Turns out, although cheap (£60 for the day) this place is not exactly Bruntingthorp!
although its a wide runway, only the centre part has been tarmaced at some point and even that has the odd pot hole. This one here by the "pits" being the worse.
With a hairpin at each end though, its the perfect place to prepare for north weald and get some practice starts. Would have to be desperate to spend a whole day here mind but might be usefull for testing engine set ups etc on non road legal cars, lots of loose gravel though on the surface so not good for prestine bodywork.
So, off to North Weald then next day.
The white Ginetta in front is our main class rival along with a ropey 205 gti and a Fiesta.
Riku has instructions not to go for a time and to bring the car home safely, on a damp track he was running full Michelin wets and instructed not to flat shift on the first run.
Brings the car home he does too, only a practice lap but he beat most of the Ferraris present! with a 99.01
2nd time run and I allow the flat shift this time, similar conditions and he
does a 95.05 while the Ginetta sets a time in the high 92's
first timed run then, the Ginetta sets a benchmark at 90.87, way out of reach I thought and not wanting to pressure Riku into making an error I tell him agian we are not competing for a win. He makes a slow start but turns in a 90.92. Just .05 of a second behind with at least 2 seconds lost at the start. I now begin to think the impossible, a class win could be on the cards!
Sadly though, the rain starts during lunchbreak and the track is soaked by the time the 2nd time run comes around and with no chance of the track drying we have to admit defeat as the first timed run will be the fastest no matter how hard he tries. 2nd timed run, again he makes a slow start and comes home in 95.87 to the Ginettas 93.79. But we had a lumpy missfire on return, think a coil or plug at fault or maybe just the moisture, whatever.
Although a little dissapointed, he performed way above my expectations coming 27th overall out of 60 odd cars, beating most of the Ferraris and 4 of the Lotus on track cars as well.
video of final timed run, including spin in the far distance and missfire.
http://youtu.be/Gp818ODg7f0
