2015 RRG Toyota Sprint Series

[Mike 458]

Let's hope you're not all too smashed by then!

Not planning on getting pissed (yes, I've said that before...) - that's for Saturday night!

[smudge 1020]

Good luck with the interview

Cheers Sam

[faith 237]

good luck tomorrow smudge x

I won't be home from work until after 9am in the morning, so will need to get some sleep before heading over.  Thinking late afternoon/early evening

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

Good luck Jordan!

I'm aiming to get there around 4ish, but may stop off to get scrutineerd first...

[Mike 458]

Right, that's a set of Advans camouflaged as Primacys and a HKS filter painted white and the car washed...

Jamie - might do the same as you and get to the circuit around 3 - 4pm depending on traffic

[Keethos 842]

Good luck Jordan! @Faith, we staying at the lodge? What's the address?

[KevinA 695]

LN11 0WA 

[rob275 1817]

Good luck to all those taking part in the last sprint! I'm counting 16 which is more than 1/4 of the sprint! Not bad going.

[KevinA 695]

Good luck to all those taking part in the last sprint! I'm counting 16 which is more than 1/4 of the sprint! Not bad going.

Cheers Boss we are flying the flag !!

[smudge 1020]

2.5 hours to do 80 miles. Traffic is SHIIIIT

Not long to go now though

[nikndel 509]

2.5 hours to do 80 miles. Traffic is SHIIIIT

Not long to go now though

Did you go A 16?

[smudge 1020]

Did you go A 16?

Yep! Retards doing 40 regardless if it's national speed limit or a 30 zone...morons

[nikndel 509]

Been on it loads full of trucks to Spalding no by pass for Boston but nice and hilly till Louth providing no caravans still have a good weekend

[Andy Mac 32]

Just a quick post to say thank you for all the help and making us (Cath & I) feel welcome. Had a great day.

 

First time at Cadwell today (what a proper circuit) would like to do a full day / full laps instead of coming at it cold.

 

Thanks to those who offered tips (in particular Lauren and Mike). Gradual improvement through the day. 

 

Ended up with a couple of 1:55s, one of which was a 1:55:1 .. 

 

And I genuinely did have a "ReRun" it wasn't one last end of season lap.. honest..

 

Sky during today:

 

 

One last go:

 

 

Enjoy the celebrations tonight ..

[Lauren 2259]

Glad you enjoyed it, Andy.  

Was a good if a little wet day. It was close too! I had my season long battle continue with Kev being well ahead after my aqua planing nightmare, but thankfully the water was cleared and I was able to drive the start/finish straight without lifting and finally get a decent speed into Coppice which is essential for a fast lap. In the end and I found out via FB messenger I beat Kev by 0.2 of a second with a fastest time of 146.13 which put me 5th overall. 

I'm sorry I couldn't be there for the celebrations and to receive my first Championship winners trophy and fastest woman trophy as well, but we had to get back to pick Indy up. Was a fabulous weekend and I really enjoyed doing the trackday the day before. I really think that helped, so I will look at doing more of that next year. It's been a wicked season and I've had a huge amount of competition from Kev which has made it great fun and I've really had to push myself. Finally I win a championship and importantly win at Cadwell. I just hate coming 2nd!  

Edited November 8, 2015 by Lauren

[smudge 1020]

What a fantastic end to the year. Even as a spectator at Cadwell yesterday, you could still feel the excitement from all the close battles going on. Credit goes to everyone who managed to drive in the conditions yesterday - they were far from ideal and I know a lot of you hadn't done Cadwell before.

The evening was my highlight obviously. Great to see everyone enjoying themselves (despite the hotel/restaurant staff not really knowing what to do with a few more people than normal...) and it was good to catch up with some old faces over a drink or 7

Well done to all those who came away with trophies and of course the very exclusive HKS oil filter! I wonder if that would be classed as a modification if you fitted it, taking you into a new racing category?....I sense this could get messy like the whole air filter debarckle last year 

The lodges and the hotel was fine for me, but it was ruined somewhat by the staff who were clearly rushed off their feet with us and a wedding reception to deal with. We experienced a few "snappy" people who were on the border of rude, especially when Mas had his champagne taken off him once he'd opened it! The bastard was waiting for him to do it before snatching it away

Really looking forward to getting myself back out on track next year and giving the F2-S category a bit more of a challenge  

I hope everyone got home without drama. Particularly Faith, Mike and Chris who all looked a bit worse for wear after last night's antics 

[Lauren 2259]

A quick write up from me of my day: 

The last round of the championship for the Toyota Sprint Series was as Cadwell Park. I've been on and on about doing a round here and well, my wish was granted! 

Then I realised I haven't driven it for seven years. Oops! So as my main rival was doing the trackday beforehand, suddenly, so was I. 

One of the organisers had worked out that I would be six points ahead of Kev including the mandatory dropped round (which was ironically a win) coming into the final round. This meant that in order to win the championship for my class I had to finish less than five places behind my main rival in the overall times. 

Cadwell was wet, very wet and quite greasy. For the trackday it seemed to have a fair amount of grip still, especially though the back part of the circuit from Coppice all the way back to the entry to the mountain. Some good practice was had, but standing water was a bit of an issue at times. I asked the organisers to red flag it on Friday and they duly did for around 40 minutes.

Come race day and whilst I was in a comfortable position, I didn't get off to the greatest starts. Though I put in a 1.48 second run in the first practice, I then struggled with standing water and put in a 1.52. Kev did a 1.48 in his second run. I had problems with getting the car off the line and this resulted in bad axle tramp that knocked it out of first gear, thus costing me valuable time. 

The track began to dry in the late morning but a monsoon ensued come lunch time. Not what I wanted. Thankfully and a tad oddly, the standing water was cleared to a point and no longer an issue. Though weirdly the grip levels were not as high as the day before. The sun came out and the sky cleared, meaning times would get faster and faster. 

I still messed up a couple of launches but got a feel for getting it right. Unfortunately  the timing clock had been removed due to water ingress I'm guessing so we had no idea of our times until they were posted up. 

On the last run, I had to put in a flyer. I was very careful but fast through the Hall Bends and then made sure I was tidy through the hairpin. This part of the track was covered in leaves and though there was a clear line, trying to accelerate without armfuls of opposite lock required a very delicate right foot. Still I managed it well and got through Barn without too much understeer and only a real kick of oversteer as I shifted up to third on the exit. 

The next bit is always a test of nerve, but I knew I had to take the speed into Coppice and turned in at 105 mph (it was still pretty wet remember), the car ran out to the outside kerb on the exit, I could feel it just sliding a little. I then had a quick dab on the brakes and turned the car right into Charlies 1, with the inevitable understeer on turn in. I could feel the car drift out to the edge of the track as I rode the crest. Then there is the short straightening of the wheel before getting that crucial turn in to Charlies 2 down the hill and onto Park Straight. 

At this point it really is a case of applying the power carefully to minimise the oversteer, but trying to maximise trajectory onto the straight. I was accelerating hard up the hill to Park, trying not to leave the braking so late as so many did and made a good early turn in, taking some inside kerb. 

Chris Curve was a bit of a challenge yesterday and was a constant balancing act between oversteer and well, more oversteer but I pushed it a bit too hard and changed up to 4th gear for a little too long. This mean I nearly outbraked myself into the Gooseneck, compromising my line, but I got away with it. 

I didn't find out till I was halfway home on the M62 but I managed a 1.46.13 and Kev was 0.2 seconds behind me. Close then as it just about always is! Also this gave me 5th overall, my highest finishing position of the year. The Class Championship was mine and so was the win, which meant I had won 4 out of 6 rounds with Kevin winnning the other two.

Really sorry I couldn't be there for the award ceremony and party, but I had to get back to pick up Indy. 

We're going to go at it again next year. The key with this game I think is to have a very close rival, it's made it so much more challenging and enjoyable compared to say winning your class with no competition. I know Mike had a similar situation to me and well done on winning, all the hard work paid off.

 

[Mike 458]

I hope everyone got home without drama. Particularly Faith, Mike and Chris who all looked a bit worse for wear after last night's antics 

Chris was a nightmare to wake up especially as we had less than 30mins to check out time. Faith was oblivious to her alarm going off so I had to turn it off which made her think she didn't set it.

We ended up staying at the hotel til about 3:40 before heading home giving Chris a chance to properly wake up and Faith to get some sleep which meant I ended up getting caught in a hell of a lot of rain on the way home, at one point I completely lost sight of the car a couple of car lengths ahead from the spray.

[Lauren 2259]

I knew there was going to be some party down in the lodges!

[Mike 458]

Slightly fuller post...

As for the weekend - absolutely awesome, despite puking on Friday night / Saturday morning and contemplating pulling out of the sprint (or at least the morning) but with a couple of nurofen sorting my headache I had to risk it and hope I didn't have to puke mid-run! In the end I was fine but just lacked energy and needed sleep (what's new?).

Having done the Javelin sprint at Cadwell in the summer I thought I may have had an advantage but that soon disappeared with the wet & leafy track and all my knowledge of the track and speeds for corners was next to useless. Started off very cautious for the sighting laps / practice runs and first timed run with a bit of coasting before braking for Coppice and Park so new there was plenty of time to find.

With Chris having a mystery void and a 2'15 (which was clearly wrong) for his 2nd and 3rd runs, when I saw a 1'51 for my 3rd run I did think the timing was having issues and potentially that wasn't my time but doing a 1'52 for the 4th run I started to believe it, at this point Chris was in the 1'54s and with the track drying I knew he'd improve and could see him pipping me to the win on the last run! Luckily that didn't happen as it absolutely chucked it down over lunch! Even though the sun did come out for the final couple of runs, Chris did improve but not enough and so I won the round and the class overall

Personally I feel I've improved massively over the year, not just in terms of speed but control of the car as well which I'm guessing is the reason for the votes for the Driver's Driver of the year trophy I picked up. Looking forward to next year already even if trophy chances will be reduced quite a bit

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

Well what a brilliant weekend that was, apart from having Mike being sick as the race day alarm clock...

I was going into the event with nothing really to gain, just to have fun, with Kev and Lauren being way to far in front and no one close enough behind to spoil my 3rd overall in N1S.

Had my usual dire morning feeling crap from the drink the night before, but enjoyed just playing with the car in the wet conditions on a lovely circuit. After seeing Mike put his 1.51 in though I had to step up my game as my best was a 1.55 and wasn't going to be beaten by a standard car for the first time in the year!!! First run after lunch I got my 1.51 and the chase was on, finally managing to pip Mike by 0.06 of a second on the last run.

Will definitely be competing in a few next year, not committing to the full season yet though, will look forward to the battles with Mike and Keith, unless I end up in a forced induction class.

Thanks everyone for such an enjoyable year, and massive congratulations to Mike for the drivers driver award, well and truly deserved.

[Mike 458]

Yea, sorry about that Jamie... at least I didn't wake you up at 3am

Had a look at the video from my final run which was only .2s off my best, it was 1.1s slower than my quickest run up to the first post at the hall bends, could have almost sneaked a 1'49!

[Keethos 842]

What an awesome weekend, stayed at a very nice lodge (though the roads there were a bit treacherous, it was pretty much off roading), nice meal and drinks with fellow petrol heads followed by an epic day at Cadwell Park.

It was the final round of the TSS and it was my first TSS since my crash. I wasn't expecting much as it was pretty wet all day, very slippery between Halls Bend and Barn, especially with all the wet leaves that were covering the track, so I thought I'd take it easy, but I was soon pushing myself once again. Chasing after Lauren and Kevin was hopeless since they were a lot more skilled and experienced than me but I wanted to stay ahead of Jamie as we were very level throughout the day. It was an awesome battle, my practice was an impressive 1:57 and I continued to improve my times until about lunch when it really started to rain again. I couldn't get any better than a 1:51.93 which for some reason was void, not too sure why, but then it really started to pour it down and I thought that was it, my best was a 1:52.11. However, all of a sudden, it stopped raining and was actually sunny, sunny enough for me to hit a 1:50.49, I was well pleased as I had managed to get in front of Jamie (sorry Jamie). Then all of a sudden, after my final run, I somehow managed to pull a 1:48.99 out of my arse, I didn't actually find this out until after the trophies and everything was given out. I'm well chuffed, I came 3rd in my class and actually 12th out of 51 cars, beating some serious metal out there. Such an amazing track.

A big thank you to the people at TSS and Javelin for organising the event as well as those who gave me support throughout the day (support vehicle Jordan & Michelle and instructor Lauren)!  A big congrats to Adrian, Stan, Lauren, Rich, Mike, Maz and everyone else who took home trophies but especially those who just took part, such an amazing turn out and a great finish to the year.

Bring on TSS 2016, I'm keen to really take part now!

 

[Keethos 842]

Posted up my pics here - http://www.gt86.org.uk/forums/topic/3289-tss-round-6-7th-november-2015-cadwell-park/