Atomcup 2nd race. 11-12 May - Cadwell Park

[John Scherrer]

2nd race podium action

Paul Donkin (left), John Hamilton (centre) Nick Whitehead (right)

[John Scherrer]

This looks like a handy upgrade ..

[FlyingTrotter]

Good snaps John

[AtomMadStew]

I Thoroughly enjoyed today as did my lil Reece....he's bushed and in bed bless him. Sitting in John's car and having his picture taken made his day, and he wants to come again. 

Good to meet Richard, PaulP, Hedge, Andy Wilkins, John & Lisa  - all familiar faces.
Also a pleasure to meet Ben (&claire?), Andy, Glyn, Stuart, Paul Donkin, Andrew300, hydeski & Tom.

Well done Stuart in race 1 - sterling job!
Well done Paul - two second places!

JohnH didn't have anything to lose with his position in race one. I was thinking go out on wets looking at the sky & drizzle but I think John was already contemplating this. Final call for the cars came and Richard left for the track entry and johns car was hauled back inside and a frantic 3 mins later left with a set of (A510s?) not so slick tyres.
Formation lap knocked johns mudguard onto the tyre after coming together with the car in front...started dead last in the pitlane, held up by the cars in front - he got clear and 4 seconds a lap faster and won it. Good clean racing from everyone - exiting to watch.

Tom - must be a military operation organising something like this - great show!

A good day, great racing and even greater people.
Until next time

Stew.  >8-D

Who was drift king through hall bends and did they keep it or lose it?

[Paul Donkin]

They lost it, right in front of me 

Nice to finally meet you Stew, for some reason I thought you had an atom but it sounds like it wont be long before you do anyway, good luck with the new venture.

Good to see some other faces, old & new within the atom cup awning, without the support of guys like this & my family/friends etc, it's just not the same.

I decided to skip friday testing due to work commitments, even though I had never driven the circuit before, I thought I would be ok as I usually get used to circuits quite quickly. This could not have been further from the truth this weekend. From the word go, I was struggling.

Lap times tumbled in practice as I set the car up to my preferences, even then, I was THREE SECONDS off the pace. Rain came in qualifying, great because I love the rain but not so great as I needed more dry running time! End of qualifying came & I put it 3rd on the grid, there was a lot more time to be had but I needed more time that simply was not available.

Race 1, completely dry, I was concerned, I was 3 seconds off guys starting behind me so I knew this would be hard. Right away I was swamped by cars & went wide in Turn 3, I decided to lift & let them past, the only option was to follow & see where I could gain time. After I was confident I could push on, I worked my way up the field & had some great tussles with Lewis & Stewart right at the end, ending up around half a second behind him on at the chequered flag. Some very clean racing with a lot of trust in the other guys.

Race 2, it started raining around 10 minutes before we went out, from my understanding, unless the clerk of the track declares a wet race, you MUST start on dry tyres, at the time of leaving the awning, it was not a wet race as far as I was aware but all the time I was sat thinking, I NEED WETS ON NOW as it was coming down fast. Everyone else was in the same boat, or so I thought & I was assured everyone would start on dry tyres. I could not complain really. John then came down with wets on! I knew he would be coming from the rear & picking us off one by one.

I started p4 for this race & it was so intense I cannot actually recall how I got into the lead & led for most of the race. The amount of concentrations required to drive on those A048's in the wet was crazy, very testing mentally. Towards the end, Nick was catching me up as he had upped his pace due to Richard catching him so I needed to push. On the last 3 laps, I saw a flash of white & my heart sank, I knew John was coming! A few corners later he was all over me & passed with ease, I tried to hang on but there was no hope. Nick was still behind me & came home 3rd & I shared the podium with 2 really good guys.

Coming from a background of trackdays etc, there is no feeling that can replicate the one you have while racing. It's infectious. Fingers crossed I can get on the top spot one day but I have some tough competition.

Until next time......

[Yorkshire]

I can only agree with Paul 

Absolutely fabulous weekend 

I have never raced before although I have done loads of Trackdays.

Not driven my Atom for 9 months as I have been using a Radical since sept last year which didn't do me any favours on test day as used to aero and slicks.

Started on Friday on test day in blue car (Paul's car for sat / sun) straight away I was one of the front runners probably because Cadwell is my local and favourite circuit so home advantage was mine.

After the first 4 or 5 runs Richard and Nick seemed to be closing my advantage so I decided another second needed to be found 

The answer seemed to be obvious all I needed to do was not brake at coppice and take it flat in fifth .

Sounded easy after all I had only been lifting not actually braking anyway. So few laps to warm tyres and lets go for it !

Anyway as you have probably guessed it didn't go well 

Car sent out wide towards grass forcing me to do the cardinal sin in an Atom and lift off the throttle

Anyway car spun right and I caught it but then it threw me back into the armco on the left

As I listened to the wheels running along the barrier and the entrance to Charlie's passing on the right I realised next was the grass and the tyre wall in the distance

I tried to brake but car went sideways and slid into tyre wall broadside at about 40 or 50 

Sorry for the modifications to the blue car Paul but that was the end of my test day

Car broken Confidence knocked and a Saturday with rain forecast

What else could go wrong!!!!!

To be continued once I have seen to my 8 month old son. This is what I have to do after my selfish race weekend lol

[benyeats]

[quote="Yorkshire"]

The answer seemed to be obvious all I needed to do was not brake at coppice and take it flat in fifth .

[/quote]

I wondered if that was possible on my last trackday at Cadwell but kept chickening out.....

[Trance]

Hi all
    I was lucky enough to sample my first taste of an atom yesterday,alongside my ol friend hydeski!!... Wow,amazing machines!
  Trip to atomcup at cadwell was great,so good to be able to get amongst the drivers & cars,not to mention the actual racing which was v exciting as expected!
    Well,thanks to all for making me feel welcome,& nice to meet a few of the atomcup crew & other owners.
Hope you like my few pics from the day
  Cheers
  Pete

[toms]

[quote="Stew Bartley"]

Tom - must be a military operation organising something like this - great show!

[/quote]

Good to see you at the weekend Stew.  I can't take all the credit for organising i'm afraid - the majority of that needs to go to Mark Harrison and his team, ably assisted by the Ariel crew.

Our brief is to keep the cars running and get them out on the track, and with a grand total of 5 accidents this weekend we were certainly kept busy!!

Still a few rough edges to knock off the whole thing but overall it was a great weekend 

[Yorkshire]

So to Saturday new day new car  :-

Practice and qualifying with all the drivers now here.

We had 7 cars in attendance with Richard ,Nick and Lewis as owner drivers together with John H, Paul Donkin, Matt Walton and myself as the hire drivers (for want of a better description).

Weather was dry so we all set about setting up the cars for qualifying in the afternoon.

Paul and Matt had not been on the test day plus i had modified Pauls car in the tyre wall so they had a little more work to do.

Practice went ok and i finished 3rd just over half a second slower than Richard Marler who looked really smooth on track and i found really hard to try and stay with.

Nick wasn't much slower in second so qualifying would be fun.

Paul D was around 3 seconds off the pace but i had watched the footage of the races at Silverstone so knew he would be a contender in the race.

So we broke for lunch (which was fabulous by the way Cheers Mark) and awaited our qualifying session.

Then my worst nightmare RAIN !!!!!

I'm not big on the old sliding around drifting the car from corner to corner so rain was not what i needed. Add to that my crash and pending repair bill meant i was cautious to say the least.

I went out with survival being the key word. I just needed to qualify somewhere as race day was forecast to be dry (ay least first thing) so i should be back amongst it.

Results in and i was 6th out of 7!!! Not great but i had qualified. More worryingly the front runners were around 5 seconds a lap faster so not my best performance.

End of another great day so drive back to Leeds for another restless night before raceday 

[Paul Donkin]

More more more

[Yorkshire]

RACE DAY 

Had decided to drive to Cadwell on the sunday morning in my Atom.

Thought an hour and a half behind the wheel might sharpen my driving for the race ahead.

Also Glyn was in attendance with his Atom as we had both been attracted by the offer of a free clean by Tom and the Crew. Cheers lol

I have to say that morning once there i was nervous as hell. My red car (22) felt different to the blue car (15) which i had crashed on test day.

It didn't seem to me to turn in as nicely as the blue car but this may have been down to my confidence. Anyway we softened the front end slightly hopefully to make it turn in a little easier.

Race 1 we all got in the cars ready to go.

This is where i say a massive thanks to Glyn. He basically told me to go out and enjoy it no matter what. If i was smiling while driving i would be relaxed and hopefully do well. We decided that once the lights went out and the race started i needed to make a charge even on coldish tyres through the pack to try and gain places.

I knew Richard was on pole and if he got away cleanly and into the lead i would never catch him up.

So on grid, lights red and off then away we go.

What a baptism of fire. Got a great start and charged round the outside of Coppice managing to make up a place or two.

If trackdays, the testing day and qualifying were suppose to prepare me for this they didn't. All of a sudden there are 7 cars all two a breast trying to get into the same corner that is one car wide.

The perfect line which i had been practicing so often now counted for very little!!!!! The racing line now appeared to be whatever line you wanted as long as you could accelerate or out brake the person infront without letting the person behind you do the same to you.

All of a sudden i found most fast corner had an Atom infront of me with the car sideways another in my left mirror and the same in my right all of us trying to get the best run into the next corner for it all to start again 

By far the BEST track experience i have ever had.

Much of the race is a blur now as so much happened but as the field opened up i found myself in second place with Richard having done what i feared and set off into the distance. I looked in my mirrors and could see only a small gap back to the white car of Matt W but he had most of the pack climbing all over him so i had a little space to try and chase Richard.

As we cleared the mountain and entered Hall Bends i looked in my mirror to see Matt broadside as he spun and blocked the track. I thought i was sorted now for second as the track looked blocked.

Then like one of those movies where out of the mist comes the baddy i saw the blue car of Paul D emerge.

Race On 

Paul quickly was right behind me and for the next few laps we fought through every corner for 2nd and 3rd places.

Would like to say thanks to Paul absolutely fabulous wheel to wheel action. Slip streaming into the corners then 2 a breast round Chris Curve with an Atom only a foot to your side doing nearly 100mph has to be experienced 

So as the race came near the end i was fighting every corner for 2nd place.

As we came round onto the start and finish straight i saw a car emerge from the pit lane and start a race with Richard M who was probably at least 100yards in the distance in the lead. I was busy trying to keep Paul D at bay so had to concentrate on what i was doing so didnt really watch the battle ahead.

A lap or 2 later we had caught the next car (44). Wrongly i assumed this was the back marker who had exited the pits and i was desperate to get by and put them between myself and Paul D who was charging hard.

It wasnt easy and i kept thinking why dont they move over as they are a lap behind but it was infact Richard who we had caught. As we entered the fast straight towards Park i slip streamed Richard and pulled out to the right and took the lead.

Unfortunately Paul D followed me through so it all started again. I kept passing the pits thinking surely the flag should be out by now but no another lap.

I managed to put together my fastest lap of the race in an attempt to pull away but unfortunately Paul D did the same 

Anyway i finally received the chequered flag but though at the time i had 2nd and Paul D 3rd.

It was only when we pulled into the pits and pulled in line i noticed no one infront of me.

I asked the official who had won and he looked at me odd and said you did!!!!

Happy Days 

Anyway thats enough from me for now. Hope you enjoyed my little decription of my first ever race.

I wont do the same regarding race 2 as i didnt win that lol

Thanks to Mark and his Team at Atomic Racing.

Tom and the fabulous Ariel Team

All the other competitors who ran a great wheel to wheel race.

Paul D for the best on track tussle i have ever had

And my Mate Glyn for the pre race pep talk.

Thanks

Stuart

[JonB]

I thought the whole event was superb.  Fantastically well organised by Ariel and the Atom Cup people, a very slick operation.  It was really interesting to be involved with Paul seeing how he hit the track on the Saturday practice and basically wasted a lot of time behind people and having issues with the brake balance which was all at the back.  In actual fact i think he only had 5 clear laps in Practice and Quali.
Thought the standard of driving was really good, clean, hard and committed by all.  The last four or five laps of race 1 were simply brilliant to watch.
I think the results speak for themselves, you can train and try and perfect every element of your technique in practice but when it comes to it the weather and racing the cars changes all of that as there are so many variables to deal with - the results clearly show that

Well done to everyone

[Paul Donkin]

Brilliant write up mate, It's a shame we have never been on track together before this, I think the black flags will be out for us if any of that went on though.

I am really glad you enjoyed it & you showed true skill & courtesy. Hope to meet you & Glyn again soon.

Paul

[Yorkshire]

Cheers Paul

And good luck in your next race (i know you will do another lol) (Oulton Park has your name on it)

Let me know if you do and i'm sure me n Glyn will try and turn up.

Saving up to pay for my Wedding in August so not sure i can manage another this year 

2014 season looking interesting though 

Brilliant result for you in race 2 though especially on AO48's

Cheers

Stuart