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. 

Winter 2015

Having finished in the top 10 of the 2015 PBMW championship the winter was time to look at moving forward in 2016, a podium is still the ultimate aim so fingers crossed.

The man change has been to sell the GAZ gold coilovers which were at least 6 or 7 years old and pretty old technology compared to the latest offerings from the likes of GAZ, AST and Avo. I'd often felt the rear suspension was the weakest link in the car through 2015 with me suffering Wheel spin in some very odd places and still hitting the bump stops more often than I'd like.

The decision was made to go for a used but fully rebuilt set of AST from Mike Tovey's 2013 championship winning car. The car is as I type with the 2015 PBMW champion Gary Feakins having the suspension fitted and a general look over. If nothing else I should have at least 1 less excuse

As well as the change to AST I've gone back to the Performance friction pads which I Personally preferred to the Mintex 1166's pads they replace.

For 2016 the Production BWM's have a choice of running the old Toyo R888's or the new R888r's. General consensus seams to be that the R888R is gong to be the better tyre so a set of those are also in the garage ready to be fitted before the first rounds at the end of March.

Also worthy on a mention is the end of year bash last weekend which took place in Northampton and as ever was a fantastic evening which remind me what a great much of guys make up the Production BMW and Toyo Tires Racing Saloons Paddock. I was chuffed to come away from the evening with a cracking trophy for first in class F of the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons for the second year running

Castle Combe - 10th October 2015 -PBMW rounds 11 &12

The final event of the 2015 Production BMW championship took place at Castle Combe on the 10th October, we'd not been to the circuit in 2014 and the 2013 race was about my worse result of all time. My pervious best time at Combe had been 1:28.599 so that was one goal to aim to beat.

On a more positive note, I'd arrived at the circuit 9th in the overall championship although it looked likely that Ian Russell was going to knock me down to 10th once the dropped rounds and marshalling points had been factored into the championship standings.

Headed out for an early qualifying at it was immediately apparent that the softer suspension setting's I'd used at the last rounds at Donington Park where not going to work. Coming out of the chicanes the rear suspension was bottoming out on the bump stops which made for an entertaining, if slow qualifying session. Unfortunately there was no Toyo Tires Racing Saloons race the day before to iron out these issues.

Ended up qualifying in 27th out off 36, not ideal but not a great surprise given the way the car felt. Qualifying time was 1:25.743 so almost 2 seconds faster than I'd been before.

In order to try and solve the issues with thecae stiffened up the rear suspension for race one which seamed to help, Although it was still just about hitting the bump stops through the chicanes it was clearly an improvement. Managed to get a good start and had a fairly hectic race to finish 24th with my best lap time getting better at 1:24.959

With nothing to loose I stiffened the rear shocks a few more clicks which this time seamed to solve the problems I'd faced in qualifying and race 1. I got a fantastic start form 24th to finish the first lap in 16th went on to have a great race with amongst others Ian Russell and Steve Carter. Very close and contact free which is exactly what 1 want from a race weekend. Finished the race in 12th which was a very welcome change from race 1. Best lap time had also fallen to a 1:24.191 so 4.408 second faster than my pervious visit to Castle Combe.

I think that leaves me 10th over all in the 2015 Production BMW championship which I'm very happy with, As always it's been a great year racing with fantastic people. I've already started to take the car apart to prep it for the 2016 championship.

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