Snetterton, the penultimate race, is this coming weekend. With a whopping 9100 miles on the car, I decided to go through and bleed the brakes, and the clutch, and do a general bolt tighten. Everything was still tight, no diff cage issues, and the clutch stills bites as hard as ever, no sign of the crank seal failing. Ripley (name of my car, taken from the Alien quadrilogy) has by far and away the highest milage, and therefore is the happiest, Caterham in the Academy.
I start the weekend with the MSV testing day on Friday, get my eye in and find the grip. Then on to marshalling Saturday morning, followed closely by qualifying in the afternoon, then finishing off with marshalling on Sunday, and the race Sunday afternoon.
It's going to be a big weekend, lots of Caterhams, lots of excitement, and a big smile on my face at the end of it.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Three worst words in Motorsport, Did. Not. Finish.
This DNF was due to a fuel issues, so the car isn't damaged and I'm perfectly alright, apart from a badly bruised hand...
With another questionable qualifying, I ended up 1.5 seconds off the pole lap speed, in 15th place. The crazy thing is 5th to 17th was covered by less than a second, so a tenth or two at any given corner made a huge difference. I now know it's extremely difficult to turn up at a brand new track, and drive it as fast as it can be driven. Another flying start on my part, 3 cars before the end of the pit straight, it could have been more, but I honestly did not see the hole in traffic behind the yellow car in front to my left. The yellow flag came out at Paddock Hill on lap two, hence me slowing down, I think i was the only one who saw it judging by the way the other guys shot off... Maybe we all need to go on a course that teaches us all how to look for yellow flags! I did miss the green flag being held out at the bottom of Paddock though. I manage to put in a 57.000 on lap 7, two laps before my fuel cut out, being the 5th fastest time of the race, with only 20 minutes of track driving by that point, I am very pleased.
Thankfully this DNF doesn't mean the end of my championship podium fight, after everyone drops their worst score, I am only 4 points off the podium in 5th, so 100% in the zone.
Zolli, fantastic clean racing, you did some nice blocking, I couldn't find a way past for a long time! It's a shame it didn't go on for all 16 laps, it would have been fun to try and make it past that group.
Great race to all, shame about the contact Chris and David, congrats on another win Alex, and a big hearty congrats to Scott, never saw it coming!
Snetterton in a month, and I will be going to that event ready for a fight, without any fuel issues.
With another questionable qualifying, I ended up 1.5 seconds off the pole lap speed, in 15th place. The crazy thing is 5th to 17th was covered by less than a second, so a tenth or two at any given corner made a huge difference. I now know it's extremely difficult to turn up at a brand new track, and drive it as fast as it can be driven. Another flying start on my part, 3 cars before the end of the pit straight, it could have been more, but I honestly did not see the hole in traffic behind the yellow car in front to my left. The yellow flag came out at Paddock Hill on lap two, hence me slowing down, I think i was the only one who saw it judging by the way the other guys shot off... Maybe we all need to go on a course that teaches us all how to look for yellow flags! I did miss the green flag being held out at the bottom of Paddock though. I manage to put in a 57.000 on lap 7, two laps before my fuel cut out, being the 5th fastest time of the race, with only 20 minutes of track driving by that point, I am very pleased.
Thankfully this DNF doesn't mean the end of my championship podium fight, after everyone drops their worst score, I am only 4 points off the podium in 5th, so 100% in the zone.
Zolli, fantastic clean racing, you did some nice blocking, I couldn't find a way past for a long time! It's a shame it didn't go on for all 16 laps, it would have been fun to try and make it past that group.
Great race to all, shame about the contact Chris and David, congrats on another win Alex, and a big hearty congrats to Scott, never saw it coming!
Snetterton in a month, and I will be going to that event ready for a fight, without any fuel issues.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)