New car finally makes its debut with 2nd at Kerswell! - 07 / 08 / 05

After much delay yesterday finally saw the debut of our new Xray FK05 at the local track in Kerswell. Arriving late, without any pinions or spares and missing practise probably wasn’t the best start to the day but fortunately we borrowed a pinion from Adam and got the car prepped for race 1.

With a ball diff currently on order from Microtech Racing we had to make do with a solid front axle for the day which I’ve never used before. We’d also decided to run on a set of old SSB’s which we normally use at national events. Although not quite as grippy as the tyres most people use at Kerswell they’re a good consistent tyre and I know how they perform so it would be good for evaluating the new car.

TRAK's Kerswell venue is looking good...

Into heat 1 then and we were starting off the back which was good as I could do a few more gentle laps to figure out what the car was like before gradually building up the pace and moving up the order. I was obviously getting faster and faster throughout the race and was lapping pretty quickly by the end of race 1. Fast enough to climb upto 4th place out of the 7 cars in our heat and begin to understand what needed changing on the car to make it faster.

The first thing that needed doing was to reattach the front shock which had had come undone during the race and finally let go of the front shock tower while I was altering the max steering lock afterwards – it’s always the little things that make the difference ;-) Other changes we made were to add a bit more rear droop to stop it lifting it’s inside rear wheel under heavy cornering and to stiffen up the front damping.

Ross' car on that lovely new tarmac

All this made the car much better in the second heat and we went much faster to finish 2nd with 23 laps in 312 seconds. We decided not to make any major changes for the third and final qualifier as I just really needed time to get used to the car and in particular the solid axle which required a very different driving style. Unfortunately I messed up the last qualifier inside the first minute when I put myself into the barriers trying to pass Sean and dropped to 5th behind Adrian, Sean, Jason and John. While Adrian had again cleared off into the distance the fight for second was very close and to be honest I just dropped back and followed for a while as there was no way or point in trying to pass them all. Coming towards the end of the race though and Jason crashed out moving me to fourth, I then decided to push and caught John and after a few laps got past when he went wide at the hairpin. The run was however slower than my second qualifier so I’d start the final from 3rd on the grid, behind Adrian and Sean and in front of Jason, John and the rest.

It was even Sunny!		Whats that Sean? You say you meant to let me past on the last lap? ;-)

It was before the finals that we had a closer look at the car and found it was literally falling to pieces so after checking and tightening everything we went out for the first final. Off the grid and into the first corner Jason overtook me as I looked for a way round Sean but unfortunately I tapped Jasons car during the next turn. I lifted and let him back in front of me only for him and John to get tangled up a few corners later which let me back through into third trying to close down on Sean in 2nd who now had a good gap. The race went very well and I could see the gap coming down all through the race, with 1 minute to go I was nearly with him but then had to move over and let the very fast Adrian through to lap me. Coming up to start the final lap I had a quick roll which dropped me a few feet further behind Sean and looked to have given him the position only for him to make a similar error 2 corners later! Thanks very much Sean! ;) So the final result was Adrian, myself, Sean and the others.

Onto the second final and this went much more to plan. Into second place on the first lap and that’s where we stayed for the whole race. Much to my amusement the car was really squealing it’s tyres through the fast section in front of race control and I was still getting more used to it during each race. During the last five laps or so I even seemed to get the hang of the very tricky hairpin leading onto the main straight – and I’ve always been particularly rubbish at that!

Adrian Webb is not smug - official! ;-)

Needless to say Adrian won the final which i'm told is his 7th or 8th win in a row which is incredibly impressive! Well done mate! Meanwhile we were pretty pleased with the pace of the new car and the only damage is a slightly scuffed chassis and two broken plastic clips that cushion the drive pin against the outdrive, but we’ve got some of these now thanks to Sean and his spares box ;) The next big change we want to try on the car is a normal diff and it looks like we’ll be using the Xray at the next national meeting which is STCC Round 7 to be held at Barham on the 11th September.

Before that though we have a far more important event next week at Kerswell, standard 540 racing! Yes you read that correctly, at the start of the meeting each driver will receive a completely standard handout 540 motor which they must use all day and cannot alter in any way. This should make for some extremely slow but funny racing. Ironically the event has captured everyone’s imagination and the entry list is full of great drivers so we’re really looking forward to that.
		Pictured - 540. Not pictured - Book i'm taking to read on the straight ;-)

In particular I can’t wait for Adams reaction after moving from a screaming 7 double to a standard 540, he’s in for a shock!

See you there!

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