Radical SR1 Cup race diary: the video camera never lies

Radical SR1 Cup

Our budding racer has moved on to Snetterton, where his Radical’s onboard camera is helping to improve his pace

The routine is always the same after any track session on a practice day or race weekend.

Once your helmet, HANS device and gloves are off and your technician has been briefed on any issues with the car (or otherwise), you take the memory card out of the onboard camera and download it onto a laptop to analyse how you got on.

Then you tuck yourself away in a quiet corner studying it frame by frame in some instances until its time for the next session where you can (hopefully) right the wrongs you saw on the camera from the last session.

This might sound a bit dull and obsessive, but my word is it effective. The cameras aren’t for producing YouTube greatest hits; they’re a real learning aid, for showing to an instructor to really interpret what’s going on and help you improve if you’re not too proud to ask for help.

It’s also not just any old footage. The camera system used in the Radical SR1, some images of which you can see above these words, displays the revs, speed, and gear of the car, plus the lap times, throttle and brake inputs and circuit location. It’s similar to what you’ll see in the Formula 1 coverage on the television, and invaluable in discecting a lap.

The beauty of the cameras is that there really is no hiding place from them. Remember that corner you thought you might have braked too early for, but doubt it did too much damage to your lap time?

Well, the camera tells the full story: your braking was too early, meaning your brain wants to get back on the power early. But if you do that on a tight corner, you’re going to have to come off the power again and maybe brake some more. In short, you’ve ruined the corner.

I’ve put the know-it-all camera footage to good use on the practice day at Snetterton ahead of round three of the Radical SR1 Cup this weekend.

I’m contesting the whole championship. In case you’ve missed any of it, well, it’s been eventful to say the least, as the links at the bottom of this page will testify.

The camera wasn’t needed to show me that for the first half of the day I simply wasn’t quick enough.

My lines and turn-in points were all over the place, and there wasn’t enough commitment through the few fast corners on the track, something that had previously never been an issue.

Maybe there was a hangover from my shunt three weeks ago at Oulton Park after all. I’m only human.

Watching the video my lack of speed was obvious, but what was less obvious was what to do about it. This is where a tutor comes in, someone who can interpret and then rectify any mistakes they see. Step forward Roger Bromiley, so often the saviour in helping build my speed up so far this season.

It was fair to say the video was not the best thing Roger had seen in a while, but his director’s cut of it, in combination with some tweaks he saw needed doing to the car, would improve things and take whole seconds off my time, rather than tenths.

There was time to be made up all over the track. For starters, I had to grow a pair and brake later into the first corner at Riches. I then needed to get my turn-in started earlier into the hairpins and refrain from getting back on the throttle too early mid-corner and unsettle the car.

For the Esses I needed to brake later and turn in properly, before taking a proper line into the last corner of the lap.

Plenty to work on, then, but progress was made and there’s more to be had ahead of the two races tomorrow. Stay tuned – I certainly will be to the video footage. 

Read the Radical race diary entries

Part one - Snetterton test day

Part two - Bedford Autodrome competitive track day 

Part three - What's it like to drive a racing car?

Part four - Round one of racing at Silverstone 

Part five - A racing driver's routine 

Part six - Round two at Oulton - and a big crash

Part seven - An ode to the brilliance of the HANS device

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