Monday, 8 October 2012

Anglesey Race Report 2012

ANGLESEY RACE REPORT 2012



How do you describe Anglesey Circuit?  Well, its bit like Cadwell Park, it has something for everyone.  Fast straights, slow technical, long sweeping bends, hilly and not to forget a lot of hairpins.  In my view it has to be up there with the best of them in terms of pure entertainment value. 




When we arrived at the circuit it was late at night.  It’s a long old haul up to Anglesey from Milton Keynes area, but I am not complaining, but by the fact all (most) other fellow RGBers were already there I did think maybe I should have taken Friday off work to try get up there in a decent time.  (Note to self: arrive earlier next time).

So, Saturday arrives and there is no time wasted, but to get the car ready and get it down to scrutineering.  Scrutineering is I am sure everyone who may read this can appreciate is there for your own safety.  It ensures cars are up to standard in terms of build construction and safety and also to ensure that no one has decided to modify their cars unfairly, outside of the regs, to give an unfair advantage.  From that perspective, I full heartedly support its intentions.  What really cheeses me off is the amount of time it takes to get through the whole process.  We were queuing for over an hour to go through scrutineering this time round.  Long enough for a couple of the drivers to return back to their motorhomes cook breakfast and come back with piping hot flasks of coffee.  It crazy how long things take, but let’s look on bright side.  At least the weather was nice ;-)  I guess what made the whole waiting experience more painful was the fact I had literally just done my back in lifting and carry a generator about 50 yards earlier on.  What with having an incredibly weak back anyway due to past rugby injuries and operations, lifting the genny sent my back into excruciating back spasms , and whilst I hunched over the roll cage waiting for the queue to move I was considering pulling out the race.

Finally, got through scrutineering.  So proceeded to hobble back to the paddock area.  To which I decided to lie down and try to relax my back.  What happened between lying down and the race, well I have no way of knowing as I was fast asleep, so not much to report.

Race #1

Qualified 23rd out of 27th with a 1:18.67.  Not blisteringly quick compared to the likes of John Cutmore in the Spire GT3 having done a 1:11.10, but not too shabby considering the performance differential between cars.

Start of the race and I was a bit surprised to see Tim Gray in his Spire GT3 lining up behind me on the grid.  For those who know, Tim has won every race this season leading from the front, so to find him behind me was very surprising.  I learnt later on he didn’t get a qualification time and therefore started from the back. 
Lights out and away we go.  A much smoother start than the usual jerky affair.  Applied the power heading off down the main straight.  Before I had even gone 50 yards, Tim had already passed me.  How is that possible!?  The guy is a machine!
Approaching the first corner it was time to slam the anchors on.  An almighty pile up was unfolding in front of me.  Not sure who or what caused the incident, but it managed to gather up 5-6 cars.  As  I swerved to avoid it, I managed to over take Tim but before I even got to the 2nd corner he had repassed me…..’Bugger!’.   But to be fair if it wasnt that corner it would have been the next one.

The race unfolded to be quite a good competitive race for me and the car.  Managed to keep with the Class F pack.  Loosing them through the corners, but gaining lots on the straights.  Church going up into Rocket saw the car reel them.  Few more laps and a bigger pair of balls I think I would have been there but to be fair I was just ecstatic to have been up there with them as the cars setup has never really had any scientific input/setup to this point.  It was all what we had learnt from other drivers and making changes after my feedback, but I think its fair to say, most of set up was guess work at this point, but at least we were heading in the right direction.

Race #1 Results
Finished 18th out of 27 starters….not bad!
Best lap time, 1:17.92….quicker than qually.
6th in Class…but we shall ignore the fact that a number of cars were taken out on the first corner.








Above selection of photos courtesy of 'Afhgan Dan'



Race #2

Again starting at back of grid, with Tim Gray behind me, this time I was determined to keep him behind me.  LOL LOL…not a chance.  Lights out….I blinked and Tim was off in the distance….FFS!

Race 2 was very short lived.  Just starting lap 2 and disaster.  Engine revs went off the chart.  ‘What the?!’  Thought I had selected neutral momentarily so went through the gears, but I had lost drive in every gear.  I cruised round the circuit and park up next to the marshals hut, got out and proceeded to watch the rest of the race. 
Watching from the side-lines isn’t ideal, but is quite entertaining esp when you have the marshals radio giving updates to what is happening elsewhere on track.  The rest of the race, it seemed as though everyone had taken leave of their senses.  Carnage was ensuing on every part of the circuit.  Cars catching fire (Austen Greenway), diffs blowing up (Matt Higginson), bodywork flying off, Dave Masters being shunted off the track and required medical attention (was fine I might add), Arthur Rogerson struggling to keep his Class A Spire in straight line and me to name but a few of the incidents.

Eventually a recovery truck came over to tow me back to the paddock. 
Tris waiting with bated breath.  ‘What happened?’ ‘Diff is knackered’  I said.  This was followed by a longish pause and reply of….’well, it wasn’t a case of if it blew up, but more a question of when it blew it’. 

Thankfully, Tris wasn’t too concerned about the whole thing and we proceeded to push the car back to the van.

Realisation started to set in on the way home………what with a knackered diff, is this going to put a halt on the rest of the season.  I hope not.  We have only just got started.  Tris then laid out 3 options.

1.       Get the Muffet diff repaired for a 2nd time this season for £300 ish
2.       Or, get a £50 Freelander Diff in the car, job done, but would require a lot of chassis mods to get it in.
3.       Get a Freelander Diff, buy a Quaiffe LSD and get Ken Greenway to assemble.
4.       Or…call it day

Not happy calling it a day and balancing out what is the longevity of the car.  I decided against getting the Muffet repaired and opted for Freelander Diff route.  Whilst the diff was only £50, the Quaiffe LSD was £700.  Ouch!  Realisation then set in we would need bespoke drive shafts for all this so a trip to Bailey Morris saw another £330 spent.  Which seems a lot of money, but if in the grand scheme of things if it provided reliability and a quicker car due to better gearing from the diff….money well spent I feel.

Getting the parts organised seemed like an eternity, but we got there in the end with an end result of a mad panic rush before the 2nd round at Donington looming ahead in front of us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice report, look foreward to the next