ON
TRACK WITH RICK PEARSON No. 24
in a Continuing Series By Rick Pearson
Hello and welcome to the seventh of my columns for 2001. This week I'm going to talk about my first race in 2001 otherwise known as "The Monza Experience"
Last weekend saw the first round of the European Clio Trophy at Monza in Italy. With the next round of the Championship to be held in the glamorous confines of Monaco, it was with high expectations of an upmarket Championship full of beautiful people (!) that myself and team manager Mark Fish headed off across Europe in our hired Transit with the Clio V6 hung on the back. The trip nearly ended at Calais however as Mark narrowly avoided arrest for assaulting a French customs officer with a bag of sausages. In his eagerness to surrender our picnic (compulsory due to the Foot and Mouth restrictions), he came within millimetres of thumping the unsuspecting Frenchman (who was actually just wanting to peruse our passports) with the pork products.
The rest of the journey through the night to Monza passed uneventfully and we arrived just after dawn with a whole day to recover before taking to the track on Friday for testing. Renault, however, had a different idea and within minutes of arriving we were forced to start stripping the car down to install a new firewall and fuel tank that they had decided to issue after a driver had been badly burnt at Monaco the previous year. This was finished at midnight and for the first time in my racing career I was as dirty as my mechanic but at least the beast was ready to roll first thing the next day.
Or so we thought.In the rush to prepare the car, we hadn't had a chance to apply the decals, but for a test day this shouldn't have been a problem. this being Italy however, everything could be a problem and despite having a bloomin' great #51 on the roof and a smaller one on the windscreen I was barred from joining the practice session until we had numbers on the doors as well!
Finally, I made it
out on the historic Monza track. The first impression is of the sheer
width; the main straight being about 5 Clios wide (and believe me, I saw
this proven.) and then the next impression is of sheer speed. For those
people reading this in the UK, the track is not unlike Thruxton crossed
with Brands GP! A lap of the track in a Clio V6 is as follows: Crossing
the start/finish line you are already on the rev-limiter in sixth gear,
which equates to around 250kph or 155mph, and just after the 200m board
you stand on the brakes for the sharp right and left of the first chicane.
Accelerating out hard in second gear, you just grab fourth before turning
into the Grand Curve which is flat all the way through in the Clio, exiting
in sixth gear then braking under the bridge just before the rev limiter
for the left and right of the second chicane. A short straight follows
before a dab on the brakes into the first Lesmo and then a similar straight
and dab before the second Lesmo.
It is vital to get a good exit here as you blaze downhill with trees each
side of the car, under the old banked circuit and again reaching the rev
limiter in sixth before sharp braking for the third gear left hander that
marks the entrance of the Ascari complex. This is followed by very fast
right and then left sweeps which are flat all the way through, grabbing
fifth on the exit kerb for the long straight down to the Parabolica.
Again hitting the rev limiter and over 150mph for the fourth time in the
lap, it's hard on the brakes at the 100m board to try and ease the car
into the apex in fourth and then back on the power as early as possible
for the run back down the start/finish straight.
As you can imagine, it takes a little while to work up to a lap like this in a car that is not famed for it's handling on the limit or under braking. Learning to cope with the squirming of the car as the engine tries to fight its way to the front when you are shedding speed and arriving backwards at over 100mph into a chicane for the tenth time in the weekend is all part of the Clio/Monza experience.
So how did we compare?By the end of the day's testing my fastest lap had fallen from an initial 2.19.8 to 2.10.8, but we were still three seconds off the pace of the fastest guys. The key would be to try and sneak into the top 30 cars to get an entry for Monaco (and also avoid the qualifying race), but with 66 cars entered for the weekend it was not going to be easy.
By 8.30PM I was fast asleep in the luxury accommodation (across the front seats of the Transit), totally exhausted by the days efforts. Mark however, had to check every nut and bolt of the car and especially the braking system! He finally finished work at 2AM, but was not alone. The paddock resembled that of a touring car meeting with a significant number of cars being worked on well into the early hours.
Next week I'll report on the race weekend, with the big showdown of qualifying for Monaco then the Monza race itself! Have a good week,