The car had its first outing at Chesterfield last month and I was very impressed with it straight out of the box. No major issues with the car, ran it in blinky and was FTQ at the club, mainly down to the handling. Didn't make any changes on the setup apart from running with 12500wt diff fluid in the dampers.
Second outing was at Stockbridge RCC. Had never been to that club before but had heard good things. Pitted with Vince Formosa, he had the RC10R5.1 for a while now so good to compare notes with. Myself and David Underwood got RC10r5.1s at the same times so are still getting to grips with them but David is going very well.
Ran boosted at this track as it was quite large, the majority of a large sports hall was covered in carpet. Round one and the car was handling ok, but understeery but it was the first round, I put in a 26 lapper. The car started to feel very sluggish about half way through the race. I thought it was just my cells going off as I am DESPERATELY in need of some cells! But about the 5 and a half minute mark there was a distinct smell of motor in the air. Finished the race and checked the motor. 96degrees C. OOPS!! After I marshalled I started to wind the timing back on the speedo and thought about changing the gearing. I then noticed that I had forgot to put the Static timing on the motor can back down to its lowest mark after previously running it in blinking. DOH! School boy error there. So changed that and went out for next run. Came off at 65degrees C and went three laps quicker, much better. Round three I managed a 30 lap Run.
For the fourth round I changed the side springs to CRC Whites, which are much softer than the AE Golds. I had the car setup with about a turn and a half of preload on the gold sprints. The CRC springs were slightly shorter so when I put them on there was very little preload if any at all. Left like that so it would be easy to change back. Everyone seems to be going softer with the setup so I was interested to see how I would like it. The car certainly felt easier to drive and I went 8 seconds quicker overall. Getting my hands on softer center spring and will see how that goes.
I qualified on pole by about 8 seconds. The final got off to a scary start, my car diffed out on the line and Vince, who was in second, was very quick minded not to hit me. I managed to keep the lead but we were side by side for a few corners. I got into a rhythm and disappeared at the front. Until I clipped a corner and got stuck on a barrier. This wouldn't have been a problem if the corner marshal was there instead of chatting to his mate. Ended up down in 5th I think. Managed to get back to second quickly and set off chasing Vince down. Unfortunately for Vin he hadn't noticed going past me so started to back off about 4 laps from the end. I managed to nip inside on the last corner but took us both in the process going across the line. It was a comedy moment but I gave the win to Vin as he had earned it and it was a naughty move.
Had a very good day overall. Very happy with the setup of the car. Need to sort some new cells out though. Only down side of the day was missing a good friend Don Hopes. Unfortunately Don passed away a couple of weeks ago on holiday. Utterly gutted to lose a friend like him. He was a real good laugh at race meetings and a top bloke overall.
