crash

With the damaged engine still in pieces, we put in a last second entry for the second round of the Heritage Parts Centre Formula Vee Championship at Brands Hatch in beautiful sunny conditions.

James Cater would treat the weekend as a test to see how the rebuilt engine in the Primrose Hospice sponsored RTV Sheane would perform, hoping to stay out of trouble and pick up whatever championship points were on offer.

Qualifying was marred by two red flags which cut the session short as James was still running the engine in, leaving him way down in 24^th and 23^rd place for the races, and having to fix an oil leak to get out for the first race.

A great start thrust James into a seven car battle for 14^th place with all the cars swapping positions.

Unfortunately one car dropped it’s oil going into the top gear Paddock Hill bend, making James and Rory Melia ahead of him spin. With the rest of the field narrowly avoiding them, James spent several precious seconds trying to restart his stalled car as he rolled down the other side of Paddock Hill.

With lots of oil now down on the track from other leaking cars, James was still able to chase down and pass Vaughn Jones with two laps to go to take 4^th in Class B and 19^th place overall, but finding the car running rough and down on power.

Graham Gant took the win in his WEV FV01, by 0.2 seconds from Daniel Hands and Craig Pollard picked up third overall. James Harridge won Class B after starting dead last (5th overall) from Andrew Cooper and Jamie Harrison.

Toying with the idea to pack up and go home, Glenn Hay found some valve clearances had slipped – an easy fix that had the engine sounding sweet again before we focused on the second race the next morning.

With the sun burning down yet again, James made up a few places on the start and was immediately in a 9 car scrap for 14^th place.

Four laps in, James had a great run down the pit straight and was easing around the outside of Neil Aldridge around Paddock Hill bend when Vaughn Jones spun on the inside of the corner.

Neil moved right to avoid the spinner, still leaving James room on the outside of the track, but then Vaughn clipped Neil, sending him hard into the side of the RTV Sheane on the high speed exit.

This impact bent a steering arm joint and put a hole through the side panel, and though James tried to continue the damage was too severe and he had to retire from the race.

The restart saw another red flag after three laps, with Ben Miloudi winning fromCraig Pollard with Daniel Hands picking up another podium. Class B went to James Harridge who only made it from last up to 6th place this time, with Andrew Cooper 2nd again and Rory Melia getting an excellent 3rd.

It was a frustrating weekend for RTV, as all we were trying to do was stay out of any trouble to assess the engine, but when the racing is as close as in Formula Vee these incidents will always happen – we just got unlucky this time.

Round 3 of the championship is at Croft in North Yorkshire on May 26^th & 27^th where we will need to get more from the engine to be competitive.

Before then, James will be focusing his attention on the skies, as he will do his first ever tandem parachute jump raising funds for Primrose Hospice on 5^th May. A huge thank you to everyone who has helped to raise £527 so far, and please donate what you can at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jamescater18

The promise of a rare dry race weekend didn’t happen, with conditions ranging from scorching sun to thunderstorms.

Several cars laid down oil on the racing line, meaning those who’d tested the previous day got their fastest laps in early on the good track. Unfortunately, with the disastrous Brands Hatch weekend still fresh, James Cater was still building up lap times and so suffered – a spin on his fastest lap leaving him down in 17^th and 16^th place for the races respectively.

Even this meant James qualified his RTV Sheane 3^rd in the very strong B class field, and with James Harridge blowing his engine this meant a realistic 2^nd for both races directly behind Colin Gregory, with a very real chance of class wins! Jamie Harrison had engine issues putting him all the way down to 27^th and final spot on the grid for both races.

Ben Miloudi stamped his championship lead with pole position with Adam Macaulay hot on his heels, and Craig Pollard a second off the pair. Race 2 would see Macaulay, Pollard and Miloudi lining up.

Making a very fast start for race 1, James aimed to stay safe and out of trouble, holding a tight inside line through the first corner already having taken the Class B lead. Unfortunately Mark Egan cut back hard across the track at Hawthorn Bend, his rear wheel smashing into James’ front hard enough to snap the steering arm joint and rip off the front beam, stripping the bolt out of the nut.

Up the front, the top men had spaced out a long way, with Macaulay beating Pollard, and Miloudi completing the familiar trio. Harrison came through to 10^th to take the B class honours from Gregory and Ross Price in his first ever Vee race.

The parts were easy to fix ready for the race the following day, but unfortunately setting up the rest of the car was more complicated at the track. With massive problems to the camber and toe of the front wheels, changes had to be made to the opposite side to try and compensate. A huge thanks to Gary Richardson for helping to try and sort the set-up out.

As the race began it was obvious that the handling of the car was severely affected, with James dropping down the order before a red flag forced a restart.

Thinking driver confidence may be part of the problem, James renewed his efforts to drive around the issues on the restart, pulling clear of the pack behind Colin Gregory who was leading class B.

Understeer through the flat-out, high speed corners around the back of the circuit meant James ran wide enough to put a rear wheel off the tarmac in a crucial braking zone on the exit of Barcroft resulting in a 130mph spin.

With the rest of the field narrowly avoiding James he was able to rejoin the track dead last, but managed to claw back two class positions before the end of the shortened 3 lap race, meaning a disappointing 5^th in class and 17^th overall.

In a much closer race at the front, Miloudi beat Macaulay by 4 tenths of a second, and Pollard was within a second of them. Harrison came through again to 11^th to win Class B, with Ross Price making an excellent 2^nd and Gregory snapping at his heels.

This was a great shame for a weekend that should have seen James fighting for a class win for sponsors JooVuu and Primrose Hospice at one of his favourite circuits, but the car will be back to fighting condition for Angelsey Coastal circuit on 8/9^th July.

Racing Team Vee

Formula Vee Racing

Brands Hatch Indy Race Report

Croft Formula Vee race report