The weekend began with the usual gazebo and pit tables setup malarkey...
... but once all that was sorted we all lined up to get our 'shiny' new tires. Thanks to Schumacher for quickly and efficiently sorting out what was inevitably a very messy issue with the control tires for 2010. I could complain, like a few others have, but what would that really achieve, other than to raise my blood pressure?!
Practice began as a mixed bag; the car felt great - and I had sorted my diff issues out from previous weeks but I seemed to be a bit down on speed. I didn't seem to be completely un-competitive, but I certainly wasn't quick either. I came back after first practice and double checked my gearing and speedo software but I was certain I hadn't changed anything and this was how I'd had it for the BTCC round a few weeks prior. I shrugged it off and thought I'd re-evaluate it during in second practice... about 3 laps into second practice I was definitely slower than usual and lacking power everywhere it felt. Then it hit me! When we race at Morecambe it's too small for full 10.5 power, so we turn down our endpoints as a lazy option rather than putting our 13.5s in! I had been going round on 75% throttle endpoint! I pulled up and fiddled with the transmitter for a moment before launching back onto the track at the speed I had now become accustomed to. Happy days.
After the obligatory drivers briefing, with a brief apology and explanation of the tire situation by Robin Schumacher, qualifying began. I went round okay throughout Saturday qualifying, but never got a particularly great time. I socred a 40, 34 and then a 54 - in the last round of qualifying my diff seemed to decide it had not finished being run in so starting slipping, making the car a bit of a handful. Those socres had me sat 36th overnight.
Sunday qualifying began after the much appreciated track scrubbing practice round. I knew I needed two 'better' qualifying results today to stand a chance of ending up in a final I felt I belonged in. Thankfully, I managed to pull the cat out of the bag, putting in two mid twenty scoring runs (probably where I should have been scoring all weekend if I could have kept it a bit cleaner on the Saturday).
Anyhoo, my final score put me 3rd on the grid for the D final. A good place to be sure, but last year I'm sure I spent most my time in C finals by the end of the season. And I feel pretty confident that I'm not slower than last year, if anything I think I've improved quite a bit L The explanation I've decided upon is that at least 10 people who are quicker than me have started doing ProStock this year - I know of at least one; my good friend Andy Murray who was once again at the sharp end of the A final this weekend.
I was very happy with my performance in the finals. I drove the first two rounds with very few mistakes and was aptly rewarded with a 2nd and a 1st. This meant that going into the last round of finals my only threat was John Toman who had qualified second on the grid just in front of me; as long as I finished in front of him I had won the D final!
John was standing next to me on the rostrum, so I did try politely asking him if he didn't mind awfully just pulling up at some point in the run and letting me have the victory... I took his laughter as a "No". However, on about the third lap into the final, when he was just in front of me coming onto the straight, from what I could make out, he made a slight mistake leaving a wheel on the grass which quickly dragged him simultaneously off the track and out of contention. At which point John said next me, "There you go Thomas" haha! That cheeky little comment was the highlight of my weekend if you're reading this John, so thank you J
All told, another delightful weekend of racing. As you can tell from the newly installed counters at the top of the blog, the next 'big' meeting I'm planning to attend will be the Aldershot BTCC on June 4th and the next club meeting I shall be at is Morecambe's next Monday. See you there!
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