Aldershot National

Last weekend I was down South in a sunny Aldershot for the third round of the 2010 BRCA 10th Touring Car National series. Unfortunately the sun wasn't really shinning on me, certainly wasn't my best weekend to date...

My preparation for the weekend was much like my pit table throughout the weekend; minimal. When we rocked up Saturday morning I arrived knowing I needed to change the setup back to the one which had given partial success at the BTCC meeting a few weeks prior, rebuild the shocks, rebuild the diff and ideally strip out the rest of the car if I'm brutally honest. On top of that I could have done with cutting and mounting a new shell - mine was a little past its sell-by date. Yeah I know its a long list, you don't need to point that out.

After quickly sorting the setup items I went out for the first two of the three practices before calling my track learning done and setting about doing the rebuild work I needed to, all of which is handily visible in the image below!

Paying lip service to our shelter for the weekend, the Bosomworth Residence was dominating the pits once again although we had ditched the canopy section in favour of the gazebo.

We also now have four pit tables with near enough as dammit the same dimensions, resulting in a delightfully symmetrical and equal feeling pit space.

I'll just give monsieur a quick tour of our little pit area, you've seen my minimalistic pit space already so I'll move right ahead with...

Mark Jordan - "if it looks really busy, they'll all think I'm fast..."

Adam Whittam - "that's right; I can cut AND measure stuff on my mat"

Chris 'Buzz' Bossomworth - "I won't conform and sit in the gazebo with you scruffy lot"

finally Andy Murray - "gingers don't photograph well, look, here's my best side"

Anyway, I proceeded to make my way through qualifying on both the Saturday and Sunday and only put in one run with a mistake which saw me sailing away from the tarmac, grass-bound. I'd like to make my excuses using the car, which wasn't in the best shape of its life, but realistically I could be driving the best car in the world but its not worth a damn if I can't keep it on the track. So, for Halifax next time I'm intending to sort both the car and my act out. Time will tell what sort of job I do with all that malarkey...

A crucial corner for a quick lap time and surprisingly difficult to set the car up for to boot

Its not the biggest track in the calendar, it may even be the smallest, but I'm a fan of Aldershot, in spite of the way it treated me during the course of the weekend

When all was said and done I had qualified 3rd in the E final, officially making it my worst result to date this year (albeit not by much). Unfortunately I simply went backwards from there, finishing either 8th or 9th in the first two rounds of finals I believe. About halfway through the second final I took a short haul flight off the end of the straight and into the fence at the top end (for the second time that weekend I might add); I discovered afterwards that had left me with some funky rear toe and sketchy wishbone play - thanks to another bent wishbone mounting block.

As I was already using my spare that was when I called my racing weekend a day and packed up a little early. I hung around to finish watching the racing as there was a nail biter of a final for the last round of A final Mod. But then headed off to the London Comedy Store to drown my sorrows with laughter. Apparently its supposed to be some sort of recognised medicine?

This picture sums up my weekend really... I was there, but wasn't quite giving it 100%

Finally, on a bit of a side note, I would like to wish Mr and Mrs Bosomworth a very Happy (and belated) Anniversary. Congratulations to the both of you. It must be true love, they spent the weekend apart...

Until next time...

Morecambe strikes again...

This evening at Morecambe at hand a hand in designing the track layout for the evening, it looked alright, better than previous attempts at least, but unfortunately I simply couldn't drive it!

When I arrived it took me a little while to change back to my indoor setup from the outdoor setup I was running at Aldershot yesterday. Nevertheless I managed to give a little helping hand with the track and make it out for my first round in time.



My first round was torrid and unfortunately the evening continued in much the same vein. It was another relatively quiet night - numbers always dip in the summer months for indoor club racing as people move outside to enjoy the nice weather, go on their holidays, etc. - and I started in the A qualifying heat but was soon to drop down into the B final.

I struggled with the car all evening, I remember my XRAY days as simply building the car and leaving it week-to-week for months and it never deteriorated. It has become increasingly apparent, especially in the last few days, that I simply cannot do this with the Tamiya. It needs a bit of TLC every week almost and a lot of TLC every few meetings. So, I guess I will simply have to find the time to remedy this situation in the coming days, and certainly before the Aldershot national in a couple of weeks time.

As I mentioned, I ended up qualifying 2nd in the B final and finishing there. I nearly even got lapped by first place! Not my best performance to be sure. Nonetheless, I feel I know what needs to happen to bring back that smile to my face and remind me all over again that blue most definitely is better. The recent worlds results proved that, Tamiya 1st and 3rd with a Yokomo (blue coloured Tamiya copy anyone?) in 2nd. Congratulations to Elliott Harper on his superb performance at the event by the way. Until next time...

Aldershot BTCC

This weekend we were at the Aldershot track racing in the Schumacher BTCC as a practice warm-up for the Aldershot National on 24/25th July.

The Aldershot track, once upon a time (circa summer 2006) my local outdoor club track

Myself, Andy and Dean travelled down early on Saturday morning, arriving at Aldershot around 10.45am. Once again we were pitting with Buzz because when you cram three people and their gear into one little car there isn't really any room for a gazebo as well! This weekend Buzz was trying out a new combined pitting/camping strategy with what came to be called the Bosomworth Residence for its sheer size.

The 'Bosomworth Residence' - barely fitting in a single photo and apparently dwarfing the usually giant CML gazebo. Talks are already under way for a North Wing extension to the residence for catering purposes at future events

The residence comfortably accommodates 4 pit tables and offers luxury sleeping quarters for upto four more, showers not included

Saturday practice was a mixed bag, everyone struggled with the sweeper initially. I got frustrated by it all and gave up after about three runs for the rest of the day. I'd like to blame the heat and a lack of sleep for my despondency, but really there are no excuses. Instead I wandered around taking some photos of the Bosomworth Residence and those who inhabit it.

Andy began his Saturday filing the superglue off his finger, he joined Dean in the canopy section of the residence

Andy and Dean's pit tables

My pit table, in the main section of the tent. My back was to...

...Buzz and his pit table

By the end of the day most of us were getting around the sweeper okay and work had begun and getting round the the rest of the track as quickly as possible, including nailing the tricky chicane before the entry onto the straight. We packed up and headed back to my parents' house, in the Reading area, for the evening shortly before 8pm on Saturday. Leaving Buzz and his Dad to enjoy a leisurely BBQ and drinking session in the grounds of the Bosomworth Residence.

The sun rises above a crowded Aldershot pitting area on Sunday morning

Sunday morning was a brighter and better day. As soon as we arrived I set to work sorting out the car I had given up on yesterday. Starting with a shock rebuild. I use some softer 'competition' o-rings in my shocks, which offer a delightfully smooth shock action, but require slightly more maintenance. I had not touched mine in at least two months and realised on the Saturday they were very squelchy. When I opened them up I was greeted by enough oil to only just cover the pistons on full extension. Not ideal, and likely the source of my sweeper woes from Saturday. I managed to rebuild the shocks with MuchMore 550 oil, change springs to XRAY 3.0s and 2.8s, adjust droop to 5 and 4, change ride height to 6.0 and 6.5, check tweak and camber (1.5 and 2.0 degrees) all before heading over to the driver's briefing.

"Welcome to the Aldershot BTCC boys and girls"

I then grabbed some breakfast from the very popular catering shed at Aldershot before getting ready to go out for round one.

The queue shows how popular the food is here, the burgers were certainly the best in the calendar thus far

Round one greeted me with a car that could at least get round the sweeper and respectably so, but some slight changes needed to be made to improve the car further. So I headed back to the Bosomworth residence to set about making those changes.

A different pit layout layout today in the tent as Andy had deserted us for the TOP Racing team gazebo... traitor...

TOP Racing... TOP by name, bottom by nature... J

My Sunday pit table complete with all the tools of the trade for my numerous setup changes

For the subsequent rounds of racing I changed my droop to 4.5 and 3.5 which significantly improved car handling going round the sweeper and also went back to my trusty HPI silver springs all round on the shocks, which helped the understeer I experienced with the XRAY springs. That was the setup I settled on for the rest of the day and I continued to improve round on round as I remembered the track layout and improved my lines and consistency.

Aldershot track complete with race info. LED display screen

Stefan C. shows us the 'right route' around and the 'alternative route' through the chicane before the straight in the final round of qualifying!

I ended up qualifying 10th in the C final, and finished 8th in the first round of finals - purely by virtue of the fact that 2 people did not start the race. It was by far my worst fun of the weekend with me making mistake after mistake, resulting in me spending a significant amount of time chilling out in the grass beside the track.

In the second round of finals I did much better, finishing third and completing my best run of the weekend 21 laps in 5 minutes 13 seconds if I recall. If I had posted that in qualifying I think I would have made the B final instead. My consistency was around 0.2 seconds and I didn't make a single mistake all throughout the run. A nice way to round out the weekend I must say, feeling more positive about a good result in the national now. Morecambe club racing tonight now, report on that later tonight. Until then...