Brook Motorsport Stages 19th May 2002
Well another event entered and another finish. That
makes it 3 out of 3!!
I just want to thank a few people who ensured that the car made it to the end of the day even though I did my best to destroy the car.
Firstly, my Dad who is the best mechanic in the world! Honest. For the preparation and the on event support.
Secondly, Steve Hall who gave us a set of spark plugs when we had gone through 2 sets in 4 stages! And of course everyone else involved in the
Team.
Now onto the fun and interesting bit.
Sunday started early, well 5.50am to be precise. We left at 6.30 and
arrived at Longcross just after 7am, the car was unloaded and we went to noise
where we passed at 97db (its getting quieter every time) then onto
scruitineering, which was easily passed. We signed on and got the arrival
time of 10.31am so we had a couple of hours to chill out and get ourselves
ready. We then noticed that the windscreen was beginning to crack, I just
crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 10.31am arrived quickly and we
were through arrival control and onto the start.
Stage 1
Longcross is a venue that I had heard lots about and most of it was bad.
It's a M.O.D. test facility so they test things like tanks to destruction!!!
What had we let ourselves in for?
We started gingerly as I had not really driven the car for 10 weeks and a lot
had changed, to be honest Longcross scared me a bit as well! It didn't
help seeing my friend's Nova on its side on the exit from a chicane! I gave them
both the thumbs up and they looked ok, the car didn't though. Nothing
major happened to us but a lot of cars were parked in the scenery. Our
only gripe was a bit of a miss fire and the famous Longcross hills! They have
three there and we had to go up the 1 in 4 slope.
Back to service where the car was checked over and the spark plugs replaced, I
saw one of my friend's who was a bit shook up but OK.
Stage 2
We tried a bit harder this time and we were pleasantly surprised when we had
almost caught the car in front up, I did a bit of damage to the front passenger
wheel arch and the rear drivers side but nothing worrying, its only plastic
anyway.
Stage 3
We were really flying now and easily caught the car in front, a MK1 escort
Mexico and a Pug 205. Thankfully they let us overtake and didn't get in
the way.
Stage 4
This one was a disaster, the car misfired from the start and we lost a huge
amount of time, event the car starting behind us managed to catch up.
Gutted would be the feeling! Any chance of getting a decent finish had just
gone out of the window!
Back at service we fitted another set of plugs and the carb's were played with
to sort the problems. All fingers crossed for the next stage.
Stage 5
Now we were cooking on gas! We caught the MK1 Mexico up again and overtook
them, I made a mistake in a chicane though and destroyed the wing mirror and was
catapulted off the road into a load of stones, I swear we were going over onto
the roof but by luck the car was not damaged and we carried on not
loosing too much time. This time we had to go down a 1 in 3 slope and I
tell you its bloody scary.
Back at service the car was checked over and a lot of pain was now missing of
the passenger side of the car! Never mind.
Stage 6
We now started in front of the mk1 Mexico and had a Pug 205 in our sights, we
easily caught them up and overtook on the outside of a long left hand bend at
about 100mph just before a chicane. Glad the brakes work!! I think this
was the stage that I lost the pear wheel arch molding, luckily it was in front
of my sister so she managed to get it back.
Stage 7
We now had another 205 to go after and found they were a bit quicker than the
last not a lot faster but just enough so we couldn't overtake.
Stage 8
Unfortunately someone had a very big off and the stage was stopped for the
recovery and rescue crew to sort everything out. Fortunately the crew was
ok and the stage was re started.
We pushed really hard on this stage as we wanted to make up all the time we
could as we didn't have the full 10 planned stages as the last 2 were cancelled.
We got very close to catching up the 205 in front of us but again just missed
out.
Well we learned a few things during the day,
1. Longcross is actually fun to drive but you need to be brave on the 1in 3 and
1in 4 slopes.
2. We need much better tyres, the Colway F2's just aren't up to the job.
3. The car needs to be a lot lighter.
4. We really need a bit more power from the engine.
So now we have a little bit of repair work to do and perhaps some engine
work, so keep checking in for some more updates
Result: 40 O/A 7th in Class