5th August

The build up to this meeting started on Thursday 3^rd August at the test day. If you’ve read the diary you’ll know that we have been making a lot of changes to the car over the past month or so and this was the day to see if we’ve got it right. I met Neil Cox of Corinium Motorsport at the track and we set about going over the setup of the car. One thing the car suffers from is a soft brake pedal, it works fine but just doesn’t give me much confidence so we took the rash decision to change the master cylinder for the front brakes to the next size up. I have a hunch the previous owner upgraded the calipers to 4 pots but didn’t do the master cylinder. No sooner had the idea been thought the old one was off and the new one on. We set up the car as per the standard Radical setting but also lowered the car by 5mm all round. Once everything was done it was time to get onto the track. The first session I settled into driving the car as I haven’t driven it in over 5 weeks. This meant that lap times were less than impressive, I came into the pits and we checked over the car. I decided to leave the setting as is until I’ve done another session. One thing I did notice was how well the car rides the bumps now I’ve removed the Nik-Link bar so that was a positive. Second session I started to settle into driving the car again, the brakes were working well and the car was feeling great to drive. It was in this session I started to notice the difference the wings were making, I was carrying more corner speed which meant I was hooking more gears than before. This meant I was having to relearn the track again, all my normal brake points had changed and in some cases my lines were different. I was getting a bit of understeer at Quarry but apart from that I was happy, although my times were still no better than what I’ve done in the past which was a little disappointing. Back in the pits we make some more small changes and fix a couple of things. Neil also softened up the front suspension to help with the understeer. The last session I was supposed to go out and do 5 laps and come in. Well I did my five laps but the car was going so well that I decided to stick at it. That proved a good decision as the lap times started dropping like a stone. Soon I was running consistently in the low 1.11’s and just dipping into the 1.10’s which was the result I was looking for. That was the last session of the day but it was a good one and I was very happy with the way things went. I was really looking forward to the race on Saturday.

Saturday race day, still on a high from the test I was confident that I could put in a good showing. The weather was overcast but very humid, so humid that it started to spit with rain as we were waiting to go out on qualifying. It stopped as soon as it started but from pulling out of the pits my visor was covered in raindrops, I took it easy on the first lap and the rain soon stopped. I was in a gaggle of cars, which wasn’t ideal, but I thought I’d run with it for a few laps. On the third lap I decided I need to get away from the cars in front and concentrate on a fast lap. I passed the start line and got on the gas through Folly only to be greeted by lots of straw on the track which was from a spinning car that had returned to the track bring half the field with them. No problem I thought and I just carried on, over Avon Rise and I discover that most of the track was covered in straw, some of the piles were 10inches tall! not what you expect to see on a race track, I managed to avoid this but that lap had gone away. The next 4 or 5 laps were just trying to fight through the traffic and avoiding the straw at Quarry. I got stuck behind a Mallock which was quick on the straights but less so in the twiddly bits. The car’s gearbox also wasn’t playing ball and I was getting a lot of false neutrals which is just what you want when braking for Quarry. Most of my laps were a shocking 1:18’s because of the traffic, straw and gearbox issues, I just managed to post one quick, and I use that term loosely, lap of 1:13.8. The last 2 laps the heavens opened again and I had to back off until the flag came out. My time was good enough for 11^th on the grid but it was so far off my pace I couldn’t help be disappointed. We spent some time replacing the rod ends on the gear selection linkage and hopefully this will fix the problem I was having.

Race time, I was all pumped up for this one as I needed to prove that fitting all these fancy wings was really worth the effort, so far today I hadn’t done anything impressive with them. The rolling start was pretty good but the lack of power from my little 1100cc engine showed itself as the grid pulled away, I even got overtaked by a Escort Cosworth. Ok that car has a rumored 500bhp but it is still an Escort! J The first lap was entertaining as we all piled into the Esses one of the Radicals up front span and we all had to take evasive action to miss it. The next couple of laps I was following the same Mallock from Qualifying and the Escort, their times were in the 1.16s but I didn’t have the power to get by them and I had to watch the rest of the grid disappear in the distance. The Escort was doing some impressive power-sliding around Tower. As he came into Camp it all got a bit out of control and he went off and hit the barrier pretty hard. Both me and Mallock behind just kept our foot down and just hoped we’d be past the flying escort before it found its way onto track….luckily we both did bit it was pretty close. The safety car was sent out and I managed to get back up with the front groups but still behind the Mallock. The safety car was out for 4 laps before the Escort was cleared up. Once the green flag came out I glued myself to the back of the Mallock, I just didn’t have the power to get by him on the straights and he would pull a gap just big enough meaning I couldn’t get him on the brakes. I was considerably quicker on the corners but I just couldn’t turn this to my advantage. He was also taking very defensive lines to all corners so any attack I made I had to do around the which was near impossible. I admit my lack of race knowledge didn’t help but I guess this is the only way I will learn. I made a small mistake going into the Esses as I had a Fisher Fury along side me, I tried to give him room and in the process missed my braking point. This allowed both the Fury and the Mallock to pull about 4 seconds on me. Luckily, for me, the Fury span at Bobbies on the same lap which allowed me to hunt down the Mallock again, it didn’t take me long to catch him but again there was now way through without making a "do or die" manoeuvre and it wasn’t worth that risk. As the race progressed the tyres were starting to move around a lot, I think they are finally up for replacing. I can’t complain as they have been the same set since last November! The engine woes continue with the engine not wanting to rev to the limiter in the higher gears, so back to the workshop with that one. On the plus side the gear selection was a lot better. The race ended with me in 10^th place behind the Mallock. It was a good race all be it very frustrating but I learnt a lot even though the finishing position wasn’t great. I know if I had got past the Mallock I could have hung on to the guys in front as the car is so much quicker with the wings fitted. I need to do better in qualifying in future and be more aggressive on the opening lap to protect my position on track. The learning curve just seems to get steeper and steeper. One positive thing to come out of today I’ve now got enough signatures to upgrade my licence from National B to National A which is great. Next race is Bank Holiday Monday so I’ll be aiming to better this weekends result then.

Video of the whole race is in the video's section - here