|
The accident at Mallory last time out was but a distant memory as the two Scott Racing & Imágika Sports 106s took to the track for qualifying for round 8 at Lydden Hill. This weekend driven by Charles Cozens and Gordon Macmillan.
Qualifying went without incident, but the setup on Gordon's car would need to change, as he clearly did not get on with the settings I am used to using on my old 106.
The first Stock Hatch race of the day was won by Dan Neil from a persistent Pete Morgan. For the 2nd race of the day, the SRIS 106 cars lined up 3rd and 6th on the grid, but both made an excellent start to slot in to 1st and 4th, and so it looked set to remain. Simon Harvey was an ever present danger, but Gordon was defending his lead well, and it looked unlikely that Harvey would get past - until the red flags came out that is!
At the restart, the SRIS 106s got through the first turn in 2nd and 3rd, but then disaster struck. The electrical cutoff on Gordon's car switched off, leaving him stranded on the way up the hill to the hairpin. This left Charles chasing Simon Harvey to try to regain SRIS honours, but his charge also came to an end at the same place on the track when the clutch cable worked its way loose, leaving him unable to change gear.
For Sunday, we hoped these niggles were behind us. Gordon qualified much quicker, and needed to gain just one place to make it into the final, so things were looking good when he gained 4 places in the opening laps, but this time the car overheated, and he sensibly retired the car before doing any serious damage.
Charles found himself lower down the order for his race, but was not going to settle for that, and began slicing his way through the field, and soon found himself up to 4th from his original slot of 11th. A spin at paddock then dumped him back down the order, but he got straight back into the swing of things and began making his way back through the field again before having to retire due to the gearlever coming free of its socket in the floor. This is a dreadful weakness in the 106 - it happened in my car last year, I believe it may have been the cause of Hilary Howlett's DNF on Saturday, and now it had happened to Charles too.
So, not the weekend we had hoped for, and all down to trivial things like cutoff switches and plastic retaining clips, but both cars have come away without a scratch from a weekend where driving standards (for the most part) have improved dramatically. The top race was won by a visibly reluctant Tony Scarlett on Saturday, his attempts to avoid picking up more ballast were scuppered when the rest of the field homed in at the end and he was forced to take the win or finish well down the order! Paul Taylor sorted his minor fault from Staurday to come in well clear on Sunday.
|
