Aided by the Extra Bod's on hand to help in Marshalling (Thanks Guys !!), we had some very enjoyable & Clean racing on the Night.
Having arrived early, I had the opportunity to (Finally,...sigh,..lol) got around to 'Dispensing' with the Previous 'Set' of Tyres I had been Struggling with on My CanAm.
"Old Faithful", IS getting rather 'Long in the Tooth', and does need some Re-Fettling
but for Some reason the recent set of JK 'Big Hub' tyres seemed to cause all manner of Un-Predictable Performance.So (with the Fitting of some Previously Used "Big Daddy's", a Tyre the Chassis has Always seemed to respond well to), it was good to get it Back to it's Normal 'Mode' of operation. Although I'd venture with the current Coupe body 'fitted', it Doesn't seem to Handle the Last part of the track nearly as well as it usually does, with the MAC Long Nose style of Ti22 body and actually took me Some Time to get 'Back in the Groove' as it were with it during the Race.
I also managed to give the recent Slick7 F1 chassis a quick Run/Test,
( some Pictures of it Here; http://forum.ascra.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1352 ) and whilst Not being as quick as my normal F1,
(I just chucked an older Cheetah!! motor in @ 9:28), it was somewhat surprising How Quick it Was.
With a bit of Tuning (More Weight, better motor/gearing etc), could make for an 'Interesting' future 'Option'.
Anyway,... on to the racing;
Coupe's
On a personal level, I think I could have driven this race a bit better. With a few Less 'Un-Forced' errors on my behalf, I may have been able to get just a little bit Closer to both Matthew and Darryl who were both running rather well, both putting in some 23's & swapping 1st & 2nd places with each other until Darryl finally Moved ahead in the last 3 Brackets.
Early On, it was a Very Close race between Darryl, Neil, Matthew and myself, with there being only a lap or two between all four of us until the 4th bracket.
Steve King had an Un-charachteristicly Poor run on Black in the 1st bracket that put him 'Behind the 8 Ball' for most of the race although by the end of the 4th bracket had managed to get himself within 'Striking Distance' of Neil and the two of them remained on the Same Lap for the last 3 brackets and finished on the same lap Only .249 Sec's apart at the end !!
Although Joe was entered for this race, he chose Not to run, due to some 'issue' with his car.
Once again, a good clean and fun race
Results:
1st Darryl 177 laps 2nd Matthew F 174 laps 3rd Stoo 171 laps 4th Neil 163 laps 5th Steve K 163 laps
F1's
Once again, I tried Mark's more recent method of starting on Yellow, (which has seemed to have served Him and Us well of late) and so it proved in this race.
All in all, another very good and arguably even Cleaner race than the Coupe's, (although I Had a Serious "Flight" Off-Piste at one stage after a Simple and humorous mis-undertsanding with Matthew,..
.Was once again a quite close run thing in the early stages, with only 1 or 2 laps between Darryl, SteveK, Neil & Myself.
Darryl led the 1st bracket with myself moving into the lead after the 2nd bracket, with Neil, Darryl and Steve swapping positions until around half way, when the order remained the same till the end.
Both Matthew and Joe had (for themselves I imagine), dissapointing 1st bracket totals putting them down the order from that point forward, with Joe also eventually having serious Front Wheel / Tyre issues after a coming-together through the last corner onto the Main straight. The 'Dreaded' JK Front Wheel Tyre "Separation" issue Striking again !!,..
As in So Many races in recent times both Darryl and I had some great runs together, with him Seriously 'Keeping me Honest' never letting me get too far ahead and whilst at one stage I Did have a 3 lap advantage, he was finishing on Faster lanes than myself finishing on Purple and Black.
Having been 'stonkering' around on most of the lanes, I was somewhat surprised to find the overall Traction somewhat lacking on Green !!?? and was wondering whether I was Fooling myself or that something was 'amiss' on my car, until I moved to Blue, where once again, all seemed Normal. I guess perhaps Green had simply had More running on it leading up to the Racing ?? Not sure if anyone else experienced similar 'slipperiness' on Green though.
I managed to Hold my advantage over Darryl right up until the Last bracket, where a couple of Stupid Un-Forced erors by myself, allowed him to get within a Lap !! and after the Late 'Track-Call' with Only 19 Sec's to go, I was Seriously Worried that he Might actually manage to catch me, (as he Has successfully done in some previous races !!,..lol), but I managed to 'Keep it on the Black Stuff' and maintain a good Lap Speed and managed to cross the Lap Counter Just Slightly before the end of the race, in effect giving me that Extra Last Lap,..
,.. Phew !!Results:
1st Stoo 176 laps 2nd Darryl 174 laps 3rd Steve K 171 laps 4th Neil 166 laps 5th Matthew F 162 laps 6th Joe 68 laps
Once again, Thanks to James and the other 'Marshals' for providing another Enjoyable evenings Retro racing at HSC.
Apologies for Not managing to get Pics of the Winning Cars etc,... to Busy 'Chatting' and enjoying myself !!,..
, and borrowed a shell from James.