gambler

Several months later and I have finally had a chance to do a quick write up from Anglesey. So, from what I can remember...... After the turbo had gone south at Brands Hatch, we had decided to go slightly larger with an AET Billet GT35. This should put me slightly higher in the power table but still probably well down on the Evo's. The start finish line is always a good indication of power levels as the speed trap on the straights is often where single seaters VMAX and our lardy saloons are on the anchors by then. Anglesey was to be a double header so reliability was to be as important as absolute speed. I had very little experience of the track, just a few laps when I had been doing the VIP car for Time Attack last year. The circuit was relatively straight forward so it was a better idea just to save the car and pick up the circuit during the day. The night before we took a walk around the circuit to have a good look at the layout and work out grip levels e.t.c. The track seemed to be very abrasive and pretty warm from the hot day so it looked like tyre wear was going to be high and heat build up may be an issue. Saturday - GP Circuit Warm up - The idea had been just to go out and learn the circuit, work out grip levels and work on lines. It is a good circuit with a nice mix of high and low speed corners and a chance to test what is between your legs on the way up to rocket. I cruised around and finished with a leisurely 1:43.327, managed not to break the car so all was well. Practice - This session was just to give us a chance to mess about with pressures and suspension settings. I felt that I had a good idea where the circuit was going, well, as much as I ever do and the plan was just to push a bit harder and make sure that things were ready for a good result in qualifying. The weather outside was pretty damn hot and a few guys in the class had elected not to run in this session. I returned into the pits with a quickest time of 1:38.250 still with a bit of time in the bag. Downloaded the data logs and sent them off to Andy Forest and then wandered off to the toilet, this racing caper is hard work on the bladder. I don't get nervous but my bladder certainly does. The RA guys got to have a look over the car. They noticed that it had pushed a lot of water and Andy F had informed them that the coolant temperatures were getting a bit high. By the time I had returned from the pits the RA guys had already discussed taking the engine out over night and replacing the head gaskets. Lifting the engine out with their teeth if necessary! Much to every ones delight, Andy Napier discovered that the problem was a faulty radiator cap. I headed off to the car park and 'borrowed' one from Paul from Pro R's car/donor vehicle. All was well so we fired up the George Foreman grill and celebrated with a cheese and ham Panini.... which is actually just a stale cheese and ham roll cooked in a GF grill.... That's how we roll.... get it Qualifying - It was now time to crank up the boost and go looking for some points. I had decided to try Kumho V700s in a softer compound to see if the softer tyre would work. I knew that they would not give as long a performance envelope as the 48s but thought they may ultimately offer more grip. I had been advised that they should be good for 3-4 laps which would make them a lot better than the 888s that we used to use in Time Attack. I think a mixture of the hot weather and the abrasive surface put too much heat in them. I was a bit more gentle on them on the out lap. 48's take a bit of heating up to make them work and they required a bit of aggressiveness on the out lap to make them work on the 1st hot lap. I had tried to give the Kumho's an easier time on the outlap but by the end of the out lap, I could feel them start to get a bit squirly. It may have been due to the temperature outside and the abrasiveness of the surface. By the end of the 1st hot lap, they felt really hot. I knew that there would be not much time to be found and decided to park the car up with a time of 1:37.824 which was enough for 3rd in class. Final - Back out for the final and I headed out for a careful out lap, mindful that the Kumho's would need no temperature to get them working. It was just a matter of getting some heat into the brakes and making sure there was plenty of space. Brands Hatch had been a nightmare with traffic, with the lower numbers and the longer track, Anglesey was infinitely better. Think I was lucky to see one car the entire session. I was beginning to wonder if everyone else had packed up and gone home. I catch up to Steve Peel on a slow down lap, he takes off and leaves me for dead... That car certainly has some go about it. 2 corners later and I catch up to Steve, the car blew out a hell of a lot of smoke and some bits of gearbox at me... Bloody Evo's. Looks like it was the end of the day for poor Steve. He could console himself with 2nd place though. Jamie Wilson was unstoppable in the Exige in 1st place and I had managed to scrape a podium for 3rd place. My time of 1:36.649 was only 0.049 slower than the fastest Impreza of Duncan Graham in Pro Class. Happy days Time for the podium and we decided to Ghey out and not cover each other in champagne/vinigar/acid foamy horribleness. The crowd were disappointed but it meant like we would not spend all the next day in a red hot car, wearing a race suit that smelt like a tramp had urinated on you.... 3 years ago and it had not been washed since. Sunday - Costal Circuit Warm up - After getting some hero flakes down my neck...and a bacon roll from the trusty George Foreman grill. We put the trusty AO48s back on and It was time to hit the circuit for warm up. We had now moved to the 1.5 mile coastal circuit and the plan was just to get some different lines tried on the corkscrew and then save the car for the rest of the day. Returned to the pits with a 1:16.534. Practice - It had started raining my favourite conditions. Having never driven the circuit before I started off cautious and built up speed where there was grip to be found. After a few laps, I headed into the pits to make a couple of tweeks on the suspension. I was informed that we were sitting about 2 seconds quicker than anyone else in the class. I knew exactly where I could pick up some extra time, so we just put the car in the garage and saved it for the remaining sessions. Qualifying - The temperature was a lot cooler today and we decided to give the V700s another shot. I just found them the same as the day before, they just did not have the stability of the 48s and heated up very quickly. It just felt like the tyre was pulling itself to bits. Back in the pits, I checked the laptop and I was sitting 2nd with a time of 1:16.387 That would do just nicely Final - The old trusty 48s were back on the car, the boost was turned up and we were good to go. Go straight, into traffic at the corkscrew....three times. I could just not get a break and kept meeting traffic at the worst places. I was not loosing a massive amount of time. It was enough though. It felt good to be back on the 48s they were working well and I had more confidence in the stability of them. My 4 quickest lap times were all within 0.2s of each other. Possibly a sign that they are slightly too hard but they do not require you to have a 100 % clear run on your 1st hot lap. I think the best compromise would be somewhere between the 2 tyres. Back into the pits to find out that I had managed 2nd place with a 1:15.390. I had felt all weekend that the car was not quite handling as well as it could have. Possibly the grass tracking at Brands had knocked off the geo settings. It just felt like the front tyres had been doing all the work. I still think Jamie Wilson's time in the Exige of 1:12.693 would have been pretty much impossible to catch. He was only 0.1s slower than the 3rd place car in Pro class running slicks. Back to the garage and as always, when I get a poduim, everyone gets a sweaty man hug. Whether they want it or not. All in all, a pretty good weekend for myself and the team at RA motorsport. 2 podiums for myself and the fastest One Hit Wonder and some great times for Jason Ogg, he will be one to watch next year in Club Class. Both cars ran perfectly all weekend. The Snetterton write up will follow very soon. For those of you who do not know what happens, there is a fair bit of drama and an unhappy ending... Its like East Enders does Time Attack Again, I would like to give a massive shout out to all my sponsors. Especially RA motorsport who have been putting a huge amount effort into getting the car competitive in a very tough class. The guys are doing an awesome job and really go the extra mile. Massive thanks to all the people who have sponsored and supported me RA Motorsport Developments Andy Forest Performance Whiteline A.B.W J T Innovations Syvecs John Stevenson Motorsport ABC Autoglass Flat Out Photography Cosworth Carlimits.com

Several months later and I have finally had a chance to do a quick write up from Anglesey. So, from what I can remember...... After the turbo had gone south at Brands Hatch, we had decided to go slightly larger with an AET Billet GT35. This should put me slightly higher in the power table but still probably well down on the Evo's. The start finish line is always a good indication of power levels as the speed trap on the straights is often where single seaters VMAX and our lardy saloons are on the anchors by then. Anglesey was to be a double header so reliability was to be as important as absolute speed. I had very little experience of the track, just a few laps when I had been doing the VIP car for Time Attack last year. The circuit was relatively straight forward so it was a better idea just to save the car and pick up the circuit during the day. The night before we took a walk around the circuit to have a good look at the layout and work out grip levels e.t.c. The track seemed to be very abrasive and pretty warm from the hot day so it looked like tyre wear was going to be high and heat build up may be an issue. Saturday - GP Circuit Warm up - The idea had been just to go out and learn the circuit, work out grip levels and work on lines. It is a good circuit with a nice mix of high and low speed corners and a chance to test what is between your legs on the way up to rocket. I cruised around and finished with a leisurely 1:43.327, managed not to break the car so all was well. Practice - This session was just to give us a chance to mess about with pressures and suspension settings. I felt that I had a good idea where the circuit was going, well, as much as I ever do and the plan was just to push a bit harder and make sure that things were ready for a good result in qualifying. The weather outside was pretty damn hot and a few guys in the class had elected not to run in this session. I returned into the pits with a quickest time of 1:38.250 still with a bit of time in the bag. Downloaded the data logs and sent them off to Andy Forest and then wandered off to the toilet, this racing caper is hard work on the bladder. I don't get nervous but my bladder certainly does. The RA guys got to have a look over the car. They noticed that it had pushed a lot of water and Andy F had informed them that the coolant temperatures were getting a bit high. By the time I had returned from the pits the RA guys had already discussed taking the engine out over night and replacing the head gaskets. Lifting the engine out with their teeth if necessary! Much to every ones delight, Andy Napier discovered that the problem was a faulty radiator cap. I headed off to the car park and 'borrowed' one from Paul from Pro R's car/donor vehicle. All was well so we fired up the George Foreman grill and celebrated with a cheese and ham Panini.... which is actually just a stale cheese and ham roll cooked in a GF grill.... That's how we roll.... get it Qualifying - It was now time to crank up the boost and go looking for some points. I had decided to try Kumho V700s in a softer compound to see if the softer tyre would work. I knew that they would not give as long a performance envelope as the 48s but thought they may ultimately offer more grip. I had been advised that they should be good for 3-4 laps which would make them a lot better than the 888s that we used to use in Time Attack. I think a mixture of the hot weather and the abrasive surface put too much heat in them. I was a bit more gentle on them on the out lap. 48's take a bit of heating up to make them work and they required a bit of aggressiveness on the out lap to make them work on the 1st hot lap. I had tried to give the Kumho's an easier time on the outlap but by the end of the out lap, I could feel them start to get a bit squirly. It may have been due to the temperature outside and the abrasiveness of the surface. By the end of the 1st hot lap, they felt really hot. I knew that there would be not much time to be found and decided to park the car up with a time of 1:37.824 which was enough for 3rd in class. Final - Back out for the final and I headed out for a careful out lap, mindful that the Kumho's would need no temperature to get them working. It was just a matter of getting some heat into the brakes and making sure there was plenty of space. Brands Hatch had been a nightmare with traffic, with the lower numbers and the longer track, Anglesey was infinitely better. Think I was lucky to see one car the entire session. I was beginning to wonder if everyone else had packed up and gone home. I catch up to Steve Peel on a slow down lap, he takes off and leaves me for dead... That car certainly has some go about it. 2 corners later and I catch up to Steve, the car blew out a hell of a lot of smoke and some bits of gearbox at me... Bloody Evo's. Looks like it was the end of the day for poor Steve. He could console himself with 2nd place though. Jamie Wilson was unstoppable in the Exige in 1st place and I had managed to scrape a podium for 3rd place. My time of 1:36.649 was only 0.049 slower than the fastest Impreza of Duncan Graham in Pro Class. Happy days Time for the podium and we decided to Ghey out and not cover each other in champagne/vinigar/acid foamy horribleness. The crowd were disappointed but it meant like we would not spend all the next day in a red hot car, wearing a race suit that smelt like a tramp had urinated on you.... 3 years ago and it had not been washed since. Sunday - Costal Circuit Warm up - After getting some hero flakes down my neck...and a bacon roll from the trusty George Foreman grill. We put the trusty AO48s back on and It was time to hit the circuit for warm up. We had now moved to the 1.5 mile coastal circuit and the plan was just to get some different lines tried on the corkscrew and then save the car for the rest of the day. Returned to the pits with a 1:16.534. Practice - It had started raining my favourite conditions. Having never driven the circuit before I started off cautious and built up speed where there was grip to be found. After a few laps, I headed into the pits to make a couple of tweeks on the suspension. I was informed that we were sitting about 2 seconds quicker than anyone else in the class. I knew exactly where I could pick up some extra time, so we just put the car in the garage and saved it for the remaining sessions. Qualifying - The temperature was a lot cooler today and we decided to give the V700s another shot. I just found them the same as the day before, they just did not have the stability of the 48s and heated up very quickly. It just felt like the tyre was pulling itself to bits. Back in the pits, I checked the laptop and I was sitting 2nd with a time of 1:16.387 That would do just nicely Final - The old trusty 48s were back on the car, the boost was turned up and we were good to go. Go straight, into traffic at the corkscrew....three times. I could just not get a break and kept meeting traffic at the worst places. I was not loosing a massive amount of time. It was enough though. It felt good to be back on the 48s they were working well and I had more confidence in the stability of them. My 4 quickest lap times were all within 0.2s of each other. Possibly a sign that they are slightly too hard but they do not require you to have a 100 % clear run on your 1st hot lap. I think the best compromise would be somewhere between the 2 tyres. Back into the pits to find out that I had managed 2nd place with a 1:15.390. I had felt all weekend that the car was not quite handling as well as it could have. Possibly the grass tracking at Brands had knocked off the geo settings. It just felt like the front tyres had been doing all the work. I still think Jamie Wilson's time in the Exige of 1:12.693 would have been pretty much impossible to catch. He was only 0.1s slower than the 3rd place car in Pro class running slicks. Back to the garage and as always, when I get a poduim, everyone gets a sweaty man hug. Whether they want it or not. All in all, a pretty good weekend for myself and the team at RA motorsport. 2 podiums for myself and the fastest One Hit Wonder and some great times for Jason Ogg, he will be one to watch next year in Club Class. Both cars ran perfectly all weekend. The Snetterton write up will follow very soon. For those of you who do not know what happens, there is a fair bit of drama and an unhappy ending... Its like East Enders does Time Attack Again, I would like to give a massive shout out to all my sponsors. Especially RA motorsport who have been putting a huge amount effort into getting the car competitive in a very tough class. The guys are doing an awesome job and really go the extra mile. Massive thanks to all the people who have sponsored and supported me RA Motorsport Developments Andy Forest Performance Whiteline A.B.W J T Innovations Syvecs John Stevenson Motorsport ABC Autoglass Flat Out Photography Cosworth Carlimits.com

It was the final race of the time attack season at Snetterton this weeeknd. After a podium on the 300 circuit on saturday all i needed was an easily achievable 5th to give myself a podium for the championship. I had made the wrong tyre choice for qualifying, going for a worn set of Kumho V700s as they were supposed to be really good in the wet. They just aquaplanned everywhere in the standing water. The car would not even go in a straight line in the straights. Normally qualifying is a 20 min session and i would have had a chance to go in and switch tyres. It had been shortened to 15 mins so i would have struggled to get in a lap The weather was still soaking for the finals and i opted for my Yokohama AO48s I had used them in wet conditions before and found them to be pretty good once you had got some heat into them. I was pretty confident of a decent result as i had been quickest in most wet sessions all year by a fair margin and had only been beaten the time my turbo had blown up in the final at brands. They did take a lot longer to heat up than 888s but seemed to grip pretty well. I had tested the 48s back to back with the 1a list tyre at Brands (probably not as wet though, in retrospect) and found the 48s to be much quicker. Unfortunately, the 48s were pretty worn as they were the same set i had used all year. I had been out in worse conditions in 888s at Knockhill though. The track did not look too bad from the pit lane. When i got out, i found the track to still have a lot of standing water. The rain was off and the track should start to dry out so it was just a matter of trying to pick up some time. Richies had been very slippy in qualifying and i had a spin there so i new to be careful. Most of the rest of the track was starting to dry up a bit and you could stand on the brakes a bit harder. I entered Richies at 137 mph and braked much earlier than usual,nearly 200m earlier than my dry braking point, with a gentle squeeze on the pedal to see where the grip was, i was still feeling out the track at this point. The back wheels which were still a bit cold instantly locked up, i modulated the brake pressure to release the brakes but this did not have much effect and the car swopped ends and left the track. I hit the barriers pretty hard. I bounced back 10-15 ft and the car rotated through 270degrees. Hopefully the engine and dry sump are ok. If they are not then i will definitely be out for the 2013 season and may have to throw in the towel. We had thought about a new shell with a lighter cage for next year. I had hoped to sell that shell to partly fund the new one. The car is back up at RA and the guys will have a good look at things before we make a decision on what to do. The track did get quicker throughout the session and my inital time was only quick enough for 5th in Class. The race was won by Andrew Barbour who had used some tyre heaters to get some temperature into his tyres. Meaning that I drew on points for 3rd place with Andrew Barbour but due to the fact that he had 2 wins, he was given 3rd place in the championship.

Here is a couple of laps from Qualifying on sunday. Used the wrong tyres, a soft compound Kumho which just melted and gave no grip. Managed to squeeze a 1.16 out of them. Full report to follow soon

Lol, Ill be up at RA pretty soon as Anglesey is not far away. I never arrive at RA without any food, id get lynched, they are used to it now

Oops, wrong link for the Togethia Video

Brands Hatch Write up After Knockhill, the turbo was sent down to AET to see if they could salvage it. Unfortunately, the turbo was pretty much pumped, both the exhaust side and compressor side of the billet wheel were wrecked. I now had a decision to make. Could the car be competitive in the class with a GT30 and better response or should I just go for a GT35 which would be a bit more laggy but certainly give a fair bit more power? We had not seen what the GT30 would be capable of in the class as it had been damaged at Knockhill and there was the misfire at Cadwell. Being a typical man, the decision was made that the bigger option would be better. MORE POWER (Tim Allen voice) Arrff arrff arrff. It turned out to be less laggy than the wrecked GT30 anyway. A bit of tweaking from Andy Forrest and we were good to go. The car did feel ballistic after the mapping session. On a damp road it could possibly spin the wheels in 3rd and 4th gears… Not that I would try something like that as it would mean exceeding the speed limit! But a guy in the pub told me! Warm up – The day before there was a Ma5da meeting and some Time Attack and EDC testing. 3 cars had kindly dumped their oil around the circuit and it had been nice and moist all day. I walked the circuit the night before to try and establish where the grip might be. The answer was no where, especially on the racing line on several corners. Bearing this in mind I headed out trying to see what the track was like and to try and find the parts of the track with the most grip, without binning the car. The circuit was a slippy as a greased up gimp going down a waterslide. Paddockhill was hilarious, the car just wanted to over steer into Graham Hill bend and I had to reduce entry speed until it felt like I was pretty much crawling and Clearways was just a drift fest on the exit. Most corners were just oversteer and understeer maybe followed by some more oversteer for good measure, basically, all kinds of steer! Good fun on a track day but pretty difficult to get a clean lap in. The time sheets came in and I was 4th in class with a 1:00.171 which was 0.04s from the quickest in class. It looked like things were going to get close. Practice – Someone had kindly lubed up the track with another engine or two worth of oil and it was probably more slippy than Warm up. I went out and pushed even harder this time. Leaving a very small margin for improvement/error as no points can be scored for practice and cars were going off left right and centre around me. The wet grass was being very unforgiving and there were quite a few shunts into the barriers. Discretion was the better part of valor here and I had learned where I could push a touch harder if it was going to be wet during the timed sessions. I pulled back into the pits completely buzzing with my brain in overload, the filming company, Togethia asked if they could do an interview. Id probably struggle to put a sentence together, luckily they gave me 5 minutes to compose myself and then I had to try not to make a complete gimp of myself on camera. It is something that I have done before and does not really phase me, I just detest seeing the results. It is ok if I am driving at the time and safely hiding behind a crash helmet. I’m just not keen on seeing my big dish on the tellybox. Time to have a look at the timing sheets.I knew that I had been pushing harder, so was looking for a decent result. 2nd and half a second clear of the car in front... Happy Days! Then I realised that I was 3 seconds slower than the Neil Robertsons Evo. I probably had half a second to a second tucked away safely if I was to push harder, but 3 second, not a chance. There was a fair bit of head scratching going on in the pits on where Neil's sudden burst of pace had come from. Everyone's ego said that it must be gucci tyres so one of the lads went to have a look. Turns out Neil was using a set of full motorsport wet tyres as he was thinking about moving to Pro class where they can use those and slicks. For anyone who is not familiar with them, basically, if you drove them on a dry road for 10 miles, there would be nothing left of them. They are made from a super soft compound and Marcus Webster was saying that they are nearly as grippy in the wet as 888s are in the dry. A big sigh of relief was had by all. Qualifying - The track had finally dried up but was still a bit greasy from all the crap that had been dropped before and by the next set of cars that decided to s*it their engines. I had not driven brands in the dry since 2010 and was now packing a lot more power, better brakes and handling. I was going to have to get up to pace pretty quickly. There were a lot of One Hit Wonders at Brands and the circuit was unusually busy for the Pro classes, getting clear space was proving to be very difficult and I would have to make the best use of any space that I could get. Finally a clear lap and I managed to put in a 54.4, not bad but there was a lot of room for improvement. Then someone decides to drop their engine, oh good, more oil on the track. In to the pits while they clear it up, out again and on the 2 nd lap, someone decides that it will be a good time to bin the car. Back to the pits again. Back out again and I was really getting into the swing of things on the 1st flying lap. Most of the track felt like it was pretty much nailed but I thought there was more to come from Surtrees, the high speed left, right before the long last corner. I must have been driving down the straight saying '' watch this'' to myself (that never ends well) as rather than just having a small increase on braking and entry speed, It was a much better idea to enter the corner 20mph faster. Far too much entry speed accompanied with not enough trail braking to give the front end enough grip gave me some massive understeer. At this point, it was time to have a look into my bag of talent to see what was left........ It was EMPTY. The pretty smooth grass looked much more appealing than trying to make the car dance round the corner. So off we went for a bit of grass tracking. A couple of laps later and I caught up with Warren Kelly who was local to Brands so I decided to stick with him and Warren went off at exactly the same corner. These are both in the qualifying video. I chuckled my was round a cool down lap and then nailed a properly quick lap of 52.758 with a wee bit of traffic. Back into the pits for a look at the time sheets and I was 4th in Class 0.9s off the leader. A bit less traffic and a couple of set up changes and I would not be far off the pace. Final - It had stayed pretty much dry since qualifying, so I had decided to put the race fuel into the car for a bit extra power. Sods law, the second the race fuel was put in, it started tipping it down. The 1st quick lap was taken pretty easy to asses the levels of grip and it was sideways everywhere, looks like there was no grip. The traffic was an absolute nightmare. Everyone was pretty much flat out the whole session trying to stick a decent lap together and there was not much difference in pace making it pretty difficult to pass people. A bit of heroics were needed and I finally managed to get a clear lap. A quick look at the clock showed about 3 minutes left in the session. The plan was to do one pretty quick and clean lap and then throw the balls to the wall for a banzai finish. The timing point was half way round the circuit and on the clean lap I was 0.4s quicker than my previous lap and I was sure that I had been significantly slowed up on the last 2 corners. Things were looking promising. A nice controlled 4 wheel drift out of Clearways and we were melting it down the start finish straight. 300m to go and the turbo made a really strange whizzing noise and all boost was gone. I cruised over the line only 0.05s slower than my fastest lap in traffic. It later turned out that the noise was the turbo dying. Unhappy days! The time sheets were in and I was 3rd in Class, it then turned out that the guy who was quickest had been running motorsport wet's and I was promoted up to a very frustrating 2nd 0.18s from the win. If the turbo had just held out for a couple of hundred more meters then it could well have been a different story.... That's Motorsport for you though. Qualifying Video - Final Video - Official Time Attack Video from Togethia Again, i would like to give a massive shout out to all my sponsors. Especially RA motorsport who have been putting a huge amount effort into getting the car competitive in a very tough class. Nothing is too much trouble for these guys. Massive thanks to all the people who have sponsored and supported me RA Motorsport Developments Andy Forest Performance Whiteline J T Innovations Syvecs John Stevenson Motorsport ABC Autoglass Flat Out Photography Cosworth Carlimits.com

Here is a bit of in car footage from Brands Hatch last weekend. I eventually finished 2nd - 0.18s from 1st place. There was a lot of traffic in the 15 minute final as there were 2 red flags. Final - Very very slippy as 4 engines had let go on the Saturday and 3 engines on Sunday. Unfortunately, when i cleared traffic and was on my fastest lap. 0.4s up on the previous quickest lap. The turbo let go Qualifying - Dry but still pretty slippy. Includes and early off when i was working out how fast I cant go round surtrees with some horrible understeer. Full report to follow

After all the problems with the misfire at Cadwell, the guys at RA Motorsport were quickly on the case and decided to change the only thing that had not been changed, the wiring loom behind the dashboard. It turned out that the wiring loom was in a bit of a state. Possibly the 044 pump had been on its way out and drawing too much current as the wires to it were really brittle. Andy Forrest had noticed that the injector duty had to be considerably higher than it had been in the past. Plasma projects had also kindly sent me a set of their s****y coil packs. These not only provide more spark but also have been proven to give a bit more power too.. Happy days While the dashboard was out, the guys at RA removed the heater matrix and all that other gubbins. Being cold is never really a problem in the car anyway, as it comes fitted with an oil filled radiator... ie Dry sump tank in the passenger foot-well. Nice and toasty in the winter, i am sure in the hot days, ill be sweating like a peodophile in a packamac at a school disco. I had a mapping session with Andy Forrest booked on the dyno at hypertech the week before Knockhill. So off i trotted, with fingers, toes and eyes crossed, which makes driving remarkably difficult. The misfire was gone.....YAY! but the car was very laggy and did not make the power it should have made. At 5000rpm there was just under 250hp and by 5750 there was 500hp then maxing out at 530. It was very much looking like the turbo was on it's way out. The ever helpful John Stevenson Motorsport Autospares Superstore kindly offered a loan of another GT30. AndyF had other commitments in the run up to knockhill and i had a hell of a lot more power than I had at Cadwell, so we decided to run the car as it was. The weather forecast was also pretty grim. So if it was going to be soaking wet, 530 hp would be just fine. Test day - Time Attack had organised 3x 15 min sessions the day before. It worked out pretty well as there was 1 pissing wet session, 1 drying session and 1 dry session. It gave me a chance to acclimatise to the car and have a play with the suspension settings, whilst making sure i was not giving those Southern shandies from Englandshire a lesson in my interpretation of the lines at Knockhill. I learned that lesson by gaining Fee 4 seconds a lap at Oulton and then she eventually beat me in the championship. It is the same reason that I never put up my fastest laps on YouTube and never share data logs with opposition....No matter how many times Adam Kindness asks! Race Day - It was a typical summer morning at knockhill, the sun was shining there was no wind and it was lovely and warm. Unfortunately, then my alarm went off and I had to get up and drive up to the pissing wet and freezing cold Knockhill, twinned with Siberia. To be honest, i do really like the wet conditions and did put in some pretty competitive laps at cadwell with less power than the opposition. Warm Up - The circuit was as slippery as an otters pocket and single digit temperatures do not mix well with R compound tyres. My new powerband was also proving to be interesting in the wet. Let it go off boost and it would result in a lovely powerslide on exit. Looking like a hero but not actually going very fast. I pushed on for a couple of laps just for a bit of extra practice in the eventuality that it may actually rain at Knockhill.... Not that it was likely to happen at Knockhill. The time sheets came in and i was 3rd over all with a 1:02.247, 3 seconds faster than anyone else in Club Pro. Not a bad result, but nothing can really be taken from warm up. Andy Forrest appeared with his laptop to give the mapping a bit of a tweak. He always says that it is best to get actual data from the race track. Practice - A drying line had begun to appear at the circuit, some of the kerbs were drying off a bit but it was very difficult to judge just how dry it was until i got out to the circuit. So i went for an intermediate set up on the suspension. After a couple of hard laps it actually proved to quite dry, there was just a bit of a penalty to pay for deviating from the racing line. Wet circuit and grass were waiting to punish you for mistakes. The car then started to make a ticking noise from the engine. Luckily not a time bomb but a leaky exhaust manifold gasket. I just ended the session then and headed back to the paddock where Phil, Andy Napier and Paddy from RA had to get to work on changing the gasket.. Those lovely hot headers kept them nice and warm during this process. I think Andy Napier will have a permanent burn as a memento of Knockhill 2012. Time sheets came in and i was fastest again in Club Pro by half a second and third quickest over all with a 55.633 Qualifying - The guys from RA did a great job getting the car ready in plenty of time. Andy gave the map a tweak and noticed that i was shifting slightly early between 4th and 5th grear and dropping slightly off boost. My rev counter reads slightly high up at the top end so i adjusted my shift point and also had the rev counter on full display on the Toucan which is a very useful feature. The track was dry now and i knew i would be up against in against the Evo's. I ran the car on full boost to get Andy some more data logs and to try and give the best chance of some decent qualifying points. Time sheets came in and i was now 3rd in class with a 55.088 with 5 cars in my class less than 1 second behind me. This included Russ Patton and Andrew Barbour who always turn the boost up for the final and can find a fair bit of extra time. Final - The Evo guys would definately be turning the boost up to 11 now and i knew that we would be in for a tough time, being at around 200hp less than most of the opposition. Andy F gave the map one more tweak and suggested that the angle of the spoiler was a touch too steep and may actually be stalling the air. The 2 Andys got to work at that and myself and Deaser decided to give the car a bit of a clean. Cars, like women, seem to let you away with a bit more after a bit of pampering ( i must add that i know nothing about cars or women) The car was also suffering from a bit of understeer so we made adjustments to the roll bars. Time for a big can of Man Up and to go and take some liberties on those big kerbs. There was a black flag early on when Marcus broke down and then a second when Romain had his rather spectacular crash. I had been bothered a few times with traffic during the final and there was a small bit of time to find. After Romains off there was 1 min 20 on the clock so just enough time to get a quick warm up lap and a single flyer. The pressure was on. I was nicely positioned in the line just behind Steven Peel, he would have exactly the same idea and would also be quick. I knew i would have to make this one count, live timing had gone down so i had no idea what position i was sitting in. Out we went and i rung every thing i could out of the car and produced a 54.714. Good enough for 3rd in class and my 1st podium in club pro. I was absolutely delighted that all the hard work the guys at RA had put into the car had produced a podium at our home event. Even despite having a issues. After the event, the guys at RA stripped out the turbo and have found the fins on both the compressor and exhaust side to be damaged. Looks like the turbo will have to be replaced or repaired for brands hatch. Again, i would like to give a massive shout out to all my sponsors. Especially RA motorsport who have been putting a huge amount effort into getting the car competitive in a very tough class. Nothing is too much trouble for these guys. Also to Andy F for being my in house mapper and race engineer for the day. Everyone's efforts are greatly appreciated, there is no way i could consider competing without these guys. Massive thanks to all the people who have sponsored and supported me RA Motorsport Developments Andy Forest Performance Whiteline J T Innovations Syvecs John Stevenson Motorsport ABC Autoglass Flat Out Photography Cosworth Carlimits.com In car video Same Video in higher quality Warren Kelly's Escort Cosworth following me -

Thanks guys. The car was not quite 100% as it looks like the turbo is on the way out. We think the exhaust side of the compressor wheel has been damaged by all the unburnt fuel from the missfire. It did not make quite as much power as it should have... It made 530 but all came in at once. 5000 rpm gave 250 hp and 5750 gave 500. It made for an interesting drive in the wet! We are going to do a couple more tweeks for brands hatch. Whiteline will be working their magic on the chassis setup so looking forward to that.

Here are a couple of laps of in car video from Knockhill during Time Attack at the weekend. This was fast enough to give me 3rd place in Club Pro. Full race write up / ramblings to follow Higher quality version

Thanks guys. I'll do my best to get a result at Knockhill.

A few of you may remember that i competed in the Time Attack series in 2009 - 2010. At the time, i was competing in Club Class 4WD. In 2010 i managed to win at Cadwell and Oulton Park, came 2nd at Knockhill, 3 rd at Brands Hatch and then blew the engine at Snetterton whilst leading the championship. I only needed to finish 2-3 places behind Fee so a 5th place in the final would have been sufficient. The way the cars were breaking down that day, i pretty much could have cruised to victory on a track that i already knew. Pushing too hard in practice, just in case, may well have cost me the championship, engine, sanity etc! Lesson learned. I had decided that I would take a year out in 2011 as I had now blown up 4 engines in 5 years due to oil surge and would not go back out in the car until i had got a dry sump system. Dry sumps were very thin on the ground with there being none of the Zen systems available and Cosworth's were all in America. With the cost of a full engine re-build, dry sump and Time Attack moving to those crappy Pirelli tyres it was not a difficult decision to take the year out. My wallet and sanity appreciated it greatly I did keep myself busy by driving the VIP car for Time Attack which entailed driving someone else’s car round the track with a bunch of people to show off in front of. During the year off, i got in touch with RA Motorsport Developments who kindly agreed to sponsor me for the following season. I cannot thank the guys at RA enough. They have done an excellent job getting the engine and dry sump in the car, tidying up the bodywork including a re-spray and all the extra work involved into getting me legal and competitive in Club Pro. I really could not have done it without them. I decided it was time to get back into Time Attack and contacted Glen who asked me to go into Club Pro class. As I only got 2 strikes in Club Class i could probably have talked my way back into Club but I decided to ‘man up’ and get myself into the class above. So, with very little budget and talent, I went to give it a shot against the bigger boys in Club Pro Winter testing - With the engine and dry sump all ready to go in November we decided to do a bit of testing at Knockhill. Andy Forrest put a map in the old Simtec and off we trotted to Knockers. The car pulled like a train, running 2 bar of boost all day long and despite having no geo set up and a passenger, still managed to put in a pretty respectable lap time of........ oh, i forget now It was not about 6 weeks out from the start of the season and it was time to map the Syvecs. The Syvecs can use up to 8 different engine maps as well as closed loop fueling with a Wideband Lambda (thanks to Tim at JT Innovations) and many other features that should allow me to run the car quicker and safer on the engine. On the 1st mapping session the car developed a misfire. Everything was the same on car as it had run at knockhill, so plugs and coils were changed and we went back to mapping again. The misfire was back, again at about 1.7bar. We did have reasonable power at that so Andy Forest and I decided to move onto the race fuel map. The race fuel would allow Andy to advance the ignition timing and the miss should be less of an issue. We put a can of race fuel into the car and............ it would not start. We pumped the race fuel out of the tank again and it turned out that Santa Pod had sold me a can of what looked like 90% water. Thanks Santa Pod! We were now just over a week from the event and Andy had no more time to map so we were going to have to make do with the power we had and a fair bit of time to try to get rid of the miss. The guys at RA flushed the fuel system and it turned out that no damage had been done to the engine, finally a bit of good luck! They changed plugs and coils again along with the engine wiring loom and went through all the connectors with a fine tooth comb as we had a bit of corrosion in a couple of them. Cam and crank sensors etc were also changed. The day before we left for testing, it looked like they had got rid of the misfire. Happy days  Testing – We were due to test at the MLR day at Cadwell. Giving us a whole day to get over any issues and get the car set up for the new tyres. Unfortunately, on the 1st lap of testing, the misfire reared its ugly head again. I ran through all the different cal settings (Maps) with the Toucan controller. It really is a great piece of kit as it is easy to use even with gloves on and the monitoring and alarms are fantastic. The car was still missing, even at 1.1 bar. The whole day was spent with the RA guys trying everything possible and in horrendous freezing and pissing wet conditions. We did meet some bloke off of the telly though. He is or was on Coranation Farm or something like that? Strangely, he was not the centre of attention at the briefing as Olly Clark was there and there seemed to be much more interest in the fact that Olly was at a track day in the Gobstopper. At 8 o’clock that night we got a message from Andy Forest thought it may be a battery/alternator as the voltage had been a bit low. Now, where do you get a Subaru alternator at 8 on a Friday night????? The RCM truck, they had 2! And it’s not even the ones they use in the gobstopper. A quick test run in the paddock as the car is not road registered and all seemed to be well. We headed back to the hotel where I had a couple of pints and headed to bed. The rest of the lads possibly had one or 2 more as they all looked a bit green the next morning. Warm up – After the inital excitement of going out at the same time as the Gobstopper and CPR Orange car, then the thought..... Oh crap, i hope they don’t crash into me! I cruised out for a few laps to get the car warmed up. The car felt pretty good and pulling well even though Andy had to map out some of the mid range torque to keep the misfire at bay. Then, on lap 3, the F***ing misfire returned. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. A quick trip into the pits and they put the car onto wastegate pressure which stopped the miss but the car would only run 0.5 bar of boost. It was about as quick as a week in the jail and I was worried that I may just roll back down the hill on the Park straight. My transponder had not been working so no lap times were taken. Back to the pits where the guys pretty much stripped Paul from the Pro R teams P1 of all the bits we had already changed as well as the battery from Warren Kellys car. The guys never gave up all day, trying everything possible, re-wiring anything that could be re-wired and checking and double checking everything all day. Paul from Zen kindly came along to have a look. Unfortuntely, we did not have a cat 5 cable to plug in his laptop as someone had taken it out when the car was cleaned. Practice – It was pissing down for practice and the organisers had declared it a wet session giving us the option to run the wet list 1a tyres. Being from Scotland, i decided to ignore that advice and go out with the semi slicks on. It was greasy and very slippy but there was not enough surface water to justify the wet tyres. Cadwell is highly unforgiving and by the end of the session it looked like there had been a banger race going on. Russ Pattons plowing services decided that Mansfield needed a bit of groundwork and moved all the dirt from the inside of the circuit onto the racing line. He did kindly leave his splitter for the marshals to put back together and I am sure it will look great on the front of someone’s fiesta. Romain decided that his crazy light, 500+Hp CRX was still too heavy and left his front and rear bumpers in a million pieces. Luckily, i had my bowl of hero flakes in the morning as the conditions were very tretcherous and i was having to limit the boost below 1 bar by feathering the throttle. This was not ideal but seemed to work ok until the point where you are on a nice 4 wheel drift around Chris curve, need a touch more power and just get a bloody big pop. At the end of the session the time sheets came in and I was 2nd fastest in CP only 0.3 seconds behind Andrew Barbour, who let the pack in CP Qualifying – More work had been done to try and get rid of the fault to no avail. So it was down to my right foot to keep the boost below the misfire and just go out there and score some points. The car did not feel fast and by the data logs, it was slower than the car in 400hp spec last time around Cadwell. Whiteline had made the car handle great and the track was much drier now so I managed to push onto a 1.41.5 . 5th in the 4WD club pro cars. Final – Pretty much the same story as Qualifying. Again, everyone tried everything possible to get to the bottom of the misfire. The RA guys worked right until the last second before I had to leave for the assembly area but the misfire. But like a bad smell, the misfire would just not go away. In the end I managed a time of 1.38.6 and comfortably last in the start finish speed trap which seems to be a good indication of power. The time was a full second quicker than my 2010 time with a fair bit less power, so things are looking very encouraging for future rounds. I finished 4th quickest out of the 4WD CP cars just 1 second from the car in front. We all presumed that the 4WD cars would be in their own class but Glen had decided that all the CP cars would be in 1 big class and just have Club Class divided into about 10 different classes. The quest for the mystery misfire still continues. Dashboard is coming out right now and that wiring loom will be changed and it looks like we are going to go to new age coil packs. The guys from RA will definitely not give up until the problem is solved. On the bright side, it looks like we are going to have good pace when a bit of power is thrown into the mix and in CP we can drop 2 scores over the year so all is not lost. Some Pics from the weekend Massive thanks to all the people who have sponsored and supported me RA Motorsport Developments Andy Forest Performance Whiteline J T Innovations Syvecs John Stevenson Motorsport ABC Autoglass Flat Out Photography Cosworth

I'll not be competing this year. I am taking a year out of Time Attack. Best of luck Adam. I agree 100% that Time Attack is a massive step up from a track day. It sounds like it should be very similar but its really worlds apart. There is no hiding or excuse making when there is a timing beacon in the car. Andy Napier from RA Motorsport has kindly agreed to support me and is working on the car and the engine right now. With a bit of AndyF magic on the mapping they should be able to come up with a very competitive package. I am hoping to do a couple of sprints/hillclimbs and the odd round of Scottish Saloons to try out some proper racing. And i may try and drive round some cones as well.... Think i may find that very hard on the brain cell though!! I like a big grey stip of tarmac to let me know where im going.

Horrible news. It just goes to show how fragile life is. Thoughts go out to his friends and family