ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM

News from our racing driver following the Oulton Park meeting last weekend:-

Well what started off as a very promising race day ended in complete disaster.

As I mentioned last week the car was ready and I was happy with it during qualifying, I had no one around me that was quick enough to follow (the trick is to let them drag you around so you learn the racing lines and braking points) so I made my own way around and tried my best – I recorded a time of 2.08m, over 2 seconds quicker than anyone in my class which I was obviously very happy about.

It was a mega hot day and I was afraid the tyres might start to lose their grip towards the end of the race so I adjusted my tyre pressures accordingly. The hot weather meant there was little cool air to flow through the radiator so I would have to keep an eye on my water temperature gauge as well.

When the race got underway I started well and held position into the first corner, I soon caught the cars in front and started picking my way through them – I had started in 10th place overall at the beginning and by the 4th lap I was up to 4th overall!

The car was going really well and I had pulled some pretty outrageous manoeuvres to get to 4th place on much faster cars when I slightly over revved the engine whilst changing down the gears for a slower chicane. As I accelerated out of the corner I changed from 3rd to 4th gear and the gearbox got stuck in 4th so when I went to change into 5th on the long straight up to the fast Druids Corner it wouldn’t go in and the engine got over revved again causing the con rod bolts to snap clean in half. The con rod exited through the top of the engine leaving a piston sized hole in the engine block.

The next round is in only 2 weeks and I need to completely rebuild the engine block.

Wayne our hearts went out to you. Good luck with the re-build and we will be routing for you again at your next meeting in a couple of weeks at Rockingham. As that old Latin saying goes Illegitimi Non Carborundum – in other words Wayne don’t let the bastards grind you down!

MY FAVOURITE RACING DRIVER

As a company we sponsor a young racing driver who is doing rather well this year. Good luck in your next race at Oulton Park next weekend Wayne, we are all routing for you.

And this is a photograph of the young man accepting a trophy for the best newcomer which was presented to him at Silverstone. Note the slightly reserved smile, he hadn’t long found out that he had been excluded from his first win as described below!

For the racing aficionados amongst you this is a record of his last race at Silverstone on 24th March this year.

Hi to everyone at Infotel, I hope you’re all ok!

Well Saturday was interesting to say the least, I went through as many emotions as possible (I think).

I qualified 2nd in class D and 10th overall (from 37 cars) on the Silverstone International layout which I have never driven before so I was quite happy with that.

In the race I had the lead of class D by the time I had got to the first corner, and then the top 3 of us traded places for 2 laps before I got my head down and drove away from them.

The car was really good, the new engine is amazing and the Toyo tyres were fantastic – this really boosted my confidence during the race and I pushed even harder, I soon caught 2 cars that were running in classes B and C (both modified, special gearbox, slick tyres etc) and we had a real good tussle with me passing them both through Priory on one lap but the class C car (Alfa 155 3.0 V6) was just too fast on the straights and although I could outbrake him on every slow corner when we got onto the straights he would just blast past me – it was hard work for 25 minutes and especially in the final few laps when we started lapping the slower cars (some of them were in my class!).

And that’s how the race ended, I won my class by over 8 seconds, set fastest lap by 1.1 seconds and was only 0.5 second off the lap record – all in all a pretty good days work, I was delighted to take my first win but the feeling didn’t last too long as I was called up to see the Clerk of the Course (the boss of the circuit).

He proceeded to tell me that a marshal had observed me passing under yellow flags through a fast corner very early in the race when I was still running with my own class cars – problem was that I was already making a move on the outside so his car blocked my view of the marshal’s post so I never had a chance of seeing the flags, this was compounded by the other driver making an official protest and hence I was excluded from the result and given 4 penalty points on my race license.

I’m obviously disappointed, especially as I though it a little unnecessary for the other driver to complain – if I had seen the flags I would have let him back through – I was over a second a lap faster than him so he wasn’t a threat and I had nothing to gain by it, he ended up 20 seconds behind me at the finish and 4th in class so it was a little academic.

I can take some positives out of this though, I had the measure of my entire class (14 cars in this race) and I proved I could overtake by running with the bigger cars and passing them – on the unofficial results I was actually classified 5th overall and was still on the lead lap at the end of the race, everyone behind me had been lapped, that is quite an achievement in itself!

Oulton Park is in 3 weeks and I’m really looking forward to it now, I fully intend to go and win my class – I proved I can do it and fully intend to do it for every race I participate in this year, my car is set up really well and the engine is just awesome.
I have attached some small pictures of the race.
Hope to speak soon.

ps, hope you like the graphics – I went for a different material this time with no backing so each square and piece of text goes on individually – I think the car looks brilliant!

Many thanks
Wayne Ashford
Matrix Trainer
Hexcel

wayne.ashford@hexcel.com

One final comment from me (Mr Grumpy will testify to the fact that I like the last word). A nicer, more charming and charamatic young man you could not wish to meet. Once again Wayne, good luck at Oulton Park this weekend.