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Eight races into my first season in
motorsport, I was expecting to be peeling
off my novice cross and challenging old-
timers in the mid-field. The learning curve
would have flattened out and I’d have
uncovered all the little tuning tricks allowed
within the strict rules of the 750 Motor Club’
s Stock Hatch Championship. My 17-year-
old Fiesta XR2 would be fast, reliable and
extremely well balanced.
How naïve.
Instead, the engine blew up during
qualifying for the first race. But removing
me from the championship might have
been the best thing fate could have done
for us – because we returned to the track
much wiser and much less of a liability than
before. Indeed, car number 16 may have
wished we’d stayed away longer, because at
around 12.24pm on Sunday June 29 at
Cadwell Park, I overtook him. What an
amazing feeling. And it only cost £4207.
The fateful first race took place at
Donington back in March. In fit of idealism,
we’d decided that we keep to the spirit of
the Stock (ie unmodified) Hatch
Championship and drive to the race in our
Fiesta. After buying it for £525 and
stripping its interior, we’d sat on rising costs
by doing nothing else bar fufilling the
safety requirements of a rollcage, harness,
engine cut-off and fire extinguisher.
A glimpse of our folly came in the
scrutineering queue when we saw that our
car sat inches higher on its standard
suspension than everyone else’s. Swapping
the shocks and springs for race-tuned
versions is allowed in this championship,
and despite the extra stiffness from the roll-
cage, we were obviously going to suffer in
the corners.
It turned out that was the least of our
worries. On lap one of qualifying I noticed
smoke coming from behind. It was easy to
spot because I was spending more time
checking for rapidly approaching cars in my
mirrors than looking ahead. I stopped in
the pits, where a marshall told me I was
leaking fluid. I hadn’t completed a lap and
I needed three to qualify: did I want to
carry on? I did. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Turned out a heater hose had popped out
and I lost all coolant. I came in after three
laps, but it was enough. The tell-tale
scrambled egg on the underside of the filler
cap told us water was getting into the oil; I’
d cracked the block.
Because we’d driven and not trailered it, we
had to get back on the road. The car ran
badly, but it ran and we headed onto the
M1 back to London. At Watford Gap
services we filled up with water but it wouldn’
t start. We called the RAC and got a piggy
back home. For the day to end like that
after all the build-up was devastating. My
teammate Simon said it rivalled the day he
was told to leave university for failing an
exam.
Replacing the engine was hell. Finding
another secondhand 1600cc XR2 unit was
easy, thanks to a internet parts search. An
uber-scrappie in Yorkshire called Wagstaff
strapped one they had to a pallet and
couriered it down, all for £90. But we had to
buy a tool kit from scratch, and spent many
weekday nights and weekends struggling to
get it right.
Amazingly, our transplant worked. But we
needed suspension, and so invested in and
fitted a set of fully adjustable shocks from
Avo along with some secondhand Leda
springs. Fully ratcheted down, the shocks
transformed the car into something
approaching a racer. Unwind them and it
was soft enough to drive on the road.
Deciding we needed a day of testing we got
in on a Trackfun track day at Goodwood,
and the car felt so good we kidded
ourselves we were matching the Porsches
though the bends.
So now we were ready, and the next race
was a two-day double-header at Cadwell
Park in Lincolnshire. Again we drove up in
the Fiesta, lacking both a trailer and
suitable tow-car. Qualification was scary
because of the huge power and (maybe)
skills gap between me and the top drivers,
but this time the car felt great. I survived
Cadwell’s infamous Gooseneck, a fast right
hander with no place to brake straight for
the left-hander that followed, and qualified
62nd out of an amazing 68 entrants (split
into three races). So what if there was 10
seconds between me and the guy on pole.
Heat one and I’m quaking two from the
back on the grid. Reeeeeeeed – Green!
Too many revs, the front wheels spin wildly
and I’m last at the first corner. And that’s
where I stay until the Nova GTE I’m chasing
loses it at the Gooseneck before rejoining
behind me. Sadly he gets back in front,
and then I’m lapped. But now I can call
myself a racedriver. Ladies, ahem, yes I’m
a racedriver.
Race two the next day and I control the
wheelspin, but am still last at the first
corner. However this time I’m close behind
a Peugeot 205 GTi and I’ve got his
measure at the hairpin in the valley
section. Then a few laps later I take a
better angle round it and claw past up the
hill. I’ve overtaken him! I lose all
professional cool and thump the steering
wheel. I manage to calm down and hold
him until the finish, no doubt helped by the
fact a pre-race short-circuit kept my brake
lights on permanently. What a rush! Not
only that, I knock two seconds from my
qualifying time.
Now we have a decision to make. Do we
have a life and confine improvements to
pre-race spanner checks, or do we spend
time and money taking the car from back-
marker to mid-fielder? Or do we just need
to be better drivers (my teammate gets his
first race at Mallory this weekend)? It’ll be
disappointing just to overtake one car on
my next outing at Silverstone, but we’ve
only got £800 to go before reaching our
£5000 cut-off for this year.
Bump and (angle) grind
Not every felt elation after that race in
Cadwell Park. A bitter argument developed
between the two camps either side of us in
the paddock, each accusing the other driver
of knocking them off the track. A classic
battle between young upstart and old lag,
the youngster had taken the fastest lap but
was later called to the Clerk of the Course
and excluded.
With around 25 fairly evenly matched cars
in every race, Stock Hatch is a buzz for
spectators because at least on incident is
guaranteed. Which is a fairly sobering
thought for anyone starting out on a
budget. I did meet one XR2 driver who
claimed he hadn’t had a crash in the three
years he’d been racing, but that’s
extremely rare. One driver got so fed up of
being tapped off he had written “push here
to exit” on the left rear flank of his Fiesta.
The final Stock Hatch race at Cadwell
stopped 200 yards from the start when
jostling in the front pack led to someone
being pushed sideways and then ending
the race of at least three cars, including the
championship leader.
In Brands Hatch back in April one Fiesta
clipped the back of another in qualifying,
sending it into a dramatic roll in full view of
the camera-toting car behind. No one was
hurt, and it’s now a great Mpeg video clip,
but the repairs would have cost a fortune to
anyone without a great relationship with a
bodyshop.
Expenses so far
Getting me race legal: £405
Car plus roadbills: £883
Getting car race ready: £1702
Raceday expenses £445
Repairs/tools/parts £469
Clothing £303
Total £4207
motorsport, I was expecting to be peeling
off my novice cross and challenging old-
timers in the mid-field. The learning curve
would have flattened out and I’d have
uncovered all the little tuning tricks allowed
within the strict rules of the 750 Motor Club’
s Stock Hatch Championship. My 17-year-
old Fiesta XR2 would be fast, reliable and
extremely well balanced.
How naïve.
Instead, the engine blew up during
qualifying for the first race. But removing
me from the championship might have
been the best thing fate could have done
for us – because we returned to the track
much wiser and much less of a liability than
before. Indeed, car number 16 may have
wished we’d stayed away longer, because at
around 12.24pm on Sunday June 29 at
Cadwell Park, I overtook him. What an
amazing feeling. And it only cost £4207.
The fateful first race took place at
Donington back in March. In fit of idealism,
we’d decided that we keep to the spirit of
the Stock (ie unmodified) Hatch
Championship and drive to the race in our
Fiesta. After buying it for £525 and
stripping its interior, we’d sat on rising costs
by doing nothing else bar fufilling the
safety requirements of a rollcage, harness,
engine cut-off and fire extinguisher.
A glimpse of our folly came in the
scrutineering queue when we saw that our
car sat inches higher on its standard
suspension than everyone else’s. Swapping
the shocks and springs for race-tuned
versions is allowed in this championship,
and despite the extra stiffness from the roll-
cage, we were obviously going to suffer in
the corners.
It turned out that was the least of our
worries. On lap one of qualifying I noticed
smoke coming from behind. It was easy to
spot because I was spending more time
checking for rapidly approaching cars in my
mirrors than looking ahead. I stopped in
the pits, where a marshall told me I was
leaking fluid. I hadn’t completed a lap and
I needed three to qualify: did I want to
carry on? I did. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Turned out a heater hose had popped out
and I lost all coolant. I came in after three
laps, but it was enough. The tell-tale
scrambled egg on the underside of the filler
cap told us water was getting into the oil; I’
d cracked the block.
Because we’d driven and not trailered it, we
had to get back on the road. The car ran
badly, but it ran and we headed onto the
M1 back to London. At Watford Gap
services we filled up with water but it wouldn’
t start. We called the RAC and got a piggy
back home. For the day to end like that
after all the build-up was devastating. My
teammate Simon said it rivalled the day he
was told to leave university for failing an
exam.
Replacing the engine was hell. Finding
another secondhand 1600cc XR2 unit was
easy, thanks to a internet parts search. An
uber-scrappie in Yorkshire called Wagstaff
strapped one they had to a pallet and
couriered it down, all for £90. But we had to
buy a tool kit from scratch, and spent many
weekday nights and weekends struggling to
get it right.
Amazingly, our transplant worked. But we
needed suspension, and so invested in and
fitted a set of fully adjustable shocks from
Avo along with some secondhand Leda
springs. Fully ratcheted down, the shocks
transformed the car into something
approaching a racer. Unwind them and it
was soft enough to drive on the road.
Deciding we needed a day of testing we got
in on a Trackfun track day at Goodwood,
and the car felt so good we kidded
ourselves we were matching the Porsches
though the bends.
So now we were ready, and the next race
was a two-day double-header at Cadwell
Park in Lincolnshire. Again we drove up in
the Fiesta, lacking both a trailer and
suitable tow-car. Qualification was scary
because of the huge power and (maybe)
skills gap between me and the top drivers,
but this time the car felt great. I survived
Cadwell’s infamous Gooseneck, a fast right
hander with no place to brake straight for
the left-hander that followed, and qualified
62nd out of an amazing 68 entrants (split
into three races). So what if there was 10
seconds between me and the guy on pole.
Heat one and I’m quaking two from the
back on the grid. Reeeeeeeed – Green!
Too many revs, the front wheels spin wildly
and I’m last at the first corner. And that’s
where I stay until the Nova GTE I’m chasing
loses it at the Gooseneck before rejoining
behind me. Sadly he gets back in front,
and then I’m lapped. But now I can call
myself a racedriver. Ladies, ahem, yes I’m
a racedriver.
Race two the next day and I control the
wheelspin, but am still last at the first
corner. However this time I’m close behind
a Peugeot 205 GTi and I’ve got his
measure at the hairpin in the valley
section. Then a few laps later I take a
better angle round it and claw past up the
hill. I’ve overtaken him! I lose all
professional cool and thump the steering
wheel. I manage to calm down and hold
him until the finish, no doubt helped by the
fact a pre-race short-circuit kept my brake
lights on permanently. What a rush! Not
only that, I knock two seconds from my
qualifying time.
Now we have a decision to make. Do we
have a life and confine improvements to
pre-race spanner checks, or do we spend
time and money taking the car from back-
marker to mid-fielder? Or do we just need
to be better drivers (my teammate gets his
first race at Mallory this weekend)? It’ll be
disappointing just to overtake one car on
my next outing at Silverstone, but we’ve
only got £800 to go before reaching our
£5000 cut-off for this year.
Bump and (angle) grind
Not every felt elation after that race in
Cadwell Park. A bitter argument developed
between the two camps either side of us in
the paddock, each accusing the other driver
of knocking them off the track. A classic
battle between young upstart and old lag,
the youngster had taken the fastest lap but
was later called to the Clerk of the Course
and excluded.
With around 25 fairly evenly matched cars
in every race, Stock Hatch is a buzz for
spectators because at least on incident is
guaranteed. Which is a fairly sobering
thought for anyone starting out on a
budget. I did meet one XR2 driver who
claimed he hadn’t had a crash in the three
years he’d been racing, but that’s
extremely rare. One driver got so fed up of
being tapped off he had written “push here
to exit” on the left rear flank of his Fiesta.
The final Stock Hatch race at Cadwell
stopped 200 yards from the start when
jostling in the front pack led to someone
being pushed sideways and then ending
the race of at least three cars, including the
championship leader.
In Brands Hatch back in April one Fiesta
clipped the back of another in qualifying,
sending it into a dramatic roll in full view of
the camera-toting car behind. No one was
hurt, and it’s now a great Mpeg video clip,
but the repairs would have cost a fortune to
anyone without a great relationship with a
bodyshop.
Expenses so far
Getting me race legal: £405
Car plus roadbills: £883
Getting car race ready: £1702
Raceday expenses £445
Repairs/tools/parts £469
Clothing £303
Total £4207