Goodwood - 25th June 2011

Entered the second round of the year at Goodwood with the hope of breaking in 100 second barrier I so narrowly missed in April.

Arrived bright at early on Saturday morning to find the unwelcome sight of a very wet circuit, far from ideal but at least I could leave the traction control on (usually off for sprinting)

However the car seamed to have other ideas as whilst cuing up for the practice runs a fault code popped up turning the traction control and abs off, not welcome on a wet track where I was expecting to be hitting approximately 140mph in places.

Luckily playing with various buttons cleared the code and all my driver aids were back.

First attempt at the practice saw red flags as an MR2 turbo had spun exiting the chicane on to the main straight.

Second practice run went more to plan with a time of 110s which was along way off my desired time but respectable considering the track conditions.

luckily by the time the timed runs started the track had dried out and the business of breaking the 100 seconds could start. Ended up with a time of 96.36 which was far better than expected and gave me the class win along with a welcome 11th overall.

Mallory Park - 18th June 2011

After the very unexpected class win at Abingdon the previous weekend I left home for the Classic touring car racing clubs Mallory Park sprint in a positive mood.

Arriving at the circuit early Saturday morning we were greeted my a damp circuit which didn't inspire too much confidence. The main competition in the class was looking likely to be a 385bhp focus RS.

By the end of the first run I was lying around 0.5S off of the Focus for the class win, I'd accepted that the win wasn't going to happen as I'd again opted to play safe with the damp conditions and close barriers in places.

Went out for the last run having accepted 2nd place place but from somewhere found enough to finish the day winning the class by a second.

Abingdon CAR-nival - 11th June 2011

11th of June was my first attempt at the Abingdon CAR-nival. The sprint is part of a much larger event which includes rallying, auto tests and off road events all with the aim of raising money for local charities. http://www.abingdoncarnival.com/AbingdonCARnival/CAR-nival.html

The sprint itself is split into two courses, the best time from each course is then added together to obtain the overall result.

Arriving at the event I wasn't all that confident of doing that well, other entries in my class included 2 911 GT3's including the 997 GT3RS of Brain Winstone which I'd been loosing to all year as well as a couple of other experienced drivers which I thought may well leave me mid class.

First course our group competed on was the faster Abingdon circuit, after the 2nd timed run I was shocked to see that I'd be starting the second circuit with a time advantage of 0.91s over the second placed 911 996 GT3 and a 1.16 second lead over the 997 GT3 RS, not sure where that came from but was very pleased.

Going onto the the second 'Bentley' circuit the class win was mine to loose. The Bentley circuit is a series of longish straights with 90 degree bends so is a bit of a test of brakes and acceleration. I was also lucky enough to set the fastest time in class on this circuit as well although by a much smaller margin of 0.25 seconds.

One of my goals of the year was realized by beating the GT3RS so I left the event very happy.

a quick video of the event is here:- http://www.youtube.com/user/andye30m3?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/dnlCIZsm0hU

Lydden Hill - 4th June 2011

4th of June at Lydden Hill was an all too common result of coming 2nd in class behind the 997 GT3RS although on a more positive note I was around a second quicker than I had been in the sprint earlier in the year.

Crystal Palace - 30th May 2011

30th of May was a great day for my first ever visit to Crystal Palace to take part in the Sevenoaks and district motor clubs motorsport at the palace event http://www.motorsportatthepalace.co.uk/

Great day out as it was one of the few sprints with a good turn out of spectators, the event didn't count for any championships so with the proximity of barriers and slight lack of grip I opted of a better save than sorry approach.

Highly recommend this one to anyone looking at competing in sprints.

Debden - 8th May 2011

Arrived at Debden looking for a good result which never quite materialized
As always arrived at the event hoping to challenge the 997 GT3 RS, this time for second in class as there was a heavily modified 996 GT3 in the class which I would expect to worry.

It would appear that I was over confident of beating the others in my class so was quite disappointed to find myself 5th in class.

Excuse of the day:- everyone in front of me was running on track tyres which have a huge advantage over standard road tyres.