We arrived at the circuit about 3 on Saturday afternoon only to find out that we were not allowed into the circuit until 7pm. Luckily, we managed to talk the surprisingly attractive marshal to let us into the circuit to watch some of the Aston Martin owners club race meeting. A bunch of rich people going not very fast in some lovely cars. F355 Challenge cars and some N24’s on road tyres only doing 54.5 sec laps in qualifying. Eventually we got into the circuit so we could dump off the gear not bother washing the car and bugger off for another crap nights sleep in the hotel. Too excited to sleep… that sounds wrong… looking forward to racing the next day so much that I did not get a nights decent sleep.
The day of the race arrived and it was boiling. Being from Scotland im not too good with the heat and did not even realise that there was a 2nd digit in the temperature guage and don’t think I have ever seen it with a 3 as the 1st digit.
Warm up – Just went out to re-familiarise myself with the circuit as I have not driven it since last year. Gently brought up the pace to a 54.971 lap which was quickest in 4wd F/I club and brought the car back in. Pissing oil and water. Bad memories of last year when I destroyed my engine. Luckily it had just breathed a bit of oil that had leaked and a bolt in the cooling system had come loose.
Practice – Went out nice and early and was sitting in the pit lane quietly boiling away when some steam started pissing out of the bonnet. The lateral performance boys were right on the case and came sprinting their garage and had a look underneath the bonnet. It was just some spilt coolant. Off I merrily went and pushed a bit harder. The track temperature had obviously gone up a fair bit as the tyres were going off mega quick. I came back into the pits, sweating like a fat kid in a cake shop. When I checked the time sheets I was quickest again in club 4wd with a 54.372
Qualifying – Again I went out nice and early and was 2nd in line at the pit exit behind Fee. On the warm up lap Walter Morris who I have been quicker than in all the previous events was wanting passed. I decided to let him pass as I knew that his skyline had a lot more power than I had and would be a major help on the long start finish straight and thought he might know the circuit well. I prefer having some space anyway. On my 1st lap I posted a 53.912. The second lap there was not as much grip as the tyres were going off. The circuit was less grippy and you ended up bouncing all the way round surtrees. I did a few cool down laps another medium paced lap as I had not been happy with my entrance to graham hill bend on the flying lap, and then headed back into the pits. This time sweating like a pedophile in a packamack at a school disco. Not that I know any of those. Im just guessing. Seriously, it was biblically hot in the car with all the gear on and the heater turned on to soak some heat from the engine.
Before the final I knew that Warren Kelly would be fast as he was very quick last year and Fee had been just behind me all day. After being quickest in all the other sessions I knew It was far from in the bag.
Final – I got myself out nice and early again. On the warm up lap Morris danced past me again. The circuit felt even hotter now and there was less grip about. The quickest way out of the corners seemed to be just to 4 wheel drift trying to keep it as tidy as possible. Surtrees was even more bouncy than before. Needing plenty of power on to keep the car heading in the right direction. On the second flying lap I posted a 53.684. After some cool down laps I pushed a few more times, experimenting with different lines etc to try and better the lap time.I was not confident that that lap time would be quick enough. I just could not get the grip in the tyres as I had about 5 more quick laps about half a second. The grip was just not there though.
I returned to the pits to find out I was 3rd 0.03 behind Fee and 0.25 behind Warren who won club 4wd. The 0.03 of a second behind Fee was quite hard to swallow. Then again, If I had swallowed a few less cakes then I might have been 3 1/00s quicker!!!!
Then it was for the podium. ‘’ and 3rd place in 4wd club is……Gary Sear????? He was not even there?? I was a bit disappointed at missing a proper podium. Turns out they had marked up the sheet wrong. I eventually got to the podium with Warren and Fee and then got a picture taken with the lovely modified live and time attack girls, it was not all that bad then!
Afterwards I had a good look at the splits etc. On the 1st sector I was .16 quicker than Warren and 0.293 quicker than Fee. I just lost the time on the straight compared to Fee, if you can call it a straight. On the start finish line I was the same speed as Warren but nearly 10mph slower than Fee.
[edit - missed out the pics and thanks when pasting across from word. Bekause i kant spel]
Here are some pics
1 wheel inside the white line
As usual, massive thanks to :
Colin Telfer for building the car
Ian Brown for fixing the engine and gearbox when i break them
Alister Colins for fixing the car at every event. And always being entertaining
Andy Forest Performance for an awesome job mapping the car http://www.andyforestperformance.co.uk
Andrew Walsh of Carlimits for making me go fast http://www.carlimits.com
http://www.usedcarparts.co.uk for continued sponsorship
I now have a full set of tropys 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Need some more of those 1st one though. They are much nicer.
