First practice was rather exhilarating as the road surface was very greasy from recent rain washing tree debris onto it and some mud from the field that runs down to the lower part. As a result getting power down out of corners was a challenge as was braking. I nearly came to grief on the first bend but manage to tiptoe round with 2 driver side wheels on the grass as I exited the bend. Made me nervous for the rest of that run so turned in a poor time of 67.38Neil, the other Owers managed 65.58.
Next practice things were drying out a bit and I got down to 65.03, and Neil to 64.5 We had hoped to achieve a bit better, however other drivers there we spoke to said for our first time on the hill we were doing well. Everyone was very friendly and supportive.
First proper run in the afternoon I got down to 62.67 and Neil managed 61.86. The MR2 was holding up well and we were generally please with how it was running and handling.
I noticed that on my split times I was generally about the time up the first half as Neil, but the end result was I was slower through the S bends through the wooded half and round the 2 hairpins. So my cornering and braking are letting me down.
So time for the last run with more rain clouds looming. Neil took a deep intake of breath and took 2 secs off his best time for the first half and another second on the rest, the result was a credible 58.45. Next was me waiting 3 cars behind at the start and a car crashed badly at Sawbench corner this meant at least 15 minute wait whilst it was cleared and it started spitting with rain. By the time I went the track had a nice damp and slippy quality, I decided that it was best to take things easy and returned a poor 64.91s run.
Overall in our C2 class we came 7th out of 10 with Neil's 58.45 run, and considering 7 of the 10 car were fully modified with race engines and none road going I think we did quite well.
However I think we are up against it a bit in the future and we will need to lighten the car as much as possible, improve suspension with poly bushes which we were planning, probably fit coil over shockers all round, and see if we can fit some 4 pot callipers up front, and tweak the engine for a little more power if we can. Money and when will be the limiting factor.
Any way we look forward to our next run in May at Wiscombe.
