Harewood

Saturday was my last visit to Harewood for this year for the penultimate round of the TJ Services Northern Speed Championship.

The weather was fantastic and the craic was even better. I was hoping to score ten points to keep my championship hopes alive but alas it was not to be.

I did, however, come second of the championship contenders - beaten fair and square by Chris Harris in his awesome Lotus Elise S2. I also managed to beat my previous best time at Harewood of 74.18secs. My new best time is 74.07secs.

The result means that it all comes down to the final round at Kames on 4 October. The unofficial points are as follows:

Paul Rigg 60 points
Kev Hamilton (me) 60 points
Chris Harris 56 points
Dave Exton 50 points

In theory, any one of us could win the class but Paul and Chris have the best chance due to the dropped scores system. The most I can score is 62 points if I win at Kames. However, Paul and Chris could still both easily score 62 and if its a three way tie then Paul would win as he had highest score in Round 1. It's all prety complicated but realistically, I'm aiming for third place now. I knew I would rue that 4/100ths I lost by at Forrestburn!

Photos will follow as soon as I get some.

The racing is interupted

Photo: Stephen Hynds

Forrestburn on 29 August saw the VX out for its first run. I managed a time similar to my MX-5 times (58.4sec) which was ok, if a touch disappointing. I think I need lots of practice before venturing out on the hills again in the VX.

I should have been at Ty Croes on Anglesey for the weekend of 5/6 September but due to my wife suddenly taking ill and me having to ferry back and forwards to hospital and watch the kids, I had to pull out at the last minute. I had been really looking forward to it but it can wait. Thankfully, the better half is now on the road to recovery.

For next year's campaign, I've acquired a small trailer to allow me to take the family with me and save some miles on the car. I'll be on the lookout for a cheap estate towcar soon - I fancy either a Volvo V70 (again!), a Skoda Octavia (again!) or a Vauxhall Omega (for the first time!).

Finally, I'm off to Bo'ness for the hillclimb revival on Saturday - I'll try and remember my camera! Then I'm off with my eldest (he's only 3!) on a run with the Scottish Fivers on Sunday - that should be a laugh.

Forrestburn - Saturday 28 August

Just back from a day at my least favourite venue, Forrestburn for a round of the TJ Services Northern Speed Championship.

Weather started pretty miserable with heavy driving rain but it cleared up by the time practice started at 10am.

I have struggled to get a good time at Forrestburn ever since I went off on the first corner in April 2008. I know the corners reasonably well now its just that I don't have the bottle to push it hard. I've been trying since then to break my personal best of 58.64secs.

Anyway, today I was running in the TJ Services Northern Speed Championship against the MGF of Paul Rigg/Dennis Hope, the S2 Elise of Chris Harris, the Honda Civic of Steve Palmer and the MR2 of 'Diamond' Dave Exton.

Practie didn't go great with me getting a fastest run of 60.55 - well behind Paul and only just in front of Dave Exton. I knew I had to go quicker when the timed runs came.

With the changeable weather, I was surprised to see the sun come out for the first timed run and thought this might be the only dry run so I would have to go for it. I managed 58.29secs - beating my old PB and all the other championship class contenders except Chris Harris who posted 57.93secs.

I was sure that was the only dry run we were going to get as the rain came on soon after but it was only a brief shower and it soon brightened up. So the final run came along and it was dry!

I got a good start and kept the power on through more corners than I have before. I managed 57.88secs - I was well chuffed, having taken nearly a second of my previous best.

Again, it was enough to beat all the other championship contenders but Chris did 57.83secs - pipping me to the 10 points by just 5/100ths of a second. That could cost me dear at the end of the season. If only I'd kept the boot in a weeeeeee bit more..........

By my reckoning, the championship class looks like this with 2 rounds to go and dropped scores now counting:

Paul Rigg 60 Pts
Kev Hamilton 58 Pts
Chris Harris 46 Pts
Dave Exton 44 Pts
Steve Palmer 43 Pts
Dennis Hope 31 Pts
Andy Suter 13 pts
David Child 2 Pts

Suspension grief

Old and new(ish)

One of the front dampers on the VX was leaking so had to be replaced. I decided to tackle it myself and bought a set of second hand dampers from a late model VXR. The pic above shows the two coilover units side by side - the one from my car is on the bottom of the pic.

It should be an easy job - jack car up, take wheel off, unbolt two bolts, remove damper, insert new damper and bolt up. Unfortunately, the monkey who built my car had put the lower damper bolt in backwards making it impossible to remove without either removing the ARB droplink or cutting it out. I chose the latter method on the basis that if I started farting around with the droplink, something else would break.


Suspension with no damper unit in place



Upper shock bolt in place

So, a 1 hour job ended up taking 3 hours but it is done and I've learned a bit more about the car.