So then, the first race with the new car.
Let's start from the beggining.
I was working Saturday morning so after that (about 3pm) I set off to meet up with Jordan, (who is be travelling down with) he lives about 1 hour north of me, which means it's 2hours 30 to the track rather than 1 hour 30 from mine. Because of this we'd decided to travel down on the Saturday rather than a Sunday morning purely because it would make it a very long day.
So we made it to Essex for about 7pm. Got checked into the hotel, did a little car prep (for me it was just getting it set up) then headed off for some tea at the restaurant.
After filling up we headed over to the track to see how the build was going with the track. By the time we got there the track was all set up and a few locals were getting some laps in. Initially I had wished that I'd brought my equipment to give the car a quick shake down to ensure all was ok, I changed my mind after seeing how green the track was and noting that it was purely a track sweeping excersice rather than real testing.
We got our pit table put up though so at least we had pitting sorted :)
At about 10:45 we retreated back to the hotel to finish any remaining prep and get some sleep ready for what would no doubt be a long day.
Rise and shine at 7am, washed and at the track for 7:45.
Pit set up and booked in, just motors and wings to Tech before qualifying.
There was 1x 4minute practice before qualifying, this was going to prove very crucial to how the rest of the day was going to go.
I was still running on last years tires, knowing how much of a difference new tires can make at this venue, I figured I'd play things conservative.
With this practice being the first running I got to do, I took things very easy for the first few laps, checking trims, temps (as this was first time running 17.5 blinky.
All I can say is wow, the Awesomatix worked really well, general lack of grip due to the track, but also I could feel straight away that the balance wasn't right, the rear felt very soft and as if I had little confidence on power with the rear of the car.
Despite this, I still manged to top the time sheets during practice, based on the best 3 consecutive laps. For sure I was very surprised about that!
So back on the table, I gave the car a once over, all seemed fine, nothing loosened or suspect. All good!
I was reluctant to make too many changes as I knew the traction would come up a lot and improve the track. In the end, after a bit if deliberating I decided to go slightly harder in the rear spring setting, aswell as going up on the diff oil in the rear.
Round 1 of qualifying went well, still loose but better balanced so again came away pleased, also gaining the win for the round by a little over 2 seconds.
Round 2 was much of the same except the only change being a slight reduction in the rear spring rate. Again a round win, so that was the most of qualifying done with it being the best 2 out if 4 rounds to count. The only way to be beaten would be for 1 other driver to top the next 2 rounds and go faster than my previous 2 TQ times.
Round 3 went very well, again with a diff oil change and rear spring adjustment, and for the first time I played with the motor settings.
Pace wise I think I was lucky to get the TQ for this round, the car was super safe to drive, maybe a little too safe.
Round 4, with the TQ spot nice and safe, I decided to really go for it. Knowing that a number of drivers would run new tires, I decided to do the same so I could know if fresh rubber would be the way to go for the final. I also wanted to add a little more rotation to the car so I went down a little on the diff oil. But left the motor as it was.
This was a really good run. Gaining TQ again for the round making it a clean sweep, but this round, feeling confident to push the car every corner every lap, the balance was perfect coupled with the fresh rubber, I set a time 1.6 seconds ahead of everyone else, and nearly made it to the elusive 20 lap mark.
Onto the final.
Flag to flag win, I had turned the timing on the motor down ever so slightly to ensure I was safe with motor temps.
Again the car ran faultlessly and with the fine tuning of the motor, I was able to build up a very comfortable 4.5 second lead
The video of the final can be found here.
