Our track project - including diary of a Sprint N00b...

[vix]

So today Phil has been doing a bit of preparation on Sakura for the sprint on Sunday. I think I mentioned before that we can't do this sprint in Humphrey as this is an MSA regulated sprint and therefore a dedicated track car needs a cage, however a road car can compete. The difference being how much interior remains in the car! I can't take any pictures on the day as cameras are banned at the site we are at (Lotus test track), so I asked Phil to prep her fully so I could have some pics today. Hopefully there will be a pro there who will be taking some on track pics.

First of all, Phil got creative with the numbers. Because we are numbers 56 and 57 in the Sprint Series, we have 2 each of numbers 5,6 and 7. Typically, Phil's allocated number of this sprint is 8!!! So, black electrical tape and white vinyl on our number 6, gives us this rather convincing 8:



Phil then went to the back of Sakura to mark out the towing eyes. This is when he found that the n00b who fitted the bodykit (previous owner) had decided the towing eyes were unneccesary and cut them off :/ So now Sakura has this lovely new bumper borrowed off Humph. Well it blends in quite nicely :/



Hahaha, anyway the luggage rack is on there because we are going to have to strap my walking frame to it so I can actually hobble round the paddock a bit and go to the loo. Very important. Whilst Phil had both bumpers off, he decided to weigh them to see the difference, as he had removed some metal from Humphrey's as a weight saving exercise. The difference was 5kg, which is fairly good. Here's a pic of the two bumpers to show what has been removed:



The Toyota Sprint Series does not require the use of a timing strut, however this MSA sprint does. The strut needs to be the first thing on the car that will break the timing beams. Phil made it a few years ago when he did his first ever sprint in his red MR2, it is basically thin aluminium with matt black paint. It's then fitted to the nose of the car with gaffa tape. Hardcore!



I wonder if I can persuade Phil to wash her tomorrow?

So that's basically one road car prepped for sprinting. I'm a bit nervous about her going on track and also very very annoyed and frustrated that I can't drive her.



I said he should have carried the gaffa tape stripes up the bonnet, I rather like them

[Zirax]

Hmmmm, surprised that the main one can't run. I'd have thought that as its road legal you would have gotten away with it?

[vix]

Nope, cos it's too stripped out inside to be classed as a road car :/ And it's too much hassle to put an interior back in! Phil did ask but it was a no no

[TinkerBell]

Looking good What a twit for a previous owner though!

At least you can go and spectate, not the same though I know

[vix]

That's just it, I couldn't spectate cos I couldn't walk to the spectator spot :/

More tomorrow when I do a diary entry. I did walk the furthest I have yet since breaking myself though. Shattered now!!

[TinkerBell]

Bah, that isn't good *hugs*

Woooo for walking further

[vix]

3.8.08

We had an early start this morning as the gates opened at 6:30, however fortunately the track is only 8 minutes from our house!

Phil had packed the car with all his usual tools that we take to sprints, so we were ready to go. It's a lot more awkward with a leg in a cast as you really have to plan ahead with things that will need to be accessible etc.

We arrived at Lotus just after 6:30 and there were a few other cars there. Phil unpacked the car and then unpacked me, and went to sign on, be scrutineered etc. The notes he was given said there would be 2 'untimed' (times were given but would not count towards your time of the day) runs and then 2 timed runs, shocking amount of track time really as we usually get about 8 timed runs in the Sprint Series. However there was just over 100 cars at this event so it would have taken about a week to get 8 timed runs!

The cars that were there ranged from farily standard road cars like ours, next to us was a Citroen AX, couple of S2000's, 205, some Evos, LOTS of Lotuses as there was a Lotus championship, also a TVR championship so lots of TVRs, single seaters such as Van Diemens and Reynards, Caterhams, Westfields and other variants, and Dave Massey's Bond Bug (with a Fireblade engine!) which looked like a lot of fun!

Phil went off to the drivers briefing in a massive rain shower, and I retired to the car to keep dry! The briefing was broadcast over the tannoy so at least I got a chance to listen, and it was amazing how brief it actually was. I've been to too many events with novices now and had things literally spelt out, so it was refreshing to be at a professional event where the basics are assumed to be known by all. A little worrying also though as the guy next to us in his Porsche had not ever done any motorsport before!

The cars were to go out in number order, so as we were number 8, we got out pretty early. For the first run the track was still a little damp, but Phil managed just over 93 seconds, he was aiming for 90. The car he had chosen to be competitive with, and MX5, turned out to be driven by a woman, so was well off the pace at 121. I reckon even I could have beat that.

So once Phil had got back to the paddock after his run, we had a huge wait to go out again. Phil had the luxury of being able to walk round the paddock so I had to just watch the queue of cars waiting to go out, and the occasional roof go past on the track. At once point I heard a rather long squeal of tyres, and then the ambulance went on track to recover a Caterfield type car who had lost it and hit the tyre wall. Fortunately everyone was fine, just probably annoyed at a very short day!

Phil went out for his second run and hit a cone! He got just over 90 seconds on this run but got a 5 second penalty for hitting the cone. Fortunately my car was unharmed!!!

After another long wait, Phil went out for his third run and got just over 91. ANOTHER long wait, and he lined up for the final run. About 12 cars were ready to go when there was an announcement that there was too much gravel on the track and the final run was cancelled as it would take too long to clear up! Everyone was annoyed at this, our places at this sprint had been funded by the Motor Club but everyone else had paid to run, and they only got one time out of it!

So a pretty non-eventful day for us, no prizes but we didn't expect any in a non-track prepped car!

[Feek]

Sounds like a bit of a waste of a day really, but its all experience which is good.

[vix]

18/8/08

“Of course its going to rain, there’s a sprint!!”

In preparation for the next sprint, Phil had put the official door stickers on as we wouldn’t need to be changing the numbers over this time. He also put on our new ‘MR2 Only Magazine’ sticker.



We had been checking the weather all week to see what tyres we needed as it was going to be slightly more logistically difficult this time due to us only being able to take one car. The weather predictions for Sunday changed daily, from rain all day, to no rain, to showers. Finally, Phil decided to put the Hydragrips (wet tyres) on for driving to the event, and taking a set of R888s to put on if it was dry when we got there.

Well that was the decision made, now to find out how to get all this into one car:

Passenger
Passenger seat
Driver
4 wheels
Random box of sprint stuff
Toolbox
Jack
Axle stands
Fuel can
Helmet
Race suit
Coats
Chairs
Pillows (for my leg)
Walking frame.

He did it though, although I couldn’t catch a picture. We had a spare wheel in the frunk, which is where the spare usually goes! The other three spare wheels were loaded onto the engine cover and tied on! Everything else went in it’s normal place, either the frunk or the boot, and then the walking frame was hung out of the boot, the bootlid being tied on as it wouldn’t shut!

Although Woodbridge is only 60 miles away, the roads round here are rubbish so it took us just over 1.5 hours to get there. The weather looked quite fine on the journey, and one of the first things Phil did was put the dry tyres on, amongst amazed comments at how much stuff we had got in our car.

I assumed what is now my normal motorsport position! Which is sat on one camping chair with my leg on two pillows on another camping chair. Phil went off for the drivers briefing and it started to rain. I managed to make myself waterproof, however the rain just got heavier and heavier, and I needed to sit under two brollies in the end. The drivers all dashed back to their cars after the briefing and prepared to do the sighting lap. The circuit was much longer that usual, about 2.5 miles compared to 1 mile, but there was only one sighting lap and one practice run, so the drivers really needed a good memory. When Phil came back from the sighting lap, he said that he had no idea where the track went, it had been too wet to see anything and he’d just had to follow the car in front. The conditions looked terrible, airfields don’t have the best surfaces anyway and there was so much mud due to the massive downpour we were having.



Just before Phil went out on his first practice lap, the weather cleared up and I took this opportunity to hop slowly to the Toyota hospitality unit, where it was dry! The track was still wet, and there were lots of spinning cars and lock ups! Phil took the practice run carefully, as to try and learn the track!

We looked like we were going to have a fairly competitive day with two other Mk1 entrants, Jo and Garrick. Their Mk1 was now running on the same tyres as ours, and all three drivers are of similar abilities. The track was still wet on the first timed run, and Phil just got the edge with a time of 208.07, compared to Garrick’s 208.42 and Jo’s 209.59. A lot of the drivers were talking of a tree at the apex of one of the corners, and Phil had hit this tree on his run! This poor tree got a lot of abuse throughout the day.

The second run was still wet as we had a small downpour, and Phil lost out to both Jo and Garrick on this one, Jo pulling a great 202.51, which was faster than a lot of the other more powerful cars. Phil and Garrick were both in the 203, which was still a very competitive time. By the time run 3 was off, the track had started to dry, however Phil hit the famous tree again and his time was 208.80, he had been concerned about the car as he couldn’t keep the back end, so took this lap steady. Again, Jo was top with a 201.49, Garricks spin costing him a lot of time.

Lunchtime was upon us, and the sun was now blazing, looking like the track would be very dry for the afternoon session.



Everyone’s times improved over the last three runs, as long as they didn’t spin! It was getting very competitive between Jo, Garrick and Phil, and they were all coming back from their runs desperate to see the times, or annoyed because they had pushed too far and lost time. Phil was getting frustrated as he couldn’t remember the entire track, and knew there was potential for getting lots more speed out there. He was pleased with his last run though and hopeful for a trophy.

We packed up and then headed to the Toyota unit for the presentation. Garrick bagged runner up with a best time of 192.92, and Phil was announced to be class winner with his last time 191.59 being the best of the day. Jo got fastest female, so at least they all went home with something. We might need a bigger trophy shelf soon though!



(the three at the front are the Sprint ones!)

Whoops, looks like Humphrey ate an OAP when we weren’t looking though:

[Tak]

Originally Posted by vix

Whoops, looks like Humphrey ate an OAP when we weren’t looking though:

Even Anne was laughing at that

Needs "Om nom nom"ing