BIWS Round 4

My day started/continued when my mate Andy Murray and I returned from a pool session at Rileys. Andy promptly began sorting out his gear ready for later that morning and the diff rebuild was in full swing by about 1am. My gear was already packed ready to go, so all that was left was for me to spectate and interject with moral support throughout the ordeal. We finally made it to bed around 2am - 5:50am was our planned departure time. Travel to Don Valley went without a hitch despite the unexpected snow storm which had struck under the cover of darkness.

The venue and track were kind of what I was expecting, except that the racing surface was surprisingly abrasive, but the layout and facilities looked good.





We got all set up and popped warmers on ready for a practice run...





After a couple of practice runs and a round of qualifying it was apparent to all that the lack of grip was a serious issue and setup alterations began to resolve the issues. Stefan Chodzynski opted for superglue as his additive of choice, the logic was sound - it is the stickiest stuff known to man - but he was foiled by the quick drying time and had to unleash the file of fury on his tire to rescue the day.



Another fellow pit member, Andy Cottom, went for an interesting choice of additive. One which adhered to the rules that the only additives allowed are ones you would be happy to drink. Codenamed "OJ Extreme Traction Sauce" it often masquerades under the brand name Tropicana...



After a fairly light application, Andy was convinced of its magical grip-giving properties, for the first minute of the race at least, so continued with somewhat heavier applications throughout the remainder of the day.



My car went OK in the low grip conditions, in hindsight I should have experimented with setup options more, but the track conditions were constantly changing complicating matters and confusing any setup changes. I qualified 7th in the B final for 10.5 - a result which I was pleased for my first trip to the venue with but at the same time felt the car and I were capable of a little better.

The first round of finals went well I finished 2nd after starting at the back end of the grid. Unfortunately the same could not be said for my second round of finals, I was having a messy run due to a combination of poor driver input and a loss of grip in the dying rounds of the meeting. After making a mistake going round the central sweeper I side swiped the track marking pretty hard and sheared off a plastic outdrive cup in my spool. A disappointing finish to the day to be honest. But, there is always next weekend at the Carpet Masters to redeem myself.



I managed to get some footage of the first round of the 13.5 A final with Luke Hobson on pole - check out my "Recent Racing Videos" section the right to see that. Until next time...