Black Sun Racing mustang fastest lap of Lydden Hill
Before the event even started I was feeling media pressure – the All Circuit Sprint Championship publicity advertised the titanic battle between Kevin Lower’s Nissan Skyline and my Ford Mustang as the main attraction! This then exploded into a war of opinions on Facebook with people backing each one of us and offering a variety of opinions on the outcome. I have come to learn the value of putting psychological pressure on other drivers in sprint competitions, but this time I was feeling it myself with a great weight of expectation on my shoulders. Kevin Lower has a great reputation as a driver of great talent with amazing car control and absolutely no fear. As an example check out his lap of Goodwood a few weeks earlier…
My fearless rival Kevin Lower at Goodwood – so you can see what I was up against!
Build
The car featured a new RAM twin disc clutch, upgraded GT500 brake servo, lowered KW front suspension and a sorted problem with the high pressure fuel pump. A great thanks must go to Redline American Muscle who put in a lot of work to get the car ready. You can see more details of the work at the Mustang Upgrades blog post.
Performance
Despite the lowered front suspension, the front end of the car was still very unstable during braking, with a lot of roll. The brakes had improved significantly, but still softened under a long braking phase at the end of the straights. All of this meant that I wasn’t confident with the car and did not get the best possible performance. At the event I met Julian Spender of Balance Motorsport who has offered to help with the investigation into the suspension geometry and stability issues. In practice I continued to experience the usual gear selection problems going into third.
The winner despite the media pressure!
Results
I made a good start with only minimal wheelspin from the line, despite the slippery track surface. As I rounded the first apex of Paddock Bend I changed quickly from second to third, avoiding the rev limiter I that I had hit in practice. The power of the supercharger was finally unleashed thanks to the work that Redline had done on the fuel pump, with such great acceleration that I did not have the time to move across to the right of the track along the Canterbury Straight to get a better line into Chessons Drift corner. I normally take this corner very differently from other cars who brake in a straight line on entry and then hold a constant speed around the very long bend. Instead, because of the Mustangs poor cornering due to its weight and great acceleration, I trail brake much later and slow the car about a third of the way round the corner, running to the outer edge. This means that I complete the first part of the corner more quickly than other cars. However, by the middle of the corner I am traveling more slowly and turn the bend into a series of straight lines, finally running very wide at the exit so that I can open the throttle fully along the Dover Slope straight as early as possible. When I got this right, I experienced massive lateral G as I exited the final part of the curve, fortunately the Mustang gripped very well in this stable situation. Holding third gear almost the to the redline, I braked very hard and dropped into second for the Devil’s Elbow very tight left hand corner. Hitting a late apex and running over the rough kerb I eased the power on to avoid the rear of the car spinning out as I applied a tight lock on the steering. As I exited the corner I increased to full throttle and straightened out, running wide across the opening of the rallycross access road. I carefully changed into third to avoid the gear selection problem and picked up a lot of speed coming into the North Bend hairpin. As with Chesson’s Drift, I turned the racing line around the corner into a triangle, trail braking hard past the inner clipping point and running to the outer edge of the corner I turned the car in very tight to face down the hill. I eased the power on until the car was facing down the hill and then let rip. The acceleration form 575BHP was dizzying, I held it as long as I dared until braking very hard into paddock bend, taking a sharp turn back onto the main straight and a very late apex to avoid running wide into the gravel whilst accelerating down the straight as many of my competitors (including Kevin Lower) did.
With hindsight and more practice to build more confidence in the handling of the new power increased car, I could have driven the lap even faster. Getting a better line into Chesson’s drift would have allowed even later braking and I should have been in second gear coming out of the North Bend hairpin.
After each session many observers reported the amazing antics of Kevin Lower, how he was spectacularly sliding the car out of each corner, whilst my careful and sensitive style to balance the car on the limit of grip looked a lot slower. One person compared our driving styles to Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost – sad to say Kevin was Senna and I was Prost! I looked nervously at the results sheets but was surprised to find that on each session I had been faster than Kevin, with a margin that increased on each run. In the end, rather than succumbing to the psychological pressure myself, it may in fact have impacted Kevin as one person though that on his final run he had abandoned his normal wild driving style in a determined effort to beat me, but drove a much tidier and controlled lap. It did prove to be his fastest lap and was very close to my first timed run, but fortunately I managed to improve my time, particularly by staying as wide as I could on the exit of Chesson’s Drift enabling me to take full advantage of the Mustangs acceleration.
This was definitely the most challenging and enjoyable sprint of my career so far – thanks Kevin!
1st Alex Peters Ford Mustang GT 88.49 secs |
 2nd Kevin Lower Nissan Skyline GTS 91.76 secs |
Black Sun Racing 