Clay Pigeon Round 4; May 18th 2002
Finishing positions: Overall 12th - Clubmans 5th.
We stayed overnight at the excellent Three Compasses in Charminster so we got to the circuit on Saturday morning in good time at about 8 o'clock.
In practice we started with low tyre pressures on slicks with damp patches still on the circuit. It had rained overnight and it seemed perfectly possible it would do so again but at the moment it was dry.
Thomas did the bulk of the serious testing and we ended up with a loose chassis which would more or less do what we wanted it to, without any major vices.
As we were checking the kart over having qualified in twentieth (39.187) Thomas found that the rear wheel was loose; then he found that actually the whole hub had moved inwards. By the time he had sorted that out we were being called to the grid, at which point one of the studs broke. In lightening time he changed to a new hub and we got to the grid as the race director was beginning to foam at the mouth.
Thomas started and immediately got down into the low 39s and having got through the chaos of the first few laps was beginning to make progress up the field.
On lap 16 he got our fastest time of 38.858 - a bit faster than when we were last at Clay, but more importantly he was hitting the low 39s with much more regularity and had half a dozen in the 38s.
Unfortunately he then had a misunderstanding with a kart he was trying to overtake, in that they both wanted the same bit of tarmac. This dropped him back a bit - losing him about 9 seconds on that lap and at a very early first pit stop we were around 17th.
James was next out, driving with more purpose and effect than usual and producing some good times again faster than at the meeting in February and with more consistency.
In the middle of his stint he got involved in a six kart crocodile and although he was very cautious about not getting involved in the accident that looked as if it must be waiting to happen he was finally forced onto the grass by a spinning CSF at which point the engine died. It started again OK but by the time he got going the tail of the crocodile had flicked off into the distance and he was 15 seconds down on his lap times.
We had another good changeover to Richard, concentrating hard on not getting held up by other karts and getting through as quickly as possible although as he drove off the engine stuttered and for a moment he thought it wasn't going to go. But it picked up as he began hand signalling for the mechanics and we only lost about 10 seconds.
In general the changeovers were consistently fast at between 91 and 92 seconds - a 10 second improvement over our times earlier in the year.
Richard managed not only to produce some really fast times but also stayed out of trouble and on the track. So what more do you want?
Thomas took over followed after 45 minutes by James again.
Both of them found the track slower than before - partly, probably, due to colder more overcast weather. In fact in James' session there was a momentary misting of rain - just enough to necessitate a single wipe of the visor, but fortunately no more than that. Thomas found his neck suffering once again towards the end of his drive, despite the new neck support, so the only solution is going to be a heavy investment in a lighter helmet.
Richard's times in his second session were almost as fast as his first one, getting some low 39s right at the end of his drive.
We were just about to bring him in for our last fuel stop and change to Thomas for the final 15mins when the ambulance in the middle of the circuit suddenly started up and drove off the circuit - apparently to a bad accident on the main road outside the circuit.
Full course yellow flags were shown as the ambulance crossed the track and then just a couple of laps later the Clerk of the Course bowed to the inevitable and stopped the race.
We gained by only having done five stops instead of six which was payback for having suffered last Autumn at Clay when the race was stopped just after we had pitted.
It didn't get us to the podium, but we were still felt very pleased with our performance - 12th overall is as high as we have ever been and to get within .7 seconds of the fastest time is also better than we have ever previously achieved.
Now we are just longing to consolidate and confirm our speed at Llandow - but of course it will be raining.................
The full results are available here.
R e d S t r i p e R a c i n g