August 24 Hour Race

[Phokaioglaukos]

Photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Phokaioglauk...directlink

The short of it, we finished!

The longer of it, we had a great time and a lot of “experiences.�?

How it started 

In 2009 when I first came to London a fellow Genesee Valley BMW track day instructor put me in touch with Meyrick, an endurance racer. Meyrick believes that long races are the most satisfying and time efficient road racing. I watched him race a BMW in the 2009 24 Hour Nürburgring. I repeatedly watched Truth in 24, the movie focused on Audi in the 24 Hours of LeMans (free download on iTunes!). I watched the 2010 24 Hours of Spa on Sky. I started to think endurance racing was attractive. Over lunch last month, Meyrick told me about the 2CV 24 Hour race at Snetterton. He had done it in 2009, placed third and had a team lined up for 2010. Before our coffee he had e-mailed another racer to get me a seat on one of the other teams. By the time I was back in the office I had an invitation to join the Crusader Vans team.


2CV? What’s That? 

Wikipedia reports that the Citroën 2CV (French: deux chevaux,[/i] i.e. deux chevaux fiscaux[/i], literally “two horsepower for tax purposes�?) was an economy car produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1948-1990 and that more the 8½ million of them were produced in several variants. Turning the street car into a race car requires addition of a full cage, race seat, harnesses, fire suppression system, lowered and stiffened suspension and tuned engine. The car must weigh at least 1,440 lbs. with driver at the end of the race. The race cars use the largest engine from the 1970s, a 602cc horizontally-opposed air-cooled carbureted twin that was initially developed for BMW motorcycles. All 2CVs must use the same cam shaft, but valves, cylinder heads and tuning the required Solex or Weber carburetor are free. The gearbox must be stock.

I arrived at Snetterton on Friday for a practice session and met #28, the Crusader Vans 2CV. I immediately noticed its fancy paint work. I then noticed the race seat and four-point harnesses, and realized I could not use my HANS device. Sitting in the car for the first time I felt at home, except for the gear lever. Over the last 18 months I have become comfortable with the right-hand driver’s seat and using my left hand to change gears, but there was no gear shift lever on the floor of the 2CV. Instead, there was a small knob sticking out of the dash. The 2CV gearbox shifts in the familiar H-pattern, but the gearshift is mounted on the dashboard and is “sideways.�? The driver rotates the stick down and pulls back for 1[suP]st[/suP] gear, releases to the middle position and pushes it in for 2[suP]nd[/suP], keeps it in the middle position and pulls it back for 3[suP]rd[/suP], and finally rotates it up and pushes it in for 4[suP]th[/suP]. There is no 5[suP]th[/suP], and reverse is where 1[suP]st[/suP] would normally be in a regular H-pattern.

Other than the gear shift, the car felt like it was a race car. A very small, four-door race car, but a race car. The gearshift was scary. I had to remember that 1[suP]st[/suP] was where 2[suP]nd[/suP] should be in order to get the car to move in the intended direction. More significant, I had to remember that the “money shift�? of 3[suP]rd[/suP] to 2[suP]nd[/suP] when 3[suP]rd[/suP] to 4[suP]th[/suP] was intended is particularly easy. The trick is to rotate the gearshift clockwise firmly before sliding it in. The throw is quite long, but the shifting was smooth.

To hold down costs radios are prohibited so the only communication from driver to crew is by hand signals and pit board. The theory is that if the driver wants to pit he indicates right whilst passing the pit lane. The team’s watcher sees that and prepares to receive the car. In the day it is easy to miss the indicator; and at night even with lighted number plates on each side of the car it’s easy to mistake one car for another. Many teams run distinctive lights on the outside of their car to help the crew identify them at night.

 

The Track
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Snetterton is a 1.95 mile road racing circuit in Norfolk, England, built on what was a RAF airfield used by the US Army Air Force in WWII. Accordingly, it has two long straights linked by two fast 90° turns on one end and a turn complex of esses, curves and a chicane on the other end. The course has virtually no elevation changes and there is substantial runoff all around, but the ground is soft (and often muddy). Last year I had a test day at Snetterton in a Ginetta G50 set up as a FIA GT4 car: tube frame chassis, Ford 3.5 liter V-6 engine making 300 HP, sequential gearbox with strain gauge flat shift system, Öhlins dampers and Alcon brakes. I knew the turns at Snetterton from this experience, but had no idea how to race there and no idea how a 2CV would drive the course. Turn 1 (Riches Corner) is a 90° right that requires no braking in the 2CV—none whatsoever. One enters in 4[suP]th[/suP] gear and stays in it until a brake tap and a downshift to 3[suP]rd[/suP] for Turn 2 (Sear Corner), another 90° right that has acres of paved runoff, much of which the 2CVs use and almost all of which the fast cars use on this circuit.

Revett Straight is next, the longest of any track in the UK. In the G50 I could not believe how fast the upshifts came on hard acceleration (and how rapidly a sequential shifter could make the “no-lift, no clutch�? shifts). In my 2CV 4[suP]th[/suP] gear came about a third of the way down the straight and I had plenty of time to check my mirrors, gauges, scenery and weather. When passing on the straight one could have a short conversation with the other driver, were the engines not so loud. The entry into The Esses is a left kink taken flat-out in the 2CV, then firm braking and a downshift to 3[suP]rd[/suP] before pitching the car to the right. The Bomb Hole bend to the right is the lowest point of the track and Coram Curve is a sweeping right. The Russell Bend chicane comes next and is the slowest section. As forgiving as the runoff is at Sear Corner it is absolutely unforgiving at Russell Bend. There is low curbing at the apexes but if one runs wide there is steep curbing that will launch even a 2CV into the air. One team hit the high curbs during the race throwing the car into a three revolution barrel roll. After Russell Bend is Senna Straight and the start/finish line. My car would not see 4[suP]th[/suP] until half way down Senna Straight.

 

Practice[/i]

After playing with the gearshift in the garage a few times I headed out for my first laps. The speed limit in the pit lane is 60 kph. The G50 has a button on the steering wheel to enable a speed limiter assuring no penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The 2CV has an equivalent—staying in second gear keeps the car under the limit. Out on track I thought hard at each shift how to manipulate the gearshift. Thinking of a horizontal H-pattern was not easy. My first laps were around 2:04s. That was not going to be great in the race.

After two practice sessions in which I had 30 minutes total in the car, we had two qualifying sessions. The optional session, in which everyone tried to make their best time, was in the day and the mandatory session was at night. Each driver had to finish three laps in the night qualifying session in order to race. The day session started at 8:30 PM and finished at 9:30 PM. We cycled our four drivers through rapidly in order to give them time in the car: Keith is team manager and owner, David is his son and Bob is a track day instructor, mostly in Caterhams. Although it was day qualifying, by 8:30 PM it was dusk and by 9:30 it was almost full dark. Keith put me in the car for the end of the day qualifying session and I managed a team best of 1:59. The pole was at 1:47 and the bulk of the cars were in the mid-1:50s. We were not last on the grid, but we were well back.

Night practice was more fun. We had two bright Halogen headlights and two much brighter HID headlights. Other cars had much the same. We had a screen on the rear window to cut the glare and out we went for night practice, from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM. Each driver needed three laps to qualify and the marshals paid close attention to compliance. Unlike the 12 hour race I had done at Summit Point in a Mazda Miata (MX-5), this was a single-class race so all the cars were reasonably evenly matched. Closing speeds were not great and no BMW M3s or Porsche 911s would appear on my tail out of nowhere. We all four qualified.

Saturday was race day for about a dozen support races, all of them sprints of about 20 minutes. Our race started at 5:00 PM. We had only one 20 minute practice session in mid-morning and Keith put me in the car to see if we could get a better lap time, not that it would change our grid position. I managed a 1:56 which made us feel a bit better heading into the race. What we really wanted was a 1:53, but it was not in the cards. The car was down on power, but it was new and not fully broken in so there was hope of speed to come.

 

The Night Race
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As I had the fastest lap time so far (and perhaps because I was a foreigner), Keith asked me to start. As I sat in my lowly position on the grid it occurred to me that I was not certain whether we were doing standing or rolling starts. All my races in the US have been rolling starts and all my races in the UK have been standing starts. This one turned out to be a rolling start, so a lap around behind the pace car (that’s how I knew it was a rolling start), lights off on the pace car as it pulled into the pit lane, and then a green flag from the starter. Happily, I had learned that on rolling starts and on restarts passing is allowed only after the car passes the start/finish line. In SCCA racing in the US the entire track goes green at the same time and passing is permitted everywhere at once. I learned the difference in rules last year at Oulton Park in a friendly chat with the Clerk of the Course.

My first stint of 2¼ hours was uneventful. The effective technique in 2CVs, as with other low-power cars, is to draft each other down the straights, particularly important on the long straights at Snetterton. Unfortunately I was in a sub-group of three cars in the back of the pack and the other two drivers were intent on racing each other instead of cooperating with each other and me to catch the rest of the pack. It was fun, but it was not fast. When the safety car came out on a full course caution the team called me in for refueling and driver change. Despite the absence of cooperation when I got out of the car we had moved from 23[suP]rd[/suP] to 14[suP]th[/suP], and the car was running better.

David drove next and I went back to the hotel for steak and kidney pie, a pint and a nap. When I returned at 1:00 AM I learned that a cylinder sleeve had lost a chunk of metal, the car had a tow in to the garage, the spare engine had been installed, Bob had done a stint and that Keith was out in the car and due back in about an hour. It is common to replace an engine in a 2CV during the 24 hour race. One person can pick up an engine and there are only a few bolts connecting it to the gearbox. Most teams have one or two spare engines ready to pop in, and it can be done in less than ten minutes! Our change was not that quick, and David did have to be towed in. Unlike many more serious endurance races, one can get towed to the pits unless the race is in the last hour at the cost of a five-lap penalty. A far better circumstance than ending the race stranded out on the course.

Keith’s stint was uneventful. It developed that only Keith managed to avoid being towed in to the pits. I went out for my second stint at about 2:15 AM. On my outlap I found significant traffic whilst coming out of The Esses, became dazzled by the headlights and ran wide, very wide, managing a good spin off the track. I put both feet in, kept the engine running and was able to rejoin without damage to the car. The rest of the night session was uneventful, until the end. We had a strip of black tape obscuring the part of the fuel gauge and the plan was to refuel when the needle dipped below the tape. Unfortunately the gauge was more optimistic than anticipated and the engine first stumbled entering Coram Curve. By the exit of the turn I was coasting, but could not make it to the pits. That occasioned a safety car and a tow to our garage at about 3:35 AM. Restarting after fueling was hard and required priming the carburetor and replacing the spark plugs. Then David was out again and I went back to the hotel for another nap.

 

The Day Race
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When I arrived at 10 AM for my next stint I came upon the car, less its front wheels and much of its bodywork, being rolled to the back of the garage on a jack. The nose of the car slipped off the jack repeatedly and finally a group lifted the nose and rolled the car into the garage an onto jack stands. Bob had been out and another car spun next to him, in Sear Corner, destroying our front right wheel and the wing. Bob was uninjured, but the tow in and the repair of the car took a long time, dropping us well out of contention for a mid-pack finish. As the crew worked on the car we learned that the steering rack had been twisted. Replacement required extracting a bolt that had sheared off, and that took a long time.

Finally I was out on track again at about 12:15 PM. The car was running well, but I overcooked it entering Russell Bend and ran wide on the exit. There are severe rumble strips at track out and they are best kept off to preserve the suspension. The wise racers stay off the curbs everywhere around the track, but especially at Russell Bend where being aggressive can hurt and where an error can take you right off. Unfortunately on this lap I drifted over the rumble strips and onto (more like into) the mud and hit a large hole that other racers had dug at the exit. I soon heard a nasty noise and smelled a bad odor. I had missed pit in, so I continued, fitfully, down Senna Straight until I could park beside the marshal stand at pit out.

The marshal asked me what was wrong, and I said something that he could not hear. His reply was simple: “something nasty, huh?�? I agreed. Several people following the race on the web site forwarded the following update to me: “Crusader Vans has come to a smokey [sic] stop. Well done to the Marshall who managed to push the car to safety without the use of the Saftey [sic] Car!�? Our garage was just two in from pit out and the marshals allowed us to push the car around to the back of the garage without incurring a penalty. We soon discovered that the right rear tire was rubbing on the fender well. The team jacked the car up, removed the wheel and attached a special tool to the hub. One must see[/i] the tool to understand it. It consists of a long section of square tube welded to the center of a wheel. The wheel is bolted to the hub and, whilst half the team holds the opposite side of the car down two other members of the team lean on the end of the square tube to bend the axle back into position. Really. 

With the wheel bolted back on I was soon back out on track until 2:00 PM when David took over. Keith offered me the last one hour stint and I accepted, managing in the last few minutes to better our fastest lap. If you have seen all the marshals waving every flag they have on the last lap of a major race, the crowd filling pit lane to slap hands and applaud and the drivers all congratulating each other on finishing, just multiply by 1,000 and you will have a vague idea of the excitement at the end of this race. The cars may be old and slow, but the racing is close and exciting and the sense of accomplishment and camaraderie is second to none.

 

Next Year
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Friend Meyrick, who introduced me to this race, and his team came first. Champagne, applause, speeches and an enormous trophy were theirs, but I am certain that they had no more fun than any of the other teams, including ours. Meyrick also invited me to join him in driving an E46 BMW M3 in the BritCar 24 Hour at Silverstone this October, but I have a previous commitment for a 14½ hour race in Michigan at Gingerman with a client. Endurance racing is good fun.


As for the 2CV 24 Hour? There will be a next year!