Not a bad start to the season ...

Hockenheim - Race Two

Once again courtesy of those very nice Mini racer chaps I acquired a new starter motor, which Iain fitted, having had to take both the new one and the old one to pieces to make one up to suit my car! Iain had also had yet another go at improving my brakes. All in all, the F2000 car and my FJ kept him busy pretty much all weekend...

Unusually I got an acceptable start! Not only holding my position but making up one on a slow-starting car ahead. Yellow flags waving at the hairpin, exitting which there was a failed car to one side and a slowing car, turned out to be my class competitor Charles Cook, I assumed he'd be back at me before long. I was then a bit lonely for a few laps, but the car was running well, brakes were better than at any point over the weekend, and I was sure I was knocking chunks off my best lap time. Charles never did reappear behind me, in fact I ended up with the whole straight empty behind, so considering I was having the odd difficulty selecting gears on the downshifts, I elected again to back off a touch and look after the car. The tightly packed leading group of four came past me at one point, being led at that time by John Fyda. I was saddened to see waved yellows on the final corner of the final lap, and to see John Fyda's car, lightly damaged - he admitted his own mistake, I'm not sure of details. So Urs Eberhardt got a double-win. Marc Amez-Droz was second this time, with Tommasso Gelmini taking third. John Delane cruised to an untroubled win to take the weekend in our class. I ended up second in class today, as Charles Cook had in fact retired, but I don't know the reason. That's unlucky for him, and it gives me second in class for the weekend - I'm sure 'normal service' will be resumed next time out, in fact I'd be amazed if I don't have a DNF in the series at some point to even things up.

So a good weekend for me, slightly flattered by the overall result, but great to finish two races with the car improved each time. Two trophies, one for each of the children's bedrooms! You know I said I was putting in some good lap times today ... I wasn't ... In fact my qualifying time was better by over a second, which amazed me - as well as being a slight disappointment, I shall be reviewing the videos this week to see if I can work out why, today certainly felt quicker, funny how it can be deceptive sometimes.

Thanks to Iain for all his hard work, and thanks to the Mini guys.

Just the small matter of 500 mile drive home ... Followed by a meeting in the office at 0900 tomorrow... And another at 1600, which they might struggle to keep me awake for!

Toys for Boys

Like most of these big 'festival' meetings, there is a big tented-pavilion area here, with displays and retail stalls. In the biggest of these here there is an area the size of a squash court set aside for a huge 6-lane slot car track, (big Scalextric), but this isn't for kids to play on ... Oh, no, this is a big deal! The entrants are split up into grids of like cars, they have 3 pages in the Programme (same as us!). It would appear that they all take it quite seriously, and they have certainly invested in a lot of kit ... I spent about two and a half minutes watching a great race between a Blue and Yellow Brabham driven by Man in Dodgy Leather Sleeveless Fishing Jacket, and a Lotus driven by Moustachioed Man in full Classic Team Lotus regalia. The former spun off in the end, and had this been your front room, his car would have been buried well under the sofa!

Hockenheim - Race One

I'm sure I mentioned earlier that these aren't always reliable little cars ... Well, we sorted the oil leak, now as good as you'll ever get out of a Mini engine. So this time it would be something else wouldn't it? At the start of the formation lap the starter motor decides that it's done its duty and will work no longer - 3 years it's always started on the button ... Why now!? Stress levels double, a kind marshal manages a push-start, but now I've dropped to the back of the pack, fortunately not behind the safety car, so I am permitted to regain my starting position, I work my way through the back of the pack, 'putting some nice moves' on a few competitors ... Shame it's the green flag lap!

Good start, then through the blind apex of the first corner I catch a glimpse of a car spinning, so backed off, along with a couple of other cars on my side of the track, but he's out of harm's way, back on the gas, only to be swallowed up at the next corner by those on the left, who'd never backed off! Lost 3 places... Gradually wound them back in, although it took 2-3 laps culminating in a very late dive up the inside in the stadium section, to get past the last one of them. Started to move away slowly, but it is getting slippery ... I wondered if it was my oil leak again, later proven not to be me! There are also spots of rain on my visor. Couple of big slides, and one near spin, so with 3rd in class seemingly secure, I backed off just a touch. Towards the end of the race I get caught at the hairpin by the leaders, give them an easy time of lapping me, compromising myself to the tune of a few seconds, only to find two of my earlier adversaries following them through ... Blast! With none of them being class competitors, and the ever-more-slippery track, I didn't make a huge effort to get back past. 3rd in class behind the much faster John Delane and Charles Cook is good enough. Good fun!

At the front the overall race was apparently very close, Urs Eberhardt winning in the Lotus 27 he's had for something like 30 years, from everyone's favourite scot John Fyda, then Italian pole-sitter Tommaso Gelmini.

Spice of Life

I mentioned earlier that there is an interesting variety of races on here. Well about an hour before needing to get ready myself, I popped up into the stands to watch, and to see what track conditions looked like. There was a race starting, at the front, Dodge Vipers, Le Mans spec Porsche, and some recent DTM cars, lots more DTM cars and 911s, BMWs etc. fill the grid. But in the mid grid is a brand new Ferrari 458 Challenge car ... giving him a great race, and eventually beating him was something I immediately recognised despite a proliferation of wings and bulges ... A Triumph Dolomite Sprint! I'm loving a Dolly beating a 458!

40% chance of rain...

It don't want it to rain...! Surely all the rain fell on the UK over the winter...

Colder this morning, grey skies, and definitely rain in the air, hope it holds off.

Friends of mine racing at HSCC Cadwell Park, VSCC Silverstone, and also at Nurburgring. Other friends have just finished the last day of Targa Tasmania. Hope everyone is having/had fun!

Battle of the Dwarves!

When I race in the UK it tends to be at HSCC meetings, with the same cars, and classes each time. One of the things I like about the Lurani series is that it puts us in big meetings with a wide variety of other classes, so we get to see a lot of cars that we'd never otherwise see.

Here there is a round of EuroBOSS, which is basically F1/Indy cars from the 90's which have then been further modified, bigger engines and such, huge trucks, big crews, and presumably massive chequebooks, all results in some properly quick machinery.

At the other end of the spectrum is 'Kampf der Zwerge', now I put that into an online translator and got 'Battle of the Dwarves', initially I assumed a mistranslation, but it's correct. A series for small-engined saloons, such as Minis, NSUs, Fiat Abarths, and so on, there was even a Fiat 500 Fiat van! Some on slicks. It was this series that had brought out the helpful UK Mini contingent I mentioned earlier. Looks like a fun race, and more my 'cup of tea' than the heroes in EuroBOSS.

Hockenheim - Friday

Yesterday dawned a little colder, and had warmed up little by the time of our Qualifying session mid afternoon. Car was going fine, we'd tweaked the brakes and shock absorbers, which improved things. There seemed to be quite a lot of traffic, which made life entertaining. Ended up on a 2:13.3, putting me in 25th on the grid, third in Class. The front of the grid populated by the much faster Class E runners. I'll line up behind old 'adversary' Steve Futter, and in front of him my Classmate Charles Cook.

We found that the car had been losing a bit of oil during the session, liberally coating the engine bay, and getting a little onto the left rest tyre, which may account for me losing grip towards the end of the session. Using a fresh crankshaft oilseal sourced from some very helpful UK Mini racers - Thanks Guys, hope you enjoyed the beer! - We (basically Iain of course) got it all changed and put back together but it was a couple of hours work. Hopefully we'll be a lot better today, but you'll never stop these old things from leaking a touch!

Very pleasant FJ dinner in town, 40+ of us - FJ is a very sociable crowd.

Hockenheim - Thursday

Long drive ... Knew it would be! Made it to Liege in one go from Calais, fuelled by Chocolate Eclairs and kept awake by an odd mix of blaring AC/DC or those funny fellows on "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue". Set the alarm to give me one hours sleep, but was awoken by some unsavoury looking characters showing an unhealthily close interest in the motorhome considering it was 0430 ... So I cracked open a Red Bull and hit the road again. With a couple more stops I arrived in glorious sunshine at about 0930, all excited about the start of the season, only to find a grumpy Iain (my 'guru', car prepper etc), who would have preferred me to have had more sleep, so ordered me off to bed!

Few minor tribulations at scrutineering, but we got the ticket in the end, and lined up for free practice in the FJ only session (I would have liked more track time, but only other sessions I could have had would have been with F1/Indy cars, doing about double my top speed on the straight ... Not an inviting prospect). Car ran ok, with only minor issues ... Driver needs more work! I'm a bit rusty and this is quite a 'technical' circuit, including several heavy braking sections, and more gear shifts in one lap than we might do in a whole race at other circuits! Still, for there to be more work to be done on the driver than on the car is a good place to be right now!

Off for pizza with a small group, then probably an early night! One hours sleep wasn't enough ... And remind me never to touch Red Bull again ...

It starts here ...!

Off to Hockenheim this evening, long overnight drive, sadly with no co-driver this time, but without any pressure to get there too early tomorrow so I can stop whenever! Eurotunnel at 11pm will have me on the road in France by 0100 - roughly 6 hours to Hockenheim in the motorhome.

38 cars entered for this first round of the championship (another 50+ FJs competing elsewhere in UK this weekend too!) It's a big meeting, called the Jim Clark Revival, named after the great Scottish F1 driver who died at Hockenheim. The event's website is here http://www.hockenheim-historic.de/

You might also be interested in looking at the FIA's own website which has a preview of the championship http://www.fia.com/news/formula-junior-relives-golden-years In that document you'll note that I get a small mention, as an outside contender for the podium in class - that's a fair comment. Not only have I been out in the car only once in the last 9 months, but I am the only car in class this weekend not running a Ford engine, which puts me at a power disadvantage. The boys have put a lot of effort into prepping the car, and we've thrown some expensive new parts at it too, these cars aren't always reliable, but hopefully we've done everything we can. I used the recent HSCC meeting as a test for the car, and it was working fine - other than a spin in qualifying but i can't blame the car for that!

Testing session tomorrow afternoon, which I need to get back into the swing of it, then 25 min qualifying session on Friday, followed by 25 min races on both Saturday and Sunday.

If i have wifi i'll blog whilst out there.

FIA Lurani Championship

The FIA Lurani Championship was the first historic championship to be officially endorsed by the FIA. It is administered by the FJHRA (check out their website www.formulajunior.com). For a short period over this winter, following the apparent demise of the FIA Historic Formula One Championship, it seemed that Lurani might be the only FIA sanctioned championship for historic cars, but another promoter has stepped in to pull that back from the brink and has added a new championship for Sports Cars, so we are one of 3 major historic championships. The races are held at some of the biggest historic festivals in Europe, you can see the calendar to the right here ...

In its 6 short years, the design span of FJ covered the major progression of racing car evolution from ladder frame front-engined cars, through space frame cars with proprietary suspension, then rear-engined spaceframes such as the Coopers, to the full monocoque of the Lotus 27. Because of this rapid development, modern FJ is split into classes to reflect the key changes, each generation of cars is theoretically quicker than those that preceded it. My 1960 Elva 200 is one of the first generation of rear-engined cars, but runs on drum brakes, and is therefore placed in Class C – the ‘middle generation’. Despite the drum brakes, the small engine capacity, and the period narrow crossply tyres that we have to run, the cars are surprisingly quick! No modern technology, nor replica cars are permitted, and the regulations are well policed; we are all racing genuine 50+ year old racing cars.

Here we go ...

2012 was a motorracing year to forget for the Owen brothers for various reasons ... but after a few months getting ourselves and cars sorted we are ready to go again!

I start at Hockenheim, on April 19-21. Car is ready, and was tested in an HSCC race meeting at Thruxton over the Easter weekend. Driver has lost some weight, and might be a bit fitter! Motorhome is serviced and ready to go ....

I leave after the kids' bedtime on Wednesday evening, to drive through the night to Hockenheim; I prefer to do these overnighters with a 'co-driver', but I'm solo for this ... On Thursday afternoon there is some 'free testing' for FJ on the track, which I plan to take advantage of, having not spent much time in the car over the last 9 months or so. We start in earnest on Friday ... wish me luck!

My car

My car was built by Elva. Elva was a small producer of racing and sports cars, operating out of Bexhill in Sussex, UK. My Dad knew Frank Nichols, the boss there, back in the day. I'm Sussex born and bred, so I'm proud to race a car with these family connections!

The car is an Elva 200, being the second series of Formula Junior racer produced by Elva. The first series was the front-engined -100. My car was one of the 20-odd rear-engined -200s produced, and it was put straight onto a ship and sent to the US dealer Carl Haas (who much later ran the Indy car team, along with Paul Newman, for which Nigel Mansell drove). It is strongly believed that whilst in Carl Haas' ownership it was driven by two US racing legends, Mark Donohoe and Peter Revson; unfortunately period US race records are not good enough to categorically prove it was my car, although we keep looking!

The car resurfaced in the 90's racing in the US Historic race scene, it was reimported to the UK, restored and raced in the early 00's by Doug Martin, I bought it from him in mid 2009.

The car is powered by an 1100cc BMC 'A'series engine, sadly we're a bit down on horsepower against the Ford-powered cars I race against.  'Upside-down' VW beetle gearbox, drum brakes, and narrow crossply tyres all make life quite interesting...

FJ Today

Today Formula Junior is the most active Historic class in the world, with large groups racing in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, and North America. In 2012 no less than 97 competitors took part in the FIA Lurani Trophy at some point. Whilst 129 competitors took part in the UK FJ Championship, including a massive entry of 77 cars for the May Silverstone meeting alone! Grids are regularly full, making for great racing.

There is an excellent entry of 38 cars for the first round of the Lurani Championship at Hockenheim, but over the same weekend there is a round of the UK Championship at the HSCC meeting at Cadwell Park, and also a round of the Front-engined Championship at the VSCC meeting at Silverstone. In all more than 90 FJ racers will be active over the weekend of 20-21 April!

Background

Formula Junior was a class developed in the late 50’s by Italian Count Johnny Lurani, the class was intended to provide cost effective single-seaters to lead drivers into Formula One. Cars could use latest Grand Prix chassis technology and design, but main components such as engine and gearbox had to be high-volume units from the road-car manufacturers’ production lines, hence the main engines used were FIAT, BMC, and Ford, capacity could be up to 1100cc.

In its 6 short years, the design span covered the major progression of racing car evolution from ladder frame front-engined cars, through space frame cars with proprietary suspension, then rear-engined spaceframes such as the Coopers, to the full monocoque of the Lotus 27.

The best place to find the history of Formula Junior is on http://www.formulajunior.com