The Bentwaters Sprint was part of the AEMC championship as well as a round of the Japanese Intermarque Sprint Championship which is a new series.
After a busy weekend due to driving to Lancashire to have my car mapped on Friday, the big day came, I was up at 6.30am as signing on and Scrunineering takes place from 7.30am
On a Sunday...thats just not cricket!I arrived with my support car (girlfriend in her car
) and was very nervous, as everyone looked very professional, car fully stickered up, on trailers etc. After signing on it was scrutineering time, luckily I passed okay, a few chaps in the queue were friendly and explaned the proceedure. And once you have your pass sticker you are ready to race :!: this is the scrutineering queue:
Me at the back....very nervous now!!
The day went like this, 1st was the familarisation run which is run behind a convoy vehicle, then its straight in to the 1st of 2 practice runs in the morning, then the 2 timed runs follow in the afternoon. I met up with ESL on here and the other chaps who were competing the JISC, a friendly bunch
Coming back from the sighting lap:
The morning flew past quicly and after 2 timed runs I found I was going pretty well for a newbie as our class had the most entrants, which was mainly filled with Jap clutter and a couple of very tasty 996 GT3 RS's
Some of the competition, the Essex Scooby Breakers Impreza was super quick, but not in my class thankfully!!
Lining up for my fisrt run:
Andy (ESL) had a major issue with his IC pipe blowing off and Ady (onlyady) on here had a big spin in his Liner
On the second pratice run.After the practice runs I found I was running 3rd Behind 2 Evo's and if Andy hadn't clipped a cone and received a penatly he would been in the lead.
After lunch the real runs started, I was proper nervous I had fully caught the competitive bug. I was chuffed to get a storming launch and real good run up until the 2nd from last mini bus-stop corners and fluffed a 2nd to 3rd gear change, I was annoyed as it had felt a quick lap. To my amazment I had now gained 2nd place with only an Evo 9 0.08 seconds ahead.....sh*t :!: :!:
So then it came to the last and final run of the day, which was delayed somewhat by a couple of people coming offf and then a massive wind storm which decided to move a lot of the course markers. So then it was the final lap..and I was determined to go for it, but the bogged down on the start..rollocks :x This must have got me fird up as I really pushed hard all the way round a it felt quick.
The last run of the day...gulp!
So the final results.....my girlfriend had told me the Evo and Andy had put in faster times than the one I had done on my first timed run, so I thought, ahh well, 3rd to loads better than I expected anyway,so I was pretty happy with that, until the the results came on the board and to my amazement I was first, with Andy second and the the 2 Evo's behind us....I was in shock..and super chuffed. I think Andy would have pipped us tho if he had had more luck with his car, as he only realy got in 1 full clean run. The car went like a storm, and with the new ECU the way it pulls thro the gears is awesome, so all in all a top top day..roll on the next one...I am fully addicted now :!:
