Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Autowirral 18/5/08 - Mallory Park

Well, what can I say, my first race and I loved it!!

Went out in Qualifying and put the car 12th on the grid (out of 15) - 3rd in class, though there where about 4 of us all on the same 1/2 second!!

Race came and I flunked the start - too many revs when I dropped the clutch and sat there with the wheels spinning. The Rover V8 in front of me also made a mess of it, and I had to lift (Had a 3.0 Supra Turbo to the right of me) giving the 2 cars behind me a run in to the first corner. One of them got through, and my mate in the CRX was showing his nose up the inside, I gave him room, but Cam Belt failure led to a retirement (Which was a shame as he was only 0.2 secs behind me in qualifying)

I retook the the car that got past me in to the next corner, and set about the Rover, Supra and Camero IROC.

Through the corners and under braking I was reeling them in, but on the straights, they where far too powerful for me (maybe double the power of the little Honda, not to mention 2x the engine cc) I did however stay with the Camero, and under braking, got past him in to the hairpin.

Mallory is a very fast circuit, my average speed was 83mph per lap, not bad considering there is a 2nd gear hairpin. This kinda suits the faster more powerful cars, so I cant wait for somewhere a bit more twisty like Oulton Park

Carls Civic, since the rebuild has also got much faster, he just drove straight past me at one point, and had 2.5 secs on me!!

Car ran really well all day, no problems, and the tyres and brakes are fantastic - you could litterally count 2 secs before you needed to brake after the bigger cars.

Eventually, I finished 10th, 2nd in class.

Its a real shame Hilly in the CRX retired, as the qualifying times showed it had the potential of being a good race....

Roll on Oulton!!

(Pics to follow when I download them later )

congrats mate. Made up for you! Shame about your mates car tho... Will he have it sorted in time to race with you again?

I look forward to the pics

If I know Hilly, he will have stripped it when he got home last night

nice 1 matey

Well done mate, Can't wait to come and watch you race

well done Stu

Looking forward to seeing you at Oulton

Cheers peeps!

Hopfully, the twists and turns of Oulton should play in to hands of the Honda, and bring some of the bigger, more powerful cars in to reach

...right, pictures....

All loaded up and ready to go...



Cars off the trailers



Drivers (left to right) Dave Hill - CRX, Carl Bennett - Civic EF9, Me - Civic EG6, Andy Davies - BMW E36 M3



All 4 cars in qualifying



Me Coming through Devils Elbow - Flat in 4th!!



My GF was taking the pics, unfortunatly, she got a bit carried away, and forgot about the camera, hence not that many pics

so what cars were in your class?

In my class there was an Escort ER3 on big carbs! Carl in the Civic, Dave in the CRX, Evan in an XR2, and me.

The Rovers, Camaro and Supra are all Class A cars!

Will you be doing any track days in this car, As i wanna do a few myself

Doubt it matey, think its costing enough just to race lol

If you do one at Oulton, and want someone to show you round from the passenger seat, just gimmie a shout

how were the brakes and suspension bud

Absolutly spot on!

Didnt need to make any changes at all. Through Gerrads (a very long, 4/5th gear corner I had the car balanced on understeer / oversteer with a hint on understeer powering out of the bend.

The brakes stop the car well, and I could out brake all the other cars (With the exeption of Carl who has the big APs) and I was leaving the braking 1-2secs later than all the bigger cars!

They were smoking a bit in the park ferme afterwards though lol

nice one mate