Kent Regional Heat
After not such an early start as usual the team arrived at the Kent County Showground in good time and after unloading our trailer we took a walk around the track to assess our strategy. The tarmac was of a fairly non-grippy nature, with a lot of tiny looses stones covering the surface. It was also fairly narrow and we decided that as we had nothing to prove we would not race TSR-2 in case it sustained race damage so saving it for our best distance chance at Castle Combe in a weeks time. TSR-1 was sent out to practice and all the new drivers got in a couple of laps. The race began on time and away we went, not the fastest car on track but pretty consistent. Could we make it into the prizes? The decision not to race TSR-2 was a wise one, the tightest bend was indeed very nasty and some cars were 'hanging the tail out' at little more than walking pace. Others, not least the F24 bubble from Eltham College, were getting well and truly 'out of shape' as they struggled with the lack of grip, their short wheelbase compounding the situation. The Bexley Business Academy teams were enjoying the corner, often making it up onto 3 wheels especially if their line was less than ideal. Whilst spectacular, this manoeuvre cost them dearly in terms of scrubbed off speed, a fact borne out as the race wore on and our new drivers (one in particular) found he could launch into the bend without lifting off and actually catch the Bexley car that had just overtaken him prior to the bend by the time they reached the exit. Great to watch and more proof (not that we needed it) that our long low concept is a sound one. TSR-1 has not been touched (apart from maintenance) for 2 1/2 years! Clearly there is still life in the old dog yet! As the race wore on it became apparent that the Bexley team were pushing their chargers very hard. Perhaps they would run out of power later on? Sure enough, at about 1/4 to 4, their car #4 pitted, only to do so again in just 15 minutes. Could we catch them? As it turned out their other set of batteries were not as flat as the one we 'timed' and although we were catching them up, the laps were so short that ''going flat' was not the problem it can be at Goodwood. The only sour bit was right in the closing minutes of the race, their team shouted orders at one of their other cars to 'stop' (or w.t.t.e.) TSR-1, which they promptly tried to do by running us onto the grass. Unfortunately no marshals saw or heard this, but it's pretty pathetic behaviour from a team. We survived the attempt and finished just 1 1/2 laps behind them. With hindsight, we should have gone up a pulley size (yes, TSR-1 is z-section (car)V-belt driven!!) and beaten the lot of them as we had an abundance of power spare, the current average for a lap being under 20 amps (the data logger worked well). An interesting day out but not a circuit for fast cars. See many of you at Castle Combe for what promises to be a really good race.....keep it clean though, foul play or cheating to win hardly ranks you as a serious contender.
RGE 27/7/06
