Journey into motor racing….

[ditchvisitor]

As I’m sure some of you are aware from my previous car threads I’m rather partial to older Porsches, however have always harboured a desire to one day race. Having sold my ‘74 RS rep and Manthey GT3 due to building our hours, I was somewhat bored and carless….. last summer a good friend of mine who races all over the world in a myriad of beautiful classic cars, invited me to Combe for a track day and the rest is history!!

Over lunch he commented how I should get into racing and he would be happy to go halves on a car, a few coffees later we had found a suitable car and had arranged a viewing through a dealer who we are both friends with!

We decided to go with a 986 Boxster S for a number of reasons, relatively cheap to buy, parts aren’t horrendous, great fun cars to drive and they are eligible for a number of series/championships.

The car we ended up with is a fully built, highly competitive Boxster S, with a Hartech engine, Ohlins suspension and a raft of other high end bits.

[ditchvisitor]

The car was purchased last Autumn, since then I’ve been on a number of track days at Combe/Goodwood/Silverstone/Donington to get used to the car and have a fair bit of coaching. I also managed to convince my brother in law and a friend to sponsor me a little!

ARDS was completed in January and my first race weekend was at Donington in March, having by now driven the car a fair bit and being relatively happy with Donington it was just a small matter of getting used to actually racing!!
We qualified 12th out a of 40 car grid and ended up coming 2nd in class, unfortunately we should have won our class however I pitted too early and our 1:30 pit stop took 2:30, we lost out by 0:20 secs! All in all a great fun weekend and I learnt a lot and more importantly the car remained in one piece!

[ditchvisitor]

https://i.imgur.com/d4g9Qu5.mp4

[ditchvisitor]

[ditchvisitor]

I have decided to race in CSCC Modern Classics which is 25 minute quali and a 40 minute race with a mandatory 1:30 pit stop. I have also signed up to the Armed Forcws Race Challenge which is 20 min quali and 2 x 20 minute races.

The second race weekend was at a damp and slippery Brands 2 weeks ago, having never driven there before quali was interesting!! Damp, slippery, cold and terrifying, I managed to qualify 13th and avoid a huge accident on turn 1 by taking to the gravel, both races I managed to get quite a few overtakes in and finished a respectable 8th in both.

- - - Updated - - -

A quick vid showing the crash:

https://youtu.be/Xzk2t3EAO8o?si=3OjIaRhIGfMpltc2

[Wimm]

Thank you for sharing, congratulations on not visiting any ditches or tyre walls. Nothing quite comes close to the excitement of a race. If you are at Brands again I might pop down.

[Jubal]

Great fun! Post in advance if you ever get to Oulton Park.

[stiglet]

Well done - and great to have someone to share the costs.

Once you get the bug it's a slippery slope

... or is that Hillclimbing ?

[ditchvisitor]

Thruxton 18th May
Oulton Park 1st June
Silverstone GP 22nd June
Anglesey 6th July
Snetterton 3rd August
Brands Hatch 25th August
Croft 21st September
Snetterton 28th September
Oulton Park 19th October
Silverstone GP - Birkett 6hr October 26th

[adrianw]

Absolutely brilliant, well done

Just remember, how to make a small fortune motor racing............start with a large one!