SRS & fun racing with a trip to round 1 at Clanfield. The full entry was a good show for the event with some top names booked in, shame a few no shows as it let down some on the reserve list but just the nature of the beast i guess. The fine light rain stopped around 9:30 with then glorious sunshine all day which helped the track to clean up & polish / groove in towards the end of the day.
I was happy with the day in whole for qualifying.
Rnd 1 clean & no mistakes going 4th in round just a few seconds off tommys TQ time.
Rnd 2 again clean run but engine started to play up with a lean bog so time tailed off, shame as 9 lapper was on the cards but 4th again.
Rnd 5 tried something different with the engine but lean bog came 2 or so laps in, not sure why but pulled off as run was pointless now.
A bit of first aid for some young chap who luckily got away with only 8 stiches in the back of his ankle rather than a severed achilies which was so close to being done. Moral of that story wear sensible shoes, man I sound like my DAD ahhhhh.
The descision time now was tires & swayed towards revolvers as track was clean & dust free. My car felt edgy & wish I had left on the calibers but to late now.
The fantastic start tone of Go saw us all banzi into turn 1 & i came out 3rd from my P6 start grid so chuffed with that. Stayed there for several laps till i rode the hose for a bit dropping back to 5th. My race pretty much stayed like that & couldnt really gain much on the front runners. The car seemed to go away from me a bit after the last round of qualifying so final seemed a battle, any time I gained by the 10 minute stop i lost in crashes, so to be honest a poor final & nothing exciting about it other than nursing it home to finish 5th, shame as it started so well.
All in all the event ran smoothly a few moans on the forums afterwards & some justified. The driving in the lower heats & finals was poor with etiquate non existant but i guess this will change as the series progresses. Lucky i suppose the top heat & final was clean with my fellow competitors moviing over as i did at the right times to give a problem free day in that aspect. Safety of the track was poor & something that needs adressing, it will need to be or the venue could very easily be lost so will see how any changes progress.
Anyhow thats me for now, having a weekend off before its Rnd 2 of the Nationals ar Deerdale. ah then dirt at slough for Rnd 2 SRS yipeeeeeeeee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKCI1MCemaw
