Sunday 19th September - Rounds 11 & 12

Race Report from rounds 11 & 12 of the Scottish XR2 Championship.  Two points finishes despite a new engine fault so damage limitation as far as the championship goes.

Testing on Saturday was promising with more new engine parts and the car performing much better.  Come Sunday morning the weather had taken a turn for the worse as it was soaking wet though with our engine issues this was a bit of a benefit to us.  Qualifying was almost trouble free with a hint of the problems to come and I qualified 7^th.  After a short break and some work to solve what seemed to be a fuel problem we went out for race one and as soon as the red lights went out it was clear the problem was not solved as the car spluttered it’s way off the line, losing us a couple of positions already.  We made up a position coming into Scotsman and attempted to hang on to the bunch but the issue only got worse as the race went on, eventually forcing me to short shift in an attempt to keep the car running without destroying the engine.  Still we lost some more places and eventually finished 11^th.

The break saw us change an awful lot of parts on the engine, sadly not the faulty part which is yet to be traced.  This meant race two was simply an exercise in finishing, but some incidents further up the field moved us up to 10^th.   

The championship has now been wrapped up, with Tim Sleigh's performance in race one enough to take the title with three races remaining.  Congratulations to Tim.

Summer Saturday Race Meeting

“Summer Saturday”...well it was a Saturday so it’s half right and the rain which threatened didn’t come to much.  I managed to get a good bit of space in qualifying and make the best of the short run but despite the space could only manage 11^th on the grid.

 

In race one the fast starting Greig Graham got the jump on me going into Duffus but I repassed him going into McIntyre’s as everyone took avoiding action whilst Russell Milloy used the whole track to gather up his rather lurid slide which started at Duffus!  This put me into a group of eight cars by the end of the lap all with designs on third.  No sooner had we completed the lap than Dave Colville and Alex Shaw came together on the exit of McIntyre’s.  Mike Strong collected Dave and the incident forced me into the gravel on the exit of the corner, in preference to being part of the accident losing a couple of places.  Four of us made our way past Alex Shaw on lap three before the Safety Car made it’s first appearance in XR2’s on lap four after Sandy Reid had a nasty roll a Duffus after an incident with Alex Shaw.  This broke up the field a fair bit as the Safety Car never picked up the leader, so on the restart there were four of us fighting it out for 8^th.  As the four of us battled Greig Graham and Wayne MacAuley came together on the exit of the hairpin with Wayne falling down the order.  This strung us out yet further and with the ST’s now making their way through the field there were no more opportunities to pass so we ended up 10^th.

 

In race two the fast starting Tony Leese got the jump at the start on myself and Greig.  I had a great opportunity to pass Greig at the hairpin along with Finlay Adams but the move ended up slowing me down to avoid running into anyone and I then set about making up the time.   As we started lap 4 Chris Philip made the best of his exit speed from the hairpin to pass me round the outside but then go over ambitious with a move on Greig taking them both out on at McIntyre’s.  Chris rejoined and in doing so ran into the side of my car, putting me off at the exit of McIntyre’s and losing me a number of positions.  Going into Duffus next tome round the yellow flag as being furiously waved and as everyone turned in, everyone spun.  A previous car had dumped some fluid on the track and the result was a spin for about every car in the field.  I got away lightly just landing in the gravel trap but poor Derek McDougal rolled end over end and Stephen Emslie got collected by Chris Philip.  This brought out the red flags whilst the marshals did a good job of clearing up the mess.  At the restart everyone was well behaved until we got to Clark’s, where Russell Milloy was pushed into a spin which bounced him off the tyres.  The safety car was immediately deployed bunching us up again.  After the safety car pulled in there were four of us again fighting, this time for 5^th.  The fight was short lived as the ST’s, closed right onto the back of the XR2 field by the safety car, immediately started making their way through the field and split us all up.  With Stephen Russell being disqualified for the move which ended Russell’s race we ended up 8^th.

 

Overall, a disappointing weekend for results, both races being spoiled by forced trips though the gravel and ST’s passing through the field.  The next race meeting is on Sunday 19^th September.  Our July meeting will be shown on Motors TV tomorrow night (Thursday 26^th August) at 7.05pm.

 

 

Round 9 & 10 Preview - Saturday 21st August

In a change to the usual Sunday race events, the next two rounds of the Scottish XR2 Championship are this Saturday.  Barry is now third in the championship and it's shaping up to be a heck of a fight for the runner up spot as any of the top ten could take it.  Tim Sleigh has a pretty solid lead and already is being touted as this years champion barring the worst luck that could possibly happen.  Despite some poorer results in the last three races expect him to be back at the sharp end.  Charlie Cope is second less than 20 points ahead of Barry, with Barry and the next four drivers being covered by less than ten points!  Saturday's entry list has 20 cars on the grid already with around seven ST's joining in the fun from the back of the grid.

Qualifying is at 8:45am with race 1 likely to be around 10:20am and race two around 1:30pm.