A Lap Of Silverstone With Danny Watts
Strakka Racing's Local Lad

The final round of this year’s Le Mans Series is going to be a big one for Strakka Racing. The team arrived in the top class of prototype racing at Barcelona in April with a headlining performance, thanks to an emphatic pole position from former British Formula Renault champion Danny Watts. Since then the team’s Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S has had its ups and downs, mixing remarkable pace with an occasional lapse into unreliability. That’s left the squad especially keen to round off the season with a good result at Silverstone, not only because a podium might better reflect their car’s potential, but also because the circuit is very much Strakka’s back yard.

The team’s workshops are located on the north side of the track, almost within a stone’s throw of the corner at Copse, and Danny Watts is a “local lad”. Born in Aylesbury, he’s lived most of his life in Buckingham, and Silverstone is the track he knows and loves the best.

“This is going to be a very important weekend for us,” he says. “It’s our home circuit, and we’ve got loads of friends, family and supporters around the area who’ll be coming to watch. It’s also my favourite circuit, and I always thoroughly enjoy driving there. It has the complete mix of corners – several very high-speed sections, but enough of the technical stuff to make it a real challenge. It’s a proper driver’s circuit that demands a delicate balance between aero and mechanical grip, which makes it particularly difficult to achieve the perfect set-up, and that places even more pressure on us as drivers. Get it right though, and it’s enormously rewarding!”

We begin a lap with Danny as he approaches the Start-Finish line (with pictures of the 2008 Strakka Racing Aston Martin DBR9 to illustrate). “There’s a kink to the right as you come out of Woodcote to cross the line, flat out in sixth gear,” he says, “and then you’re on to the pit straight. It’s like driving through a tunnel, with the grandstands up on your left, and the pits to the right, but you’re concentrating so hard, you don’t get much chance to look around you.  There’s just enough time to glance at the pitboard as you flash past the guys on the pit wall, and I use that to check up on my position, lap time and the number of laps left in my stint. That done, and depending on traffic, there’s maybe an opportunity to check the dashboard for any warning lights and make sure everything’s OK with the car before you’re getting ready for Copse.”

“I expect to arrive at Copse doing around 160 miles an hour, maybe a little more, and make just a dab on the brakes and down to fifth. Copse is a very high-speed corner, so aerodynamic grip is critically important here, and the corner as a whole is much more of a challenge than it looks from trackside. There’s better run-off than there used to be, so it’s not as daunting as it once was, but any mistake here and you’re punished. You need 110% concentration to make sure you get it right every time, because what happens next can make or break a good lap.”

“I’ll be back up to sixth on the exit and then starting my approach to the high-speed Maggots-Becketts-Chapel complex. This is one of the most exciting parts of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for a driver. It’s very fluid, as the corners blend into one another, left, right, left. I remember doing the LMS race here in 2007, and being impressed by just how quick it was in the LMP2 Zytek. Now that we’ve got the LMP1 car, it should be even more breathtaking. It all happens so quickly! If I wanted to watch a race – any race - I’d always want to go there. You’ll see cars right on the limit of their adhesion. From a driver’s perspective, it’s very exhilarating. If you get it right, it’s so satisfying, and you come out the other side with a huge grin on your face, but if you get it wrong, well, you soon know about it! You can gain or lose a lot through that complex, and you’ve got to be brave, and you’ve got to be committed.”

The name of “Maggots” conjures up some rather unpleasant mental pictures, but in fact the first sweeping element gains its title from Maggots Moor, which lies near the village of Whittlebury, just to the north-east of the circuit. Becketts and Chapel are both named after the long-disappeared ruins of a small church erected in the 13th century to the memory of the murdered archbishop, Thomas Beckett. It stood in the area now covered by the car park behind the BRDC building.

“The first part of the complex is taken in fifth, and it’s all about carrying as much speed as you can through the whole complex. The last part of Beckets, the right-hander, may be down to fourth gear, but it’s vital you get a good exit to begin the run out of Chapel and onto Hangar Straight.”

“Hangar Straight is longer than the pit straight and slightly down hill, and because you come out of Becketts at high speed as well, this is where we’ll reach the highest speeds on the circuit. Just before we go for the brakes at the end of the Straight we’ll be hitting 170 or more, but it’s not only fast, it’s also likely to be very busy too. There are not a lot of obvious overtaking points around Silverstone, and traffic management is going to be very important in a mixed-class race like the thousand Ks, but the run down Hangar sets you up for what will probably be one of the best overtaking opportunities as you come down towards Stowe.”

“The whole of Stowe is quite difficult. It’s another high-speed corner, taken in fourth, but what makes it more awkward is that there’s a slight crest before the corner tightens on you. I expect we’ll carry about 110 through there before dipping down towards Vale.”

“After going flat out, just about, all the way from the start of the lap, Vale and Club are very much slower. The approach to Vale is especially bumpy, just as you enter the braking area, and quite a few cars will get unbalanced here, and you often see cars going too deep, or running off onto the grass. The first element is very slow speed, second gear, and you use a bit of the apex there before the short link to the beginning of Club.”

“The long right-hander at Club is very hard on tyres, and it seems to go on for ever and ever! On fresh rubber there won’t be a problem, but the corner will get harder and harder over the course of a stint, as the tyres start to wear. We’re accelerating up through the gears here, and exit speed is very important at Club, because it’s followed by the long run up towards Abbey.”

The viewing from the banking around Club is particularly good, and from here it’s possible to watch the cars as they enter Stowe, work through Vale and Club, and then follow them all the way to Bridge. Stowe Corner is named after the nearby public school, whose illustrious alumni include members of the rock group Supertramp, and Oliver Bertram, 1935 record holder around the Brooklands racetrack in Surrey – itself the inspiration for the corner at Silverstone fronting the BRDC suite. The name of Abbey Curve also owes its origins to the cloisters, with Luffield Abbey being inspiration in this case, although perhaps it was a Priory? Silverstone’s name-callers obviously favoured ecclesiastical connections, but hedged their bets. The small village to the west of the circuit is known as Luffield Abbey, but the 11th Century monastic building that gave it the name was a Benedictine Priory, so we get Abbey, Priory and Luffield as well as Chapel.

“You’re just back up into sixth before it’s time to brake again, and down to third for the left at Abbey, and then switching right again to join Farm Straight. The exit here brings you into sight of one of my favourite corners – Bridge.”

“This is the corner where you can really feel the car working under you. The track dips down, and then swings to the right, and you can sense the aero pushing the car hard onto the road. It’s a great feeling, but it only lasts a moment, and then you’re a bit too busy to think about it any more. There’s lots of changes of direction coming up, and you’re no sooner into one corner, than you’re getting ready for the next. The whole complex, from Bridge, through Priory, Brooklands and Luffield, is the most technical part of the circuit and it’s very demanding on your concentration. It’s also hard to overtake through this final section, and traffic will be a major issue. You can lose a lot of time if you’re not careful, but if you’re prepared to go for it, you can gain a lot here too.”

“Priory is a blind left-hander over a brow, and taken in fourth gear. It’s difficult to pick a turning point there, because you can’t see the apex clearly. As soon as you exit Priory, you’re braking almost straight into Brooklands, right in front of the BRDC suite. That’s a straightforward second gear corner, and there’s not much you can do to gain time, but it propels you into the final sequence of bends at Luffield, which is a slow right-hander in two parts. It seems to go on and on and on, but the important thing is to judge the exit just right so that you’re up through the gears, accelerating hard, and well set up for Woodcote. String that all together right, and you’re heading for the start of the next lap.”

Silverstone is the track that Danny probably knows better than any other, and he’s raced just about every type of car imaginable around the Northamptonshire circuit, from Porsche Carrera Cup to Formula Renault and Formula 3. He has also worked at the circuit as an instructor for a number of years and spends most weekends there when his duties with Strakka or A1GP don’t draw him away. Having proven his abilities at Barcelona at the beginning of the season, it might be a brave man who bets against Danny for another shot at pole for the fifth and final round next weekend.

MP