2015 RRG Toyota Sprint Series

[Neil_turbo 44]

Keep the faith Keith :-) I embarked on my stupid mk1 project 3 years ago. 2 engine builds later and blowing 5th out of the gearbox it's finally starting to pay off.

Doing something different to the norm never goes smoothly :-(

[Neil_turbo 44]

And Mark, there's nothing wrong with your accent. Int'eet duck.

[Mark-in-Stoke 488]

Neil, Thate not wrong me owd, 

[Lauren 2259]

Sorry to hear that Keith.

 

I'm going to the JAE reps meeting in Newark for 11am. Reckon I'll be over to the PI for around 3-4pm or so. Find me in the bar.

[Mike 458]

I'll be there around 2 or 3pm, if it's warm / sunny - I'll be outside, if not, somewhere near the bar.

[mike-p 116]

Have a great time on Sunday guys!

[KevinA 695]

At 4 pm I'll be getting ready for the final at Cadwell,might be a bit later before arriving at PI.

[Special K 442]

Sorry to hear that Keith.

 

I'm going to the JAE reps meeting in Newark for 11am. Reckon I'll be over to the PI for around 3-4pm or so. Find me in the bar.

 

Concurrence - might as well get pissed, I'm not on good behaviour Sunday.

 

XX

 

 

Spec K

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

Concurrence - might as well get pissed, I'm not on good behaviour Sunday.

 

XX

 

 

Spec K

 

I'm never on good behaviour so count me in, need something to kill the hangover off

[Neil_turbo 44]

well that was a pretty dismal weekend :-(

 

didn't really get to see much of everyone as the afternoon was mainly spent doing some basic diagnosis on the ill fated mr2 engine.  problem seems to be valve related, but not going to know for sure until i can recover it back at the weekend.

 

Didn't get chance to say goodbye to everyone as my sister had to shoot off and she was my lift back.  hope everyone had a better day!

[Steeps 294]

Had a great time, so much for a wet weekend. 4 Different types of rain protection for my kit and not one bottle of suncream!

 

Now I have the task of sorting through 1600 photos including removing duplicates, processing and uploading.

[rob275 1817]

well that was a pretty dismal weekend :-(

 

didn't really get to see much of everyone as the afternoon was mainly spent doing some basic diagnosis on the ill fated mr2 engine.  problem seems to be valve related, but not going to know for sure until i can recover it back at the weekend.

 

Didn't get chance to say goodbye to everyone as my sister had to shoot off and she was my lift back.  hope everyone had a better day!

 

I heard about your issues Neil Bit of a shame

[Neil_turbo 44]

Cheers Rob. To make things worse if forgot my sun cream as well, think I must have been glowing in the dark last night!

[Lauren 2259]

What a shame, Neil. After all that effort too. Get how you feel about it though. I suppose if it can't seem to be reliable and you don't get to race, it's not doing what you need it to if that makes sense. 

 

I hope it is something valve related rather than a melted piston. 

[Guest]

Sorry to hear this Neil.. hope it's something minor and you get it sorted without too much hassle?

 

Hopefully see you at the next meet??

[Mike 458]

From how I started the day (hungover, slow and questioning what the hell I was doing...) I'm pretty chuffed with the end result!

 

Like the last round, I've made a side-by-side comparison of mine and Alec's quickest runs... 

 

 

For some reason putting the 2 videos together makes them longer - the clips are actually 1:25 not 1:43.

[Mike 458]

Aaaand my final run as a separate video, with a spot of censored audio 

 

 

Comments welcome

[keelerad 256]

We had a really good contest in the N2S, it went as follows:

 

Run1 

 

Fastest Chris with a 1'24.6, me a second behind and Mike still hung over 4s behind me

 

Run 2 

 

My turn in first, 1'24.2, Chris 0.4s back, Mike 4s behind

 

Run 3

 

I get in the 1'23's with a 1'23.43, feeling chuffed, then Chris does a 1'22.90, Mike still 4s back

 

Run 4 

 

Chris goes quicker and logs a 1'22.54, but I go quicker still with a 1'22.36, Mike now 3s back

 

Run 5

 

First run after lunch, Chris is still in the 1'22's but not bettering my run 4, I do my normal post lunch slow run with a 1'24, Mike now only 1s behind me

 

Run 6

 

Chris quickest with a 1'22.57, still not beating my run 4, I do a 1'23, Mike now 0.14s behind me !!

 

Run 7 

 

I get back in the 1'22's, as does Mike a quarter of a second behind me, but Chris puts in a 1'21.90 to take the lead

 

Run 8

 

This is the one where they don't display your time at the end, so you have to wait until the presentation to find out the result.

 

We all go out and give it a go and discussing our runs after, we all think our final run was decent.

 

When the results come out, we'd all improved and done our fastest runs of the day

I'd improved by 0.3s to finish on 1'22.08

Chris improved by 0.67 to end with the winning 1'21.23 (only 0.19s behind Jamie in the N1S class)

but Mike gained a massive 1.24s on his final run to get into the 1'21s with a 1'21.40 and take 2nd place with the last throw of the dice and end up only 0.17s off first,

 

timed it well Mike !

 

Made it really interesting

 

I'll be skipping Woodbridge so roll on August and Croft

[Lauren 2259]

I had a day that doesn't seem to happen to me very often. I remembered all my corner speeds, so just hit it straight away. To be fair, my first run would have won by two seconds nearly, but obviously I chipped away at it all day just in case Kev and Jamie looked like they were getting close. 

 

In the end I was 3.2 seconds clear, so my biggest win by a big margin. I was absolutely in the zone on that day and really felt that there was nothing more I could get out of the car. A wonderful day for me and so pleased to win and convincingly rather than coming bloody second again which I hate.

 

Mike, for you, turn in later, feed the power in, use more track, particularly so at Port Froid where you should just be hanging the inside wheels on the right (well left) side of the corner outside line! Learn to heel and toe. Seriously put the effort in, it's just so worth it. 

[Mike 458]

I thought I was feeding the power in!

 

Never really got Port Froid to Ushers section until the 5th run, I was always braking for the left hander after Port Froid only started taking it flat on the 6th run I think. 

 

As for using more track... is this too much? (Did that 4 times!) 

 

 

I shall attempt heel & toe, at least I've stopped keeping the clutch down for far too long!

[rob275 1817]

Mike, I used to keep the clutch down as well, stupid bloody road habit. Though it's slowly coming out of me

[Mike 458]

Tell me about it... think that picture above is from the run where I focused on changing gear and forgot to brake 

[Special K 442]

Good stuff, guys 'n gals.... really feel for Neil, having his tow truck break down and using his sprint car to get to Blyton, then having a mechanical problem... I do hope it's not too serious for you, Neil..

 

I had a real hoot in D-Pro class, using Gary (RRG)'s Starlet with Yaris power... fwd... manual g/box... 110bhp... fully stripped, roll cage, a super job he's made of it... huge fun.

 

I cannot thank him enough for letting me have a drive in it, I was getting severe withdrawal symptoms.. an itch that needed scratching... and the only problem I had was changing down on his ultra-short shifter from 4th to 3rd and constantly getting 5th... kinda kills the exit momentum, know what I mean..?

 

(I checked my dates - the last time I drove a manual box on circuit was 45 years ago... that's about the last time I heel 'n toed, as well...)

 

I couldn't get up to the D-Pro class winner - Trackday Toyz Yaris... she was wearing racing tyres against Gary's 19-year-old rubber and standard suspension. But I was chasing her all day and gradually whittling my times down.

 

Like a lot of you my best was my 8th and final run, when I got down to 1.29.03 I think.. enough for runner-up and Gary was third in class, which is a hugely creditable performance in a brand new car and no previous sprint experience.. I presented Gary with my runners-up trophy as his 'Constructors Cup'..

 

... we then had a real bash during free time, sharing the hot seat and I bullied him into knocking almost two seconds off his best time by shouting and screaming at him.. tee hee...

 

A cracking day all round... I just hope I've got my car fixed for Woodbridge..

 

Spec K

[keelerad 256]

I thought I was feeding the power in!

 

Never really got Port Froid to Ushers section until the 5th run, I was always braking for the left hander after Port Froid only started taking it flat on the 6th run I think. 

 

As for using more track... is this too much? (Did that 4 times!) 

 

 

I shall attempt heel & toe, at least I've stopped keeping the clutch down for far too long!

 

Now I reckon that's exceeding track limits ! No wonder you beat me if you were prepared to run all the way out there,

 

If you were braking for the lefthander in PortFroid earlier in the day that's where you would have been losing all the time in the earlier runs, I was easing off from full throttle by then, but never braked for that lefthander, only braking through that entire section for me was for the final right hander.

 

Looking at my videos the thing that I find the most useful is the throttle reading, shows I was coming off the throttle miles too early and covering the brake before I actually hit the brakes to take the corners. Probably a road habit but not good for lap times, need to concentrate on keeping on throttle longer and only coming off it at the last moment before braking point. Also on a lot of my runs I wasn't full throttle as I crossed the finish timing lights, again time thrown away there.

 

A useful tip that Chris pointed out to me after watching my video was my line around Lancasters was wrong, I was much too tight to the inside, I should have let the car run out more to the edge of the track for better acceleration, but was worried about the barrier on the outside there, having been warned about it when I did my CarLimits day at Blyton.

 

For those who are interested all the vids I have uploaded or that others have told me about I have dropped into a playlist on the Clubs youtube channel here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgrLzjG54SK9I13s-6PiWB2Uw_ZLzIErK

 

Alec

[Mike 458]

I went slower on the runs that I went that wide on, didn't accelerate until I got back on to the track as it was just too bumpy...

 

It was definitely the left hander where I was losing the time. I dabbed the brakes after talking to Chris about it and did the 1'23. The last 2 were without braking at all until the final corner.