Turbos.
Sorry for the delay! Last Sunday it was the first race of the season in our Elise, with its new Go Green Motorsport sponsorship livery you've probably already seen!
As mentioned in the testing thread, my dad and i had both had a day to get used to the circuit. On Saturday, we had Free Practice and Qualifying, which was a pathetic 15mins and 20mins respectively. Especially as we are sharing the car, it is practically impossible to get a good lap in in that time, so were disappointed to be in 7th for the race.
But with the new Hewland gearbox, we were pleased to have no mechanical issues to worry about at least. However, there was the small issue of the roof coming off, so that needed to be fixed!
Exhaust was also a bit loud, so more baffle was shoved in...
With the weekend so spaced out, we had a relaxing build up to the race on Sunday. Had plenty of time for some promo shots and i had a nice chat with the cute TV girl. Some of the drifters on here might notice our new spanner man, Dylan, who has a Supra engined 200sx.
It was decided that i would start the race (i downloaded a coin flip app...). I was a bit nervous, but i just can't put into words how exciting it is waiting to race, it was great to get the adrenalin buzz back after a 6 month break! It was a long wait in the collecting area though, not good for the nerves...
The race was a rolling start. In front of me was the majority of the Lotus 2-11 class, one Exige (in the Exige class) and a 340R which was in my 'Open' class (i.e. modified beyond the regs.) We had quite a bit of ballast on account of all the trick stuff we're not allowed! This had hampered our power-to-weight considerably, so realistically we looking for second.
The 340R rolled slowly over the start line, so we were all bunched up nose-to-tail. A mad man in an orange Exige opted to hang back and have a run up, so by the first corner i was immediately down to 8th, dammit! Nevermind, an hour of racing to go...
So first job was to reclaim 7th position, which i did by outbreaking the orange Exige into the second hairpin (Turn 4).
It was then onto the 2-11s, who were having their own in-Class battles. I started picking them off one by one, there is nothing better than hunting down cars in front of you! My favoured place was Corum (turn 12) where they braked and i kept my foot in, like a fcuking hero.
[youtube]iXy0EWcvw88[/youtube]
Towards the end of my stint, i had battled to get into second place. Unfortunately the lost time meant i was 14 seconds from the leader as we exchanged fastest laps.
On the half hour mark, i came in to swap for my dad. In the race series, it is a mandatory 3 minute pit stop so it was a relaxed affair. However, the timing was disastrous as my the safety car went out. Through no fault of our own, we went from 2nd to a lap down in 10th!
My dad had his work out unlapping himself from all the cars i had already overtaken, eventually moving us two places up before the end of the race.
The safety car proved even more frustrating as the 340R had gearbox problems. If we didn't lose a lap, we probably would have won. However, despite the disappointing 8th overall, we still got 2nd in class to get valuable points.
Once we got over the initial disappointed, we went and picked up our dildo shaped trophy from the average looking Yokohama girls.
I'll update the thread once we have some in-car footage uploaded. There are some great photos on disc i'm waiting for too.
Next round is Silverstone on 16th/17th April
As mentioned in the testing thread, my dad and i had both had a day to get used to the circuit. On Saturday, we had Free Practice and Qualifying, which was a pathetic 15mins and 20mins respectively. Especially as we are sharing the car, it is practically impossible to get a good lap in in that time, so were disappointed to be in 7th for the race.
But with the new Hewland gearbox, we were pleased to have no mechanical issues to worry about at least. However, there was the small issue of the roof coming off, so that needed to be fixed!
Exhaust was also a bit loud, so more baffle was shoved in...
With the weekend so spaced out, we had a relaxing build up to the race on Sunday. Had plenty of time for some promo shots and i had a nice chat with the cute TV girl. Some of the drifters on here might notice our new spanner man, Dylan, who has a Supra engined 200sx.
It was decided that i would start the race (i downloaded a coin flip app...). I was a bit nervous, but i just can't put into words how exciting it is waiting to race, it was great to get the adrenalin buzz back after a 6 month break! It was a long wait in the collecting area though, not good for the nerves...
The race was a rolling start. In front of me was the majority of the Lotus 2-11 class, one Exige (in the Exige class) and a 340R which was in my 'Open' class (i.e. modified beyond the regs.) We had quite a bit of ballast on account of all the trick stuff we're not allowed! This had hampered our power-to-weight considerably, so realistically we looking for second.
The 340R rolled slowly over the start line, so we were all bunched up nose-to-tail. A mad man in an orange Exige opted to hang back and have a run up, so by the first corner i was immediately down to 8th, dammit! Nevermind, an hour of racing to go...
So first job was to reclaim 7th position, which i did by outbreaking the orange Exige into the second hairpin (Turn 4).
It was then onto the 2-11s, who were having their own in-Class battles. I started picking them off one by one, there is nothing better than hunting down cars in front of you! My favoured place was Corum (turn 12) where they braked and i kept my foot in, like a fcuking hero.
[youtube]iXy0EWcvw88[/youtube]
Towards the end of my stint, i had battled to get into second place. Unfortunately the lost time meant i was 14 seconds from the leader as we exchanged fastest laps.
On the half hour mark, i came in to swap for my dad. In the race series, it is a mandatory 3 minute pit stop so it was a relaxed affair. However, the timing was disastrous as my the safety car went out. Through no fault of our own, we went from 2nd to a lap down in 10th!
My dad had his work out unlapping himself from all the cars i had already overtaken, eventually moving us two places up before the end of the race.
The safety car proved even more frustrating as the 340R had gearbox problems. If we didn't lose a lap, we probably would have won. However, despite the disappointing 8th overall, we still got 2nd in class to get valuable points.
Once we got over the initial disappointed, we went and picked up our dildo shaped trophy from the average looking Yokohama girls.
I'll update the thread once we have some in-car footage uploaded. There are some great photos on disc i'm waiting for too.
Next round is Silverstone on 16th/17th April
