2010 REVIEW

With the season over we had the Donington race to do, but that effectively marked Helen’s retirement from class D. Whilst she might break cover here and there next year to go and do her free races, I’m not doing the full year. Funds are depleted, and I need firstly to recover, and secondly a new challenge.

Helen has simply won everything.

There is nothing left to do in class D, but with an unbeaten class D car at my disposal. We have won the class three years running, and taken the overall championship. What do you do from there? She can win nowadays just by showing up, just sitting in the paddock you can see it in people's faces, she's won before she turns a wheel.

I could go up a class, maybe, but that brief test in the red car has told me all I need to know, in testing it took no time to match the class E champion’s times in the machine. That was really my only question, I know I can drive a D car, but did I have the ability to drive faster, even in a better car? As it turned out, yes, it wasn’t a problem at all, none of the usual nerves I get trying Stewert’s car, because this is one I built, it was all pretty familiar in there, just louder and faster, but the actual cornering was easier, it was much lighter, you can just feel it.

So my question was instantly answered, yes, I can drive a modified car at the right speed. With that answered I don’t really have that curiosity as to what I could achieve in an E or G, the race wins don’t concern me a great deal, I’ve done that twice, and I know how good it feels, but I don’t have the same hunger for it as if it had never happened. Not enough to spend thousands on either building a new car or converting my beloved Helen into an E class.

She’s too good as a D to change to E. Could you really start to cut up and alter a car that has never been beaten in her chosen class? From her first appearance to present day, any race she has finished she has won her class, and she has never retired from anywhere other than the class lead. Out-qualified only once, ever, and that as a result of a rather large mechanical failure, and she still won the race. Overall race winner, twice. 24 class wins, 17 for this car, another 7 for her components.

All of it without any real performance upgrades. It’s a solid rather than special engine, we’ve never so much as ported the head. It’s a tired 3.54 diff, via a stock box. We’ve not touched the limits of the class regs yet, so her speed is all in the corners, and even there we never finished the development job, so much we could still do. Just fixing the diff alone would find speed.

It’s sad to say that I’ve never hit the true pace that class D has to offer. Last year was a bit of a learning curve again with the new car, this year was a calculated cruise to win a title, we had lots of time in hand most places we went, and plenty of development in hand in case we ever needed it. I had expected another class D car to come forward and push us, some flat out racing and development to push the class forward, but the competition never came, and we’re no further along really than in 2007. The capacity to go faster is here, despite the new weight, we could blitz 2007 and our own 2008/2009 times, but we’ve not had to, I haven't gone flat out all year. There is a whole raft of modifications she could have had that I never actually fitted.

I do understand why certain previous champions have claimed boredom during their heyday.

If I were to do another year in D it would be only to see how fast the car truly is, but that is going to break a lot of things. The strain on the car now is incredible. It’s not just hubs, the whole car is now under enormous loads, bearings are starting to complain, engine mounts shear, every last part of the car is starting to struggle. So there is a lot of speed left in her, but finding it would be a wearing experience, it would cost a lot in preventative maintenance. The concept that a car can be limited as to speed by the fact that it will tear itself apart is alien to me, that’s not quite what I think racing is.

Having now driven a top-flight E car, the difference in grip and capability is clear, that weight change is absolutely fundamental, and class E has to be the future.

But, Helen is a D car. I’m not changing her to E. She went at Donnington as an E, but that was a fake E. Change the letter on the door, drop the 130kg of ballast, fibreglass bonnet and boot, throw out the passenger seat. None of it permanent, she can go back to D, I didn't even paint the fibreglass parts, I just wanted to see how she felt with 200kg less mass.

She carried 130kg of ballast. 130kg of weight carried just to be legal. The idea that no class D car would ever make 1510kg was such nonsense. We built a 1440kg car, and that included pilot and some 8kg of additional rollcage. Totally class D legal on the wording of the regs - which I think personally are too permissive. It was just built with time and care. Not that you'll find many who accept her legality, but that's another issue.

Anyway, that’s it for her, Helen retires from class D, at least in my hands. She might go out with someone else maybe, or she may make her return for Cadwell next year, she does have some free races to do, but I might yet steal a red car instead for those, I'd like to fix the handling on that properly.

It’s a triumphant retirement, unbowed and not even close to beaten, but tinged with a little sadness, because it is the end of a very successful era that I’m sure I will look back on with great joy.

I do need a new challenge, and you’d expect that challenge to be at the front, but I think if anything I might go a step back. What I’d love to do is take a back of the grid car and make it a class winner. Something like the Beecham or Crossley machine, test it, develop it, bring it on, have it appear at the first round of 2011 and scare the hell out of people, share some of the vast experience I have enjoyed learning from David and Dermott to try and assist someone who is doing their best without any guidance. I’d even like to drag other drivers kicking and screaming up the grid order, doesn’t even have to be me in the car, just for the satisfaction of it. I can see the appeal of being able to bring someone or something along and sharing their success. Perhaps I need to find myself a project.

What the hell I do with Helen now I don’t know. Too sentimental and too jealous to sell her, too fast to race as a D, expensive sacrilege to change it into an E. I’m going to MOT and tax it so she doesn’t rot away, but beyond that I just don’t know. She will make an awesome road car though!

Class D can breathe easy. Someone else’s turn for now, I’m sitting out the 2011 season, time for a rest, so for now so far as the JEC series goes, I’m signing out. Good luck to the D class pilots for the forthcoming year, stick it to the modified boys for me!