Gearing up for Season Finale

It's a while since I posted - I've been away to Birmingham on a training course for work and then I've been busy re-grouting the bathroom so the car has taken a backseat for a couple of weeks.

It's only a week until the final round of the TJ Services Northern Speed Championship at Kames on Sunday 5th October. I wasn't at the last round at Harewood but the results for my class (R2) were as follows:

Paul Rigg 72.19 sec
Chris Harris 72.50 sec
Dennis Hope 79.62 sec

This means that the provisional class standings going into the final round are as follows:

Kevin Hamilton (me) 157 points
Denis Hope 146 points
Paul Rigg 122 points
Chris Harris 104 points
Andrew Suter 98 points
Richard Lewthwaite 70 points
Jon Lyth 64 points
Margaret Farquar Rigg 20 points

With 25 points up for grabs at Kames, it looks like the only person who can beat me is Dennis Hope but only if I fail to get a timed run. So, fingers crossed!

In preparation for the final round, I'll be competing at East Ayrshire Car Club's charity sprint on Saturday 4th October. It's going to be run anti-clockwise so it won't really be much practice but it should be good fun.

More testing

I had another session at Kames tonight. This was the first outing with my brand spanking new Marangoni Zeta Lineas. These tyres get rave reviews amongst the sprint/hillclimb fraternity but get slated for normal road use, especially in the wet.

My first impressions are fairly good. I started with cold pressure of 27psi and after 2 runs at Kames, pressure had risen to 33psi. They seem to get heat in them very easily and the compound seems very soft for a List 1A road tyre.

Handling was good for brand new tyres - a wee bit squirmy at first but once they heated up it was spot on. Managed some understeer/oversteer transition coming out of the hairpin and they seemed to hold on well through the paddock bend.

They won't last long though. I reckon I've scrubbed about 1mm off them in just 8 or 9 runs tonight.

I'm due back at Kames next week for more testing. I must try short-shifting out of paddock to see if I can save a gear change at Gemmell's................