After a great result at Oulton Park I knew that the pressure would be on for Knockhill. I also knew that Fee would be definitely the one to beat. I have done very little running at Knockhill over that last 2 seasons as most of my time and money has been taken up on the time attack events. I bought some better brakes, a set of AP 6 pots, after the slight 'mishap' at outon park when I ended up in the gravel at druids at about 120. I knew that to get a good result that I would have to be looking to do a low 56 and possibly a 55 second lap. A tall order since my quickest lap last year had been a 58.3. The car was not running right last year so I knew it would be possible.
The morning of the race arrived and I was awake bright and early at 5am as I had decided to stay at home as I thought I would get a better nights sleep at home, wrong! Still too excited to sleep, I really should grow up. A quick bowl of hero flakes and I was good to go. We arrived at Knockhill and it was typical Knockhill weather. It had been raining and it was Baltic. It did look like it was going to dry out though. Being Knockhill I was prepared for every eventuality. Sun cream, sunglasses, wooly hat and a dry jacket. We got the usual, 'don’t crash into each other' etc etc etc speech which we all listened to as intently as ever
It was brightened up by free tea and biscuits which seemed to really delight us Scottish competitors. Warm Up - The track was damp and drying quickly so I decided that I had everything to loose and nothing to gain. I just stuck on my good set of tyres as they actually have some tread on them and trundled around the track for 10 minutes just making sure everything was ok. There was no point in pushing it and binning the car as it looked like the track was going to dry up. The lap timer showed a late 58. About as quick as I went last year on a dry track. I went into the pits and met Fee who asked if, I was playing mind games?? Turns out my transponder had not been working and I had no times registered. We fitted the old tyres and a new transponder and we were ready to go for practice.
Practice - Despite having a set of knackered 888s on and the car on low boost. Everything felt really good in the practice session. I gradually built up speed and pushed harder and harder. Towards the end of the session I felt a bit of vibration on the brakes so decided to just end the session there, lesson learned from Oulton. Back in the paddock I had a look at the time sheets. Things were close, it was definitely game on. In 4wd Fee was 56.220, I was 56.292 and Eric Holmes was on 56.395. I knew I would go a bit faster on high boost and I thought there was more to come out the car. I also expected Fee and Eric to be on low boost too. This was going to be a tough one.
After looking at the brakes we decided to throw in a new set of pads which had been delivered by Questmead that morning. The pads were not too low but I knew I would be very hard on them at the hairpin so thought it was better being safe than in the wall.
Qualifying - With the good tyres on I was ready to put in a really good lap time. I knew a 55 would be on the cards and defiantly thought it was going to be required in the final. The 1st couple of laps were spent bedding in the new pads. I then promptly put in half a flying lap before the brake pedal went to the floor. The new pads, mintex F2 generate a lot of heat when bedding in and I had cooked the brakes. I sat in the pits for 5 minutes of the 20 min session then spent 5 or 6 laps letting the brakes cool and the pedal returned. It was now nearing the end of the session so I decided to try and put in a decent time. If there was any doubt in the brakes I was going to end the session right there as I did not want a repeat of Oulton. Something did not feel right at all. There was a lot of vibration on the brake pedal too. Maybe the cooked brakes had overheated the tyres but there was just no grip or stability in the tyres. My quickest lap was 56.704 and 3rd in 4wd. There were now 7 of us in the 56's I was going to have to go a lot better in the final.
After the session I could not decide what the problem was with the grip. The car felt much better on the older tyres. It may be because the old tyres were on a 7.5inch STI rims where the new ones were on a 7inch team dynamics rims. Lighter but not as wide??? Ronnie from wheels around kindly switched the tyres to another set of 7.5inch sti rims. A quick can of man up and a brave and butter roll and I was ready to go, until we looked at my brake discs. They were cracked right through in 2 places. I was ready to take my chances with 1 flying lap on the final, lesson from Oulton un-learned! Colin had different ideas though and a quick call to Questmead had a new set of discs there within 5 minutes.
Final - I was keen to get out and put a good lap in early as that’s when the tyres are at their best. So after 1 warm up lap I went for it, and nearly binned it down duffus. I had entered with my usual lack of self preservation speed and just slid right to the other end of the circuit, ruining my line for the next corner. The second lap and there was the same lack of grip in the 1st 3 corners. That’s where the drifters had been burning rubber and throwing down marbles for the last hour. I pushed harder and harder but could only get into the mid 56's as I was loosing a lot of speed on the entry to duffus to get round the corner. Towards the end of the session there was beginning to get a bit more grip down duffus. I was preparing for 1 last flying lap when the chequered flag came out. At this point I was pretty dejected and thought that my time, 56.471 would probably not be good enough for a podium and certainly not a win. There was certainly a lot of colourfull language directed at myself. I really thought I had blown it. My only hope was that everyone else had struggled to find grip too.
Into the pits and I found out that I was 2nd in 4wd and Fee had taken the win with a 55.431. I knew there was no way that I could have matched that time and I had been beaten fair and square. So I was content...ish with 2nd place. I was really pleased for Fee though and if I could not have come 2nd to a better competitor.
Later on I had a look at the splits and it looks like I had lost most of the time on the 3rd sector, from the railway straight to the start finish line. In the 1st 2 sectors I was only 0.253 seconds down. Fee and I had always been very close on the speed traps. This time she was a good 5 or 6mph quicker than me.
Brands Hatch next and it’s definitely game on
Colin Telfer for building the car
Ian Brown for fixing the engine and gearbox when i break them
Alister Colins for fixing the car at every event. And always being entertaining
Andy Forest Performance for an awesome job mapping the car http://www.andyforestperformance.co.uk
Andrew Walsh of Carlimits for making me go fast http://www.carlimits.com
http://www.usedcarparts.co.uk for continued sponsorship
Some pics
