This last weekend was the Rally X 2 day national which this year was held at Clows Top nr Kidderminster.
The surface was grass which had been prepped with mortar bombs so was a little rough even before the cars had hit the track. The design was very open & fast with good use of the adverse corners which could gain or lose alot of time. With rain forcast all weekend it would now be 3 nationals in a row of wet weather so giving us all lots of work cleaning.
After a nice warm room at the hotel headed for the track on sunday, it was already raining which did not improve people's thought on the track either which was not perfect for a national but what we all had to deal with, its also not fair to moan as the organisers put in alot of work to get the meeting going so thanks to them.
For practice & the super long grass no brakes were required as the grass stopped the car as soon as the power was lifted. For me the 808 seemed well balanced & the remainder of the team all coming to the same conclusion for changes to improve on tyre choice.
Round 1 out on grp cone spikes a clearish run went 18th.
Round 2 a change of front springs to grey blue helped to stabilize the front due to high grip but the track now started to get bumpy, a clear run & 17th in round.
Round 3 no changes but now track was rougher & car was to stiff for these conditions & a duff run.
Round 4 front & rear springs changed to grey car was better, bumps were worse & 15th in round.
Round 5 oil was made softer to help on bumps, did not think the track could get any bumpier but it did so original lines now did not work so eased off. one unlucky bump cost me a good finish so ended up 25th overall & in the 1/4's.
Track time would now prove its worth in gold as the track would get to a state of the fittest survived, & self discipline on track speed would be the key for a good finish.
with the car all preped headed back to the hotel for a good healthy meal & too many beers for me with a beer head in the morning to follow always happens.
Monday & dry weather helped out in the lower finals with gordan brett the bump up king for him to return the favour later.
My finals stiffened up the oil & softened the roll bars to help on the bumps which were now like crators. I took an age to settle down to the track & only got in a bump up position with a few minutes to go but was to finish 5th.
The semi track time would now prove good & settled into a rythem from the word go fighting 5th 6th & 7th all race, with a good battle with Mr wilcox to the line closing the door on every corner he drove clean where many would not so i was to finish 6th & staright into the main with stuart getting in as 7th fastest which was just rewards for his clean driving.
Onto the 45 minute Main & a race on the ploughed field, with the rain now settling in the cars would get very heavy. With a good start settled into 9th & a steady pace which i stayed for about 20 mininutes. With several breaking out form here & some cuts worked my way upto 5th & a position i would stay to the end. This gave me my best finish in over a year & one in which i was well chuffed.
Thanks to June & Matt Perry for pitting & Gordon Brett for 1 1/2 hours of marshalling.
This was my final setup
http://forum.teamxray.com/xform/index.php?act=view&ID=159&setup=xb808till next time
Bren
