Ginetta Challenge round 2, Rockingham races 1-3 and best result of 2013!

Wow, just, wow. The weekend started out great with a full 2 hours of track time Saturday, bring the lap times down and getting ready for the seriousness of the weekend. Rain in one session meant I had some quality time in car learning how the thing handled, throwing it into drifts and slides around the corners, and investigating the way it understeered or oversteered depending on the throttle.



Sunday morning was met with blue skies and balmy 16* weather, and a long free practice meant hot hot temps in the car, getting on for 40*+. Lots of water of course, hydration is very important, and I got ready to deal with the heat. That morning I had put on my new MOMO racing suit, and my god, the difference in comfort levels between it and my old Alpinestars suit was immense. I'm honestly hand on heart not saying this for any other reason other than it's true, but the MOMO line of gear is ridiculously immensely comfortable! In the car I noticed that the MOMO gear got rid of heat really well, and seemed to keep me a lot cooler, even though it was hotter than the last race. The suit, boots, and gloves are the most comfortable pieces of racing gear I've ever worn, or tried, go and check out their site to get your own! www.momo-uk.co.uk


(©Jakob Ebrey - Jakobebrey.com)

I of course used all the time I could during free practice. Lap times stayed consistent, not quite picking up the pace I would have liked, but in during the video I noticed something I hadn't in the car, I was thinking about the money. I was thinking about how on earth I'd fix the car if I smashed into the wall, or got collected by another car... this wasn't good for my speed.

A quick relaxation and focus session later, I was ready for qualifying. Bam, 2 seconds dropped and I was running 1:40s, no more negative thoughts, and I was driving the car as fast as I could figure out how. This put me 13th on the grid, about 2 seconds off 2nd place pace. Between qualifying and race 1, I spent considerable time studying data and looking at my videos to see where my time was, and it all seemed to be in the braking zones for corners, hmm something to work on during the race!



Race 1 was eventful, a slightly slow start for me lead to one or two places dropped, then I got stuck in the traffic heading down the inside of turn 2. Turn 2 is a sharp hairpin left, and when 15 cars are defending or trying to overtake down the inside, it get tight, quick. Lesson learned? Yeah, for race 2 go round the outside! During the rest of lap 1 of race 1, I climbed my way to 10th place, an accidental bit of contact between myself and teammate Jason Kenny left a tyre mark on the side of my car. A very solid race, with lap times almost identical to qualifying, meant I was a happy man at the end of day 1. Another top 10 finish, brilliant!

RACE 1 video



(©Jakob Ebrey - Jakobebrey.com)

Monday, day 2 of the event, and boy was it a good one. Early morning warm up, and on the old test tyres used for practice the day before, and magically a solid second had been dropped from my time! Having a clear head, being focused and not thinking about money is the easiest way to drive fast.



Race 2, again, started 13th, this was because in qualifying my fastest and second fastest times were just .15 of a second from each other. It's just as well the new MOMO suit is so comfortable and keeps body temps down, race two was even hotter than race 1, and I had to work even harder. Through turn 2, the hair pin, I stuck the car out wide and used the space to take a number of cars, and pushed my way into the top ten. Gradually working my way through a couple more cars, I picked my way to 5th, ready for a top 5 result! On laps 6, 7, and 8, I put in my fastest race laps of the weekend, 1:40.8, 1:40.4 and 1:40.6 respectively. On lap 8, my front sway bar link snapped, and about a second dropped out of my lap time, two laps and a lot of oversteer later, I lost out and moved into 6th place. I managed to hold onto 6th, over my team mate Thiago Calvet in 7th, for the remaining few laps, and took my best racing result of 2013, a fantastic 6th place!

RACE 2 video



(©Jakob Ebrey - Jakobebrey.com)

Race 3 was eventful. It will sound like racing drivers excuses, but I'll tell the story exactly how it happened. Between races 2 and 3, we discovered the front anti roll bar link had broken, but before I knew, I had said we should swap the tyres from front to rear, to counteract the oversteer I was having throughout the last half of race 2 (broken link). Just before heading out of the assembly area, the judicial camera decided not to work, and nearly made me miss the parade lap. However, all this lead to my best start of the weekend, picking up a place through turn 1, and fighting 3 abreast for 3rd going through turn 2, I get pushed very wide onto the grass and have to back off or lose more than just that battle. Through the first lap, I move from 6th into 7th, as I can't get the car to turn on and work for me, something didn't feel the same as race 2, it didn't want to work. Then during lap 2 the shift lights stopped working, and when momentum is everything, and hitting the limiter stops the cars acceleration dead in its tracks does serious damage for straight speed and getting out of corners quickly, it was a huge hit to pace. Throughout the race though I never gave up and tried as many different styles, turn ins, exits, and tricks as I could think of to bring the car back up to pace. I gradually lost places down to 10th, never letting a single one by without a fight though, the car may not be working, but I can make it defend!

I did manage, on the second to last lap of the race, get the pace back to 1:40.4, but by then all it did was make sure that a top 10 finish was in the bag, keeping 11th place at bay for the final lap.

(©Peter - motorsportpete flickr)

With two 10th, and one 6th place finish, pace and potential is showing up in spades, and it's only a matter of time before I'm standing on the steps of the podium. With the solid results from the weekend, I have also jumped into 9th in the championship, just 2 points behind 8th, and just 106 points behind 1st. With 15 races left in the year, anything can happen, and I will be working just as hard to smash my way into the top 5, which is currently occupied by 5 two year + veterans of G40 racing.



The MOMO GT3 BMW Z4 was running well until a mechanical failure took it out of the race.

Ginetta Challenge round 1, races 1-3

-Race videos are uploading, be patient and they'll come in and be part of the blog page, and the videos page-


Oulton Park, what can be said about that track... It's fast, flowing, and intimidating, and quite frankly, fantastic. It's one of the best, and most technical track I've driven, and up there with Laguna Seca as the most fun I've had driving a track. Friday 29th was the test day, and allowed me to get out on track for the first time, and what a track it is. By session two I was working purely on bringing the lap times down, eventually getting to a 1:59. However, the slicks I was running wouldn't allow for anything less than that. They were quite old, and just weren't capable of the grip needed to go faster.



Friday afternoon I was presented with the gloves and boots of my MOMOUK deal. MOMO know what they're doing, honestly, what beautiful gear. The gloves are comfortable and fit like... gloves... good clean craftsmanship. The boots are comfortable, and fit my wide feet well, plus the look awesome in black and red! Through the in-car videos, you can see the fitment for the gloves, and how well they grip the wheel and gear knob.



Saturday-

-Qualifying-
This was the first piece of competitive driving I've done since last October, and it was stacking up to go pretty well. a 1:59 or 58, very doable with the times I was posting the day before, would have put me within the top 12 on the grid, a solid starting point to work from. However, I had forgotten that the day before I was running almost full rear brake bias to deal with the old tyres. This combined with relatively cold tyres sent me into the gravel on lap 3. The rear wheels locked as I braked for Cascades, a fast left hander that goes down hill. The braking point is a crest in the road, and due to the brake bias the rear wheels locked, and sent the car into a spin faster than you can imagine. Thankfully I had completed enough laps to race, and gained a p19 start for race 1 (2:02 lap time) and a p23 start for race 2 (2:08 lap time). Race 3 grid positions would be the results of race 2.



-Race 1-
I wasn't particularly happy with my qualifying results, who would be, but I put it behind me and focused on the race. Something I was always good at in Caterhams was starting, though the G40s are a new car, and require a very different technique for getting them off the line. As this was the first race of the year, and only the 3rd time I had done a race start in a G40, my usual ability to take 4 cars on the pit straight may not happen. It did turn out to be a rather good start, the G20s behind had a little jump due to their lighter chassis, but I gained a G40 on the start, and went into the first corner ready to take the G20s between T1 and T2. Round T1 and there are spinning Ginettas everywhere, with lots of traffic, no time to think about overtaking, just avoid, get through clean and take the positions during the rest of the lap. I made it through the mayhem, and continued the race. With some clean overtakes, and one place lost to another G40, I finished in a comfortable and successful 10th place, 9 places up.

Throughout the race my lap times had been getting faster as my time on the track had gone up, and my confidence in the car had improved. I made it into the low 1:58s by the end of race 1, a good time considering how little track time I had. I gained 11 championship points for 10th.

Race 1 video:





-Race 2-
After the crazy start to race 1, surely race 2 would be a bit calmer, and there would be fewer crashes and issues. Nope, not at all! A major crash stopped race 2 before a full lap had been completed. Several front runner G40s span and collided, but the major crash was between a G20 and a G40. Amazingly, I managed to thread the needle through spinning Ginettas and avoid incident... well, except for a graze down the drivers side!

For the restart, the cars were re-gridded in our original positions, so I was still way down in 23rd, and the spinners from upfront were back safe and sound in grid. Lots of work to do then. Brilliant! My restart was not quite as good as the first, but was still quick and pulled the time back as we got to the first corner. I was up 2 positions by the end of T2, and ready to gain more as the race went on. My team mate Jason Kenny was my closest rival for race 2, with him finishing just in front of me in 13th. In race two I realized I needed more time in the car to gain the confidence to make passes and defend. I lost 1 or 2 places because I couldn't adequately defend my position, which was frustrating. With work, simulator time, and a couple test days at Rockingham to sort out, round 2 with race 1, 2, and 3 will be ones to watch. Through race 2 I had brought my lap times even closer to the 1:57 mark, a 1:58.1. 7 champ points earned for 14th.



Race 2 mayhem 1st start:


Race 2 restart video:


-Race 3-
I was starting very very close to the top 10 this time, in 14th place! I was ready for whatever this race would bring, even alien intervention. After avoiding the mayhem of both races 1 and 2, I was confident in being able to handle whatever came my way. Jason Kenny, in 13th, and I both got solid starts keeping our car on the black stuff, allowing us pull up to 9th and 10th by the end of T2. After a number of 1st lap dives trying to get past Kenny, I had a couple very bad lock ups going into the 2nd chicane, leading to a gap forming. However, I was running faster lap times, well into the 1:57s and low 1:58s, I would gain, then lock, lose out, gain lock, lose out. After the 3rd straightline I remembered my brake bias, and adjusted one full turn backwards. This fixed the locking and I started gaining on P9 and 10 again. Two yellow flag zones, on the second to last lap meant I was right on the tail of 10th place Pointon. Not quite being able to make the move for the last lap, I got a fantastic run out of the last corner, but couldn't quite make the pass before the finish line. Fastest lap a 1:57:7, just 4 seconds off the fastest lap of the day, by someone who knew the track and cars better than I. I know the potential for myself to set fastest laps is there, time in the car at Rockingham and the remaining tracks will prove as such. 10 champ. points for 11th.

Race 3 video:



All 3 races were fantastic, I loved driving every single minute of them. For Rockingham I will be putting in some much needed seat time at test days and in the sim. I can't deal with not having the confidence to drive to my full potential any more. The media day let me see how fast I can be in that car, right down the throats of podium finishes, I'll only get there with seat time. I'm working harder than ever to make this happen, as it is ever more important to me to show my pace.

After all that happened this weekend, I ended up 10th in the championship! Room for improvement, but a good solid base to start a charge for the top 3.

That's all folks, tune in for blogs throughout this off-month, as I'll still be doing track bits!

Rockingham is on the 5th and 6th of May, come say hello, check out the car, and see how awesome the Ginetta series atmosphere is.


I know you like the look of the new MOMO gear, so use the link here on the site to go check their gear out! Get your own sexy Italian racing gear, steering wheels, and more.
www.momo-uk.co.uk

Biggest news! MOMO UK partnership!

www.momo-uk.co.uk

MOMO, the well known and successful racing brand, has joined with me for 2013, becoming my first official partner in the journey to professional Motorsports. I'm super excited, and have been bursting to share this news since I heard I was chosen last Friday! To be honest actually, I nearly cried with joy at the news.

You will notice I have added a MOMO image to the right of my blog, this is a direct link to MOMO UK's website, click on it and check them out! There's a huge range of product available, seats, steering wheels, wheels, and of course their fantastic range of racing gear. Some more changes to my site will be made through the remainder of this week, nothing major but you will notice them.

MOMO UK is doing some spectacular work this year by supporting a select number of drivers, from grass roots to British GT. There's just one driver (myself) in the Ginetta Challenge, 2 cars in British GT, the 888Optimum Motorsport GT3 BMW of Daniel Brown and Steve Tandy, and the Readgate Consulting/Lifetime Racing GT4 Ginetta G50 entry of Dan Eagling and Matt Smith, Radical SR3 racer Bradley Smith, and grass roots BMW drivers Stuart Voyce and Mike Tovey

I'll be competing throughout the year in brand new MOMO racing suit, boots, and gloves, something I'm eagerly looking forward to! It's going to be Christmas in March when the box of goodies arrives. I will of course be taking pictures as I unpack, and will take a full length for those interested ;-). This is certainly the beginning of something great.

This is a very exciting major step forward in the journey towards professional Motorsport, I'm sure it will lead to great things.

Something tells me this is going to be a spectacular year!

Ginetta Media Day - best day testing in ages!

Ginetta really know how to put on a day! They must have booked the sun months ago, because it ws a beautiful day out, bright skies and warm tarmac. Optimum, as always, handled the day brilliantly, everything ran smoothly, and the car was in peak physical and mechanical condition. All bodes well.

I spent the morning sessions blowing the cobwebs out, and just making sure I was still putting down consistent times, to random "lucky" laps, or any one lap slow one lap fast shenanigans. After the first 20 minutes, it was clear that, yeah, I was still rocking the consistency side of things. That meant I could do nothing but bash the lap times for the rest of the day. Second session, lap times down to a solid base for the afternoon, about 1.5 seconds behind the current pace.

After the lunch break, I jumped back in the beast (named Ripley, I think all my racing cars will carry that name...), and started kicking the times down. 10 out of the 15 or so laps in session 3 were well over a second faster, with the remaining 5 or so about the same as session 2. Fantastic! Current fastest lap after session 3 was under a second off the pace, now that's workable!

Session 4 went amazingly well, lap 3 saw a spin going into Maggotts. An error on my part sent the rear round faster than I could blink. I simply didn't blip the downshift from 3rd into 2nd enough, the rear wheels locked and it just rotated. No worries, threw it into first half way through the spin, got it the rest of the way round, dropped the clutch and continued on for the rest of the lap, and session. Turns out I ran about 5 or 6 seconds slower on that lap... and it had a full 360 in it!

By the end of session 4, and indeed the day, I was sitting a comfortable ~.5 off the pace! The best part being, for 90% of the session, my times were within a few tenths of themselves.

Considering that I haven't touched a track, or car, since October last year, that's brilliant headway for this season. Last year I struggled to put fast laps down outside of a race, and for practice and qually, this meant I was behind the pace by too much to be able to pull the places needed for podiums.

This year though... Well, here's the video of my last two runs, and see why I'm so stoked for the 2013 Ginetta Challenge!



And, for your viewing pleasure, the spin during the last session.

My first press release

Well, this just made my day!

http://www.ginetta.com/news_article?id=1041

It somehow make it all more official, having written up and released to the world by someone else.

The first race is way too far away!

Passion

Well, over the weekend all has been pretty much confirmed for my years drive in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge. Still getting the last little bits finalized, so a full release of details such as team, is coming shortly.

It has been really hard work up to this point, and it's only going to get harder. With 2014 a complete no-go unless I find some sponsorship this year! I relish the challenge though, I am determined to win, and even more determined to continue racing for many years to come.

Racing is a passion many of us share, but few get to experience, and fewer get to get paid to experience. Just the other day it was announced that Timo Glock, a fantastically talented driver, had been dumped from the Marussia F1 team in favor of a driver with less talent, but more money. What if all talent and passion for something had to be followed closely by money? We would have no Xgames, no surfing competitions, frankly, no passion driven sports championships or competitions of any kind.

Well, that's not quite true, we would, but it would be rich against rich, and where's the fun in that? The speed of the sport, and quite possibly, the innovations and passion for the sport would diminish greatly. Who wants to watch a bunch of rich people show off the fact that they can do what they want? The true meaning of sport is to follow a dream no matter the cost, through thick and thin, to overcome fears, comfortzones, and blast down walls and doors that are put in place to stop that dream coming true.

That's why our passion for motorsports should grow, sharing it world wide, and allowing those with talent to compete, over those with money.

I am training myself physically and mentally for the racing season ahead, so that I can do everything in my power to win every race and the championship. Why? Because I love to race. Which brings me on to the fact that I'm spending every waking hour hunting anything remotely related to sponsorship. Talking with the best in the business, cold calling, emailing, calling in favors with friends and family. Passion drives many things in life, relationships, work, care for a pet... in me it drives a want, no a need to improve myself and the world I'm a part of.

My support page, and coming back to blogging!

While I have been away for some time, I will be coming back to regular blog posts about my racing endeavors, and even the adventure it has been... sorry still currently is, to find the money to race.

I may have been away, but I certainly wasn't sitting idle! I have been working hard day, and most nights, trying to get the upcoming racing season off the ground. I have spent a lot of time making powerpoint proposals, sending them off all over the world, and getting zero responses. I have spent even longer making personalized, individual powerpoint proposals designed around one company, only to get zero feedback, not even a "don't bother us any more". This has all been very disheartening, surely money shouldn't stop the pursuit of dreams and passions so violently. Surely a small racing budget can be found somehow.

Forever the optimist, I scoured the web trying to find anything that could help me reach my dream, and race in 2013. Finally, a crowd sourcing website called gofundme turned up, and through it I came up with a very fun way for people to join in. My support page has just been revamped, modernized, and is all new and exciting! My gofundme webpage, http://www.gofundme.com/TorMcIlroyRacing2013 has everything you need to know about me, and my forthcoming year. But, I will share anyway, as I just love talking about racing, and cars.

I will be competing in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, a extremely exciting, riviting, popular, and busy one-make racing series, based around the Ginetta G40 racing car. One-make means that all the cars in the field are the exact same model, like Nascar but smaller and can turn right. Because all the cars are identical, the drivers make the difference between winning or losing, which makes the racing very close, hot blooded, and nail biting! However, I am struggling to find the money to compete in this fantastic series... It's out of my work budget, and selling the Caterham wont cover the cost either. I have spent the last 2 months feverishly hunting sponsorship, hence my absence from this blog, and haven't managed to stir even a finger in response.

That's why I started the gofundme page, http://www.gofundme.com/TorMcIlroyRacing2013, because I came to the realization that if people stuffed their arm into their sofa, they'd probably pull out £10 worth of coins. If 2000 people did that, and entered into our enormous sponsorship family through gofundme,  half the budget for the racing season would be found. With 7 square meters of coverable space on the G40, there's more than enough space for 5000 people, and that would healthily cover the racing budget for this year.

Space you ask? Why does he need space if people are giving him money? Ah, well, that's where it changes, you get to send a picture of your choice (nothing explicit or rude), that would get placed on the car, for the whole entire season. You would also receive a standard A4 sized professionally printed picture of the car in race trim, and on the track. Autographed as well of course.

That's £10 that would have sat in the sofa for the next decade, going towards helping someone live a dream, while getting yourself something in return.

You see, it's not a one way street, it's not give and take, it's give and give. Also available are many higher levels, including season tickets to race weekends, and track days with tuition.

As I say in my support page, you can also contact me if you want more... more? More means exclusive opportunities and experiences what only racing sponsors can get, the "money-can't-buy" scene that everyone longs to be a part of. 

Feel free to E-mail (sponsorship -at- torminator.com), and we can have a chat about what you can provide, but more importantly, what I can provide you in return.