Hmmm not my favourite track, the long straights make slip streaming necessary (although personally I'm not sure HOW necessary actually). It seems whatever you gain in the tow, you lose in the corner unless you can carry that much more speed that you push them wide in the turn-in, which I never managed to do.

Got a great start, had some really close racing which was good practise for me, and was doing ok - not amazing (grid in 14th out of 23) but other than 4 x 40 minute test sessions the day before (and two sessions in the ice in Feb before my engine blew up) I hadn't been there, and really didnt know the track.

It seems everybody has a slightly different way of driving it and I asked too many people for advice and ended up confusing myself !

Riches is indeed a fast corner, and i could never quite convince myself of that, I think I could have gone a bit quicker. Sear I could have braked harder, and I fell into the trap of turning too early, the Esses I think I wasn't tooooo bad by the end of the race, bomb hole ok (not great), Coram pretty good (I seemed to make up most time around the Esses / bomb hole / Coram section), Russel I kept forgetting to take enough kerb on the entry.

I was stuck behind a green car who eventually came in about 6 or 7th until I tried for a desperate overtake and chucked it on the grass, conceding two places. Made them up again then brakes must have been giving up because I couldn't stop for Russell and ended up heading over the grass to the start/finish straight and letting the entire pack past me on the last lap (I think it was) I made up another place but ended up finishing in 16th.

I can see by the lap times that it was racecraft (lack of), and the last mistake which were the problems - my best lap was a 1.21.197 (on lap 20 without a tow) which is quicker than the 5 people above me, although they are all much more experienced than me which showed in their driving. The fastest lap of the race was a 1.20.096 (during testing the previous day someone got a 1.19-something), so I'm pretty happy that by the end I just about had it sorted, just needed to carry a bit more speed and brake a bit later in places (not Russell!!)

It was a 30 minute race which was quite nice - enough time to make a mistake and repair it !

Will post a vid once I have it sorted!

Graham also popped along to say hi and it was very useful having an extra pair of hands to pack up - hopefully you like the look of the racing

 

Unlucky with the brakes Dreamer

We NEED video

 

It was good to see you and Chris again on Saturday, really enjoyed watching the race too.

I counted six missing nosecones by the end of the race, the first three went in the first lap

I really like Snetterton, it's a circuit I get on well with some reason, it could be the amount of laps I've done there or maybe the feeling of impending death I get every time I turn into Coram.

Megagrads are still on the cards for me next year but we'll have to see

We do need video, especially the cock-ups

 

That suggest you have a pretty well set up car, but just lack track time and experience.

Riches is very deceptive, because you can't see the exit it encourages you to brake more than you need to, ans as I said to you before, Sear is a bitch whichever way you look at it - but it precedes the longest straight in the UK so it's very important to get right. And Russell you need to almost straightline on the way in to get the second half right and not end up in the mud bath on the outside.

It always takes a couple of races at a circuit to get used to it, that's the fun and the frustration of doing a national championship rather than a local one.

Thirded on the video.....

 

Hoping to sort video tonight - two grass excursions OOPS.

Mark I think the car is pretty good - I took the advice of the (eventual) race winner and a couple of the others and changed the suspension setup to make it a lot softer. They also recommend this for Brands Indy (which is next) but I'm not sure... I've been running a bit stiffer and I don't have any practise/test time before qualy :s

 

Finally put the video online - I haven't had a chance to edit it though so it's the whole thing. It is reasonably hectic (for me) with a fair bit of overtaking and gives you a good idea of how close the other cars are around us. Also includes the two lawnmowing moments!!

http://vimeo.com/6067418