Silverstone (Moulton college) Tuesday night, 6th round of the club championship.
On arriving (around 6.00pm), it was clear that the usual lads had done a grand job and the track was almost finished. My practice was very short this time around as I had agreed to help Lew Page change a few things on his car to help him with his set up on the TM2 so basically, I had a quick go round the track to familiarise myself with the layout and make sure everything was as it should be and then back to helping Lew.
The most noticeable change I made for the evening was the fitting of a ball diff, this is something i've wanted to try on the car for a couple of weeks on this surface (grippy astro), the rest of the set up was basically unchanged but I will be posting a complete set up soon.
Competition was going to be tough as Kev Lee and Danny McGee were both in attendance along with all the other local fast lads.
Round one and i'm off 4th and a good start, after 3 laps i'm looking at TQ so all is good until an unforced error dropped me back to 3rd behind Danny and Richard (Jono). A couple more laps and another error on the same corner
so back another place. After a few more laps settling down i'm back up to second behind Danny and that's where I finish, so not too bad but kicking myself for making the two errors. I lower the car a couple of millimetres before the next round.
Round 2 and I go off second behind Danny so a good start and after a couple of laps Danny has made an error and i'm through to lead on the track but Kev Lee has started down the order so is ahead on the stagger. Another error on the damn same corner and it costs me 3 seconds. The rest of the run goes well and I finish 2 seconds behind Kev so that error hurt. No changes to the car for the next run as i'm happy the way it is.
Round 3 and i'm off behind Kev this time so round the first right hander and caution around the corner that i've got stuck on three times now which allows Danny to close in, the next is a left onto a small table top jump which I slightly overshoot allowing Danny to close a little more. I decide to move wide on the next one and let Danny through as I feel i'm holding him up so I follow for 2 laps until Danny has an error over the jump by the rostrum and gets stuck. I'm through to chase Kev but he's a few corners ahead so the sensible thing is to make sure I don't crash and consolidate the grid spot. So the run ends clean and i'm 4 seconds off Kev at the finish and we both improve our times to go 1 and 2 on the grid with Danny in 3rd. Again no changes to the car as I feel it's perfect.
Onto the final and a good initial start and i've closed in a couple of feet on Kev going into the corner where i've made the errors, no problem this time and over the ripple section, getting a little sideways as I come off and lining up for the next corner which is a sharp left. Stupidly, I turn in slightly early and hang it up on the pipe where i'm stuck fast, Danny has no time to go round and gets caught up with me so we drop to 9 and 10
We are both off again and catch a couple of cars almost straight away, then a lap or two more and we are making out way through and up the order once more. I manage to get away from Danny and after another couple of laps i'm up to 4th and closing in on Jono, he moves a little wide (cheers mate) and i'm through to chase Matt Owen who has moved up to 2nd. Matt makes an error in the middle (that made me smile a lot
) and i'm through to second which, after the initial error, is a good achievement. Two more laps and I hear that Kev is 5 seconds up the road so with only 25 seconds on the clock it's unlikely that I can do anything about that unless he makes an error. Amazingly, that's exactly what he did, in the same place I did on the first lap
so I go past and into the lead, with only 15 seconds now remaining i'm staying off all the apexes to make sure there's no silly mistakes and I come home ahead of Kev and Jono takes third with his TM2. A great result for the car against 2 of the countries top drivers.
Anyone who hasn't already visited this superb venue should get up/down and have a go on a Tuesday night as this club is a real credit to all involved.