Firstly, I apologise for the late update, work have been very inconsiderate and ensured i have been too busy to post my ramblings, luckily normal service has now returned.
Well Brands was a great weekend overall recording my best class finish to date, although slightly tarnished by controversy in both RGB races. We (myself, Dad and William) arrived on friday night at about 9pm, after a great clear run all the way down. A quick unload (thanks to Bob for saving us a spot and supplying 240v) , a guided tour of the bus followed by a swift pint at the bar with Bob and we settle down to the first night in the bus with the new fold out beds/sofas.
I had entered the Allcomers again for a bit of practice, so it was an early start as scrutineering was at 7.45am. I also wanted to have ago with bobs Pace corner scales to see if i could get the corner weights sorted, so i had an early shower at 6.15am and got everything prepared. The PACE corner gauge is a nice simple bit of kit, that in principle should work very well, but Bob had already expressed his concerns about its repeatability and accuracy. After going round the car a few times the corners didn't seem far out, and definitely less out than the repeatability of the gauge. The problem with the gauge is that it is very dependent on the way it set against the wheel, i.e. its position and upright position, just trying the same corner over and over again gave quite large discrepancy's. So we ended up leaving the set as it was, as it didn't seem that far out. I've not discounted a PACE gauge as its a great, portable simple device, and i have some ideas on how to make it more repeatable that involves some more steel and a welder, so i'm keeping my eye open for one on ebay.
Scrutineering went without a hitch, which was less than could be said for David Wale, whose scrutineer decided to pick up on a black box in the cockpit that could be deemed to fail outside of safety requirements, reading the bluebook it didn't really break any rules, but he did at least say it was ok to race this time with it.
Qualifying for Allcomers went OK, and i felt my way back around the track. I also used the session as a testing to run softer settings on the dampers to try and settle the rear end. My plan was to go out very soft then come in after a few laps a dial in changes, as it happens the session was red flagged after a saxo decided to go for a dig in the sand at Paddock hill. The car felt alot more grippy and settled at the rear but was very wallowy and understeering a fair bit, so we stiffened it up all round but added a couple of extra clicks to the rear. Once the session was restarted i went back out and instantly the car felt a lot better, although still a hint of understeer. There wasn't time for another return to the pits so decided just to add an extra click ready for the RGB qualifying. I had qualified 5th for Allcomers with a time of 53.86, which was slower than last years best time and needed to be as close to the 52's as possible, but i never had a good lap once i'd changed the settings and knew there was definetly more to come off
RGB qualifying was busy, 29 cars entered, and i was near the end of the pit lane and could also see Al and Colin at the front of the queue so wasn't expecting a great class C grid position. I managed 2 or 3 clearish laps towards the end, and managed a 53.12 and a 53.34, which what not only over 0.5 seconds quicker than last year, but also put me in 2nd in class C for race 1 and 1st for race 2. Result!!!!!
The Allcomers race was abit of a none event, to start with anyway, as not really any racing to be had as i was on my own, but then after a spin coming out of graham hill, i was near the back and had a bit of a battle to get past Judy
The 1st RGB race was at 4pm, the weather was great and the car was running fine. I had a game plan in my mind that involved just trying to stay with Al in front of me around Paddock for the first time and hopefully Colin wouldn't get inbetween us, then letting the dust settle for a couple of laps before trying anything. As soon as the lights went out, that all went out the window, I followed Al towards Paddock who got ahead of Richard Wise in his new Sabre, but new RGBer Gary Good year came up the gap on my inside and was rubbing paintwork with Richard directly in front, and also had Tony coming up my inside corner. I kept my distance and concentrated on holding my line around paddock, not cutting the track off to Tony behind and not wanting to get untidy or scrub out wide and cause a collision like ii did at snetterton, but as we reached the apex, Colin who was coming round the outside at paddock turned in and left me no where to go, we ended up touching which caused Colin to spin off into the deep gravel and i was also on the way into a spin, but as Tony came past me my nose clipped his rear end which actually straightened me up and kept me on the track. Luckily it didn't really affect Tony, although it gave his wife Heather some polishing to do so in the paddock later. I lost 3 or 4 places, including 2nd in class C to Matt Rowe. Within a few laps i had caught back up with Matt and managed to pass him and then caught up with Al with Tony infront of him. But as we came out of Graham Hill Tony went into a spin, causing all the cars following to take some serious evasive action, I followed Al onto the grass, but had to run a lot wider as Tony was rolling towards me, and ended up losing a lot of ground on Al. It also allowed Matt to catch back up with me, with whom i then had a great clean battle with for the rest of the race, including some very exciting side by side racing through Paddock, surtees and clearways! On the last lap i knew Matt was always gaining on me coming into Clearways and i knew i couldn't let him past me up the inside there as i would never get past him before the finish line, so i just concentrated on hugging the curb of clearways all the way around with Matt tucked right up behind me and powered through to the finish line. So this gave me 2nd in class, my best class finish to date!! I was ecstatic, as was William who gave me a massive thumbs up as i drove past him on the way to the paddock.
The glory was all a bit tarnished when i arrived back at the bus as i was being blamed for the collision with Colin. My mistake at Snetterton caused us to collide at snetterton, but didn't rule either of us out of the race and which Colin went onto win, but this time i really felt as if i had done nothing wrong. I reviewed the video and still believed i wasn't to blame, but still went to see Colin to apologise if he thought i was to blame. After a public viewing of the video evidence in the "Bus Cinema" i was cleared of any wrong doing and felt a lot happier.
We spent an great late afternoon and evening drinking and eating BBQ'd meat with fellow RGB'ers before retiring to the bus for a warm and comfortable nights sleep, i love the bus!!!!
After waht happened in Race 1, the last thing i wanted was any controversy in the 2nd race, so took it really steady at the start, and through that lost a few places and was back to 4th in class. I spent the rest of the race catching back up, and seeing Colin spin off and rejoining just behind me after druids meant i was upto 3rd. With a 3 laps to go i was back up with Matt and on the last lap made a move on him coming into paddock, i was well past him after getting a great exit from clearways and good drag up the straight, i was on the inside and really didn't want want to run wide and close the track off to Matt, so backed off so i could hug the inside curb around paddock, this allowed Matt to start coming past me on the outside, but as we came to the apex he turn in across me leaving me no where to go, we collided and both spun, Matt ended up in the kitty litter but i managed to keep it on the tarmac and the engine running and facing the right direction, as i got going i realised i was in 2nd, but Colin came shooting past me into Druids. The bonnet of the car was severely bent off to one side now and as i came into graham hill the car leaned over and locked the wheel on the bodywork, causing me to run very wide onto the grass, but luckily it was the last lap so managed to get over the line without having to go round a sharp left hander again!
Returning to the paddock i was not a happy bunny, the last thing i wanted was any kind of contact, and again felt as if i hadn't done anything wrong, i had legitimately over taken the car in front and held a conservative line around the corner to try and ensure no incidents, This time we were called into see the clerk of the course, who after listening to our version of events and stated that the observers comments agreed with my statement. It was put down as a racing incident caused by the driver (Matt) not realising where i was as he turned in, and no actions were to be taken.
So all in all a very eventful weekend, and 2 trophies!!!
There is a 7 week break until the next race, back at brands, so hopefully get some time to repair and develop the car, and also get some more work done on the bus
No comments:
Post a Comment