Scottish Elises

Well, yesterday I took part in my first ever Competitive Motorsport event - The Dunfermline Car Club Sprint @ Ingliston.

I left the house nice & early, after filling the car with lots of tools, fold up chair, fuel, oil, water, helmet etc etc to drive round the bypass - was a bit dull, but dry in Portobello, but by the time I got to the Gogar roundabout it was chucking it down.

Got to Ingliston and found my paddock patch, duly unloaded my groundsheet and dumped the tools etc on it and folded it over. Thinking "What am I doing" as the weather was definitely miserable!!

Anyway, spoke to the other couple of competitors round about, and managed to negotiate a dry space in a race truck (Thanks to Stuart Brown) for my suit & helmet bags. I went to the pavilion, signed on, got the car scrutineered - no hassles, other than trying to get the soggy sticker to stick to the car!

And then I went for a walk, in the rain. I vaguely knew the layout of the circuit, from lookng at old photos and a youtube video, but I hadn't quite appreciated how tight the esses are! Anyway, walked around thinking I knew what I was looking at and got back to the pavilion in time for the briefng, which was short, and slightly humorous, with Clerk of the Course Pete Lawton referring to the black stuff as ours, and the green stuff as his garden, which he would get upset if you drove on!

Then I had a quick walk down to the start to introduce myself to the Clerk of the Course who explained how the timing worked, and what to do when I got to the start area.

Then I waited for the call, dribbled down to the start area and waited - getting slightly nervous that I didn't really know what speed or gear I would / should be doing. However, I recorded a decent time, and got faster in the next two practice runs, as the track dried out.

I recorded a time of 63.15 seconds in my first timed run, and 63.18 in my second, which put me ahead of Dave Exton in an MR2 in the Nat B A8 class. 45th overall, behind 38 single seaters, I was pretty chuffed!



I collected my trophy and went home.

Sunday I decided to try and sort out my braking point for the hairpin & the line for lefthander during the practice runs and thought I was doing well, but nearly a second slower than yesterday’s fastest, but I did have a bit more fuel in the car (Daft gauges that don’t tell you how much you have left below 10litres!) I also had the roof on yesterday due to the weather, and had it off today. I couldn’t work it out, as I felt a lot quicker up through the esses, was getting a better line & drive out of Caravan corner, and had summoned the courage to take South Stand (kink in the back straight) flat in 3rd gear.

My first timed run was 54.20, over a second slower than yesterday, so I had a rest, a good think and went out and did 53.93 for my final run (by way of reference, the FTD was 37.77 on Sat & 37.60 today)

Anyway, Alastair Mathseon in Nat A A8 set a time of 52.27 today, but I was the only car in Nat B A8 so got another trophy for 1st in class.



Not a bad haul for my first Motorsport weekend, and looking forward to the rest of the season!

That's a excellent result Jamie

Wheres the next race?

given that it was my home club organising i thought i had better support the club and enter the rally car class ,also taking the opportunity to let my mechanic double enter .
sat morning in the wet was great fun and i ended up fastest after the first practise ( those big single seaters arent very clever in the wet)
that all changed when it dried out however but we still managed to mix it with some of big power cars to win the rally car class and finish 22nd overall .
heres a clip to show you what you missed http://www.youtube.com/user/626648#p/a/u/0/Eb4gpKkiXAM

Nice meeting you Jamie and well done!

Eoin [Red Caterham ]

Top effort and very consistant times, impressive!

Well done Jamie. You were fair flying and had the better of me all weekend. I thought you were going to keep the record until Alistair managed to get it together in the TVR.

I managed a 54.63sec on Saturday to take the National A class over the Porsche 911 but that was 1.5sec slower than your 53.15sec!

Sunday I had the track sussed better but my rear suspension clunk was really holding me back - best I could do was a 54.31sec.

The Elise and VX seem pretty well matched and if I can get mine fixed in time, I'll see you at Kames.

Oh - and thanks to Shortie2 for giving my car a once over before the timed runs.

Thanks guys, good to meet a few of you over the weekend, the paddock is a really friendly place.

Now, to get my entry in for Kames x2, Doune & Forrestburn!

Kev, hope you get the VX sorted out (cheaply) before Kames - You'll have the advantage over me there of knowing the track

Well done. Great result Especially on your 1st event.

Well, I didn't get round to updating after my secind event, but I got a 2nd in class mug at the Machars Sprint in May @ Kames.

Unfortunately Kevham wasn't competing, as his funny noise had got worse, but he's entered for the EACC Sprint this Sunday.

I need a bit more practice @ Kames - Very tight and technical, and although I improved by 4 seconds during the only 4 runs I have done clockwise, I still need to knock off another couple to be in with a shout of class honours, admittedly against guys that have done at least 10 times as many laps!!

Well, the next 3 weekends should be interesting, with Kames again, but Anti Clockwise this time, then Doune next weekend, and Forrestburn the weekend after! (Then doing my kitchen the weekend after )

Jamie,
I should be there on Sunday. I've spent the last few weeks buying spare parts (ball joints, driveshaft, toe-links, bushes, engine mounts) but as yet, haven't fitted anything!
The prime suspect for my 'funny noise' is the offside outer toelink balljoint but the one that turned up from Eliseparts was the newer M12 stubby, tapered version . So, I've had to order an emergency toe-link from AutoVaux which hopefully will come tomorrow and I'll fit tomorrow night. Therefore, my geo might be 'slightly out' on Sunday! :roll

I should have my new tyres too (although my fitter still hasn't brought them back) so I'll be taking it easy until they've got a couple of heat cycles through them.

Oh yeh - and I'm back to driving to and from events since I flogged the trailer.

Just thought I'd get my excuses in first

Let's hope it stays dry.......

Ah, you've folded and gone for sticky tyres too!

Hope you get the toe link fitted and get the geo close - I did toe links on mine, and it was horrible with "by eye" settings, much better once I'd used the poles and string method to get it much closer, but still needs a tweak!

See you Sunday!

Well, another weekend, another "new" track. Back to Kames, but yesterday's event was run Anti-clockwise. And it was raining, then it stopped raining, then it started again.............

First practice run was in the wet, and taken very easily tying to figire out exactly what the track was like in that direction. 2nd practice was still wet, maybe slightly wetter, and I got a faster time, but still a couple of secniod slower than the otehr guys in the class.

After the lunch break we got a third practice - dry this time, and I thouht I was doing well until I overcooked it getting on the gas a touch early for paddock, ran a wee bit wide and then got very sideways on the exit, then went the other way before gathering it up to see red flags. So took it easy back to the pits cursing myself.

The timed runs went without incident and my best time of the day was 89.07, still a good bit off Kevham's class winning time of 87.60, and a loooonnnnngggg way of Graeme Bremner's record of 80.03!!!

Still haveing great fun, and going by the scores after the last round, I'm leading the Newcomers in the Lowland championship.

Now, off to study where Doune goes before Saturday!!

ceejam wrote:
The timed runs went without incident and my best time of the day was 89.07, still a good bit off Kevham's class winning time of 87.60, and a loooonnnnngggg way of Graeme Bremner's record of 80.03!!!

We're just a few bhp (like at least 100bhp) short of his record. And that's before the Quaife box, Hoffman's Nitrons and years of experience on the layout come into play!
I think a good driver with a 211 and a reasonable crack at the track would easily beat the anti-clockwise record. That was my third event on that layout (first time in the VX) - there's no substitute for experience - I'll be aiming to get down to 85-86 secs in August with a bit more practice and my 'problems' fixed.

ceejam wrote:
Still haveing great fun, and going by the scores after the last round, I'm leading the Newcomers in the Lowland championship.

That's what matters. I had great fun on Sunday (once the rain stopped). It's particularly nice to regularly beat the TVR after three seasons of getting humped in my MX-5.

Give it some welly at Doune next weekend. They say that Oak Tree is the key to a good run. I was just glad to get to the top.

Congratulations. Great result on your first outing. The start of great things to come, no pressure for the next event!

Well, a wee update after Doune.

Arrived nice and early, and joined the massive queue for the first timers "Tim Thomson tours" up the hill.
Having studied the track map and some youtube videos (The late Mr Hoy's was a good one! Lawrence) I then went back to the paddock to get scrutineered and await my first run, and wait, and wait........ Being a British CHampionship Nat A event, us lowly Nat B licence holders were lumped in a class at the end of the running order, so there was a lot of hanging about.

I did my first practice run, taking it nice and easy, and posting a 58.18, which I was quite pleased with as a first run.

2nd practice I got a 56.24, which was a big chunk off, and starting to get a feel for the track. I used the lunch break to have a walk up the track, my goodnes is East Brae Steep! And when you get to the top of the brae the road is off to the right, out the driver's window! Turn in is blind at the No.1 marker

Off the start, it's up to 2nd before the 1st lefthander, then hard on the power, and up to 3rd for the run to Oak Tree. I don't think I managed to convince myself to keep the foot down throgh the right hand kink into Oak tree, and a definite lift for Oak tree, before back hard on the power for Garden gate. A short hard jab of the brakes, and down to 2nd for Garden gate, followed by a decent run up to Junction. After junction I was hard on the power through the Meadow, trying not to take too much grass on the inside, as it pushes the car wide at the bottom of East Brae. 2nd for East Brae worked nicely, as the run to the Esses is quite short, just touching the limiter before jabbing the brakes, and thread the car between the barriers. the exit of the esses is tighter than you think and it's hard to get the power on, but another 2nd gear dash to the line, getting there just before the rev limiter.

My 3rd practice run was 55.81, just 0.2 seconds off Alastair Matheson in the TVR.

Sunday we got another practive run in the morning, a 55.77, which was a little faster, but warming up again.
My first timed run was 54.54, which was faster than Alastair, but I obviously riled him, as he did a 53.95 on his second run.
I Psyched myself up, tried to convicince myself to keep on the power up to Oak tree, and then keep it tidy through the Meadow, crossing the line on my final run at 54.04, just 9 hundreths slower than my championship rival in the TVR, but a very respectable best run for a first visit to Doune!

Just home from my first visit to Forrestburn todaday. Managed 3rd in class, but it's not a counter for the Lowland championship, and I messed up the hairpin on my final timed run. Back out there tomorrow, to hopefully better my 55.68!