Driver profile: Graham Johnson

Managing director at UKIP Media & Events, publishers of PMW magazine and organizers of Professional MotorSport World Expo

Championship: Caterham Roadsport A
Team: Colards Motorsport
Sponsor: Motorsport Insurance Services

Graham's blog

26 October 2009, Snetterton

First the bad news: my protest against Raphael Fiorentino at Cadwell Park (see below) was rejected. Now the disastrous news: I qualified 15th for the first race, by far my worst qualifying of the year! In addition to having a setup that provided very little front-end turn-in in what were very slippery conditions, I suspect championship nerves got the better of me and I drove far too conservatively.

Come the first race, my nerves had settled somewhat, but I still drove well within my limits to make sure I brought the car home and thus secured third place in the championship come what may. When the chequered flag fell, I’d driven up to 9th place, but in doing so, I dropped four points to my championship rivals Mike Steadman (who finished fifth) and Fiorentino (who was fourth).

Sunday’s race – the last of the season – was dry and I was full of confidence. I love this track in the dry and I’ve traditionally been on the podium with every visit. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I led the race, but this wasn’t to be a clean championship decider. First Fiorentino nudged one competitor off the road on his way to re-take the lead from me (for which he later received two penalty points on his race licence from the clerk of the course), then he slammed into the side of my car soon after I’d overtaken him on the last corner of the last lap. Steadman also got caught up in the incident, having nowhere to go but into the rear of my car (so hard that he dislocated his shoulder!). Fiorentino, the instigator, somehow managed to cross the line just 300m later in second place, while I limped to the finish seventh, with Steadman in agony in 10th. While Fiorentino gained a further two points on his licence for the move, his second-placed finish nevertheless stood, and thus he is champion.

And so I finished this season with two wins, three pole positions and seven podiums (more than any other competitor), however, the accident at Anglesey (see video below) was enough to consign me to third place overall in the championship. Frustrating, but then that’s racing! As I say at the end of every season, there’s always next year...

14 September 2009, Cadwell Park

Some good news for once: the fine folks at Minister-Power discovered and solved the issue with my engine (it was a lazy hydraulic tappet – see Brands story below for more) and so the K-series unit was back on full song for the penultimate round of the Caterham Roadsport A Championship. And even better news: I put the engine to good use…!

I’ve never particularly got on with Cadwell Park in the past, but right from the word go, I was quick at the Lincolnshire circuit. Indeed, within five laps of the first test session of the day, I posted a time that was over half-a-second faster than anything I’d ever managed in previous years! It only got better from there, with me ultimately being fastest of the day and breaking the lap record too. Needless to say, I went into qualifying confident, duly securing second and pole on the grid.

Starting from the former position in race one, it was an all-out battle with championship rival Raphael Fiorentino for the first five laps, but the Frenchman blocked aggressively, forcing my Motorsport Insurance Services-backed car onto the grass on numerous occasions. And when I got a run on him on the exit of one corner, it wasn’t long before I was again on the grass, this time with his rear wheel riding over my front – the incident cost me a wing and around five seconds. It took around 10 minutes of the half-hour race to re-catch him, but once I got on his tail, again, his car was too wide and maneuverable to pass, so it’s second place for now as I have protested the result…

Race two was an altogether more civil affair. I led the race from lights to flag, pulling out a 12-second advantage until the safety car was deployed due to fluid on the track. Thankfully, I was still able to pull away from the chasing pack after it withdrew, going on to take my second win of the season.

As things stand, I lie second in the championship, just one point behind Mr Fiorentino. If the stewards don’t penalize him, then I’ll have to take this championship on the track next month at Snetterton.

18 August 2009, Brands Hatch

It’s not often that finishing second and fourth is considered a bad result, but in this case I’m afraid bad luck robbed me of two wins…

Starting second for the first race of the day, I was soon in the lead. However it quickly become apparent that my car was lacking speed. After turn one, I’d pull out a two- or three-car lead, only to lose the advantage every single lap when we got to the pit straight. I did of course question my driving, and initially very much blamed myself for getting a bad exit, but it wasn’t long before I realized my Motorsport Insurance Services-backed car was simply down on power. I held on to the lead for 25 minutes of the half-an-hour race, but the unavoidable finally happened, with Anthony Sidney-Woollett flashing past me to take the win. At least I managed to stay ahead of the rest of the pack for second place.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts to find the fault, I began race two in pole position. While I scrapped for the lead for three or four laps, the lack of power was more apparent than ever. Indeed, as the race went on, I no longer had the need for fifth gear and I rarely needed to take fourth such was the lack of speed! Thankfully the race was red flagged after 20 minutes – I’m not sure the engine would have managed the full half-hour. The shorter race also meant that I managed to hang to fourth place. Early fault diagnoses suggest that a ring has parted company with its housing, moving into a bore instead. Another theory is that the crankshaft could be breaking up (a first for the K-series engine!).

The engine is currently at Minister Power being stripped down and rebuilt ready for the next round at Cadwell in September. Here’s hoping the unit returns to car number 8 in good health because we’ve still got a good chance of securing this championship. I’m currently placed second overall, trailing my team mate by just seven points.

1 July 2009, Anglesey

Press play to watch the video

Watch the video and you'll discover all you need to know about my weekend at Anglesey, but in short I qualified 6th on a 35-car grid, drove no more than 150m, and then…wallop! A competitor hit my left rear wheel so hard that it broke and took the tire off the rim. More significantly, the impact spun my car around in front of the remaining 29 competitors… See how many times you count my car being hit – I make it a minimum of 10 separate impacts!

Impressively, my team, Colards Motorsport, did get me back out on track for the second race the next day, but the car simply wasn’t right. The fact that the car practically drove right hand corners by itself was a sure sign that something underneath is not well. As it happens, I had a reasonable race, going from dead last to 13th, and it has to be said that overtaking that many cars was almost fun considering how hard the car was to drive! Indeed, I could have had more positions still I had not got well and truly wedged behind Richard Jennings who was in 13th place at the time. He defended every corner of every lap as if it were the last corner of the last lap, costing us both over 2 seconds a lap for 15 minutes. I can’t tell you the relief when I finally drove around his outside on the second from last lap. That moment alone felt like a victory considering the weekend I had.

Unfortunately, my Motorsport Insurance Services-backed car is currently at Arch being straighten at no small cost. Numerous new bits are required, but worse still is that I’m now back to 5th in the championship with three weekends to go. The good news is that I’m just nine points behind the championship leader, so all is not lost. Fingers crossed for better luck for the remainder of the season.

8 June 2009, Donington Park

Donington is one of my favorite tracks so I was very excited to learn two weeks ago that we would still be competing there this weekend, despite the much-publicized troubles at what is scheduled to be home to the 2010 British GP. However, my excitement was rather dampened when I pulled back the curtains on Saturday: the UK seemed set to be submerged by a deluge of extremely heavy rain!

I’m competitive when the track is wet (read my Silverstone blog below), but persistent rain does rather get me down as I sit inside the roofless Caterham. Not one millimeter of my attire escapes a soaking, and as qualifying was to take place at 09:00 and my race at 18:00, it would be mean discomfort for the remainder of the day! Nevertheless, I was content to qualify third on the grid, albeit behind my Colards team-mate and main championship rival Mike Steadman.

Then a miracle happened: about an hour before my race, it eventually stopped raining. Indeed, the track started to dry so quickly that I was confident of a dry race. The team did a brilliant job of getting the car ready for the new conditions, and I felt confident. That confidence was rewarded with a three-corner race – after just three turns on the first lap, I was out in front, and I didn’t see anyone again! Although I won by 16 seconds (a dominant win in a series in which the top five often finish within 1.5 seconds of each other at the checkered flag), it wasn’t an easy race. As well as one competitor’s car emptying the contents of its coolant tank all over one corner mid-way through the race (I almost went off on the slippery substance!), I had to maintain concentration throughout the 30-minute race. I opted to push hard to stay focused and ended up breaking the lap record, too. It was a much-needed win that has boosted my confidence for the rest of the season.

Race two came on Sunday, which was even wetter than the day before! It was touch and go as to whether the race would even take place, such was the extent of the standing water on the track. When we did get underway, visibility was atrocious. I was in second place after the lights went out and although I was quicker than the car ahead, I decided it would be safer to sit back a couple of car lengths so I could see slightly more of the track. The plan was to attack with five minutes of the race to go, but the red flags came out after 15 minutes and that was that. Second place, but I was far from disappointed. I’d beaten Steadman and my car was still in one piece, which is more than can be said for the several cars that aquaplaned off the circuit due to what was some of the heaviest rainfall I’ve ever seen.

So, four rounds and eight races to go, and I’m second in the championship, nine points behind Steadman, but nine points clear of the third-place man. Anglesey in two weeks’ time; I was quick in testing back in April, so I’m hoping for more success… 

26 May 2009, Oulton Park

The sun was shining and the temperature high for the first race at Oulton Park in my Motorsport Insurance Services-backed Caterham Roadsport A. I’d qualified fifth despite the session being cut to just three flying laps following an incident, and I knew from the previous test that I had the pace to run at the front. What I didn’t know that was my engine was going to be down on power…

A good start saw me in second place by the end of the second lap, but it soon became clear that my car lacked top speed, with cars powering passed me whenever we tackled one of Oulton’s three long straights. I was defenseless to fight, and ultimately ended up coming up a frustrated fifth, albeit just two-tenths of a second behind the third place car. Back at the garage, my Colards Motorsport team mate complained of a lack of speed too. It then soon became clear that our mechanic had made a rookie mistake and overfilled the engines with oil. Paddock word is that an overfill can cost as much as 5bhp…

Oil levels corrected for the second race, I felt confident of a good result, except that it started to rain just three minutes before the green flag lap. A panic decision on my behalf saw the team quickly swap my car to a full wet setup – and then the rain stopped! It was going to be a long race. In the end, it transpired that I could still run with the leaders, even though the car felt just awful, rolling into corners and understeering terribly. While I had a rather entertaining race, swapping places with rival Stephen Tucker several times per lap, every lap, I suspect life could have been much easier had I left the car alone with dry settings! Even so, I still crossed the line in second place – I took the position on the last lap with a rather dubious move on the grass around Tucker’s outside.

I said after the first round at Silverstone that I’d be disappointed not to be top three in the championship – second place it is! Next stop Donington Park on 6 and 7 June. It’s my favorite track, so fingers crossed for a win.

8 May 2009, Oulton Park

The official test day for Rounds 3 and 4 of the Caterham Roadsport A Championship at Oulton Park took place today, some two weeks before the actual event on 25 May.

Having such a gap between testing and the race weekend is not the best way to prepare. However, my team, Colards Motorsport, came up with the plan to simulate qualifying in the first session of today. Qualifying will take place at 8.30am in two weeks’ time, meaning I’ll need to get on the pace straight out of the box then – so I had to make sure I could do so today! The two-week gap between testing and race also meant that we’d need to get the setup right before I’d even turned a wheel if this simulation was to work, so Colards employed the same geometry as when we were at Oulton last year, a race in which I had been competitive and challenging for the win.

Well, the plan worked! I threw caution to the wind and pushed very hard as soon as I left the pits – an alien concept to a man who prefers to build speed gently as a session progresses – and despite a track that was very green (I almost dropped it twice on the out lap!), I posted a time that was five-tenths faster than anything I managed in 2008. Indeed, based on the last two years’ Roadsport A results, I completed two laps in my first 20-minute session that would win me pole position.

To be honest, the rest of today was simply a fine-tuning exercise. Yes, we’d found another four-tenths per lap by the time I left the circuit (matching the lap record), but in reality the purpose of the day was served in that first session. Indeed, I learned a lesson today: it’s better to push 100% as soon as I get in the car as it immediately puts my head in the right frame of mind. Build speed with caution, and in turn my mental attitude builds slowly. From here on in, my first lap out of the pits will be flat, came what may. Here’s hoping I can deliver the same performance on 25 May.

12 April 2009, Silverstone

An hour or so ago, I just finished competing in the first weekend of the 2009 Caterham Roadsport A Championship – and I have to say that I am feeling rather robbed!

I qualified seventh on the grid for yesterday’s race, but as the track conditions were my absolute favorite (tricky, drying conditions from an earlier downpour), I was soon leading comfortably. In fact I led over 90% of the 30-minute race – and then I came upon traffic on the second from last lap. Unfortunately, the back-maker panicked when he saw me coming, ultimately opting to stick to the racing line and pointing me through the long, wet way around Abbey hairpin. By the exit of this one corner, my Motorsport Insurance Services-backed Caterham was no longer three car-lengths ahead of the rest of the pack, but third!

I did get a run at retrieving second place on the last lap, but then we caught another back maker and yours truly was again in the wrong place at the wrong time! I’ve never been so frustrated to finish third. It was small comfort the first-placed and second-placed drivers freely admitted that they’d be lucky to finish ahead of me.

Today’s race was equally annoying. Actually, I’m even more annoyed than yesterday... I was happy in second place, chasing down the lead, when the third-placed car locked up behind me, tapped the back of my car at turn 1, and then sent me spinning around 180 degrees and to a halt. I rejoined the race in ninth place, very irritated! In the remaining 15 minutes, I did claw back up to sixth place, but again, I can't help feeling cheated...

Back of the envelope sums say that I lie fifth in the championship with another 12 races to go, but I won’t be happy if I’m not at least third in the standings by the end of the next round at Oulton Park on 25 May. Were it not for what seems like my now traditional bad luck, I could have been leading. In the meantime, the Colards Motorsport team and I are headed off to Anglesey in Wales on 17 April to learn the track before we compete there in June. Hopefully the test will ease my frustration!