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It was all Ali’s fault

by Christopher Darwin

A long time ago, in February 2004, Heather and I were minding our business one evening when the telephone rang. ‘Can I speak to Heather, please?’ ‘Which of her boyfriends are you?’ ‘Ah, well, I have been given her name by Ali Green’.

After a chat that evening, Trevor Gibbs called round a few days later. He talked of VW Beetle look-alikes with sealed Golf engines, spaceframe chassis and a single seat under the plastic body. About twenty cars on the grid, four hour races, five pit stops with refuel and driver changes. Alistair Stenhouse and Trevor Gibbs had just bought one of these cars; they needed Driver Three. The first race was at Donington on 27^th March. Heather was invited to open her wallet and join the team. She did so – then had several days wondering what the hell she had let herself in for. It all seemed a bit of a rush. Demon Tweeks had an extra customer.

The car was near to home, so having seen it in a garage on 10^th March a test drive at Goodwood on 12^th March was organised. This went well, despite the rain. The licensing day at Rockingham on 15^th March was no problem; medical, driving test, written test – job done in a day. The following week, first race at Donington Park. I was invited to look after the paperwork and help run the pitstops; someone showed me how to operate a stopwatch.

Testing at Donington was on Friday 26^th March and proved character-forming, as the track was swarming with Caterhams and similar whizzers. At least it was dry. Our Plan was to stay on track, avoid collisions and finish – ideally not at the back. The fact that the car had no fuel gauge and the tank was foam-filled and could not be dipped added extra spice. Testing gave an idea of fuel consumption, and we decided on a Fuel Policy.

After qualification on Saturday morning, the draw was made for the grid. Our short straw allocated us the back row, 20^th on the grid. We decided on the driver order – Alistair first as he had raced the type of car before, then Heather, then Trevor had also raced before and he was fastest. Start was at 1405, and Alistair held our position. Someone committed an error, so when the first pitstop was signalled after 40 minutes we were no longer last. A pitstop meant driver out before fuel in, then new driver in; this took about a minute. The car ran almost faultlessly – some vibration after another car tried to push Alistair off. By half time at 1605 several cars had fallen out and we were 12^th. Amazing, could we hold on to it? It was clear that the leading 7 or 8 cars were very fast, but Heather for one reported that she was learning, especially after slip-streaming four feet behind one of the leaders for her fastest lap before he shook her off.

The chequered flag came out at 1805, by which time the overcast sky had made it nearly dark. The winner had covered 151 laps or 295 miles of Donington’s National circuit; our team finished 11 laps behind – and we were NINTH. Much happiness.

Since then I have done some mental arithmetic. Heather’s fastest lap was 1.34, Alistair about the same, Trevor a few seconds faster - but the winners were consistently 1.29-1.30. One second for every 150 laps is 150 seconds, which is about 1.6 laps over four hours – so 5 seconds per lap faster is about 8 laps more over 4 hours. Our pitstops were orderly but the leaders took about three minutes less than us over the five stops; it all adds up. We have plans for improvement.

Team Prestige Motorsport and Car 41 will try again – the next race is at Silverstone on 3rd May. The other three races are Brands Hatch on 12^th June, Snetterton on 26^th September and Rockingham on 10^th October.

For more information look at www.uniroyalteamchallenge.co.uk - it may even feature on television. I will let you know how the season progresses.

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