Snetterton Race Meeting 29th September 2007

Saturday arrived. woke to the pitter patter of rain on the tent. Grey, damp norfolk morning. Just right for a debut in Locost #82. signed on & off to see the scrutes. Nice & early for allcomers scrutineering. No major problems a couple of niggles but nothing that wasn't sortable. back to the tent and on with the gear. Checked the car over, fuel, pressures oil etc. Checked myself over, clean underwear etc (not for long). Call to assembly area for allcomers qualifying session.

In the assembly area I tuned myself into my new surroundings. Very different to the stock hatch fiesta which had been my previous mount. Still, I was feeling fairly comfortable with the locost. one or two people had come up to me and told me it was a good car. James K the previous pilot had had some good results, so it was fair to say that the weak link was the lump of a Northerner behind the wheel. Ushered out onto a very damp track i started to build up speed, ever mindful that I wasnt in the front wheel drive and I wasn't going to have a lot of luck hurling it into the corners with bags of throttle. anyhoo, managed to ease round the first two very slippery corners, which was better than a couple of my co-competitors. Getting more confident now I started to push a little harder learning all about the car as I went and for 3 or 4 laps of avoiding collecting rotating stock hatches and being mugged by the much faster radicals & kit cars. I began to feel that I was getting worse, the car suddenly felt loose, understeer then oversteer no consistency. My times dropped away. and this was when there was a mottley grey dry line appearing all round the circuit. Observation 1. Isnt it amazing that to the untrained eye a dappled dry line and a gallon of gtx on damp tarmac can look similar. Still I did keep it on the black stuff (not trying hard enough maybe) The eventful in not a little flustrating qualifying session drew to an end and to cap it off I ran out of electric on the cool down lap (flat battery).

Towed back to the paddock & on with a new battery and before very long i was yet again in the assembly area for the locost practice session. By comparison went by quite uneventfully apart from Observation 2 - A locost does not quite fit through the gap in the bollards at russels chicane. A dry track and great fun to be had by all even with the rev limiter & red line set way too low (On limiter well before end of the straight). achieved a time that put me towards the back of the grid, but well happy and still learning.

First Race - Allcomers 18mins + 1 lap. all a bit of a blur, spent a lot of time looking in my mirrors for the mix of much quicker hardware on track. Still, the track time should be doing me good shaved a little time off my best dry practice time so were heading the right direction. finished in one piece and not totally last so happy with the day so far.

Now the main event. The Locost Race. This would show where I was in relation to my fellow locosters.

Lining up in my grid position I felt quite relaxed. I concentrated on who was around me, the starter showed the time boards in typical 750mc speed. Before long the red lights shone, within seconds the noise level raised the lights went out. I dropped the clutch, pushed hard on the throttle, first gear I rocketed off the line, into second I pulled level and ahead of the row ahead, third, I pulled left to take a wide line into the first corner as every one bunched to the inside, fourth, nothing, the revs dropped, I pulled to the left with raised arm, end of my first locost race. Observation 3 - Dodgy alternators dont fix themselves. Watched the rest of the race from the inside of the first corner

The rest of the day went fine. Alternator fixed, Second allcomers race more of the same. Track time & experience must be good. Thanks to everyone who came and wished me well. Special thanks to Carl Pickering for the offer of his alternator for the 2nd allcomers race, Andy Pointer and family for support, team building & pit lane motivation. james Kmiecek for keeping me mobile, Chris Hubbard (Stock Hatch XR3i) for all his support & help on the day & all the rest of the Locosters for making my debut day a lot special.

Cheers
Richard #82

Watch yer mirrors guys, I'll be there next year.