Ben Evans Racing

So far this season has been a strange one for me. In the last 3 races I’ve been in strong podium positions in each, yet have only converted one to a meaningful points finish.

Lydden Hill was a probably my strongest meeting in Vee so far. Saturday’s race should have been mine. I had just taken the lead when the reds came out, following a strong drive up from 5th on the grid picking off the cars ahead one by one. The Scarab was working perfectly so I could really push it through the corners carrying massive corner speed.

The restart of Sunday’s race was a debacle (should it have been restarted at all having gone well beyond 50%?), with the Union flag dropped the instant the lights failed, and not following another warm up lap as are the MSA rules. When the flag dropped I wasn’t in gear so lost a huge number of positions and lost my nose and spun out trying to make up ground.

Needless to say I had quite an interesting conversation with the Clerks of the Course after the race. The gist of their argument was that it had been a long hot day, and that this isn’t professional motorsport. Fair enough except that a lot of the drivers weren’t really ready for the restart, and that having seen the footage it was a miracle there wasn’t an accident. Suffice to say had there been a startline accident then those involved could have been looking at professional motorsport sized injuries and bills.

Sunday’s race was more uneventful, I waited for Tim Probert  and Daniel Hands to get tangled up and moved on through to take 3rd place scoring my first podium. I was delighted, but still disappointed from the preceeding day.

Castle Combe was another mixed weekend. The start of testing was delayed by a muppet of a noise tester who took it upon himself to scruitineer every car before issuing a noise certificate, his probing of the car so vigorous that he managed to break a rose joint. Cheers.

Qualifying was so wet I was amazed we were allowed out. In the circumstances 6th on the grid was pleasing as there was no grip or feel for what the car was doing at all. Following a good start where I had moved up to 4th by Quarry my race was effectively over at Bobbies when Martin Farmer drove into me. I saw him in my mirrors but he was so far back I had no issues about turning into the corner. Given that Castle Combe is my local track I was absolutely devastated as I think I would have finished 3rd had I continued. I did restart come through the field and finish 11th, but when a podium is on the cards it was gutting.

 After the race it was off to the Clerk of the Course for another bizarre conversation - as I was accused amongst other things of contact with a phantom car. Needless to say I found it very hard to take seriously a bollocking for contact with a car that didn’t exist. The Clerk said that because contact was noted it didn’t matter which car it was - my argument that if the observer got one number wrong there was a balance of evidence that they’d misnoted my car was summarily ignored. Not to mention that it is very hard to hit something that doesn’t exist. I can only pass on my condelences to the Stock Hatch driver whose licence was endorsed for pushing Casper the Friendly Ghost onto the grass.

Next up its a trip to that little piece of North Korea in West Wales known as Pembrey where hopefully this time around I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep without people breaking into my hotel room fighting.

Mallory Park last Sunday was as good a start to the season as I could realistically have hoped for with 4th place matching my best finish of 2006.

Qualifying was good in that I made it straight through to the final, but frustrating in that I only qualified 10th, having traded tows with Jake O for the whole session. Also given the obvious pace of some of the other cars I was concerned about how much progress I would be able to make in the race.

At the start I made the perfect getaway to be 4th into the first corner carving through and around the six cars in front of me. At the red flag I was placed 4th, and fortunately the race had been underway long enough for me to take the restart from the second row. This time I was 2nd into the first corner, but unfortunately lost the tow of the leaders coming out of the hairpin for the second time (a late gear change), which meant that the onus was on me to defend 4th for the remaining laps.

The rest of the race is a blur of side by side action and late braking and I was extremely glad to see the chequered flag. However the race was extremely clean and enjoyable, although I think I went through Gerrards two abreast too many times for comfort.

 4th place is a strong springboard for the remainder of the year and I’m confident that the next two meetings Lydden Hill and Castle Combe will play to the car’s strengths. At Lydden the premium is on handling and corner speed, something the Scarab excells in, whilst the high speeds of Castle Combe suit the car superbly (see Thruxton and Silverstone from last year).

It was also great to see a large (for 750mc anyway) crowd at Mallory, and hopefully some of the other circuits we visit this year will similarly promote the meetings. £12 for all the action on Sunday was a bargain and proves once again that 750mc continues to provide the most exciting and best value racing for spectators and competitors alike.

Paradoxically after what seems like an endless winter break Mallory Park has arrived very quickly. It’s hard to belive that the first race of 2007 is less than a week away, and I can’t wait.

Pre-season testing kicked off last Tuesday with a very positive test in the wet at Snetterton and the car is working better than ever. By maintaining the exact same support set-up and car for this year (with the usual RSS tweaks) I’m confident of a very strong season. Whereas in 2006 I was coming to each track blind and still learning my way around the car, in 2007 we’ll have done all that legwork and can build on the outright pace we showed throughout 2006. More personally pleasing was the fact that my race suit still fits and that my seatbelt settings are as they were at Oulton Park - clearly the offseason beer has been offset by the offseason running.

 Sunday won’t actually be my first race at a racing circuit in 2007 as a couple of weeks ago I finished 8th in the Brand Hatch 5k around the Grand Prix circuit - a result I was delighted with. That said I can’t wait for the engine to start doing the hard work once again.

Overall 2007 promises to be a great one for Vee - all of last year’s big names are back, it’s the fortieth anniversary and the series profile is ever rising. However there are a couple of points for concern. Firstly the calendar this year is not special - the double header at Lydden springs to mind and secondly I hope that budgets are kept under control - Vee is fabulous for not having a directly proportional spend to speed ratio and I hope it stays that way.

Well this week its going to be non-stop yoga and protein drinks (translation - Chinese and Beer) ahead of the first race, and it will be great to see everyone again, at what will undoubtedly be a cold, wet and windy Mallory Park on the 11th.

After making my way to the Autosport Internation on Thursday I’m beginning to really feel the build up to the 2007. That it is less than two months until Mallory Park is only serving to ramp up that anticipation. Admittedly the calendar is not what I would have hoped for. No Donington, double headers at both Pembrey and Lydden, but it is better spaced through the year that in 2006 and that is something to be glad about. However I’m still confident of a very strong year and hope to be both winning races and challenging for the Championship.

The Autosport International show was itself something of a mixed bag. On one hand it was great to see some Vee people again, and even better to see my photo in the Vee Centre brochure (I’m assuming the royalty cheque is in the post). I thought the 750mc stand was excellent, and it certainly stood out as a beacon of accessible motorsport at a show where most ‘low cost’ formula were touting £60,000 minimum budgets. However if I had been attending as a regular fan I would have felt a bit ripped off as there wasn’t a great deal to see or do (relative to what there could be), especially in relation to the £30 entry fee and scandalous £7 parking fee.

Hopefully the 750mc racing year will provide action and accessibility on a par with 2006. However it would be great to see some meetings really well promoted bringing more spectators than usual to meetings and showing how exciting club racing can be.

Despite it being the close season it has been a busy couple of weeks for the Vee fraternity. Last week’s Vee Centre party was a great do, and thanks to everyone who was involved in organising it. It was great to get to meet everyone away from the stress of a race weekend, even if, much to my Mum’s disappointment, do nothing but talk racing. However, I’m not sure what was more fun, the party, or trying to equate number of pints to obvious size of hangover at breakfast the following morning

On a more serious note the hot topic of discussion has been around the 40th anniversary race next year, which I have volunteered to help out with (as i feel it’s important to give something back following a great UK season and an awesome time in germany). At present it looks like we’ll be at Brands in July which will be awesome as I love Brands, its near my house, and it always produces great racing. Furthermore with some good promotion and an innovative meeting we should manage to have a large entry, and a big crowd. Also having spent last Saturday afternoon walking round Northampton (main activity for the locals? looking menacing in the shopping centre), I have to say London is probably far more attractive for the foreign drivers.

Unfortunately all this is no substitute for driving, and already I cannot wait for the first test of 2007. In the meantime the only driving I get to do is on the A1, which is unfortunately as far removed from a Vee race as you can get (even if I do involuntarily shake with fear every time I pass a vehicle with WG Tankers on the side ). To console myself I did get out to watch the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, and I have to say Vee is so much better. Whilst the Formula Ford will almost be my first love and remains a cracking spectator sport, from a competitors point of view Vee is easily the better option. The Festival was littered with unncessary accidents (even by the standards of some Vee drivers) and extremely questionable driving standards. Peter Dempsey and Nick Tandy are both extremely quick drivers, but both would still succeed without their obvious desperation to win regardless of consequences. Even the 1600 Kent Class occasionally resembled a destruction derby, with a couple of avoidable accidents that in a 750mc meeting would have seen a licence endorsement. Even so the Festival remains my favourite day’s racing of the year (execept for the one’s where I’m driving) and it would be great to see Vee as one of the support races one year.

The Nurburgring weekend was everything I had hoped it would be and more. With two 3rd places I came away from the weekend, on combined results, as the most successful English Vee driver, which was the perfect end to a great debut season in Vee. It was nice after an innumerable number of 2nd places in heats and 4th places in Finals to finally win some trophies

Everything about the weekend was dreamlike, getting to drive my Vee around the Nordschlife was a once in a lifetime experience, allowing me to join a very select group (and even fewer amongst the living) who have driven a single seater around the long circuit. Then the racing itself was awesome. Saturday’s damp and changeable race was simply a case of keeping the car on the road, although my fully wet set up cost me in closing laps as the track dried. Even so 30 minutes in those conditions was a real test of endurance.

Sundays race was great, but could have been better. I made an awesome start and made up 7 positions over the first lap and was moving through the field into lap 2 when I got hit from behind by one of the German cars. This luckily didn’t put me out on the spot, but as I later discovered it did dislodge my oil cooler, which caused the car to gradually overheat during the race meaning it lost power quite dramatically by the end. Another lap and I would have had to have stopped. Even so it was a great race, and I had truly exhilerating dices with some of the German and South African drivers together with a titanic scrap against Mike Jenvey. Full credit to everyone for keeping the racing so clean.

Apart from the racing the trip was awesome. The countryside around the Ring was stunning, the beer was cold and cheap, and some of the haircuts were so astounding their owners could be entered for Crufts. Furthermore the German way of going racing provided a lot that we could learn here. The meeting was well promoted with low spectator entry charges (equivalent to 750mc for a far larger meeting)  and this meant that several thousand people came over the weekend. Better still trophies down to 15th place is an excellent idea, especially coming from a UK season where I finished 8th overall, and won nothing on the day. This also gave drivers throughout the field a real sense of achievement.

Finally the organisers really made the event feel special, the parade was a lot of fun, whilst everyone was so welcoming. Hopefully next year we will able to do something similarly special (but hopefully without the hair)

A huge thanks is owed to Andy and Jon Storer (and Roger, Stuart, Jeremy and Ann) for all their support over the weekend, that made it something more than a race weekend, and provided the perfect end to a great season.

It seems weird to be sitting here in the 3rd weekend of September with the UK season all finished. Oulton Park was a fitting venue to close the Championship although I just couldn’t find the Silverstone pace over the weekend and was disappointed to finish in 9th. Even so I think I’ve done enough to finish 8th in the Championship and I am certainly the highest placed new driver to the series in 2006, so I am delighted with that as a first year result.

Next year I will be looking for wins and the overall Championship, and I am confident of achieving at least one of these.

In the meantime I have the Nurburgring to look forward to which promises to be an excellent weekend. I have always gone well on the wider Grand Prix circuits (Donington, Silverstone) so I’m hoping for more of the same at the Nurburgring. I also think the experience of racing abroad will do a great deal for my development as a driver. Having only experienced club racing on the UK circuits, a large meeting on one of the world’s greatest tracks will be an excellent opportinity. Furthermore I am looking forward to both the Nordschlife and the beer.

Looking forward beyond that next year promises to be be interesting. I was slightly concerned to read in the 750MC bulletin that Vee may be returning to Lydden Hill next year. As the series expands and attracts new drivers, tracks like Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Donington and Thruxton should be a must, whereas Pembrey and Lydden surely do not really have a place on the calendar. I am reliant on sponsor support to race, and quite frankly it is tough sell in any case, especially when you have to explain why you are going to Lydden Hill or Pembrey over circuits people have heard of.

Likewise I hope that the series remains over 10 meetings. Whilst double headers are financially advantageous they, if you have a mechanical problem or dislike the circuit it can ruin your championship. For what it’s worth I would like the calendar for next year to include the same circuits as this (except swapping Pembrey for a second Brands or Donington round), but to be spread more evenly from March to October.

Coming into the race at Silverstone yesterday I felt quietly confident, I like the track, I’m feeling good with the car, and I was just enjoying my summer and my racing and feeling relaxed about everything. Yesterday evening, as anyone who saw me around 9pm can attest, I was extremely relaxed and delighted with how the day had gone.

Even though I hadn’t sat in the car since Pembrey I had a good feeling, and that was confirmed by qualifying on the damp and treacherous track where I instantly had a good response from the car and found it easy to pick out the grip. 2nd in session and 6th overall shows that I was right on the pace and straight through to the final. For once I had the whole day to wait out with no driver or mechanical dramas to get in the way.

By race time I was nicely nervous, buzzed but focused. Again on the warm up lap the car felt perfect and I just knew I could make it work. Everything from then on is a bit blurred, all I know is that it was the best race I have ever been involved in, a slipstreaming epic with more position changes on every lap than in an entire season of F1. This is the reason I love Vee, close, clean but damn exciting racing. All credit and thanks to Ian Buxton (driver of the day for the charge from 47th to 2nd), Jake, Martyn and my arch nemisis Steve Glasswell for keeping the racing so close and clean. Over the line the five of us were separated by just over 1s following 15 minutes of frantic action. It was the kind of race I wish had been taped so I could watch it again. Certainly judging by the waves we got from the marshalls and spectators on the slowing down lap we kept everyone entertained. In the end I finished 4th, equalling my best result of the year, but this one felt special with no significant retirements or incidents ahead of me in the race, meaning the result was totally on merit and bodes extremely well for next year.

I would also like to add my congratulations to Sam as Champion who has had a great year, its a shame I’ll stop him retaining his crown next year. Also thanks and congratulations to Andy Storer for his tireless support over the weekend and for the excellent beer at the post race party.

With only one round to go the focus of the entire racing world shifts to Oulton Park on September the 9th, as the world’s media will gather to see whether in his absence I can gain enough points to overhall Steve Glasswell for 8th in the Championship. Its a shame Steve won’t be there, but I’m looking forward to resuming battle at the Nurburgring in October.

Realisitically I believe a podium is on the cards at Oulton and would be the perfect end to a great first year of Vee.

I’ve got all the addicts symptoms, the hands are twitching, the muscles shaking and I’m desparate for my fix. Yep the six week Formula Vee summer break is hitting me hard, heck I was even watching Ford Fiesta racing from Lydden at 6.30am this morning on Motors TV to see me through the day at work.

Following the intensive week on, week off calendar, having weekends free is feeling a little strange, I’ve actually had to talk to people about something other than how to set up a Formula Vee for Cadwell Park. Obviously I made the mistake on my first weekend off, of talking to someone about how to set up a Formula Vee for Cadwell Park, but quickly realised that discussing the merits, or lack of, of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was more socially acceptable. I’ve suddenly discovered I have a social life beyond seeing the Clerk of the Course on a fortnightly basis.

Luckily the end is in sight, Silverstone is only two and a half weeks away and I can’t wait. I’m the first to admit that by the time Pembrey rolled around I was desparate for a break from racing, but now I’m chomping at the bit to get going again. Furthermore, for the first time this year I feel energised by F1 following the excellent Hungarian Grand Prix and Jenson Button’s win. Monday morning was the first time this year I’ve been able to truly justify to my colleagues that, yes, F1 is damn exciting.

And finally how do I know that it is the F.Vee summer break? Because where I live in London it hasn’t properly rained in weeks, I’m sure that by the time Silverstone rolls around (and isn’t having a bbq truly tempting fate?) the weather will have broken and it will be wet, windy and cold - proper Vee weather

Three weeks on from the Pembrey meeting I’m still struggling to think of anything positive to say about the weekend. Two DNF’s, two self inflicted spins and an unnecessary first lap accident on Sunday afternoon pretty much sum up the races.

Friday’s test day was broadly positive as I was running in an engine and four new tyres so it was good the day passed without incident and I managed to set some fast times.

Saturday’s qualifying was rubbish, I was driving badly and ended up 17th right down in the midfield, 5th on the grid for the heat. I made a dreadful start to be 10th into the first turn. I began to work my way through the field before spinning at the Paddock Crossing and having to do it all over again. However I had a very enjoyable dice with Steve Ough for 7th and it was shame when he and William Burnett were disqualified for a ride height infringement at the finish. In the final i made a great start and made up 9 positions in the early laps before spinning again at Paddock Crossing and decided to park it before i damaged the car or myself

Sunday was a new day and the heat went well and I finished 3rd after a very enjoyable dice with Graham Kiddy. I was hopeful therefore for the final, but unfortunately it lasted for one corner before I collided with Ian Buxton coming out of the hairpin. I won’t go into blaming anyone but the incident was totally unnecessary and caused by a number of drivers being unaware of the traffic around them.

So that was it, weekend over with two no scores but still 8th in the Championship although only by one point.

However my real criticism from the weekend comes for the circuit staff and facilities at Pembrey. The circuit itself is thoroughly unenjoyable to drive and furthermore tends to produce spread out processional racing. I would also question the safety at the track as the tyre walls seemed very solid and easily hittable at speed. A good testing venue yes, a race circuit up to standard in the modern era? probably not

Then the circuit staff were a special case. This is not a criticism of either the 750mc staff or the marshalls who did their usual stunning job, but rather the actual track staff at Pembrey. Checking tickets on the way into Friday testing? Policing the paddock like it was North Korea? All this left a rather savoury taste in the mouth and detracted from my enjoyment of the weekend. If circuits that are genuinely near urban areas like Brands Hatch can be run in a professional and calm way then so should Pembrey which is quite frankly in the middle of nowhere. Given the number of great circuits in this country it seems a waste of race weekend to go to Pembrey. I for one would prefer a return to Mallory Park or a second weekend at Brands Hatch over a trip to Pembrey.

Anyway I can’t wait for Silverstone and Oulton where I’m aiming to claim my maiden podium and confirm 8th in the Championship