Well, I was a little unsure when I posted my entry off for this event, with it being Easter Sunday I thought the turn out would be poor, how wrong could I have been? There was a strong turn out with a very varied field of entries including some bizarre cars, a bond bug converted to four wheers and fitted with a motorbike engine and some beautiful cars such as the blue Porsche 911 GT3RS.
I think the strong turn out may have been as a result of the new track layout at North Weald, the new circuit is 2.4km long and is seriously fast. The other advantage is that it has in effect put the bumps into more managable and dare I say sensible places. Having said that one Jedi driver suffered from a broken rose joint which ended his day early.
I was running in the up to 1400cc mod prod class as usual and was pleased to have five entries in my class which included a double driven mini another mini and the stalwart Terry Brown in his amazing Lenham Le Mans. I signed on and got scrutineered early int he knowledge that I had a 2.4km walk before the briefing and convoy. The stewards and the clerk of the course listened to the drivers as they walked the course and agreed some changes whilst walking.
The convoy run identified that a couple of the chicanes were very tight, to be proven throughout the day with numerous cars rearranging the cones, including myself (more than once).
I used the first practice run as a memory check for the route, no sat nav in my car ;-) for some reason the system did not record a time for me, not that I was too worried as I hadn't pushed at all. Second practice went well and I realised that at speed the gear changes were all in the wrong place. When the times were posted I was surprised to see that I was not far off the pace Terry Brown, who has generally always been 5 secs quicker than me. After checking my times I wandered back to my car to find a pool of fluid under it. I removed the bonnet to find that my EWP had failed, this is the third one in a year! Not impressed and with it being such a hot day and my car not having any cooling fans I had to consider my options. I checked how much water wetter I had with me and decided that I probably had enough to keep topping the system up!
First timed run came and four of the five of us were within one second, quite astonishing for me! I was really chuffed and I knew where I could improve my time too, the car still bogs down of the line and then just spins its wheels like crazy and I was also braking far too early for the hairpin (still in the same position it has always been in).
So the second run i rolled the car off the line with low rpm and short shifted into second in the hope of finding a bit more grip, and there was some, not a lot but some. I also managed to brake a lot later for the hairpin and took all of the tight corners in 1st gear rather than second. Unfortunately at the end of the long straight (through what used to be the old paddock area) there is a hairpin left and I got onto the power too early and drifted out wide to collect some cones and a 5 second penalty as a result. Withough the 5 second penalty I was less than a second off Terry Brown, I was seriously pleased with that. Not so pleased ith the 'highway cone' orange stripes down the side of my car, they clash with the pink!
Final timed run and it was all or nothing, so after using another litre of specialist coolant I lined up. I managed an almost perfect start and was quick to the hairpin, I then headed back up to the fist chicane whcih I took flat in fourth which was a little daring to say the least. As a result I approached the second chicane considerably quicker than expected, on the limiter in top, so at about 100 mph, I braked and braked and braked a bit harder and ended up locking up and sliding neatly straight through the chicane collecting cones as I went, bugger! I gathered myself, then nailed it, no point in wasting the lap, I finished up with a respectable time, if you took the 5 sec penalty off.
So no pot for me, but a great day out and hugely pleasing to be less than a second behind Mr Brown.
I think I have pursuaded Harrow to use the same circuit for the September Sprint. I know a lot of you don't like North Weald, but I can honestly say that this new layout is just great, bumps and all!
To end, I was astonished by the performance of a good friend of mine, Tommy Griffiths, who is normally quick in an Intergra R, he was in a Tiger R6 kit car and he got the FTD ahead of the single seaters, by more than a second!
North Weald 24th April
I had a great day. The new course was very involving and a far better drive than previous. The best way to describe it was like joining the two Abingdon Car-nival sprints into one lap.
Stuart I was running a lower limiter, just 7k rpm due to the water pump, close ratio box means car is only geared to 104mph maximum.
Stuart I was running a lower limiter, just 7k rpm due to the water pump, close ratio box means car is only geared to 104mph maximum.
