Donington Park - 23rd April 2016 - TTRS rounds 3 & 4

Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2016 championship took place at Donington Park on the 23rd April, unlike 2015 we would be running on the shorter national circuit which leaves on the Melbourne loop, Personally I much prefer the national circuit as it avoids the two slow hairpins.

Having had a rare chance to test on Friday morning I was feeling pretty confident in how the car was handling although wasn't aware of the exact times as the track time on Friday was a trackday so timing wasn't allowed.

My previous best time on the national circuit was around 1:27.7 so I was happy with a qualifying time of 1:27.537 which gave me 13th on the grid and first of the 12 class F production BMWs.

Race 1 - After a great start I was fortunate enough to build up a bit of a gap to the remaining PBMW cars in class F however whilst battling hard with Johnathon Atkinson in the E36 318ti, both Ed Giddings and Alan Wileman managed to close up the gap and eventually pass leaving me with 3rd in class. Best lap time had dropped to a 1:27.096 leaving the chance to break into the 1:26's looking like a possibility.

Race 2 was much of the same with a good battles with Alan Wileman and the 2 E36 compacts, Ended up finishing 2nd in class behind Alan Wileman

Clio Progress

Between rounds 1&2 at Snetterton and 3&4 at Donington we have somehow managed to find time to crack on with preparing the clio 182 for the 750 motor clubs championship. A decent days work and the Saftey devices 6 point bolt in cage was installed and we even found time to change the brake hoses for some Hel performance braided lines and bleed the brakes with some race fluid. 

Snetterton 28th March 2016 - PBMW - rounds 1 & 2

Set out for qualifying in what was probably the worse conditions I've ever experienced on track, Heavy rain before and during qualifying meant the circuit was completely water logged, unfortunately after a couple of laps this brought out the safety car which stayed out until the end of the session. This really mixed up the qualifying results as some were still able to set respectable times whilst catching the safety car. I ended up qualifying 13th but moved unto 12th after penalties were applied for people exceeding track limits. 

Race 1 I managed another good start despite the damp conditions, managed to avoid the clashes on the first lap and ended up finishing the first lap in 7th place. Had a good although slightly reserved race, ending up in 9th, however was then promoted to 8th when someone was disqualified for contact. 

With a dry track for race 2 and a starting position of 8th I was looking forward to another good race. Managed to find some space early on which although it was nice to not be constantly pushed from behind I did rather get into the trap of not pushing as hard as I could. Finishing a respectable 7th was good news for the championship but my best lap was down on the previous days TTRS race. 

All in all very happy to leave the first  event 6th in the championship and looking forward to rounds 3 and 4 at Donington Park. 

Snetterton 27th March 2016 - TTRS rounds 1 & 2

Qualifying was always going to be a slightly compromised as I hadn't driven the car since Gary Feakins Racing had fitted the new AST suspension, Steering rack, wishbones and set the car up. Headed out on a thankfully dry track. The car definitely felt different, turn in seamed better than I recall from last year and the wheel spin that constantly caused issues in 2015 seams to be very much reduced (only issue now is a reducing number of excuses for not finishing well). Ended up qualifying 16th / 30 overall 3rd / 13 in class F behind David Graves and Matt Swaffer. Happy enough with the result although times were a little off what I'd hoped for however after just 6 laps it was just a case of needing to get used to the new set up. 

After a pretty respectable qualifying session it was time for race 1, The track was dry so opted to head out on a dry stiff set up. All seamed to work well until the 5th lap when it satrted to rain by which time I'd set a best lap of 2:26.448 which was a good improvement of my best lap of 2:27.268 in 2015. At this time I was running 2nd in class behind David Graves with Gianluca Maretto close behind. Unfortunately the rain started to get heavier and the track became very slippery, especially on a stiff set up. On lap 6 heading into Riches I locked the  brakes allowing Gianluca Maretto through who immediately spun in front of me allowing me to regain 2nd in class, Unfortunately another lock up into Ogies and a brief venture onto the grass allowed Will Arif through which demoted me to 3rd in class, still a respectable result and happy to return to the pits without damage.  Certainly confirmed that running the AST's on a reasonably stiff setting was not the way to go in the wet.

By the time race 2 started the weather had started to improve although the circuit was still pretty wet and slippery, a fairy uneventful race just making sure the car survived the wet weather and trying to get a feel for the car in the wet whilst running the AST's on the fully soft setting.