Free practise
As luck would have it we raced during the coldest weekend of the year in one of the coldest places in Gauteng. We arrived nice and early on Friday and set up for free practice. Just how cold it was, was made very apparent to me when I puttered out of the pits and promptly spun the car in the first corner while still just idling along!
Over the next few sessions I played around with setup but never got to the point of having any confidence in the car. The car would alternate between understeer to snap oversteer mid corner without any warning. I managed to spin the twice more, once under braking at the end of the straight and then coming onto the pit straight. Everybody was complaining about a lack of grip so I tried to setup the car as neutral as possible and left it at that. In the last session I managed a 1:13.4.
Qualifying
Race day started with sub zero temperatures, by the time we got to qualifying it had warmed up to just above zero, perfect weather for open car racing. We headed out onto the cold track. I spent 2 laps trying to warm up tyres before starting to push and immediately the car felt a lot better than the day before. I struggled to find some clean track but managed a few mid 13’s, then on the first proper clean lap a 1:12.5 popped up on the laptimer! I kept on pushing and managed another 1:12.5 before deciding to go all out for the last lap. I was very surprised when the laptimer showed 1:11.9 , a new PB for me by some margin and pole position by 2.1secs with Lauren in 2nd place.
Race 1
I knew I had the pace but had to make sure I got a good start to keep the lead. On the out lap I pushed hard to get heat into the tyres and brakes, a bit too hard because I lost control of the car coming onto the back straight and went off track before regaining control! I got a reasonable start and started moving over to cover the line when all hell broke loose in front of me. It seemed as if Andrew went into T1 a bit hot, locked up and collected Klippies. I ducked back inside to avoid them and kept my 1st place. Almost immediately the safety car boards came out and the whole field slowed down. We stayed behind the safety car for about 3 laps before its lights went out and I got a very good restart opening up a slight gap on Lauren.
A few laps later Glen came to a halt in turn 1 when his brakes locked up, and again the safety car boards were put out, this really surprised me as I though the car could be moved under waved yellow, suspecting a very short safety car period I kept a reasonable pace (not race pace though) catching up with the leaders. Approaching the horse shoe I notice the SC boards were gone and when we came onto the pit straight the green flag was out and we were racing again. For the rest of the race I was never pushed and made sure to keep up a good pace without over driving the car. Towards the end of the race the RH front wheel started vibrating under harsh braking, so I backed off a bit more in case it was serious. Result – 1st in class B and second overall! Even better Lauren came in second!
Race 2
The wheel vibration was caused by a rosejoint with excessive play, that I changed and a bit of play in the steering rack ball joint which I tightened a touch. With 2 class A cars not finishing, and Klippies only finishing 4th overall after a long recovery from his accident we had the unusual situation of 2 class B cars amongst the class A cars. I was starting in 2nd place overall on the front row of the grid and for a change did not have to worry about cars in front of me having bad starts, and I fluffed it. I got way too much revs on the start line and had serious wheel spin off the line, as I lifted to stop the wheelspin 2 class A cars streamed past. I took my line through T1 but stayed wide through T2 and pointed Glen past, there was no point in keeping him up.
Going onto the back straight I saw Lauren go into a long slide which she controlled beautifully, but this gave Ettienne the run on her, she went defensive forcing him to go wide, they went through turns 5, 6 and 7 side by side before Lauren got a better drive out of the horse shoe and retook 2nd place. Up ahead I noticed my water temps sitting at 90degs and not the usual 80deg and my feet were getting warm, not a good sign! I couldn’t really relax because Lauren wasn’t too far away, but started short shifting in case I had a real problem.
I was lapping in the 14’s but everybody was going slow due to some oil on the track and still managed to pull a bit of a gap so slowed the pace even more dropping into the 15’s and even started using 5th gear on the back straight all the while keeping an eye on the engine temperatures. Towards the end of the race Lauren spun going onto the back straight due to the oil on the track letting Ettienne past, however she drove brilliantly to close the gap to him finishing right on his tail. I again got the win for the race and Lauren finished close enough to Ettienne to get overall 2nd!! Our first his and hers trophies!
Some race videos
First race from my car
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSzTe6gntkkPart 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv0fcW_L7hISecond race from Lauren's car
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoRPLBC450UPart 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhu2IqvQYco
Anton
Birkin IRS 4age 20v B10 (all mine)
Birkin LA 4age 20v B20 (Lauren)
Locost IRS 4age 20v C98 (Neil)
