Haibo

Kyalami - 02/08/2008 - Round 7

Coming from an exciting and very fast weekend at East London, the next round of the Pro Tour was just 3 weeks later at the other speedy circuit of Kyalami. My car seems to be in a somewhat developmental stage, with certain parts and modifications being attempted to try and get it to handle like the newer spec cars. This unfortunately did not gel perfectly at one race (or ideally between races), and I found myself battling with sorting out the handling yet again.

My current set of tyres seem to be well past their grippy range, but nevertheless the handling was atrocious. I was losing so much time surviving the oversteer in the fast corners, and getting frustrated with the understeer in the slow ones. Eventually I just settled on a setup where I’d lose the minimum amount of time everywhere, and I definitely was on the back foot. The first race was an extremely defensive one, where I battled the entire race just trying to keep Johan Gouws behind me for 8th position, and really suffered with understeer towards the end of the race.

The 2nd race was a bit more interesting, and it seemed like I was improving the handling a little with tyre pressures and trying something different on the warmup lap. It seemed to work for the race, as the grip seemed constant throughout. I strategically tailed Symm Grobler for a number of laps to slowly edge away from Gouws, who would only be a threat if Grobler and I started dueling. It was also the only chance I thought of keeping in touch with the guys ahead, which didn’t quite happen as Grobler just was not quick enough. I overtook him very late in the race for 7th position, as it was only really needed then. Again disappointingly out of the top5, which I really should have affirmed myself in by now, even though the final result was indeed 5th position after 2 drivers were disqualified for technical infringements.

After the race I had found out that my right front pushrod to the shock had completely snapped off, but it seemed like the car was handling better than it did all weekend! To say I was puzzled is an understatement! Hopefully for the next race at Phakisa I will be able to figure out this conundrum, together with the fact that I’ll be on a very overdue set of new rubber! Really looking forward to yet another mental challenge…

East London - 12/06/2008 - Round 6

The 6^th round of the Pro Tour was held at the extremely fast East London GP circuit, and it is great fun in a Vee! I had reasonable success last year, and was looking forward to this race after some modifications were done to improve my handling. After a couple of practice sessions however, I was struggling with the balance in the infield section, and eventually had to settle for a car that gave some nasty snap oversteer out of corners. We were trying several settings with the engine and carburetors to get it to perform like the front runners, but I still struggled a little bit.

Qualifying went okay, as I was working with my teammate to get a good slipstream down the straight. However, we never took full advantage of this through the rest of the lap, and my laptime did not turn out that great. Starting from 8^th, the first race was really a great battle. I was in a pack of 4, and it was tight racing. I was trying my hardest to stay fast through the infield somehow without spinning, and it was an interesting and strategic race. I missed the final lap board, and therefore was not aggressive enough to attack for 5^th place, which left me in only 8^th after all that work.

The 2^nd race was less exciting, but I was more comfortable with the car. I was again involved in a 4-car fight, except I lost the slipstream crucially when the speed rocket of Johan Gouws’ car pulled Symm Grobler and Peter Hills away from me when I couldn’t take advantage in the infield again. It took a lot of laps and hard work to haul them back in without slipstream, and I finally got back in the mix on the final lap. Every corner was quite an aggressive fight, and I managed to at least recover one position to 8^th.

My final results for the weekend were the worst of my 2008 season, and that is really disappointing, even though it is always great fun to be at that speed and in a massive on-track fight. I’m looking forward, though, to sorting out my car setup and having a strong engine for the other high speed track of Kyalami. Will need to make a plan about my ruined tyre thanks to a puncture, however.....

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