Season 30: Specials. Round 6: Spa (16 laps) (71 Can Am cars)

Back to Spa again, this time in the 1971 Can Am monsters.  The rules forbid the top cars from being used, and also we have to do a stop and go penalty at some point.  I've gone with the Shadow (again - same car as Road Atlanta), and was reasonably confident of being competitive.  The car is very good around here, a lot of grip, but it's marginal under braking, wanting to spin around on the bumps.  I'm also being very careful under braking regarding not buzzing the engine on downshifts, which can also contribute to instability.

Axel also brought a Shadow, it's a good, bullet-fast car with a nice balance.  Greg was in the Ferrari, which is a slower car around this track.  Axel took pole position, I think I just didn't have enough heat in the tyres.  Anyway we lined up for the start.  I got an Ok start and followed Axel up through Eau Rouge.  I felt Ok behind him initially, but when we got to Stavelot it all went wrong.  I turned at the right point but the car just didn't stick, it slid across the track and thumped the bridge with the left rear.  That was that.  After a reset I set off after the field, did my stop go penalty, and just basically relaxed.  I figured my race was all over, and I turned up the music and cruised a bit.  I got past Doni and then did my compulsory stop and go out of the way, then pressed on expecting to spin off or blow the engine at any moment.

However, others starting having problems.  Axel spun off and got stuck for a bit.  Greg spun off and got stuck.  They both had to do resets, they both spun off again.  Eventually Greg damaged his car bad and had to retire just after half distance.  While trying to relax I caught up to Carlos in the M8F, and we ended up having a battle for what was the lead.  Carlos was struggling a bit but I was having a tough time behind him.  Every time I got close the car would get very darty and erratic everywhere.  It was awful.  You just can't seem to race these cars.  After a couple of laps I finally got a good run through the second part of Stavelot and was able to go around on the straight, taking the lead.  Then I could finally relax again, and drove to the finish.  Amazing, finally I got a win in this championship!!!

Mixed Mod - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	PP	Total	Vehicle
1	GregT (FT)		275.0	*Mixture*	50.0	50.0	43.0	50.0	50.0	32.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)		222.0	*Mixture*	43.0	43.0		43.0	43.0	50.0
3	Cookie (FT)		168.0	*Mixture*	37.0	28.0	32.0	28.0		43.0
4	Carlos Cendejas (FT)		144.0	*Mixture*		25.0	50.0	32.0		37.0
5	Doni Yourth (FT)		102.0	*Mixture*	28.0	37.0		37.0
6	AnGex (R1)		69.0	*Mixture*		32.0			37.0
7	Jani Posta (FT)		48.0	*Mixture*		23.0	25.0
8	Tom van Ostade (R1)		37.0	Lola T222			37.0
9	Walter Conn (R1)		32.0	Porsche 910	32.0
10	DLogan (FT)		28.0	Shadow MKll			28.0
	bagrupp (R1)
	Gareth (R1)
	Iestyn Davies (R1)
	Rainier (R1)
	Robert Fleurke (R1)
	Ronnie Nilsson (R1)

Testing in Belgium

Back to Spa again, this time in preparation for the 71 CanAm car race this weekend.  Due to rules, I can't use the big Lola or the McLarens, so I've gone with the Shadow again.  It makes a great noise, but more importantly it has a really nice balance, and it didn't take too long to get it hooked up.  I've really been focusing on differential settings, as the car can be run flat out through a number of corners, but has a small amount of understeer to deal with.  After a couple of hours the car is feeling much better, testing always takes longer at a big track like Spa.  I've had mostly bad luck at this track recently, it's very difficult to get the balance exactly right.  Worringly, my engine blew during testing...  Not sure about this engine acutally.

Restaurant review: Pomeroys

A fine British establishment, Pomeroys has a very English interior, and menu.  Comfortable, and a bit twee, dinner was enlivened with great conversation, and watching the Fire Department show up to deal with a false fire alarm.  Then it was time for the food.

I chose the beer battered fish and chips, with mashed peas, and while I'm reliably informed the Gnocci was favourful and rich, the fish was okay.  I probably should have been more ambitious.  Ironic, no?

Season 30: Specials. Round 5: Isle of Man (5 laps) (69 F1 cars)

Another bad race.  Qualified 2nd to Greg in the Ferrari, had an inkling I'd picked the wrong car.  I'd just hadn't the time to do a proper test of the Ferrari and the BRM, and since the BRM was more drivable I went with that.  Anyway, it all went wrong at the start when I blew my engine off the line.  You have to rev these cars to get them launched, so I guess it's just one of these things.  I got going, passed a few cars as they had problems, then had to do a stop and go penalty in the pits.  So finally settled down to run about 40-50 seconds behind Greg.  And that was basically that.  I couldn't get any closer to him, and basically just had to hope he would make a few mistakes.  But he only had one crash, so in the end he had a fairly easy win.  This track is very difficult and fast, so it's odd to do a fairly good run, and leave feeling deflated.  There's no stopping Greg's momentum it seems.

Mixed Mod - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	PP	Total	Vehicle
1	GregT (FT)		243.0	*Mixture*	50.0	50.0	43.0	50.0	50.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)		172.0	*Mixture*	43.0	43.0		43.0	43.0
3	Cookie (FT)		125.0	*Mixture*	37.0	28.0	32.0	28.0
4	Carlos Cendejas (FT)		107.0	*Mixture*		25.0	50.0	32.0
5	Doni Yourth (FT)		102.0	*Mixture*	28.0	37.0		37.0
6	AnGex (R1)		69.0	*Mixture*		32.0			37.0
7	Jani Posta (FT)		48.0	*Mixture*		23.0	25.0
8	Tom van Ostade (R1)		37.0	Lola T222			37.0
9	Walter Conn (R1)		32.0	Porsche 910	32.0
10	DLogan (FT)		28.0	Shadow MKll			28.0
	bagrupp (R1)
	Gareth (R1)

Testing on the Isle of Man

This track is insane.  Madness, a crazy smear of jinks and bumps and a blur of hedges, trees, walls, houses, just everything.  The road, for it is a road running around the island, twists and turns at impossible speeds, stopping sometimes to flick round a hairpin or through a town.  The only way to drive it is to memorise it, which I've been working hard to do.  Not having pedals for the last week has made it difficult, but they're fixed at last.  I've gone with the 69 BRM, due to not being allowed a DFV powered car.  It's pretty driveable, has good grip, but can lug a bit.  This is going to be about survival.

All the little things

So rather than find a french restaurant to be grumpy in we decided to get some stuff and booze from the local supermarket.  A fine selection of cheese, croissants, berries and wine ensued.  So here's to Frenchiness.

Here's a quick shot of the break in the wire of the pedals.  Funny what little things can cost.