Robin Hood Raceway: 2010 BRCA National Series
Round 2 of the BRCA 1/10th Off-Road Nationals at Robin Hood Raceway came round very quickly after Talywain, three whole weeks afterwards.
I was on the reserve list, and I didn’t get the call until a couple of days before, and Crazy Bob didn’t get the call until I was half way up on Friday!
Friday
I took all day to get here, and coming off the A1, I could see the cicus tent in the distance, but somehow got lost with Sat Nav so it was another 20 minutes before I saw it again.
Ralphy put us along the back hedge, behind the marquee, perfecto. I was laying down towels on sunlougers 5 minutes after I arrived.
The track was looking superb, all freshly painted and hoovered (yes, really…)
Weather was forecast to rain overnight and be dry on Saturday, fingers crossed, it’s blowing a gale out there.
Friday night was a blur of Toffoc-in-Coffee, sculpted velour and gluing ballistic greens. At least Bob put his car together before midnight this time, on his knee in the passenger seat on the way up…
Saturday
Saturday morning and it’s all still outside, the birdies are tweeting, and it seems to have stopped raining, it rained pretty much all last night. Forecast is for more light rain…
The Marquee is full, practice is underway, back pockets are full of slipper spanners (even the girls).
Jimmy’s just been spotted receiving a Cougar (S1?) from Phil Booth…
The track is wet, but drying, mostly good grip on Ballistic greens, some of the astro is a bit slippery…
Round 1, car feeling good, enjoying it, clip a track marker and kaboom, snapped a front turnbuckle. So a quick trip to Schumacher and a “oh, you broke one of the cheese ones, we took those off, here you go”… Purple titanium is essential, then. Why are they not in the PRO kit?
So a whole three laps, but, result, I’m not bottom in round, someone did less! Ace!
Bob did okay though, his X6 was looking fine…
Round 2 was better, the car went okay, I drove a bit rubbish, but finished the heat, it felt a bit slow, though. It was a drying track, some people were going out on yellows.
So a 6.5 was strapped in and I had another go in Round 3, it was going well, but 5 laps in it just lost power. Steering was still there… I think the servo hanging out might have been the cause.
Round 3 was a dry round, tyres were the thing, the whole pits was smelling of dremelled staggered ribs and superglue.
Round 4 was dry too, and my best run of the day, I was starting to feel confidence in the car, and starting pushing on more, and it was nice. I managed to lop a couple of seconds off my fastest lap.
All this excitement meant I needed a little snooze.
Crazy Bob taught Crazy Steph to rebuild shock absorbers, she’s done all of them!
Wow, I’ve finished in my usual final, the bottom one, L-4. Griff’s reaction to this was “Were you always this shit in Touring Cars?”… Bob blames my lazy prep… I tend to agree “Yeah, I’ll rebuild that diff, sometime…”
The J final was very popular, Belsten, Bob, Wymish and Nancollis, that’ll be one to watch…
Sunday
4wd practice started out nice and sunny, and gosh after yesterday’s rain the track had loads of grip.
The early sounds in the pits were of side clippers – spikes were coming off of tires by the row full… There was only a little bit of dremelling…
I knew that there was plenty of grip, so being a bit tight I didn’t even glue up new tyres, I just ran some old ones, albeit my best worn set. And they were on yellow wheels…
My practice rounds the car seemed okay, if a little too grippy, it was fine.
Round 1 wasn’t so good, I was informed a few seconds in that my car wasn’t counting… I opted to continue running for the practice. The transponder? Oh, it was in the spare car… I’ll get that cloned, then…
Round 2 I was all set, practice laps the car felt okay, I heard a little crack on a bad landing on the step up, but it was still in one piece. It lasted about 3 laps, another bad landing and the wishbone exploded… Those damned skinny kit wishbones… Replaced with the chunkier 501X arms, I wish I’d done that sooner…
By this time Pidge was floating around talking of peculiar shock oil weights, and before you know it 511s were being fiddled a plenty…
Round 3 the car went okay, a little bit of grip roll, and too many mistakes, especially too much power at times… I decided to get less big air…
Before round 4 I changed the rest of my car to Pidge’s setup, and ooh, wow, it was nice, the car drove the best it ever has done… I’ve no idea if it’s a good base setup, or a RHR specific one, but whatever, I enjoyed the run, and knocked 2 seconds off my best lap time. Too many mistakes, and a bit of traffic though kept me near the bottom.
So no guesses I was in the L final again, I know my place…
I always seem to take about all day to get a car that’s feeling okay, I think it’s a lack of off-road experience, I need more track time…
Photos, already:
Comments
3 Responses to “Robin Hood Raceway: 2010 BRCA National Series”
Leave a Reply
Buy Lazy Things !
hahaha, quality comment there!!! you did good mate and emptied my box of purple goodies!!!
Good blogging again Simon, always nice to hear people’s experiences of the event.
that picture makes me look like a grumpy evil dwarf