Update - Colerne 4th May & Llandow 9th May

After the Clay Pigeon sprint there has been a bit of a break in the season, but May is very busy, and last week I did 2 sprints in 5 days. The first, on the may day bank holiday, was at Colerne airfield, a course I'd not competed at before, and the second was at Llandow in south Wales, where I had entered my first ever sprint in May 2008.

So, Colerne first, and an account of what was the toughest day's motorsport I have yet encountered. Firstly, the car had been having mechanical issues in the week leading up to the event, to the point where I wondered if I was going to make it to the track at all, and this had left me feeling very underprepared for the event - a particular problem as I'd not driven Colerne before, or even done an airfield sprint that would be similar. The sprint circuit at Colerne is completely different to the trackday circuit they run there, and it's very, very fast, with long straights and one right hander in particular taken at well over 100mph in the quicker cars.

I knew the circuit might expose the VX's lack of ultimate power, and this was compounded by the reappearance the Ford Puma turbo in my class, which, despite it's Fiesta based origins is pumping out in the region of 280bhp, with all the launch-control and anti-lag systems under the sun, and would be extremely tough to beat on such an open course.

First practice wasn't much more than an exploratory run for me, with a time of about 88 seconds, I was around 4 seconds off the pace of the Puma, in around 4th place. After that I was never really on-song, and I struggled for the rest of the day. In the timed runs Toby Harris managed a new class record of 82.60sec in the Puma. I ended up 4th, behind the second driver of the Puma and Dave Greenslade in his Lancer, with a time of 86.37sec, and was actually pretty happy to get out of the venue and head home at the end of the day with a fairly solid 4th place and not too many points lost in the ASWMC championship.

Fast forward through a short working week and we found ourselves at Llandow circuit for the Welsh Counties Sprint. As with Clay pigeon this was an ASWMC invitation event, rather than a Bristol MC one, so the usual suspects were missing. In fact, it was only me and Matt Johnson in his MR2 in our class, and we were combined with the limited production class in the same engine size, meaning a 2 litre Westfield was also in with us. The combination of small class size and the Westy being pretty much guaranteed to be way ahead of us meant that really we were only being compared with the ASWMC record of 86.18sec. The weather was good (unlike last years Bristol Llandow Sprint) so I knew a good time was possible.


On the start line and braking for the Bus-stop at Llandow

First practice was more of a re-introduction to the circuit, and it's completely different in the dry to the awful conditions of 2008. There is an incredible amount of grip there, which leads to a very high average speed considering the small size of the circuit, but the surface is very abrasive, making it pretty hard on tyres. My first run was 91.95seconds, which was encouraging considering I normally have quite a significant improvement from my P1 time on circuits I'm relatively unfamiliar with. With a decent idea of the grip levels I set out on P2, shortening my braking zones and trying to stay as flat as possible through the long right-handers before the front and back straights. The result was around 86.76sec, just half a second short of the class record, which put me in a great mood for the afternoons timed runs (of which there would be 4!).

My first timed run was hobbled by a massive slide in the corners after the bus-stop, and was 87.11sec, to make sure of some decent points at least. I improved this on the second run to 86.86sec, so I knew I was at least getting closer. With these two times in the bag I thought I could just go all out and try and break the record, with the two corners before the straights, and the braking zone into and through the bus-stop being the obvious places to make up time. I headed out for T3 with these points in my head, and after a decent start without much wheel spin, managed to stay flat on the gas through the back right-hander onto the back straight, getting up into 4th gear by the time I got to the small chicane. I kept it tidy round the back of the circuit but braked too late for the bus-stop, and missed the chicane, running straight through the run-off area and resulting in no time being recorded.

Attacking the Chicane (Photo courtesy of Lenswork Photography - www.lensworkphotography.co.uk)

For the fourth and final run, I decided to just try and keep it tidy, and make sure I hit my braking points. I was completely flat through the right hander to the back straight and was more aggressive through the chicane. Then I hit my braking point just right for the bus-stop but was a little scruffy through the tight corners there, but managed to keep everything pointing the right way (just!) and ended up with 85.82seconds - a new class record! I was ecstatic with that, and it means a very good haul of ASWMC points.

The next event is back at Llandow in a few weeks time, and I think I might be able to go a little quicker if I keep it tidy. The Turbo Puma will be back then though, so we'll see how they run. However, the class record that I beat was held by the Puma, so we could be somewhere near, but they have developed their car since setting that time and will be able to beat it, so the VX will have to be on top form if it is to get a class win there!

So after the success at 'Combe it was time to get ready for the next event at Clay Pigeon Raceway near Dorchester. This was stepping out of my comfort zone a bit as it was the first event I have attended that was not organised by Bristol Motor Club, so my attendance was purely down to the ASWMC championship. In addition, Dorchester is a couple of hours away from home for me, so rather than getting up early for a long day we made the decision to camp at the circuit the night before the event.

Clay Pigeon is an outdoor cart track, but is a world away from the indoor commercial cart tracks that most people know and love. It's still tight, but it's more like a full size circuit F1 circuit, put through a mangle and sqeezed to 20% of it's original size. There are a multitude of corners, not just tight hairpins, although in a full-sized car the tightness and lack of width means that 2nd gear is used for almost all of the lap. This also makes it pretty technical, so walking the circuit was extremely useful.

We woke on the day of the event (after a very cold nights sleep!) to find the circuit blanketed in thick fog, but by the time we'd signed on, listened to the drivers briefing and eaten the mandatory bacon sandwich, the weather had cleared into what looked like perfect spring day. The entry was quite small and there were only 4 in my class but only Graeme in his Mazda attending from the usual BMC class A3 bunch. We were joined by a 2.3l Vauxhall Chevette with the usual trackday trimmings, and a corrado 1.8turbo with what looked like the biggest turbo pipework in the history of cars, and presumably a lot of power to go with it.

First practice came up, and to be frank, was a disaster for me. I'd made the decision to take it a bit easy, since I hadn't driven the track before, but this just didn't work. My driving was tidy rather than aggressive, but by the end of my two laps, my tyres were still completely stone-cold, and the brakes were still not up to the temperature they require to do any meaningful work. The time was terrible at 92.44sec, very nearly 6 seconds slower than Graham in his Mazda, and 2 seconds slower than anyone else. Time for a rethink.

Graeme in his Mazda, onboard, showing how tight it is!

 

Before second practice I softened my front dampers, which were still set for 'Combe, so were very hard indeed. I decided that the only way to get on terms with the other guys was to try and bully a time out of the circuit, not something that I'm particularly comfortable with, but in this case it seemed like the only way I'd get heat into the tyres and brakes, so it was worth a try. The result was that the car came alive, and despite struggling with embarrassing levels of understeer as the rears warmed up before the fronts, the time was 83.26sec, more than 9 seconds quicker than P1 and 1.7sec quicker than the 2nd placed Chevette.

For the timed runs I reduced the front tyre pressures to try and compensate for the front/rear temperature difference but otherwise just carried on as per the second practice run. The change in pressures helped the feel of the car, making it much more neutral with a tendency to oversteer when trail-braking. Getting on the gas too early in corners still meant that understeer was still quite prevalent in the slower turns, but by the end of the day I was starting to hit 3rd gear at 2 points on the circuit, which meant about 70mph - not bad for a cart circuit! As usual, T1 was a 'banker' time, in case of a change in weather or something unexpected, at 84.18sec, nearly a second slower than P2, but still quickest in the class by about a second. T2 was a better timed run at 83.39sec, still 1st in class. My T3 run was a little slower, but the Chevette improved by  to 83.58sec to make it very close, while Graeme came in 3rd in his Mazda at 84.85sec, and the Corrado brought up the rear in 88.73sec.

So another class victory, 2 from 2 in the ASWMC this year so far, and as the Clay Pigeon Circuit was slightly amended from last years design, a new inaugural 'record' time meaning 15 points in the ASWMC championship, in which I'm now in a 5-way tie for first place (this event doesn't count towards the BMC speed championship).

The next event is at Colerne on the 4th May, and I'm looking forward to it. The car will have had it's oil service etc. by then, and the air filter fully cleaned, but otherwise it'll be the same as it has been so far. Colerne will be the first event where the lap-record isn't new or set under bad conditions, so it will be interesting to see how the VX is now comparing to those times. I don't expect to get close to any records, especially as once again it will be a new track for me, but it will be interesting to see whether I can learn the track and be quick enough to mix it with the top guys in class A3 again!