snetterton

Well it was a disappointing weekend in many ways, but other ways it was good, at Silverstone 2 weeks before I had slid off into the wall, and damaged the left hand side of the car quite a bit. After getting advice from the company that built my suspension, about the rear end feeling loose, they advised me to lower it down to get more travel out of the dampers, this seamed to work as the car did feel more planted at the rear, but I would of preferred to do this testing on a test day rather than the actual race. The issue was that the test day was full, and the car then could only be tested on the actual race and qualification laps (not ideal).

I set a lap time of 2:32 for qualifying but for the first race my best lap was 2:35, and for the second race the best lap was 2:34, this could of been down to many things, one for sure was my confidence level, I think it had been hit after the crash at Silverstone, and I had not slept well for the weekend, and did have a head ache during the Sunday, I want to look again at the suspension and maybe raise it a touch, to remove a rattle that started to occur (and was a little off putting, I think its the helper springs not holding the spring in place properly when its not loaded), also the exhaust is making a little noise, I think the rear rubber mount has broken off.

The plan this weekend was to be more of a test session, but I was over 10 seconds of the leaders pace per lap, now considering this circuit was 3 miles long, and we normally race over 1 mile circuits, so I also think as soon as I had fallen of the back of the pack, it was very hard for me to catch back up, the pack can pull you along. I felt I did this last year also at snetterton.

Now we have to prepare for the next race, in 2 weeks time on bank holiday monday at castle combe, the difference with this race is it will be on live TV, so I had better try to get it right here :)

Well after a long 2 weeks the car is back to being nearly straight, and currently is just awaiting the number board to be put back on (that will happen tomorrow.)

Again at Snetterton we have the garages (like at Silverstone) but from what I have been told the ones at Snetterton are not as big, but at least we will be dry inside if there is any rain (if there is rain I may have to purchase some new tyres :( )

Also After speaking to John at black art designs (www.blackartdesigns.com) he suggested to remove the oversteer and loose backend that I am experiencing that I should lower the car down a little, so on his advice I have lost some ride height, and probibly will now have to call in at B & Q and purchase some blocks of wood to help the car on and off the trailer, but we will see that tomorrow when I load up in preparation for Snetterton.

As with Silverstone the races at Snetterton are going to be on sunday, with the signing on, scruiterneering and qualifying on the saturday morning, so we will be milling around in the afternoon and mainly just chilling. I am hoping to have a new toy to play with this weekend, which should enable me to see better when to change gear, and also if I am doing better on the laps, as I will be getting direct feedback on my lap times, in real time.

Yesterday BARC released the provisional racing dates for the 2011 season for the Kumho bmwrdc championship, the interesting points are the Castle Combe and the Donington events whilst only having one race, will be televised, and the other outstanding item is it looks like we have three races at Pembrey. The 2011 season has provisionally 19 rounds penned so compared to last year when I managed to only do 12 rounds this year could be a lot more involved.

These provisional dates are setup in the calendar but as always with provisional dates are subject to change until confirmed by BARC and the BMWRDC.

BMW racing drivers club rounds seven and eight from the Snetterton circuit, close to Norfolk, this was my first visit to the circuit and unfortunately the car broke on the out lap of qualifying, so I was given the chance to do 3 laps of the track just before the first race of the meeting on the saturday, so I had no reference point to see how well I was doing as going around the circuit alone you never know if you are following the racing line.