Anglesey Review 21 August

[Lauren 2259]

Round four and the first time the TSS has been all the way to Anglesey. For once, a track that is a lot nearer to me than it is to most others, though 120 miles away is not round the corner. We met for the usual antics, which normally start with a nice afternoon drinking catching up on all the banter in the hotel bar. This time was no different with a good amount of people (though not everyone) staying at a hotel near to Valley on the island. 

Still as it wasn't a Premier Inn we didn't have to suffer the usual mediocre Beefeater fair when it came to the food. A table for 12 was swiftly booked and the beer flowed.  

TSS Anglesey 21 Aug 16 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

A later than usual start was the case on Sunday, due to a load of 2CV's having a 24 hour race at the circuit. Still we were on for around 10am and the fun soon began. 

TSS Anglesey 21 Aug 16 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

Anglesey is a funny old place. I've been driving on the track there since 2001. I cut my teeth doing perhaps 50 trackdays on the old circuit at Angers and it was a real hidden gem and cheap at the time. Here's what it looked like: 

And a view of the old pitlane and control tower. Look at the paddock and how different it looks: 

 

In 2007 the new circuit came and as I worked for Bookatrack at the time and Anglesey being the home circuit for BaT, I was amongst the first to drive it. We were promised great things by the owner, but really the new circuit was made to maximise the available space on site, rather than focusing on what makes a good circuit. This is why I think there are four hairpins (a lot in one lap) and no chicanes, though I really think they could have put a chicane in somewhere! The old circuit was a dream in that one corner linked into another and you don't get this with the new layout. As always, there was a chance to make something truly great and for me, it will always feel like a missed opportunity. 

What you do get though, are corners that don't really work or flow in the way you might expect in places, take Peel corner as an example. But the rub is corners such as these become quite technical as you have to work it out. So it's not all bad by any means. Church is fast and you have to get it right to pay dividends on the exit all the way down the straight. 

And so, onto the sprint. I was feeling quietly confident as I have a huge amount of experience with this track. Though the irony is, I drove the old track far more than I did with the new. But nonetheless I've still done over 20 trackdays at a guess round this layout over the years. 

The day started with fine but the usual windy weather that Anglesey is notorious for. In my first timed run, I typically over drove it and ended up completely sideways into Rocket, then transitioned (knowing I had messed my time up already) and had a go at holding a full on drift all the way round. Sadly this wasn't to be as I ran out of steering lock and had to concede defeat and stop in the middle of the track! Never mind, I drifted the rest for the hell of it to try and keep the spectators awake.

On my second run I actually set a fast enough time to win the day, only going 18 hundredths of a second faster on my third which would seal the win. However in sprint mode, I was really working out where I could maximise my corner entries and try and get that elusive perfect lap together. It didn't quite happen which was a shame, but I felt that I really nailed how to get round by the start of proceedings in the afternoon. Kev was hot on my tail, putting in a quick lap after lunch leaving him only 0.64 of a second behind. The rain came after that and well, we weren't going to go any quicker so it was game over. 

TSS Anglesey 21 August 2016 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

Keith looked to initially be chasing Kev, putting in some consistent fast times, but Kev pulled one out of the bag to get himself well clear. Keith pushed through and beat Mike though getting a well deserved third place. 

So round four was mine, giving me a perfect four out of four.

TSS Anglesey 21 Aug 16 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

In other news, Adrian won, Stan came second though he has a poorly engine we think after it was making some kind of knocking noise according to Stan, so rather than risk it, Stan got on to the AA to get the car trailered back. Richard got trounced by Alex in his RS200, but he beat Roger and Pete so was happy enough with that. I was happy to gain 7th overall, though I lost out to Phil in his turbo MK1 MR2 by 4 hundredths of a second. Still getting the better of Martin Lush in his Gp.N AE86 was nice.

 

I do hope we return to Angers next year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The good company, banter and plenty of beer and sausages all helps of course. See you all at the next one.

[Riceburner 284]

Bit harsh 😟

i would hardly say "trounced"less than 2 tenths of a second at our level Lauren 

still enjoyed myself and look forward to Croft where Alex and I are neck and neck going into the final rounds in class c street

[Lauren 2259]

It wasn't meant to be harsh, must admit I didn't specifically check the timing gap. You racing drivers are sensitive sorts! 

[speedy 32]

For anybody who is interested, here is a lap of the old circuit.. from 11 years ago(!)

 

[Keethos 842]

Well....what a weekend....first off I was unable to stay local as I had a wedding to attend the night before, so got home and into bed for about 1am...only to bloody wake up just before 5am and out the door just after 5 to make my way to Anglesey. The first stop was Macies for a much needed breakfast before continuing my journey, however that wasn't my only stop, I stopped a further 3 times for a quick power nap because I was that tired and a 4th time for fuel before reaching Anglesey Circuit in Ty Croes, Wales. After getting fuel, I had a rather nice cyclist on a racing bike give me a finger for not stopping part way round a roundabout just so he can keep his speed through the roundabout instead of stopping like anyone else who would be using the bloody roads....bloody cyclists. Eventually arrived at Anglesey about 9:15am.

 

My first lap was a pretty good lap, a 1:50.53 and it seems that I could not break the 1:50 mark, instead only improving ever so slightly throughout the day. It's good that I remained relatively consistent but bloody annoying considering I couldn't get anywhere near Lauren or Kevin (though my victory over Lauren is that I was quicker than her on my first run ). My time slipped a bit on the 4th run but that was because that's when I had turned off all my aids off on my car and the back end stepped out on me pretty badly on the last hairpin. Sadly that's then when the weather decided to change and start to rain after a very nice morning, but surprisingly, rather than the rain causing me to slow right down, I managed to get my fastest lap of the day.....though it was only 0.34s faster and I still couldn't break that 1:50 mark :'( I think the rain made my run a little more smoother and cleaner to give me a better time, though annoyingly I messed up my gear change into 5th for the fast sweeping right hander which I think would have easily dropped me into the 1:49's if I hadn't messed that up and I think even faster if it was actually dry. But either way, I doubt it would have meant anything class wise, I still would have come 3rd as there's no beating Lauren or Kevin.....even though there were a fair few number of us in our group....there was no 3rd place trophy :'( But I did come 14th overall out of 32 cars which isn't too bad, and if I had broken the 1:50 mark, I could have easily jumped up to 13th but hay ho.

After that, it rained even harder and there was no way anyone was getting any better, so most people packed up and left where as some of us stayed out to have some fun and on my last lap, managed to get some nice short drifts in. Then came the dreaded journey home, after hardly any sleep, a full days racing and a late start, it was close to 6 before we left and I was feeling very tired by then, luckily I had Faith and Mike to keep me company on the way back, we even stopped off at a rather fancy Golf Club Pub for a pretty epic meal....even if we were a lil under-dressed  by the time we had finished our meals, it was about 9pm and I still had another 2 and a bit hours left of my journey. Though surprisingly, I didn't need to stop off for a power nap and I even had 2 cans of Red Bull that I didn't need to touch either. But I was still mega tired by the time I got home, pretty much went straight to bed when I got back around 11:30 and slept for a good 12 hours.

 

All in all another awesome Sprint, it was great to see Tomáš join us for the first time as well as the usual suspects and congrats to those who won trophies. I look forward to the next round at Croft! P.S. Here's a couple Vids of my slowest (ignoring the rainy ones) and fast lap plus a bonus fun lap in the wet.

 

 

 

[Lauren 2259]

Good write up, Keith. Watching your vids I can see where you are losing time, I think you were turning in too early for many of the corners. I also think you were lifting in places where I was flat. It all comes with time though and it will come of course. More practice at track days I think. I know it helped me a lot going out at Blyton last month. Happy to help of course.

[Keethos 842]

Yeah I think ultimately it comes down to having the balls to push it more, as you said, lifting off when I shouldn't do, without knowing I shouldn't do, I'm less likely to experiment with the fear of going horribly wrong.  As for the lines, I had no idea for some of the corners, and without a lot more runs, there's no way for me to experiment and narrow that down with only 8 runs with such a long gap in-between, then multiply that by however many corners that I needed to improve upon.  But it's all experience at the end of the day and I'd love to sit down with you to get a more detail walk-through on how I could improve at Anglesey ready for next year

[Lauren 2259]

Maybe we should do a track day there, Keith. That would massively help. Have a night over in Angers over the winter or something? 

But, yes, very happy to help wherever I can. I think once you gain confidence then you'll be far, far quicker.

[Steeps 294]

It's a shame the sprint wasn't run today. I've only just left Anglesey (still in Wales though, stopped for some food on the A5). Absolutely stunning weather, sunshine, clear skies. Was hoping the day would clear up a bit so I could go to the spot on the circuit where you get a fantastic view of the track with cars going over the hill, with water in the background and a view of Snowdonia in the distance. Unfortunately it's just water merged into cloud for those who thankfully went out for run 7 

Just like Woodbridge, sunburned and soaked on the same day, even with waterproofs and sun cream.

 

[Mike 458]

My review will be short...

Practice run: wondering where the grip is, felt like I had less grip than Alec did in June(?) on badly worn primacys!
Runs 1 & 2: Reasonable initial laps, not flat at all between Church and Rocket, didn't even hit the limiter in 4th.
Run 3: Much better, had it on the limiter a while before getting to Rocket, then the rear let go on the downhill left hander and had to take evading action to avoid the cones so that lap was ruined.
Run 4: This ended before it began with a spin at turn 1
Runs 5+: Being put off by the amount of rain being blown on the windscreen and not realising there was still a fair amount of grip out there.

Day summed up by scraping the bottom of the car on the grass, and almost certainly braking a clip from underneath, although I can't find where it's missing from yet...