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A View From The Driver's Seat: Brands Hatch Race Report

By John Thorne / MJP Media | 3 April 2012

Following an eventful and emotional weekend, John Thorne describes Thorney Motorsport's first experience in the BTCC.

Well our first BTCC weekend is something I think I'd rather forget but it does typify how motorsport can give you the highs and the lows in quick succession. After the Media Day we were pretty happy, data showed we were 1.5 seconds off the pace but with the old specification engine and wrong gearing accounting for 1 second of that we weren't unduly worried. We did discover an issue under braking though where the back would get very light but with a rocker failure stopping the car going out we noted it as the first thing to fix at Brands Hatch. Our engine had to come out the next day for its upgrade so we couldn't test this ahead of the first race weekend.

The first free practice at Brands resulted in the biggest crash of my racing career. Under hard braking at Paddock Hill the back snapped round to the left at 125mph and spun me into the wall resulting in the whole front end being wiped out and sadly injuring a marshall who hurt his back ducking the shower of gravel I created. I said a lot of apologies that day I can tell you - without these guys we can't race so to put one in danger is unfortunate. In addition, I trapped my foot under the clutch pedal when I hit which turned my ankle over which was sore but the damage to the car was worse. Nearly all the front end is custom made and with little money for spares we looked doomed. The front radiator, bumper, bumper bar, intake ducting, intercooler, lights, bonnet, wings, splitter were all pretty much destroyed. The good news was that as I had the foresight to dip the clutch before impact so the engine was fine and we had no gearbox damage. We then did what I guess race teams do best: we didn't quit and we improvised. Chris James kindly supplied us with one of his spare radiators so we re-welded that to fit the car, the intake was in 10 pieces so we zip tied then fibreglass repaired that, fitted our one spare bumper and bumper bar, fitted our spare side sill and flattened out the bonnet with a hammer. We tried to borrow a headlamp from the Vauxhall VXR Owners display at the track but they were having none of that so a drive to a local (100 miles away) dealer sorted that. 12 hours of solid work later we had the car ready for race 1. Our pit crew is second to none.

Whilst we did all this we had a long look at the data and clearly the car was nigh on dangerous under braking. It's the sort of thing you work out in testing but with no time or budget for that we were stuck with it. At this sort of time you have two choices - either little incremental changes to sort the issue or a massive 'hail Mary pass' with an enormous change which will either kill or cure the issue. We chose the latter and changed all the springs and set up on the car in one hit, pretty much as big of a hail Mary pass as is possible in terms of race car set up. Our theory was that as we were on the back of the grid we might as well try and cure it in one hit and see if we can recover something for race 2 and 3.

Well it worked and then didn't work. Under braking the car was far more stable but we had now sacrificed all rear end grip under load, there was none. Each time the car had any lock on the steering the back would snap round in an instant. I'm used to getting heat into tyres in warm up so to spin after the safety car took me a little by surprise and this combined with my now nervousness of Paddock Hill bend meant I eventually spun off just before the end of the race. I was heart broken. I felt that all the team's hard work was simply thrown away by my reckless driving and lack of front wheel drive experience so my confidence was at an all time low. At this point what we should have done is go through the data and see what was happening but with damage to the car we simply didn't have time and me fully believing the fault was entirely down to my driving and not to the set up of the car we elected to keep the set up as it was and see if I could just get used to it. My call and my fault, this was wrong. In race 2 on every high speed corner I was struggling to keep the back end under control. The moment there was any steering lock the back stepped out. I was sat in the seat questioning what on earth I was doing there at all, even after I managed to finish the race, which at least was an improvement from before, I felt nothing but dejection. I'd let everyone down: partners, sponsors, my team and my family who were there watching me racing by myself for the first time in years. I'm not ashamed to say there were a few tears and if race three had been called off for whatever reason I'd have been the happiest camper in the paddock at that point.

We got some time to look at the data and Ricky our Chief Engineer came up with a few suggestions which we went with on the car but my mind was set at that point - it was my fault. That's all I was thinking so before I got into the car I had a chat with Esme where I suggested we quit after the weekend. "I can cope with the driving side" I said "and I can cope with the newness of BTCC and everything but I can't cope with the all this and knowing we are bankrupting ourselves to be here - what's the point?". As I sat in the car ready to be called, Esme came over and simply said "If this is your last race then go out there and drive it like it is" .... so I did - I pushed that car as hard as I could. Every corner the back would come round over and over again but I was no faster and I eventually span and then ran wide at Clearways. I recovered it to finish, dead last again.

I got out of the car dejected again but somehow slightly more positive. This wasn't entirely me, sure I have a lot to learn but with the set up we had I don't think anyone would have got it much quicker round that track so we have our work cut out for us now both on the car and on myself.

When we first started this project we had two aims - promote the Thorney Motorsport road car tuning side and have fun whilst not losing too much money doing it and we are failing on all three. I can't see how coming in last is helping promote our road car tuning side. We've re-mortgaged our house and borrowed from everyone just to get here and I sure as hell am not enjoying it so we are at a crossroads already. We don't have the budget to go testing and race and I don't see what benefit there is to racing a car that is not fully developed and coming in last. Certainly if we want to attract sponsors we have little chance if we sit at the back of the grid making up numbers - I want to race to win not just spend what little money we have. We did meet up with a few potential sponsors at the race weekend though and one potential was purely by chance in that he was hovering by the door so we invited him in. Turns out he sponsors a Carrera Cup car and just wanted to get near the pit lane to watch his car and all the other BTCC teams wouldn't let him through. We might be skint but that doesn't mean we are unfriendly!

The plan now is to get the car back together and arrange a test with myself and another driver in the car to see if we can cure the handling issues but if we can't find a sponsor this will leave us short of the funds to race at Donington and Thruxton so we may have to miss these rounds now which will be a desperate shame for us. It's my birthday on April 14th so it would have been nice to get an on track birthday present at Donington but it looks like I might have to wait until next year for that.

It wasn't all bad - the real upsides for me from the weekend were the fans, our team and the fact I have my family there. The fans were just brilliant. I clearly wasn't having much fun but everyone had nothing but good wishes and everyone I met was keen for us to keep going. I even signed a few autographs! The team worked their asses off for the whole weekend and did their best to keep me cheerful which is no mean feat and getting the car back on the grid for race 1 after its pretty hideous shunt on Saturday was nothing short of a miracle. Our carrying on is as much a thank you to them as it is for any other reason. Special thanks go to The Green Group and Stingray RV. A week before the race our truck supplier pulled out so we had no way of getting to the circuit. Green Group not only came to our aid but turned up in a brand new Renault Magnum truck that most of the other teams were admiring and the fact their corporate livery is a perfect match for us is the icing on the cake. As for Stingray RV, I had no idea how comfortable racing could be - having a massive motorhome allowed my wife and kids a place to rest and at least for part of the weekend made me feel like I was a real racing driver, even if I have some way to go to prove it to myself and to the BTCC.

John #66

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