Thursday/Friday Testing
Duncan and I arrived at around 2am after a pretty long drive across the centre of the country. we simply crashed out until the following day. Arriving at night meant we missed all the scenery and the circuit is located in an area of outstanding beauty I guess we saw it at its best over the weekend. And I’m so pleased that the club got great weather for it’s inaugural meeting at the massively remodelled track. I expect it’ll be a firm favorite on the calendar for years. It certainly will be with me. 
Fridays test got under way after Duncan and I had walked the circuit early in the morning. the best way to describe it is like Cadwell, but with better run off and better scenery and wider tarmac. Like Cadwell it also features a split between a blindingly fast section and a slower technical section. You need to be committed in both.. but in quite different ways. The Tarmac is slippy in places and the corners represent many different challenges.
So as I was bedding new F+R brakes with new compounds, and learning the track we didn’t time the first session. The compounds required a tweak to the break balance and I spent most of the session sorting this stuff out. It didn’t stop me having one rear lock up induced spin where I ended up facing the wrong way down the hill at Rocket 1 with two cars bearing down on me. So I sat still and let them do what they needed to do to miss me and then got back on it. Duncan wasn’t timing me but guessed at mid 1:25s ish. The car was still very predictable in handling and I was provoking lift off over steer to get me around some of the corners particularly Rocket 2 which I just couldn’t find the right line for. Rocket 2 and the entry to Peel proved to be my “Problem” corners all weekend.
In the next session with confidence growing and the car moving around nicely under me I start driving my times down. the car is a bit tail happy but controllable and my times come down to 1:23,1:22,1:21,1:21, 1:20 . As my familiarity with the circuit grows I’m simply getting faster and faster. The nose is very pointy and I’m getting good grip everywhere except the entry to Peel and the S/F straight which everyone universally agrees are very slippy. I abandon my confidence dab on the brakes for Church and start taking it with smaller and smaller lifts and experimenting with flat in 4th and snatch 5th on exit or short shifting to see which works best, Apex speed is of the order of 104mph and I actually think it could be taken flat if only I had the balls.
Its an absolutely lovely circuit to drive and I’m having such fun… big grin-tastic fun all the time. In this session my benchmarks competitors do a 1:18.2 (Tim) and a 1:19.2 (Neil Constable – Berry). The front running boys are in the high 15s low 16s Championship leader Derek Jones is likely to post in 1:13-1:14s
We let some of the air out of the tyres to and I go out again fully resolved to get into the teens this time.
13 laps later I come in. I’m confident I’ve got in the teens, and learned the circuit…. the tyres are going away a bit and I decide not to risk the car any more until race day, plus after the previous late night the mind fade is kicking in too. I’ve achieved my objectives, namely learned the circuit, and gone waaaay faster. My speed is evidenced by the people I’m barging past (formerly my peers at the back of the pack) and the few people who are coming past me… normally the top 10 drivers…. ooh this could be good.
Well, Duncan can hardly contain himself……”Your slowest lap was a 1:22″ and your fastest was 1:18.4 WHooooooo Hoooo! Damn that feels good .
Top Top fun…. best day in a race car for a very long time well since Brands in fact . And I had one or two moments flat out through Church where I was indeed “whooo Hoooing” in my helmet through the sheer exhilaration of it.
Saturday Dawns bright sunny and Dry and I’m confident I can go even better. We heed Derek’s advice and drop the tyre pressures down to 17psi to combat the heat and head out to practice. I’m pushing harder and harder and have a big sideways moment on the entry to the start finish straight, which I collect really well while keeping my foot hard in and then pass Duncan on the Gantry giving me the quit signal. it takes me until the hairpin to decide if he is telling me to stop sliding it or if I should come in. I opt for come in and it appears the front splitter is hanging down and wearing on the track after an ill judged exit that had me straddling the curbs of The Banking earlier in the session. So we have to abandon the rest of practice
As a result my best time was a 19.9 and puts me 26th of 30 on the grid…. not the result I was hoping for and a bit out of position relative to my testing times Derek Jones Posts 1:13.4 having never seen the track before practice! the man is simply a genius.
Still we fix the splitter and then discuss the handling… what was fun yesterday is now costing me time so I want to dial out some of the oversteer without sacrificing the good front end grip. We decide on a slightly stiffer front ARB and 1 click off the rear dampers.
And we’re now ready for the best race I’ve driven so far.
2 slots up the grid is Stephen Dean the next class B car and and 9 slots further up is Neil CB also class B and 3rd in class B. These guys are my targets.
The race kicks off and I’m a bit circumspect for the first couple of laps until the heat comes up in the tyres. I’ve lost no plac
Stephen and I are now fighting for 4th in class B for a few laps. Well, I reel him in over two or three laps. My extra speed through Church and better braking at Rocket are really starting to tell and eventually I get a stronger run out of Church, Keep close along the back straight, out brake him on the out side, go round the outside of him at Rocket 1, steal the Apex for Rocket2 forcing him to run wide and complete the pass on the exit curbs by squeezing him gently. That’s me in class B 4th and we’re about 10 minutes In.
The Next guy up the road is Matt Green, but he’s some way off and I’m having a tough time keeping neat and tidy without the focus of another car plus I’m bloody tired after yesterday, the heat and the late drive over. I’m a bit mind faded for a few laps and lose some of my smoothness. I’m in the wrong gear here and there… nothing major just not “on it” like I was. I lose a few seconds to the next group.
On lap 12 Derek comes by in the lead, and I regain my focus…. breath through the tiredness and get back in the game. I breeze past a few back markers and then a yellow Fury comes into sight. That’s Neil CB! The gap is about 10 seconds and I now spend the next few laps pulling him all the time wondering if I’ve got enough race time left to get on terms with him. The lap times show I’m taking nearly two seconds a lop out of him and within 5 laps I’m right up behind him. My extra speed through Church and under braking at Rocket making all the difference again and Neil did later tell me that he had a long brake pedal so that helped too. On the last lap but two I’m climbing all over him, hes totally defensive and runs wide at the exit from the Corkscrew and I’ve got the line for the pass into the SF straight. As I’m completing the pass I get blue flagged and lapped by Tim Gray and John Cutmore. But having fought so hard for the place I’m not about to give it up by jumping out of the way so John gets 1 cars width at the Apex to turn 1 by and that’s it.
1 more lap and then the last lap board comes out. During these final two laps I’m broadly keeping pace with JC and he came over later to congratulate me on my performance which I thought was very nice of him. Then its the last lap. I’m being a little circumspect which allows Neil to take about half a second out of me. But I concentrate on hitting the brake, turn and apex points and know that If I do that right then he can’t get past.
Then it’s the chequered flag and I’ve done it. I’ve closed down and fought in live racing for a class podium and beat a guy who three races ago was much much faster than me. And he has a lighter car with the same power. What a feeling!
Afterwards there was more to come. I get complimented on my speed by various members of the paddock. Neil Palmer comes to tell me that he was very impressed because once past I just disappeared into the distance. Best race lap 1:17.35 , just 6th hundreths off Tim Hs time and best theoretical according to the DL1 1:16:35 WOW! That prompted a “Bloody Hell Adrian” from Tim and would have put me on class B pole had I done it in practice.
Icing on the cake… I won a free set of tyres in the post race drawer
Sunday wasn’t so good but I don’t care. Flushed with success I span early in the Allcomers practice because I stupidly hadn’t allowed the tyres to warm up while chasing Radicals DOoh! I still Qualified 6th on the Grid though directly behind Tim in a 1:18.5. My plan was to try and stay with Tim in the early laps and then battle with him later
In the race I span out of 6th place at Peel on lap 1 due to not allowing for cold tyres, and over driving and not being used to running at that pace in a pack of front running cars.
SO I left Anglesey with a much improved reputation, it seemed every body I met commented positively on my improvement (setting aside the overdriving thing as that is one reputation I will not reinforce)
A second class B podium although sadly no pot.
A race where Tim H didn’t lap me in 28 minutes of running, in fact I was only lapped by the top 4
A new set of race tyres
Much higher confidence in the car. The biggest grin and worst case of Sunburn I’ve had in ages.
In fact everybody in our corner of the paddock left with something…
If I remember correctly
Colin Chapman 2nd in Class C Richly deserved after a weekend of intensive spannering
Neil 3rd in Class B (race 2)
Me 3rd in Class B (race 1)
Tim 3rd in All Comers
Paul 2 x 1st in Class B. Obviously!
Derek 2 x 1st in Class A, 2 x Out right wins and Lap Records…. again obviously
Top Top weekend … roll on Brands
My challenge now is to go to Brands and use my new found speed rather than drive it in the slow safe way that I’ve taught myself to do previously. AND get better at running at high speed in a gaggle of cars.