What day for the whole family!
Firstly though it was great to see a good turnout of Alpine's and Renaults for the Sprint. Tim Jeffery's A610, Simon Gamblens GTA, Tony Gomis in his A110 (it was raining after all!) Mitchel Perry's Clio 182, another couple of Clio's as well showed up. Only one person missing really, Mr Taylor are you listening?
First up have to go back to last Monday when I took the plunge and ordered a new set of Michelin Wet race tyres as the set I had inherited were past their best as my performance at Brands Hatch proved, with this Lydden race and the Birkett at Silverstone next Sunday I did not want to be caught out if it rained hard again. £950 is a lot to shell out on something that may not ever be used but in this case the investment paid off as Lydden was wet!
Riku was first out in the sprint and set a benchmark practice time on the wet tyres (track was only damp at this point), close rival Rodger Burgess in the escort slithered around on Slicks and could not match Riku's time, Mitchel set a 3rd ( out of 5) in class time. First timed run then and now raining far harder, the Escort had swapped to wets and I was expecting a fast time from it, it was, 92.32 pipped Rikus practice time but he was now on track and set a 90.12. 2 seconds up on his practice time set in drier conditions. But more was to come in the final run. The Escort went slower in now totally wet condition's but, somehow Riku found another second or so and posted an impressive 88.78, not only winning the class but was 4th overall in the entire sprint- beaten only by 3 single seaters a huge achievement and to put into context, my fastest ever Lydden time in the Spider, on slicks was 85.67.
Congratulations to Tim Jefrey on a fine class win and even Simon Gamblen had a good day, despite a spin at one point!
Times of interest here.
Riku Garner 88.78
Mitchel Perry 97.54
Tim Jefrey 99.33
Simon Gamblen 105.90
Tony Gomis 111.32
So, on to the afternoons racing. Still wet and raining. Set a practice time good for 4th on the grid and finished 4th after an uneventful race although my engine stopped on the grid giving me a heart stopping moment just as the 5 seconds board was shown, luckily it re started just as the red lights came on.
Race 2 then, on the grid 4th and got a good start into 3rd which became second when Bill Richards spaceframe Metro stopped on the track, unfortunately bringing out a red flag and a re start, Inexplicably, the grid was lined up in original order with the repaired Bill Richards back in his front row position- (will have to check the regs to see why that was as his car had failed after the original re start?). Start 2 then and the red lights came on for a brief second and flick off almost instantly (there is supposed to be a wait of a certain amount of seconds) which caught me out and several cars passed me but another failed car on the grid bought out another red flag so back the 4th on the grid again. This time I got a great start and somehow was in either the lead or second (waiting to check the go pro footage) when yet another red flag came out, back to the grid- this time for a front row starting position- a first! Another good start into second place but knowing the faster cars are behind me Is a bit of a worry and spent too long looking in the mirror and got passed by one car and then the superfast Mazda RX7 (which won the first race) eventually barged past in the hairpin which involved a bit of contact. Although the leaders were not too far away, I could not catch them so settled down for another 4th place finish only to be caught by surprise by the Ginetta which crept up on me with a couple of laps to go. 5th place then but luck would have it, the leaders Suburu went off on the final corner of the last lap handing my 4th place back to me.
2 fourth places then and a great day!
thanks for reading.
never thought I would want a list but now find myself needing one just to remind me: Clio V6 230, 5 gt turbo, 5 Gordini turbo, Megane RS 300 Trophy.