Car69's 2011 STCC Blog
Round One Moto Arena
The STCC 2011 begins here
Well it all started weeks ago in testing the new 21.5 motors. At Coastal we thought we had found a good one and we had sort of. Myself, my mate GreyFox and Les had gone for the HobbyWing 21.5 which at Coastal is fantastic ( But Coastal is small ) with the Hobbywing at Coastal I can get it in the A Final in the Open class racing against 13.5 and even 10.5 !!!!! But at Moto Arena being much bigger the story begins Here .................................
Saturday Practice
Well Saturday started at 6am with the van loaded and a long drive ahead I set off heading for Silverstone - the sat nav said 2 hours 30 mins. Armed with Red Bull and chocolate for the journey I was off , trouble is I have a giant roof rack on the van at the moment so my van that used to hit 115mph can only hit 85mph down hill with the wind behind it !!!!!!!!! It was going to feel like a long trip ..... Although having passed the Woods with some good driving on a roundabout the race was on to be the 1st person to reach Moto Arena and this was a race I was going to win. Arrivied at 8.15am knocking 15 mins off of the predicted sat nav time !!!!!
Being first in apart from Mike Smith I had a quick heads-up from Mike about the track setup and layout, tyre additive and everything else I needed to know ( especially where the toilets were ) .
On to testing after I had set up my pit, even though I had been told all about additive heating etc ... I put my car down to try it COLD and ADDITIVE FREE. This was to be the shortest TEST I had ever done as I could not travel more than 1m without loosing control!!!! Back to the pits to start over again .....
In testing I was chasing the grip and changing setup on every run, one thing at a time to see if it improved the car. This turned out to be pointless as come Sunday the track was totally different, so Saturday should really have been all about finding the speed ( which we thought we had ) ......
Come the end of the day Saturday with over 150 laps under my belt I felt pretty happy looking forward to Sunday BUT it was like the first Formula One race of the season seeing who had improved and got the most out of the rules. More importantly who had bought the fastest motor as the TC4 Class was new !!!! Nobody knew what was quickest ( This was going to come very apparent on Sunday morning ) ..................
After a days practice we returned to our hotel for a relaxing evening in the pub with steak and chips all round and a few beers and a lot of talking about who looked quick , And this was probably the only thing we all agreed on ( We had the wrong motors ) ...............
Being first in apart from Mike Smith I had a quick heads-up from Mike about the track setup and layout, tyre additive and everything else I needed to know ( especially where the toilets were ) .
On to testing after I had set up my pit, even though I had been told all about additive heating etc ... I put my car down to try it COLD and ADDITIVE FREE. This was to be the shortest TEST I had ever done as I could not travel more than 1m without loosing control!!!! Back to the pits to start over again .....
In testing I was chasing the grip and changing setup on every run, one thing at a time to see if it improved the car. This turned out to be pointless as come Sunday the track was totally different, so Saturday should really have been all about finding the speed ( which we thought we had ) ......
Come the end of the day Saturday with over 150 laps under my belt I felt pretty happy looking forward to Sunday BUT it was like the first Formula One race of the season seeing who had improved and got the most out of the rules. More importantly who had bought the fastest motor as the TC4 Class was new !!!! Nobody knew what was quickest ( This was going to come very apparent on Sunday morning ) ..................
After a days practice we returned to our hotel for a relaxing evening in the pub with steak and chips all round and a few beers and a lot of talking about who looked quick , And this was probably the only thing we all agreed on ( We had the wrong motors ) ...............
Moto Arena ' Shiney '
Sunday qualifying then Race Day
Well we are here the main event , what we have been working towards for months STCC Round 1 2011. Having received some secret tyre treatment info the previous evening i was feeling confident of a good result !
I tried the secret treatment in practice first thing Sunday morning and WOW it worked great , I was even well happy knowing I was under-powered I felt this could give me the edge I needed , HOW WRONG was I .....
ROUND ONE
I shared my secret tyre treatment with the Grey Fox and on round one it was aparent it didn't work as well as earlier , With so many different additives going down on the tarmac it was a lottery as to what would work and what would not !!!!! Ours did not and we spent 5 mins of spinning around and drifting ending up 4 laps off FTQ pace which is not where either of us wanted to be !!
ROUND TWO
Well what a difference the right additive makes I was flying , well as fast as I could with my underpowered car until I was hit by a PINK car and ended up breaking the barrier and ending up in the pits ( Which I didn't know I had as I could not see my car ) it took 2 laps for the marshall to get my car back on track and by that time I had lost all additive and had no grip on the rear of my car at all . Basically it was a DNF as I was so far off it was unreal I was sitting 6th in B at this time ... not A happy bunny !!!!!
ROUND THREE ( The Last Chance )
I knew I had to pull one out of the bag , But at the same time I knew that I had to stay out of trouble and get a clean run in for 5 mins ..... I did it very slowly BUT I kept it going round for the full 5 mins as fast as I could and made the A Final in 10th place ( Well you got to be in it to win it ) Although I knew I had not got the grunt to win being down on punch and top end hoping for 3rd was realistic .........
Finals to Follow Shortly
I tried the secret treatment in practice first thing Sunday morning and WOW it worked great , I was even well happy knowing I was under-powered I felt this could give me the edge I needed , HOW WRONG was I .....
ROUND ONE
I shared my secret tyre treatment with the Grey Fox and on round one it was aparent it didn't work as well as earlier , With so many different additives going down on the tarmac it was a lottery as to what would work and what would not !!!!! Ours did not and we spent 5 mins of spinning around and drifting ending up 4 laps off FTQ pace which is not where either of us wanted to be !!
ROUND TWO
Well what a difference the right additive makes I was flying , well as fast as I could with my underpowered car until I was hit by a PINK car and ended up breaking the barrier and ending up in the pits ( Which I didn't know I had as I could not see my car ) it took 2 laps for the marshall to get my car back on track and by that time I had lost all additive and had no grip on the rear of my car at all . Basically it was a DNF as I was so far off it was unreal I was sitting 6th in B at this time ... not A happy bunny !!!!!
ROUND THREE ( The Last Chance )
I knew I had to pull one out of the bag , But at the same time I knew that I had to stay out of trouble and get a clean run in for 5 mins ..... I did it very slowly BUT I kept it going round for the full 5 mins as fast as I could and made the A Final in 10th place ( Well you got to be in it to win it ) Although I knew I had not got the grunt to win being down on punch and top end hoping for 3rd was realistic .........
Finals to Follow Shortly