Warm up - We decided to sit out practice to do a bit more work to the brakes. Andy Napier had some major issues with them the day before at SLS and some great pedalling kept him out the Barriers. This was not a major issue as I have 1000s of laps of knockhill under my belt...During the SLS event the day before the rear brakes kept locking up, putting Andy from RA off the track a couple of times. Once, very close to the barrier. It turns out that there was a problem with the pedal box. The guys took the car back to Perth and worked on it over night to get to the bottom of the problem. It was an awful lot better but still had a tendency to lock up the rears which can be pretty interesting in the wet.
Practice - This would be the 1st time I have driven the car in anger with big power so the plan was to get out and put some laps in, getting used to the car. The guys at RA have built a great car and I felt at home in no time and instantly got used to the awesome samsonas sequential box from Clark Motorsport. The car came back in with a slight blowing from the manifold but the guys had it repaired in no time.
Qualifying - The circuit was wet at the start of qualifying. I went straight out on wets and felt instantly comfortable with the car. Putting in a 56s lap on the wet track. 2nd fastest out of all the cars including extreme class. I was then stuck in traffic as the circuit dried. The red flag came out and we all headed into the pits. The circuit was drying but there was not enough time to change to slicks. Back out onto the circuit only to be met by dreaded traffic again. It took me a couple of laps to clear the traffic and by that time I had pretty much wrecked the wets.....IDIOT!....... The traffic in this session was horrendous, we were using motorsport wet tyres, Well, I was using a set of soft rally slicks cut into wets but they seemed to work pretty well, giving us a lot more grip than the Club Pro guys in the corners. Unfortunately, some of the club pro guys were using their mirrors. There used to be a lot of respect between the classes, getting out of the way for the quicker cars. Saturday was a busy session and it seemed to be every man for himself. None of them were allowing event themselves a bit of space which was really no good for anyone.
Final - The track had completely dried up between qualifying and the finals and I was very excited to get out and play on slicks. I was nice and early down to the holding area just behind my team mate Jason Ogg. This would work out perfect as Jason runs semi slick tyres and has similar power the the RA car. So he could get some clean laps in until I got the slicks up to temperature. A bit of team work would have seen us both get a clear track. The rain had different ideas! It started pouring just as the session was green flagged turning the cold slicks into comedy clown tyres. The SVA car broke down giving us a much needed red flag. The RA guys jumped into action like a bunch of coiled springs and had the wets on in no time. The session was re started and I was out stuck in traffic again. Visibility was practically zero so no one could see if anyone was behind them. I lost about 4 laps trying to find space. Eventually, I found myself a nice space, all I needed was 1 lap to nail it and that time was now. I knew that I could better my lap time from qualifying despite the wetter conditions. Unfortunately just as I went over the start line on my flying lap, the ecu and dash died and I lost all power. We were put out of action by a small fuse and a couple of minutes in the pit lane would have had me out on track.Finishing position was 2nd Just 0.1s behind the winner. All my laps were stuck in traffic as it was only when I was giving it some with the NOS that the ecu died. Given 1 clear lap i'm sure I would have been at least 4 seconds quicker but thats Motorsport and no point with the whole coulda woulda shoulda .... Again, more problems with traffic not getting out of the way. Although, in this session, the track was so wet that no one had any chance of seeing anyone behind them. I did have 2 occasions in the early laps where I was making space for myself, only to have one of the club pro guys dive in front of me at the hairpin. They did this ruining their track position too as they were going to be up the chuff of some other car and unable to even see the end of their bonnet in the spray.
Plenty of pluses could be taken from the weekend. RA have built a great car with loads of potential and these small problems happen when you are developing a brand new car.
Anyone interested in seeing more about the car have a look at Scott Robson Racing on Facebook
