The season creeps up on us

It’s almost the start of the race season, as I write. So far, I’ve done the club trackday–which was really an opportunity for the car to be track tested for an upcoming Autosport feature–and most recently a Javelin trackday at Cadwell Park. The latter was a wet day but very useful as it gave me a chance to try out a few aspects of a wet setup. To be honest, the car was really good to drive in the wet.

The photo here was taken by Neil Kirby at Cadwell and I think it’s my new favourite race car photo. Neil’s managed to get in a really interesting place to take the photo. I think this must be between Charlies 1 and 2 but I’m not sure really.

Catching up

Yes I know, late again. My excuse is that I’ve really done nothing to the car that’s worthwhile talking about. I’ve just done a bunch of racing. If I’m honest I have been wondering if I’m getting to the end of my time as a racer but I have enjoyed a few highlights of the end of the season. Before that, the photo on the right is from the meeting at Croft as described earlier. Wet, as I said… Continue reading “Catching up”

Out with a whimper

Cracked discWe left it at the end of the RGB season and looking forward to the Birkett. Before that, though, I went off on the usual checklist of things to look at. In the process of checking the brakes I found this cracked brake disc. Luckily, I’ve got some spares so it was easy to replace but it’s a bit alarming really…

Continue reading “Out with a whimper”

Croftbound

Melted wetI seem to have driven up the A1 several times recently, including the visit to daytuner I mentioned a while ago. However, we’re soon going to be going up there to the Croft race circuit which is just south of Darlington. I’ve been to Croft once before. For some inexplicable reason I did a track day there in 2004. God knows why because my write up of it (which you can still find here) says that we set off at 0400 which is bonkers.

I can, as a consequence, just about remember the circuit although not in any really useful way. Continue reading “Croftbound”

There’s a new season arriving

Velocity stacks-003So, here I am again with a few things to write about. The new season is approaching fast and, what’s more, it’s not quite so bloody cold in the garage and as such it’s rather easier to spend time in there.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it but I stopped working full time at Christmas and that’s supposed to make it a lot easier to do car things. Doesn’t seem to have quite worked out that way yet though… Continue reading “There’s a new season arriving”

And so it ends; again

Climbing the mountainSo, we’re already at the end of the season and we all made the final trek to deepest, darkest, Lincolnshire for a double header at Cadwell Park. This circuit is unique in the UK for the combination of elevation change and general twisting and turning. There isn’t really much of a straight there and it needs a huge amount of work to build up to the flow around the circuit  that’s needed. (Along with the requirement at one point to just grab the car by the scruff of its neck and throw it down a particular series of bends.

The photo on the right is due to Bryant Photography, have a look at their Facebook page.

Continue reading “And so it ends; again”