silverstone international

Silverstone Race Report

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Since James had his very first race at Silverstone in 2015, one of his favourite tracks has been very unkind to him. This weekend was to be no exception.

Steadily building pace in qualifying, the Primrose Hospice sponsored RTV Sheane Formula Vee felt very well balanced with James running in the top 14 for most of the session. Sadly, at the end of the Hangar Straight near the end of the session, the engine suddenly lost power and James switched it off to coast in to the pits.

His final qualifying position was a respectable 18th in the 37 car grid, but with no compression at all in one cylinder, mechanic Glenn Hay was unable to replace the piston and barrel in time before the start of the first race.

Craig Pollard took the win from Graham Gant and Ian Jordan. Andrew Cooper took Class B honours from Jamie Harrison and Richard Waddingham.

Although James would be able to start the second race the following day, the highly tuned 1300cc VW Beetle engine was still untested so it would be a gamble to see if things held.

A fantastic start put James in 10th place into the first corner, and right behind B Class championship leader Andrew Cooper.

With the car clearly down a little on power, James was still able to claw the time back in the corners to hang onto the back of Cooper, but on the second lap oil smoke started spewing from the car along with a major drop in power.

James started short-shifting to try and limp the car home with the sick engine, and although he was still catching cars in the corners he became a sitting duck on every straight, with car after car simply driving past him.

With the smoke (from a crumbling piston) increasing in the final laps, James managed to hang onto 18th place and 4th in class before shutting the engine off on the warm down lap.

Craig Pollard took another victory from Daniel Hands and Pete Belsey, with Cooper beaten to the Class B win by Jamie Harrison on the final lap, and Waddingham took another excellent 3rd place.

With only a few weeks to go until Donington Park on 2nd September, it will be a race against the clock to strip and rebuild the engine, but with James driving better than ever RTV will give it everything to challenge for the title in the last four races of the season.

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Silverstone International Race Report

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A fuel and oil leak hampered qualifying on a sunny morning in the Formula One pit garages at Silverstone.

The fuel leak was easily fixed, but with time a factor before the first race, we had to try something more temporary to fix the oil leak.

Starting from 19th place on the grid, James made a great start but soon the oil leak returned and reached the clutch, and with that slipping James had to drop back to make sure the high revs didn’t blow the engine.

Despite this he still tried to make the speed back through the corners, and after a heated battle with Martin Snarey he just lost 6th in Class B by a tenth of a second, bringing the car back safely in 22nd overall out of the 35 car grid.

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Graham Gant won in the WEV, with Ben Miloudi unable to capitalise on his pole position, leaving James Harridge struggling for straight line speed in 3rd. Harridge also took the B class win, followed by a limping Jack Wilkinson (who never made the second race), and Andrew Cooper picked up 3rd for AHS.

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Glenn had the engine out overnight with the help of several other Vee drivers (special thanks to James Harridge and Jake Hockley) and replaced a blown oil seal and the clutch, and James made the grid to start from 21st place for race two.

He made up some more places on the start but lost touch with the group ahead after Ian Rae spun in front of him at Abbey Curve.

As he chased to draw the pack back in, the current B class leader Jamie Harrison caught him on the final lap of the race.

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After swapping places a few times with both drivers having some brave lunges, Harrison snuck past with 3 corners to go and James was unable to retake the place over the finish line, this time missing 3rd in class by a tenth of a second and finishing 19th overall.

This time Ben Miloudi did take the win, pushing Gant back to second with Adam Macaulay just over a second behind. Harridge was snapping at Macaulays heels to take the B class win ahead of Andrew Cooper.

It was a good weekend overall, despite the ups and downs, with several very fast and experienced competitors coming back to the championship such as Daniel Hands. And with top racing stars like Johnny Herbert and Tiff Needell praising Formula Vee recently the series looks to be getting stronger by the race.

Racing Team Vee will be out next at Rockingham Speedway on 9th September for the penultimate round of the UK championship, representing sponsors JooVuu and Primrose Hospice.

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​​Silverstone International – 20/08/16

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Silverstone International – 20/08/16

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Making up 8 places before the first corner at the start of the first race sadly came to nothing, as engine failure at the end of the first lap forced retirement.

Starting out the day with the aim of testing a newly rebuilt gearbox, James Cater had the added problem of a very cold and wet track – having only driven at Silverstone International last year in dry conditions.

A miscalculation with the suspension settings (we were totally focused on the gearbox and actually went out with the dry setup we’d used at Anglesey!) added to the problems, but despite a few spins James still qualified 23rd of the 38 cars entered.

With the track almost dry for the first race, conditions were better suited on what is a brilliant circuit, exactly one year from when James had his first ever race there.

A demon start took the RTV Sheane closer to the B class podium finish we were aiming for, before a 120+mph spin at Abbey at the start of the second lap meant dropping back down the order.

Red flags a few corners later due to another accident caused a restart, but with the engine sounding off, James took the restart from the pit lane after checking in with Glenn Hay. Sadly, the problems got worse back on track, and he had to pull back in to the pits and retire from the race.

An inspection found two engine studs had snapped, one proving too tough to remove the remains of the broken thread from the engine case at the track.

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Despite a valiant effort from Glenn to repair the engine, we unfortunately ran out of time before the start of the second race, and the weekend was over for us.

We’re disappointed with the result, especially as James had new sponsor decals on the car for British action camera company JooVuu, and also the newly formed RTV.

We will be hoping to make amends and get a solid result at Snetterton on September 24th for the final race of the year.

As always, you’ll be able to read the more in-depth race report from James’ perspective on www.jamescaterracing.com shortly.

Here is the onboard footage from qualifying: