Donington Park Formula Vee race report

September 4, 2018 / jamescaterracing / Leave a comment

With Racing Team Vee taking the tough decision to totally strip and clean the engine, we risked running out of time to have the Primrose Hospice sponsored Sheane ready in time for the penultimate round of the Formula Vee championship.

With a new found fire for a final assault on the championship, the care was ready and James Cater raring to go, with new pistons and barrels in the engine just in time.

After a few steady lap in qualifying, several flags around the circuit meant James never got a chance for a flying lap, leaving him a disappointing 21^st on the grid, but knowing he had a lot more pace.

This was proven in the race as he charged up to 13^th place, aided by a slight change in set-up that had balanced the car beautifully. After dicing with several cars before pulling clear, James was chasing down Bill ‘Wom’ Garner for 2^nd in class, but couldn’t quite draw him in before the chequered flag.

This left James in 14^th place overall and picking up a trophy for 3^rd in Class B, with Wom ahead and Andrew Cooper taking the win.

Graham Gant won overall, chased hard all the way by Daniel Hands and Craig Pollard.

With full confidence he could go at least a second a lap faster in the final race, where he’d be starting 17^th and first in class, a push rod tube sprung a massive oil leak in the holding area.

Despite being easy to fix, the timing meant there was no chance to make the start of the race, and James had to drop out, losing more championship points.

The second race was cut short with a red flag after only a few laps, leaving Daniel Hands as the winner from Craig Pollard and Paul Taylor. Class B was taken again by Cooper, with Wom and Vaughn Jones taking the final podium places.

From a 2018 season showing very promising driving, and the car being on the pace, the unlucky engine problems have devastated the run at the championship. This means the choice of running at Snetterton in October for a chance to take second in the Class B Championship, or ending the season now to fully prepare the car over Winter ready for 2019.

See the onboard video of Race 1 here:
https://youtu.be/RwJvsiajIHs

Rockingham Speedway Race Report

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 / jamescaterracing / Leave a comment

Rockingham Speedway is a new track to most of the current drivers in the Ravenol UK Formula Vee Championship, having not been used since 2013.

With budget a factor, James Cater in the RTV Sheane was unable to join the two test sessions that all but four drivers took advantage of, opting to learn the track during the qualifying session.

Despite several red flags stopping the sessions, James took advantage of his track knowledge from previous motorcycle track days, qualifying in 14^th and 15^th place out of the 30 car grid overall, and 5^th in Class B for both races.

The heavens opened with a torrential downpour just before the start of the race, leaving the track extremely slippery with lots of oil also down. Using the banked oval circuit for the flat-out first turn meant the cars would be inches away from the solid wall, and any mistake on that part of the track could be horrific.

Scrabbling for traction on the warm up lap, James made a decent start before locking up on oil at Turn 10 with two other cars and getting airborne over the gravel trap before rejoining. Luckily, another incident forced a restarted race, and James retook his original grid position.

After another good start, James lost a handful of places as he was trapped on the outside of the track going into Deene hairpin, and then avoided three cars spinning directly in front of him as he fought his way back up to 12^th place by the end of the first lap.

He maintained the pace on a drying track, staying ahead of several race-winning drivers until making a mistake and out braking himself at Deene, having to turn around to rejoin. Unfortunately this turned out to be the final lap, and James had dropped to 16^th place and fifth in Class B as he crossed the finish line.

The race was won by Ben Miloudi, with Adam Macaulay still chasing him for championship honours, with Graham Gant taking third.

Eagerly awaiting the second race after the rain came back with a vengeance, the organisers took the (correct) decision to cancel racing for the day on the waterlogged track.

Whilst James was still kicking himself for his mistake, he was glad to have brought the car home safely, as they were displaying it the following day for the Sue Pike Equine & Animal Rescue charity.

His results also left James third in the B Class Championship, a single point behind Colin Gregory in second place. Rival Jamie Harrison finally escaped his reach and wrapped up the championship win.

With the final round at Donington Park on the last weekend of September being one of James’ favourite tracks, the 40 year old hopes to take that second place spot in only his second year of racing for his sponsors JooVoo and Primrose Hospice.

Snetterton 300 – 24/09/16

October 3, 2016 / jamescaterracing / Leave a comment

At the final race weekend of the year, James Cater finally managed to get on the elusive B Class podium with a hard-won 3rd place and 11th overall on the Snetterton 300 circuit in Norfolk.

Following the disastrous Silverstone weekend where two engine studs snapped (likely to have been caused by the long holding times with the engine running), Glenn Hay made the decision to swap in next years engine, using most of the internals from the ruined engine.

With no time to test, Racing Team Vee drove the trusty VW camper to the Norfolk circuit on race day – with almost all the other drivers having arrived at the circuit the day before to test or set up. 750 Motor Club put on a great value extra test session at 09:00 – but with qualifying scheduled for 10:35 if we found any problems we’d have had no time to fix them anyway.

The RTV Sheane took to the track for a very limited qualifying session. With a red flag stopping the session, James only managed one lap whilst trying to get up to race speed, putting him 22nd and 21st on the grid for the final two races of the 2016 Formula Vee championship.

James reported that the car felt good, and it felt like he was driving hard but it still didn’t seem fast. He opted to leave the settings as they were for the first race, possibly stiffening up the damping front and rear for the second race, if the speed couldn’t be made up by his driving.

Another great start in race 1 moved him up the grid onto the back of a large pack fighting for the final trophy place, mixed with a number of higher spec A Class cars.

After fighting through to the front, James was able to hold off the assault, pulling away with 2 laps to go when several of the chasing pack fell victim to an oil spin on the infield of the circuit.

Despite another hard fight in the second race, James fell back from the main battle with the engine losing power, finishing in 18th place overall and 5th in class.

All of the action was captured by cameras supplied by sponsors JooVuu – the UK based action/dashcam company.

Although the regular season has now ended, RTV will be out one more time on the last weekend of October for the Formula Vee Festival at Brands Hatch, where there will be qualifying and 3 races against competitors from the Irish championship.

Hoping to improve on the 9th place finish we had last year, and knowing that the new engine is reliable, we should be able to get a little more from it, and James will be keen to push harder as a driver on his 3^rd visit to Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

A full drivers-eye-view of the racing is on wwwjamescaterracing.com