How to win your first race
by Neil Burgess
Piccies coming soon!
Ok, so maybe not, but you are reading this now! Unfortunately, between building my Mighty Mini race car and putting together the MCR magazine I have not had much time to fill you all in on my progress. After lots of help by my father, friends, Simon Maxted, Andy Croft, Roger "The Hat" Wall, Martin Garad, Ian Beaton, all the guys at the Mini Shop (my sponsors - Chris, Simon and the three Pauls), Louise at Utopia Signs, Meaghan Lucas and all the works and ex-works people that have offered me advice (Basil Wales, Barrie Williams, Brian Cameron, John Brigden etc) [Oscar bit over], we finished the car after a full day with Simon at Langley Autocraft at 11.15pm.
The next morning (29th March) was the first race of the season at Mallory Park. Adding to our early start, the clocks went forwards one hour. This left us with an effective wake-up time of 5am - yawn!
Simon and Andy arrived in time to hear a nasty crunch as the middle exhaust hanger complained at the request to climb onto a hired trailer. It was not long before we were all on our way. As this was the first real opportunity I had to think about the forthcoming race I began to worry. So far I had only driven the car 40 miles, 30 of those with the engine running like a pig and 10 with the car correctly setup (so far as we were aware), down dark country lanes. There was also the thing of this shiny silver 1992 Mini Cooper (named Purdey). Purchased as a stolen recovered car, after many hours spent prepping the vehicle there was nothing wrong (so we thought). It just seemed just a waste to take such a rare colour of Cooper racing.
After trying to follow Autoroute‘s directions off of the motorway at an entry only junction we found ourselves doing a navigational rally to the circuit. Time was getting short. Mallory Park is a quirky circuit as to get vehicles into the paddock, they have to travel along the track to get into the centre. This of course makes things interesting if you are late. Luckily we were on time.
Pulling into the paddock we were greeted by James with Meaghans sister, Georgia who directed us to a parking space. Once we had rolled the car off the trailer (with another crunch from the exhaust bracket) I was dragged off to a drivers briefing by the (thankfully) organised Meaghan. This was basically a "watch out there are corners in the way" type talk interspersed with useful stuff.
The next step was scrutineering. I must of looked nervous, however the scrutineer was friendly and fair (he passed me!). The only modification I need to do is remove the rear bonnet pins that took hours to fit and refit standard hinges - that's going to be fun given the extent to which we removed them...
After this there was some last minute fettling by the ever attentive Andy and Simon before qualifying. Its fair to say that I was a bag of nerves before this, pushing a strange car hard on a strange circuit did not seem like the best idea. However I soon forgot all that nonsense and was doing my best John "Smoking" Rhodes impression around all the corners that were fourth gear apart from the hairpin which I appeared to do rather well at. I was quite chuffed after qualifying, I had overtaken a few people including Meaghan (sorry!) who has had experience in Australian sprints (however later it transpired that she had engine problems). I really hit cloud nine when the results were out. From a grid of 21 I had qualified in 11th place, 1.66 seconds behind pole Sam Roach. Friends had various luck, Paul Clark 2nd, Stuart Clark 6th, Keith Wheeler 18th and Meaghan 20th.
As you can understand I was a little vague at first when quizzed by Simon and Andy about how to make the car go faster, however I managed to get my feelings across and proceeded to check if I was dreaming by pinching myself whilst they fiddled with suspension and cleaned the windscreen with Lucazade (!).
After a while I got dragged off to another compulsory drivers briefing by Meaghan (I'm glad someone was awake!), after which I began to return to reality.
Then I realised it was time to race, reality jumped out the window and I started the pre-drive panic again. This was the first time I met the new MCR editor Andy with his friend Ange. I was in gibbering idiot mode (much like the last time we spoke on the 'phone as I was trying to build the car) so I must of made a good impression!
Anyway off to the paddock again. I was blocked in by some big lorry so had to go the long way round. By the time I had found the paddock (got lost again) everyone else was there. We were supposed to line up in qualifying order. This was where I really realised how well I had done... Driving past all those names on that bit of paper to get to my spot. (22 cars in the race for some reason)
By this time there was drizzle on the track just to make things REALLY slippery. After a parade lap we all lined up on the grid. We waited for the flag, that went... Then we waited for the red lights... They went out, a slight pause then green and we were off... Well that's how I planned it. What really happened was that the green lights signalled my view to become full of other Minis passing me. Hmmm... Some practice required here. According to my team, I dropped back to 17th position. Although I was not counting the cars I knew I had fallen well behind. "Right" I thought "I'm not having that!" so off I went in pursuit of the first Mini infront of me owned by a motorsport company. After a few laps I managed to pass him going into the Esses - cool time to build on this! The next couple of cars I gradually reeled in and overtook after the hairpin much to the delight of my supporters that were waving madly at me throughout the race from the banking just after that corner - which gave me a fantastic morale boost. I soon realised that I was completely knackered, the track was getting greasier and Richard Perks had a sufficient gap of three seconds that would make catching up hard let alone passing, so I defended my position for a couple of laps to the chequered flag. After lap one I had noticed John Kirby in a gravel trap. During the race I had failed to notice that he had rolled his poor Mini. This was lucky as I would of slowed down on that corner, and not risked the sideways style I took at one point. Also I could not believe that I saw Meaghan in the barrier around Gerard's Bend after the final lap. When she arrived in the pits it transpired that steam emerging from the engine had halted her race on the last lap. Still no dents.
After a quick examination of the car my suspicions that I got away with no damage were confirmed, although I did loose my windscreen sticker after water got under it along the straight once. That must have thrown my followers!
Then there was the prize giving. I was amazed that I had finished 13th overall, and treasure the trophy I gained with my 7 championship points. The others? Meaghan unfortunately retired, Keith Wheeler came 15th, Stuart Clark came 5th and Paul Clark? He came first!
Now, after a couple of days?? Well I am obviously pleased with my performance, but I am also in debt to the quality of work my friends and family have put into the car with me. Also Mini Shops support has helped no-end, after all the winning car was built with their parts.
Check out my webpage for news (when I'm not tinkering with the car) and a calender of events on http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/burgess
See you at a race or show
Neil Burgess - Silver Mighty Mini, number 88