Jun
23

Dan Cammish: Toughing it out at Castle Combe

4 Comments

Hello and welcome to my post Castle Combe blog for the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain.
With limited testing at the Chippenham based circuit due to budget constraints we knew it would be a tough weekend. Losing precious track time to my championship rivals is never helpful and put us on the back foot from the start. Having had over a week out of the car by the time qualifying arrived Saturday morning it was always going to be a struggle to jump straight in and perform. I was therefore very happy to have qualified 4th for both races of the weekend. In front of me were the 3 Jamun Mygales of Scott Pye, Josh Hill and Emil Bernstorff all of which tested the Thursday before the meeting so to be 4th was an excellent effort. 

Sunday saw Formula Fords with 2 races which would make up rounds 9 and 10 of this years championship. I got an excellent start from 4th on the grid and was up to 3rd by turn 1 at Quarry. The always fast Starting Ray driven by Scott Malvern was already up to 4th right behind me. I managed to pass Josh Hill on lap 2 When he ran wide exiting the final turn and I could out drag him up the hill to turn 1. I quickly began to catch Scott Pye who was leading the race from pole position. I got within a Couple of car lengths and was beginning to detach Malvern when I started to realise I was struggling to slow the car down. I was pressing the brake harder and harder but to no avail. On lap 3 I could barely slow down enough to even make the corner let alone the Apex and Malvern was right back behind me. Going into turn 1 on Lap 4 I braked as late as I dare but still couldn’t quite slow the car enough and Malvern gained an easy position. From there I went back a few more places as I was now driving with no brakes at all. By lap 6 I was down in 6th or 7th but with quick thinking I had managed to cool my brakes just enough and could feel the bite coming back. I managed to re-pass Dennis Lind and was closing on the group ahead. Emil Bernstorff was right with me coming out of the Chicane and unfortunately I ran slightly wide on the exit and missed a gear going over the bumps, Emil had nowhere to go but into the back of me launching into the air and clean over my car. He landed hard in front of me and both our races had come to an end. It was very disappointing to see good points disappear so quickly especially when I had dealt with my brake problems so well.

The Second race was in the Afternoon and was run in very warm and sunny conditions. Another great start saw me up to 3rd again by turn 1 where I stayed until the race was Red flagged after Chrissy Palmer crashed at tower. The speed at the front was very fast with Pye leading from Hill then me. My team mate Tio Elinas was keeping me honest with Malvern close behind him. I felt that would be the end of the race but after a good 25 minute stoppage we were back on the grid for a full restart. Something I knew would benefit the fast starting Ray of Scott Malvern. After the long run down to turn 1 he had already inched ahead of me from 5th on the grid and I settled into 4th place. We managed to pull away from Tio fairly quickly over the 5 lap sprint to the finish. I was all over the rear of Malvern but was unable to find a way past so I was 4th at the flag. I was disappointed to lose my podium position as I felt for speed I certainly deserved it and the full restart was such a big advantage to Scott who’s car always gets excellent traction.

It wasn’t the best weekend’s racing I’ve had but we always knew it would be tough with little testing at the circuit. Especially when I am new to the JTR team and Mygale Chassis. I believe at the more technical tracks of Rockingham, Silverstone and Snetterton things will be much different. I now stand 3rd in the Championship with a long way still to go, so I am confident I can get my season back on track and win some races.

The most difficult thing of all at the moment is finding the budget to continue my season. Anyone interested in Sponsorship and what I can do for you should contact myself or Chris Hodgen.
Details can be found on my website at www.danielcammish.co.uk

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and I look forward to seeing you at a race soon.

Regards

Dan

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Posted in British Formula Ford
4 Comments Posted by Dan Cammish

4 Responses to "Dan Cammish: Toughing it out at Castle Combe"

  • SpeedFreek says:
    June 23, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    Hmmm……..Dan I was a specatator at Combe at the weekend and as I was reporting on the race I was paying very close attention to what was happening at the front and I would suggest your account here is slightly detached from reality. From where I was standing you certainly weren’t dropping Malvern in race one who was coming through at a rapid rate of knots after his problems in qualifying had meant he had to start from the 4th row. You also weren’t reigning in leader Pye as you suggest. I would also suggest the fact that you went wide on the oil spilt by Harper at turn one which other drivers such as Pye and Malvern had been clever enough to avoid contributed to you losing 2nd place. Good drivers have awareness of their surroundings and changing track conditions.

    As for race 2; yes it was unfortunate that the race was red flagged because of Palmers off at Tower (thankfully he was ok afterwards) but your podium finish was by no means in the bag and with less than half the race run there was always going to be a restart (75% rule). Malvern was obviously playing a waiting game before the red flag to see what developed & to me was looking good to bag another podium especially with two sets of competitive team mates ahead all squabbling. Anyway 5 of you had broken away and it was still theer for the taking for all of you as the TV will no hopefully show subject to editing.

    If I were you I would stop blaming the equipment, the circumstances or the other cars or drivers and start looking within yourself. You have already swapped teams once this year; which to my mind was unnecassary. KMR did an excellent job for you last year and were doing so again this season but you jumped ship to JTR and promptly proclaimed the Mygale to be best thing since sliced bread. Now after just 2 events you are finding fault with it. Why not go the whole hog and try out the Ray and the Van Diemen before the season ends???

    I think you are really suffering more from green eye. As a 2nd year driver you were a lot of people’s tip to win this championship this year and you probably started to believe a little in your own legend. But so far you have been upstaged by the new kids on the block like Pye, Malvern & Elinas. Get over it, stop complaining and work harder!

  • Ben Formula Ford Fan says:
    July 4, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    SpeedFreek,

    If you were at Combe reporting then it must have been for Horse & Hound Magazine and you must have been watching the fields behind the circuit instead of the race. I think Dan put an honest report together. Take a look at the formula ford website and have a look at the first 3 lap times. For the first 2 laps before he had brake issues he was quicker than Malvern on both of lap 1 & 2 and on lap 2 he managed to pull in 0.5 seconds on Scott Pye so his report is correct and much as I am sure you dont want to believe it…. A friend of mine works for JTR and Dan is loving driving for Mygale and JTR it is the best car he has ever driven hence his race win at Zandvoort without going to the pre race test the week before. The only issue Dan has with the Mygale is the fact he is 6 ft 3 and has still not got comfy in the car yet. Dan admitted that the brake issue in race 1 was his fault. In qualifying it was noted that Dan was not blipping the throttle enough on the down shift so Dan asked if they could move the brake pedal further away (dan is now re doing car set up that all other drivers did pre season). But this caused dan to press the accelerator pedal every time he braked. Which after 2 laps cooked the brakes which was why he messed up at quarry and not any oil from Mark Harper. This got worse as Dan had to back off to allow the brakes to cool. This dropped Dan down from 1m 6s to 1m 10′s and also down to 7th place. He was the first person to admit when he got out of the car that it was his mistake with cooking the brakes. I am not sure why you would think this was Dan complaining about the Mygale. The first thing Dan said to Nick Tandy after he got back to the pits was that the car was mega and he thought he could have challenged for the win if he hadnt cooked the brakes.

    Who are you to question why Dan moved teams? Do you know why he left? You obviously dont as you wouldnt have put that question if you did. Kevin Mills was actually going to run the Mygale that was leased from GV but after a lot of dicussion it was decided to join race winning JTR as it was not financially viable for Kevin to run just one car. The cost of going to Zandvoort etc with just one car was not something Kevin could afford to do. Once the option with Kevin wasnt possible then Cammish only wanted to work with Nick and JTR. Kevin has a cracking team but he is not getting the support he needs from the UK importor or Spectrum.

    You notice that I havent mentioned about Malvern always having issues in qualifying and always complaining he has a slow motor and no money to eat never mind race…..no because I dont know the reasons why so it is not upto me to speculate on a forum about it. I suggest you do the same. If you have an issue with Cammish or JTR then go and tell them at Rockingham….I bet you dont

  • Dominic Malvern says:
    July 6, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    Ben,

    An interesting comment (& a good blog by DC as well) but quite why you felt the need to have a go at Scott in your final paragraph who is doing a good job in difficult circumstances (as is Dan) I am puzzled? Have you ever heard him complaining about anything? The race team, car manufacturer and engine supplier are all doing a fantastic job for him (as I’m sure JTR are for Dan) and no one, least of all Scott, is complaining! Scott has never complained about having a down on power engine and has never said that he has! This is speculation by others on a well known motorsport discussion board because Scott wasn’t particularly fast through the speed traps. Never the less he managed to set a new lap record at Knockhill and has pretty much been on the pace in all of the races (he also set a joint fastest lap at Oulton). The call to change his engine at Zandvoort after lack of pace in qualifying was actually made by the tuner as a precauation but that wasn’t necassairly the problem! As you say others choose to comment or speculate on matters that they cannot have complete knowledge of but I guess that’s what discussion boards, forums and blogs are for?

    Its refreshing to hear that Dan puts his hands up to any errors straight away. This can save the team so much time looking for problems that do not exist. Scott is exactly the same; he is still a relatively inexperienced driver (only 15 car events to date) and the odd error is expected and understandable.

    The British FF championship may not be perfect but it is a lot stronger than some other junior single seater series are at the moment which speaks volumes in this difficult economic climate. The standard of drivers is generally very good and there are at least 8 or 9 drivers capable of winning races this year; in fact 5 of them already have in 10 rounds. Sure one driver has won a lot more than the others so far but I wouldn’t call him dominant yet. In 2005 one driver won almost all the races in the first half of the season and then didn’t win anymore. One of his team mates won almost all of the rest of the races!

    I can’t answer for the comment above but I will definately be at Rockingham, with the Cliff Dempsey Race Team of course, and am happy to chin wag about this (and in fact anything to do with motorsport) with anyone as I have done previously with DC’s manager and father!

    Good luck & hope to see you at the Rock! :-)

    Dominic Malvern (father of Scott)

  • Ben Formula Ford Fan says:
    July 8, 2010 at 11:08 am

    Dominic,

    The last paragraph was not having a go at Scott, he was just used as an example that I have no knowledge of budget, how good the team are or how strong Scholar engines is so was just pointing out that due to my lack of knowledge regarding Scotts situation I am not in a position to comment on it and the same should be said to SF. As Speedfreek seems to think he understands everything about JTR and Dan Cammish he feels the need to “speculate”. I guess that is what a forum/blog is for. But to come and attack Dan is not needed and not required as he clearly doesnt know the situation.

    Ben

    PS I will not be at Rockingham as I have to work that weekend but went to Oulton Park.

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