Gaz Shocks Compact Cup Donington Park

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Words: Paul McErlean Photos: Steve Jones

The format for the day was qualify in the morning with your fastest lap determining your start position for Race One and your second fastest lap for Race Two, however as I was car sharing with Mark Hales only one of us was able to qualify in session. Being concerned I might bin the car in my qualifying session or first race I decided to let Mark go first which meant I would have to qualify out of session with the Stock Hatch class just to bank my three laps and then start from the back of the grid for the second race.
Having been so preoccupied with everything else it was only when the five second board went up at start of the race start did I actually think shit I’m racing. Even in assembly I was walking round talking to the drivers to make sure there were no issues with their cars. I’d of course done a little bit of testing in the car as we developed it but I had never really done a hot lap in it nor a race start, so I sat there and thought 3500rpm, 4000rpm, what? Too late to think now, and as the red lights came on, I opted for the latter, took my customary deep breath in and focused on the distant count down… Go!
I get a perfect start, as did Warren Gazzard, who was aside me on the grid, we both get the car into the centre of the track and quickly pass Louis Tunmore, who in fairness had just done his first ever race start. Still side by side with Redgate fast approaching there’s just enough momentum to enable me to get past Stuart Voyce and get the car into the corner… Just on the exit of Redgate Simon Nunn and Alan O’niell had a small coming together, nothing serious but enough to upset the balance of Alan’s car throwing him into a spin. You never can predict those moments and what way they’re going to go, so a small lift just to be safe and I’m clear.
Unlike any other race before there was no benchmark, no knowledge of drivers or times, being a first for all the compacts out there. So, all I could do was get my head down and pedal as fast as I could, I’m now looking at the back of Simon’s car for almost two laps. I knew I was technically quicker but he drove really well making his car big in the right places so applying pressure was all I had available to get past him. I sat on his bumper going down Starkey’s straight holding him to the inside line until the braking zone where I backed off and got into the correct line, knowing his exit from the tight Esses chicane had now been compromised by his shallow entry, I carried as much speed as possible through the corner and got a switch back on him. Even with that move he still managed to pick up his pace on the straight and made me drive round the outside of him at Redgate for the pass.
The next group was two seconds ahead of me so with my head down again I managed to catch them and pass the first, Kevin Maxted, on Starkey’s straight. Three laps completed and six cars now behind me I felt confident but now things were going to get a little more difficult. I spent most of lap four watching Elliot Dunmore fight with handling problems, even still once he got out the corners he had enough to keep me at bay, so I realised that I had to try and compromise his line through the corners where he was already struggling. Just going into lap five I got a toe of him down the straight and managed to get the car down the inside into Redgate.
Now three seconds behind the top three drivers all I could do is plough through and hope they slow each other up. It took me until Coppice on lap six to catch the Tsang brothers who were racing wheel to wheel for most of the previous laps. I was getting a good toe off them down Starkeys and thought maybe I can pull the same move as I did with Simon earlier, however they tripped over themselves a bit through the Esses and I had jump on the brakes to avoid contact. Unfortunately Kevin Maxted didn’t have the same issue as he was a few car lengths behind me and as a result managed to drive straight pass me on the exit.
I’m now back in fifth position with only a few laps left in the race, I knew if I could drive the remainder of them uncompromised and get clean passes then I could get on the podium, so again I got my head down and caught Andrew Tsang by the end of the lap on the back straight.
Lap eight and now in fourth position with Maxted about a second in front of me, I knew this was going be a hard one because he’d previously sat on my bumper for over three laps without dropping off behind, but I did manage to catch him out of Coppice by driving on the absolute limit of grip and passed him down Starkey’s straight.
So I’m in third and we’re now into lap eight and nine out of 10 and I’m chasing Mark Tsang bumper to bumper. In fairness I couldn’t really see where I was going to pass him and I’d almost conceded to third, until we approached the braking zone at the hairpin, I saw the front of his car push on a little on the brakes. Fortunately I had backed off his bumper down Craners hoping for opportunity, and I braked slightly earlier than Mark which meant with a bit of turn in the wheel I already had the offside tyres loaded and the back of the car in the right position for an inside pass through the apex. Two abreast through the Old Hairpin at pace is not the most comfortable thing to do, however Mark seemed to see the move coming, albeit very suddenly, and thankfully he gave me the room. Most wouldn’t I suppose but Mark is good driver with a good brain.
The only car left in front is Kevin Denwood who had drove his car to first faultlessly from start to finish, with half a lap left in the race three seconds was just too much to make up, other than him making a mistake which he didn’t. Still, second overall and first in class was a great result. Oh and fastest lap of a 1:28.60 was the icing on the cake!

VIDEOS
Paul McErlean – Race Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN-gQ_DvfK8&feature=player_embedded

BMW Race Days’ Mechanic Mark Bate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhPDyVV8k9E&feature=player_embedded

Mark Hales
It’s a funny thing, but the accounts of races where everything works out are always the hardest to write. “I led from pole and won,” is less interesting than a massive struggle with adversity ending in gallant failure. I’ve sat down to write more than a few of the latter over the years, so I have served my time and I still know which feels better on the day. It’s also true that when the car is right, it really is easy. I’ve driven enough front running cars and the feeling is always the same. Within a lap you can see how they came to be front runners.
Paul McErlean’s Compact is a bit like that. It might not come as comfort to his opposition but the task of sorting out a specification that makes the series economical and viable inevitably ends up with a sorted car. You can trust me though, there’s nothing a test session won’t give the rest of you. More to the point, it was actually good to drive. There are more than a few front-drive cars which might fill out the grids, but which I have no desire to sit in. The Compact isn’t exactly powerful but it’s quite light and it’s a traditional rear drive car with a traditional rear drive balance and that makes it good in my book. It is also economical to own and operate. You can have a smart and legal car on the grid for £4000, complete with all essential safety equipment, and then you maintain it from the salvage yard. After the race, I asked fellow racer Mark Bate what he intended to do about the rattling engine which had spelt retirement before the end of his race. Would he pull out the crank, have it ground and put it back with a new set of bearings? “Nah...” came the reply, “I’ll get another one from the breakers...”
I like all that because it’s less common these days but it was how I started my racing way back when. I can even remember scouring the dump at the back of the tyre depots for a set of matching rubber with enough tread to please the scrutineers. But enough of that and more about the 318 Compact which Paul had kindly invited me to drive in the first race of the new series. The prevailing wisdom ahead of the event was that a Compact wouldn’t make a racer because the E30’s trailing arm rear suspension, which was fitted to the early ones (the S platers you can find on eBay for £500), wouldn’t work. I’m not sure why anybody thought that, after all the E30s seem to work pretty well and when I drove the car earlier in the year – at Donington with Editor Woodhams aboard – it seemed fine to me. In fact if there was a limp bit, it was the front end. The rear seemed firmly planted and initial attempts to take more speed through the Craners and the Old Hairpin were met with a wailing from the Toyo on the left front.
But it was easy to drive and it gave you plenty of opportunity to work out how to carry the extra speed without trying to spit you off. If I took a bit too much speed in, the front would simply edge wide and the only way to loosen the tail was by piling in much too fast on the brakes and heaving the wheel – which is not the way to drive when you only have 120hp. If I want to be picky the final drive could maybe do with changing because Donington only required the use of third and fourth and some of the corners – like McLeans and Coppice were too fast for third and too slow for fourth. A taller one would probably let you use second, or maybe a shorter one, would involve top gear. Other differentials are available and I think Paul is working on this one. The direct top gearbox had a bit of a crunchy synchro on fourth (another trip to the breakers) but provided I didn’t rush it, there was no real problem and the engine had a lot more torque in the midrange than the last six cylinder 320 which I drove at Silverstone.
Come qualifying at Donington, the replacement gearbox was indeed sweet but the slight push at the front was still there and the car was a touch tardy into Redgate and Coppice so Messrs Bate and the ever cheerful Tsang brothers set to with a set of
gauges and an adjustable and removed some of the large amount of toe in. The Tsangs were also busy assisting college lecturer Alan O’Neill and his band of previously wayward youngsters who swarmed over his Compact with eager intent. It was already clear that however much the on track action was serious this was as much a social thing as a contest. That could change of course, but let’s hope not...
The change of toe was worth a second, and it transformed the car for the race (thanks chaps) and I duly led away leaving two E30 interlopers driven by the Kevins, Maxted and Denwood, to indulge in a mighty scrap. If they had spent less time off piste creating huge clouds of dust and more time going forwards, I might have had a fight on my hands, but they didn’t, and they were both grinning afterwards. The only problem I had all race was a slight misfire coming out of McLeans, which Mark 2 and Paul reckon is the traditional BMW fuel surge. Strange that it didn’t happen at the Old Hairpin, but maybe you brake slightly harder for that.
Anyway, it was a very pleasant sunny outing in Leicestershire, so thank you to everybody. Later in the day Paul did the business from the back of the grid, which, as I mentioned earlier, should make a better story, but a good time was obviously had by all. As I walked out towards the car park, a grinning Mark Tsang shouted after me. “Thanks for thrashing us...” On the contrary my dear chap, thank you for allowing me to...
VIDEO
Mark Hales – Race One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvmQKrksd2M&feature=player_embedded#at=12