Bayford Meadows - 4th October 2015 - Practise day

It had been a while since I've been out on a kart so we headed over to Bayford Meadows to try out the Tony Kart Rotax Max I'd bought a few months ago. Headed out on some dubious tyres but they were adequate for  getting out in the kart and trying to remember how to drive one.

Had a fantastic afternoon with a best time dipping into the 51's and running consistently in the 52's, a fair bit off thew pace but hopeful that with a little more practice and some better tyres I can knock a couple of seconds off of that.

Also had the chance to get my partners son back out on his Bambino, it was his third visit to Bayford meadows over the last few months and it's great to see him grow in confidence, already says he needs a faster engine but he's got over a year until he'll be 8 and able to move up to cadets

Nurburgring - Septemebr 2015

Well after all of this years racing it was about time for a holiday, naturally race tracks needed to be involved so we headed off to the Nurburgring. Very lucky to head out there in a 911 GT3 (996) which is the perfect car for the 'ring, just a shame with the minimal run off, insurance implications and the ever increasing value of the car means the laps were relatively leisurely at just under 9 minutes, video link belowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5bJDNhPELg

The trip did however inspire me to look further into racing on the 'ring, not sure I'll do all that well but it's a life's ambition just to be on the grid, fingers crossed I'll make it to atleast 1 RCN round in 2016

Donington Park - 20th September 2015 - PBMW rounds 9 &10

coming soon

Donington Park - 19th September 2015 - TTRS rounds 11 & 12

Coming soon

Brands Hatch GP - 16th August 2015 - PBMW rounds 7 & 8

After a great day in the BMW compact on saturday, Sunday was time for the 7th and 8th rounds of the Production BMW championship. Saturday had proved to be very worth while in terms of learning the circuit and we headed out to qualifying in a positive mood. The car felt great throughout qualifying with no drama's so I was slightly disappointed to finish 19th out of 37. although the time of 1:54,549 was very close to my previous fastest time around the GP circuit.

Had a fantastic start to race 1 managing to get passed the 2 cars in front before paddock hill and had a terrific race throughout with Gregor Pryor and Ian Shephard , ended up finishing in 15th place with a best lap time of 1:54.083

The start to race 2 didn't go quite as well, I got of the line well but the door was closed to there was no progression, had another close race with Karl Graves and Gregor Pryor . Again finished in 15th place, was annoyed at the lack of penalties handed out to the two drivers in front who both left the track on numerous occasions, I guess that's just the way it goes but if we're going to have rules they should be enforced. Good news came in the form of my best lap time around brands GP in a Production BMW car falling to 1:53.786 and still holding on to 10th in the overall championship.

Brands Hatch GP - 15th August 2015 - TTRS rounds 9 & 10

The 15th of August brought our second visit of the year to Brands Hatch, only this time we were fortunate enough to be racing on the full GP circuit as part of the Lotus festival. Timing for the event was also ideal for me as it's my local circuit so made sense to give the compact I've been building for the compact cup it's first competitive run out, in actual fact it was the first time it had ever been used on track.

On arrival there where 2 other cars in class E of the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons series. A honda Civic and ford puma, I had a feeling that the civic would be quicker than me but was unsure on how I'd get on against the Puma. Also had around 8 class F PBMW car's to compete with as their laps times looked very similar to the compacts.

Having had the front geometry set and brakes bled by Gary Feakins racing the day before I went out for qualifying with fingers and toes crossed. The car immediately felt pretty good and not too different from the PBMW other than a little looser on the back. Finished the 15 minute qualifying session in 30th position overall, 1st in class E with a best time of 1:58.208, approximately 3 seconds slower than my best time in the PBMW last year but reasonable enough for the cars first time on track.

With a couple of minor tweaks on the damper setting I headed out for race 1, Had a great battle with Mark Owen and Edwin Scott in the PBMW's, although occasionally a little too close!. As predicted the power of the Civic on Class E meant I had to settle for 2nd in class although neither the civic or the Mini Cooper S of Richard Ibrahim ever got out of sight. Ended up 22nd overall with the best lap time dropping to 1:56.936

Race 2 didn't go quite so well, a broken engine mount meant I had to take things a little easy in the second half of the race however still manage to finish 18th overall and bring the fastest lap time down by another second to 1:55.975

Compact cup car update.

Well after a couple of weeks of hard work it looks like the compact cup car should be ready for it's first race. the cars now been fitted with EBC yellow staff pad, paged discs, some used R888's, TRS 6 point harnesses as well as completing many other little jobs to get it ready and most importantly a few stickers to look the part.

The Superchips ECU has also been fitted which removes the ABS and traction control.

Just an oil change and a few brackets to be completed and the car should be running in the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons race at the Brands hatch lotus festival in a couple of weeks. Ideally looking to fit s bias valve to the rear brakes but time may not allow for this. 

With the Compact almost ready to go it was time to find some new daily transport, so purchased a 2004 Renault Clio 182, In the back of my head to prep in for the 750mc clio 182 series but probably best to finish one project at a time.