The off season since November felt like ages, partially due to not having a lot to do on the car thankfully, what I did do can be seen here. The only problem I didn't manage to sort out was an issue with the gearbox - shifting from second to third is really difficult and it cost me time in both sessions of the day - more-so the race.
Was back out at Mallory this weekend for the first round of the season, the major difference this year is that the classes have been split, so Class B which I'm in runs separately to the Saxos/106s/etc. Now i'm just racing against Novas, 205s, XR2i's, Swifts, AXs and other XR2s.
Qualifying
Never been to Mallory before, so decided to take qualifying reasonably steady to start with (have to do a minimum of three laps to be allowed to race). Started to pick the pace up a little after this and on lap five I set a 59.02s lap just before another XR2 decided to lay down a rather large amount of oil. As soon as I saw oil on the racing line, I backed off, knowing I wasn't going to better my time and didn't want to throw it into the scenery doing so. You can see the oil in the qualifying video at 2:07 as a thick white line down the middle of the circuit.
The guy who was fastest in qualifying, last year's champion spun off unsighted on the oil at the first corner, those who know Mallory know how quick this bend is - and a couple of laps later someone else did the same in the same spot, hit the parked car and rolled. Our session was red flagged and that was me qualified 12th for the race.
Brief highlights:
Race
Got a decent-ish start on a damp grid, no wheel-spin, but knowing the problem with third I wanted to get it early, so I wasn't trying to find it at 6000rpm - shuffled me a few spots down the order. Had a wobble under braking on one lap into the hairpin, felt like a wheel coming loose which wasn't very confidence inspiring and an orange XR2i nipped through. The drizzle stopped and I felt the grip come back, so started pushing on, having a good battle with a red XR2 who was having some sort of issue round the first corner - I was exiting a good 10mph faster.
Fairly uneventful from there on, managed a 57.69s lap (exactly 1 second slower than the race-winner), missed some more gears, apexes, got some understeer, missed more gears etc. Pulled a decent move on the final lap to pass a Nova for 11th place overall and 8th fastest lap.
Post-race checks found 1.5 litres of coolant missing. Sounds like a new headgasket, along with the gearbox sorting out before the next round, which, fingers-crossed, will be Cadwell on May 8th.
Was back out at Mallory this weekend for the first round of the season, the major difference this year is that the classes have been split, so Class B which I'm in runs separately to the Saxos/106s/etc. Now i'm just racing against Novas, 205s, XR2i's, Swifts, AXs and other XR2s.
Qualifying
Never been to Mallory before, so decided to take qualifying reasonably steady to start with (have to do a minimum of three laps to be allowed to race). Started to pick the pace up a little after this and on lap five I set a 59.02s lap just before another XR2 decided to lay down a rather large amount of oil. As soon as I saw oil on the racing line, I backed off, knowing I wasn't going to better my time and didn't want to throw it into the scenery doing so. You can see the oil in the qualifying video at 2:07 as a thick white line down the middle of the circuit.
The guy who was fastest in qualifying, last year's champion spun off unsighted on the oil at the first corner, those who know Mallory know how quick this bend is - and a couple of laps later someone else did the same in the same spot, hit the parked car and rolled. Our session was red flagged and that was me qualified 12th for the race.
Brief highlights:
Race
Got a decent-ish start on a damp grid, no wheel-spin, but knowing the problem with third I wanted to get it early, so I wasn't trying to find it at 6000rpm - shuffled me a few spots down the order. Had a wobble under braking on one lap into the hairpin, felt like a wheel coming loose which wasn't very confidence inspiring and an orange XR2i nipped through. The drizzle stopped and I felt the grip come back, so started pushing on, having a good battle with a red XR2 who was having some sort of issue round the first corner - I was exiting a good 10mph faster.
Fairly uneventful from there on, managed a 57.69s lap (exactly 1 second slower than the race-winner), missed some more gears, apexes, got some understeer, missed more gears etc. Pulled a decent move on the final lap to pass a Nova for 11th place overall and 8th fastest lap.
Post-race checks found 1.5 litres of coolant missing. Sounds like a new headgasket, along with the gearbox sorting out before the next round, which, fingers-crossed, will be Cadwell on May 8th.
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