Tuesday, 13 August 2013

My 2013 Season so far...

Well I've been innundated with comments from literally 4 people on the lack of a blog from me so far this year so I thought it was unfair of me to keep my legions of readers waiting any more.
In my defence I do have a good reason for my bloglessness. Embarrassment. Despite my show of promise last season with a class win, I seem to have spent this season going backwards.


It was Brands first. My problems started just three laps into first practice when I collected a barrier having ran out of talent through Surtees (trying to keep up with Austen). The TGM guys did a stirling job getting me back on the track for the races with the help of some new rose joints, a big hammer and lots of fibre glass (but mainly the hammer).

Looking worse for wear, only 3 laps into the season!



One front left tyre with added scenery!
 Unfortunately the steering rack had been bent, and whilst it was driveable, it felt like driving a lorry with flat tyres (not that i've ever done that!). So the race was disappointing to say the least.
The second race on the Sunday was even worse. It was very wet, and if the steering was bad in the dry, in the wet it was hopeless. I span at least twice. I had no feel at all. It was a bit like playing the driving games on the xbox with no feedback, but more dangerous!


Fixed! - no one will notice!


It was especially disappointing to be out of the running for that weekend because it was the only time that class F has had it's own race, without class R. So well done to Austen who had two wins and now has lots of adoring fans and fame and fortune. ;-)




















Anyway, moving on. Snetterton was next. We were using the new 300 circuit so about a third of the circuit is entirely new. Same for everyone of course. In fact even those that had been testing on the Friday were none the wiser as it was so wet that very few people had done anything like a fast lap. In fact poor old Colin Chapman had crashed out which ruined his weekend.
The car was properly fixed now, save for some missing stripes.
Looking slightly better - nice day in Norfolk.

Sadly my performance wasn't much improved. A fairly lacklustre performance had me running 6th in class. A spin in the first race, followed by a failed clutch meant a DNF for that one, and then race 2 wasn't bad until another spin in the new section but be at the back.
So again, I was nothing like up to speed.

I missed Pembrey so Donington was next for me. I was running quite well here last time where I got my first class F trophy so I was hopeful of getting back on form. We were running the full circuit which differs slightly to last time out, but again, it's the same for everyone.


As a slight diversion, the weekend started for me with a great evening out at a Blondie concert, thanks to the Chapmans. My first teenage crush! (Blondie, not the Chapmans). Fortunately we were far enough away from the stage for me not to be able to see too closely that she is well into her 60s.  

  
Got my stripes back
So the theme of the weekend for me was; pretty good start, got worse in the middle and ended badly. Not disaster badly. I did finish in one piece which is always good. No, just dissapointingly well down the field after some terrible driving.
I've looked at my videos to try to see what I was doing wrong and I think i've worked it out. I'm driving too slowly.

I worked out for myself some time ago that, when I get to the point when I think I'm driving as fast as I can, I'm definitely not. I've got to drive faster than that! So I've promised myself that I'm going to Silverstone with a new, drive faster head on and see if we can fix this.

Watch this space.


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