Practice 1
The only decision I have to make this morning is the front tyre choice. I've opted for Mini Pins for round 1 and thinking Staggered Ribs for round 2.
The practice itself was ok, I've not had a lot of confidence running a mid motored 2wd before and so far today, albeit 4 minutes in, confidence is high! As always with first practice you can never tell!
Practice 2
Time for staggered ribs! Let's see how this goes!
It's fair to say it was no where near as good in my opinion. I really struggled with under steer on the slippy sections. Back to the mini pins for round 1
Drivers Briefing
Paul Worsley delivered his usual spiel to the drivers and most importantly announced 6 rounds of qualifying with best 3 to count!
Round 1
A surprisingly good run for me sees me take 7th. It possibly should have been better but it's so close overall, one error can see you drop a lot places as I found out on the last lap!
Round 2
No changes on the car for this one
Despite an error on my in lap I was the 4th fastest in that round. Lloyd Storey has taken overall TQ from Tom Yardy, Danny McGee went 3rd. The only difficulty I should face in terms of car set up now is tyre choice. The mini pins are looking worn but not too bad, we'll leave them for this one. The aim is for one more top 5 (minimum) which should see me in the A Final on 16 points. Although saying that with the unknown territory of 3 rounds of qualifying to count who knows what will bottom out the A!
Round 3
Round 3 went according to plan and resulted in being top Cougar in the round and scoring another 4th. The track is an easy one to drive but hard to keep it going for 5 minutes. Once or twice I'm over shooting the double jumps which may only cost a couple of tenths but that could prove crucial. Overall after Round 3:
Round 4
Despite driving with 'Pig Hands' (Quote - Dave Fat Jesus Amish Gibson) I improved by 1 point and achieved 5th in the round. With 2 rounds to go I'm sitting 5th overall on 13 points which is by far a lot better than I thought I'd do!
Round 5 will see me put new mini pins on all round to scrub them in for the A Final, it may be a little bit to much to handle but we'll see!
Round 5
New tyres were not the way forward!!! Still a very creditable 6th as we head into round 6!
Slight speed control setting change for me going into round 6, we're going to drop the initial punch setting down by one just to try and take a little more edge of the car under power.
Round 6 - Final Round
Well it's fair to say that was a random last round! During our practice laps it was very apparent the grip had gone, it was like Bambi on ice. I drove the best I've ever drove the Cougar and won the heat only to find out that one competitor from the previous heat had dropped a shock and oil was everywhere! I was the quickest in the top 2 heats but finished 3rd in the round behind Paul Wragg and Rob West. My best lap was 18.05 compared to Wragg's 16.90, that's how much difference was made! As a result Wragg displaces Helliwell in the A Final. Final positions are:
A Final - Leg 1
So my first 1/10th National A Final (excluding end if season finals) sees me line up smack bang in the middle of the pack in 5th. It's a fairly daunting position which sees me allow Sleigh around the outside drops me to 6th. A small tap from Wragg sees me drop straight to 9th and the hard work begins! I eventually worked my way up to 3rd and was holding the train of Sleigh, Stafford and Yardy comfortably behind until a loose screw popped out and the driveshaft came out of the outdrive with 3 corners to go! I ended up 6th :-(
A final - Leg 2
An amazing start sees regulation order for the first 5 cars for about 2 minutes. When it came to lapping back markers though I managed to find every single car that had crashed on it's roof and this cost me again! A battle with Poulter ensued for the final few laps and it resulted in another 6th finish!
A Final - Leg 3
Another poor start (tapped again) sees me in a 4 way battle for most of the race with Poulter, Stafford and Wragg for 7th to 10th. After much position swapping Stafford and Poulter dropped out and I worked back up to 6th once more after Robertson made a few errors.
Final positions are as follows:
Not a bad result and one I would have taken at the start of today for sure! Now for the journey home and back tomorrow for 4wd!
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