After a few weeks off for family time next on the calender was Rnd 4 of the national series & a trip up the M40 to Jnc12. With such great reports from the previous year eagerly awaited this venue for its euro style design with fast & close racing. The design did not dissapoint but the lack of rain would hinder the surface binding & led to a dust bowl.
Practice got under way & a dust cloud just engulfed the track, luckily the wind was strong so took the majority away but the marshals took a punishing which is not very H&S in this world we live in. For the guys that say oh weve raced in worse than this are living in the past & do not help in any way to make our tracks safer, I would personnaly rather they keep there view to themselves unless they want to step up & put some action in to make a difference. Trust me its a thankless task where your moaned at which ever way you try.
Funnily we did get moaned at when we stopped the event to clear some bad sections, but these actions by the committee helped the track & we quickly had a much improved track in driveability but more importantly a much smaller dust cloud which was safer. We would never lose the dust element but made the conditions acceptable, just wish the clubs would read the rules on what they should supply ie water & brooms for such occasions.
To the racing & with the layout being quiet easy meant racing being very close with very few mistakes, the only place where you could be quicker was nailing the 2 chicanes but other than that it was wait for the other guy to make a mistake.
My day went well where I played around with adding weight to the car which for this track gave a great tunning feel. The car felt good but for my getting older thumbs made one silly mistake each round, this is always punishing at nationals on a fast track & ended up in the C final. My true pace was mid B but we can all say what if so would see what the finals delivered.
The C went well & was always just on the bump up spot in a battle, this went down to the line & just sneaked it. The B would always be a tall order as these days its harder than an A & normally what seems faster as all are going for the top 4 spots & not just a points finish. I plugged away & was rewarded with 9th so a not to bad end to the event, but my mistakes cost me & a higher result but thats racing.
Till next time
Bren
