Brands Hatch 31 August/1 September 2013 - Ford Fiesta ST and Fiesta Junior
Fiesta Junior:
After Snetterton, the Fiesta was back with Auto Integrale for the now customary after race repairs. A second hand door sourced from local breakers ASM even turned up in the right shade of silver, the rear bumper needed cleaning up, but the o/s rear wheel arch had taken a knock, and all the paint on the n/s front bumper had been burned off in contact. While in the bodyshop, we also had the passenger seat rails put back in, and the fire extinguisher was recharged and treated to new cables, the pull moved such that Geri could reach it.
As this event fell during the school holidays, we took the opportunity to test on the Friday ahead of the meeting. An early start ensured we arrived at the circuit by 8:30am, the expected Friday morning M25 traffic not materialising. Not only was Geri going to be testing, we had lined up James Whelan to offer guidance and occupy the passenger seat. We thought it would be interesting to see what difference testing and instruction would make, previously Geri has had to learn circuits from YouTube and was still getting up to speed during race 2.
James arrived shortly afterwards and they were soon out on track. We weren't overly worried about lap times, with a full tank of fuel, passenger seat, harness and of course James, Geri would have been running 100kgs plus over the weight limit. Geri did a dozen or so laps, a bit aggressively and then came back into the pits for a debrief. For all the extra weight, Geri seemed to be holding his own out on track. This went on for three sessions with James sitting in the car on some occasions and out of the car watching from various parts of the track on others. We weren't sure what constituted a decent lap time, Geri was running consistent 59s with James, and mid 58s without him (but still with the seat and harness in place).
We had to go out in the 4th and final session of the day late Friday afternoon but the team noticed that the hot weather and extra weight had taken its toll on the front tyres, if we carried on they wouldn't be fit for the weekend. So we packed up and went home, a nightmare journey where the M25 lived up to its reputation. Overnight Daniels Motorsport took out the seat, harness and runners and got the car ready for the morning's practice session.
We had another early start, getting up at 6am so we could be trackside bright and early - or more to the point, so we could join the queue for the HP Tyres truck for 2 new tyres. We even brought along a pair of wheels so we could save yesterday's front tyres for later in the day. Despite the early start it still took 75 minutes to get the tyres fitted, by then we were all scrutineered and ready to go.
Two new drivers joined the series, Thomas Grundy and Nathan Edwards - Thomas had tested on slicks on Friday and looked quick, but a new set of treaded tyres on Saturday took more getting used to.
Practice:
We sent Geri out with instructions to run 3 brisk laps, then a slow one and then push - he did just that, and on lap 6 straight after his slow lap, he ran into the 57s with 57.772 - at the time this had Geri second on the leader board, but he would eventually finish the session in 6th place just 3/10ths off fastest. Most of his subsequent laps had been in the 58s until the final one where he posted 57.934. We were 6th but full of optimism for qualifying being so close to pole in terms of time.
Qualifying:
Conventional wisdom with treaded tyres is that new ones are "mushy" and ideally should be shaved, while worn ones start approaching slicks and go quicker. So we put the old tyres back on the front for the qualifying session, last session of the day at 18:00, so a long day for Geri. Geri seemed to be struggling, it took 4 laps to get into the 58s, laps 6 to 8 brought three 58.1s, and after slowing to cool off for a lap, Geri was speeding up again just as the session was red flagged. Natasha had put a wheel into the gravel going down Paddock, her Fiesta suddenly speared across the track and hard into the tyre wall (watch the video here) - thankfully she was OK, more testament to the strength of these cars. Geri was disappointed to finish 8th after such a promising morning, he was honest enough to say that he did everything just the same as the morning, but not as well!
With that we retired to our accommodation for the night, the Brands Hatch Thistle, and were discussing race tactics for the morning when we heard that poleman Alex Read had been disqualified, as had Nathan for issue with front suspension drop links that we still don't understand - a bit harsh for Alex but alas rules is rules and all that. That promoted Geri to 7th on the grid and threw out his pre-race planning!
Race 1:
It was a little cooler first thing Sunday morning, but already warming up again as the race went ahead just before 11am. Geri got a flying start overtaking first Aaron, then JJ (5th and 6th on the grid) and running up alongside Rory (too much wheelspin saw him fall back from his front row slot). But Geri was unable to judge that he was a full car length clear of Aaron, he couldn't see him in his mirrors so backed out thinking Aaron was alongside as he turned into Paddock - this allowed JJ, Aaron and then Alex charging from the back to pass Geri into Paddock - from 7th to 5th and back to 8th,. all before exiting the first corner. Coming down from Graham Hill, there were two separate incidents - ben had contacted with Rory up front, Ben went off very wide on the outside of the track and would rejoin behind Geri, and Michael and Aaron touched which sent Michael outside on the grass. Michael was able to get back on track just in front of Geri with enough momentum to stay in front to Surtees.
Picture courtesy of James Roberts
Ben was chasing Geri hard, often there was barely daylight between then and Geri was forced to drive defensively. On lap 2 Geri had a big slide under pressure into Graham Hill, another slide into Clearways allowed Michael and the leaders to get away. Michael passed Alex on lap 3, up front Rob and Rory were having a great battle, and Aaron was up to third place ahead of JJ, with Michael and up next as the cars separated into pairs along the track. Alex and Michael were slowly closing in on Aaron and JJ, turning the battle for 3rd into a 4 way contest by lap 5, Alex was back in front of Michael now.
At the start of lap 6, Geri was fighting the Fiesta to get it through Paddock and having to run very defensively, even more so through Graham Hill. On lap 7 Ben ran up the inside into Druids, but Geri pulled out his famous karting move and cut back inside tightly to repass Ben coming out of Druids. On the run down to Graham Hill ben tapped Geri from behind, the rear stepped out and Geri ran across the inside kerb at Graham Hill. But he had been slowed enough to allow Ben better drive out of the corner, ben pulled alongside down the Cooper Straight and had the inside line into Surtees where he completed the overtake.
By lap 9 it was evident that Geri's tyres were shot - another big understeer moment into Graham Hill demonstrating his lap of grip. Geri could only run mid to low 58s while Ben, now free was in the 57s along with the other front runners. Geri was pushing on gamely, but losing a second a lap, was falling away.
Picture courtesy of James Roberts
On lap 18, JJ was still trying to pass Aaron for 3rd place when they came together, leaving JJ stationary on the track at Graham Hill facing upwards - Geri came by on the outside to find he was gaining on Nathan - Thomas had unfortunately retired from the race by this point. Geri built up speed and lapped Nathan going into Paddock. On lap 20 it went wrong for Aaron, he came in far too hot into Paddock, ran wide into the gravel where it looked like he would be stuck. Somehow he made it out leaving a giant dust cloud when Geri came round. but Geri was far too far behind to take advantage. The race ended after 21 laps, with Rory taking his maiden win from Rob and Alex taking third after starting at the back. Geri was 7th behind Michael, Ben and Aaron, but 18 seconds ahead of championship leader JJ - we would have taken that gladly if offered before the race, but then we would have expected JJ to be at the front!
More fun after the race - Rob protested Rory, they had been very close for the first 18 laps before Rob lost 3 seconds but video evidence cleared Rory who kept the race win. The clerks also investigated Aaron and JJ's incident but found JJ at fault and gave him 2 points on his licence.
Watch Geri's in car video of race 1 here.
Race 2:
Once again Geri would start 7th - this time we put him back on the new tyres, the ones from race 1 were visibly ruined and useless. Another good start saw Geri quickly gain on Ben and Aaron ahead, but there was no gap between then and Geri was held up. More of that going into Paddock as Aaron cut across in front of Ben forcing Ben and then Geri to slow. JJ had got by so Geri was down to 8th on the run up to Druids, but it wasn't JJ's day. More contact with Aaron saw JJ half spin, JJ was pushed into Alex who almost did the same but recovered. Geri and Ben were able to pass JJ and Geri moved up into 7th place.
Geri was alongside Aaron exiting Druids, but Aaron had better drive and was first to Graham Hill. Worse, Ben ran down the inside forcing Geri out wide and dropping Geri back to 7th, Geri losing time as he recovered from the wide line. Up front Rob and Rory were running very close, such that the commentator was getting concerned about driving standards, but they seemed OK from our vantage point in the stands. Geri was now chasing Aaron hard, on lap 4 he tried to inside Aaron at Druids but Aaron shut the door. At Clearways Michael put a wheel on the outside and spun round, Geri moved inside and up into 6th place, now half a second behind around and only 3.8 seconds off the lead. More importantly. he had a 4 second cushion over JJ.
Lap 5 and Geri tried again at Druids, and again Aaron shut the door, Geri lost time and fell nearly a second back now. Lap 6 and to our surprise the commentator said "I don't know where that has come from, but Geri Nicosia has just set fastest lap"! A 57.531 as he pulled right back up on Aaron, the gap back down to 3/10ths. Aaron went very wide into Paddock on lap 7 now Geri was right on his tail but managed to hold the car and get round. Geri set the 2nd fastest lap of the race on lap8, on laps 8 and 9 Geri was all over Aaron going into Druids but could not find the way through. Geri was pushing Aaron along, and they both closed up on Alex. We hoped that Alex would defend and slow Aaron, but it didn't work out that way. After 8 laps, Geri had the gap to the leaders down to 2.6 seconds even though he was still 6th.
Geri continued to chase, Aaron continued to stay in front. On lap 14 Geri lapped Thomas on the run up to Druids, on lap 16 Geri lapped Nathan in the same place. Geri was really pushing now, on lap 17 he put a wheel into the gravel at the bottom of Paddock but managed to keep control, but at Graham Hill he didn't connect properly with the brake pedal (he missed!) and lost a second to Aaron. On lap 20 the pack lapped Thomas again - Thomas' car was having problems and was cutting out intermittently - but Geri caught him going into Surtees and had to back off despite Thomas' best efforts to keep out of the way. This opened up the gap to Aaron, Aaron was now challenging Alex hard for 4th place.
Last lap, Aaron made a bid to pass Alex inside Clearways, the trademark Jason Plato move - but once on the grass the car slid, Alex got away and Geri closed right up. As they rounded Clearways onto the straight, the chequered flag came out. Aaron held on to 5th by half a second with Geri gaining fast - one more lap and who knows.......
No trophy for Geri this time, the Rookie of the Day award went to Thomas in his first race, though Aaron must have been in with a shout for a good days' driving.
But equally no damage to the Fiesta except for Ben’s paint across the rear bumper, hopefully that will clean off.
Watch Geri's in car video of race 2 here.
Next time out is Donington in two weeks, being back at school means going back to learning the circuit on YouTube!
Please see the official race report here.
Check out the Fiesta Junior points standing.
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