Spa race report by Jay Shepherd

Back on track

Spa, I just love it, how can you not. Almost as good as my favourite, The Nordschliefe, the circuit flows; it’s fast and on the money for the scenery. I just wish they liked us being there a little more as they always seem to rush and push us with regards the services and time tables. That’s for another time but those in the know will understand my comments.

It was a long weekend as the track time laid on for us was scarce to say the least. Arriving Thursday to test for one hour on the Friday for three drivers was pushing it and on top of that waiting around most of the day on Saturday for yet again a very limited qualifying session of 30 mins for three drivers was very testing for our patience and budget.

For this race, we at long last had our fuel collector pot fitted so no more problems from fuel starvation Yee Ha!

Practice was short but without too much drama apart from having to share the track with 85 DSC drivers who were bound to have an off and bring out a red flag, this of course happen as expected and further cut back the time available, otherwise, all was OK car wise.

The Qualifying session finally got underway late on Saturday, Rod was to drive first on a damp but quickly drying track, Rod was sent to explore only and report back. I just wish for his sake that he had more driving/practice time but alas, we had to make haste, but no sooner had he entered the car it was time to hand over to Jan so he could complete his obligatory three laps. Our objective was to set pole if possible and get us higher up the grid for a good start. Our main competitors, the Jones brothers, had not entered so it was the Ferrari of my friends Bailey and Schulz who we would chase for Pole.

I still didn’t feel happy out on the track that the brakes were working, or properly balanced. I had mentioned this at each of the last three races, but somehow my comments were lost in the usual excitement that we all enjoy during a race weekend, so with the problem still in play, it was therefore slightly tricky to set pole position for the race.

It was a pleasure in the sense of good sportsmanship to hear that the Ferrari of Schulz and Bailey had just piped us to the place as I know it was a real buzz for Paul and Andy as it had been for ourselves to get the number one spot, but I was sure the race would prove better for us even with three pit stops. Time to relax and spend some time with my family, but there was still time to contemplate the day’s events and consider our chances for the main race.

Race day at long last, and the Sunday weather lived up to the day’s title; it was beautiful and very hot. I had mentioned to Rod and Jan that a roof vent would aid the cooling for all of us and Neil had arranged for it to be fitted at the workshop prior to setting out for Spa, thankfully it definitely worked.

It was decided that I was to drive first; this was not something that I was convinced about as I’m not that fond of starting in case of problems that then deny Jan or Rod of their drive, but Jan and Rod know their onions when it comes to strategy and usually make sound decisions. We weren’t sure whether Jan was going to drive but as it happened, he was fine and fully recovered from his recent ankle injury, so we all drove, which made me happier, as I was pleased to see the team as one.

Not more than ten minutes before the race, I had a question for the team on the brake issue and it transpired that my thoughts that the brakes were not set right were indeed correct. We established that we had been way out on our settings and we therefore re-adjusted to see if this would work as it should have done and re-kindle my faith in Porsche’s renowned braking quality. It was to be a slightly risky move as it was only in the warm up lap that I could test the adjustment to see if it had been the right decision or not, it worked a treat.

The first time I pressed the brakes I almost went through the screen, my braking distance had halved and it took a little while to adjust to it to be fair. Before I went out I mentioned to Jan and Rod that I had found something that I thought could improve the car, but I couldn’t tell them what I had in mind just in case I was wrong, I should trust myself more me thinks.

I was chomping at the bit to go and pushed like hell as soon as we were free to race, the car was the best it had been thus far, but under steered like mad, at every turn it wanted to go straight, but hey, that was something I, and we, had to live with. My time in the car seemed to fly by and after 50 odd minutes, I handed over to Jan.

Jan had a shorter stint than me but got the job done really well, good pace and he seemed much more relax overall than he had thus far this season, apart from the under steer, he said the car was great. It was always going to be a tall order to get a good result with three driver stops but that was the deal and we would all have to step up to the mark and push to the flag. A slick set of changes in the pit stops helped us; again the Neil Garner Motorsport team were on the money.

Rod was ready for the handover from Jan and we informed him that everything was good and that new tyres would be fitted for his stint, we told him to push as much as possible and he did just that, lap times were consistent and he was peddling like mad, in a bid to catch the Marcos of the Top Cats team which was ahead of us. Rod tried to close the gap but the race came to an end a lap or two to early as he may have been able to snatch the win if we had another lap or two given that the gap was now down to 7 secs. However, it was not to be, it was still a great finish to the race and a brilliant result for us all. I just love racing with these guys and wish we could all do more of it.

Onwards and upwards hopefully, to the next round at Castle Combe if indeed we decide to enter.