Rawles & Hill Healey Pairing

 

 

Jack Rawles & Jake Hill enjoy their first pairing in the Healey

Sunday 01st May 2016 saw Team Hard BTCC driver, Jake Hill and Jack Rawles racing together for the first time in the Healey. This was the second time for 18 year old Jack Rawles. It was the first time for 22 year old Jake Hill. It was also Hill’s maiden classic car race of his career. All in all it proved to be a fantastic pairing and a very enjoyable weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jake and Jack first hit it off in 2012 when Jake mentored Jack during his Junior Ginetta Championship years. They are such an inspirational pair to be around. They both take motorsport very seriously and are extremely focused. Yet they manage to keep a balance between being professional, competitive, fast and fair drivers. Off track they are polite, fun, positive youngsters. They both have the rare quality of being able to talk to anybody; giving them time and making them feel welcome.

Where to race?

After Jacks first taste of Healey racing in the Castle Combe Classic event in October 2015, he was left wanting more. The Healey had been packed away for the winter and in April 2016 Jack retrieved the car from storage and brought it back to the Bill Rawles Classic Car workshop. The easy bit was preparing the car ready for a race season. The hard bit was to find an affordable but competitive championship.

After a bit of research it was decided that The Classic and Sports Car Championship was the way forward. The CSCC organises friendly club racing with an emphasis on great value for money and high driving standards. The club drives at the best circuits in the UK and abroad. The Mintex Classic K series is for pre 1966 GT and Touring cars running to FIA Appendix K (no sports racers). The technical regulations are simple and the only tyres permitted are Dunlop Historic L or M. The series is split over 8 classes, including separate classes for Jaguar E Type, MGB and Marcos/Elan.

Let’s go racing – The CSCC Silverstone Spectacular – National Circuit

With the car loaded up on the trailer it was off to Silverstone to meet up with Jake. The weather was typical of a day in May. It was cloudy, cool and dry. Pretty non-descript really. Although the clouds were high, hour by hour rain kept threatening but thankfully the day remained dry.

With a grid of 30 cars, ranging from Jaguar E Types, Lotus Elan, Marcos, Mini Coopers, Ford Mustangs and a Ginetta G12, to name a few and two Healeys, it was time for qualifying. Jack Rawles set a great lap in qualifying. A lap time of 1:08.798 was good enough to qualify the car for fourth place position on the start grid.

 

It was time to race. The Mintex Classic K was the last event of the day. Due to a series of unfortunate events the Healey was no longer fourth on the start grid. It was now second. The pole position car, an AC Cobra, driven by Mark Williams (son of BRDC member Ted Williams) suffered a failure in a previous race, as did the Lotus Elan S2 of Halstead and Mcpherson.

The race was a rolling start. Jack knew that it would be hard to maintain second place with the higher class cars charging from behind. Jack’s intention was to still be in their class lead when they carried out the compulsory pit stop and driver change after 30 minutes.

The Healey was being driven well by Rawles and he was easily maintaining the class lead. Not far into the race he started to feel a front vibration when turning into copse.

Jack said “I couldn’t ignore the vibration because we had had a situation during qualifying. We had thought that the wheel spinners were loose. I knew that these had been thoroughly checked and tightened but it was playing on my mind and affecting my driving. I could not risk unnecessarily damaging the car. My heart was telling me to keep driving but my head told me to pit”.

Even with an extra unscheduled pit stop the Hill & Rawles pairing managed a great result

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On lap 10, with a 9 second class lead and having dropped back to 15th on the grid, Jack brought the car into the pits to get the unnerving vibration checked out. Pit crew, consisting of Bill Rawles, David Grace and Simon Hill, gave the car a quick once over. The diagnosis was that there was not a serious issue. If the vibration was not getting worse, then keep driving it. Jack finished his half of the race and came into the pits on lap 18 for the scheduled driver change over.

Jake Hill left the pit lane and re-joined the track with quite a task on his hands. The extra pit stop had obviously set the pairing back. Now last in class and 18th in the race Jake had to pull all the tricks out of the bag and work his magic. Was it possible to redeem themselves? Using his Touring Car experience and natural talent Jake started to get the car back up the grid. He consistently put in fast lap times during his 30 minute stint. Apart from the slight wheel vibration the car ran faultlessly. The tension on the pit wall grew each time Jake flew down the straight. With every lap he was gaining places. The car looked and sounded so good. Jake was driving the car like his life depended on the result. His competitiveness and desire to succeed was obvious and entertaining. Jake certainly knew how to push the car to its limits. The chequered flag went down. Jake had gained over 10 places and finished 7th over the line and 3rd in class. Maybe not quite the result they had hoped for but considering the extra pit stop it was a fabulous achievement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Rawles said “It was a pleasure watching Jack and Jake drive my Healey. I feel so pleased to watch it being driven how it should be, hard and fast and on its limit. These youngsters are certainly better than I ever was and I am proud to let them now have a go. Jake definitely is a talented driver, to jump into that car and to drive it the way he did was astounding to watch. Jack is also very talented but he lacks the track time and experience that Jake has. These boys can only get better as time goes on. Look out for these two pairing up again”.

Jake was smiling from ear to ear and said

“That was mega. I really enjoyed my first time out in the Healey and my first classic car race. I definitely want to do some more. I love that engine; it’s such a good car”

Jack Rawles said

“We had a really good weekend; I definitely want to share more races with Jake and I know we have a great future ahead of us. What a drive with a personal best of 1:10.4 which was great race pace! We are the youngest new pairing in Healey racing and we will be back again soon”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack went on to say

“We have such a good time on and off track. I am a bit disappointed in myself today. Due to my inexperience I did not know that the vibration was caused purely by a flat spot on the tyre. I am annoyed that I prematurely pitted because that definitely lost us the class lead and probably from finishing 5th overall. I guess in this instance it was better to be safe than sorry. It was also good to have another Healey in our class, driven by Mark Dunn. Mark drove really well this weekend. It would be great to get more Healeys on the grid and I would be more than happy for any Healey drivers to contact me on jack@jackrawlesracing.com”

 

It just leaves us to say thank you to everyone who came to watch, to help in the pit lane and to take photos – Derek Job, Andrew Price, David Stallard, Simon Hill and David Grace. The Healey will be out again on the 04th June 2016 for The Classic and Sports Car Championship Brands Hatch Bonanza. At Brands Hatch Jack Rawles will be pairing with Hugo Holland Bosworth. Hugo was part of team Rawles Racing way way back when Jack was a little chap in dungarees. I don’t think any of us could have imagined the day when Jack and Hugo would be racing the Healey together.

For event results follow this link to TSL – CSCC Silverstone Spectacular Race Meeting – 01st May 2016