For a baptism of fire, it was biblically wet. I’d been invited to pop my racing cherry in a Jetta TSI at the VW Racing Cup, Rockingham and everything was starting to go horribly wrong. First, the Jetta broke at an earlier practice day. It was replaced with a MkV Golf GTI, so the 20-minute qualifying session was the first time I drove it.
QUALIFYING, SUNDAY
The rain was torrential, standing water pooled on the track and the car steamed up as the 20 cars queued in the pits. The first lap saw me come into the pits. Not because I wanted to but because I drove down the pitlane by accident. Still, it was a chance to get the windscreen de-misted. But the problem persisted and after just four laps I was in the gravel.
To be honest I was glad. Fifth gear without visibility isn’t something I’d want to repeat. And it really knocked my confidence. Was racing in the wet always so difficult? The VW Racing guys reassured me that it was the worst conditions they’d ever experienced, but I left the track saying I might not be back for the race. I was out of my depth, I said. I was restless for the rest of the day, beating myself up that I was far worse than I thought I would be. But in the end the unfinished business got the better of me. I would race. I’d learn from it, and so what if I had to write it up here and list a long line of excuses as to why I was so rubbish. Hmm.
Click ‘Next’ below to read about Ben Barry’s first race
Click on page 3 to watch video of Ben Barry’s crash
RACE ONE, MONDAY
The track dried slightly for race one and I got off to a great start, passing six cars in two laps, the Superchips-fettled 2.0-litre turbo pulling strongly – and wheelspinning rampantly. The single windscreen wiper stopped working five seconds before the start, but after the initial spray from the bunched pack it wasn’t such an issue.
I was pleased to feel at ease with being very aggressive, harrying the other cars and easing them out of the way – no paint traded, of course. Even the idea of crashing hard didn’t seem to bother me. Then came car number seven, another MkV GTI. We’d traded paint – ahem – when he turned in on me a couple of corners before, but he ran wide over a left-hand crest and I seized the opportunity. I went to take the line, prepared for a light touch, but was hit hard in the right rear quarter as the wayward MkV careered back onto the track. I was pitched into a double spin, slid across the wet grass and was heading towards the barriers. Suddenly crashing hard seemed like a very bad idea indeed. I waited for the moment that everything went into slow motion. It didn’t. I pirouetted at what felt like my highest speed of the weekend, slid rampantly over the grass and slammed into the barriers backwards as my nemesis went about his business unscathed.
The car still ran but, with the bodywork folded over the rear rubber, it was game over. The mechanics – it is unbelievably brilliant to have a team of people take care of your every ham-fisted move – had their work cut out, but they’d fixed the damage within a couple of hours. Good work guys.
Click ‘Next’ below to read about Ben Barry’s second race and see the video of the first race.
RACE TWO, MONDAY
Additional rain left the track more slippery this time, but some cars were running on slicks. To keep costs down the Cup uses inters, so I chose to stick with wets – the concept of slicks in the wet just didn’t compute for me. I got a good start again, passing around six cars on the damper outside line of the first corner. But the trickier conditions revealed a flaw in the Golf: you could correct a slide with opposite lock, but winding it off after a big one was pretty much impossible because it suddenly gained a dead weight. I got away with a big fifth gear moment on the bowl probably because of the shallow angle of the gently banked curve stopping the car snapping back into the wall. But I had three spins on the infield (making up most of the places after each one) before realising that the only real way to avoid this was to go slowly enough to stop sliding in the first place. It was a frustrating case of two-steps-forward, one-step-back, and I ultimately came home 16th, the guys on slicks romping away as a dry line emerged.
But what an amazing weekend. Proper racing, a massive learning curve and a huge adrenaline rush. If you want to get along to the next race or even get involved yourself, visit www.vw-cup.co.uk.
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