2 weekends ago was my first race weekend of the season. I had a truly shocking qualifying on Saturday morning only managing 29th out of 36. That actually meant i starter 25th and 23rd for the two races. Racing Driver excuses include:

#35 - I didn't test on Friday

#27 - I'd never driven the track

#13 - Brand new tyres which still had the oil etc to come out of them

and probably the most realistic

#99 - I left my head / balls somewhere when i got in the car

Anyway, race 1 started and i managed to get up to 18th. A bit more battling I was 16th before having to start defending heavily and the next pack got away. Queue more than 28 position changes over the 19 laps and i eventually ended 17th. Relatively happy in the end given the crap start to the day.

Race 2 and i'd clearly woken up with my balls attached and immediately started fighting through without worrying about defending. Just catch up people drive past and drive away. I got up to 12th and should have had 11th if a backmarker had kept his foot in on the last laps rather than slowing down to let us pass. Normally that would be great but it was when there were yellow flags out so no overtaking. That meant the car in 11th pulled a 2.4 second gap with just 2 laps to go. I crossed the line 1 tenth behind him I think that's actually my best finish to date, and gives good confidence for Snetterton in a fortnights time.

Race 1

Race 2

Low res Race 2 but with telemetary overlay

Anyways off to Snetterton this afternoon for Rounds 3 and 4 this weekend

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye

We have loads of slipstreaming in our class. They aren't exactly aerodynamic with a windscreen attached so it can make a massive difference. Once i do my video from Snetterton yesterday you'll see just how much difference it can make.

As for the first 30 seconds, it's just about getting round as people dice for position so racing line doesn't really come into it a great deal.

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye

How did you go in your 2nd race at Snet ginge? Improve on the 1st result?

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Long live the Sigma 6
Team Phase 1 supercharged

XBL ID: farmer uk1

Nice vids, keep your foot in next time

You at Donington on 17th June, will prob pop down and watch?

The weekend just gone saw rounds 3 and 4 at the Snetterton 300 circuit. I got there Thursday night to be greeted with the news that if we went off in our testing sessions on Friday it would take approx 20mins to recover as they would have to Hi-ab us out as they wouldn't drive recovery trucks over the new grass seed This would mean that any stoppage would mean end of that session, oh great i was thinking.

So Friday I went out for my first sight of the new circuit and I have to say it is very very good. The new infield is very challenging with a mix of fast and slow corners and tricky to pick out a good line through some of them. From the first session i'd managed to work out a line for the majority and it was then a case of building the speed. From early on i was approx a second quicker than those who i expected to be around before the weekend.

So Saturday comes and we're out for our 15 minute qualifying session. My lap timer flashed up a 2:14.2 which i was extatic about in the car as that should but me on the front 2 rows of the grid and a 2nd fastest time of 2:14.5. When the results came out it showed my fastest time of 2:15.3 which confused the hell out of me so checked my data logger which confirmed the 2:15 time so there must have been another beacon on the pit wall screwing up my lap timer. Anyway that put me 7th on the grid and 8th for the 2nd race on Sunday. Easily my best qualifying performance to date.

1st race got under way and i got a superb start straight through the middle of the people in 6th and 5th by the first corner. Early dicing saw me slip back to 8th again before a lead pack emerged which for the first time i was in. After qualifying i'd mentally said to myself that if i can get away with the lead pack i'd sit at the back follow them and learn what i could trying to save tyres for the end of the race where i'd try and pick off what ever i could.

It is VERY different running in that front pack. The actual racing is much closer and quicker with some very hard but fair driving by all drivers. During the race it looked from where i was sat it was just a matter of time before a big smash, so i was more than happy to sit and wait and pick up the pieces. Although a few bits of contact it only saw one person drop out of the running and i crossed the line in 7th just 2.2 seconds behind the winner. Unfortunately i hadn't charged my camera so i didn't get any footage of the race

So race 2 and i was hoping for more of the same. Started 8th and by the first corner i was fighting for 5th place. I continued to fight for 4th/5th place for a couple of laps before i made contact with the winner of race 1 into the first hairpin. It wasn't a big impact but was enough to rip my steering wheel out my hands pushing me onto the mud. In the process my nose cone dislodged from the bottom mountings and flipped up the front ARB came disconnected. It is bloody hard driving with the nose cone up as i couldn't see anything through left handers and for right handers couldn't see any of my marker points. Coupled with that was now a car that didn't want to turn in due to the ARB. I dropped down to 13th and finally finished 10th. Dissapointed with myself but ultimately it was still my 2nd best finish to date and puts me 10th out of 32 in the championship.

Race 2 video is here

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye

Was at Brands this weekend, qualified 10th and 9th. Had a shocker in the first race when it jumped out of gear off the line which put me back in about 24th into Paddock Hill. Eventually finished 13th (was in 12th at the red flag but on count back was 13th) in what was an eventful race with safety cars and then ended under a red flag.

Race 2 was a bit better, got away well, avoided a smash at paddock hill then had a relatively lonely race before finishing 8th. I have no idea what i was doing for the first half of the race where i was more than a second a lap off the pace i'd been doing all weekend in the mid 55s, 2nd half i was back in the mid 54s and started catching those in front but ran out of laps.

There were quite a few crashes in our races so atleast I came back with the car in one piece, and i still don't know what the COC was playing at on Saturday not red flagging the race on lap 2 for the below incident.

Videos (I haven't done my race videos yet):

Paddock hill incident on lap 2 of race 1, nearly resultin in marshalls and drivers being run over :|

The smash that caused the race 1 red flag and early chequered flag

Race 2 incident at paddock hill on lap 1

And i think i managed my best save to date in qualifying when i went about 15mph too hot into paddock hill, and somehow didn't end up in the kitty litter....

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye

Third picture down ......If in doubt - flat out

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My old man wrote me a letter from prison once. It said if you don't want to end up in here, stay away from crime, women and drugs. Trouble is, that don't leave you much else to do, does it?

Also enjoy reading this, looks like an awesome way to spend your weekends!

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'99 1.8 XS - Sold
'00 GTi6 - Killed by armco
'01 Cabriolet 1.8 - Sold
'96 Eunos Roadster 1.8 Import

Good save Sean

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Chris
1999 China Gti6 Supercharged [Fun car] >>Project Thread<<
2000 Bianca 306 Diesel [Work runabout]

Great reading!! Agreed, looks like you saved it by rwally pushing that throttle hard!

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VW Golf GT TDI 115, 100k nooooooooooooooooooooo!

Blimey, haven't updated this for aaaages.....

Well last weekend was the last race weekend of the season at Rockingham. Despite the mediocore results they were probably my two most enjoyable races of the year with a tight fight all the way through the races.

Race 1 was going alright until i got hit with 3 or 4 laps to go, which snapped the tyre valve off on the rear left corner. Not surprisingly that meant right handers were a tad interesting, but thought f*ck it, there aren't many right handers so finished the race dropping back about 5 places over the last 3 laps finishing 14th.

Race 2 was close throughout and how we all ended with all the bodywork still on the car i'm still not sure, only came in 12th but awesome fun all the same.

Finished the year 9th in the championship out of 37 so reasonably happy with that. Just hope i can sort a new job out so that i can race again next year.

Race 1 video

Race 2 video

I'm doing the Birkett 6 hour relay race at Silverstone in a couple of weeks to finish the year off, not that i've really got any tyres left so will have to pray it doesn't rain.

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye

To give a rough idea for my series

Admin (payable each year)
~£300 Championship entry
£110 Race license
£100 BARC membership

Consumables
£312 - Per set of tyres fitted (controlled and only allowed three sets per year)
£120 - Front pads (should last a year)
£50 - Discs/rear pads (cheap as chips as it's all just old triumph stuff)
£100 - Oil / Filters

Race Weekends
£120 - £220 (Testing - all depends on circuit half / full day or if you bother)
£100 - Diesel for the van
£120 - Fuel for the car (less if not testing)
£230 / £350 - Race entry (single header / double header)
£100 - Food / beer / fags etc (Tea coffee, breakfast / lunch provided by club over weekend)

All in i reckon about £1k a weekend on average taking everything into account and testing everywhere.

Our cars are pretty good for damage. I've been lucky this year with only a few rear wings (£70 each new, but you just build up a stock off ebay). To give an idea a twisted / cracked front chassis is ~£1200 quid for a complete long front made and fitted by Arch (plus any other bits you broke) which isn't too bad when you think what it would cost if you had a heavy front on impact in something like a 306!

I maywell have forgotten some bits (like car setup) but that's pretty much it.

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye

I know Chris, i think it's the first time i've actually sat down and thought about it

No wonder i'm skint

Will come and find you at the Birkett too, I just need to decide if i can afford / have enough tyres for testing or not (never driven bridge GP)

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Seat Leon Cupra FR / 306 GTI6 / Breaking 205 GTI6 / Caterham 7 / Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI LWB

Sold: Fisher Fury - Laguna DCI Estate - P1 306 XSI - E30 BMW 325i Baur Convertible - Daihatsu Fourtack - Suzuki GSXR600 - 205 Rallye