Thought I’d post up, reporting back from my 2nd Time Attack event which was held at Knockhill, Scotland over the weekend.
Well we left home on Thursday night after work and picked the car up from Scuffers early Friday morning, who had given the car a once over after its maiden outing at Oulton. All was well and we headed off up to Scotland.
After a nice drive up through all the hills we reached our destination with enough time to properly set up and fire up the barbie for dinner. Anyway, what a place!!! The view across the back of the circuit is amazing, going way past the Forth bridge and towards Edinburgh and armed with a few cans of lager, we walked out and then around the track to see what it was like. Very technical with kerbs, bumps, gradient changes and off-camber corners galore. And the straights were much, much longer then I expected and up hill. It looked like lots of fun but I wasn’t sure how my car would cope with the bumps. The long hilly straights were also a worry when thinking about how much power the Supras had at their disposal.
Saturday. I had 6x 10 minute sessions to learn the track which wasn’t enough. I was able to learn it but had no time to work out how to go fast as there were so many options available regarding lines. Anyway, at least it allowed me to see what some of the opposition was like. Barbie, beer and early to bed it was.
Sunday. First practice. Wet and I went round rather slowly with a 1.01 something. Around 3 or 4 seconds off the pace. Not good!!
Second practice, new tyres. Something clicked and I started to get quicker. Think I went straight down to a late 56 second lap, but I was still a bit off the pace.
Qually. Struggled to get heat into the tyres and went for a fast lap too early. I came through the chicane too fast, with a bad line and carried straight on into the gravel. I managed not to spin but it dented my confidence a little and my lap time worsened from practice. I then buzzed the engine going from 3rd to 2nd to make matters worse, so lets hope the engine isn’t damaged. The session was then cut short when some mentalist ran across the circuit. I thought it was a marshall who knew what he was doing, as it happened in front of me flat out in fifth gear coming up to the hairpin!!
A quick check of the car followed and all was o.k. Time for the final then and time to grow some [Censored] and attack the kerbs as I was being much more conservative than the other drivers. This time we had lots of room to get a clear lap in as they split the group into two. I went out and did a couple of laps to warm the tyres, followed by a couple of fast laps. Then did a cool down lap followed by another couple of fast ones. This yielded the best times as the 888’s go off very, very quickly indeed. I came in not knowing how I’d done but knew it was better than before. I parked up and a brisk walk up to the timing room followed. Nooooooooooooooooo!!! I was pipped to 1st by 0.045 of a second with a 56 dead!!! Sorry to let the side down guys. The Supra that beat me just had too much of an advantage up the steep straights for me to overcome that day. However, I’m sure I can get into the low 54’s with more time.
So, all in all a great weekend for me with much fun had. And again, the car ran perfectly and felt brilliantly composed on a very twisty and bumpy track. I didn’t even adjust a single thing all weekend and am really loving the way all my new parts have improved the way it behaves. Roll on Brands on 27th June when I’m going to show the Supras a thing or two (Hopefully)
Jonny in his S2 Exige unfortunately had problems with his oil filter coming loose and had to pull out.
Steve G in his Audi Elise easily took 2nd in Pro Class and looked extremely fast, but again looking at the speed traps I’d imagine the winning Evo with well over 1000bhp was too fast up the straights to catch.
That’s it for now.
Ta
