MONSOON Race Day
I had my
Ibiza out for it's 3rd race weekend down at Knockhill at the start of the month. It was called the Mayday Race meet, but i prefer to say MONSOON Race Day. Still sporting the old engine(ko3s) and seriously out gunned power wise.
The weekend started as most DIY Motorsport weekends do - running about like a headless chicken... That seemed to be the theme for much of the weekend: avoiding getting wet, last minute tyre changes and battling the wind to prevent the new awing from disappearing off down the paddock.
I had three big spins and all of which where at Duffus, No 1 cold tyres, too fast, first lap of testing = driver being a numpty! No 2 Waiting on new tyres being fitted and getting out with only 3 minutes left of qualifying and in the rush I forgot that the tyre
shop inflate to 45psi, over inflated brand new tyres = driver being a numpty! And No 3 was down to oil, someone had gone round the entire circuit twice spewing oil everywhere and turned the entire place into a skating rink which was good fun but only once you realised it was covered in oil, spin 3 occurred pretty much as I was really starting to get to grips with this wet racing malarkey then boom a nice pirouette I also had an excursion into the gravel at Clarks in race one which is where I'm guessing the splitter wanted to stay.
I went with my gut instinct and ignored lots of seasoned racers advice - I ended up being right. Michelin PS3 were excellent in the wet, couldn't believe how late i could break with them compared to track day type tyres and the amount of traction especially out of the corners.
Started at the back for race one(23rd) after not posting the minimum of 3 laps in qualifying.
I managed to get my self up to 15th which is where I started race two. I managed to finish in 13th in race two. I'm pretty chuffed with that considering it was the first time I'd been on track in the wet and I could not see out of the windscreen after lap 3 on both races.
Successful weekend i'd say: First wet races out of the way relatively unscathed, I know where I can improve drastically from watching my footage and had bloody good fun. Bloody hard work but worth it
Here's a few pics.
Up on two in the wet
Good visibility....
Smoothing out the gravel....
The pics below were taken by
http://www.power-images.co.uk/ www.facebook.com/powerim/