Racing at Blackpool

Racing at Blackpool on Friday night. A reasonable result all told. I wanted to prove to myself that I could go quick enough round the track for Morecambe championship round coming up on the following Monday. I managed to do that in one of the rounds, getting a reasonable 27 lapper which is nice 'n' quick for this track layout.

Although this put me in the A final for the meeting I was unable to do it again, in the last qualifier my chassis was rubbing (after my ride height had dropped by about half a millimetre) due to my tires wearing and me not checking the car. After I sorted that out in time for the final, it merely brought my next issue into focus during the final - my tires needed to be re-glued onto their rims as they were starting to peel and making the car very erratic. Not-to-self for first thing on Monday night ready for the Morecambe meeting.

Final result? Qualified 4th in the A and finished there. Job done.

Morecambe Autumn Series Rd4

Morecambe on Monday was another great night at Morecambe. Andy did a fantastic job with the track again, although I think last week's was still the best we've had for a very long time.

Qualifying was all a very close affair between the guys in the top qualifying heat and the finals ended being up pretty much as the evening began in qualifying. I qualified second on the grid behind Andy and despite having a clean start rolled it on the second corner letting Mark and Ben past. I managed to get past them both but could not catch Andy so settled for 2nd.

The videos below show the track layout a little better, and the epic battle between Kev and Colin in the B final. Adzy was in the running but a mistake meant he fell back before I could get my camera out. Then my camera battery died just in time for Colin's overtake on Kev and we rejoin the action via the iPhone...

Morecambe Autumn Series Rd3

Back to Morecambe again this Monday night for Round 3 of my campaign to redeem myself in the MMCC Autumn 2010 series. My average was still suffering - this could potentially be my third 'good' score to bring my average back to 'normal' so the pressure was on a little bit. Mind you, it was a quiet night so my odds were pretty good.

Andy did a fantastic job designing the track, it was challenging but very rewarding to drive and had an amazing rhythm to it. I could race on tracks like this every Monday very happily!

I was going well in qualifying once again, but a mistake in the final qualifier prevented me getting any higher than 3rd on the grid in the A final. I felt that I had a 36 lapper in me, but never got the opportunity to prove it. Maybe my opportunity lay in the final?!

The final started well enough, I was all over Mark Jordan in 2nd place, but unable to find a way past. A few of my attempts resulted in me getting caught in corners and loosing time. This meant I eventually fell into the clutches of Mark Carter behind me, who got past me after yet another mistake and then when I managed to squeeze past him on the inside we both got caught on the apex of the next corner. Mark let me get away first after we were marshalled as I guess he knew I had made the pass before the incident. But it meant Mark Jordan was gone by that point. A good night, shame I couldn't get my illusive 36 laps though.

Ardent Winter Series Round 1

On a freezing cold Sunday morning we all gathered outside what looks like a dis-used cattle shed, but is actually the home to Ardent Raceway one of the premier racing facilities in the country. Who'd have thunk it heh?!

Anyway, we all filed in hoping to find a warmth which wasn't there. Admittedly it warmed up by about lunchtime and actually got too hot if anything I though by later in the afternoon. I wasn't too worried about the cold, I was too busy getting to work sorting out my car...

I had quite a bit to do: I put a new X12 motor and fixed my broken belt/pulley situation from Friday. I was also sorting out a 13.5 motor for a friend who was borrowing my motor to race in that class. It turned out there was plenty of time for all of this though and I even had time to do some setup checks on the car before my first race.

As you can see from the pictures, it was a very busy meeting and when the power wouldn't stay on at the start of the day, everyone wondered in the mains was able to support the vast numbers of racers who had turned up to participate. However, the team at Ardent came through and did a great job keeping everyone happy throughout the day. The food service was excellent - I enjoyed a very tasty jacket potato with beans and cheese for my dinner!

My first two qualifiers were spent getting used to the racing conditions and learning the track to be honest. I also took some time out to cook my motor - I discovered that the pretty aggressive speedo settings which suited my old GM motor were a tad keen for the temperamental X12. It got up to 152 deg C in one run and I'm pretty sure I damaged the rotor during that run as it didn't feel the same afterwards. Luckily I have a spare rotor which I'll get round to putting in sometime.

Stefan came along and helped me with a speedo setup for the finals and the car felt much better than my setup attempts. I qualified 5th in the C final and managed to come 3rd in the first final and 2nd in the second final. However, this was only good enough to give me third overall, but I'm friends with the guys who beat me (Danny Holmes and Chris 'Buzz' Bosomworth) so I didn't mind too much!

Blackpool

Another Friday night racing at Blackpool, I managed to strip a relatively new belt after qualifying round 1 which was annoying. I later traced it to a worn pulley which I had not checked. I presume the belt I stripped a little while back damaged the pulley and dramatically shortened the life of my new belt.

I opted not to continue racing as I only had one rear belt spare and I couldn't bear to run the risk of breaking that as well. I wanted to save it and make sure I could race in round 1 of the Ardent Winter Series this coming Sunday.

So I ended up spending the majority of my Friday night just chilling out with some mates and watching some racing! :)

Morecambe Autumn Series Rd2

I'd like to apologise in advance for the lack of pictures in this post, I forgot to take pictures throughout the evening as normal - I was too caught up enjoying my racing!

I started the evening in the bottom qualifying heat - paying for my sins of racking up some poor results at the end of the last summer series and thus trashing my average ability rating.

Despite this I managed to get in some good times and place myself third in the A final. During which Mark Jordan and I had a fantastic race where we never felt more than a few feet apart. Andy suffered some issues and dropped out of the running leaving Mark and I to fight it out for victory. Mark ended up taking the win but I managed to claim the new bonus point for fastest lap. This meant we both finished on 99 points, and I took a big step towards redeeming my average.

Morecambe visits the Blackpool Illuminations, kinda...

As mentioned last time, Morecambe was visiting Blackpool for its usual guest session, except this time it was the first round of a new championship. Unfortunately I'm STILL waiting for my 28s from Ardent, not impressed...

It was another busy night, which is great news for both clubs. I was fortunate to make it into the A final despite having to miss out on the third and final round of qualifying due to a slipping/stripped rear belt. I was unable to do any better than last place in the A final without some of the magic JB 28s, but it was healthy addition to my point score for the outset of the new championship.

Blackpool Session

I visited Blackpool club this Friday, another reasonable round of racing although it would have been better if my 28s had arrived from Ardent... unfortunately I'm still waiting... Running on some ancient 32s from the outdoor National series means grip never really gets up to a comfortable level.

Nevertheless the evening proved to be an opportunity for more useful practice ready for the 1st round of the new Morecambe championship starting on Monday and being hosted by Blackpool.