Crail Summer Endurance - Round 5

What a great day! Ros and I knew that with Grant away at the UK sprint championship, we would have chance to stretch our lead over MBM - However, Grant drafted in Chris (from Milwalk) to partner Alan Kirkcaldy and we knew it would be a tough day. However, during practice, I was 'on it' and I was 3 tenths clear of everybody else, except for the guys in the GX200. We all race in the GX160 class, but there is provision in the rules to allow us to race along side the lager engined GX200s, and one turned up today. It was pretty much the same in qualifying, with the GX200 beating my best by 0.03s and everybody else at least 3 tenths back.
The first race start was totally chaotic with karts everywhere, and they red flagged it. Someone had rear ended Michael who spun into me bending on of the front track rods. We managed an elegant fix - we hit it hard with a big hammer to straighten it and then went straight back to the grid. Once we got underway, I made a good break and sat behind the 200 eventually handing over to Ros with a 12 second lead. Ros had been seeing a chiropractor this week and although he said he was better, I wasn't so sure and he seemed to be struggling a bit for pace. However, he kept it together and won by just under a second from Fraser in the Panther Racing kart.


Race 2 was the usual reverse grid and again I got lucky, making my way to the lead in just over 2 laps. But, compared to practice, my times were about 3-5 tenths off, and I knew I was being caught - Michael, the other Panther driver, eventually caught and passed me just before the half hour, and I was bit surprised that he was gaining his time on me down the main straight. Ros took over and again struggled eventually finishing fourth.

We couldn't understand it, but with some help from Scott Brown (Apollo) we found that the spark plus on the left hand engine had a loose terminal (the little threaded thing at the top) and we got that fixed with a touch of Locktite.

So for race 3, I started second, to Michael, who I managed to pass into the roundabout on lap 1 and then I built a good lead of around 10 seconds. I was really pleased with this stint as I was pushing really hard and as a result I was putting in loads of fast, consistent laps. Ros took over, but again he was around 3 tenths of a second off of my pace, and slowly Fraser and Chris (driving for MBM!) pulled him in. They caught Ros with 5 laps to go and we were then treated to the best racing I've seen in a long time. They all had a spell in the lead and they were all on the limit, but Ros's fighting spirit saw us take our second win of the day, and the overall win by 1 point from Panther.

So a great day, and great preparation. Next weekend, Grant, Chris, Alan, Fraser and me travel down to Warden Law kart club near Sunderland to represent Scotland at the Internations challenge.

Palmersport 2007

Wednesday saw me and a load of friends/friends of friends/workmates head of to the Palmersport driving day at Bedford Autodrome. Last year there were 20 of us, but somehow, this year there were 37 of us, which presented various problems for me, not least being getting the cash from everybody. The other big issue was figuring out how to split us into a team of 20 and one of 17. So I ended up going with the Glasgow v Edinburgh approach, just for some added spice even though the 21 Scots were joined by 11 English, 3 Irish, an Italian, and a very fiery Spanish lady. (pictured below)
A few years ago my nephew, then 12, asked me if I’d take him to Bedford when he was older, to which I said yes. Given that he’s spent the last 5 years living in North Carolina, I’d forgotten all about it, but he hadn’t, so I had one non paying guest – His father/my brother also decided to join us, but I wasn’t paying for him!

The day was fantastic, with even the weather smiling upon us. Team Glasgow (Piquet) were lucky enough to start with the karts and the JP1.This meant that at least everybody would have been out on the west circuit with an instructor prior to being let loose in the FPA single seater.

I only stopped taking my medication last week, so because I’m due to do my first car race for a few years in September, I had decided that I was not going to hold back and I pushed really hard all morning – so much so that I was quickest in all of the mornings circuit events – Kart, Jaguar JP1, FPA, Renault Clio Cup and Porsche JP3. Rightly so, Palmersport only allow one trophy per person to stop smart arses like me winning everything, but even so I was getting a bit of flak for keeping on beating everyone. However, as is usual, I was really poor in the off road event, so that put paid to any thoughts of winning the overall trophy.

After a tasty lunch it was off to the last 2 events where I didn’t push quite as hard, but still managed 2nd in the Caterhams and 7th in the Jaguar XKR. The XKR is new this year and it really is a great piece of kit – the whine of the supercharger announces it’s iminant arrival, quickly followed by the bark of it’s glorious V8 as it accelerates away – awesome! Back on the east circuit, I even managed to blag an extra 3 laps in the Caterham and took 8/10ths off of my recorded time, just for fun.

I’ve visited Palmersport 12 times in its’ various guises over the last 8 years and I’ve always really enjoyed it, but this was without doubt the best yet. Perhaps it was seeing my nephew beat his dad on points, although head to head the result was reversed, or just seeing the inane grins on everyone’s faces as the helmets were removed after each event – It just made for a great day. And it looks like next year will be even busier!

So at the end of the day, the team prize went to the Glaswegians with the Edinburgers a distant second. There was a third team there, but they were way out of the running and only won the Off Road event.

Paul Healy, (Team Glasgow/Piquet but really Irish) was the overall winner with Craig Alsop (E’Burger/Schumacher) a close second.
Prize Winners.

FPA – Me (G)
Jaguar JP1 – Chris McMahon (G)
Karts – Michael McGuigan (G)
Caterham 7 – Jason Lundy (G)
Jaguar XKR – Craig Alsop (E)
Porsche JP3 – Chris Viggars (E)
Renault Clio Cup – Paul Healy (G)
Landrover Off Road - Some other bloke from team Senna

Overall Driver of the Day - Paul Healy (G)
Team Prize – Piquet (The official name for the weegies)

Special mentions go to rookies Chris Viggars and Jeff Johnston who were both very quick, and to Stevie Marchetti who put in a great lap in the FPA single seater.


There's a chance that a few of us will be returning before the year end - the more the merrier :-)