Second at Torquay - 20 / 02 / 06
It was back to Torquay this week and a new track layout awaited
us. Things not going well in practice though as car and driver both struggled
to get to grips with the track…despite several changes throughout the
day we never would either! Quite a poor turnout in all classes too, around 10-12
stocks, a couple in the open class and only two 1/12ths as the date clashed
with one of their national meetings, it’s fair to saw Adam Jewell versus
James Matthews wasn’t the closest match up possible ;-)
It's the same carpet as ever, so why can't i
get round this track! ;-)
Qualifying
From near the rear of the grid in round 1 of qualifying I was
able to pass Adrian, Sean and Wayne and get upto 2nd but I parked my car neatly
into the barriers twice several laps later and dropped right to the back again
before recovering to third by the finish.
Some camber adjustments for
round 2 helped a little but I was still really struggling with the track,
in hindsight the diffs were probably a little on the tight side for such
a flowing layout, hindsight is such a wonderful thing! ;-) I had been
staying within a second of Mike for the last few minutes of the round
which would have been enough to beat him on the clock as he started the
race one second ahead of me, the cheeky sod somehow managed to pull his
fastest lap out on the last lap though and just edge the gap out to over
a second to take second on the grid behind Justin with me in third.
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Mikes Pontiac shelled Pro 4 and my Mazda shelled TC3
pose for the camera |
This is how the order remained after the third and final round
with Adrian, Wayne and Sean completing the ‘A’ Final. Paul, Mark
and the rest missing out this time.
Final
Onto the final then and the adjustments made to give the car
more steering backfired quite spectacularly and resulted in the car taking on
the handling characteristics of a barge. If it had been a drag race I’d
have been sorted ;-)
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Running third in the early stages
I dropped back from Justin and Mike with my customarily slow first few
laps (I must stop doing that!) I was soon upto second though as Mike clipped
a barrier and dropped back although I too caught a barrier and dropped
back on the next turn! All this meant Justin had disappeared into the
distance while I was in third behind Adrian who had been making massive
improvements during the day. After tailing him for a few laps I could
get by as he rolled coming onto the straight to retake second place which
is where I stayed till the end of the race. Adrian finished closely behind
me after we’d had a good close race, fourth and fifth came Wayne
and Mike (although I’m not entirely sure which way round) and Sean
rounded it out with the Tamiya.
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| Plenty of blue on Seans new
Tamiya 415 Evo MSX World Championship thingy ;-) |
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The south west series comes to Torquay
next week and I’m going to try and get the Xray going for that one, I’m
sure it will suit the flowing track better than the TC3, see you then! :-)
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