Blog Post

First Race for me in 2020

Dean Halsey • 8 October 2020

Donington 2020.

Well a great weekend racing at long last but it was not without its issues as usual.

The data collection went great every sensor was being logged by the ECU and fed via CAN buss to the V-Box. We arrived Saturday afternoon and I had booked 2 motor homes to stay in to save the COVID-19 risk at hotels. They arrived on time and were a great idea, we moved into the garage late afternoon and got everything ready for our Sunday qualification. Come Sunday morning the qualification went well as this was my first race of the season, I qualified 12^th on the grid with a 1:23:68 , and I felt there was a second at least in my time for the afternoon race.

We lined up and followed the pace car round for a rolling start and after the first lap I was eighth. I started to look how I could pass some of the faster cars and it appeared my best chance was at the chicane. So I decided to break 50 yards later something I know is possible but this time the brakes faded and I ended up being too fast to turn in so I pointed the car through the gravel trap straight onto the start and finish straight. I only lost 2 places but this made me conscious of the brakes and when I tried it again I barley made it through the chicane broad siding left then right to slow down. I decided to come in when the pit lane opened so as I could report the brake issue and we had 2 minutes to check the car out. During this pit stop I dropped 19 places. I came out passing cars as quick as I could, but the Mustangs were wide and difficult to pass when I eventually did the safety car came out. The clever teams out there already decided to wait for a safety car, and it worked most of them lost only 6 places as the safety car was very slow. It was then difficult to pass with my suspect brakes, but I managed to claw back to 13^th place.

I stopped outside the garage and when I re started to enter the garage it needed a lot of revs to move the car, and when we put the car away the brakes were seized on and we had to winch it on.

When you look at the pictures below, I do not know how I managed to stay on the black stiff but I am glad I did, it was the automatic cadence breaking my brain must of decided upon as it would have done for most drivers “on and off braking” for those who don’t understand, that kept me out of the barriers and in one piece.

As you can see here the Brake Calliper Piston has welded to the brake pads steel backing.

The front brake system had been leaking, so when really high pressure was applied this put more pressure to the rears which were destroyed completely back to the metal backing and this was welded to the brake calliper piston as you can see above, the discs were also cracked.

Hard to believe these pads were in great condition before the race. However, I had a great time, and my fasted lap was a personal best by 2.5 seconds from a previous race weekend back in 2017. I suspect that if the brakes were as per normal there was another 1 or 2 seconds i could reduce it by. We are off to Castle Coombe in October and I will keep you all informed. The parts have been sourced and we will be ready to take on the second race of my 2020 season, I cant wait. I am wiring in the last 2 data logging channels "Front to Rear brake pressures" prior to this race and this will tell us how the brakes are performing as looking at the gauge in the cockpit is not easy for me when the barrier is looming down before the turn.

This is what happened from the the first picture you see at the start of the blog where I was winning the fight to the next couple of laps when I had very little brakes to hold off the 6000 cc beasts behind me forcing me to go through the gravel trap but as suck speed I was not trapped.

I just made an awful mess all over the start finish straight.

For those of you that don't understand what data logging is, here is a laptop screen picture to help explain. You can see here some of the temperatures and pressures logged for around 16 minutes at up to 1000 times per second if required I can see the whole 16 seconds here but I can look per 1000th of a seconds should we need to. It is mind blowing and takes so getting used to thanks to the help of Ian Baxter i am learning very quickly and putting the data to good use. this type of system was most likely developed in this form, form Formula One.

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CSCC Swinging Sixties Season Win for the second year

by Dean Halsey • 12 February 2023

My lovely god daughter holds the cup for Swinging Sixties G2 over all winner for the second year running.

Bad Luck testing for the first race this season.

by Dean Halsey • 6 September 2020

We started the Truxton Friday testing with very promising lap times that would have put us on pole position for the race on Sunday. Scott my race coach took the car out for 3 laps to set a fast lap for me to use as a V-Box reference to improve my race driving. He was just due to finish a 1:29:00 second lap when we had what has now been diagnosed as oil serge, this meant that no 3 big end bearing shell spun and seized, consequently the conrod broke and came out of both sides of the block, so there was no Sunday race for us.