Well done on a great race weekend, but please Teesside, can we have a shower for us hardy souls who camp out - its the only thing missing from your otherwise fantasic facilities.
At Blue Lizard we purchased at least two of the programmes, and enjoyed the reading, even though on one of the photos (showing us with the Masters winning trophy) was captioned as Meerkat!! So, keep up the good work.
We were missing the Bald Eagle this weekend and his prowess in the pit lane, but we muddled through without him. In qualifying for the EPEC race with hit a missfire and dropped to 23rd on the grid after a promising start with Geoff in the kart. After fixing that, Geoff got back out for the 2hr qualifying and put us 8th on the grid.
The two hour race was wet all the way and despite going too extreme on front end set up, Geoff took the start and the first hour and ten minutes and put us in a creditable 4th, despite one of our European cousins taking him out on the second lap and aquaplaning off near the end of his session. Graveyard took over and held on to fourth, keeping it clean and on the circuit and finishing first in Clubman's by a country mile!!
On Sunsay morning we completed just one lap in the warm-up and Graveyard took the start. He made up a few places before dropping off the pace a little due to poor handling. At about an hour and twenty minutes in the damp conditions he hit a kerb a bit hard in the chicane and went airbourne, losing it on landing and going backwards and hard into the tyre wall. He injured his neck (thankfully not badly) and the race was red flagged.
Alan Wilshire took over on the re-start but, embarrasingly dropped it at the same point on the circuit on his out lap, bending a track rod and incurring the wrath of Bob and Paul Beattie!!!
He then had a storming drive, going from 37th to 32nd before handing over to Geoff. By now the skies had greyed and a sprinkling of rain was hitting the track, so Geoff went out with full wet overalls.... it rained a bit during his 1hr 50m drive, but not enough to count and he came in soaked through from within, but having taken us to 22nd overall, just 5 seconds from taking the lead in the Masters class, with a spirited drive and no mistakes. The only problem was a loose fuel cap which allowed fuel to escape and caused one engine to cut out on the weigh bridge!!! One more lap and it would have been the recovery truck for us......
After losing some time getting the engines re-started, Alan Wilshire took over but unfortunately, was back in a few laps later with brake problems. Some cooling water and new pads cured it and he was on his way again, but with another 6-7 minutes lost, and the chance of another Masters win now gone.....
He drove well and we finished 29th overall. Some lessons learned with the brakes and a sore neck our rewards for the day, but a trophy from the weekend.
Congrats to the top guys - from where I sat, you all drove well.
Also, to the Psycho Racing (18) guy Geoff diced with for just about his whole stint - great fun, good clean driving and we worked well together - thanks.
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EPEC Rd 3 at Teesside 29 / 30 May by 'jimwhite' (31 May 2010 @ 12:40)
