Lydden Hill was the first Tasmin race to be run in 2002, and only my second time in the car since the last race at Pembrey. This race was a little unusual as it was being hosted by SEMSEC and all our other rounds are being run by BARC our new host club, other than one extra round with the MGOC. SEMSEC had kindly offered a special class in the sprint and two races for the price of one. As the second race was a special, only the first would count as points scoring in the "Khumo Tyres TVRCC Tasmin Series" not a championship yet, but hopefully next year.

After a marathon drive from Kidderminster to Lydden via Newton Abbot, Plymouth and a short stop over in Central London (including dodging the closed roads for the Queen Mom at 6am) I arrived at Lydden at about 8am on the Friday. I quickly scrounged a coffee and started meeting up with all the Guys from last year plus a few new recruits including Robin Strong and John Crich (both recruited from a course I went on with Patrick Weightman over the winter) plus Mark Russell and Jack Acres.

As usual My car wasn’t quite ready, time always seeming to conspire against us, and we missed the first test session as we quickly bleed the leaking clutch and bolt on the old headlight pods. Why do 5 minute jobs always take half an hour each??.

Still I was out in the next session and went out just to feel the circuit. Lydden is quite a compact circuit at one mile long but it packs in some quite interesting and buttock clenching corners where the car goes very light a few times and the tyre walls loom quickly, also with it being quite a windy day off line the track quickly became very slippery with a coating of dust and bits of tyre.

In my second session I pushed a little harder and although I didn’t realise until later I was very tense and had a death like grip on the wheel. I was far too rough with the car and twitching all over the place eventually I as I came over the rise at Chessons the car went light as usual and I lifted the throttle and jerked the steering to correct, all the wrong things putting the car in to a huge tank slapper which I aborted by standing on the brakes to stop the car spinning. Slightly annoyed and at 90 degrees to the track, (although still on the black bit), I found first and pulled away power sliding all the way down Dover Slope… At least I got a good cheer though… Towards the end of the session I did the same at the exit of paddock, the car started to over steer and again I lifted and jerked at the steering putting the car into another tank slapper. Not wanting to hit anything I aborted again and stood on the brakes sliding the car to a halt at the inside of the track, again amazingly still on the black bit. Soon after that the session ended and it was back to the paddock. At this point I was beginning to think about taking up Chess or maybe Trunnion polishing..

Pulling into the Paddock I noticed the car sounded very noisy and looking underneath we discovered my expensive new exhaust can had split along one of the seem welds and as a result the bottom panel had also Split… Oh great.. Richard Moore From Moore racing soon came to the rescue and stitch welded it back together for us, although we missed another session.

In the final session I began to realise what I was doing wrong. After the previous session I had come out of the car with my hands and shoulders aching. It was because I was so wound up my shoulders were tense and I was gripping the wheel very hard and slamming the car into gear, oh yes and forgetting to breath!!! I started to relax and breath properly and the car started to come back to me it was still sliding a lot but I was beginning to let it and respond rather than just reacting sharply. Apparently by the end of the day my lines were about right but my two tank slappers had knocked the confidence back a little and I felt much too reserved through those two corners.

During the day a few others had had an interesting time, I saw Robin facing the wrong way at the hairpin and Pat Smith was missing some of his front spoiler, although I have it on good authority he was helped.That night was spent in the paddock kipping in the back of the transit, Id given Pops the Air bed which proved to be a good move as it went flat during the night.. Before we turned in we proved that tasmin drivers have no sense of direction and can’t read signs (looking through the corner obviously) we set off in three cars to the supermarket. At the first roundabout (which we went round twice) we lost the two lead cars as they went the wrong way. 10 mins later in the car park Kevan Turned Up but Pat aborted and went to a Poachers Wife or something. We arrived back at the paddock with beer and food which was consumed in Patrick Weightman's camper before we retired to the transit.

Race Day

The Omens weren’t good. For a start it was freezing and with a bitter wind. I went to sign on to discover they had lost my entry form " did you send an entry form"," Er yes that’s how come I’m entered…..", no worries just fill in another and sign here. That done its off to get scrutineering done. Whilst I’m there I’m called over the tannoy… can you sign the form here as well, oops.

All done its back to the queue. Whilst in the queue with the front wheels on full lock we noticed a bit of canvas winking at us on the front tyre, oh great I knew they were thin but not that thin. Fortunately most of the others had changed to new tyres over night and we had already been offered the use of the old ones, so now all we had to do was sneak the car through scrutineering and change the tyres before we went out. If it came to it we could change the tyres and then put it back through scrutineering but queuing up again would be a pain. As it happened we failed on the fuel filler which we had to bodge a fix for and take it back for that, by which time we had changed the tyres they hadn’t spotted anyway… Thanks for the Tyres Kevan.

Topless Taz...		Close racing

Although we had two races and two qualifying sessions the second qualifying was just for fun as the finishing positions in the first race would decide the starting places for the second race. We set off for the fist qualifying session and I was in the middle of a pack of cars. I slowed to make some space but cars behind just caught up and got in the way again so I didn’t get much clear track, its up to you to make your own space and everyone has the same problem and this time I didn’t find the space. That said I was fairly happy with my times I was still to cautious through paddock and under steering like mad everywhere. In the end I was 10th from 15. not great but only a few seconds from the pole and the grid had closed right up from last year with everyone within 3 seconds or so.

I decided to go out for the second session after we altered the front tyre pressures and added some camber to the outside rear wheel, to try and combat the under steer and also make the car a bit more predictable at the rear. This time I was determined to get a clear lap so I held back until I had a good run to the car in front. Then I went for it. As I blasted down hairy hill out of the hairpin the car suddenly became very noisy so I limped back to the pits to discover the exhaust had shattered leaving a big hole in it.

There then followed a very tense time whilst we looked everywhere for something to weld across the hole. As the race loomed closer and closer I was starting to lose it a little as it was looking like I was going to get to watch rather than race. In the end we took the towing bracket off the van and used that. The car was back on its wheels and Fuelled up moments before we were called to the holding area. Moore racing to the rescue again..

Now Lydden Starts with a lefthander and then a long right into Dover slope. The ideal starting position I think would be on the right hand side so you can dive up the inside as the pack turns right. Unfortunately with a staggered grid giving effectively four cars across the track 10th spot is about as far left as you can get.

The count down begins, the 30 second board the red lights are on, then green and go. Robin Strong who is 3 places up the grid and almost directly in front of me was slow away and I did a Schumacher right across the track to the right and then dived up the inside at Chessons and made up about three places. The pack was close and it was a real roller coaster ride trying to fight the cars in front and hold back the cars behind this was real racing. A few Laps into the race Pat Smith had a huge tank slapper coming out of Paddock that ended in the grass at pilgrims all the way down the main straight. Avoiding pat and slowing for the yellow I managed to lose a couple of places coming out of chessons on a wide line on the dirty part of the track. A few laps later whilst concentrating on John Crich I didn’t see Robin take the inside line through The hairpin in time to block him and had to let him through. a Recovering Pat Smith on a storming run also blasted his way past. I then caught up with Mark Russell, and was trying to find a way past.

As we came out of Chessons Kevan Gore was recovering from a moment going slowly coming back on to the track down Dover Slope, Mark Slowed unsure as to the rules about overtaking Kevan under the yellow and the pair of them blocked the track, at the green fag Mark got passed Kevan but by now Kevan was up to speed and I couldn’t beat him into Devils Elbow, I tried the inside line but had to concede and I settled into a fight to keep Carolann Beck behind me and catch Mark Russell. At one point I had a big slide coming over the rise at Chessons, this time however I simply stayed on the power and gently corrected nicely exiting the corner under full power and in control. I’m Sure Carolann though I was about to spin as when I looked in the mirrors she had dropped back a bit.

As we came round Paddock For the last time Richard Thorpe had spun into the middle of the track desperately trying to get across the line before we all went past, there waved yellow and green flags everywhere. Mark and Kevan slipped past but Richard managed to limp across the line before me. As we hadn’t seen a chequered flag Carolann blasted past me. I was then unsure if the race had finished and we kept racing and I slipped through the inside at devils elbow, to see the yellow flag and all the other cars going slowly up the hill OOPS..

Ooops!		Out of shape

So started 10th over took a few lost them all and finished in 10th Doh but what a race. Now I remembered why I was there..
For the second race I again started in tenth, with a few of the guys in front moved around. Robin had another slow start and I tried the same thing again. It almost worked I made some places but then got badly blocked going into Chessons and had to back right off letting quite a few cars out accelerate me down Dover slope. I ended Up behind Jack Acres and I’m Sure Pete Reeve having fixed his Radiator fan that caused him to miss the first race was briefly in front of me. A lap later I took Jack up the inside into the devils elbow and slipped past, only to be really annoyed a few laps later when Liam did exactly the same to me whilst I was concentrating trying to find a way past Carolann. I must remember to watch everywhere.

Coming out of Paddock mark Russell span across the track, almost collecting John Crich with Carolann and myself also taking avoiding action. Mark then retired on the inside of the circuit. I was still sliding the car all over the place trying to get a run on Carolann and got a huge power slide coming out of the hairpin, which required me to move my hands on the steering wheel to get enough lock, but I held it and didn’t lose any time. The end of the race came far to quickly and where did I end up but tenth again!!!!! Consistent at least..Then it was back to the paddock, load up and send pops on his way with the transit and trailer which just made it home before the clutch expired.

I hung about chatting to the other drivers as they packed up and started to long for Rockingham at the end of the month, but first I need new tyres, new exhaust, transponder, paint job, entry fees and really a new engine as my 300 quid engine out of a knackered Capri (complete with coating of black sludge in the heads) is a little tired compared to freshly built race engines.In summary it was a storming race weekend, all the driver were buzzing as was the paddock and the spectators.

The Tasmins put on a great display right through the field with plenty of overtaking and incidents without any bad driving or damage. The driving standards were very high, hard but fair. Its going to be a great season the grid has closed right up and everyone is in with a chance for serious points. There are favourites yes but the rest of us are right there if they falter and any mistake is going to cost dearly I can’t wait.

All I can say to anyone thinking about it is come and join us this is just fab…Graham Walden (lucky) 13 Topless taz

Graham Walden

You can find more informtion about the Tasmin Challenge race series on the official website, which can be found at: www.tasmin-challenge.com. The site contains previous race reports, driver profiles, pictures and other information. Thanks to Patrick Weightman for supplying the pics for this report.