Sprinting and Hillclimbing 2009

[ Next will be Debden nr Saffron Walden on May 10th while everyone else is sunnying it and wining and dining in Macon![/quote]

Tell me about it

si21

A great entry for the upcoming Debden Sprint this Sunday May 10. including 2 R8 gordini's and Bob Gibson's A110. A massive 13 cars entered in my class. The venue is at Debden nr Saffron Walden, Essex. (not the other Debden Essex on the central line) if anyone wants to pop by they will need to contact me for an entry pass.

Yet another great day weather wise at least, I blew my best time run and was faced with either hitting a pointing arrow sign head on or missing the turn. Not really wanting to pay Andy for new headlight glasses, yet, I chose the cheap option and got a wrong route as a result. Hence ended up 7th in class out of a huge 14 car entry. There was, however a non qualifying run added at the end of the day which was timed but would not count in the results, this time I got it right and set a 75.35, nearly 2 seconds better than my previous timed run and would have been good for second place. At least I left happy knowing that I can be on the pace here and it was, after all, my first time here in the dry.
Congrats to Bob Gibson on yet another class win.

Its the fast Bentwaters Park, near Woodbridge Suffolk next Sunday, May 17th. If anyone needs a pass, let me know.

Run of bad luck continues....either that or another from the drivers excuse book.
Bentwater parks, Woodbridge, Suffolk.
first practice run went well, set 2nd best time in class (although a lot of drivers were doing this event vor the first time and were not entirely sure which way the track went). Had a massive tank slapper moment in practice 2 but still kepts it going the right way and set a good ish time. First timed run had a great start and first corners but actually managed to hit a arrow sign attatched to a cone (see last week at Debden where I took action to avoid hitting such a thing) head on and feared damage to car and headlight glass and maybe cone stuck under car so went very gently on to the finish and surprisingly found i wasnt given the 5 second penalty for hitting a cone. In the event no great damage but some scuff marks which mainly cleaned off and no feared damage to headlights. Sadly it then poured with rain meaning that was my one and only chance to set a fast dry time ruined. result? 7th in class. Did have fun on the other timed run on a drying course though and set a reasonable time despite my heart not being in it anymore. Shame, as I had high hopes for this one after a good run last year.
and so to Prescot, confidence shot to pieces so anything could happen.

[and so to Prescot, confidence shot to pieces so anything could happen.[/quote]

Watch out for em barriers that just jump out in front of you

That the trouble with objects that are fixed down.........they cant move out of the way

si21

Sprinting, hopefully, at Debden, nr Saffron Walden, again this weekend,12th July. I say hopefully as I have done a few mods to the car as this photo shows and anything really could happen! (or not happen)



Pass available if anyone wants to come along (rain forecast, but there again it was last weekend at Silverstone as well and drought conditions prevailed)

Proper racer man. Now ,are you sure they'll let you run in class

NICE SPIDA

I wonder what colour it was originally

[BIG_MVS]

What's that on the dashboard? Looks like a ships radar

Nice, was it Rupert's old one?

What's that on the dashboard? Looks like a ships radar

Nice, was it Rupert's old one?

rear view mirror

ruperts old one, white trophy car, was bought by a guy down south somewhere and stuck in a garage never to be seen again.....
the one above was raced by Ray Mcdowell in the spider cup run by team parker racing and came direct from them after being in storage for 8 years the owner was downsizing his collection of race cars.... a very clean barn find i suppose, another one bought back into active service and may it win many races

[simontaylor]

Mark, I have the regs for Five Clubs event at Wiscombe on sat/sun Sep 5/6.
http://www.fiveclubs.org.uk/hillclimb/wiscombe/index.html
It is a great venue, you will see from last years results that there are normally quite a few Renault powered cars going up the hill.

If you like prescott as a Hill Climb, Wiscomb is just as exciting .......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8lNgBjBtG8
Lots more on YouTube.

What's that on the dashboard? Looks like a ships radar

Nice, was it Rupert's old one?

rear view mirror

ruperts old one, white trophy car, was bought by a guy down south somewhere and stuck in a garage never to be seen again.....
the one above was raced by Ray Mcdowell in the spider cup run by team parker racing and came direct from them after being in storage for 8 years the owner was downsizing his collection of race cars.... a very clean barn find i suppose, another one bought back into active service and may it win many races

Hear hear!

Nice car Mark.

Not had time to update on this so here is a quick resume.
As you may of gathered, I sold on my road Spider and purchased this uk cup car instead. Reasons being that since having a trailer I hardly used the Spider at all on the road this year and minor damage while srpinting, hitting the odd cone etc, was a major worry. Anyway, I was thinking of going the single seater route anyway in the future and always I wanted a race car in the first place and I certainly wont be counting the stone chips at the end of the day.
Must admit the timing was bad, being mid season means I have given up on 2 championships that I was comfortably leading and now find myself up against some daunting competition in the modified sports class so the chances of actually winning anything will be slim.
First event was Debden, car totally unsorted and as I bought it save for a swop of the accelerator cable to cure a sticking throttle, (turns out it wasnt the cable anyway). So I did 2 tentative runs of the track I know quite well and managed a reasonable time while doing so even though setting a fast time was way down my to do list. However it became apparent that the car was now not rolling well, infact not rolling at all as a jack up on each corner confirmed that every brake pad was well and truly clamped hard against their respective discs. A bit of a puzzler at the time as the front and rear brakes are entirely independent on each other being fed by seperate master cylinders. Turns out the problem was the rear master cylinder piston getting stuck in and in turn holding the front one in as the 2 are linked at the brake bias bar above the brake pedal. It was not a major problem as the master cylinders are relatively cheap and easy to get hold of, but it did mean my day was over with no timed run on the card.
Soon after a Debden, a long booked summer holiday meant thet I had little time to sort the car before the next event, Hethel, the Lotus test track in Norfolk. Refurbished callipers, which arrived the day before the Hethel sprint, were fitted along wth the new master cylinders. Trouble with a race car is that you cannot test until the next event so I arrived in Norfolk with a still largely unknown quantity. Brakes however were fine and just a bit of bias tinkering is needed and at last I got a chance to actually drive the car!
One thing is for sure, it is a lot different to my former road version and a lot of track time needed to bring me up to speed, and spints are hardly the sort of event I should be doing at the moment. However I improved over 7 secs between my 1st practice run and my fastest timed run although a general lack of pace left me with only a 3rd in class place and a good 6 seconds slower thant the 2nd place car. At least I got 5 trouble free runs in and for that I am happy.

Where you at next is ti on a Sunday or are you in Wales this weekend as I anot sure I can be bothered to spend the whole of Sunday sodding around with the Atmo ...there is only so much a man can take you know?

Si