Spent Friday testing at Anglesey on the new circuit, very wet and windy, in fact I don't think it stopped raining for more than 20 minutes all day, made for an interesting start of the weekend, first test session - went out and promptly demolished a cone + tyre: Tim +1 cone. Next session went out - managed to do a complete 360 in front of the crowds on the pit wall - missed the wall OK, and managed to get off the track before any following cars hit me, rejoined the track just in time for the end of that session. - was a little faster doing approx 2.04 on not really pouring down rain tyres, in fact the R888 is more like a cut slick, hence last session of the day, managed to come off the track on the start / finish straight having applied the brakes too hard to avoid a slow moving Fiat, travelling approx 200 yards forward, did a 180° and then backward into the only stationary object for miles: Tim + 1 wheely bin & 4 padded barrier things. - Managed to reattached the loose back end of the car with some cable ties. - more about that later.
Qualifying:
Having spent most of the night wondering if my tent was either going to collapse , or blow away with me in it, went out for qualifying, on a so far untested set up, haven't used so much rear wing in the dry. Managed to get a 1:48.8, not bad... not at the back and being straddled by the Hondas of Nigel and Mark - more about that later. Bit too much understeer, lowered front tyre pressures and reduce angle on the rear wing - suggested by Stephen (Lotus Elise)
Managed to loose the whole back end of the car on the track,: Tim 0 Anglesey 1., retrieved it from parc ferme later.
whoops.... more ventilation,
Wheely bin 1: Tim 0:
Race 1:
Decided not to tape the back end of the car back on as it might fall off in the race and cause problems, Not a great start having nearly run in the back of the guys in front a few times on the green flag lap, as everyone slowed down for the left hander before start / finish straight. Had to fend off Simon in Pongo for the first few corners until my tyres got up to temp. basically uneventful, didn't clobber anymore stationary objects and managed a 1:47 - so a bit better than qualifying.
Race 2:
Lined up on grid in finishing order from race 1 - up to 23rd on grid now from 27th in first race. got Yaser and Matt in Clio in front , then two Honda Accords.
Decided i wasn't going the be beaten by a road going Clio so i concentrated on keeping up with and harassing Yaser in the Blue Clio sport for the first few laps, until the left hander onto the start finish straight, i was about 6 feet behind him when he dropped a right rear off the track onto the grass/mud area and spun the car full tilt into the pit wall i remember at the time thinking ouch.. glad i didn't do that.. Went over to see him later - was OK, "just took hands off the wheel and waiting for the bang" hopefully the AA will take it home for him.
Race red flagged, had a bit of a farce of the restart as everyone thought we were doing 1 lap and then off but no, a repeat of the start procedure, with everyone climbing all over the back of each other, with Yaser out of the way I had a clear run at the Honda of Nigel Ainge in front. Again had to fight Simon and the other tail end boys off for the first two corners, on the exit of the banked hairpin was going down the coastal straight - fastest part of the circuit when I had 4 cars on the inside of me and i wasn't going to lift and clobbered 3 more cones... Tim + 3 cones. - one left hand side wing mirror and no interior mirror as it fell off its mount.
Lost about 4 or 5 places there, so I am now in dead last place going up the hill into the chicane. Not too bad, as the red mist has now descended and I know that I can catch all guys who were behind me without any problems, got past all of them on the long straight up to the hairpin, yeah 4 cars in one go.. Simon saw me coming up the outside and waved me on, so i waved back, probably not the smartest thing to do 50 yards from the hairpin !!!.
Once past the slower boys decided to follow the two Hondas and two Vectras around for 2 or 3 laps, then decided they were actually slowing me down, managed to get past Nigel on the coastal straight by blasting up the right hand side of the circuit and saving myself a good few metres. Now got to get past one more Honda and two Vectras.
Kept Nigel behind me for another lap and then coming down the coastal straight again, was nearly squashed by the rear bumper of one of the Vectras as it came flying off, quick duck to the right and kept my foot down, got the other Honda of Mark Nicholson on long straight he saw me coming fast on the left and drifted over, so i darted up the right, late on the brakes for the hairpin and got all three of them one Honda & 2 Vectras, thanks guys for not bashing me out of the way as i came out of the hairpin sideways...the marshalls loved it !!!..
Drove around like a thing possessed for another two laps and then threw it all away on the exit from the banked hairpin, too much speed and went wide, got two more cones under the front of the car, lifted the wheels off, and round i went - towards the wheely bin again from the opposite side, managed to rejoin but had lost a load of places, went like a nutter trying to catch up, leaders were now coming through to lap me so i had to ease off a bit, once John Hammersley had been past i cracked on and was catching Nigel again but ran out of laps, i reckon optimistically two more laps and i would have had him:-)
managed a 1:42 - yeah almost 6 seconds faster then race 1 or qualifying.
end of game score
Tim: 6 cones, 1 wheely bin, 1 tyre, 4 barriers.
Anglsey: rear of car, wing mirror, - not a bad tally really - dont send me the bill !!!
short video of me tonking the cones before "red mist came down"