EVENT REPORT
from Guy Rossler

North Weald
Green Belt Motor Club
http://www.greenbeltmc.f9.co.uk/
Sunday 27 April 2003

Weather:
The day started damp but had dryed by the time we did first practise. Rain was expected but the whole day stayed dry with sunny periods.

Well, the FI's arrived on Tuesday (or was it Monday? - no, it couldn't have been, it was a holiday) and I noticed Rob Spalding (2001 class winner) was on the entry list for my class, C7. For those of you who don't know, I campaign a little Caterham 7 with a 1600 K series lump of cheese, er, sorry, engine (bit of a local joke concerning the fragility of these engines). Up until February this year the car was still in its 2001 Caterham Academy standard trim. The only thing I changed last year was the tires.  We did a few upgrades over the winter, which brings me back to the plot, as if I'm ever on it!  Rob gave me a hard time last year at all of the events where we met.  I didn't beat him at all last year although I did get within 9/100ths of a second at North Weald at one of the September events.

So, after finally (I was hoping - today would tell) ironing out the last teething problems with the upgrades I felt not a little trepidation at the thought of going head to head with Rob.  This would be a bit of a test of both the performance of the car and also of its driver and how far up the lerning curve he is. I'm still getting used to the limited slip diff and the wonderful extra confidence it gives you in the car.  Tank slappers are, I hope, a thing of the past!!

I packed the car early on Saturday night (I was support crewless today, Julie was hoovering or some such! ;^) and was looking forward to a relative lie in on Sunday morning what with North Weald being so close to home.  The day dawned, near Stansted Airport at least, fairly bright and it was only as I was heading over ever wetter roads through Harlow that I realised I had forgotten not only my umbrella but also my driver's side tonneau cover.  Ooops!

I arrived and got set up good and early. GBMC member Robert Herring arrived in his little Graduates Caterham (8 valve 1600 Vauxhall engine, they give about 100bhp) and other members of the class rolled up including Rob Spalding. We had a good natter, Rob was running an interesting tyre / wheel combination fore and aft (I think it was 15" fronts with 13" rears, with apropriated tyre profiles to make sure the round bits were all the same size) as getting hold of decent 13" 1a tyres in anything wider than a 185 section is apparantly getting harder and harder.

It was good to see some sprint newcomers.  Hopefully they'll become as totally addicted as the rest of us! The day was going at a leisurely pace. We popped out for convoy runs at just before 1000.  This was quite interesting, I think I spent more time sideways on that than at any other time of the day.  I just wanted to get a feel for the car with the lsd over the bumps as you run over the taxiway / runway joins at North Weald. The course was different to the usual GBMC layout (which I actually quite liked last year) with the usual chicaned run down to the "roundabout".  However, on the return back up the hill, when you turned left you ran up the right hand side of the runway to a left hand hairpin, back down the middle of the runway to a right hand hairpin before a blast up the left hand side of the runway to the usual finish.  This made the good old "slow in, fast out" approach vitally important.

At the end of the convoy run we did the noise test and once again I was thrilled to bits to find my new Powerspeed exhaust delivering only 94db at 4,500 rpm.  So the noise test at Lydden was not a fluke. Goodwood here we come!!

So far so good, the weather was staying dry. Phew! The format of the day was for one practice and three timed runs. Lining up for the practice run and then off. I did my usual North Weald gentle recce of where all the bumps were and how they were likely to throw the car around.  Even at my gentle practice pace the suspension topped out through the chicane, which was really a quite fast left - right kink. The trick (I think!) is to keep the car straight over the bumps! I must admit, I think I could feel the lsd working here too as the back end was much more planted.

The run down to the roundabout was quick, I'd like to think because of the upgrades but probably because of the tail wind (not quite a gale!) blowing. Mind you, the car pulled well up the hill after the roundabout! Turning left (don't worry, I won't go through each run in quite the same gory detail) onto the old runway was fun too, a really nice long slide. :^)  But, er, not good for the times, control yourself Guy! There's not much to say about the rest of the course that hasn't been said already, fairly standard stuff. I did also notice the lsd making a big difference under braking. I'll explain. The Caterham, and as I understand from Rob, the Westfield too, has a real problem with too much rear brake bias, especially on the list 1a tyres. Basically, even if you lock a rear, the lsd helps keep the car in a nice straight line.  Last year, withoug the lsd, this was not the case.  =:^0

My time for the practice run was 1:22.47.  Rob posted a 1:21.70. The rest of the class were around 1:25 plus.  So, that's how it's going to be is it, another close one between Rob and me?  Here we go again!

The total entry for the event was, I think, quite small, so we got through each run in about 45 minutes. We had a leisurely start to the first timed run (one practice, three timed remember).  And it was still dry!

I concentrated on keeping everything as tidy as possible on the first timed run as I'm still learning the car (and probably will be for some time yet) after the upgrades. I was very very happy to post a 1:18.87. I can't remember Rob's time <goes and checks AEMC / GBMC web sites> ah, <goes back and amends practice times above> OK, found it, it was 1:21.25.  So naturally I was chuffed to bits and started praying for rain.  Apparantly Rob had missed a few gears.  Well, it serves him right for trying first gear around some of the hairpins!!  ;^)

Unfortunately, it stayed dry for the rest of the day (oh, I kind of gave that away at the top didn't I?) so I had to work for it!

I managed only a 1:19.22 on my second timed run as while it felt fast I knew I'd over driven it badly.  My thanks to Robert Herring though for his kind comments of how the car looked great with a gentle sideays drift coming out of the turn from the roundabout back on to the main climb to the runway section.  But as we all know, looking good isn't fast.  It was fun though!! I also tried a few different gears but I think most of the time was lost losing traction coming up the hill. Rob Spalding did me a huge favour by spinning and posting only a 1:23.95.  Hang on, that's a damn good time considering he got a full 360 in there too.  GULP!

Right, time to slow everything in the cockpit down a bit for the final run to post that 1:17 time! I got off to a great start with very little wheelspin. I then missed third on the run to the chichane.  Damn!  Well, I'd probably blown that run but tried to carry good speed through the jump (er, sorry, chichane). I got much better drive out of the roundabout and was on the way up the hill preparing to take the left into the runway in third for the first time (I had been using second).  The idea was to smooth the power delivery over the bumpy bits.  Well, I said I did some upgrades over the winter and torque is now much better. This allowed he ensuing 3rd gear drift through the left hander (I did wait until after the bump before applying power, honest guv) which was great fun but, guess what, not good for the time! I clocked a 1:19.25 in the end which, considering the mistakes I made I was actually very pleased with.  The car is going great, now I just need to upgrade the driver!

I got back to the paddock and out of the car in time to see Rob head off on his final run. He looked very very tidy and very quick and I was sure I had lost first place as I watched the clock ticking up (but not fast enough for my liking!). Well, I was very pleased (sorry Rob) to see he crossed the line in 1:19.09. YES! I'd pipped Rob by 0.22 secs, a large margin in class C7. Thank heaven the day was one practice and three timed runs and not the usual two and two as otherwise the result would have been very different. I celebrated with a "Belly Buster" burger from the catering establishment. Mmmmmmm!

So, a class win, against Rob Spalding. Nice!  I also took the second fastest time of the day, albeit to Tony Beesley and his amazing little Jedi (you should hear the way that thing changes gear, awesome) who posted his first ever FTD in over 30 years of competing with a stonking 1:11.67.  Well done Tony!

Well done Rob Spalding for keeping me on my toes all day.  It's going to be nip and tuck at the events where we meet this year.  I think the next one we are competing together is Hethel on the 18th May.  I'm also out a week before that on the 11th at Debden.

Thanks as always to the event organisers, Green Belt Motor Club, for a superb day's fun. I stayed dry, took a class win and got a great sun tan to boot.

And to cap the day, Neil Munro of Autoservices of Stansted came and presented the championship trophies for last year so I got to collect my Class Winner trophy too.  I guess it'd be rude of me to not go all out this year to retain that title. I'll do all I can. There are a few things this year that may have to take priority but at the moment I should be able to make it to ten events. Fingers crossed!

Guy Rossler

full results at:
http://www.greenbeltmc.f9.co.uk/sprintresults2003.pdf

Useful web sites:
AEMC:
www.aemc.org.uk

Stort Valley Auto Club:
www.svac.org.uk