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Not much to do on the car, quick wipe over and bled the brakes and we were all set for race day on Friday. I reviewed the data from the logger with Martin Hope and Andy Pardoe and picked up a few tips from them, and as Stace drove me home, I sat in the passenger seat talking myself though the corners and the gears like a mad person.
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Friday dawned and we were back up at the track by 8am. Didn’t feel anywhere near as nervous as I had on Thursday and was really looking forward to the day. Morning warm up was my chance to put some of the tips I’d picked up into practice-only to find the car kept jumping out of second gear-Father Xmas is hopefully bringing me a new set of engine mounts which should solve this problem-the ones we are using at the moment are standard road mounts and arent strong enough and the engine and gearbox are moving when I change gears.
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Race 1 arrived and the thought of the standing start was quite intimidating having not raced for over 5 years. As the red lights went off I went into autopilot and had no problems with the standing start-like riding a bike as they say. The race in itself was quite a lonely old race-no one close enough to battle with, but my lap times were consistent and the car felt good (apart from the rising water temperature again!!!). Ended up 10th in class after race one but loads of opportunity where I can see I can gain time, with a bit more confidence and track time.
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Feeling good going into race 2, I was gutted at the start to miss a gear-blooming engine mounts!!! Dropped back a few places but then found a steady rhythm. All of a sudden I found myself entering the bowl engulfed in a huge cloud of white smoke, one of the Honda’s had grenaded itself, dumped the contents of its sump on the track and I was one of the first on the scene to the aftermath.
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As I turned into the Bowl the car shot sideways-left and right all over the track as I skated on the oil finally regaining control but losing over 4 seconds to the guys behind me. From then on I could just not get that corner right-if I took a tight line, there was oil there, if I took a wide line, there was oil, if I went thought the middle-you guessed it-oil. It knocked my confidence and my lap times suffered. Having said that, the last few laps saw a great battle between myself, Phil Anson driving the Clio and Mark Turner driving the Honda that continued to the flag. 9th in class this time and feeling like I’d had a really good race in my 17-year old Astra.
Next stage is to get a new radiator made to try and solve the overheating problem before the next round.
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Thanks to all the Gulfsport family, especially to Gary, Andy, Lyn and Rick who worked their nuts off all weekend but were always around when I needed them and Sam Zian for making sure the car looked ‘proper’. Oh and congratulations to Martin Hope for winning the sweepstake. Your turn to buy the doughnuts this week! See you all in 3 weeks time when I tackle the next round of the championship!
– Mike Scott
