Daventry Junction 16 and Hastings 1066
Hi yah all
I have been working on some EOS carpet set ups for a couple of weeks now so this weekend I went racing up and down the country to see how my cars compare.
The plan was to go to Junction 16 in Daventry as they were hosting their first ever Winter series and then go to Hastings 1066 all the way down south for their Winter Whip round 🙂
Junction 16.
The club runs mostly on Friday evenings and has invested heavily in new EOS style carpet, a great size rostrum and a lot more. Run primarily by Lee Romang and Alec Springer (obviously many others too) these guys seem to understand the racing scene. The track for the event was some 30 plus metre long straight, some interesting and to say the least demanding jumps and generally a good feel to everything. Plenty of pitting space to spread your wings too. It would be easy to critic but as a first event it’s right up there with many established clubs. Well worth a visit. Hopefully there will be a spot for me at their next one on the 16th of December (Saturday)
My Serpent SRX2 MH was on point as they say.
I will make the report easy as I will simply post pictures of all the qualification rounds and finals and you can easily get the details of that.
Basically I qualified 2nd. With 2 from 4 to count in quali, I had a TQ and a 2nd counting.
One leg final for everyone.
I had to put a better set of tyres on for the main as my tyres were certainly too worn in the last quali round.
The first half of the final my car was much slower than normal. The better rear tyres were locking in the rear way too much and I should of really put better fronts to match. As the tyres came in i got quicker and quicker and finally bridged the cap to the leader. Only a couple of laps to go i was beginning to push hard but I took a corner a fraction too tight, caught the pot dot and caused the car to roll so I dropped to 3rd. Happy with that to be honest especially as I had some fast laps. Congrats to the Hall family for a 1st and 2nd. Both lads certainly getting much faster 🙂
Here are the pics
The track
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Final
Enjoyed the event very much and now the drive down to Hastings – Weather was terrible
Hastings 1066
Well what does one say about 1066. Ben Winters and many of his helpers has really done an amazing job with the place. The Kent area needed desperately another club and with Maritime Raceway shutting its doors recently, this place is getting more and more popular and rightly so. Extremely friendly guys and really good facilities and race track. More than big enough, you don’t need pit table or chairs, it’s all super good 🙂
My Serpent SRX2 MH
I had a premeditated decision not to change the car from one club to the other, as ultimately I am looking for a good base set up for EOS carpet. I was pleasantly surprised with its performance right from the off so I did ultimately just leave it as it was from the previous day at Jun16. Round 1 came very quickly and actually too quickly for me as I didn’t even change the Lipo in the car. With a long practice session beforehand, the car didn’t want to move come round one and as much as the Serpent Team guys tried to figure out the problem on the start line it was not going to happen. I had to sit out round 1 with the most school boy error of not changing the Lipo. I think I will just call that a senior moment!!
I then discover the club only runs 3 rounds and also on FTD qualification and not the most recent common way of round by round. Round 2 came and I actually managed to get my car going (LOL) and managed 7th overall just behind Jamie one of the UKs Team Serpent drivers. I did have some errors so I was happy the car had pace. Well last round was upon us and I knew it had to be clean as many in the previous heat went 17 lap pace. It was obvious a 17 lapper was needed to get into the main. I drove a clean race with no heroics. In fact you could argue I drove like a girl (although some girls are actually very quick) I was pleasantly surprised at 4th overall. I knew I could go faster still as many put new tyres on and I was using older ones.
3 leg finals for everyone so here we can try and push a little harder and see what develops.
1st leg I got tangled up at the beginning and somehow still finished 4th.
2nd leg I drove a decent enough race and finished 3rd although a last lap error actually cost me 2nd.
3rd leg was really better for me. Managed 2nd in the final and I believe 3rd overall although there might be some discrepancies with other peoples times/scoring and that might change.
Either or, I was really pleased with my car and the result. Even more that Jamie and Chris that are representing the Serpent brand also made the main A final too. Has to also be said Darren and Mark amongst others driving the Serpent brand had a brilliant showing in the 4wd class too 🙂
Photos below as before
The track
My Serpent 2wd MH High Grip car
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Finals
So another great days racing to wrap up a long tiring weekend. Found a nice neutral set up for my MH high grip car and will post the set up laters – Thanks all and look forward in seeing you all soon at trackside – many thanks to both clubs for hosting great racing for all of us – Your massive efforts for running the clubs are very appreciated from many of us – the next picture sort of sums it all up after a long weekend up and down the country 🙂
