Morecambe Club Night

This Monday I drove up to Morecambe with Andy Murray and Dean Johnson in tow. The track layout turned out to be of the 'spicy and slightly funky variety' - it was a quick lap but very hard to get a clean run, making the expression 'slow is fast' particularly relevant. I wish I had taken a picture of the track to show you thinking about it - sorry, I've been slacking in picture responsibilities recently.

Despite my relatively new tyres, grip was absent for the most part and the situation didn't improve massively throughout the course of the evening. I also seemed to struggle with being consistent and getting good, clean runs in. As a result I found myself at 3rd on the grid in the A final, but quickly lost track of where I was when I started crashing along with everyone else on the track except a certain Mr Murray. I ended up finishing last in the A final and was a bit disappointed with my performance to be honest. I felt I could have at least finished where I started maybe improving to finish second.

Andy, Dean and myself stopped of for a midnight McDonalds to cheer ourselves up though which perked the evening up somewhat! I'm not racing for a few days now what with all the bank holidays and other activities I have planned on those. Until then...

Blackpool Club Night

I was back racing at Blackpool last Friday night, after a short break due to my 'lack-of-tires' woes.

It was a good evening, I was immediately back on the pace thanks to the new rubber, although as is to be expected, they got better as they wore in. About round 3 they felt amazing and I managed to put in a quick, clean and consistent run which settled my qualifying place for the finals - 3rd on the grid.

The start buzzer for the finals sounded and off we went! Good, clean start for everyone and we were all pretty much bumper to bonnet. A couple of laps in I rolled it after clipping a hairpin, letting Niall and Damien past. But I got straight back in it and over the course of several laps was able to chase them back down and squeeze back past Damien. Niall had gotten away a little so it took me another few laps to chase him down and then I sat in his exhaust fumes for what seemed like an age.

Danny and Andy had disappeared during all this and from what I could hear from the buzz around the track were having a stonking race. However, Niall and myself put on quite a show also as I managed to squueze past at one point only to roll it again a lap later, letting Niall back through. Then on the final lap I had just made my way past Niall when he clipped the rear quarter of my car and sent me tumbling. Graciously he waited and I was able to sneak over the line in 3rd with him still in hot pursuit.

It was one of those races which I wouldn't have minded much if I'd finished last because it was just such a good race. I only wish I could have watched the race for 1st and 2nd place too!

No racing tonight

Given how much I struggled last week on the 32s and my discovery on Friday night that the postman hadn't delivered my 28s I have decided not to race tonight. Instead I'm going to fix my car, which I still haven't done, and get some food shopping in! I figure there's no point risking breaking something else and getting another poor result in the championship.

I'll have to write these first two rounds of the MMCC Championship off and do better in the remaining rounds, just means everything from now on has to count!

Monday night at Morecambe

I was at Morecambe on Monday night for the first round of a new championship. Unfortunately my 28s had died a death on the Friday prior and I had not yet been able to get my hands on some new boots, so I was running on some old 32s from last years nationals.

I'd had reasonable success with these tyres at Morecambe in the past, but apparently they did not want to work for me tonight. The grip levels felt awful and I was struggling to keep the car under control a lot of the time.

To summarise the evening, I struggled all night, missed out on the A final and then crashed and broke a C-hub and steering knuckle in the middle of the final. Thus confirming the evening to be the bust and I had feared. Hey ho, swings and roundabouts as they say... not the start to a new championship I had hoped for to be honest though.

Friday night in Blackpool

I was in Blackpool last night racing with all the gang at BRCCC. Danny was away on holiday so it looked like Andy, myself and Damien would be each other's main competition.

My car still seemed to be going well enough although I knew my tyres were my weakest element - I have a new set on order but they didn't arrive in time unfortunately. So I started the evening with a small hole in the edge of the front right tyre and finished the evening with an even bigger hole in that tyre and a whole new worn-through gash in my rear left tyre which basically exposed the insert halfway around the tyre. As you might expect that somewhat ruined my final and gave the car some interesting handling traits. Luckily the tyres held up throughout qualifying so I enjoyed most of my evening.

I've not got any pictures again basically because I couldn't decide what I would or could take any pictures of. I've not got any new gear to speak off (and in all honesty I probably won't be getting any this year) so there aren't any photo 'ops' there, the Blackpool facility remains the same week in week out so... yeah. When I find something photo-worthy or get something new and exciting it will be posted up here first!

Actually, speaking of new things, Graham Whur bought a new Sanwa M11 2.4 system from Colin via Andy and commented straight away how much more responsive it felt compared to his old Spektrum system. This caused me some psychological issues (as I have a Spektrum module in the back of my Sanwa Exzes Plus - the stick version of the M11 essentially) so when I had a play with it on the bench comparing it to mine the difference was shocking and frankly appalling - Spektrum obviously gave up on R&D years ago... It also supported comments Andy has made in the past when trying my car - flicking between using his Sanwa 2.4 Super Exzes Plus and my Spektrum Sanwa Exzes Plus (which should essentially be the same radio) - that my car feels numb. We had always put this down to some quirk of setup, but now I'm thinking the Spektrum system is to blame. At the end of the evening I had a go with Andy's car/radio on the track. If I thought it looked bad on the bench, the difference in feeling was amazing - I felt so much more connected to the car, I was able to start pushing straight away because I had such confidence that the car was going to end up where I wanted it to be. So... possibly be looking to sell all my Sanwa Spektrum/40Mhz gear to fund an updated 2.4 Sanwa system... any takers? :p

Morecambe at Blackpool Club

This Monday I was at Blackpool again but racing in aid of Morecambe. I was a little disappointed to get there and find out the only people from the Morecambe crowd in attendance was myself and Andy (and we normally race at Blackpool proper on Fridays anyway). I can only assume my overwhelming disappointment is to blame for me once again forgetting to take any pictures of the evenings proceedings.

I chose to ignore my grip roll woes on 28 JBs from a few days prior and went out for Round 1 on the aforementioned offenders. My car was pitching a little round the same corners which cause issues before. However I discovered that with a combination of easing off the power through the corners and much better lines - much smoother, turning more gently into the corners - I was able to control the grip roll and put in some very quick times.

So, this is what I did throughout the evening and it worked pretty well for me. On numerous occasions during the festivities I was keeping pace with, or gaining upon Andy and Danny - the resident 'quick guys'. I was rewarded for my efforts with a 3rd on the grid for finals, behind Andy and Danny.

The final went, for the most part, without any drama. Despite some shuffling by everyone I found myself a few laps from the 5 minute buzzer still in 3rd place. This was until Danny broke a driveshaft (again) and because I was in touch with him I went 'past' him before the race finished. All in all a much better evening at the Blackpool venue.

Blackpool club night

I was racing at Blackpool on Friday night. The evening promised to be an interesting potential showcase of my newly discovered speed at the smaller Morecambe layout in recent weeks. Things started well enough. I wasn't as quite as fast as I had hoped but certainly was going better than I had been in my last few visits to Blackpool.

Then, right at the end of Round 1 grip roll struck. I suddenly found it very difficult to keep al four wheels on the carpet at some crucial points on the track. For Round 2 I tried widening the front of the car by 0.5mm each side after some advice from Andy. It worked as advertised and the car stayed on the ground, but it felt slower and I had lost some of the steering I have come to love. In spite of how it felt I did go quicker, mainly because I didn't spend any time in the scenery I think.

For Round 3 I narrowed my front end back to normal, but replaced my 28 JBs with 32 JBs I borrowed from Danny Holmes. It had a similar feel as the widened front end in the previous round but I managed to improve a little more. I qualified 4th in the A final as a result and decided to keep the 32s on for the finals.

In the finals I went well enough, but did not manage to improve on my qualifying position. As a result I left the evening relatively satisfied - it had been a more solid performance than in recent past - however I was left a little frustrated and perplexed by what I could do to get rid of the grip roll but get the level f grip back which we enjoy on the 28 JBs...