End of an era - Smashed the car
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:38 pm
It was the final race of the time attack season at Snetterton this weeeknd. After a podium on the 300 circuit on saturday all i needed was an easily achievable 5th to give myself a podium for the championship.
I had made the wrong tyre choice for qualifying, going for a worn set of Kumho V700s as they were supposed to be really good in the wet. They just aquaplanned everywhere in the standing water. The car would not even go in a straight line in the straights. Normally qualifying is a 20 min session and i would have had a chance to go in and switch tyres. It had been shortened to 15 mins so i would have struggled to get in a lap
The weather was still soaking for the finals and i opted for my Yokohama AO48s I had used them in wet conditions before and found them to be pretty good once you had got some heat into them. I was pretty confident of a decent result as i had been quickest in most wet sessions all year by a fair margin and had only been beaten the time my turbo had blown up in the final at brands. They did take a lot longer to heat up than 888s but seemed to grip pretty well. I had tested the 48s back to back with the 1a list tyre at Brands (probably not as wet though, in retrospect) and found the 48s to be much quicker. Unfortunately, the 48s were pretty worn as they were the same set i had used all year. I had been out in worse conditions in 888s at Knockhill though. The track did not look too bad from the pit lane. When i got out, i found the track to still have a lot of standing water. The rain was off and the track should start to dry out so it was just a matter of trying to pick up some time. Richies had been very slippy in qualifying and i had a spin there so i new to be careful. Most of the rest of the track was starting to dry up a bit and you could stand on the brakes a bit harder. I entered Richies at 137 mph and braked much earlier than usual,nearly 200m earlier than my dry braking point, with a gentle squeeze on the pedal to see where the grip was, i was still feeling out the track at this point. The back wheels which were still a bit cold instantly locked up, i modulated the brake pressure to release the brakes but this did not have much effect and the car swopped ends and left the track. I hit the barriers pretty hard. I bounced back 10-15 ft and the car rotated through 270degrees.
Hopefully the engine and dry sump are ok. If they are not then i will definitely be out for the 2013 season and may have to throw in the towel. We had thought about a new shell with a lighter cage for next year. I had hoped to sell that shell to partly fund the new one. The car is back up at RA and the guys will have a good look at things before we make a decision on what to do.
The track did get quicker throughout the session and my inital time was only quick enough for 5th in Class. The race was won by Andrew Barbour who had used some tyre heaters to get some temperature into his tyres. Meaning that I drew on points for 3rd place with Andrew Barbour but due to the fact that he had 2 wins, he was given 3rd place in the championship.
I had made the wrong tyre choice for qualifying, going for a worn set of Kumho V700s as they were supposed to be really good in the wet. They just aquaplanned everywhere in the standing water. The car would not even go in a straight line in the straights. Normally qualifying is a 20 min session and i would have had a chance to go in and switch tyres. It had been shortened to 15 mins so i would have struggled to get in a lap
The weather was still soaking for the finals and i opted for my Yokohama AO48s I had used them in wet conditions before and found them to be pretty good once you had got some heat into them. I was pretty confident of a decent result as i had been quickest in most wet sessions all year by a fair margin and had only been beaten the time my turbo had blown up in the final at brands. They did take a lot longer to heat up than 888s but seemed to grip pretty well. I had tested the 48s back to back with the 1a list tyre at Brands (probably not as wet though, in retrospect) and found the 48s to be much quicker. Unfortunately, the 48s were pretty worn as they were the same set i had used all year. I had been out in worse conditions in 888s at Knockhill though. The track did not look too bad from the pit lane. When i got out, i found the track to still have a lot of standing water. The rain was off and the track should start to dry out so it was just a matter of trying to pick up some time. Richies had been very slippy in qualifying and i had a spin there so i new to be careful. Most of the rest of the track was starting to dry up a bit and you could stand on the brakes a bit harder. I entered Richies at 137 mph and braked much earlier than usual,nearly 200m earlier than my dry braking point, with a gentle squeeze on the pedal to see where the grip was, i was still feeling out the track at this point. The back wheels which were still a bit cold instantly locked up, i modulated the brake pressure to release the brakes but this did not have much effect and the car swopped ends and left the track. I hit the barriers pretty hard. I bounced back 10-15 ft and the car rotated through 270degrees.
Hopefully the engine and dry sump are ok. If they are not then i will definitely be out for the 2013 season and may have to throw in the towel. We had thought about a new shell with a lighter cage for next year. I had hoped to sell that shell to partly fund the new one. The car is back up at RA and the guys will have a good look at things before we make a decision on what to do.
The track did get quicker throughout the session and my inital time was only quick enough for 5th in Class. The race was won by Andrew Barbour who had used some tyre heaters to get some temperature into his tyres. Meaning that I drew on points for 3rd place with Andrew Barbour but due to the fact that he had 2 wins, he was given 3rd place in the championship.
