Race season 2013

New season about to start, for those who dont know. this year I will be racing the ex Martin Byford Clio cup car in the SEMSEC series based at Lydden and maybe some other events during the year.

First race up on Saturday 6th April at Lydden Hill.
have 3 places available if anyone wants to come along, we are racing in the afternoon only but there is a British championship sprint in the morning with a large single seater entry so may be worth coming along to have a look. Paddock space is restricted this time so you will need to park up the hill and walk down.

1st meeting over then. A little disapointed in my lap times with the new car although now faster than the spider has done but not by much and still early days...and slick tyres yet to come, was way too cold for them on Saturday.

Fantastic sprint in the morning- a round of the British championship so loads of big single seaters going on a top 12 shoot out- great stuff including an ex F2 toleman which took me back a few years (Ran a Hart engine back then)

Went slightly the wrong way on tyre pressures for qualifying- ask advice from 3 people running similar cars and you will get 3 different responses!. so ended up 8th on the grid with a 49.88. Got a surprisingly (for my first ever fwd one) good start and picked up a couple of places and held off Nigel Craigs admittedly struggling for some reason , Subaru for a few laps and had to fend off his sons Integra in the final laps before bringing it home 7th.

Race 2 then and some mayhem at devils Elbow with Subarus spinning in all directions. suddenly found myself 3rd! but they decided to red flag the race and re start in original order, damn back to 7th then- a short lived moment of glory though. The Integra got past me on the 1st lap and although I could chase him down easily enough, passing was another matter and about this point I noticed some strange noises from the car which got worse lap by lap until it was obvious something was really wrong. Pitted then, and soon found a rear brake disc had sheared away from the hub, Nothing serious then!
Early finish for me then but before the distraction I had set my fastest lap
of the day.

moment of glory! 3rd place

[simontaylor]

Mate, that looks like a lot of 2 way traffic at the bottom of the hill.
I am lead to beleive that a lot of circuit racers concentrate on "lapping" and so they often make poor starts. The Classic Touring Sreies tried to get a sprint event into their championship..... so that their racers could see that the start is an important part of the race.

keep it up

Racing again this Saturday, 18th May at Lydden.
Its the VW Apex festival as well so a big event.
have a couple of spare places if anyone wants to come down just say you are with me (mark Garner car 3) Once my allocation of team personel is up though you will have to pay entrance. Practice from 11 with racing to follow.

Hi Mark one definate and a possible will speak to possible and confirm


Assuming there will be no problem with additional trailer as long as,i park out of the way

Si

Best finish for me in 6th place of a large field (was 5th until a large chunk of heavy TR8 barged its way past and then preceeded to outbrake himself at every corner. 3rd row start as well. good race.
Would have got a poss top three in race 2 as the leaders all took themselves out if it were not for this scarey spin on lap 4

http://youtu.be/5WDE873xTLs (probably worth skipping to 7.30 unless you have time on your hands)

and race 1 in its entirety:
http://youtu.be/g8Baafw67Sc part 1

http://youtu.be/f6tAGBG-hIQ part 2

Back at Lydden Hill on Saturday, 6th July for another afternoon of racing in the Clio. Splashed out on a new set of Michelin slicks so hope its dry.
Sprint on in the morning, racing from around 1pm.
Have 4 places available and probably can offer some other places if there is demand.
last minute race entries accepted too if anyone wants to join in.

Safely finished all 3 races entered on Saturday. Set my fastest laps ever (in either car) with a best of 48.303 which is a sign of progress (and new tyres!
Need to sort out understeer in and oversteer out problems in the only left hander on the course and need a faster steering rack, BSM method is not the way to go when racing as demonstrated in this video of race 2 (memory card full before the flag).

http://youtu.be/6fFnmpoyfWE

I generally beat the Honda but had to let him bye after a slippery moment on the corner before slowed me down and he got inside me at the turn in point - not worth an accident IMO and yes that is a Beetle but no ordinary one!
Next scheduled event is not until September at Brands Hatch but hope to be out elsewhere before then.