5:30am Sunday morning saw 2 very tired but excited fellows stuffed into this seasons vehicle of choice, Dave's Mum's Renault Scenic. With more 'survival gear' than was needed to fight the alien forces in Return Of The Jedi, we scooted down the M6 towards the sunny climbs of Coventry. I say sunny, and this is not exactly how the day started for us. A quick look at the temperature gauge on the Renault showed us that -3 degrees was our early morning wake up alarm!. We knew that the moist and cold air would give us a chilly set-up in the pit field but would also potentially mean that the astroturf was going to be damp during controlled practice.
After a few 'sat-nav' adjustments :) we arrived at the track to find a cozy spot just behind the clubs large and well constructed rostrum. We set about unloading the gear and constructing our humble home for the next 10 hours. It was great to park directly next to our old friend Dan Holmes of Pitstop Spares fame, and a quick trip to see him and his lovely dog Sky gave us some fresh sets of Ballistic Buggy Spikes in green compound...good for a damp start we thought. I set about gluing up the rear tyres whilst Dave worked on a quick electrical issue on one of the Cougar SV2's. It was still as cold as an Eskimo's doormat!!
As the field began to fill with fellow racers setting up their pit tables, the club called us for booking in and we discovered that Dave would run in Heat 2 and I would follow in Heat 3. We finished off gluing my hair to the control tyres! (do not try that at home folks) and got ready for the days fun. Here is a blow by blow account of how it all unfolded for us:
Controlled practice:
Both Cougar SV2's felt really good during the damp practice conditions. We drove a steady 5 minute round of practice and attempted to familiarise ourselves with Coventry's chosen track lay-out. Straight away we both agreed that a tricky double jump to a tight and shallow left turn in the in-field would be key to a quick lap. We both gently bobbled over this obstacle but quickly realised that a full throttle pop over both was in order...not an easy task for 2 racers who last raced on astro around 23 years ago! We finished practice feeling that if the day stayed damp that the Cougars would need little tinkering to keep them feeling planted and 'safe' around the track. If it was only that simple ey folks?
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| Well, if we fail at racing, I don't think we will be taking up catalogue modelling anytime soon ;) |
Dave went out first and experienced a mixed 5 minute round with some issues relating to rear end grip levels. Not a lack of grip either. The sun had all of a sudden shot from behind the early morning clouds and the astro was warming up very very quickly. I enjoyed my first round and found the Cougar to be a little sluggish down the straight but nice in the tighter sections. We both attempted the double jump in one and failed several times. A brisk end to end flik flak was the result as we both came up short and hit the top of the second jump. Dave later discovered that our favoured rostrum position of far right from a drivers point of view was not good for these old eyes to judge the depth of the turn upon landing...DOH! Dave put in a fastest lap of 38 seconds with my 44 seconds leaving me knowing I was going to have to 'get that throttle forwards' a little more during round 2. If my memory serves me correctly after this round of qualifying Dave sat about 65th on the day and I was down at 74th...we needed to step up our pace!
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| My Cougar SV2 ready for action. |
Round 2 of Qualifying:
The temperature had risen by over 12 degrees in an hour and we knew that the grip level was coming up super fast. Both of our second rounds of qualifying saw us improve. My Cougar was quicker down the straight after a quick ESC fiddle. Dave was experiencing some 'wheelie tastic' straight line activity and chose to back his slipper clutch off some more. Unfortunately this resulted in him not having the poke to clear the double jump still. We decided that gearing changes were possibly needed. Dave drove a mixed round with some nice in-field apex hugging and my Cougar found grip everywhere it went. The corner before we got back on the power down the home straight was covered in sand on the middle line and I managed to do a full 360 doughnut at one point as the Cougar spat its dummy :) We both came off the track feeling that if the temperature continued to rise then we would begin to need to lose grip from our set-ups in the right places. Tyres and rear toe blocks may need a bit of a tweak.
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| The inside of Dave's Cougar SV2...Nice wiring Sir. |
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| Dave attempts to uncover some 'important kit' under a mountain of Hot Dogs in our boot! |
Round 3 of Qualifying:
Schumacher Mini Spikes on the driven axle in yellow compound. To my alarm when my buggy came in from Round 2, I had snapped my gearbox brace at the point where it joins the top deck!! We 'modded' a spare to get the buggy back to full stiffness, and made a mental note to check this spot after every round. Dave's changes gave him a really good first few laps in this round, but his buggy was still lifting its bum and grip roll was a problem on all areas of the track. At this point we were both still running Schumacher Cut Stagger tyres on the front end. My Cougar was still too slow...and let me keep this very clear sorry folks, I was far too slow not the car! I was struggling to get back on the power often enough and a few really scrappy laps saw me drop a good few seconds when I really needed to get out the way for much faster cars. A few kind words from racing legend Tony Bishop who was refereeing my round helped a lot with my awareness during my worst times :( I guess if this sport was easy we wouldn't love it so much? I had dropped to 82nd on the day and Dave also dropped to 74th...humbled by our experience we got back to the pit table and attempted to 'bash our heads together'
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| Dave's Cougar SV2 cooling off after a hectic few laps. |
Perhaps a small note should be made here in reference to the truly awesome chocolate cakes that were supplied by Tony Bishop's other half Kay. I came back from a gruelling Round 3 to find a lovely cake sat on my pit table. Thanks go out to Kay Bishop for the baking skills. Tony was like the Easter bunny for a day. Cheers guys :)
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| Our friends Tony Bishop and Andy 'Gear it up' Mountford enjoy the sun. |
Round 4 of Qualifying:
Our final round saw Dave go out on Schumacher Stagger Rib fronts (the original tread stagger) and a slight reduction on front toe for both of us. Dave's round was much faster and he managed the double jump twice whilst also maintaining some good corner speed throughout the round. I had a good first 4 laps with the car feeling good on the straight and really nimble on some sections of the in-field. A really silly mistake that resulted in me stripping a servo horn as a slapped a track marking pipe stopped me in my tracks and a big DNF was my result! I basically attempted to straighten out a flowing set of corners and due to my lack of experience at this level I tapped an inside track pipe and crunched the buggy under it...pop goes the servo horn and red goes my face! We finished qualifying feeling that we had already learnt some really valuable points that related to our new Cougar SV2's, we had a little break and gathered our thoughts with some food and giggles.
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| Yes that is a gas stove, and yes it is actually inside the boot! Celebrity racing Chef Dave Williams does a mean Brine Dog! |
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| Dave uses his phone to check on the price of Hot Dog shares at the stock market. Today a racing star...a Hot Dog cooking legend in the future? |
So, after a swift few Brine Dogs...and a little sing song of Scout fire-side camp songs, we got ready to find out where we have qualified. Dave had ended up in the H final with me on pole position down in the J final. We charged our cells and basked in the beautiful sunshine. It really was as hot as any mid-summer day...lovely :)
Finals:
With the format of running finals in ascending order, I was up first. My pole start sounds really glamorous but let us remember I was actually down at the bottom of the pack on the day. My race was short and heroic to say the least. Hard on the throttle on the starting horn to steal the first corner and I was clean into the first left right chicane, I exited the tight left hander before the double jumps and was feeling good about my approach to the jump. Pop! over I went in one and it was looking clean for my first lap...and that's when I got it all wrong. I flew into the brick cobbled right hander in the middle of the in-field and clipped the inside row of raised bricks causing my buggy to do a full 180 and park under the pipe once again. The following pack of cars sprinted past me and despite the best efforts of fellow Schumacher driver Andy Jones to gather my injured Cougar from it's resting place, a bent steering arm and stripped horn were the result of my silly mistake. That was me done for the day folks. Dave 'took to the cloth' some 10 minutes after me and was straight into the pack battle after a fast and wheelie free start. Dave had really got his front end sorted on his Cougar, and the car looked really tidy as he started to push the living daylights out of his buggy to scrape through the grid positions. By lap 5 Dave was easily popping over the tricky double and his buggy was flying down the straight and cornering around the first sweeper really well. He had to have 'the hand of God' a few times as he got tangled with 2 fellow racers after a fast left right through the in-field. Dave did us proud and catapulted the Cougar SV2 across the line for his 9 lap final position of 4th in round just on the time horn. My hero ;)
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| If I stare at my wing for long enough I wonder if I will go crossed eyed...arghh! |
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| For a brief moment Dave decided he was going to attempt to drive the buggy from inside the car...scale drivers head anybody? |
To follow the rest of this brilliant series of off-road races visit: http://www.brca-midwest.co.uk
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