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Sprinting/hill-climb or competing in an S2000 2017
UK & Ireland S2000 CommunityDiscussions related to the S2000, its ownership and enthusiasm for it in the UK and Ireland. Including FAQs, and technical questions.
Well it was the last round of Time Attack at Rockingham on 15th Oct, I was buzzing for this event as the car that was taking 1st all season had gone up a class, we were fighting for 2nd in the championship ( we were drawing on points with Matt In the Blue Fiesta ST) and it was all down to Rockingham which Matt had never done before. We were pushing the tyres in the first session as this was a set that is nearly off the edge the tyres came up to temp nicely front right takes a battering around Rocky which we saw the pressure go up more on that corner than anywhere else but after the first session tyre started to delam slighty so that was them killed Pirelli didnt have the sizes on the Truck so search the pits to see if anyone had some in the sizes they we willing to sell on, got a set of rears but no fronts so we had a word with the scrutineers they let us run a Fresh set of Toyo R888R which were my own tyres but i took them just in case which was lucky.
the day started to go good from there on a few spins on the second session so a tweek to soften the suspension up and back out driver said it felt a lot more planted on the back. out on session 3 and all was ok no problems and no spins or off track managed to put in a 1.44.041 and Matt who we are up again gets into the 1.42 so he takes the points from that round now he is 1 point above us.
Last outing the Final we were waving him on we put in a few laps pulled the car in checked tyre pressures, torque the wheel nuts and tell him to go all out as this is the last chance, He managed to do a 1:43.326 on lap 4 so we were infront of Matt as he was stuck behind a bit of trafic which was hleping us but o lap 6 1:42.771 from Matt, 0.555s faster than us and that was the end of the day and the end of the Championship.
So over all 3rd in the Championship in Clubman+ which was well above our league with a NA s2000 ( we should of been in Clubman class ) i think the car and driver done very well considering what we were up against, so the s2000 will be retired next year and the FD RX7 will be back out. I have some plans for the s2k over winter but will see if i can raise the funds to do what i want to it and might get the S2000 out to do a single round entry but i will be back to doing Trackdays and maybe a few Sprints in 2018 roll on the spring
Shout out to Rich Sams Photography for the awesome pictures
Yes MB it was the International super sportscar long circuit, The driver in the series has done the layout before but i havnt but i did get to do the marshals hot laps and i have only done the BTCC layout which misses the double left and back Kirby corner
all the times are here for the day for anyone to have a look at to see how we done throughout the day Driver is Umar Massod we were up againt Matt Binstead in the championship , there were some single round entrants in our class ( Blood in a 400+ evo and Copson in another Fiesta st ) which dont count toward chamionship points so not to bothered if they came above us. we ar in CM+
Rx7 is in a different league, the driver is the owner of the RX7 and been competing in Time Attack for about 6 years in the car, hes won Club Class which is one up from where we were running this year and hes going up into Pro 2wd next year, which means a lot of the specs on the car have to be changed to get into Pro Class also might be doing something special with the engine. I will keep you guys informed of how its all going.
A very interesting weekend, with new PB's being set and unfortunately a little crash with G.
It started off a very quiet meeting with only 37 cars booked into the event, and most of them being Austins. Ray managed to set his new PB with a 67.03, being a very fast time. Ricardo shaved off another few tenths of his best time in practice but didn't managed to replicate in the timed runs. Fortunately in the last run of the day, I managed to beat my PB. I set the class record at Curborough last year with a 66.83 and managed to shave it down to 66.51.
A bit of a disaster for G in the charged S, but nothing we can't fix (I hope). I'll let him fill you in if he feels up to it.
Big thanks to everyone this weekend, made it a lot of fun and was great to be back out in the sunshine.
The time has come i believe to complete the above quoted section of the sprint and hill climb series...
who's ready for a sprint and hill climb story (sorry for the photos, they were either phone photos or screenshots)?
During august's sprint at Curborough I was entered along with Mike, Ray and Ricardo and the whole day was going well, everyone was getting faster and faster times until the final run of the day (I was the group behind the other guys so they were back and watching me for my final run).
I staged up for the figure 8 course and on the green light I just ****ing nailed it! Rev to 4.5k then boost the rest of the rev range and follow the course round to what was feeling like a good time.
When it came to the final cut through I thought "if I don't brake and go through full in 3rd I can make up a little more time, Well **** me sideways if that was the wrong idea, I caught a wheel on the grass and the car spacked me off onto the grass sideways with nothing coming at me but brambles and trees. Then the next thing I knew I impacted the tree with enough force to lift me onto two wheels and spin me round.
A few mins in an ambulance later and I was then shown the extent of the damage caused to my car it went from this..
to this...
As you can see, that shit won't buff out.
I left the car with Ray at the garage and started making a list of everything I would need to rectify such a mistake.
(this was just a check to see if things were straight for the rest of the car as most of that would be getting cut out and replaced)
Within the matter of a few weeks having given ray all the parts he used some kind of wizardry and my car is now back on the road. Bumper donated by Ricardo for the time being along with the passenger wing, Ray also removed the cross member at the bottom and replaced it with a stronger tubular bolt on (giving good access if required to do more work in the future as it can be unbolted anytime)
(Ray even got the car ready for a few days before the final race so that i could take her back to the scene and show everyone that she wasnt dead and would be back)!
mechanically the car is back to how it once was, cosmetically it still needs a few touch ups here and there.
again massive thanks to all of the lads at the garage who helped out (be that fixing the car or cheering me up on the day and reassuring me things would be fine), they are the only guys i would let work on the car as i trust every bit of knowledge they possess with the s2000, (if they dont know it then chances are its not worth knowing)
If you havent already then please check out "The GarageBlog" to keep up to date on the final processes and our usual weekly shenanigans.
This year will mark the official second season of racing, with last year being a bit of a wash out for events and no championships being entered. Its been a bit of an underwhelming start to the season with the first event being cancelled. It was just a members only season warm up, but means we have lost the time we had scheduled to shake the cars down. We have decided this year to enter the ANWCC (Association of North Western Car Clubs) championship. The championship encompasses multiples disciplines which extend from rallying, auto solos and hill climbing. Ray and myself have a mutual interest in Hill Climbs, we both love the sprint events but the passion certainly lays with the hills. Therefore we have entered Hill Climb Championship but fully intend to compete in some of the ANWCC sprint rounds and possible another discipline.
Last year was a bit of wash out in terms of events. We only managed to attend a handful of meetings, but they were at new venues. It was a massive learning curve through the year at these events, realising that the car needed to change. Hill climb cars are not like Circuit cars, the dynamics are different to suit the road surfaces. I've spent a lot of time at these events changing setups to dial in a competitive car, and feel like I'm only just starting to understand its requirements. Hopefully I'll be able to put those lessons learnt into the events and further improve the car and my driving over the year.
I'm really excited about the years events as we will be finally running Loton Park and Scammonden Dam as part of the Championship. Its bizarre as we will be entering again as Novices to the discipline having only competed properly in Sprints. Saturday 14th April marks our first Championship round and our first attempt at Loton Park. Its a mix of fear, nerves and excitement at the moment as its quite an intimidating stretch of road. With a good class entry of 15 cars currently, I'm hoping its going to be an exciting battle and a good start to the year of pedalling.
10-18-2017, 04:35 AM
