BRCA touring car national round 2 Ashby

Meeting results

Mark's meeting

I don't know what it is about Ashby but I always look forward to going there, but never do that well. This meeting was to be no exception. Saturday was a good day. I started off the day with a car that was slow and difficult to drive, and ended it with a car which was good enough to win. The only problem I had was that I wasn't. My car set up mimicked Ian's exactly and I even managed to make a fairly good flexible top deck.

Sunday started off promising with a good run in round one which put me just outside the A final. Unfortunately, it never got any better. I wasn't driving that badly and I had no major incidents. It was just that everyone else was quicker than me in one way or another. I ended up pole in the C final which has to be my worst qualifying position for about 8 years. All I could hope for now was a win and this I did easily. So at the end of the day it was a really disappointing meeting. If I had driven badly of had lots of mechanical problems then I would have been happier, but the truth was I just wasn't up to the job. The next meeting is at West London on June 9th, this track is one of my favourites, so fingers crossed.

Ian's meeting

I went to Ashby feeling reasonably confident. We had the new Hellfire motors, had a good couple of tests down at Barham and it was Ashby after all, and I've always had good results there.

I Played around with set-ups on Saturday. Ended up running the softest spring and damper combination but with the shocks right out. There was no great technical theory behind this I was just trying to keep the car pliable over the bumps and yet stable enough. That and the fact that we ran Marks in a similar format at Aldershot and it worked.

Any way at the end of the day with everything in place I was running consistent 17 sec laps. (Some thing I didn't manage on Sunday) Never did quite crack the motors though but there was a lot of promise. Just need to find the correct brushes for it.

Sunday was pretty uneventful for me. The car was great just never quite got the best out of the motor or tyres. It would appear that 27's are only at there best for one run, and the motor was as good as anything, just not better. Interestingly the Orion guys running the cores had exactly the same problems so its not just us.

Qualified 4th in the end. Made a great start to the final. I knew that I had to get in the lead early on and dictate the pace. The front two would just drive away else. Got up to third by the first corner and was looking at 2nd when the guy in 3rd just tipped the back of my car and rolled me onto my roof. The marshal had to wait for everyone to go before he could rescue me
and I was dead last when I resumed. Fought back up to 3rd but that was it. Might have got second if Id had a cleaner start but was never going to win. Still roll on west London......... must get some brushes to try.