CSCC Swinging Sixties Round 2
Group 1 race: Kym. 16th overall
Group 2 race: Mike.11th overall 3rd in class D
The a Swinging Sixties had their first split grid races of the year with Kym competing with the smaller engined cars in the group 1 race and Mike in the larger displacement cars in group 2.
Qualifying.
It was Kym’s first race of the year so he was feeling a bit rusty ahead of qualifying he went out for four laps and then came in for us to check the car over and then he stayed out until five minutes before the end of the session when we bought him in again to practice a ‘hot’ pitstop which went well. He was happy with both the car and his own performance which put him 21st on the 30 car grid.
As Mike was in assembly for the gp2 qualifying session we just felt a couple of drops of rain, he had just completed his 2 laps and was about to start putting some quick times when the heavens opened. He radioed to the team ‘It’s raining’ a fact that had not escaped those of us who were standing exposed on the pitwall! The lap times went up and up as the conditions deteriorated. Mike elected to stay out hoping that the weather would improve and indeed the rain stopped and the circuit began to dry, then with a just under half the session still to go it started to pour again with no sign of a let up. Mike decided to call it a day and came in ten minutes early as there was clearly no way he was going to improve his time. 17th on the grid was ok considering the conditions.
Grp1 race.
By the time the first of the races started the weather had improved and we were running on a dry track. Kym had a plan for the race, we knew that the three cars ahead of him on the grid were potentially beatable so his aim was to get up to 17th or higher. He made a good start and got his head down for the first stint. After the busy opening laps he started to put in consistently improving lap times, his fastest of the race coming just before the pitstop. The stop went well in a busy and congested pitlane and Kym was back out for the second half. The times were amazingly consistent with every lap within 1 second of each other until lap 20 when Kym was unable to avoid a spinning car and some minor contact cost him over 10 seconds on the lap, fortunately there was no damage and he was able to carry on. It clearly hadn’t bothered Kym as he went straight back to putting in laps that were all constantly in the 1.16-1.17 bracket. He was running as high as 15th but couldn’t quite hang on to the position in the last couple of laps finishing a creditable 16th one position higher than the target.
Best lap 1.15.8
Grp2 race.
Mike was a bit disappointed with his grid position, the weather had put a spanner in the works disrupting qualifying for everyone so he felt that a higher finish was a possibility. The weather was holding out so it was a dry circuit for the race. He got a great start and had made up 5 places by lap 2. He continued with a strong first stint until the stop on lap 11. A very fast stop was looking really good until the Red C, which always starts first push of the button took three tries to get started costing valuable seconds in the pitlane. After the stop Mike rejoined the fray in 16th and got stuck in to the second half of the race and began gaining places. There was a nervous moment when he too had a coming together with another competitor but Mike reported that the car was handling fine and didn’t seem to have sustained any mechanical or suspension damage. He carried on making up places managing to grab 11th with two laps to go to clinch 3rd in class D.
Best lap 1.11.8
