Round 2 - Brands Hatch Indy

First, I want to thank Jonatann for that setup. Second...well, second. And second. And second on Sunday at Riverside. I guess the universe is trying to tell me something...

Happy for Peugeot to take 3rd in first and 4th in second race

Had 2 pretty clean races and some nice fights with Petr and Richard W. I Actually managed to take the lead for a few meters in race 1...now I want my bonus @Peugeot

Gratz Volvo and especially Jonathan for an epic display

Sorry Steve, looked to much in the mirrors to see the backmarker on the left and thought i've left enough room between our cars.

I had to try something different, because you blocked me all the time. I also waited for you some time after that crash, not realizing you hit ESC.

Didn't want to end your race.

Qual 1: Independents pole
Race 1: Independents win
Qual 2: 2nd Independent
Race 2: Independents win

That was a lot better than I ever managed in the works Mondeo. I didn't get it for nothing though, Dave Miller kept me busy for most of race 1 and finally Joshua tried to snatch the final point for 10th place off me on the final lap at Druids, but I wasn't having any of that.

Dave outqualified me for the second race but got nudged off early on. Mick Chapman took over and filled my mirrors for a few laps before dropping out. Dave came back but I held on to the lead, finishing 12th overall this time.

Results and Points are up!

Please let me know if I've made any mistakes.

it´s been long time since my last online race. years.
it was fun. thx guys.
@ David Sabre, Dave Miller. sorry. we had contacts and it was my fault without doubt. really sorry.

Congrats, JA! And thanks for setup (DJ too!).

Good racing. Apologies to anyone that might feel I impeded them.

I had a couple of eventful races, maybe (maybe!) could have scraped a top ten but a few too many tussles left me losing places. Most dramatic was race1, ducking inside Yves into T1 - but perhaps a bit impetuous of me to go 3 wide there! Sadly Yves and I touched (twice) and we both went off, after which I retired with damage. In retrospect I'd have been much wiser to have been more patient.

A good few laps with Dave Sabre. Shame we touched a little at the hairpin (nothing I could do) and someone else bumped him at the next left. V exciting for a few laps though, swapping places, bumper to bumper at moments.

Great stuff. Thanks everyone!

Michael Griffiths wrote:

I had a couple of eventful races, maybe (maybe!) could have scraped a top ten but a few too many tussles left me losing places.   Most dramatic was race1,  ducking inside Yves into T1 - but perhaps a bit impetuous of me to go 3 wide there!  Sadly Yves and I touched (twice) and we both went off, after which I retired with damage.

No problem, Michael

Michael Griffiths wrote:

In retrospect I'd have been much wiser to have been more patient.

me too !

That was an evening and a half for sure...

Pre-event and Event Practice:

During the week coming up to the event I again had a bit of lack of time to practice but I still had an idea of what I wanted from the car and how it ought to behave.
While I wasn't quite able to get it to work I had the luck that our Setup Guru was at hand when I was practicing during Monday evening and he sent me a base to work with.
It had a bit too much understeer in it so I started tweaking it and got it to work very well indeed, even beating David and Grant on the hot-lap pages, I believe that's the first time I've ever been atop any of the hotlap pages here at HSO, it only took me seven-odd years.
So overall, I was feeling fairly confident coming in. My Race pace is often decent and I had good pace in Qualifying so a good starting position around this difficult-to-pass-on track was very much a possability.

Qualifying 1:

Qualifying 1 got underway and I was immediately on some semblence of pace, getting into the 47's on my first lap out of the pace and then blasted in a PB of 1.47,43x a few laps later and decided to park the car and see what others could do. I was also aware that no-one else apart from David Jaques had been into the 47,4's before so pole position looked set.
So it was as well, I had the fortune of picking up pole which was a great morale booster as I usually struggle in qually.

Race 1:

Race 1 started well for me. I was able to outstart Grant (I suspect you bogged down?) and was first and, more or less, able to head into Paddock Hill Bend any way I felt would be best.
After Druids I had a slight gap to the guys behind and then Grant ran into further trouble in Paddock Hill on Lap2 from what I was told on TS.

From there on I was able to go at my own pace, bar a couple of lapped cars that I decided to take a bit of care around, this track certainly isn't a place to lap nor be lapped at.

Peter and Petr kept on battling and even after Peter ended up alone in his Peugeot for a little while, I was still able to gap him by a couple of tenths each lap, and so could hold on to a, in the end, dominant(?) win, about 7 seconds ahead of Petr (great drive mate) for a Volvo 1-2, TWR Volvo (Evil Rulebenders IRL) strikes back against the Evil Empire


Qualifying 2:

The 2nd Qualifying session was something else.
I was again able to blast into the 47,4's fairly early on and sat in the pits looking at, especially, Petr in the Kelvin Burt Volvo and Grant in the Biela Audi and when I saw that Grant was about to beat the time I jumped back in to go out on track and to my amazement Richard Wilks in the Honda pulled a lap out of his wizards hat to get ahead as well.
So half a tenth to get back on Richard and just over 1 tenths to get back to pole ahead of Grant.
It wasn't easy though it may have looked easy, blasted into Druids like a mad-man and was able to get a perfect run through Graham Hill Bend which lead to me improving by just under 2 tenths to end up 6 hundreds ahead of Grant on a 47,2; in other words, another PB for me during the evening.

Race 2:

Race 2 started with wheel spin for me, a bit too much wheel spin and Grant didn't take long to blast past into the lead.
What then followed was a hard, gritty fight between Grant, myself and Petr, who also wanted a piece of the action.
Sorry Grant for a couple of the dives into Druids, especially the first one, that was way too optimistic on my part to think I'd be able to stop in time.

But battled on we did, until lap 11 when the passes started, they were concluded on Lap 13...
I went for the dive after a good run through Paddock but Grant was able to get the run off Druids despite being on the outside and was able to keep alongside me through Graham Hill and onto Cooper Straight. He then gave me the room by slotting in behind for Surtees but I made a misstake braking for Clark Curve and Grant got me back. I then had the run onto the straight and had a small look into Paddock and didn't make it happen but then had another dive up at Druids where Grant, this time, went for the cut-back and took the position back again. I had a hard time against Petr but thankfully he let me have the line at Surtees again.
Now it was a question of catching Grant and he made a slight mistake at Clark and I was able to get to have a look at Paddock again and Grant defended. He ended up slightly on the cerb but was able to hold the inside so I went for the outside run and went around the outside, all the while Petr looked up the inside
Incredibly my try around the outside worked (thanks for leaving me enough room out there on the exit as well) and I then had the inside for Graham Hill, braked early and took the position although Grant could have had a look at Surtees but thought better of it and I was able to gap him from there.

Having slightly flatspotted the tires it was all a question of driving within the car and keeping a strong enough pace as to not let Petr get close enough to have a dive.

Thankfully that tactic worked out well and I was able to take the win in Race2 as well, this time by just under two seconds


Thank you very much for the congratulations, these are my 1st wins, overall, in HSO in quite a long time I beleive. I know I won a TCL race 3 years ago at Adelaide but I don't think I've had an overall win since

Also, thank you to everyone who turned up and I hope everyone had as much fun as I had, especially in the second race with the three-way battle for the lead.
Congratulatoins also to Petr for your double finishes as well as Grant and Peter for one each, very impressive drives from everyone, this was a difficult track to drive in these machines, as magnified by a soreness of my shoulders after last nights action


See you all in 2 weeks time, if not before with the events that happens along the way.


Highlights will be uploaded sporcadically whenever mine and Jasons' Schedules allows for us to spend some time recording/narrating the videos

Great to be back in the Super Tourers.

Race 1 = Had some nice little battles (David Sabre, great racing, very clean and courteous ) but the race was ruined due to a poor start, accidental contact and two self caused spins. The final one causing my DNF.

Race 2 = This is the reason I love these cars, had an okay start, but I had a fantastic race long battle with Rob Swindells and Honza Mild

Thanks to Richard W and Jonatan for the setup tips to help me out

Well done to Jonatan in both the races, great drive mate

Since no car was made free a day before the race day, I didn't find a testing necessary. But then Jukka freed his car for race 2. First sit into the car 5 minutes before qualifying, however with setup from Matthias I was comfortable immediately (thanks a lot man ). With a lack of practice, I think all went quite well. I just hope I didn't made any troubles to anybody on track

#23 Cavalier was freed by Jan and I jumped in it 30 minutes before the start of qualifying. I used my Donington setup which was not perfect around Brands but thats all that I had. Race 1 qualifying was not too bad but I couldn't get close to Juha and Dave. the race was tough with lots of bumping and late drives when I have to turn into a corner but a good lap battling with Richard, side by side for almost a lap .
Race 2 again qualified behind Juha and Dave and I had a steady race without too much drama. I think that the front left tyre was getting too hot and causing me a problem.

Well done Juha and Dave you guys had the speed.

Great results, Jonatan! Thoroughly brilliant driving.

My pace improved since Donington, but very much at the expense of comfort. I spun off in race one, but survived without any big mistakes in race two. Great fighting with Richard in the Bimmer, Honza in the Pug and earlier, Ray in the Mondeo.

Richard Coxon wrote:

, accidental contact  

Désolé, Richard, pour ce contact dans Paddock Hill, je t'ai vu sur deux roues dans mon rétro.
Alors, je t'ai attendu dans Druids...

Good racing yesterday

Brands being my home track I was gunning for good results but it seems I have found the Audi's weakness. On a track such as brands where the tires have no chance to cool down the heat in the fronts of my car were extreme. After 10 laps I'm a full 8 tenths a lap slower than the start of the race.

But... it gives me something to think about and to work on!!

Race 1 I was just caught off guard by this tire heat problem and had a scruffy few laps trying to adjust and slammed it into the wall at paddock... may as well of retired but I'm determined to finish any race I possibly can no matter the situation this season. So on I went and came home 16th.


Race 2 went well! I was sure I snatched pole after putting what I thought was the lap to get it only for Jonatan to put one heck of a lap in himself to gain it! The start was great, I used clutch control in 1st to pull away and avoid wheel spin. Had some great pace but I knew this wouldn't last and had the Volvos behind me within 5 laps. My tires eventually heated up to a point I was struggling immensely and Jonatan and Petr put some good moves on me to take the position. After that I just managed to gap to 4th and held on to a podium finish.

This seasons going to be an interesting one. Certain tracks my car will excel at but others will be damage limitation so it's going to be fun to see what happens!


Well done to Jonatan thou.... you didn't loose focus and controlled both races with great skill!! Well done

The results table

Here's how my Brands Hatch races went;

Nice vid Rob. Love the intro music

Nice video again Rob!