Zwartkops - 21/06/2008 - Round 5

First indications: rocking engine!! I certainly noticed a dramatic improvement instantly. The top 2 or 3 drivers still have better grunt, but this new engine overhaul at least allows me to stay in the slipstream...

Throughout the sessions I was struggling with some pretty chronic understeer, I lost an insane amount of time in the slow corners on the circuit, probably 95% of the laptime lost to the front guys. We set the car up for as much oversteer we possibly could, and still I got understeer. Dean reckons it could be my front shocks that are giving up, but he is going to work on some other things for the next race...for now I had to just live with it.

I qualified 5th, and really thought I could do a little better. I was battling with the overall grip from the tyres, they only really got enough heat after a few laps of running. I think just about everyone in the top10 were running new tyres as well....the race was going to be tough. Race 1 was highly boring. I changed some things with tyre pressure to try get more heat, but the balance was all off and that was quite surprising. Race 2 was much better after I rectified the pressures, and was running just behind the battle for 3rd/4th place.

With my handling problems, I don't think I could have stayed in 4th place for a long time. I just hung back, waiting for the last lap or so to take an opportunity to steal 4th or perhaps even 3rd....and I certainly had plenty of opportunities to take 4th during the race, but chose to wait and wait. The problem was, I couldn't see the lap countdown board, and I had no idea it was the last lap.....the guy in front made an error going into the 3rd last corner, I basically overtook him and then chose to wave him past....for a chance to catch the 3rd place driver quicker. To my horror, we crossed the finish line to a checkered flag. Highly embarrassing. I threw away 4th place like a n00b!!! Never thought I'd make such pathetic judgments....

I'm still missing that element of racing close to other drivers in simracing, and its showing on-track. I need to learn to try and drive over the guy in front of me if I want to be in a decent position to gain the most out of slipstream. I still leave an annoying gap which really shouldn't be there......

Anyway, the next race is at the cRaZy-fast East London circuit in 3weeks. Hopefully my understeer problems will be sorted out. Certainly my engine is not good enough to really challenge the top guys, but it's really decent enough to be a threat if I can make the time up in the infield and cling on for dear life in the slipstream down that massive straight.....I am really looking forward to this race and the following races as well. The massive engine disadvantage I've had all year has now been wiped clean...

Not Enough...

The next race at Zwartkops is coming up fast...the next 3 races are spaced 3weeks apart from each other. Crazy stuff. I also now have the least amount of money in the bank ever, and owe a lot of people money :P Hectic times. Just gotta survive this somehow....

I'm really not using simracing to its full capacity to help with my Formula Vee racing....maybe a couple years ago. I just race in a local league for fun, without much preparation. The races are not the same as the other leagues I've driven, I don't get pushed and put under pressure, there is nobody I have to chase and do 100laps to find an extra 0.05sec. There isn't that urgency or sustained period of time on the limit. My mental game has dropped significantly, and I really need to get back into things, back into the crazy leagues.

The main reason for this is of course my PC performance, which prevents me from even practicing with the big guns, but I'm slowly trying to get the thing up to a decent spec so that I can push 100% of the time, and increase the limits of an on-the-limit lap. My mental racing peak was 2years ago without a doubt, I definitely feel much weaker. Simracing is for 'free', and I know it can help more.

I really want to do well at Zwartkops. But this is what I hope for every race. What needs to change? My mental game needs to be supermassive going into this. Something huge that will warrant a change. My engine is being rebuilt, and cylinder head replaced, so I'll see how that performs. Either way, whatever state that car is in, I need to push that thing like never before. Not that I havn't been on the limit already, but it needs to be more. The transition might take a few races, but the limit I am at is hopeless. The next level awaits....I have set my goal by the end of the year!

Time and effort........

Killarney - 10/05/2008 - Round 4

Things were not looking great coming into this race. My car was not up to standard, and there just isn't enough money to work on these things.

Before things got underway, I had a long chat to my race mechanic about my lack of power. There's a lot that needs to be worked on to get my engine to similar standard as front-running guys :( It will cost a hell of a lot of money, so this is never going to happen anytime soon without sponsors.

The weather? Cape Town was damn cold and miserable - all weekend. I drove around the 1st session in cruise control, just learning the track and seeing where I should push and what I should avoid. It was really bumpy in places, and quite tricky around the back section. The back straight is pretty fast, we were getting up to 210kph there. When the 2nd session started, I had my plan set out on how to tackle the track...and then my 4th gear stripped. I don't have a spare gearbox, so it was quite a miracle that I found someone who lent me their's, and it was a mission and a half to fit it to my car. I missed the remaining sessions and just about made it for qualifying. The clutch wasn't set up right, and it was slipping so much! I came into the pits, Dean set it as best he could, and then I went out again...but I didn't get a lap in as the session was red flagged. I was starting from the back of the grid :(

The warmup session the next day was damp...so I only knew how to really drive the track in wet conditions with barely any dry running!!!! The 1st race started off really weirdly. I started 16th out of 15drivers. Yeah. Alan Eustice decided to pull into my pitbox at the last second, and I was stuck behind him. What's worse was when the lights went out, he didn't move. Horrid. My next laps went well, I was passing guys and moving up fast..and then my clutch was slipping a bit. I was trying to learn the track as well, and almost had a couple of offs. It was a mad struggle and was able to just finish 8th.

The 2nd race was the craziest shit I've ever been involved in!! The first few laps were so intense, I think it was 6cars battling it out with quite stupid aggression. This was all caused by Trevor Bland who had a problem with his rev limiter, and he defended his position quite dangerously against me and some other drivers. This allowed a group to bunch up, and all hell broke loose. I thought I was going to crash in every corner....I even had to force myself to push going into a 4car squeeze at the last corner under yellow flag conditions!! Everyone was gunning for the corner and nobody backed off for anything. It was ridiculous, we were lapping something like 4sec a lap slower than what we could do.

It started to rain halfway through the race :) Things calmed right down as soon as this happened. I think there was a 3car smash somewhere, and people sliding everywhere. I managed to pull away and start gaining lost ground in the rain...but there were too few laps :( It was pretty damn good fun driving in the rain though, it's a shame I lost so much time in the 1st half of the race! I ended up 5th...

And so ended a pretty difficult and disappointing weekend...I really wish I had more time on the track, my racing lines felt horrendous and it was a struggle to keep pace with a slipping clutch. The next couple races are pretty close to each other, heading to Zwartkops first. I now have a gearbox on my long list of things to fix, so it's not looking too great. I do have long-term direction though, and need to start getting my car up to speed slowly but surely...

Wilfred Steenveld ~ 1960 - 2008

Cape Town Preview

Ha!

This is the most unprepared I've ever been for a race. Things just went really quiet for whatever reason. From the last race, my engine was quite low on power, was overheating, the throttle cable was stuck open, gearbox had a big leak, my rake angle is wrong.....and well, nothing has been fixed to my knowledge. I hope Dean has done something, but all I know is that I do have 4 wheels.

I'll have to learn the track layout, get to grips with my messed up car and get it to a reasonable drive in 3x15min sessions. Oh boy. At least I'll have mountains to look at.

Kyalami - 12/04/2008 - Round 3

Round 3 of the Pro Tour saw yet another visit to Kyalami. I enjoy this circuit, but I'm just too slow for whatever reason hehe. Reasons I have come to see after this weekend....

New tyres were great! Thanks to Symplexity again, the car really felt like a new beast. I could brake so much later (and steadier) than before, and just chuck the car into the corners. I struggled quite a bit with understeer in the slow stuff though, it was costing me a lot of time. Eventually I settled on a decent setup, but still was losing so much time in the slow corners. I felt it was okay since with that balance I was pretty strong in the fast stuff. It looked like a top5 was a realistic goal (especially since the champ leader Alan Holm wasn't around) but it proved to be a mad struggle.

Qualifying went okay. We only got a lap or so of dry running before it started raining :) Oh my word...RAIN IS AWESOME!!! The car has no grip at all....so freakn cooool!! :D It's just so easy to lose the car on the brakes...you try and apply a little more than a feather's pressure on the brake pedal, and its a lockup and aquaplaning for a few seconds!! Crazy...oh the car doesnt turn either, and if you change down to 2nd gear you will probably spin the car. I wish qualifying had been wet from the start; my laptimes in the rain seemed decent enough to be challenge the front pack. I was sitting 5th in those dry laps.

The 1st race went okay, considering the amount of time I was losing down the straights. I was getting so frustrated everytime I came out the last corner...I would be right on someone's tail, and after the pit straight I wouldn't even be close enough for a hint of slipstream. It was awful. I drove through that depressing feeling, lined Trevor Bland up for an overtake on the last lap (since I knew my engine wasn't up for defending) and managed to nail him on the last corner of the last lap. But then he just drove clean past me over the finish line. I was so angry. This engine is costing me laptime and positions, even after I do the hard work.

The 2nd race started off well. Despite the lack of power, I was battling in the pack for 3rd position. I knew it would take some real devious and cunning arts to manage to beat that pack when their engines were so much more powerful...and Kyalami is just made up of superfast stuff. And then God decided to be funny about the situation and my accelerator stuck open. Great. This was only scary at first, since I found out it was stuck when I got to Sunset corner (turn4) which is taken almost flat out on the limit. This "almost flat out" corner means that you can't take it flat, which is what my car decided it was going to try to do hahaha...after I got through that alive, it was just annoying.


Controlling the car was hard, I didn't have the confidence to fight wheel-to-wheel with guys, was very dangerous. Braking and accelerating at the same time isn't very fast, and the mad revs everytime I pushed the clutch in to change gear was worrying for my engine...I should have really been able to adapt much quicker to the situation and probably maintained 5th position. The car was just unpredictable though, towards the end of the race the throttle seemed to behave itself at times, and other times not. Battling hard and heading out the last corner, I managed to miss 3rd gear somehow...and lost 6th position over the finish line. I was ready to drive off a cliff, I was so angry yet again, but my own pathetic newbie mistake!!! That is definitely not happening again.

So it was a very disappointing and frustrating weekend for me. The lack of power is really hurting my chances at good results now, and I'm sad to report back a 6th and 7th. Working on the engine is going to take quite some finance, so the need for sponsors has never felt so great. Here's hoping for a miracle...

Pre-Kyalami

Things are looking okay, heading into Round 3 of 2008. I definitely still need a major sponsor, but hopefully now my new tyres give me a good chunk of pace back. To be honest, it surely cant perform miracles, but I need to really push now to get into the top5. Getting there is going to be really difficult, there are a lot of fast drivers. I'm currently sitting 7th in the championship close behind 2drivers, so I'd better get a move on!

I found out that one of my rims is a bit bent, and that I'll need an engine rebuild pretty soon. Lots of money to fork out, and not much left :P

Looking forward to Kyalami though. Not thinking about it every second, I have so much other stuffs to do, but next week I'm sure I'll settle down and focus on doing a good job.