BTCC Round 9 Report - Wrexham - 31 / 08 / 07

The penultimate round of this years BTCC saw us heading to north wales and the Wrexham model car club. Since my last visit in 2004 (my worst ever meeting with a touring car by the way, I was awful) the track has been resurfaced as well as a few design tweaks like new kerbs, a slightly straighter straight and the addition of some banking to the left hander at the end of the back straight. It all looked very impressive as we arrived a little on the late side on Saturday, partly due to the traffic on the M6 and partly due to me being lazy and not setting the alarm early enough.

The Wrexham track

With this being the weekend of the KO GP at West London entries were slightly down but still good with around 40 cars in stock. The only front runner I noticed missing was probably Mike who fancied his chances at the KO, what on earth would I do without my setup advisor and spare parts department? ;-)

Some familiar faces coming off the rostrum - (thanks to www.telsshells.com)

Having finally gotten out on track for some practice on Saturday afternoon I found the track still challenging but not as painfully frustrating as it used to be with a nice mix of different corners to get right….or not as the case may be. After a few run the car was getting nicely dialled in as the roll centres, wheelbase and anti-roll bars were all adjusted and I ended the day very happy with the car, in fact I’m pretty sure it handled better than ever before, it was certainly more responsive that ever before!

Still, Adrian and Wayne were also looking quick, although it didn’t look like anybody would be matching the flying Lee Price who was scorching round the tight track with impossible speed and accuracy.

They practiced long into the night... (thanks to www.telsshells.com)

Sunday morning and although cold the skies looked clear as the drivers took to the track for some final practice. After a quick drivers briefing it was time to get qualifying underway with Mike B kicking things off in the ‘E’ qualifiers, Mike having finally gotten on top of the interference that’s been plaguing him for the last few meetings. No south west drivers in the ‘D’ or ‘C’ qualifiers but a whole load in the ‘B’ with Adrian, Wayne, Jamie and Sean doing battle. In a frantic qualifier Wayne initially led from Adrian until he was forced to retire with a slowing motor, Adrian then went into self destruct mode and had a few rolls that dropped him back before Sean took up the running and posted a strong time that would see him 7th at the end of round 1 with a huge grin to accompany it. Up in the dizzying heights of the ‘A’ qualifiers I found myself getting off to a fairly good start but the car had no speed whatsoever forcing me to retire a few laps in. It seems it had been caused by excessive oil in the motor, the same problem Wayne had suffered which is very odd….. maybe it was sabotage! ;-) lol

Where did those bodyclips go? (thanks to Luke Pepper)

Onto round 2 and with the problem fixed I celebrated by launching off the kerb at the end of the back straight and into the catch fencing. Oh dear, it’s going to be one of those days isn’t it… The rest of the run was pretty messy too to be honest, I was too busy trying to drive at the top guys pace instead of at my pace, still I was slightly relived to see that my time was somehow enough to put me 9th overall a couple of places behind Jamie.

Uh-oh! (thanks to www.telsshells.com)

Round 3 and with new tyres on I thought this was going to be a good run, the first few laps were certainly pretty good as I set my best lap of the weekend on a 17.25, it all went pear shaped when I came up behind Tristan Yeomans though, he went wide onto the straight to let me through and then he seemed to come over on the straight meaning we touched and were both out of it and on the grass. Irritated to say the least that was another qualifier over and surely I’d be bumped back to the ‘B’s but somehow that dodgy second qualifier was enough to keep me 9th overall at the end of qualifying. I suppose it must mean we’re improving if four meetings ago I couldn’t get in the ‘A’ with a perfect run and now I’m in with a shoddy run where I spend 4 seconds on my roof. Lining up 8th would be Tristan of all people while Jamie put in a 17 lapper in the last qualifier to nab 6th on the grid. Up front Lee Price was so far in front he was in a different postcode with championship rivals Twigger and Bobby the best of the rest of us.

Lee Price on his way to pole (thanks to Luke Pepper)

In the ‘B’ Finals we had Sean, Adrian and Wayne all doing battle while Mike B lined up in the ‘D’s. Paul Hopkins meanwhile had his best qualifying of the season in Super Stock to place 6th on the ‘A’ Final grid.

Terry Atkinson of Telsshells fame leads the 'C' - another great pic from www.telsshells.com

After a short break we were into the finals and I was soon lined up in my now customary 9th position at the end of the tight grid. As the buzzer sounded we shot off the line, well 9 of us did, Tristan’s car didn’t move and I just missed it as we left the grid and headed into the infield section for the first time. Through the chicane and I just tagged Phill so I waited for him to recover quickly and keep his place before we were onto the back straight for the first time. To be honest I’m struggling to remember much that went on in that race and I don’t have it on video so I havn’t got that to use as a reference. Dad had began videoing the final but had inadvertently caught his finger on the zoom button as the race started, with the camera on full zoom you couldn’t get the whole car in shot from the other end of the circuit so it was highly amusing listening to Dads voice on the video trying to work out what the ‘bloody stupid camera’ was doing ;-) All I can say looking at the results is I finished 7th :-)

The second leg of the ‘A’ Final and there was drama before the start even as Luke switched on Twiggers car only for it to go backwards! The car was whisked off back to the pits to re-solder the wires onto the motor but despite a hold on the start of the race it wasn’t ready in time and it looked like the championship was swinging towards Bobby.

Advantage Bobby... (thanks to Luke Pepper)

With the race underway I again had a dodgy first lap, this time me and Matthew Tuplin touched coming onto the back straight, just one of those things but it left me upside down on the grass again, thanks to Sean for a quick bit of marshalling and I was on my way again. The car seemed to be working well and I could see the midfield pack not too far away so I kept pushing hard, a few laps later and I was in for a shock as Gary and Bobby rejoined from the grass right in front of me, the pair of them just began edging away from me but soon I could close up again as we caught up another few cars fighting for position to make a six car scrap. It didn’t last long as 2 cars collided in front of me on the infield chicane but I managed to squeeze through a tiny gap and make up a couple places, unfortunately I seemed to lose a little pace after as Tristan and Phill got past but I made it back past Phill before the end of the race and kept in touch with Tristan although he beat me to 6th place meaning it was another 7th for me in this one for 7th overall. Needless to say the unstoppable Lee Price won with Jamie doing very well in 4th overall.

There was some great action in the ‘B’ Finals, I’m only sorry I couldn’t get to see more of it. The outcome of it all though was Adrian bringing home another trophy for second place while I believe Wayne and Sean came home 5th and 6th, or possible 6th and 7th (and if this is wrong blame Wayne as I’ve just asked him the results, lol)

In the Super Stock ‘A’ Final Paul H was in for a tough time and was shuffled back a few places from his qualifying position into 9th overall.

A quick update from the KO Grand Prix in West London at the end of Sunday qualifying saw Mike Doody qualifying in 6th place for the 27T ‘A’ Final. A very good result amongst some quality drivers. Mike went on to take two 4th’s and a 5th in the finals on Monday which rather unfortunately gave him 6th overall, still a top result though, congrats again mate :-)

Mike and the other 'A' Finalists at the KO

That’s another meeting over then, I think all I was missing was some punch out of the corners. I think that’s probably down to my cells being a little old now but Sean did raise a point earlier on msn about the new Spektrum system maybe not giving quite full throttle. I’ve just reset the speedo and gone through it all again and as much as it pains me to say it the car did sound more responsive when you jabbed the throttle. Optimism or blind faith? Who knows? I might try and get a couple sets of new cells for Ashby as well; I quite fancy my chances of a decent result there :-)

See ya next time,

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