Kames success

I had a great day's sprinting at Kames on Sunday, competing in a round of the Lowland Speed Championship and the Guyson Scottish Sprint Championship.
I had my nice new Toyo R888s and despite a damp start, the weather cleared up and I was able to make the most of the extra grip they provide. My class competition was class A8 stalwart Alastair Matheson in his TVR Griffith 500 and newcomer Jamie MacDonald in is Lotus Elise. We were all on a fairly even playing field as the event took place on the anti-clockwise layout and Alastair and I don't have a lot of experience going that way round. In fact, it was only my third competitive event on that layout and my previous best time in the MX-5 of 93secs looked pretty slow....


The new tyres
Anyway, morning practice was a damp and miserable affair and there were no prizes for the slow times that ensued. I managed a best of 99.7 with Alistair on 95 and Jamie on 98secs.
It dried up during lunch and so for the third practice, we were able to go at it a bit more. I was chuffed with a time of 89.36 and I thought that might be the pace I'd be stuck at so I was quite disheartened when Alastair produced an 87.39 - 2 seconds faster. I consoled myself with the fact that he had been on hot tyres after getting a re-run when Jamie got red-flagged for an excursion onto the grass.

However, practice is just that - practice - and it only counts when it comes to the timed runs. First run went well for me - plenty of grip, smooth and no real drama - I was delighted to see the clock at 87.60sec. Alastair was a wee bit adrift on 88.49 but I knew he could go a bit faster. Jamie was closing in on us at 89.35sec.

Final run and it was all to play for. I made a wee mistake on the entry to the hairpin and lost a bit but apart from that it was ok. Time - 88.04 - a wee bit slower but still not bad. I got back to the paddock and watched the other guys - Jamie did 89.07sec - a respectable first outing. Alastair did 88.26sec - faster than his first timed run but not enough to beat my time.

So, another class win at Kames, a new personal best and a nice wee trophy to boot.

The car continues to clunk away on acceleration and it's definitely holding me back both in pure speed terms and mentally but I'm hopeful I'll have it sorted by Alford on 18 July.