Knockhill first race in the fiesta

[mxvx]

What a nightmare. You were going pretty well. Did you speak to the driver afterwards of the blue fiesta? It definitely looks like you're past him...!

[j2 lot]

This was in the classics earlier in day. The guy in the blue car was quite lucky. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G0wPe-ow9TI

I would say they were both pretty lucky!! The end of the pit lane was ideally placed for that off. It would have been expensive and sore otherwise.

[p4ilip]

To be honest I was a bit dazed afterwards and he was in medical centre in a different room then when I did see him I started to notice this funny star when I was focusing on things so I went back to see the doctor and let the Clark of the course look at videos, I never got to see the other guys video but he wasn't owning up to anything and I never found out what the outcome was. With it being racing You normally have to pay for your own cars damage although I hadn't planned on having quite as much damage in my first race.

[KennyT]

I blame the BTCC for 'normalising' the type of move seen in both incidents, I doubt either would have happened in an open-wheel formula.

You looked to be going well in the video, I wouldn't say you are losing time on the straight, more you are taking a shallower line in to the hairpin and tightening the exit. Example- at the apex you still have 90 degrees lock where you will be flat on the throttle and essentially just scrubbing over the surface. Going in slightly deeper and rotating the car earlier in the corner (like the orange car did) will straighten it up at the apex so you have less lock when getting back on the power.

When I started to race, a bloke who knows Knockhill well (and is now a 3x BTCC champion) told me to concentrate on the Hairpin and McIntyres first to maximise your exit speeds, the rest you can learn just to hang on...

[p4ilip]

I agree with you about the hairpin. I was struggling with it on the Saturday just like you were saying. It felt like I was scrubbing a lot of speed off with understeer coming out of it, but the alternative felt really slow also. I'd bought a budget laptimer which wasn't picking up any beacons so had no idea of how my times looked. I used to have one a long time ago when I raced karts and it was really handy to see if slight changes in your line altered your lap time so am going to try and find one that works next time if I have a car back together.

[alicrozier]

I agree with KennyT on the hairpin, with nobody behind it would be optimal to go significantly deeper and rotate the car more aggressively. It will feel slower through the first part of the corner but you'll be a few mph quicker at the apex and will carry that speed differential all the way to Duffus.
Something generally to consider is you can/should be more aggressive with rotation in the lower speed corners and smooth as you are in the higher speed stuff...

[Andy G]

Looks like you got tapped on pax side rear from the speed of your rotation ??

Good effort

[Scottish Scrutineer]

Are you all fixed for this weekend?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[p4ilip]

Hi, Yes it should be all fixed although I haven't seen it since it was on the back of the recovery truck.

I didn't really have time to repair it myself due to work and family commitments so had asked Paul who runs some of the other cars to have a look at it. It turned out it was mainly cosmetic damage, I managed to find some more panels the same colour on Facebook and the guy who is fixing it has quite a collection of used parts also so it's not been as bad as I'd first thought although it's still eaten into my budget so I may have to miss Oulton park which is the away race.

Although I enjoy fixing my car and driving I found trying to Do both at the last meeting meant by the time I got in the car my mind wasn't really focused on driving, I was just stressed out and running through all the things I'd done, wondering if I'd fastened the bonnet pins or tightened the wheel nuts which isn't what I had really wanted from the whole experience. So I've asked him to look after the car this weekend and see how it goes.

I was planning to ask him to look at the geometry anyway as I'd just taken a guess when I'd built the car so I hope to see a little improvement with his expertise and Im going to keep it at Knockhill as I don't have a tow vehicle.

[ed]

Best of luck for this weekend, hope it goes well!

[c8rkh]

Yup. Best of luck, post up some video's or a link to the videos so we can see how you get on.

[p4ilip]

Thanks for the support. The classics grid looks like it has some exotic/valuable machinery: http://www.scottishmotorracingclub.co.u ... y_2017.pdf