Clanfield Summer Series Round 3

Sunday 22 May 2011

Clanfield Summer Series Round 3

P.S. Please ignore the poor grammar and spelling :) All Pics courtesy of Adam Bailey

It started off a overcast and very windy day-Watery eyes springs to mind! with a great turnout of 49 people it was going to be a great meeting. And with some of the Durango Team out-Kev B, Elliot B, Callum N 

it was going to be a fast paced day for sure.  

I decided to pop out for a few laps of practice, only to realise I had a cracked rim. So I decided to switch tyres and go out for a few laps to make sure car is working fine, and clutch shoes were bedded in.

They say hug the apex-What's wrong with that??

There was 5 heats overall, 1 truggy and 4 buggy heats. I was off in heat 5 with some of the faster driver's which is always good news. For round 1 I came in 6th with a fairly slow avg for the pace of the track and found my tyre choice to make the car far to edgy for me. So I was having to hold back on some of the faster sections on the track. 

Round 2 I decided to slap on a set of SS AKA Impact's which I had left over from Neo. With a solid run I came in 3rd just behind Elliot Boots and Kevin Brunsden which I was happy about. 

Round 3 I kept the car the same and went out again, knowing the car felt good and just pushed it that little bit harder, having a almost near perfect run. Letting Boot's through and following him till the end missing out on a 9 lapper by 1.43!!! And coming in 2nd behind Elliot

Round 4 I was keen to try and get this 9 lapper that only Boots and Kevin had gotten, keeping the car the same again. With another solid run, I brought the car in 2nd place again behind Elliot. 

Next up was the finals with the final being 30 minutes. It was a tough call on what tyres to run, It was between a set of used Ibeams or Used set of Impacts-which had done a  total of  6 runs. I decided to stick whith what I know that worked and left on the Impacts. So starting off 2nd in the A was a great result for me with the stiff competition. I was still running a half a gallon one Rebuilt speed, so it was a bit of a gamble on runtime. So I decided to got for 7:30-8 mins just to be safe, Getting a good start I kept in 2nd place just behind Elliot and trying to keep up with his blistering pace. Which I always find nice to follow, as we both started to pull a bit of a lead with Kevin chasing down fast.
 I then kepts into 2nd place for most of the 1st few minutes, and then kevin overtaking me. Then shortly after me taking the place back, I was then in 2nd with Elliot pulling out more and more of a lead. 1st pit stops come and I come into the pits. With a fast stop from Tony RC and Dave I was back out again, and back into 2nd place and I was trying to keep it on all 4's and trying to get a buffer from 3rd place kev b. 2nd round of pit stops I cam in and pitting then only to have a flame out 4 corners after the pit lane! -Must have been so low on fuel, It pulled in some air and new plug had been fitted before the final.

So I went from 2nd back down into 5th place!.
 I was very frustrated and had to really push hard to crawl back into the top 3 by lap 28 I was into 4th place but then I was back into 5th by 31 then was still in 5th for a few more laps. By lap 37 I was back into 4th place and on a mission to take 3rd place from Grant F and chasing him down fast it was a battle that would turn into a good fight. Lap 40 I was just behind Grant and closing in fast when we both came upto a back marker on the straight with 3 abreast it was going to end badly and unfortunately for Grant he was clipped and dropped back from myself and had to get past the back marker to then start the chase on me. Luckily I had a lap or so to the end, which was good but a small error from me cost Grant to gain distance and accidentally clipped me just before the double's. Which-I didn't realise Until he said after, and then drove as fast as I could and nipped him to 3rd place with him 4 seconds behind me. 

Was a great race overall, and Elliot had some bad luck with a rear diff going on him few laps from the end then that meant kev B snapped up the win with Elliot coming in 2nd and myself in 3rd. A fantastic race overall, and some great driving by everyone.. solid result for Mark Byrne coming in a respectable 5th with his very new agama, and tough luck for Jon Wolfe with his fuel line splitting! and Les Taylor, who seemed he could have done a fair bit better after his great qualifying. 

Overall results:

1 Kevin Brunsden

2 Elliot Boots

3 James Kerr

4 Grant Fribbens

5 Mark Byrne

6 Callum Niblett

7 Bryan Burrows

8 Wesley Robinson

9 Les Taylor

10 Francois Nerriere

11 Jon Wolfe

12 Rob Rasey

13 Chris Slevin

14 Neal Beagley

15 Marc Jacka

My setup sheet:
Tyres were Impact not City Block.

BIG BIG thanks too:

Clanfield Committee for a great meeting

Specially Chris, Grant and Nora

And to everyone else who made it a great meeting

And support from

Nemoracing

M-K Racing

RCDisco

Kifopaint

RC Sure-Start

Clanfield Summer Series Round 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3712In4Ec

I decided to take a slight detour on my way back home, from southampton past the track on thursday afternoon. And upon arrival I was shocked at how well the track looks, as I had not been down there for a while it was nice to see the track in great condition.

I decided to spend a hour tidying a few bits up and for some reason decided to carry on the Neo feeling and sweep the whole track-Dont ask me why!

But boy did it look good after it! so I then swept the track and did a quick track walk just to show people the condition. And then had in mind what I wanted to change on my setup since the last time I was down.

Clanfield Summer Series Rnd 2

8th of may I arrived at the track with a hope the track was ok and that the rain would pass by. And not surprisingly the track was very dry considering the rain the night before.

I'm not going to lie after racing at Neo-It has helped a lot of aspects of my racing. The main point, is mental preparation and making sure your car is prepared. But importantly the mental side which takes time to nail. But to be good at any sport you need to have a strong head, to be able to perform well and have the right mental attitude when racing.

Right back to the interesting stuff...

I went out for practice to get back into it after a week's break after Neo and just to make sure my car was ok. And felt very good, it was starting to pick up some muck. So I only did a few laps, and noticed my RX was trying to glitch on me.

Qualifying went ok for me, Mixed struggling with glitching in Q1+Q2 So I decided to rebind. And thankfully seemed to solve the issue. And the other 2 rounds went ok coming in 3rd and 4th I think. And then putting me 7th in the A.

Which is ok but I should have done a lot better tbh Top 3 for sure, but sometimes it just does not happen.

A Final

I decided to stick with doing 8 mins 30 which I can do very easily, I go a good start overtaking a few people into turn 1. Which I seem to be able to make solid starts most times. And luckily avoiding the usual 1st corner (MUST WIN) that some driver's get. Makes no sense to me specially in a 30 minute final!

Anyway I was lucky enough to slip past it all and think get into 3rd then take 2nd spot after turn 3 and then it was time to hunt down Jon Wolfe, who already had a scary lead.

So decided to keep it fast, but keep it on all 4's and we both started to pull away from the pack. And suddenly on lap 12 my car ran out of fuel! Which was very strange, so that cost me a 2 minute lap. So I went from P2 down to P8! great, so I needed to really push hard to work my way back through the field and did just that putting in 5 laps 38's 1 37 and 1 39 then the rest were 38's. I started to then work my way back through the field by lap 25 I was back up into 6th and slowly hunted them back down. With about 3 minutes to go, I was in 4th and could here Chris on the mic, calling out my lap time's and new fastest laps and so on. I was determined to take that 3rd spot, getting within about 4 seconds of 3rd spot. Then disaster struck, and my car ran out of fuel at about 6:30 mins! think on lap 43 just after putting in the fastest lap time of 36.88.

I then came in 5th place after being overtaken by 4th place, It was very gutting to have issues-that is very odd. I think there could be a crack or something in my tank and a tad rich bottom end. Either way I will find out the issue, but was a great shame as It has to be my best race so far in terms of flat out pace and consistency. My avg was down to 42 but should have been lower if that 2 min lap was not there. Either way was a cracking race, and great driving by all driver's and letting faster cars through and so on. Unfortunately for Jon, his fuel line split on lap 30 which cost have massively coming in 7th. 

Great to see all the Agama driver's Jon, Ben, Mark and myself were on pace. Unfortunately for Ben, a unfortunate tyre choice and first time with a new car and new engine. He was leading the B final by a long way and driving great, but unfortunately engine block came loose costing him. And Mark B who was doing well all day, and slowly getting used to the Agama after years of truggy. Everyone seems to be enjoying the car.

Big thanks again to the Clanfield Committee for putting on a great meeting! And my Pit men Lee and Ben

Big thanks too


Nemoracing
M-K-Racing
RCdisco
Kifopaint
RC Sure-Start