A Day at the Races.     Halifax 25th May 2003    IC Rubber national

We arrived at 8.20. Weather lovely, track dry and warming nicely. Pitting area not too full as some racers were able to pit (but not start their engines) on the football  pitch. One such was Luke Sanders, F1 off road racer from Aberford, trying his Schumacher Team car.

Heat listing posted.9 heats Both Peter and Mike were in heat 2. Drivers briefing at 9.10 and first heat on the track at 9.30. Unfortunately the PA is not helping and we do not know that race has started until it is over. Bit of a rush to get ready but warm up went fine and into the race proper. Going fine until the car decides to go off by itself at rate of knots. Stopped by grass on infield and by plucky marshal. Suspect  someone switched on in pits. Back in pits everything looked OK and started engine again. Speed and handling were good and although we only got 7 laps, they were in low 20secs, 2 seconds faster than other drivers. Mike took a while to get settled and only lasted 4 mins, engine too rich?

After round 1 the TQ was held by Stephen Lander with 17/318.42 and he doubted whether that would be bettered. Partly right, only bettered in round 4.

Peter decides to gear down as the car was struggling a bit to get out of the corners. Keep tyres the same (mistake).

Round 2 was greeted by a few drops of rain but nothing that really interfered with racing. Peters car was OK for first few laps then handling went and car was looked slow down the straight. Managed 14/305.26 but afterwards found that the tyres had started to come off. The front left was expanding so much that it had gouged a 1cm deep groove in the front foam bumper. No wonder things didn't look right.  Mike's tyres also came off and he only managed 5 laps.

There were surprisingly few improvements. Stephen did not improve but kept TQ as Andy Wallis missed his 17 by 1 sec, getting 16/300.94.  So 2 to 13 were on 16's, 14 to 33 were on 15's. Peter was mid D final, OK but should be better.

Round 3 went much better. Peter changed to INGs 27/32 and despite a roll with no apparent reason, managed to get 15/302.29. The car looked better the more it was pushed, perhaps Peter was being too cautious? Michael also improved to 13/310.71. TQ kept by Stephen Lander who won the round but missed his 17, again by less than 1 second.

Peter was now 8th in B final and Mike was 4th in G. The track was definitely getting slower, very few improvements.

Round 4 was a bit of a disaster. Peter had kept to the INGs but again one came unstuck and damaged a steering arm. No point rushing to get repaired. No-one else was having any luck either and Peter slipped just 1 place to qualify 9th in B-final. Mike qualified 5th in G.

The top 2 finals were therefore

G final was quite a hard affair but Michael managed to keep going to finish 4th with 24/618.41, behind Jason Butterworth (26/608.85), Brad Sullivan and Roger Pearson

B final result. Good race spoilt somewhat by poor marshalling. Some left their posts before the end of the race and probably cost Luke at least a much closer finish and Peter certainly a place.

 However after a long but enjoyable days racing I felt we had come away with a better than expected result and we had learnt a great deal about tyre preparation.

Sorry the report is very personal but that's how it goes.

The A final was a good race. The race was won by Andy Wallis who therefore strengthens his lead in the championship.

A Final results:

Top ten in points are now:

1  Andy Wallis      299
2  Chris Grainger   289
3  Bruce Thompson   288
4  Mark Neale       286
5  Stephen Lander   283
6  Darren Johnson   278
7  Mark Wallace     277
8  Jonathan Dobney  274
9  Chris Slater     266
10 Roger Hardy      255

Stewart Craig 25th May 2003