Quiet day at TRAK Round 4 - 04 / 12 / 06

It was a quiet day at TRAK Indoor Round 4 as eight of our touring car regulars were competing at the fourth round of the carpet nationals at Chippenham. (Yes I know I said there would be no more clashing dates after last time but I was wrong! ;-) Anyway, I’ll say it again, there are no more clashing dates this season……and I’m right this time! Lol)

So, once the track was up and everyone booked in we were underway with Dad already bemoaning the lack of toasties, fortunately Mike wheeled out the box full of drinks and chocolate to save the day! ;-)

The evil computer that had us scratching our heads all day. Jason....you're a legend and we missed you! (Oh, and that's a bad photo....the clubs laptop isn't really blurry ;-)

There would be only 6 cars in stock this week (as well as similar numbers in Open and 1/12th) , myself, Wayne, Mike (Belcher, not Doody, just to avoid some confusion there) Chris, Les and James. In a heat containing such a wide ability spread it could have been carnage but everyone drove extremely well and I think we all had a good days racing. Wayne was showing impressive speed with his Cyclone but had a few problems with lapping and ‘that damm chicane’ which left me clear to take pole ahead of him, Les (who was going very well) and then James, Chris and Mike.

I decided to use my Alfa shell this week...although not quite as shiny as in this old picture it still worked okay :-)

I must say I drove Shaggys car (I should start referring to him as either ‘Wayne’ or ‘Shaggy’, I’ve probably been confusing the crap out of you readers by keep switching between the two ;-) ) and I found it pretty tricky. A very loose back end but if you get your lines right and keep the back end in check it’s very fast as Shaggy has been demonstrating recently…of course I wasn’t doing either of these things, I was fish tailing wildly between corners with a worried look on my face but there we go ;-)

Finals next then and I got a good first lap in and stretched a little gap at the front which I could just about maintain for a few minutes until Shaggy had a few problems and dropped back, although he would still take second ahead of Les. My only scary moment came when a suicidal marshal, having just marshalled someone else, turned and ran back to their marshal post without looking. I didn’t see him until the last moment and megged him, not much time lost but certainly an interesting little moment!

The next meeting (and last meeting of 2006 infact) is in two weeks, December 17th, and it should be a good one with our national racers back.

Oh, and if you havn’t already seen it go check out the new forum, it’s ace!

P.S - And no you havn't got a monitor problem....the snow is back! :-)

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