Lydden Hill 04.04.2009

After a year off from racing I had a go a sprinting, First of all joined a the Tunbridge Wells Motor Club (http://www.twmc.org.uk ) and decided on the A1 production cars up to 2.0l class of their all circuit sprint championship.

Next job was to find a car which came in the form of a 2001 Renault Clio 172, The clio seamed like a good choice as it's light weight, quite powerful for a 2.0l and cheap to buy and run

Having found a car I had to complete a few minor tasks in order to be allowed to race it, This only involved making a timing strut, adding yellow tape to the -ve battery wire and indicating off on the standard ignition.

The car itself had to be standard so the only cost was a set of Yokohama Prada's which came just £136 for all four.

The day itself went really well apart from having to get up at 5.30am! The sprinting consists of a 2.75 lap pratice, 2 timed runs of 1.75 laps and as there was time a third timed run which doesn't count towards the championship.

Although I was beaten by the other Clio 172 (only because it was the lightweight cup version I'm sure!) I was pleased to see my times drop through out the day starting at around 97.7S with a best time of around 95.3 seconds for a lap and three quaters of Lydden from a standing start.

Now looking forward to round two at Goodwood.

Lydden Hill 27/10/07 - SEMSEC

The last race of the year in the SEMSEC stockhatch championship was at Lydden Hill on 27 October. I achieved a qualifying session without an engine fire which made a welcome change from the last 2 races!

Started and ended 3rd in class (out of 3) but improved on my previous fastest lap at Lydden by around 1.2 seconds so ended the day happy and with a straight car. Managed to lap a competitor in the class above which makes for a nice end to the season.

It was usefull to have other people in my class for a change as a guage for my performance. My best lap time was approx .8 of a second off of that of the second place guy and 2.4 off of the class winners best lap time so a little improvement is still required.

Now just have to spend sometime sorting the car out over the next couple of months in Preparation for next year were i will hopefully be entering some local 750mc rounds as well as the SEMSEC races.

Brands Hatch 08/09/07 - SEMSEC

Race number two was at Brands hatch on 8th September another great day out with nice dry weather. As with the last round at tydden I managed to have an oil beather problem resulting in a breif pratise sesion. I therefore ended up qualifying at the back of the grid with slight worries about a possible head gasket probelms.

The race thankfully went much better than the pratice and although the only person in my class I managed to beat 1 other car in to padock hill before the race was red flagged due to a crash at druids.

In the restart i again just got past the same fiesta into padock and ended up lapping him before the end of the race which was a real confidence boost as he was in a class which allowed for more modifications.

Went away very happy having again qualified and finished, which allowed be to drive home rather than having to recruit a resue crew! Bring on the next round at Lydden can't wait.

Thanks to Colin and Garath for all the photos of the day, except the one you kindly put on facebook!

My first race

Entered by first race yesterday in the stockhatch class run by SEMSEC, and had a great time. The venue was Lydden hill which i'd never driven on before so the 20min pratise in the morning was going to be all i had to learn the track.

Well that was the plan anyway after the second lap of pratise the oil beather on the rocker cover poped of and through oil all over the exhaust manifold! Smoke everyware and a bit of fire.I was sure i'd killed the poor car after just 2 laps. So there I was on the back of the grid on a track i didn't know, I was the only person in my class so every other car on track was on slicks and generally a fair bit faster.

But i managed to achieve the goal i set which was simply to pass scrutinering and finish the race. Best lap time was 55.75 which i was happy enough with bearing in mind i'd not driven the curcuit before but i sure the cars got more in it.

First Round

The first round of the year was today, although my car wasn't quite ready to race i thought i'd better pop along and check out the competition. There was only one car in my class although hopefull by the second round there'll be a few more. Pics of the day car be found here http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a135/AndyE30M3/semsec%20lydden%204th%20april%2007/

Almost there, spent the last couple of evenings making up a dash to house the engine cut off switch, pull chord for the fire extigisher and the hazard and rain light switches. Just need to tidy up some wiring now.

The next job I undertook was to install the fire extinguisher. Found the the best place to get this from was from www.peterlloydrallying.co.uk/ at £95 including VAT and delivery it was alot cheaper than other places i looked. Came complete with pull cords, and two nozzles.