And so endeth my lucky streak at MMCC

Racing last night at Morecambe ended my one run lucky streak I started last week. I managed to post second fastest time after Andy in round 1 of qualifying and then not improve for the rest of the night until the final when it was too late to get another 100 points because I missed out on the A final. As they say, you've got to be in it, to win it.

I enjoyed the track layout, the only place I got caught out a couple of times was the chicane exit onto the straight at the bottom left of the photo above. A handful of times I turned in a little too early heading onto the straight, clipped the corner and went straight on into the edge of the track which resulted in being marshalled. Props to whoever designed the track, I'm not 100% but I think Mark Jordan deserves at least some of the creative credit.

In my defence, it was a busy night and lots of quick guys were there, so competition for spots in the A final was pretty fierce...





I qualified pole in the B final and I quite comfortably finished there, putting in my best run of the evening which was still a little way off the pace at the front of the A final. All in all not a bad evening but not a great one either.

The night my rear belt met its maker

Racing last night at Blackpool started okay. My new bodyshell was still intact after its first run at Morecambe on Monday and the car seem to shifting round the track alright as well.

In terms of qualifying times it was also pretty close between me and Justin Bieber here... despite the constant fiddling he seemed to be doing to his super high-quality, durable Associated TC6 diff...

But then in Q3 disaster struck. I had noticed over the last few weeks that a few teeth on my rear belt had been 'lost to the cause' but I was hoping it would hold until I came to rebuild the car this weekend in preparation for the Cotswolds National in a few weekends time. Unfortunately this was not to be, two laps into Q3 I found myself with a toothless rear belt. Damien had snapped his rear belt earlier in the evening so I guess the proverbial rear belt grim reaper was in the building somewhere. As I was planning to rebuild the car anyway and because I didn't want to risk breaking my only spare rear belt (something must have made the teeth break away) before the National I decided to sit out the finals.

In other news, couple of the lads are down at the Cotswolds BTCC this weekend testing for the National and Andy asked me to take a few snaps of his car and new shell design, because in his words: "It will never look this good again!"

I know the guy who did his shells isn't exactly busy at the minute so if you like what you see and you're stuck for some last minute national shells - there's no waiting lists - chase Andy down at one of the meetings (you can't miss him, he's got a ginger 'fro going on at the minute) and ask him for some contact details.

Well that helped my MMCC championship average...

Predictably, I was up at Morecambe last night. It's just no nonsense, good ol' fashioned fun. As Adzy is demonstrating clearly in the picture below...



The track layout was once again very cool, I think the credit goes to Andy and Ben for its design and construction.



I was running my new shell tonight as well as my old one had basically met its maker, been repaired then met its maker all over again. It worked a treat, no more hang ups on bits of bent over bodyshell and I may even have crashed less due to the fear of potentially damaging it prematurely!



I've also replaced my big fan which I broke at Ardent last time I was there. I say I broke it, some idiot in an Associated jumper (could be any of them, I know) broke it by driving into the side of me. You can spot it sitting snug between the motor and speedo in this picture if you're looking close enough



It was a pretty quiet evening at MMCC, the regulars were slacking and/or on holiday so what can you do...

Not only did I remember to take pictures this time though, I also got some footage. I'll dump it in the video sidebar but it's also below so you find it easy. I'm good to you like that.


'C' Final (with Mardave and Buggy mix)


'B' Final with touring cars (part 1)


'B' Final with touring cars (part 2)

Aside from the madness in the videos above, qualifying and the finals were again a relatively predictable affair. Andy took pole, I was behind him and Col just behind me on the grid. The final started off really good with some close but clean racing... then we broke it. Well I know I clipped/was clipped by some other bodyshells, so perhaps it was just me who broke it...

Either way, when the chequered flag dropped, metaphorically, we're not that keen... I was still behind Andy and still in front of Colin. I rushed over to the computer to see if I have managed to cinch that illusive fastest lap - I know I had been trying hard enough towards the end. Victory! 1 bonus point was mine! 7.96 seconds to Andy's best of 8.10 seconds. Thus bringing my score for the evening to a nice round 100 points and dragging my 'ability' championship average up out of the mid 90s to 97 points. Good times.

Out with the Old in with the New...

Racing On The Promenade

I was racing at Blackpool last Friday, it was nowt special to be honest. Car was ok, I was driving ok for the most part - usual story. I qualified 3rd and finished 3rd in the A, behind Andy then Danny.

We had a good race between the three of us at the start and I even led for the few first laps of the final but it got a bit scrappy and Andy got away from me and so did Danny, so back in third place I was! No pictures because I'm a bit of a fool and forgot to take any again...

MMCC Championship

This was the rather awesome looking layout we were racing on last night at Morecambe. I understand Mr. Adam 'Adzy' Whittam deserves all the credit for the design. I, I must confess, was sat in the pits the whole time dusting off the car and then re-gluing my tyres for the umpteenth time. So, a big thanks goes out to everyone who actually contributed to this super-rad track!

I actually had a pretty reasonable series of qualifiers, even the one were my wheel came of at the end of the straight was good fun up until that point. My rogue wheel was due to the increasingly poor quality of the Schumacher pre-glued tyres. I'm sure when we first started using these both indoors and out, the glue jobs were much much better and the wheels were made of a much better plastic. Now you're lucky if you get one run out of them before they're coming off the rims and maybe a month of running before the hex moulding either deforms and spins on the axle or they're covered in cracks on the inside... I'm not the only one who suffers from all of the above... I'm just saying... I'm actually starting to wonder if Schumacher have soooo many 'team' drivers just so they can always win the tyre vote at whatever series or meeting and sell however many thousands of sets of tyres they must shift. Don't get me wrong, it's not exactly a bad business plan if that's the case! It's just a shame for the rest of us who have to pay the ridiculous full price. Rant over.

I ended up qualifying comfortably in the A final but only in 3rd place on the grid. The final was actually good fun and relatively close between everyone at points. We all managed to do more than our fair share of crashing though and that mixed the order up in time for the finishing tone. I finished fourth, with two laps less than I had managed in my best qualifying run. I don't know what my issue is but I can't seem to catch a break in the MMCC finals of late. I'm just sat here watching my average score tumble for yet another championship. As always, I could and should crash less, but I don't crash anywhere near as much at Blackpool for example...

The first National has obviously been and gone now, wished I could have been there but we can't have it all. I am, however, stoked about the upcoming Cotswolds and Halifax nationals which I am entered into. I have started getting a few bits and bobs together, bodyshells and tyres I have already for instance. In the spirit of doing it on a tight budget though I will only be running the one set of tyres at each event. It worked ok for me last year so I'm not too bothered about that to be honest. It will just be good to be out there with the old national crew - we even have a new addition this year in the form of Mr Cottom and spouse, from what I've heard about West London. Double the trouble!

Blackpool Club Night

I was racing at Blackpool yesterday evening. It was a bit quieter than normal, few regulars MIA - Andy for example was still trying to get everything sorted for the first National this weekend at West London. Ended up 'racing' with/against Danny and Mark Jordan in all the qualifying rounds and again in the final too. Danny as usual was flying round at breakneck speeds, although I was able to keep within a lap of him which is pretty good going for me. Mark was going round relatively quickly, he was struggling with his car more than anything and was actually very quick down the straight and between the corners. He was doing final checks on his new RC Dynamics speed control, ready for Andy to use at the national weekend; everything was working well and things look promising for it to set new standards for speed controls in my opinion.

Anyway, qualifying came to close with me predictably in second place on the grid behind Danny and Mark in third place still testing different settings and struggling with his car setup in equal measure... and that's how things ended.

Unfortunately I'm not joining in with all the fun and festivities at WLRC this weekend, financial constraints mean I'm only racing at the next two rounds, Cotswolds and Halifax, although I have begun preparations for Cotswolds. I've just got some new shells (nothing fancy - will just be the white and blue scheme again) and bought a new big fan as mine was smashed at Ardent over the Winter. I might even treat myself to a new rotor! The big rebuild is planned for the bank holiday weekend begore the national weekend - I'll keep you posted on the the prep as well as my ongoing weekly club races.

MMCC

I drove up to Morecambe last night with a very full car; Miss Thresh, Adzy and Dean were all in attendance. I was looking forward to the evening as I'd not been racing for a little while, although it was in the back of my mind that when I don't race super regularly I tend to lose my consistency very quickly. Andy was not in attendance which is a very rare thing - I think this is the first MMCC night he's missed in 14 years... well maybe not, but something ridiculous like that I'm sure...

Anyway, his absence meant the magical 101 points in the championship was up for grabs - he usually gets down the library and takes it out on long loan at the start of the season so no one else can get it, but not tonight!

The evening started pretty well to be honest. I glued my tires before the start of the night so the car felt really smooth and consistent to drive. Mark Carter was the quickest to start with but everyone was there or thereabouts, myself included. 101 here we come I thought!

Unfortunately I peaked far too soon (I'll save you the hassle, yes that is indeed "what she said") and didn't do any better after Round 2. Nonetheless I managed to qualify 2nd on the grid in the A final with that performance.

The A final started well and I was all over the back of Mark making my presence known, but then a sneaky bit of tape and a car that does enjoy a good bit of ol' fashioned grip roll colluded in an evil plot to tip me over several laps into the final. After that I pushed and pushed, which only really highlighted the loss of consistency I mentioned earlier, so sent me tumbling back down the grid to finish the final in last place. To everyone else's credit they pretty much all had their best runs in the final so would have been very hard to beat even if I had kept it clean. Hey ho, another Monday down.