It was very difficult to know what to expect going into the weekend at Anglesey. I think everyone had preparred for a very wet and windy weekend, and arriving at the circuit Thursday evening it seemed we were going to be in for a very stormy weekend! Assembling the Tucker Motorsport Awnings had to wait till Friday morning.
Thankfully come Friday morning the rain had disappeared and the wind had calmed, and we could get on with a very busy Friday trying to understand the issues we had with the set up at Oulton Park and take some steps forward for the weekend.
The first session of Friday was all about bedding brakes in and getting an initial balance check to see if the issues we had at Oulton would carry over to Anglesey, and it was immediately obvious that it wasn't a circuit specific issue. This in a way was bad news as we definitely had some changes to make, but at the same time means that the car is behaving consistently so we know the issues we were working on should apply to more than one circuit.
Throughout the day we managed to tune the car up to remove some of the chronic understeer that we had been fighting and after initially going too far and having a very lively rear of the car, we got the car to settle and in a more driveable position.
But one issue was becoming very very obvious and it was a problem for everyone... Tyre wear! The test tyres by the end of the 3rd session on Friday were absolutely dead, and without a new set of tyres for the weekend, it was going to be something that we would have to manage a lot throughout the weekend.
Saturday morning looked like all the dry running on Friday was going to turn into a waste, as we floated into the paddock! Amazingly by the time we took to the circuit, the track was dry and also significantly cooler than we had tested on, causing the lap times from Friday to drop by nearly 2 seconds!
The initial laps of qualifying were all about settling into a rhythm and getting a feeling for the increased grip we found with the cooler tempertures. The pace of the session seemed to peak on lap 5 when more or less everyone set their quickest laps, which was enough to put me 8th on the grid for race 1, and my second fastest was enough to put myself 10th for race 2. The results were slightly disappointing as we are still struggling for that peak performance, but with qualifying on some heavily worn tyres from Oulton Park, we couldn't really expect too much more, and the pace in clear air seemed to be consistently a lot stronger.
After making an great initial launch in Race 1, I found myself boxed out going through turn 1 and not having the space to take advantage of the good start. I had to wait till lap 3 before I could start getting stuck in and trying to improve my position. With an incident between 2 drivers in front causing Grindrod, myself and Sycamore to back up into each other, we began trading places, with Sycamore initially taking advantage in the battle of the Jacks at the top of the hill before I retook the position going down through the corkscrew, I only had to wait 2 corners to make my next move, coming from a long way back to take 7th from Grindrod. Unfortunately going up the hill on the next lap I was a sitting duck and immediately lost the position, only to go for the same move again into the final corner resulting in a 4 corner exchange which unfortunately resulted in me staying behind Gridnrod. From then on it was a difficult race with the tyres falling off a cliff and everyone pushing to hang on to a result and an eventual P8.
Race 1 was a frantic mid part of the race, but Race 2 ended up being a very lonely encounter. We swapped the front tyres to the back in order to try and make them last the weekend, with others having to buy used tyres from their competitors to be able to survive the weekend. This however did give massive issues with the balance of the car and traction out of the slow corners and off the line. After having a start filled with bags of wheelspin losing a place on the run to turn 1, but immediately taking the place back into turn 2 and gaining another spot at the top of the hill at lap 1. However, going down to the final corner I had a big lock up that resulted in me losing a lot of time on the pack in front and having to defend the position, from there it was a quiet race of chasing. I did close on the cars ahead, but not enough to challenge for position... the result was a lonely P7.
For race 3 the top 6 cars from Race 2 were reveresed meaning I just missed out on the reverse grid pole. This meant that I started behind the championship contenders Aidan Hills and Patrick Fletcher, so I neede to be on my best behaviour! After another start full of wheelspin and not moving forward, I managed to gain a place on Grindrod as he ran wide through turn 2 and was on the backof the lead pack, defending the position from Grindrod into the final corner, and allowing Griffiths to gain the place on him before he overtook me into turn 2 with a lot more grip than me. This momentum loss then put Grindrod onto me and in the drag up the hill to Rocket, Grindrod drifted past me to take the place.
Grindrod then took the place from Allwood and it then became a battle between Allwood and myself for 7th / 8th position, but with such poor traction out of the slow corners, I just couldn't get close enough at the end on the straights to make a move.
Next up we have Croft for Round 5 of the BRSCC Mazda MX5 Supercup on 13th & 14th July, hoping that the Anglesey weather follows us for the trip up North!
A massive thank you to all my sponsors and I will see you all at the next round!
Jack
Commentaires