Apologies that this post is a little late arriving, but sometimes life takes over and I can't be bothered to write it of an evening after work. Last weekend I was at the Halifax National, despite seriously considering giving it a miss given the miserable-looking weather forecast for the weekend on the Friday night.
My wet car has a very first generation brushless system in from SpeedPassion, so fixed timing advance and minimal other settings. I thought the lack of speed would be a problem because Halifax is so big, although it's usually a good thing at other tracks as it stops me trying to put down more power than grip available in the wet conditions. As it was supposed to be wet all weekend I was worried about having to race the entire weekend with my under-powered wet car. However as it turned out, it was fine. Although the weather forecast wasn't as torrential as it looked at one point, it was constant on/off showers all weekend keeping the grip levels extremely low for everyone (unless you happened to be in one of the lucky heats who had a nearly dried out track before it started raining again).
The constantly changing conditions actually mixed up some of the qualifying positions quite a bit, I had something like a top 13 run in one round (I'd normally hope to be high 30's) whereas Andy had a couple of 80-somethings and usually he'd be shooting for top ten all the time. The rain even meant Andy Cottom was officially 'fast' for one run at least!
We all started Saturday with both wet and dry cars out on the bench in the hope of some sunshine poking through at some point, but by the time Sunday rolled around I think everyone pretty much just had their wet cars left on pit tables - it was almost certain that even if it wasn't raining when you left your car to get on the rostrum, it was probably raining by the time you'd climbed the steps to look out at the track again.
Actually, unlike Cotswolds, the Halifax track tends to seem to absorb any water rather quickly so there's never any standing water. It's always just at that greasy stage. As a result, slicks and wets worked with equal uselessness to be honest.
I think I had something like a 29, a 13 and a 54 at the end of Saturday qualifying - a fair old spread, but I called it a good and headed off to settle in at the Premier Inn and get an Indian at some random place in Halifax town centre - we found it by following our noses a couple of years ago if I recall. When Sunday came around we traipsed back to the track to endure more of the same in both the weather and qualifying department.
By the time the dust, or should I say the rain, had settled I found myself with a somewhat underwhelming qualifying position of third in the E final. The first two rounds of finals were nothing short of dismal to be honest. 'Naughty' and I had to start at the back of our first final after some confusion nearly meant we missed the race altogether! I'm pretty sure I finished dead last in that race - my car felt awful - much worse than it had all weekend and the complete lack of rear end grip made it almost undriveable. I had to keep turning around to face the right way at each corner!
Although we made the start of the next round, my race was equally bad and I finished 9th out 10 I think. After we came off 'naughty' aka Mark Cruddas suggested I tighten my read diff. I checked and it was slipping a little so a quarter turn sorted that out. I had completely forgotten you have to do such things with ball diffs, so used to the convenience of gear diffs I have become.
My final final saw me on the track with a completely transformed car, I actually at least held my 3rd place qualifying position in that round. However, the damage had already been done and an 8th place finish overall in the E was my 'prize'. At least the weekend hadn't been the complete washout I had feared on Friday night. It's a shame I didn't end my 2011 national campaign on a slightly higher note though. Next year maybe.
