Xray, TC3, Xray, TC3....I don't know! - 06 / 03 / 06

Torquay again this week and I’d vowed to give to give the Xray another go after rebuilding the diffs in midweek. I’d set them very loose for first practice just to give them a chance to run in, the car however was still fairly good which was a nice surprise.

It was all downhill from here though as the car was once again awful and unpredictable as I set the diffs somewhat tighter and gradually made the car worse throughout practice. Jason quick to point out I was using the wrong car! ;-) The first qualifier was a disaster, the car had reverted into full on shopping trolley mode and I couldn’t take a right hander without the back of the car snapping sideways out of control. Right - Jason has one idea what to do with the problematic Xray ;-)

The only option was retirement as I really couldn’t control the car. After dropping it into scrutineering I took a stroll over to see Jason who had been marshalling the heat:

Ross – Go on then, say it…

Jason – You really want me to say it?

Ross – You know you want to so just say it…

Jason – Okay, that car’s shit.

Ross – You had to say it. Oh well, TC3 for round 2…

So, having had enough of it for another week I ripped the electrics out to put in the TC3 for the second qualifier. It was quite a rush but I was just about ready for the second qualifier and things were going okay and the car seemed to be hanging together alright until about 3 minutes in when it suddenly developed a case of Xrayitus and spun every time you asked it to take a right hander. The result was a huge amount of time lost to give me a slow 18 lapper and only 10th overall after round 2. I was relieved however to see the left rear tyre hanging off the rim at the end of the race, for a minute there I thought I’d lost the plot completely!

Wayne's Tamiya, not often featured in these pages as it means me having to walk to the other end of the hall to his pit to take pictures ;-) Going well this week though to make the 'A' amongst some pretty tough competition.

Going into the final qualifier then and the pressure was on, I knew I had to drive fairly quickly to get upto a realistic target of fourth place ahead of a whole tight gaggle of cars separated by only a few seconds, but I also couldn’t afford to go too fast and risk crashing or it would be the ‘B’ final for me! Starting at the back I was able to leave a bit of a gap and have a nice steady race with no interruptions, running second on the clocks for most of the race I was able to take the lead nearer the end when Malc collected a barrier, I put in a few faster laps to make sure I stayed in front of Malc and fortunately it was just enough, 19 laps in 314.56 seconds to take fourth ahead of Lee Bennets on 19:314.69, Malc and Adrian both on an identical time of 19 laps in 315.05 seconds. Wayne was just over a second back on 19:316.32, pipping Sean to the last ‘A’ final spot by a mere 2 tenths of a second. Quite possibly the tightest qualifying I’ve ever seen at a local meeting. Up at the sharp end of the grid Russ took pole from Mike who had incredible single lap pace with Rod taking third.

The opening laps of the final were incredibly close as I tried to get past Rod on the first few turns with the rest also vying for position. A few laps in and Rod got caught up for a moment on a barrier which let me through into third although I could only hold him off for a few laps until he was through, his car having incredible straight line speed, the way it was going at the end of the straight you’d have thought he had a super stock motor in there! As Rod came through I was caught off line by Malc who managed to go through, but not before we’d done several corners and the straight side by side with a little bit of leaning, awesome! So, now down to 5th I was determined to move back up the order and managed to sneak back past Malc on the next lap in the tight infield section. Rod threw it into the barriers one more time to promote me and Malc to third and fourth but he was soon past Malc and upto fourth before catching me with his missile like Corally.

		This time I let him by as I was experiencing some pretty dodgy interference, especially at the end of the straights where it was making the entries into the fast right handers increasingly dodgy! With Russ retiring with motor problems Mike took the win from Rod, myself and Adrian, Lee showing up as fourth on the results but a nine second lap during the middle of the race was a bit of a give away to a cut lap somewhere ;-) 5th and 6th home were Malc and Wayne with Lee 7th and Russ 8th.
Jason makes his point as the TC3 came back from scrutineering... ;-)

At the end of the days racing everyone took a drive upto the clubs outdoor track in Kerswell to see how much damage had been sustained during the winter break. I think we were all fairly surprised to see several bloody great trees had come down across the rostrum! Once they’ve been cut up and moved the rest isn’t in bad shape, the obvious build up of leaves and junk on the track needs a good brushing as do the paths but other than that it all looks pretty good. Club members will be carrying out the work this Saturday March 11th (not me, I’ll be trundling up the motorway on Saturday, sorry!) before the outdoor season starts on April 9th, hasn’t that come round quick!?!

South West Series action heads to St.Austell next week, I should be there but it depends what dreadful time on Sunday morning we get back from Birmingham. Of course if I don't win at St.Austell (and let's be honest, i've got more chance of winning the lottery) it will be over a year without an 'A' Final win, March 13th 2005! A year! I think you should all just let me win next week, can't go over a year without a win ;-)

See you there!

Click here to return to News Archive