We Arrived late Friday evening, pulling into a specially bus sized shape saved by our partner in crime Bob. It wasn't raining, but we heard tales of some monsoon type testing that day and a wet forecast ahead. After unpacking, a couple of beers and a general catchup with the RGB usual suspects we retired, expecting the worse when we awoke.
At 7am it wasn't raining, but it didn't look promising. By the time we went to scrutineering it had started to spit with rain and it slowly increased. Dad ran off to the Brands shop and bought a nice blue umbrella, which lasted until the first gust of wind before turning inside out. Over an hour after joining the line we were eventually scrutineered, i went straight back to the bus and got changed and just about made practice, but a few others who were at the back of the queue (like Bob) had to rush and almost missed the out lap!! Not good organisation, and definitely not good for the frame of mind! Practice was busy, wet and slippery, but i managed to grab 2nd in class for both races (11th and 12th), I was pleased, but again behind Al, should i just stop hoping i will ever get there???? The car is definetly more of a handful in the wet compared to when it was softer last season, but i was expecting that. Other than changing springs for wet races i cant do much about it.
As the day progressed, it got wetter and wetter and wetter! I was actually wondering if the races would be called off. There was an incident in the formula vee race, meaning all the subsequent races were shortened to 10 minutes. Initially i wasn't impressed with that, after all we do all this prep and travelling for the 30minutes or so of racing each weekend, and every race that is shortened means even less return for your effort and money. But within 10 seconds of the red lights going out i was wishing it had been reduced to 0 minutes! I dont normally mind the wet races, but this was just horrific, zero visibility (especially behind the Sabra of Lee's), cars spinning off left right and centre and several rivers running across the circuit! I had a reasonable start, but James Walker had a flyer and came steaming up the middle and tucked in behind Al. Gary Goodyear went spinning off at Paddock, then a couple of others went of between Druids and Graham Hill. I managed to close up over the next lap getting past a couple of cars, passing Matt G up the inside coming into Surtees and right up behind james, who then hit a deep patch of water and spun off, i then politely spun off in sympathy! My video wasn't working so i cant work out why, i think i just panicked and tried to change my direction to avoid James, causing the spin, where as in fact if i had just stayed online, i would have easily missed him and should have stayed on the circuit. I managed to get going again before James (who decided to do an extra 360 on the grass for show) or another class F car passed me, and then just tried to settle into just staying on the circuit. Of course this all went to pot when i saw Lee in his Sabre behind me, we had a good old battle for a few laps, after a mistake Lee got past and i tried to give chase, but the spray coming from his specially designed "rear spray deck" created less than zero visibility. During this time Stevie Bell and snuck up behind me, i hadn't even seen him in the mirrors, he isn't a vampire, but my mirrors may aswell have been made of toilet paper due to their usefulness! The first i knew about him being there was the nose of his car up my inside at druids, if i'd seen him i'd have never gone wide, but by the time i had seen him it was too late and he was passed. With only 1 lap left i tried to puch on, and in a last ditch attempt at surtees i ended up over cooking it and go grass cutting again, this time i just went straight on and rejoined the track without losing a place. So another 3rd in class, but at least i was alive and the car was in 1 piece.
Saturday evening was Steve Robinsons 60th birthday, so after cooking 300 animals for the RGB paddock i drank as much beer as i could get my hands on and stumbled off to bed.
Sunday morning was horrific, it had rained continual since saturday afternoon, it was blowing a gale and rain looked like something from an Anglesea holiday brochure! Dad and I went down to Fury sports cars to have a chat with Steve (the owner) and order our new chassis.............. Greenway developments will be building a new class F Fury, but not a as you know it Fury, but something radically different, maybe a bit mad, and maybe a bit dangerous, but it will be fun. Watch this space...
Somehow, by the time the race started it was dry, well apart from the small river on the exit of clearways. I wont go through the race in detail, as it will bore you, but also this time i have a video as i remembered to put the card in the Vbox! But to sum up it was fun, my driving was erratic and i got 3rd, again after a good battle with Steve but pipped by him again. So thats 4 races and 4 x 3rds. I want higher finishes, but at least i'm consistent, and the way to get a decent score at the end of the year is consistency.
No comments:
Post a Comment