Round three - Sculthorpe, 6th June 2010
Our closest event, being but one hour away near the town Phil went to college in. Good job it’s a local one as the tow car is still off the road, meaning it’s an MR2 convoy early Sunday morning.
We had a bit of a hectic week as Humphrey is in the bodyshop and should have had his new coat of paint on for this weekend. Unfortunately he didn’t so we had to spend Friday and Saturday making him sprint-worthy again. The regs say no primer or sharp edges, so we had to rattle can all the primed bits red, and re attach all the trim. So by Sunday we were pretty much shattered!
The other disadvantage of having Humph in the bodyshop was that we hadn’t much of a chance to drive him and make any necessary tweaks. The first problem was that the new race battery had gone flat and didn’t seem to be charging, however a few phone calls later got us a local friend with a spare!
The second problem arose on the route to the airfield, at about 7am Sunday morning, ugh.
I actually think Phil is kicking the car in this pic 
The brakes had started binding and the pdeal had gone very hard. Phil had to get rid of some of the pressure in the braking system before we would continue.
However we got there in good time and started setting up:
Sakura looked after some of our sprinting tools:
Until we got the tent set up. We’re looking quite pro now!
Anyway, we were soon scrutineered, signed on and ready to do on a few sighting laps. We had been warned that the track was evil - 2 miles of airfield, and once the sighting laps were done, I could see why. It was a rally track! There was grass, mud, gravel, surface changes, still looked like fun though.
Two practice runs were had, no problems to report, then a slight hiatus whilst some bales on track were moved to apparently stop us driving into a container that the farmer had forgotten to move! hmm.
Phil’s first run was 125.56, a few second off the pace, and mine was 133.93, fairly slow. Second run, Phil shaved some time off with a 124.10 and I had a happy play and got 130.80, which was to be my fasted time of the day!
Last run before lunch, Phil had a moment and got a 126.46, I had a bigger moment and got a 138.13!!
Lunch came and went and the day got hotter and more humid, although a large black cloud promised rain. Rain is fun and everything but we both knew there was more time to be had out of the car, and a wet track wouldn’t help.
We managed a dry run four, Phil getting a 122.76, me having another massive tank slapper and getting a 137.10. Run five was also fine and Phil got his fastest time, a 122.21, me taking it easy got a 133.66.
The weather then arrived as I was queueing for run 6, and the timing equipment also failed which meant all timing stopped at run 5.
The fastest time in our class was 115.94, although this is from the car which is overpowered for the class. Runner up was 119.47 so Phil was still quite far off. We’re still unsure as to whether the power is all there, and need to look into this!
