After heavy lobbying from Tim we’re going to have an even earlier cheeky season opener at Brands this Friday 
I’ve only ever done about 5x laps of Brands, my car is quite quite different and I reckon it’s gonna be proper slippery so it will be gentle shakedown,…no honestly gentle shakedown.
I’ll probably only be there in the morning as I need to get te car back to Matt for a couple of bits…before Donny in March, and Anglesey in April…woohoo!!!
yeah I also wanted to see how mine is behaving at a track close to home, after 10 months on the bench too.
oh and yes, jesus does he take some naggin’ 
Looking forward to getting the car out tomorrow. I’ve only driven it once since I picked it up from Matt in Nov last year 
Shame on you. Have a great day lads.
Bear with us, just jump starting Tim’s car,…in the rain,… Classic 
Classic, indeed! 
Have a great time… 
So we made it, we were late and missed the briefing but that much was inevitable…
Brands is probably the circuit I’ve visited the most as a spectator but driven very little. It was not the ideal day for learning such a complex little circuit. The car really does feel quite different and heading out into circuit the conditions were pretty pants. The rain was easing but the circuit was sodden and very very slippery.
Given all that I was well pleased with the car. I was taking it properly easy and for me there was two things to get my head around; the diff and the power delivery. With it so slippy and running ZZRs you can light things up at will but in the exit of corners the diff makes it do things I’m not used to. Take Graham Hill bend for example. Carry lots of brakes as you turn in and the car feels pretty neutral with maybe a little wash of understeer to let you know you’ve carried a bit too much speed. But now feed in the power and its much easier to use the power to make the car rotate. I realised you can hold the power steady and the car maintains its angle and then straightens up without snapping as you find grip and feed in more power. I need a LOT more seat time but I think me and the diff are gonna get on just fine
As the track started to dry the pace increased. There was the usual mixed bag of cars, from pretty rapid evos, a huge bhp Ultima, some snotters and the dreaded racers this time in Clio Cups on wets. I had to go after lunch as I needed to get the car back to Matt Bentley Racing so had to leave Tim just as the circuit was finally drying out. I had a look at the video in the train back and seemed to have two sessions where I turned the camera on as I came off the circuit…what a muppet.
Unfortunately Tim has his own story to tell 
Oh shit what’s happened to Tim?