Sprint - Castle Combe - 24 Mar 12 - Keith Attwood
Words by Keith Attwood
Published: 17/04/2012
Castle Combe – Great Western Sprint – 24 March 2012 – SELOC Speed Championship – Round 2
Well, this should have been the 2ndof 9 events in the championship. Unfortunately it has had to be cancelled as a qualifying round due to the other contenders entries being rejected as the event was oversubscribed. I only managed to gain entry due to being a member of the organising club and having attended previously.
At least I get to enjoy one of the best sprints in the country. 1 ¾ laps to set your best time. Last year I achieved a time of 145.8 seconds and as my car was now running more power and bigger brakes I expected and even better performance. What I did have to contend with was that, unlike last year when I had had a whole day’s worth of tuition the day before the sprint, it was now almost 12 months since I had last driven the circuit and had forgotten a lot about it.
Combe can be horrible in the wet. Thankfully though the unseasonably good weather was continuing and bright, but misty, skies greeted me at the venue. Arriving in slightly better time than I did at the previous event it was more of a relaxed affair sorting the car out in preparation for practice. The day was proving to be problematic for the organisers. With a full field of 100 vehicles time was always going to be tight. This was compounded by a fair few of the single seaters breaking down during practice resulting in the runs being suspended whilst they were recovered. So, having arrived at 0745, it was not until 1230 that our class was called forward for practice. In their wisdom the organisers were trying to get everything completed by 1300, so they could break for lunch. This resulted in them sending too many cars out too close to each other. The rules of sprinting state that if you catch the car in front you have to back off, then appeal for a re-run, this includes practice. Within ¾ lap of my 2 ¾ lap practice I’d caught the car in front up. So I headed straight back to the start line to claim another go, to find they had already closed for lunch. I’d have to wait until after lunch for my practice.
Eventually I got to have my practice run. No dramas, everything worked well, my lines were a little off and I was earlier on the brakes than I had been the previous year. I put these things down to a lack of track time at Combe, time was all that was needed to work them out again. That’s one of the things with sprinting, you have to be completely on your game from the off, there is no time to correct errors at all.
Into run 1 the start was a little hectic, with the car squirming frantically under acceleration on cold tyres. I had to lightly lift on the throttle to straighten the car but after that it was flat out all the way to Avon rise. A bit of faith was needed in the cold brakes through Avon and into Quarry, but all was going well. To early on the brakes into the Esses cost time and put me on an incorrect line (which I stupidly used all weekend) into Old paddock meaning I was late on the throttle on the exit. Again, I broke too early into Tower, but at least I made the apex. Bobbies was fine and so was my line into Camp. Now, as per the practice, it would be flat all the way through Folly and up to Avon Rise…. At least that was the plan.
Going through Folly in practice the car felt light so I decided to take a slightly different line in the run. Unfortunately, this took me right over a line of cement dust, used to mop up a long oil spill. The dust, combined with a poorly positioned bump and rear tyres that were on their last legs and very much past their best resulted in a rather large spin, at about 120mph. For the first second or two I was unsure which side of the circuit I was going to exit. Thankfully my stars had aligned themselves and I was spat out into the infield, away from any hard Armco. 4 complete revolutions later I came to a halt.
Evidently that was the end of that run!
Collecting myself from the infield I scampered back to the pits to inspect for damage.
Apart from marginally squarer tyres I couldn’t find anything wrong. I hadn’t even collected an allotment full of soil and grass. I was quite lucky in all reality!
This did mean that after Run 1 I was firmly last in class, so it’d be all or nothing on Run 2.
Sitting on the start line I was in a bit of a quandary of what I did wrong on the first lap. I hadn’t really analysed my first run outside of vowing not to spin again. My first objective was that I had to set a time, because of this I decided that I would lift off before going through Folly and as such accept that I would lose speed and time. Apart from that though I had no game plan, hadn’t considered my braking points into other areas of the track, nor had I thought about my gash line into Old Paddock. It shouldn’t have come as a great surprise to me then when I made the same little errors that I had done on my previous run….. I didn’t spin though! Errors aside we pick up the mirror image of Run 1 just prior to Folly. Prior to turn in I lifted and chose the line I had used through practice, the car felt stable but I still waited until the weight had shifted and I was pointing back down the circuit before planting the throttle again. Due to the extra power over last year I still made the same speed prior to braking at Avon that I did in 2011, without the lift. So it was hard on the brakes, from 140mph to about 90mph, over Avon Rise then further mash the brakes to turn into Quarry at around 55mph. I suddenly remembered how to trail brake and used this into the Esses, but again stayed too far right, into Old Paddock, which meant that I had to stay off the throttle for too long. I was on the brakes early into Tower, again, but I held slightly better speed into Bobbies and crossed the finish line, having faced the same way throughout!
I had set a time. I was well aware that it wasn’t going to set the world alight but it should remove me from last place. With the results in at the end of the day I’d managed to claw my way up to 3rdin class, despite being almost 3 seconds slower than in 2011. If I’d of matched my previous best I would have been 2ndin class. I’m also certain that the car was capable of the outright class win. Still, a 3rdand another trophy are better than nothing at all and a wrecked car. So, there was definitely something to be happy about for the weekend.
http://youtu.be/d3ebZQiu3pA?hd=1
I also caught some sun!
Post Castle Combe
I needed new tyres and I also needed to sort the towing eye on the car out. Winching the car onto the trailer had shown a lot of flex. Surprisingly it’s a known weak point for rust, especially as it’s constructed from normal steel.
So these things had to be ordered:
Tyres are the easy bit to get sorted. £20 to my friendly HiQ, in Frome, sorts out fitting the rears and balancing all 4 rims. The tow post is a different matter.
Being held on with 4 bolts it should be a simple thing to change, and it is once you get to it. It’s the getting to it that is the problem. Thankfully HiQ let me use their workshop to change it as it was forecast rain for the day. All they wanted in return was doughnuts!
So, how to change a front towing post.
Step 1 - front on axle stands.
Step 2 - remove the front of the car!
Step 3 - change post
Step 4 - put car back together
Only took 5 hours thanks to rusted bolts and captive nuts breaking free. Still, at least the new powder coated stainless steel item should last a lot longer and it’s saved me a fortune in labour costs!
I also fitted some side scoops to channel more air into the engine bay.
Next job is to get another geo and corner weighting session booked and prepare myself for Goodwood, an even tighter circuit than Combe, and one I’ve never driven… or even seen for that matter. I best get my copy of UK Circuit Guide out and have a read!
