Race Report Tricolore Trophy Silverstone National 9[SUP]th[/SUP] August 2014
So we arrived late on Friday just in time for the rain, great! Quickly set up the awning on the race van and off loaded the car. Warmed up a bit of pre made bolognaise on the hob, had a few beers and went to bed.
Scrutineering
This seemed more strict here than at Donington. I had addressed the few issues that the scrutineers picked up at Donington so thought this would be no problem and the car would go straight through. Erm no, they picked up a few other things.
I still have a heater in the car so apparently I need the rubber seals under the bonnet (I had removed them for better cooling). Also needed cable ties on the fire extinguisher straps - and a sticker that JJC hadn’t supplied, insulating tape on the battery positive terminal, and a central rain light as one fog light on the right side is not acceptable - even though it was at donington. Nothing major, just a bit annoyed by the inconsistency of the scrutineering.
Qualifying
Having never driven Silverstone before I intended to try and learn the track during this 15min session. Started as expected not really knowing the lines or braking points, but soon picked it up. After a few laps my passenger side mirror glass decided to come loose and point at the floor. Not ideal to have no passenger side mirror in a busy quali session but I managed.
About half way through clarkey in the yellow Renault 5 turbo came past me and I remembered him being pretty quick at donington so thought I would try and hang on to the back of him. To my surprise I pretty much managed to keep up until the end of the session and qualified 6[SUP]th[/SUP] for the tricolore, just behind clarkey and just in front of Pete (toastfrenzy) in the blue clio. So I was the quickest clio on the grid!
Race 1
So I started 6[SUP]th[/SUP] out of 19 cars. This was a really exiting race right from the off when the 306 in front of me stalled on the grid and I had to swerve to avoid him, so lost a place to the blue 106 and white 205 behind me. Then the front 4 started to pull away leaving me in a 5 car battle between - me, Clarkey, Pete, Sonny and the blue 106. Then during the second lap my boot trim panel came loose and flew forward and was bumping about on the passenger side. I just had to try and ignore it and carry on, but it was definitely a bit of a distraction. (See about 2.38 in the video).
We all traded places for a few laps I lost a few places then got them all back, and managed to take the lead of our little group. I felt fairly confident I could hold everyone off having passed them and tried to just concentrate on the job at hand. I did see Pete pushing hard in my mirrors, a little to hard I think as towards the end on about lap 11 he span off behind me. Overall it was a really exiting race. I finished 5[SUP]th[/SUP] overall, 2nd in class and was the fastest Clio. I was well happy!
Race 2
Started 9[SUP]th[/SUP] out of 40 cars. I was expecting this to be an equally exiting race but didn’t really turn out that way for me. By this point I had learned the track a bit better and managed to get ahead early on and slowly pull away from the group of cars I was battling with in race 1, but couldn’t quite catch the leading group who seemed to be pulling away from me at the same rate I was pulling away from the group behind. Obviously the 2 Super GT cars from the nippons were well ahead and pretty much lapped the entire field. So apart from lapping a fair few of the slower nippons it was a quieter race for me but still very enjoyable. Finished 6[SUP]th[/SUP] overall, 2nd in class and again was the fastest Clio.
What an amazing day, I had never driven silverstone before and this was only my second ever race day. So to get the results I did I am very surprised and over the moon. Maybe I have a bit more talent than I thought I did
My First Trophies!
So we arrived late on Friday just in time for the rain, great! Quickly set up the awning on the race van and off loaded the car. Warmed up a bit of pre made bolognaise on the hob, had a few beers and went to bed.
Scrutineering
This seemed more strict here than at Donington. I had addressed the few issues that the scrutineers picked up at Donington so thought this would be no problem and the car would go straight through. Erm no, they picked up a few other things.
I still have a heater in the car so apparently I need the rubber seals under the bonnet (I had removed them for better cooling). Also needed cable ties on the fire extinguisher straps - and a sticker that JJC hadn’t supplied, insulating tape on the battery positive terminal, and a central rain light as one fog light on the right side is not acceptable - even though it was at donington. Nothing major, just a bit annoyed by the inconsistency of the scrutineering.
Qualifying
Having never driven Silverstone before I intended to try and learn the track during this 15min session. Started as expected not really knowing the lines or braking points, but soon picked it up. After a few laps my passenger side mirror glass decided to come loose and point at the floor. Not ideal to have no passenger side mirror in a busy quali session but I managed.
About half way through clarkey in the yellow Renault 5 turbo came past me and I remembered him being pretty quick at donington so thought I would try and hang on to the back of him. To my surprise I pretty much managed to keep up until the end of the session and qualified 6[SUP]th[/SUP] for the tricolore, just behind clarkey and just in front of Pete (toastfrenzy) in the blue clio. So I was the quickest clio on the grid!
Race 1
So I started 6[SUP]th[/SUP] out of 19 cars. This was a really exiting race right from the off when the 306 in front of me stalled on the grid and I had to swerve to avoid him, so lost a place to the blue 106 and white 205 behind me. Then the front 4 started to pull away leaving me in a 5 car battle between - me, Clarkey, Pete, Sonny and the blue 106. Then during the second lap my boot trim panel came loose and flew forward and was bumping about on the passenger side. I just had to try and ignore it and carry on, but it was definitely a bit of a distraction. (See about 2.38 in the video).
We all traded places for a few laps I lost a few places then got them all back, and managed to take the lead of our little group. I felt fairly confident I could hold everyone off having passed them and tried to just concentrate on the job at hand. I did see Pete pushing hard in my mirrors, a little to hard I think as towards the end on about lap 11 he span off behind me. Overall it was a really exiting race. I finished 5[SUP]th[/SUP] overall, 2nd in class and was the fastest Clio. I was well happy!
Race 2
Started 9[SUP]th[/SUP] out of 40 cars. I was expecting this to be an equally exiting race but didn’t really turn out that way for me. By this point I had learned the track a bit better and managed to get ahead early on and slowly pull away from the group of cars I was battling with in race 1, but couldn’t quite catch the leading group who seemed to be pulling away from me at the same rate I was pulling away from the group behind. Obviously the 2 Super GT cars from the nippons were well ahead and pretty much lapped the entire field. So apart from lapping a fair few of the slower nippons it was a quieter race for me but still very enjoyable. Finished 6[SUP]th[/SUP] overall, 2nd in class and again was the fastest Clio.
What an amazing day, I had never driven silverstone before and this was only my second ever race day. So to get the results I did I am very surprised and over the moon. Maybe I have a bit more talent than I thought I did
My First Trophies!
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