get all the electrics and gas for the boiler hooked up mid April.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've entered the CFM now (class Open FR), so it suddenly seems very real and I'm more aware than ever of the need to get in the car and spend some time behind the wheel. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've decided where to go testing which is exciting, it's funny but I've just had to focus so much energy on the big Renault that the small one has taken a bit of a backseat. So with Spring round the corner I will be heading to <a href="http://www.blytonpark.co.uk/blyton-park/the-circuit-map/" target="_blank">Blyton Park</a> in late March for a full day where I can really get to grips with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW0aIp2YYIk" target="_blank">driving the car</a>. This will be followed by a practice day in early April at Loton park, and finally a half day at Curborough with a small group of friends later that month, which should put me on a good footing for the first even (Hebécrevon) in early May. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrONBMuq_Ky5k0Cd6884xeXlu59YEYZiJ6ShyDRXmP1Rm4gG6HVfUJsGaqiQq3dyggJm-clExRQabh7vue3znFmEslatppqtgwFghDsVqnmUK866dx_QGI1v7jJDkuKwu_t4m94G6lERzI/s1600/IMG_1039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrONBMuq_Ky5k0Cd6884xeXlu59YEYZiJ6ShyDRXmP1Rm4gG6HVfUJsGaqiQq3dyggJm-clExRQabh7vue3znFmEslatppqtgwFghDsVqnmUK866dx_QGI1v7jJDkuKwu_t4m94G6lERzI/s1600/IMG_1039.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've decided to run on Avons, after deliberating on the Michelins for some time - they are a quick tyre and last year's FR class winner Antoine Betzel ran on them. However they don't last as long as the Avons from what I understand, and as this first year is not going to be cheap one I can't afford to be buying more than one set of slicks & wets this year. The plan is to get them fitted for Loton Park as I will run circuit tyres at Blyton, that way I should have a good feel for them once I get to France - 3 months to go and time to start memorising the hills on YouTube!</span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-80230471536898199032015-01-03T09:17:00.002-08:002015-01-03T16:09:15.368-08:00In the hot seat!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">H</span>appy New Year everybody! After a Xmas spent crawling around the underbelly of the van (and some great parties too - I do have social life) January is here and things are moving forwards. I just got in from my training day at MGR where I've been busily making notes and sitting in a warm bath-like tub as the hot foam sets round me, really toasty in there and didn't want to get out :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The pedals felt pretty perfect so we left those where they were, and although initially I felt like I was sitting too low in the car with my head low enough for regulation clearance below the roll hoop, once the foam started to set and I felt supported it all began to feel good (and very cosy, it does get really hot as the chemical goes off). Talking through the car with Jason who has ran this car for the last few seasons, it felt reassuring to have the benefit of someone who literally knows every nut & bolt in the car and a huge amount of experience with Formula Renaults.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing that came up while we were discussing the pedals, sequential box and heel & toeing is the fact that while you don't need the clutch at all once you're moving, on the way down the box you have to blip. Nothing too perplexing as I'm used to heel & toeing in the Westfield, which was hard work going from 3rd to 2nd unless you matched the revs perfectly. Jason explained that the drivers just use their left for all braking, which when I think about it makes sense as other wise it's sat redundant, but left foot braking is something I've never got round to learning so it's a little unnerving in a car that will already seem like sensory overload. Having said that it always feels normal in a go kart, and I'd rather drive the car properly so I think I'll try this from the off when I go testing. How hard can it be...?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must have made around 4 pages of notes, things to check and how often, do's & don'ts, all really interesting and relatively straightforward things. In essence the FR's are pretty simple cars to run, reliable and don't require an army of mechanics for the type of racing I'll be doing (as I thought). We ran through the spares package too and tools I'm likely to need, I have what I'd call an adequate tool kit I've been building over time but there are a few extra things I need - I have a largish torque wrench for wheels but need a smaller one now too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I'm brutally honest, I'm slightly nervous about how I'm going to compress everything into an afternoon and morning assuming I arrive at a race on a Friday afternoon as there were a good few hours worth of jobs which along with arriving and finding where you're meant to be, driving the course on a 50cc moped (i.e. not very quickly...), scrutineering, finding dinner, talking to people... hmm I'm sure it will be ok. It's currently a jumble of notes in my mind, but once I've turned it into a proper set of crib sheets and actually spent some time working n the car itself it will all become second nature. Thankfully I arrive mid Friday morning at my first event, so this should give me a fighting chance of getting up and running without too much panicking! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I zip tied the 4Kam HD unit to the roll hoop and set it up, other than a bit of tape once the seat is back in it's ready to go - I can't wait to see footage from when we go testing. Which should be very soon, I gather MGR are heading to somewhere warm at the end of January so fingers crossed I can come.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKMl-1u-YgYDt1n2pCuLVFv0-TRVRSjJad-mws57NjaQJPYq4NKcZDchhOeJdf8gjcxE2tPTXl4JxfJurfV5H-oeCcZAAGfWzilEZLhHi7Wck8M5z5YFU9bkHUBjDVld7PENL81q5rIQdB/s1600/IMG_1412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKMl-1u-YgYDt1n2pCuLVFv0-TRVRSjJad-mws57NjaQJPYq4NKcZDchhOeJdf8gjcxE2tPTXl4JxfJurfV5H-oeCcZAAGfWzilEZLhHi7Wck8M5z5YFU9bkHUBjDVld7PENL81q5rIQdB/s1600/IMG_1412.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The van is slowly taking shape too, I fitted all the tie down points and chocs so the car can actually be collected and transported once the testing is finished. I also fitted one of the skylights which gives a lovely view of the sky from the ample bed, I can't wait to gaze up at the French night stars next summer. The floor supports should be done this week so I'll have the the floor in and fitted over the next fortnight, I think everything should start to take shape quite quickly once that's in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm off to Autosport at the NEC on Thursday, sadly I need a new HANS as the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">old one was only 20 degree and way to upright, but it's always a good day out with friends and a chance to look at all the single seaters and dream... hold on that was last year ;D</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-32848720300918618632014-12-21T09:52:00.002-08:002015-03-20T06:41:26.550-07:00Fingers crossed this works...<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">L</span>ast week I reached a huge milestone, and I'm pleased (and very relieved!) to say it all happened right on time, like clockwork. Well almost like clockwork as there was a hiccup, but now I can relax a little and enjoy Xmas!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The brackets that attach the cables to the far end of the ramp needed to be re-made in steel and bolted on, meaning that by the time I got back over to MGR it was getting on for 5pm and I was more than a little nervous... I'd seen the tail lift pick up 750kg without compliant when it was fitted, and knew that it should be fine, but when you see the car on the ramps and look how far out the front is from the back of the van it's a loooong way out! But then there really isn't very much weight at this point (the front axle line) - I watched one of the guys pretty much pick the car up and move it sideways a good 6 inches without too much effort. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGywCuB-FGN7rceGzzINqxx7qAK_OlCabhXKoU8gurk6d-WZTSrhiVrlJzYo_pHAtBV8DcBMUMgR6XiCRFzmNjavpUkAHc7KIDIPsGX0oQnMUWLsrsM5TjKk7jzQ56R8FpUXlRPes6O657/s1600/IMG_1306+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGywCuB-FGN7rceGzzINqxx7qAK_OlCabhXKoU8gurk6d-WZTSrhiVrlJzYo_pHAtBV8DcBMUMgR6XiCRFzmNjavpUkAHc7KIDIPsGX0oQnMUWLsrsM5TjKk7jzQ56R8FpUXlRPes6O657/s1600/IMG_1306+copy.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I stood back, held my breath and made a video on my phone... and up it went. I only realised afterwards that it also lifted 70ish kg of mechanic so I think we did a fairly good test going <a href="https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=868756743145269&l=4640710690255973165" target="_blank">up and down a few times</a>. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to be able to do this on my own and although there were three of us it shouldn't be too tricky once I've figured out the best place to stand (inside I think). There is just about space for everything inside the van with the car in position down one side, albeit the moped sadly won't fit next to it. There is about 700mm at the end so it will have to go across and have some bars to hold it steady, this will be one of the last jobs on the list though.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDXM1IQ-gt1H1SYUtc9TlbXeCBSqztECCLZztuFPhEz0KWibmUGmzyUS2iOp4sHyzgVdaxoFF7VF7DwIEAb_xQho156SGNiyz1FqzYc8uMWDe8YopUWF-ABZgYVJqehHUSiPbCEBLBHhUL/s1600/10603043_10204020847057778_1167773479_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDXM1IQ-gt1H1SYUtc9TlbXeCBSqztECCLZztuFPhEz0KWibmUGmzyUS2iOp4sHyzgVdaxoFF7VF7DwIEAb_xQho156SGNiyz1FqzYc8uMWDe8YopUWF-ABZgYVJqehHUSiPbCEBLBHhUL/s1600/10603043_10204020847057778_1167773479_n.jpg" height="240" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I measured up for the ally supports too that will hold the false floor up, these will have 'v' in them to accommodate the roll hoop as the car rolls back onto the chocs with the aerofoil unbolted (see the pic of a friend's install). Its a tricky one as I want to mount them low down to leave as much head height in the living area as possible, but I don't want to risk them touching the car incase they ever start to bend over time... I should have about 1.5m inside, which will be kind of funny (initially...) but I'm only 1.75m tall and not planning to spend any time in there apart from sleeping, showering, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just need a few more materials like the ply for the floor (6mm or 12mm..?) then I can spend a few uninterrupted days over the next two weeks off making a real impact. I've also pencilled in a day with MGR to do my training, seat & pedal fitting so that come January everything is ready to go testing. I need a new HANS device sadly as my old one which was only 12 months old was a 20 degree version and just too upright. I always go to the Autosport show at the NEC on trade day with a group of racing friends so will pick up a replacement there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've booked a couple of days with a guy who does caravan repairs & installs towards the end of April (his only free days 3 months...) so it he can hook up the hot water and electricity. It should leave me enough time, I might even get to make the interior look a bit interesting too...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Xmas everyone, will have an article out with PistonHeads early in 2015 too! :D</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-6706924682285455132014-12-04T14:36:00.001-08:002015-03-20T06:41:00.243-07:00Chipping away at the Iceberg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: justify;">A</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> few more weeks have passed and thankfully things are getting there day by day. I sometimes feel like I'm fighting a war on two fronts with a brace of Renaults to think about, but thankfully MGR are taking care of everything with the FR & doing a great job - aside from setup, my training day and making a new foam seat there is very little left to do prior to testing. I just can't get enough of the way it looks in the new colours :D</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's good really as although I'm going slightly crazy at the wait to drive it, it's allowing me to focus on the van.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> To</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"> be honest, if the van isn't finished I'm in big trouble - I booked the ferry for Hebécrevon early next May a few weeks ago so there's nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">I've paired it back a lot in terms of things I'm going to fit (these are now things I need to fit) and after a week of fretting and sleepless nights mapping it all out in my mind I sat down over a weekend and ordered a lot of parts like a door, tie down points, insulation, aluminium angle and skylights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I figure so long as I have a lot of materials here, an endless supply of mince pies and a convector heater I can spend some serious time working on it o</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ver Xmas.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I finally built up the courage to get my angle grinder out the other day and cut a large whole for the door. I hate using them, plus my jigsaw bit the dust midway through so I was using the angle grinder for things that they aren't really designed for... still as the sun set I counted ten fully attached and functioning fingers and the door was fitted. I left a gap at the top for an awning as I want to fit one later but can't afford one for 2015, but once it's had a lick of paint to match the van it should look pretty good.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4muVPd3cNgkZGuE027tTEG_niQMhHXacf1ThM2_08EhkFTIvyZZQplNNZFVumMcBhQFbCwjqtBbCkBTFIPfc4pdHbSlRhiQ1k8FuEWUXALtfSpAjqFXg5s28OWuO3wl84p89wX3LnbRkv/s1600/IMG_1222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4muVPd3cNgkZGuE027tTEG_niQMhHXacf1ThM2_08EhkFTIvyZZQplNNZFVumMcBhQFbCwjqtBbCkBTFIPfc4pdHbSlRhiQ1k8FuEWUXALtfSpAjqFXg5s28OWuO3wl84p89wX3LnbRkv/s1600/IMG_1222.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other news I picked a bargain basement moped locally through a friend (thanks James!) which has spent the last 10 years sat in a shipping container. It needs a new battery and some TLC but it's a Suzuki so it should be fine. Sadly it's only a 50cc so it will be a bit of an escargot but with so many things to budget for it will do fine for next year. I looked into tuning it but it won't alter the top speed so there's no point, another tick on my list though. I'm actually really excited at the prospect of zipping around the paddock on it and driving to local towns to pick up baguettes and things!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My ramps have also been finished & fitted on Sunday, Josh at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jaf.fabrication?ref=br_tf" target="_blank">JaF Fabrication</a> did a fantastic job on them - they're laser cut and TIG welded and weigh a lot less than the original tailboard (which I can weigh in for scrap). I just made a pretty simple drawing with a few of the dims like the height from the pivot point to the top of the van and track width of the car and let Josh do the work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seeing photos of them in build I knew they were going to look great, the ends slot in and lock with a pin, these can then be stored inside and there is a panelled section nearer the van for lifting the moped which also acts as good security by covering the door when fixed upright. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I can order the steel cable & fittings which will come swaged as complete units and I can go lift the car in! So the next stage will be measuring up for the living that I can build over Xmas, and collect my moped to see what 35mph feels like - at least I'll have plenty of time to memorise the course as I crawl up them...</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-30822277011394946722014-11-15T05:47:00.003-08:002015-03-30T08:27:21.478-07:00Everything running to schedule!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>o Xmas is round the corner and there's lots to do, but I'm happy to say that everything is going to plan with both the car & van moving forwards. Hopefully that wasn't the kiss of death, but with so many plates spinning it's the van that I'm most keen to see completed, so here's a quick rundown - but first the car!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quick preview of the new colours!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The vinyl wrap was completed on the car on Wednseday so I'm going over to MGR next week to get some proper photos of it and put the first set of logos on from sponsors & companies who are helping me out with products and services. I put a <a href="http://gocharliehillclimb.blogspot.co.uk/p/press.html" target="_blank">promotional PDF</a> together last week and started mailing it out to people who I think might benefit from working with me - I've had an encouraging initial response so it's a good start. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be honest I just can't wait to see the car all finished, the guys from </span><a href="http://signsuk.co.uk/" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Signs & Graphics UK</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> were mid way through the job last time I was there and it looked gorgeous, the metallic blue looks lush and will really stand out in the sunlight. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCONBW2oHXqeyOaZ0W7XPxLgt7S_2xE5LDqEL0C59WK-T7I-84o5GFGjLlsNSl2Mn_q8N_SGofJ8yHB_AThXUgMXUsk1gXUET9Ep4Mr7Z49bXGHpV4PCshat9gcSWjHNFbQwUvI2vBqehf/s1600/IMG_1219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCONBW2oHXqeyOaZ0W7XPxLgt7S_2xE5LDqEL0C59WK-T7I-84o5GFGjLlsNSl2Mn_q8N_SGofJ8yHB_AThXUgMXUsk1gXUET9Ep4Mr7Z49bXGHpV4PCshat9gcSWjHNFbQwUvI2vBqehf/s1600/IMG_1219.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">I'm also going to fit the new <a href="http://www.4kam.com/onboard_camera_race_package.htm" target="_blank">DV4 HD</a> camera system supplied by <a href="http://www.4kam.com/" target="_blank">4Kam</a>, which uses a solid state on board recorder with LCD screen and a remote for simple operation in the cockpit. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's real simple to use and I'm hoping it will pick up the intake noise from the carbon fibre air box like the FR in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uec-Kr0z6IQ" target="_blank">this video</a> (Bryan Germain is one of the chaps I'll be competing with next year). I've popped their logo on my helmet so hopefully it will show up in all the videos!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm due to have a training day with one of the MGR technicians in the next few weeks so I know my way round the car and feel confident working on it and trouble shooting. I'm quite handy with a spanner and it will be great having someone show me exactly what to do and what to check - will make lots of notes and probably shoot some video on my phone too for quick future reference. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm also downloading the data logging software from AIM </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I have to buy a PC based laptop annoyingly as it won't run on a MAC)</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> so I can get up to speed with it before we go out and do some testing, which is looking increasingly likely to be in the new year now. As keen as I am to get behind the wheel I'd rather do this once I've completed the training day and everything else as this way I can transpose everything I learn into how the car is ran and performs out on the circuit and will have a much more involved understanding of the setup & preparation required. This way I can then go and test the car on my own with a thorough idea of what I'm doing rather than trying to learn everything in reverse order - makes sense? I think so! I'm dying to get behind the wheel but will just have to be patient, Christmas will come late for me this year ;-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago I collected the petit camion from Leicester Coachbuilders who chopped the roof down to a ferry friendly 3m and extended the Luton part of the cab so I now have room for an enormous bed up there :D </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They turned the whole job round in a week and did the work for a good price, considering the quality of the work they've done I'm really happy - it's a proper job! They even managed to use the original dome on the front by cutting the corners, bending the top down and then blending it all in so it looks original.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's no way I could have done it as neatly (if at all) and I just don't have the room or proper tools to do a job like this so it was definitely a good idea to bite the bullet and get them involved. They were super helpful and I may well need to go back down there at some point down the line, I told them not to worry about painting it to keep the cost down as I will have to do some tidying up at the end and will just do everything in one go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ramps are currently being built and as they will be taller than the roofline when folded up (car is 3.5m long without the nose cone) there will have to be a hinged section or some way of detaching the end piece. The fabricator suggested using a box section that slides out and secures with a lock pin so this seemed like a good solution, they should be much lighter than the original tail lift too which will make the whole setup easier for the tail lift to pick up. I've made them asymmetrical so that the car loads over to one side and should then leave around 400mm down the other side, enough to get a little pit bike and some other bits in - its a little bit like building a giant jigsaw puzzle backwards!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything is moving forwards and running on schedule, and I'm hoping to be measuring up for the chocks and tie down points with the car inside by early December. I've abandoned the caravan idea as there is so little that I will actually use out of one and I have neither the time nor the space to put one in while I start stripping it out. As my RS4 went a few weeks ago I no longer have a tow car so it's much easier to just buy the bits 2nd hand online from a caravan breaker - simples. I just got a new road car which I absolutely love - a VW Scirocco TFSi with a manual box. It's pretty quick and now I've managed to change the language over from German I'm enjoying it, love the fact that the number plate says 'GO' too!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-15362018965673782392014-10-15T10:43:00.002-07:002015-03-30T08:27:08.410-07:00Racing with Pistonheads :D<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span> quick update, mainly to reveal some fantastic news - Pistonheads, the popular motoring news, forum & car sales website, are interested in my plan to go hillclimbing in France and have agreed to follow my progress next season with event write ups and features on the webpage!</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With nearly 500k members and around 5 million people clicking onto the website every month, it's a fantastic opportunity to shine the spotlight on the sport of hillclimbing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Targeting so many motorsport enthusiasts should also make perfect sense for anyone looking to work with me and have their products or services featured throughout the year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The car is being vinyl wrapped next week as I've finally settled on a look that I'm happy with - it's a bit Union Jack (& Tricolore as it is French!). I have a few people interested in featuring their logos on the car so it will be great to see it all take shape over the coming months - it helps that I studied graphic design as I've been able to play around on Photoshop to my heart's content. I really enjoy the process of putting my own stamp on a race car and the Formula Renault is such a gorgeous shape to start with that I can't wait to see it in 3D. I picked the colours over at <a href="http://signsuk.co.uk/">Signs & Graphics</a> yesterday, the blue is a metallic and should look really cool in the bright French sunshine :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago I took most of the body work home and spent the weekend filling and rubbing down all the repairs, cracks and gravel rash - circuit cars have a hard life. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being a bit of a perfectionist I want it to look as good as it can, so I went to town with the P38 and wet & dry. I needed a serious manicure afterwards, but I think once wrapped the finish should be pretty good and worth the stiff knees and sore thumbs!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other news is that I now have a tail lift fitted to the van. After weeks of searching on eBay for one that actually measured the correct width between the posts, I bit the bullet and bought one from a few photos and a vague reassurance that 'it was working when we took it off the van...' For £230 it was a fraction of the new cost so I just crossed my fingers and hoped that it wasn't a pallet of scrap when it turned up at the fitters. I was over the moon when they phoned to sayit actually looked really good and I'd bought a tidy one, phew! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it came without the control box I asked them to fit one on a long, curly cable so I can move around the car while its on the ramps. We left the tail board off as it won't be needed and will most likely be weighed in for scrap, but we tested it with 750kg first which it lifted without complaint - woohoO! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've got some measurements now to get the ramps made so hopefully I can get those in build as it went to the coach builder today to have the cab extended and roof chopped down. Once these two stages are completed I can put the car inside and start to measure up for the living area which I'll be building myself - I'd like to have done the roof and cab but have visions of it all disintegrating like a broken spaceship as it hurtles down the autoroutes! It feels like a good start, and gives me time to think about the next stage... I was toying with the idea of something really different for the interior asI've always loved the idea of speccing my own T5 campervan, so I have a few ideas on how I'd do it. I always think that motorhome interiors look a little clinical & boring... But then I was lying in bed worrying about the amount of time and everything there is to do so I'm going to focus on the 'absolutely necessary' things like running water, a shower, loo and lighting, then all the other bits like a fridge, heating and cooker will have to follow if it's on schedule. In my mind I know how I want it to look, it's just that making it all look nice is low down on the list of priorities for the time being!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the practical side, I've been advised by my friend who will be helping me install all the electrics & plumbing to buy a tatty old caravan to strip out. It's a great idea and will save a lot of money and time searching for things like cables & fittings as it should have 90% of </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what I need (defo getting a new loo though!). It's something else to track down though, and as my tow car is being sold for a cheaper hatchback I have no way of dragging one home... </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-62149496126264101322014-09-27T04:30:00.001-07:002015-03-30T08:24:56.600-07:00All you need is a van & a plan <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he very same weekend that I agreed the deal on the new car, I also found another Renault, also built in 2007 as it happens. Only this one won't be hurtling up les courses de côte, it will be carrying everything to and from meetings and providing me with temporary accommodation. And a shower - yes!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Buying something as straightforward as a van proved to be quite the opposite, as with the other Renault there was a list of must haves, but this proved to be far harder as luton vans vary so much in spec that finding one with everything I needed was proving to be impossible. And everything seemed to be either in Wigan or Portsmouth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I narrowed it down to either a Merc Sprinter, Renault Master, Citroen Relay or Peugeot Boxer. The latter two are relatively new which put them out of the budget unless I bought a Cat C van off an auction, but nothing came up that while I was hunting. The other two are relatively light, and quite common so the chances of finding one (and fixing it in Europe if need be) should be fairly straight forward, I also drove a Renault early on and it was easy to drive and quite comfy so this was high up on the list. I'd initially considered a Low Loader as they are really neat and compact, thinking that I could build ramps over the arches and do away with the need for a tail lift. After looking round one though I realised that they are too small to fit everything in and abandoned the idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all it needed to fit inside a 6.5m by 3m high box, then it needed to be lightweight so an ally body - not fibreglass as this is heavy. This way I would have around 1250kg to play with, minus a tail lift and the car it leaves me just over 500kg... I have to thank Greg Guille here for giving me some good advice and putting me in touch with numerous people who've done similar conversions - at one point I was panicking about the tail lift after phoning various fitters who all sucked through their teeth and backed away after I explained what I was intending to lift with it. Knowing that it has been done and will work helped calm my rapidly fraying nerves and motivated me to just get on with finding something - fortune favours the brave!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end I found a perfect little van up in York that had everything on my list apart from a tail lift, but with time ticking on I reasoned that it was best to just buy it and get one fitted - it was too cheap to pass over. And I kind of like the fact it's a Renault too! It's done just over 170k miles which isn't much, plus it has just had new heavy duty leaf springs so it's well up to the job of carrying everything I need. It's only 3.1m high so there's a chance that once it's loaded up it will be around 3m but I may still try to loose 10cm to be on the safe side. It has the 2.5ltr CDi engine with 120Bhp which should be enough and felt quite happy thrashing along at 70 on the drive back down the A1, there is an option of chipping it to find another 30 horses if it feels too sluggish once I've filled it to the gunnels so will have to see. I took it straight to a friend for a new cam belt & service, and to try and find out what the clonking sound is - I thought it was the exhaust knocking on the body but so far it's outfoxed us and proved to be a mystery...</span></div>
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I collected it this afternoon and I'm so excited about driving it round France next year. I know the idea of a girl driving round in a big white van is a little bit random, but it's what it enables me to do that makes it so cool, just the idea of having a live in transporter with all my kit that I can get around in opens up a whole new world of possibilities - I can go and race almost anywhere!</span></div>
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Having said that I had a mild form of panic attack as I stood in the back last weekend - there is so much to do before next season. This may have had something to do with the fact that it is literally crawling with spiders (great, my favourite creature...) but it dawned on me that I've taken on what would amount to a serious project in its own right, with added arachnophobia. Once I'd written a list of jobs and thought a little I calmed down. I know I've been here before with other projects when I used to renovate houses - you just have to break everything down and work out a time frame for each of the stages. The first will be to buy & fit the tail lift, then get the ramps made so that I can get the car inside and start measuring around it for all the other things like a shower, tools and wheel racks. I also need to modify the cab to make more room for a double bed, the plan is to have the car inside and be measuring up before Xmas...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So really I need the A Team - if they're still surviving on the Los Angeles underground can someone please put me in touch with them?</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05761321069180852850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6417045110109478871.post-45797488211504061052014-09-20T05:35:00.003-07:002015-03-30T08:26:53.529-07:00Next season's car<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>'m very excited, and a little nervous too. The last time I felt like this was skydiving in NZ, hanging outside the plane with my backside dangling in the breeze and nothing to hold onto, strapped to my instructor whose surname I will always remember was Judas... That moment before he let go and we plunged from 15,000ft into the unknown felt about the closest thing to right now - electric but kind of terrifying too, in a fun way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a few months of viewing cars, phone calls & emails, I've found the one. There were initially a few simple criteria for finding a car, but the more I learnt the more things I had to factor in - affordability was still high on the list but simply finding the cheapest car was not way to do this (I learnt that last time). I wanted the youngest chassis, the freshest engine & box, something that was racing at present ideally and a good spares package. I was scheduled to look at a very promising 2001 car in Le Mans, helped by the fact that the Euro is currently very low and booked the entire journey only to find myself evacuated from Luton airport on the day of the recent the bomb scare. A bad omen perhaps? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As that unfolded I'd also booked to see a few younger cars with two local teams - an 05 & 07 car. It quickly dawned on me that it would be a very bad decision to buy something that came without any support, there is so much I need to learn about this car as I will be a long way from home next year. In the end I came full circle and opted to go with one from <a href="http://www.mgrmotorsport.co.uk/">MGR Motorsport</a>, the very first people I'd gone to see and only 20 minutes from my work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first spoke to Mark Godwin who owns & runs the team while I was racing in Jersey and explained that I was looking for a FR to compete with in France. He had kindly agreed to sit down and listen to my plan and talk me around the cars in the workshop once I was back home. His enthusiasm to work with me as a driver, provide some training on maintaining & running a car and support me going forwards was</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a critical part of the decision. This is a huge step up for me (these cars will hit 160mph on a circuit) especially given that I will be overseas, and there is so much I want to learn about the car. Having the support of a team obviously gives me a lot of confidence - there is such a buzz every time I visit their workshop and I can't wait to start getting my head round the car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At 2007 it's the youngest chassis (no. 490) I've looked at, and although some of the body work has a few battle scars its the fact that it had a fully rebuilt engine & gearbox at the start of the season that matters. Current driver Tarrun Reddy has his final race of the season this weekend at Croft so I'm crossing my fingers for him that it goes smoothly! MGR will be prepping the car afterwards, then the plan is do join them for part of their winter testing programme. Having never driven a single seater I need some proper time on track to get used to the cars limits - the downforce, brakes and sequential box will be too much to take in with a few visits to Curborough. I'm hoping that a full day with the team to fine tune the setup and learn about the data logging will be time well spent and give me a good foot hold to work from next season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then there is of course the issue of a colour scheme! I love putting my own design on a car and I'd like to carry on using the Martini stripes in some way. With so many plates spinning I'm trying to keep a careful eye on costs, so it may be a case of working with the current colour as a base - I know what I want to do and I'm fairly handy with vinyl and a hair drier so we'll have to see... </span></div>
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