MB

Thought i'd start a new thread for the 2013 season!

Onwards and upwards to Donington

Edit - Donny race footage here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjCxl9nRnWE

Original thread here:

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/926748-mb-goes-racing/

Daytona-Dave

Getting ready to do battle



Let battle commence

Ultra_Nexus

How'd you get on Mark?

MB

Overall i'm really pleased with this weekend

I was quite aprehensive as Donny was my worst race last year and I couldn't keep up with the guys I normally mix with.

Qualifying was a partially wet track, but started to dry towards the end of the 20 minute session and I found i'd qualified 3rd, 2nd in class and missed out 1st in class by 0.005 of a second That was great news as the work on my driving and the car had paid off.



Race 1 was awesome fun, and I will get the video up in a bit. I got a decent start but Rob Williams (Civic roadblock) got past me and that's not what I wanted! I got held up by him and just couldn't get past. That let the following group close up, and you then have to go off line to defend, letting Rob slip away. I picked up some pace and caught Rob back up but again couldn't get though to claim 1st class spot (2nd overall) Mark Chese then nipped past me, only for me to overtake him again with some really close racing. Through Redgate I was quicker than the Civics and flat though Craners in 5th I was mullering them, plus through Old Hairpin, but Coppice straight and the main straight I was getting hammered. Something not right there as I used to have legs on those cars.

In the end the 3 of us crossed the line bumper to bumper, but with me taking 3rd in class (4th overall) which was a little disappointing, but I was certain if i'd got in front of Rob it was mine for the taking.

To go from last year being at the back, to this year being at the front (albeit a smallish grid) was really satisfying. Could have got 1st? Maybe but looking at the footage it was really hard to pass when you don't have the poke.

Last years lap time were 1.24.8 best but around 1.25 - 1.26 in the race.

This year I was into consistent 1.23.5 times and 1:23.3 best

2-3 seconds is massive!

You can see how consistent they were here:



Only a quick mention for race 2, I did lead the race momentarily after a monster start but I had fuel starvation issues and really really badly flat spotted the front left. The car needs some more mods now, my oil temps from the sump were upto 122 deg c I'd be surprised if the engine hasn't suffered from this and may be related to the power loss on the straights. Will be getting a bigger cooler.

But the car handled amazingly

Thanks muchly Ray and Dave B for coming! Ray kept me company and we had a good chat about racing stuff.

And I think I met Jimbob EK9?





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjCxl9nRnWE

K3Nguru

Congrats Mark! Get the engine sorted out and you'll be

lovegroova

Well done, Mark.

kim-s2k

Fantastic work Mark - well done. Does the J's spoiler work better than the APR?

DaveB

Well done Mark. Was good to see you yesterday. The car looks and sounds amazing. I'm sure you'll be having them down the straights in the near future. Sorry I couldn't stay for the whole event as had other commitments.
I took a few pics and vids using my phone so will post up when I get a chance.
I think every s2ki member should look to go and support Mark when he's racing at a circuit near them. Might even entice another member to race their car too.

razzele

Well done !

It sounds like this season* is going to be a lot of fun.

Onto the engine issue, do you have the AEM set for auto data logging? If not I'd set it so it to loop record a few key parameters like Afr/throttle position/water temp etc.

Daytona-Dave

I was lucky enough to be there, thanks Mark and Andy? for the welcome and being allowed to hover around, (can be a pain on race day), I watched the first race from Craners, and what a good race it was, agreed not a big grid but all but 1 were the in the same class and you don't need many cars to watch good racing, the pace on Marks car though Craners and up under starkey's was phenomenal, the overtake was coming off old hairpin on the drag up under starkey's excellent move should be a good Vid from the first race, a shame they had the legs on the striaght's as the car looked the dogs on the twisty bits,

the lock up in the 2nd race was a BIG LOCK UP( but personally i think it might have being something to do with the Steak chicken mushroom tuna pie man that was bad stuff even the staff didn't know what was in it) and the car must have being a pig to drive after,

well done Mark, I had an excellent day, the first race being edge of the seat stuff, must have being a good feeling in the car