Southport National

Hi yah all, here we are at the Southport track in the north west of England.
A 6 hour drive to get here hitting the horrible M6 and so on but seeing the track its all beautifully presented and for once the weather is actually sunny.

Two practice sessions of 4 minutes each.  Firs one is really to just get the feel of the track and the 2nd to hopefully find the fast parts.  The back section of this track is the difficult part and if you can drive that then you are in business.
Usual suspects were quick in practice so lets see whats what after round 1

Simon Moss tops round 1 with some of the top drivers making errors.  Si just kept it on its wheels and just kept it consistent.  Neil Cragg got in on the 2 spot as Lee Martin made some small errors to drop him off potential round 1 TQ.  We saw Darren Bloomfield making a shout for the top spot but a couple of errors saw him drop down.  Elliott Boots running some 10th this year, was on for 5th but again some errors saw him drop out of the top ten.  Others to note were some local drivers in the names of Evisson and Parr making top times

Lee Martin set a time that really I didn’t think could be beat.  That was in heat 10.  Neil Cragg in heat 11 really pushed and as you can see took theTQ off Lee by 0.6 of a sec.  Kev Lee had a great run to go 4th in round and more or less secure his A final.  I did a school boy error where I set my slipper way way too loose and melted it together.  Silly boy

Well round 3 was full of cars breaking.  The highlight was Neil changing from BB tyres to Schumacher stagger and minis.  He beat Lee in round 2 by 0.06 and this time had a wonder last lap to take TQ from Lee again by 0.1.  Dear oh dear – At least Lee had a smile on his face.  I had a much better run and had exact time with Dave Burton that was 24th in round.  The sun is out and at least that is a bonus!

Well I have to now be honest and say that i screwed up – The most basic error of a loose pinion has cost me! My RB6 felt so so good too!
There were many that gave it all a good go and as I think this is the first National that has had dry qualyfing in all four rounds for the last near 3 years!!!
Southport have set the standard – LOL

Final result here – more laters

Neil has decided to raise some money for charity.  He has asked for some basic change that really we all so take as just change.  Everyone has been doing very well with the collection and Neil has actually said he will double the figure if it reaches the 120 drivers that are in attendance – WOW!  Nice job Neil 🙂

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