While the dashboard was out, the guys at RA removed the heater matrix and all that other gubbins. Being cold is never really a problem in the car anyway, as it comes fitted with an oil filled radiator... ie Dry sump tank in the passenger foot-well. Nice and toasty in the winter, i am sure in the hot days, ill be sweating like a peodophile in a packamac at a school disco. I had a mapping session with Andy Forrest booked on the dyno at hypertech the week before Knockhill. So off i trotted, with fingers, toes and eyes crossed, which makes driving remarkably difficult. The misfire was gone.....YAY! but the car was very laggy and did not make the power it should have made. At 5000rpm there was just under 250hp and by 5750 there was 500hp then maxing out at 530. It was very much looking like the turbo was on it's way out. The ever helpful John Stevenson Motorsport Autospares Superstore kindly offered a loan of another GT30. AndyF had other commitments in the run up to knockhill and i had a hell of a lot more power than I had at Cadwell, so we decided to run the car as it was. The weather forecast was also pretty grim. So if it was going to be soaking wet, 530 hp would be just fine.
Test day -
Time Attack had organised 3x 15 min sessions the day before. It worked out pretty well as there was 1 pissing wet session, 1 drying session and 1 dry session. It gave me a chance to acclimatise to the car and have a play with the suspension settings, whilst making sure i was not giving those Southern shandies from Englandshire a lesson in my interpretation of the lines at Knockhill. I learned that lesson by gaining Fee 4 seconds a lap at Oulton and then she eventually beat me in the championship. It is the same reason that I never put up my fastest laps on YouTube and never share data logs with opposition....No matter how many times Adam Kindness asks!
Race Day -
It was a typical summer morning at knockhill, the sun was shining there was no wind and it was lovely and warm. Unfortunately, then my alarm went off and I had to get up and drive up to the pissing wet and freezing cold Knockhill, twinned with Siberia. To be honest, i do really like the wet conditions and did put in some pretty competitive laps at cadwell with less power than the opposition.
Warm Up -
The circuit was as slippery as an otters pocket and single digit temperatures do not mix well with R compound tyres. My new powerband was also proving to be interesting in the wet. Let it go off boost and it would result in a lovely powerslide on exit. Looking like a hero but not actually going very fast. I pushed on for a couple of laps just for a bit of extra practice in the eventuality that it may actually rain at Knockhill.... Not that it was likely to happen at Knockhill. The time sheets came in and i was 3rd over all with a 1:02.247, 3 seconds faster than anyone else in Club Pro. Not a bad result, but nothing can really be taken from warm up. Andy Forrest appeared with his laptop to give the mapping a bit of a tweak. He always says that it is best to get actual data from the race track.
Practice -
A drying line had begun to appear at the circuit, some of the kerbs were drying off a bit but it was very difficult to judge just how dry it was until i got out to the circuit. So i went for an intermediate set up on the suspension. After a couple of hard laps it actually proved to quite dry, there was just a bit of a penalty to pay for deviating from the racing line. Wet circuit and grass were waiting to punish you for mistakes. The car then started to make a ticking noise from the engine. Luckily not a time bomb but a leaky exhaust manifold gasket. I just ended the session then and headed back to the paddock where Phil, Andy Napier and Paddy from RA had to get to work on changing the gasket.. Those lovely hot headers kept them nice and warm during this process.
I think Andy Napier will have a permanent burn as a memento of Knockhill 2012. Time sheets came in and i was fastest again in Club Pro by half a second and third quickest over all with a 55.633Qualifying -
The guys from RA did a great job getting the car ready in plenty of time. Andy gave the map a tweak and noticed that i was shifting slightly early between 4th and 5th grear and dropping slightly off boost. My rev counter reads slightly high up at the top end so i adjusted my shift point and also had the rev counter on full display on the Toucan which is a very useful feature. The track was dry now and i knew i would be up against in against the Evo's. I ran the car on full boost to get Andy some more data logs and to try and give the best chance of some decent qualifying points. Time sheets came in and i was now 3rd in class with a 55.088 with 5 cars in my class less than 1 second behind me. This included Russ Patton and Andrew Barbour who always turn the boost up for the final and can find a fair bit of extra time.
Final -
The Evo guys would definately be turning the boost up to 11 now and i knew that we would be in for a tough time, being at around 200hp less than most of the opposition. Andy F gave the map one more tweak and suggested that the angle of the spoiler was a touch too steep and may actually be stalling the air. The 2 Andys got to work at that and myself and Deaser decided to give the car a bit of a clean. Cars, like women, seem to let you away with a bit more after a bit of pampering
( i must add that i know nothing about cars or women) The car was also suffering from a bit of understeer so we made adjustments to the roll bars. Time for a big can of Man Up and to go and take some liberties on those big kerbs. There was a black flag early on when Marcus broke down and then a second when Romain had his rather spectacular crash. I had been bothered a few times with traffic during the final and there was a small bit of time to find. After Romains off there was 1 min 20 on the clock so just enough time to get a quick warm up lap and a single flyer. The pressure was on. I was nicely positioned in the line just behind Steven Peel, he would have exactly the same idea and would also be quick. I knew i would have to make this one count, live timing had gone down so i had no idea what position i was sitting in. Out we went and i rung every thing i could out of the car and produced a 54.714. Good enough for 3rd in class and my 1st podium in club pro. I was absolutely delighted that all the hard work the guys at RA had put into the car had produced a podium at our home event. Even despite having a issues. After the event, the guys at RA stripped out the turbo and have found the fins on both the compressor and exhaust side to be damaged. Looks like the turbo will have to be replaced or repaired for brands hatch.
Again, i would like to give a massive shout out to all my sponsors. Especially RA motorsport who have been putting a huge amount effort into getting the car competitive in a very tough class. Nothing is too much trouble for these guys. Also to Andy F for being my in house mapper and race engineer for the day. Everyone's efforts are greatly appreciated, there is no way i could consider competing without these guys.
Massive thanks to all the people who have sponsored and supported me
RA Motorsport Developments
Andy Forest Performance
Whiteline
J T Innovations
Syvecs
John Stevenson Motorsport
ABC Autoglass
Flat Out Photography
Cosworth
Carlimits.com
In car video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaGkULqjssQ&feature=plcp
Same Video in higher quality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFNvwLvP8tI&feature=plcp
Warren Kelly's Escort Cosworth following me -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjn2Cba7 ... re=mh_lolz
