CFFC Race 6 Hockenheim 7 - 9 October 2005

Negociating the Sachs Kurve

Free practice

Last race of the season with thanks to the swift service of URS a new nose and radiator. Unlike the wet weekend in May and very unexpected this turned out to be a very beautiful weekend. After a session with the ratios from the Nurburgring I changed the ratios and had another session. This ended with a fastest lap of 1:59.8 which was 0.7 s faster than my fastest time up till then.

Qualification

The qualification was a bit strange as the first was on the saturday and the second on the sunday in the morning before the race. In the first qualifying I leaded Dietrich Wöllhardt throughout the session. Allthough he was faster he could not overtake me. I don't think I was holding him up as he managed to get a lap which was just a bit faster than my time of 1:59.8, which was good for 6th. It needs to be noted that some potentially faster drivers did have some problems.

First qualifying followed closely by Dietrich Wöllhardt

 

In the second practice I could comfortably lap at 1:59.5 but I managed to get one lap in of 1:58.7. It was a bit disappointing to see that this was only good for 8th on the grid of the 1600s. (see practice times below). The cool morning weather probably helped a bit. This would have set me on pole in May, allthough this session was cut short by rain, and in dry circumstances in Aug 2004 would have been good for third. I am not the only one at the CFFC who is making progress, so to get further up the field I have to up the antics even more.

Storming through the Spitzkehre to a good qualifying result in the morning mist
1 Hanno Hess van Diemen RF87 1:56,905 1:57,882
2 Alan Crocker Ray 71 1:57,723 1:57,763
3 Jaap Blijleven Reynard FF88 2:00,843 1:57,950
4 Chris Stones van Diemen RF85 1:58,803 1:58,120
5 Chris Whittingham Reynard FF88 1:58,761 1:58,232
6 Matthew Dean Reynard FF88 2:00,303 1:58,235
7 Felix Haas van Diemen RF87 2:02,303 1:58,631
8 Ed Waalewijn van Diemen VD82 1:59,769 1:58,709
9 Paul McMorran Crossle 20F 2:01,259 1:58,952
10 Dieter Wöllhardt Barney 71 1:59,611 1:59,446
11 Onno Zuidema van Diemen RF87 2:01,013 1:59,759
12 Paul Hubbard Merlyn MK20 2:05,067 2:01,530
13 Rebecca Dean van Diemen RF87 2:02,918 2:01,883
14 Stephen Collyer Dulon MP15 2:05,067 2:02,685
15 Nils Leuber Vaney 71/2 2:03,955 2:04,489
16 Roberto Kraft Swift 88 2:05,062 2:05,900
18 Thomas Rohmer van Diemen RF87 2:05,304 2:05,831
19 Povl Barfold Titan MK6 2:07,217 2:11,843

Race

Starting from 8th I hoped to follow the front runners and in that way get into the same rythm. At the start I could not get past Felix Haas and by the time I passed him the others were already some distance away. I could not take the battle to the guys in front but instead I was hounded myself and found myself being outbreaked at the Spitzkehre by Paul McMorran and Dietrich Wöllhardt. In the next laps we swapped positions every lap.

Coming up to the Parabolica

In lap 9 I was leading to Senna and Paul made a very audacious move (see below), in which he moved from fourth to second in the group. As a result Dietrich spun in the next corner and was in the gravel and out of the equation.

In the next lap Felix tried to outbrake us in the entrance to the Parabolica and he overshot the corner missing the back of my car by an inch. So now I had only Paul McMorran to contend with. He made things easy by outbraking me in the Spitzkehre in the penultimate lap. As this was the only place where this could be done I could do the same to him in the next and last lap, so I did not defend it very much. I followed him and was hot on his tail and I even had to refrain from trying to overtake in the Nordkurve. Coming again to the Spitzkehre I placed my car on the inside and got a clean getaway. I was ahead and I could see that Paul had to defend his place to Felix, who had crawled back after his little excursion, in realms no normally used for racing. I finished 7th as nobody of the front runners had made a mistake or had gotten into trouble.

Race results best lap
1 Hanno Hess van Diemen RF87 1:56,019
2 Alan Crocker Ray 71 1:57,658
3 Chris Whittingham Reynard FF88 1:57,065
4 Matthew Dean Reynard FF88 1:57,655
5 Jaap Blijleven Reynard FF88 1:57,207
6 Chris Stones van Diemen RF85 1:57,573
7 Ed Waalewijn van Diemen VD82 1:59,512
8 Felix Haas van Diemen RF87 1:58,929
9 Paul McMorran Crossle 20F 1:59,106
10 Onno Zuidema van Diemen RF87 2:00,913
11 Stephen Collyer Dulon MP15 2:02,970
12 Paul Hubbard Merlyn MK20 2:02,043
13 Nils Leuber Vaney 71/2 2:04,264
14 Thomas Rohmer van Diemen RF87 2:06,898

From the results of the best laps one can see that I am still not in with the big boys but I am getting closer. Looking at results from previous races it get faster every year. This year my car was better prepared then ever before, thanks to my race engineer: Joost. The purchase of a camper made it also much more enjoyable and pleasant with helpers and supporters: Joost, Jan, Reinier, Lieve, Mark D, Mark G (brilliant photos see above), Jody, Pieter and my parents. My engine is gone to England to Bernard Baxter to be refreshened and I hope to improve the car on other points over the winter so that I can start fresh for the next season

Last remark for the season is a well hearted thanks to Harald "Harrie" Kühn and his team to make it all possible and for the gemütlichen evenings he and his team provided.