Now we’re moving! - 07 / 02 / 06
After 3 or 4 months of problems with cars, dodgy cells, set-up
and driver errors things are finally coming good! The Xray continues in its
role as ‘ornament’ on the pit table while racing duties were left
to the worn out but still quick TC3. From practice the car felt good with the
addition of a front anti-roll bar, it must have been good, even Sean liked it!
;-)
Into heat 1 and Justin sped off into the lead, leaving me and
Malcolm to squabble over second.
The place eventually going
Malcolm’s way as I stuffed my car into a barrier exploring the limits
on the twistier section (drivers note – found it!) Still, third
after the third round wasn’t too bad. Determined not to be left
behind throughout the day as others improved I altered the rear diff for
heat 2 (a tad tighter) but it caught me out during the first minute and
I dropped back to 5th behind Paul and Mark. I gave myself a good talking
to and overtook Paul and then past Mark in turn 1, Malcolm had escaped
by now though so going into the final qualifier it was still Justin from
Malc, me, Paul’s, Wayne and the rest.
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My poor old Mazda shell is starting to show the signs
of 12 months hard racing... |
Getting the diffs right for the final qualifier allowed me to
overtake Malc early in the heat and very gradually open up a safe gap to take
second on the grid behind Justin with 19 laps in 310 seconds. Paul Rose and
Paul Bond would line up 4th and 5th ahead of Wayne bringing up the rear of the
‘A’ Final.
Final
I continued my recent streak of truly crap starts as the buzzer
sounded but fortunately still managed to hang onto second as we rounded the
first few turns.
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Over the first couple laps Justin
was able to pull a little bit of a lead as me, Malc and Paul raced for
second. Paul was first to drop back and a little blip from Malc made my
second place more secure and I was able to get Justin well within my sights
until my car got right up on two wheels as I turned into one of the tight
left handers. I managed to land the car with a quick dab of right hand
lock and keep second but Justin was away. The rest of the race went by
in a blur, absolutely on the limit and occasionally slightly beyond it
as we diced with the barriers on a track layout everyone seems to really
like.
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...so it's just as well work is underway on my new Stratus
shell, just need some paint now! |
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Get off line for one corner though and you’ll spend the
next 4 or 5 corners losing even more time as you try and get back into the groove,
a point which became very apparent as we raced closely. A slap of the barrier
by Justin (yay – he’s human!) let us close up again slightly but
he had the situation well in hand. At four minutes I had a huge slide at the
very fast and unforgiving right left switch and only just kept it out of the
barriers, as Malc had fallen back a little by this point I decided it would
probably be a good idea to back off a little and take the points for second!
So, another good result and a very enjoyable final, if I can
keep up these results for the rest of the series I might be able to at least
salvage second in the championship which although isn’t what I was looking
for at the start of the series would still be something after the dreadful first
few meetings!
The tight turns of Plymouth await us next week; at least I won’t
have to worry about grip roll on their carpet ?
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