MICHAEL Bentwood suffered a nightmare weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, but he was in good company.
The 26-year-old from Hale qualified second, his highest ever starting position, only for it all to come to nothing when technical problems forced him to start at the back of the grid where he got caught up in Jason Plato’s start-line crash.
“I got involved in Plato’s accident and my car was too badly damaged to get out for the second race,” says Bentwood. “We started from the back of the grid for the third race, but got punted out.”
The only consolation from Bentwood’s journey down south was his speed in qualifying, but he was taking no solace; “it was a great qualifying performance, but that’s it. I’m thoroughly hacked off,” said Michael.
"Just I was about to start my car to take the front row, my starter motor just seized solid which is so rare! We have had 4 separate component failures in the first 2 race weekends which must be addressed ready for Silverstone."
"In the 3rd race, even though I was spun round by Charlie Butler Henderson, the clutch plate exploded forcing me to retire stuck in 4th gear. It really was a tuff weekend but fantastic to show what I can do in qualifying - we will be back stronger & better prepared for Silverstone!"
Switching from Rear wheel drive to front wheel drive
Driving the Astra has been a completely different discipline to driving the BMW. The BMW has always made more logical sense with the rear wheels doing the driving and pushing whilst the front wheels just do the job of steering leading to a slightly purer driving experience. The BMW always made mega starts with unrivalled traction and a very short first gear. If I was ever on the power too early the car would always try and oversteer but driving with the tail out didn't seem too lose us much time at all. You could always take a huge amount of speed into the corner as long as the rear had enough support and your line was correct. What let the BMW down was weight - all the rear wheel drive running gear and a heavy straight 6 (that sounded awesome) means that you are at a significant disadvantage to the other cars, and unfortunately its not weight you can move or play around with.
This is all a complete contrast to the Astra which is obviously front wheel drive and does the job of driving and pulling whilst steering at the same time which some argue leads to an "interfered" driving experience. Getting the car off the line has been the most difficult job with more horse power and once you release that clutch the rear goes down and the front goes up reducing the contact area of the front tyres, loosing grip. Its important to use plenty of revs so it does not "bog" down and once she's going you control the wheel spin with the throttle. Entry speed has to be slow and its best if you can accelerate and brake in a straight line in the Astra, its all about getting those front tyres working again out of the corner, as soon as possible, but without overloading them or getting unnecessary wheel spin. If I'm ever on the power too early it always wants to understeer and push me wide and the gap between having grip or no grip is much smaller in the Astra than it is in the BMW.
Its the basic driving areas that have been hard to adjust too, for example in the BMW if I was to experience wild oversteer you would usually back right off, were as now I would have to floor the throttle and the amount of steering lock is much more critical in the Astra. Understeer is the same for both cars - just back out of the throttle. Mid corner if you were to floor the gas in the BMW you would generally end up oversteering wide were as the Astra takes a "set" mid corner and you can get away with more than you realise. Another interesting point is that the Astra is much cooler inside the cockpit because the 4 cylinder is much smaller and the front is open and exposed to air flow, dissipating most of the heat. The cockpit of the BMW regularly went up to 75 degrees Celsius because of the differential and propshaft running underneath the car and a large 6 cylinder unit wedged in.
I'm not going into anymore detail as I feel I could be giving something away to the opposition, but I will say that I'm still learning and that the Astra really does feel like a purpose built racing car with an abundance of grip and an engine and gearbox that delight. It is a highly evolved racing car with a strong pedigree that will definitely take some beating.
See you at Sunny Silverstone!
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