Successful Test Day at Brands

Just had a very successful test session today!

It feels like a new car with these uprated springs. There's much less understeer, less body roll, and I can be more accurate with it. The back end surprised me a few times, but it wasn't sudden like I thought it would be. It was quite progressive and easy to recover from. From my dad's point of view watching, it was much flatter and more planted too.

My best lap was 1:01.24. Previously, my best time was 1:02.55. I checked the practice times from the last Brands race, and my time today would have put me in 23rd spot out of 89! Straight in the final!

It came at the expense of my near side front wheel bearing however. We managed to find a place that had one at such short notice, but that's only because we know someone in the trade. There was a point where I thought I wouldn't be racing tomorrow! We intended to leave the racing car at the circuit overnight (it's quite safe), so we dis-assembled the hub and took it back with us and, thankfully got it repaired. Thanks to Mike Dowsett of Service Point for saving the day!

Looking forward to the race tomorrow!

Best of luck Keith, look forward to a full report. Would be there but with two kids and fathers day on Sunday it wasn't going to happen!

Cheers,

Drew.

Keith - thats quite an improvement in lap time hope it carries through  into the race. Sounds like the change in springs has had a significant effect. Good luck on Sunday.

Cheers

Who would think that a set of springs would help that much this should convince a few friends of mine that its not all about bhp . Watched some of your videos on your site - very good almost as good as doing a track day myself , was cheering for you to pass that awful coloured festa in your first video . Looking forward to more of the same .

Good luck for sunday too  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:

good luck today  

How'd you get on Keith ?

Hi everybody!

I haven't done a full race report yet, but I can tell you that I'm no longer a 'DNF' virgin. Yes, in lap 2, I was knocked off into the gravel !

Basically, I got a bad exit out of clearways, which allowed a VW LUPO (of all things) to get level with me down the main straight. We were neck and neck all the way to paddock hill bend with him on the inside line. But instead of turning in, he seemed to block me! We made contact and the only place I had left to go was the gravel trap!

Practice session went well. I was 33rd out of 88 drivers. Out of interest, my time in Saturday's test session would have seen me 6th quickest out of everybody! I was 5th on the grid for the heat race. Had the incident not have happened, I could easily have been in the top 3, even won! The car felt that good!

Still, there's no damage, apart from a day's work de-gravelling it. I know I've got a competitive car now, so as Arnie says…I'LL BE BACK!

Sorry to let the Mk1 camp down this time!

Excellent stuff Keith. Out of curiosity what cars have the fastest qualifying times generally 106's/saxo's?

Once you?ve been in the gravel you're forever flicking stones from awkward places. I hope you gave the Lupo driver the bird… god damn MK1 wanna be! :x  

Could be worse….. you could have been running Michelin :lmao:

Doh! :doh:

Generally, the 106 S2 Rallyes and Saxos are the quickest. But you're talking about proper teams here with big lorries and everything! There's an XR3i that's one of the front runners and also Suzuki Swifts are quick. But after this weekend's performance, I know the Golf Mk1 is capable of being up there with them. I was timing the front running team of 106 Rallyes on Saturday in the test session, and none of them could beat my time that day.

I think F1 has really gone downhill :roll: ! It's not REAL motor sport IMO.

shame you got knocked out so early on. Good that the cars ok though. Its all good experience i'm sure !!! Maybe you could get him back at the next meet  8)

Gutted for you - Go get em next round!!!

I've learned that, now I'm at the sharp end, I'm up against a different breed of racer. More aggressive and more envious that a 22 year old car is capable of treading on their toes. They aint gonna like it and will stop at nothing to prevent me getting past.

I just need to be very careful around them in future.

Greg said

shame you got knocked out so early on. Good that the cars ok though. Its all good experience i'm sure !!! Maybe you could get him back at the next meet  8)

Hell yes! :twisted:

Some cunningly hidden scafold bar bumpers may be in order ! . Shame still at least you got more laps in that jenson , coultard ............. and lived to fight another day.