This time it was back to Cadwell. So far I haven’t got any photos to go with this writeup but I’ve every hope of one or two arriving soon. We had a fantastic weekend in Cadwell. It only a rained a little on Friday and the rest of the weekend the sun shone, the track was grippy and there was lots of motor racing. Windy though, I seem to have windburnt extremities. Don’t ask…
New: I do now have a couple of photos. Many thanks to Dave Hackett for these.
We drove up to Cadwell on Thursday evening, braving the flatlanders on the scenic route, and got to Cadwell at about 8pm. We parked up by the fence near Tim Gray‘s encampment in his usual spot, pitched the awming as at the time the forecast as pretty grim and it seems as though some protection would be useful over the weekend. And, as Cadwell’s on grass, it’s actually possible to peg the thing down moderately firmly. A good job we did as over the Thursday night the wind blew and blew.
Friday morning dawned clear and sunny, but very windy and bitterly cold. I went for a bike ride round the circuit first thing (that is, at about 6am) and really wished I hadn’t done so after a while as it was so cold. The day’s sessions started at abou 0930 and I set off to relearn the circuit with the CBR1000; it was bound to be different as the gearing’s quite a change from the CBR900.
The wind was a headwind down the Park straight and so would probably have an effect on the times if nothing else. In the afternoon the weather turned less clement and it rained sporadically. Very odd track conditions though, I guess as a consequence of the wind. One lap it could be teeming down with rain at Park and the next lap it was bone dry there.
I started the day with a previous FL of 1:39.82, and that achieved after an age of trying to get below 1:40 in the class C car even though the theoretical lap was much quicker. The problem is that Cadwell is such a long and complicated lap that getting all the sectors right (enough) is pretty difficult.
The first session was cut short because I was feeling sick (this is a problem of mine at Cadwell) as I’d forgotten to pop the appropriate pills. After that the times tumbled and I finished the morning with a FL of 1:37.84. That is, 2 seconds quicker than before. Mind you, I was taking Coppice flat in 6th which, I can tell you, is quite a sphincter clenching experience. The theoretical lap was still quite a lot faster though so there was more to come.
I’d signed up for the Bikesports race on the Saturday which they’d opened to RGBers to attempt to swell the grid, depleted after the BESCAR fiasco, so I had an early start and an extra qualifying session to fit in. I managed to make a few things work rather better (and, perhaps most significantly, the headwind had dropped) and the FL in the session was 1:37.64. So, that was another couple of tenths in the bag.
What’s more, when we got the times I was on an unofficial “RGB pole”. 🙂
RGB qualifying was next and, unlike in the Bikesports qualifying, I made sure I was at the front of the queue. It’s hard enough getting past at Cadwell as it is without it having the potential to ruin one of the small number of laps that you get in the session. This time it was just 9 laps in which we needed to find two lap times for each of the two races.
When done I’d got down to 1:37.27, so yet another couple of tenths. What’s more, that wasn’t a fluke as a couple of the other times were in the same vicinity. In fact, I was pretty convinced that I could get in the 1:36s as that time was set on my last lap of qualifying where I’d passed Neil in the little short blast from the Hairpin to Barn. That must have lost me at least 2 tenths as it was.
The car now was absolutely flying. I’d used the test day to make some progress on the setup and I’d essentially spent all of the day stiffening everything. It seemed to be responding too. Problem is, I was running out of travel on the ARB adjusters. I might have to make some thicker bars before heading off to Spa in a couple of weeks time. I do, though, have a cunning plan to make the whole car quicker. What’s more, it’s legal.
Most notable thing in qualifying though was Tim Gray. He’d put his class C(!!!) car on outright pole with a time of 1:35.98. That was absolutely stunning. His Dad proudly says that Tim went round Cadwell before he was even born and the track is a favourite of his. His time through the Hall Bends, in particular, is absolutely amazing. I reckon I’m pretty good at this bit of the track now but he’s in a league of his own.
Next up was the Bikesports race. This was a 28min affair and, as such, you can see why the club had opened it up for RGBs as there were only 9 kosher Bikesports entries. With us it was double that. The race, though, was tedious. I just ended up on my own, completely out of touch with anyone. I did manage to get the laptime down again though, this time to 1:37.10. That was until I decided that I felt too sick. I pulled off on my 18th lap as I decided that I really wasn’t going to make another lap with inside of my helmet still moderately clean. I was pleased with the time though, at least I was after I’d sat very still for an hour…
After lunch I’d taken more drugs, scoffed a lot of ginger (that is, yet more drugs) and consumed a nice fatty lunch. There was an 18min RGB race in the afternoon and I was rather more pumped up for this one. I was on row 4 of the grid, alongside a new chap, Rob Spencer, who has a ZX12 in a Locost chassis. Hence, lots of power… I was also determined not to stall the s0dding thing after the Brands debâcle.
So, inevitably, I got bucket loads of wheel spin at the start. (Colin was just behind me and his video is like looking at a dragster burnout!). As such I got swallowed up by several people including Doug, the back of whose car I’d spent ages looking at at Brands. Still, I got stuck in and passed a few people on the first lap and was soon, hunting down Doug. I got behind him and after only a lap or so managed to outbrake him into Park after getting a decent tow out of Charlies 2. With that I was a bit of a way behind Rob in the ZX12 locost. This car, like Doug’s, is a class A car with lots of straight line grunt. Over a couple of laps I slowly hauled him in and also managed to get past at Park.
The next target was then John Cutmore, who at least was in my class. I made a little bit of time to him but I’d never have caught him, at least with the car as it stands. However, John’s engine started cutting out and eventually I passed him on the Park straight. He was quite amusing afterwards as I was clearly closer to him than he had thought.
That was pretty much it. Best bit, though was the lap time where I’d managed to get down to 1:36.23! That was to remain as my Cadwell FL to date but is a pretty good time.
Assuming that it works you should be able to see a link to the video of this lap here. Not too much wheel to wheel racing but it does give you a decent idea what it’s like. The experts will note that I’ve lost about 3 or 4 tenths by messing up Charlies 2. That car right in front of me at the end is Bob Mortimer, who clearly enjoyed himself at Cadwell.
That lap was actually faster than Duncan’s (also class B and the winner thereof) FL, albeit only by a couple of hundredths. Problem is, before stopping, John had done a 1:35.73. All the same, that was all very satisfying. There was just another 28min RGB race on the Sunday now. The thing was, would I be able to take that much time on track??
Again, the Sunday looked to be a fab day. I got up early and prepped the car, including a bit of psychological warfare in changing the rear left which was now well past its sell-by day. Mind you, Tim declared that it had several races left in it yet… 🙂 I was in the much the same grid slot as before but Rob wasn’t there this time as after I’d passed him in the last race he’d blown his engine. Apparently he was running wet sumped which we know is daft for a ZX 12…
This time the start was better but I still got swallowed up by Doug and Henry, who had Rob’s empty grid slot in front of him, also capitalised. I then started a very frustrating race. First of all Henry was in the way and doing his best to make sure I stayed behind him. I have to admit that he had clearly read the advice in the club mag that “you can zig but you can’t zag” and as such made it possible to get past once I’d got a decent run on him.
Doug was a different kettle of fish though. After getting past Henry it took me a few laps to catch up with Doug as our lap times weren’t that different. However, I got there and then spent the rest of the race glued behind him. He clearly hadn’t read that particular article as there was quite a lot of zigging and zagging going on. What’s more, his car was chucking out oil and I was getting covered in it and my visor was getting harder and harder to see through.
That’s how it finished. I was 2 tenths behind Doug at the line and, to be honest, a bit frustrated as I could see John not that far in front of Doug. Mind you, I’d never have caught him.
So, that was quite a good weekend. In each RGB race I was 5th on the track and 2nd in class so that’s two more pots to go with the two from Brands. To be honest, this was the first time that I’d really “got” Cadwell. Lots of people really like the track but I’ve never quite sorted it. It’s different now. It’s only a pity that I’ve got to wait for next year for another go at it.
Best of all, there was a new photo on the wall of the club house at Cadwell of a cluster of RGBs at the head of which is me!!! It was from the Brands weekend so they’ve clearly just been updating the photos…