Weather strikes at Barham! - 13 / 09 / 05

As I was awoken at 5:15am in a van, by a noisy alarm clock ready to travel the couple hour journey to Barham from Ipswich after travelling 5 hours previously the day before from home to Ipswich for Dads National Hot Rod World Qualifying Round 3 before grabbing a few hours precious sleep I had to wonder if this was really all worth it? Of course it is! Now let’s go racing!

After a journey that took longer than expected we eventually made it to the track at 8:20am, just early enough to catch booking in, throw the car on the track and get a couple laps practise in. Unfortunately the track was damp which made things more complex and after a few laps of learning which way the track went it was evident the car had way too much push so we decided to try some new tyres on the front, this certainly made a difference with the car having way too much front end grip so for the first qualifier we also put new tyres on the rear.

We had some unusual pit visitors at Barham!

Qualifying

The track was pretty much dry for this first qualifier but unfortunately the car didn’t seem very happy. I struggled round for the 5 minutes with the car spinning when you showed it a right hander and pushing like crazy when you reached a left hander. The result was last in heat, 13th overall and one very bemused driver.

A photo i've spliced together in quite dreadful quality to show you the marvelous Barham track - one of my favourites of the series, if only the weather had held back too!

As expected the car was horrendously tweaked, I have no idea how and why but it was so we set about sorting the set-up, gearing it up and refreshing the motor. Just as we finished the car and were getting optimistic about qualifying round 2 the heavens opened, and I mean really opened. The track was soaked and in effect it meant the round 1 times would be the final qualifying times which was a real blow for us after messing up that first round! We went out anyway in round 2 on the soaking track with our slick control tyre and I have to say the grip was incredible; we were only 5 seconds off championship leader Adrian Bidwell who was also out in round 2 for some wet weather practise. While this was pleasing it did nothing to help our qualifying position, neither did round 3 which was also still too wet for any improvements.

Finals

So the finals came around and we were 3rd on the grid for the ‘B’ Final, and I’ll admit I was still gutted, even more so when I found on the first lap that the car had transformed into shopping trolley mode ;-) Even the slightest bit of steering and the back end came flying past the front. I had no idea why it was handling so badly but I kept going anyway, half expecting a wheel to fall off or something but no, we finished the race back in 7th and on closer examination after the race it appeared that the rear suspension had seemingly just stopped working.

Look Look! A battery hen! ......oh come on, that's a good pun people!!! ;-)

The shocks which have been questionable from the start had lost most of their oil, which combined with the rear suspension which was refusing to drop under its own weight made the car very difficult to drive.

We worked on the problem before the second leg of the finals and made it better, far from how it should be but better. I got a good start to this one and got down the inside of Tony Spooner into turn 1 and set about chasing Andrew Keen who was also having a miserable day down in the ‘B’ Final (well, he’s had enough good day’s lately) As we came onto the straight to complete lap 1 Andrews car glitched and veered off onto the grass on the outside of the track. This left me in the lead but a fast looking Tony Fuggle was soon closing in on me and I let him go without too much of a fight as I was once again trying to work out the handling of the new car which is seemingly completely different every time I drive it – well, it all adds to the fun doesn’t it! ;) Fortunately the car was much better in this race, still not good but I was at least able to drive round consistently at a sensible if not lightning fast pace and get to the finish in 2nd place. With Tony Fuggle winning the first 2 legs he was now confirmed as 1st in the ‘B’ Final, going into the third leg I just had to get a decent result and claim 2nd overall.

I got another good start in the third leg of the finals and again got down the inside of Tony Spooner into turn 1 as there was a clash further back in the pack. Once again I set after Andrew Keen and was right behind him heading into the banked right hander which leads onto the straight. He seemed to slow in the corner and I was able to go around the outside of him and was edging past down the outside of the straight when his car again glitched which put me onto the grass down the straight.

We do look strange at an RC meeting ;-)

I just about kept it pointing in the right direction and just got it onto the track before the fast sweeper into turn 1 but I was too wide and with dirty tyres I was helpless as all the others came down the inside and relegated me to 10th. It took a few laps before I was able to catch up with the pack and start making progress but I was soon up to 8th and then 6th a few laps later and just as I was closing in on the 4th and 5th placed cars they touched and I snuck down the inside of both of them heading onto the straight. I was able to make a gap behind me in 4th and cruise to the end of the race in this position knowing it would still be enough to give me 2nd overall.

Ross discuss' set-up and race strategy,,,

So, quite an unlucky meeting for us but it just goes to show you need to put in the preparation and missing Saturday practise certainly cost us a much better result. If the day had stayed dry it would have given us time to iron out the car problems and still qualify well (as we did at the last round in Milton Keynes) but with the lack of practise and bad weather it really caused us problems. The result has also killed off any hopes we had of getting up to 8th place in the drivers championship with Mark Turner and Kevin Akehurst both making the ‘A’ at Barham, on the bright side though our current 10th position in the standings has been assured.

Poppy, our team cat for the day		Another view of the splendid Barham circuit

So there’s just one meeting remaining, Round 8 to be held at Ipswich on the 8th October. As of yet I’m uncertain if I’ll be doing this meeting. I had planned to but now it’s looking highly unlikely that I could improve my championship position and with the added fact that Dad has a National Hot Rod World Qualifier on the same day at Northampton which I would like to see leaves me wondering whether or not to race. I’ll have to come to a decision soon, whatever happens though it’s been a fantastic championship, great tracks, friendly people, close competitive racing and we’ve managed to finish in the top 10 and I think I’ve managed to improve a little over the season, I’m looking forward to STCC 2006 already! :-)

Click here to return to News Archive