13th Dec Rnd 1 clanfield

[Bren]

Its been a while sorry all work no play. Then rain no play what a crap end to the season. When we had a brief rest bite & a dry few days made a trip west to clanfield, ha not many can say that as for most its south but enough waffle.
A new layout from Mr Bowell which was very good & fun to drive, the layout will make for some great racing just roll on when the weather is better for track prep & it beds in. A reasonable turn out considering the CML Frankley series was also going ahead & kent split the section a bit. The dirt held up well & stayed on the tracak rather than via the cars to the pits so it was nice to have very little cleaning between rounds.

For me a chance to run the new 8010 car, Many of the concepts i had run in prototype form but not the whole package so this was a good chance to give it a shake down & learn a new setup if it was needed.

Rnd 1 & straight in with no practice, the track was rough with lumps of mud so a steady pace with a clean run was planned. This happened & with no mistakes added upto a TQ in round just ahead of Tommy.
Rnd 2 change tyres from calibers to Bowfighters for better forward traction & turn in. The forward traction improved but still pushed in the turns, the track smoothed out a little & the lap times fell. Another good battle with Tommy & was very suprised with ending,  TQ again i was liking this.
Rnd 3 put in the overdrive to improve turn in, this it did but a shower would make the track sticky. A silly error gave Damien the chance to pounce & he took the round.
Rnd 4 & a dry track, with another error free run knocked even more of the time to take the round again by 5 seconds.

The final was a dream from the horn & was off  into a good rythm. With the car feeling so easy to drive pulled away, I was able to cancel the 10 minute stop as it was not needed so pitted at 8 minute when i lapped the field, from here just cruised home & enjoyed the win.

The balance of the new car had been great through out all of qualifying taking the jumps & bumbs with ease. Its composure during the turns gave a nice feel making it easier & safer to drive giving the confidence to push harder. THis first time out has given allot of confidence in the new chassis & roll on when i can play again.


Had planned for the Team race at herts on the 20th but this has been cancelled so next time out hopefully slough on the 27th will see though

Have a good one & see you all later

Bren