Round wrap-up by Matthew Day
Manfeild OctoberFAST! Round 2 of the Nexen Tyre BMW E46 series.
The weekend started early Thursday morning when we began the long journey down to Feilding to pack in on Thursday afternoon. We were ready for the much-needed Friday test day – my first time at Manfeild with new suspension and, more importantly, for session one, new brakes! The morning was spent bedding in brakes and getting used to the car and track. Session two was used to set a lap time and start studying my footage. My secret weapon for the weekend was Christina Orr-West, driver coaching for me, with Mum and Dad being out of the country. A combination of chats, footage and getting to grips with Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon, and we got down to a 1.23.1 in the afternoon.
Saturday morning brought a cold track, and keen as a bean I was heading out to qualifying forth out onto the track. Getting some clean track played to my advantage, and I qualified 10th with a lap time of 1.22.9 – YEAH! Christina went over my footage with me again, and with a bit more coaching, we formulated our plan and goals for race one (send it around the outside!) With my grid box on the outside of the track, the goal was to get a good start and move forward – then it was lights out and away we went! Boom! Plan worked, launched well and was up in to 8th place – then 7th on the exit of Turn 1. I was stoked! I took a deep breath and started to settle in – eyes forward – kind of good in theory, but with a mix of inexperience on my part and outright race pace, we dropped back a few spots. Christina’s message in my ear was clear – “Don’t go backwards!!” I put my head down and battled hard – and had a heck of a job defending my spot. By lap 8 I’d managed to build a gap back to P11 and started focussing on the cars in front. By the time we got to the last lap, I was hanging onto the bumper of the cars in 8th and 9th but was not able to get a pass. I finished the race P10 on track, but a penalty further up the field gave me P9.
On Sunday morning, we went with the same job to do again – Do NOT Go Backwards and LOOK FORWARDS! Because I was starting 9th on the inside this time I needed to beat the cars ahead to the apex…. It didn’t quite work, so slight change of plan – 4 wide into turn one – Yeehaa! (Sorry, Mum!) There was a bit of push and shove as we all made it through the corner, the only victim being my right-hand mirror was now smiling at me instead of showing me the side of my car – slightly blind and a bit disconcerting, not that I had much time to think about it, by T3 we had sorted ourselves out. I lined up a move for the hairpin at Turn 5, where we bunched back up on cold tyres. We all had a wobble, and in the chaos, I saw a gap and went for it – but it closed as quickly as it opened – so onto the grass I went to avoid contact! End of lap 1, I’m now P17, It’s not ideal, but it can’t get any worse, right?! Uh, I spoke too soon as the gap on the outside for T1 got smaller and smaller, and I’m bouncing through the grass again, teaching Christina some new words as I went! It was time to clear my head and do my best to recover – one car at a time. I worked my back lap after lap to see the last lap board, with P8 right in front of me! 4 wide into T1 again – It felt like being in the Lightning McQueen Cars movie – suck in your breath and poke your tongue out – all of us trying not to have more contact out of T1 and into Splash, no damage or positions gained or lost, but still half a lap to go – last opportunity was run to the flag, tipped it a little hard at the final corner, power down and drag race to the flag side by side…. P12 – redeemed from P17 – I was feeling pretty ok with that.
With lots of footage to review and advice to take on board, I started studying for Race 3, excited at the thought of having both my mirrors back. I strapped in, with the plan to send it round the outside in turn one again – eager to move forward, but with the Top 8 reversed, I was chasing the fastest guys in the field. Not quite nailing the start the way I wanted, I was 11th after turn one but head down and eyes forward, cutting qualifying lap after qualifying lap five laps in a row being 3 tenths off my PB – the chase was on, and P9 was looking possible when coming out of Turn 1 the accelerator pedal snapped off it’s mount – sadly you can’t accelerate without it – I tried to limp her home but realised at T5 I wasn’t going to make it, so pulled well clear of the track so I didn’t trigger a safety car and wreck anyone’s race. DNF for me!
Overall, an epic first weekend at Mighty Manfeild, with my best results so far. I’m looking forward to being back at Hampton Downs for R3 in a couple of weeks’ time.
Massive thanks to Shiane, Carter, Sam, Christina and, of course, Jackson, who drove and flew down to support me and the whole BMW team for being on hand to help every step of the way!
Matt Smith