A great first weekend of the racing season for the Tricolore Trophy team
Started pretty good for me, as I got through scrutinering!
A fair bit of expert help from
@Ant_Smiggy keeping me going. The mention of me being the driver, so no need to get my hands dirty, made my day
qualifying was awful! My first time on track in the wet. It wasn't throwing it down, but would be classed as 'wet' on Top Gear! Finished with lap times just over 2.03, which was well of the pace. Our friend
@Russ Rallye came out for a couple of laps and smashed it much faster! To be honest, I didn't really enjoy it. I need more practice in the wet!
So, first race. Nervous as hell! It had dried up, but didn't make the butterflies go away!
Absolutely dreadful start! Reved the balls off it in first, then quickly slipped it in to 4th! Driver error completely! Finally got going and the car was flying. Much quicker than I'd expected, to be honest. Passed a few on the first long corner, and a couple more after the first hairpin. The car was flying! Going up the first bit of a hill, and into a long right, it all felt a bit wrong. Started loosing the back end, then ended up spinning! Expert driving from
@Tony Hunter saved a smash (thanks Tony), so got through it clean.
Carried on for a couple more corners, but could tell everything had gone wrong. Pulled off at the first Pits exit.
If you go to about 6.00 minutes on this video, you can see it!
On inspection, the car had blown a water pipe. From removing the heater system, the water pipe had been blocked off, and the plug had given in! With help from the crew and other drivers, we got to borrow a new pipe and a straight link, to redirect the water through another pipe, to avoid having a plug!
Worked a treat
Second race was on!
Started back of the grid, in 27th. Actually liked the idea of starting from the back, made for a lot of fun
We race with Hyundia Coupe's, who are all good guys, so I had to work my way through a few of them, and some of the other Trophy cars.
Had a great race and ended in 12th! Loved it! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, so no footage to show. The car run really well. Very impressed with how good it was. My best lap time was 1.41. The race leaders got down to 1.34, so a way off the pace, but my pace should have got me down to around 6th, which would have been a dream!
I think the majority of change needs to come from me, rather than the car. I need more track time. There were loads of points I could have done better, with a little more experience.
I'm also going to look at tyres and suspention next.
Bring on Brands Hatch! 16th of May, should anyone be interested
