BTCC Round 8 Report - Beautiful Bedworth - 09 / 08 / 07

Round 8 of this years BTCC and another new track to me in the form of Bedworth. Travelling up on Saturday morning we left Mikes at around 7:30am and arrived mid morning. After the normal setting up of tents / gazebos and all the other rubbish we seem to need to race toy cars it was time for a first look at the track. Maybe it was because we had Cotswolds fresh in our memories but the track seemed small and not that inviting but once we got the cars out and began practicing all those feelings were left behind and you could really enjoy flinging the car around the challenging track.

The twists and turns of Bedworth

At the end of the main straight you keep the throttle on and turn into a fast right hand sweeper which then tightens back on itself over a vicious bump ready to throw the unaware into the brick wall just a few feet from the racing line. Safely through that section and it’s a nice banked left hander onto the infield straight, on the brakes early for a left hairpin, then a right, short straight and hard on the anchors again before you chuck it through the chicane whilst being careful not to hit the kerbs. Accelerate out of the chicane and a large banked right hander leads you back onto the straight, got to take that one tight though as invariably your view of the edge of the track is being blocked by the chap stood next to you on the rostrum! ;-)

Beautiful weather

Not much interesting news on cars and developments except that Jason had swapped his Cyclone for an Mi3, going inline with Sean and Jamie…think he might have been regretting his decision by the end of the weekend but at this point he was full of optimism. Elsewhere Mike had tarted up his Cyclone by covering everything with stick on carbon fibre and attaching anything purple that fell out of his pit box ;-) He also had his Pro 4 built up as a wet car which explained the glorious weather. My car was pretty much as was except for a small few changes and a new shell having its last coat of paint when we arrived!

As Saturday wore on the temperature increased and the laptimes came down. Looking at the computer showed me as fastest stock some 3 seconds ahead of the rest at this stage……..what do you mean cut lap? Pah! Still, that aside the car was feeling really good, the only problem was the laptimes weren’t really that great, not the single best lap anyway but it was consistent over a run which was something. I took the sticks of Mikes car during the afternoon and found it to be fairly similar to mine (not surprising really, I’ve been steadily cloning it since Stafford) although just a little bit better through the slow corners. After having a think about it and looking at the car we made come more changes and the car was ready for raceday!

BUT we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, with everyone staying trackside on Saturday night it was the usual entertaining evening, even if I was still finishing the detail work on my new shell until it became too dark to see what I was doing! Dad and a few others meanwhile were making full use of the onsite bar…there were certainly a few hangovers being nursed on Sunday morning ;-)

Sunday morning practice was a bit of a disaster really with a couple big hits of interference sending me off track a few times and making a complete mess of the car which was now stuffed full of grass. Still, after a clean-up and the drivers briefing qualifying was underway and it was already getting seriously hot, hot enough that this could well be the fastest run of the day.

The big news at that stage though was that championship leader Bob West would be qualifying in the ‘C’ heat, this being as a result of him apparently booking into the meeting under the name ‘Bob Hest’ I believe things became a little heated and at one point Bobby was thrown out of the meeting but it was all sorted in the end and Bobby would qualify in the ‘A’ heat, albeit from the back.

As normal we were in the ‘B’ qualifiers, second off the grid behind Jamie while Wayne and Adrian were starting mid pack. From the off the car felt really good as me and Jamie pulled clear of the others, a quick slide by Jamie letting me through after a few laps before he rolled out of contention a few laps later. All this left me alone at the front to concentrate on putting a quick time in. I must confess to falling asleep a little bit mid race (must stop doing that) but it was still a good run for 18 laps in 312 seconds even with a couple worrying glitches of interference.

'A' stock qualifying heat ready to roll

Bobby stormed through the field in the ‘A’ qualifiers to take provisional pole at the end of round 1 with 18 laps in 302 seconds a couple places ahead of Mike in 4th with me grinning in 8th. Behind me and grinning in 9th was Jordan as he was well in with a shout of his first ‘A’ Final. I’m not too sure of the others results at this stage except that Jamie DNF’d and Wayne was somewhere near the tail end of the ‘B’s after a roll mid race.

Round 2 and with another set of new tyres on I thought this would be the time to put a good run in….but things don’t always work out like that do they? Coming upto the grid and shock horror, I notice my car has been sabotaged! There’s a huge postman pat sticker on the side! lol I’ll get you back for that Wayne ;-) The race went well enough as Pat clung on for grim death and I was on a clear track for 5 minutes, Jordan was second throughout but lost a second or two with a big slide near the start that cost him my beating me. As it turned out my run was a tenth or 2 slower than my first one, maybe we’d had the very best out of the track? Still, the positions were relatively unchanged, Mike was holding his now customary 4th place and me and Jordan were still occupying ‘A’ final slots, albeit now 9th and 10th and it’s fair to say we were both pretty on edge! Elsewhere Spanky was looking solid ‘B’ but Jamie and Wayne were in trouble with a pair of DNF’s on lap 1, a situation being mirrored by Jason over in superstock as he encountered problems with his new car.

Pat also said bollocks to Royal Mail and went on strike ;-)

Round 3 and Mike edged up a place to take 3rd overall while me and Jordan secured the last row of the ‘A’ final grid. I thought it was all over when I had to retire from this one with dreadful interference though, it was so bad I felt the need to go rescue the car before it took off across the track. Jordan meanwhile won the heat but just missed my time by a couple tenths, the main thing was we were both in there though! Well done mate, incredible result.

Not enjoying such good fortune was Jamie who suffered another DNF which would leave him 50th and bottom of the timesheets three places behind Mike Belcher who had put his interference problems behind him this week. Wayne didn’t go as fast as he’d have liked but still made the ‘B’ in 17th while Adrian put in a good final run to jump to 12th only a few seconds off the ‘A’. Sean just missed the ‘B’s and would start on pole in the ‘C’s with James Matthews having a good run to 7th on the grid in the same final

Paul H was just a tantalising second off the ‘A’s in 19T while Jason had yet to give his new car a finish resulting in 39th and last. Paul R would line up 4th in the Mod ‘B’ Final.

Stock 'A' waiting for the start....i'm back there somewhere!

Finals time then and it was nice to be up with the top guys again, I was just praying the interference was gone. Off the line and round the first lap and the field was very bunched but with everyone pretty much holding station. It all got very interesting soon enough though as I took one place as a white car went wide at the final corner before diving down the inside of Phill Nelson into turn 1 of lap 2 as he was slightly off pace having just tried an overtaking move of his own. Into the sweeper and I had a run on another car and managed to get down the inside of that one too as we turned right into the infield section. This was all going far too well! A lap later and Tristan Yeomans began to slow with what I believe were speedo problems so that was another easy position to take moving me into 5th place! 5th! Lol The rest of the race was pretty much a blur, I was cursing not putting new tyres on or adjusting the setup as I couldn’t quite get into the corners as fast as I’d like and three of the guys behind me (Richard Davis, Peter Austin and Phill Nelson) each waited in turn to have a crack at passing me. It all got very very close a few times and we had some fantastic nose to tail and side by side racing all without any contact so thanks very much to you guys, it must have been frustrating being stuck behind me. Still, by the end I had enough of a gap to cruise home 5th after they’d dropped back with a few slides and incidents trying to get through, what a result! :-)

Jordan came back from a first lap incident to nab 8th while up at the very sharp end Mike was ‘giving it 110%’ and took a great 3rd place just two seconds away from the race winner Andrew Twigger, could this be the first podium?

Wayne on his charge through the 'B' field

In the ‘B’s Adrian clung onto second despite having the very close attentions of Wayne for the final few laps after he’d blasted through from 7th on the grid. Sean converted his pole to a win in the ‘C’s with James holding station in 7th while Jamie made short work of getting to the front of the ‘E’ while Mike retired.

In 19T Jason won the ‘D’ while Paul H took 3rd in the ‘B’s. Paul R meanwhile came through for the win in the Mod ‘B’ final.

Top stock heat get ready to go again

The second leg of the finals then and for a brief while I thought another top result was on the cards as I made it into 6th in the early stages but I didn’t really quite have the pace as Dyson relegated me to 7th by driving past me at the end of the straight while Peter Austin eventually relegated me to 8th after we enjoyed swapping positions a couple times on the infield chicane, really good clean racing. I tried chasing these two but they just ever so slightly eased away, maybe new tyres would have done the trick but I’ve spent enough this weekend and was still delighted with 8th to add to my 5th place earlier and give me 7th overall. Jordan took a 9th place finish this time to finish 9th overall while up at the front Mike was finally taking home the silverware after a controlled drive to another 3rd place to give 3rd place overall, congrats mate!

Adrian took 3rd in leg 2 of the ‘B’ Final for 2nd place overall and another trophy while Wayne’s race ended in a cloud of smoke at the end of the main straight as his motor expired leaving him 9th in leg 2 and 5th overall when he was looking on for a podium. Sean won again in the ‘C’s while James was 8th overall after 9th in leg 2. Jamie again remained a blur to the other ‘E’ finalists as he won comfortably with Mike B 9th.

Jasons day was done before leg 2 of the 19T ‘D’ even started while Paul H enjoyed better fortunes to finish 2nd overall in the ‘B’s. Paul R added another win to his tally by leading home the Mod ‘B’ Final.

So with the racing over for the day it was time to head over to the prize giving where our winners would collect their trophies before the raffle took place. Jason won a pit towel and Jordan a motor case before the star prize came up for grabs…3 sets of tyres, not bad. The winner would be picked from the………”27T ‘B’ Final”……which had clearly grabbed Wayne’s attention who was stood next to me……..”Car number………7” Or Wayne as it turned out, you jammy sod ;-)

KO GP 2006

The championship table is beginning to look interesting as the drop scores begin to come into effect. We've climbed to 8th at the moment, just 1 point and 1 place behind Jamie (according to the table i've got at the moment anyway), that'll be the target for the next 2 meetings though although it'll be tough as Jamie is in a better position with his drop scores and we all know he's quick on his day....I'll give it a go though ;-)

It’s three weeks until the next meeting at Wrexham which I’m hopeful will be enough time to order my Spektrum equipment and get it sent off to Horizon to fit for me. With any luck that’ll cure the interference problems once and for all and as everyone knows if there’s one place to test for interference it’s Wrexham ;-) With the KO Grand Prix being held at West London on the same weekend I expect entries will be slightly down although I’m sure we’ll still have some strong competition. All that’s left to do is to wish Mike and any other south west drivers who are contesting the KO good luck and I’ll see the rest of you at Wrexham,

Thanks to 'mrt760' for letting me use his top photos this week, you can see all his photos here. I normally use Terrys photos from www.telsshells.com (and some of my own but my camera is bust at the moment, got a bit soaked at Donington Park the other week) but rather unusually the site hasn't been updated yet, check it out for yourself later though, always lots of good pics on there too :-)

Later :-)

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