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| A rare shot of me at speed. (thanks to Afgan Dan for the pic) |
Well I'm glad I didn't 'cause I'd look a bit silly now.
The season opener was a bit of an eye opener to say the least. I'm feeling a little, how shall I put it...deflated!
There's more competition than ever this year. Obviously the class R cars are quicker anyway and all the talented drivers have gone off and built new ones over the winter. So even the quickest F cars are well down the grid. I qualified 18th (29 entrants).
This is all good for the series of course, but it does rather lower my expectations.
Mind you, on the positive side, my qualifying lap time was my quickest ever. 1.04.7. I was getting just under 1.07 last year in slightly damp conditions, which was about where I had been with the Westy in the dry.
I'm told that everyone was roughly 2s per lap quicker due to the resurfacing at the complex so that kind of makes sense. However, my current benchmark is Austen who has exactly the same R1 engine, and he was about 1.5s quicker. Doh!
Anyway, Saturday's race was just a little dissapointing for me. I was hoping to keep in the Austen / Colin (S) and Andy Grant pack but I was losing several car lengths down the back straight and just couldn't keep up.
I managed a 4th in class in the end by default as the new class F car of Steve Bell went out in a cloud of smoke (and he was subsequently commended for his bravery under fire), but my times were still stuck in the 1.04.7s compared to 1.03s for the pack I should be with.
I can't blame the car. It felt great, so it's not that. Watching Tim's video I think I may have worked out where I'm losing time. I need to be wider into Becketts and maybe a tad slower in but faster out which is where I'm convinced most of the time is.
I was out in the free practice on Sunday morning when I hoped to practice the Becketts thing but suffered a clutch failure after only 10 minutes leaving me spectating with the marshals for 20 minutes. The TGM team were quickly on it and thought they had it sorted for the race. I was all set to perform in front of my family and friends who were putting in a rare appearance, but the clutch failed by the first corner and I didn't even manage 1 lap.
Boy was I ****ed off!!
When I said I wanted to finish the race first, that's not quite what I meant!
Now, those that know me know that I'm a positive person. I'm quick to be philosophical about the ups and downs on racing, but my resolve was tested this weekend. But let's be honest. I'm lucky to be able to do this fantastic sport at all, and there are moments when I would not want to be anywhere else, so onwards and forwards!
Anyway, Tim reckons he knows what the problem was and has fixed it (if you want a full technical explanation of the problem, you're reading the wrong blog!). So I will be at Brands, with my optimistic head on. Don't take it easy just yet, Austen!
