Kumho BMW Rounds 9 & 10 - Donnington Park 27th July 2008

By Thorney Motorsport

Well if luck was a commodity you could buy then put me down for everything for sale because at the moment we are still running on zero.  Donington was the first Kumho round where we had the car prepared to pretty much spec, we’d removed the windows and replaced with Perspex, changed some bodywork and cut about 50kg’s of weight off the car, there are still a few things we’d like to change but pretty much this was now a Kumho spec E46 M3. As a result we needed a result to demonstrate that the E46 could compete against the other older models of M3 a point reflected by the amount of people coming up to us saying the same.

Testing on Saturday was pretty good, car felt nimble and was one of the few race cars I’ve managed to take Craners flat out in (although it wasn’t as quick as a slight lift as it compromised the line into Old Hairpin too much) and that’s usually a good test of the cars set up. We changed a few things on ride heights to get rid of some mid turn understeer and did our best to drop the tyre wear issues we’ve constantly been having, but comments from people watching was that the car looked quick and settled and other than the stifling heat I enjoyed the car on a track I enjoy driving.

Qualifying

Race day was hot, I mean really hot, it was 30 degrees in the paddock  - perfect timing to drive the M3 with its new Perspex windows with tiny slide openings then!  To describe the cabin as stifling doesn’t do it justice, it was hard to breath. Despite this we qualified pretty well in 6th, a couple of the guys were in the 1.19’s but most of the top ten we in the low 1.20’s which was pretty good in the environment. Personally I was a little disappointed, whilst I not raced at Donington before I’d driven it many times and was hoping for a top three position but 6th wasn’t bad so we were hopeful.



Race 1

Finally I got a good start, capitalising on Gary having a gear selection issue in pole and Giovanni bogging his car down in 4th I managed to nip up the inside at Redgate and slotted into 4th place, immediately I came under pressure from Tom in his E36 M3 who was clearly later on the brakes with his lighter weight chassis but after ¾ laps I’d managed to generate a decent gap from him so we set about the fighting front three.  Coming into the final chicane I saw my chance and nipped up the inside of Ian Hill to take third place, however Ian didn’t see me in time, slammed the door across me and we hit pretty hard with my front wheel hitting his drivers door. No real blame to be apportioned, we both went for the same bit of tarmac at the same time and whilst I had the inside line I doubt very much he saw me until it was too late, the contact forced Ian into a spin and threw me to the outside of the circuit onto the grass, I keep on the gas and all of a sudden – silence, the ignition cut and I coasted to a halt alongside the track. To say I was gutted would be an understatement, I was almost in tears, I was really enjoying the fight for third and am convinced that was a win for the taking, we were gaining all the time and for once my tyres weren’t shredding themselves. A vain attempt to get the car started was briefly positive but as soon as I round the next turn it cut off again, race over.


Back in the paddock we discovered the issue, the relatively minor contact with Ian has dislodged some of the engine bay wiring meaning the battery isolator had shorted out cutting the ignition completely – I was soooo pissed off. Due to Kumho regulations your grid position for the second race is determined by your race position in race 1 so race two I was right back in 34th place, just ahead of Gary (Championship leader) as he retired earlier in the race with engine fan problems. Race two was going to be interesting.

Race 2

Ask most drivers about starting from the back of the grid and they will tell you its actually good fun, nothing to prove and the opportunity to get some overtaking in to see how far up the grid you can make it, however with a DNF in the first race our hopes of a good championship run were pretty much fading but I set about trying to see how far I could get.

The start was interesting on the basis that I couldn’t see the lights at all so had to wait until the car in front reacted before I set off but managed to get a couple of cars on the grid and set about clawing my way up the field closely pursued by Gary. Due to the trucks doing their best to destroy themselves in an earlier race we were cut short to 10 laps so I figured to get a top 10 would be an achievement. Lights went off and we set about the pack, picking off the lower class cars and basically just enjoying the drive. The crowd was still pretty big (truck racing is a big draw to Donington) and as I had my family watching from the Milltek sport box I wanted to least put on a half decent show even from the back of the grid.

Net result, 8th so was pretty pleased with that from 34th on the grid. Numerous spinners and people coming off which I put down to the heat just tiring people out, the bad news was that on the last turn on the last lap I overtook Stefan in his E36 but left my braking a little too late and ran wide, sadly he left his braking a little bit later than I did and clattered into the side of me. So another wing, door, side sill and rear wing needs replacing let alone the (now expensive) T99 livery, poor car needs some TLC before the next round at Snetterton.

Conclusion

I’m getting a bit bored with impact damage, no real blame anywhere to anyone but thus far our biggest bill is bodywork and livery, which is hard to swallow really. Its not a question of crap driving standards on the grid but just a question of bad luck or being in the wrong place at the wrong time but it would be nice to end a race without looking at the car and saying “Oooh, that’ll be expensive.”


As regards race 1 I still feel robbed, we were lapping faster than the leading cars and it just felt so perfect that I knew we were going well, but then that’s racing, frustrating and expensive! We only have 2 weeks before the next Kumho race and in between that we have the next Dunlop SportMaxx race at Donington Park so its like the M3 will have to run a little untidy at Snetterton, unless of course we can find a little more sponsorship for bodywork; now that would be nice!

John