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Monday 26 July 2010

Scottish XR2 Race Report - Rounds 7 & 8

A mixed weekend there but ultimately disappointing results. Despite a trouble free test on Thursday some more mechanical gremlins appeared on Saturday in testing. These continued into Sunday morning qualifying but with a clear few laps early in the session Barry managed to grab 9th on the grid. Some more parts were then swapped to take the car back to it's setup at Cadwell which was working relatively well. A penalty for Tim Sleigh dropped him to the back of the grid, putting Barry up to 8th.

Race 1 started well. Despite 7th placed Mike Strong getting the better start, Barry came out the first few corners in 7th, right on the tail for sixth place. This lasted till Clark corner when a new fault appeared giving the car terrible fuel surge problems through right hand corners (not good at a right handed circuit like Knockhill). Barry opted to stay out on track to try to score points but with the issue meaning no acceleration out of the turns Barry had to concede place after place as the alternative was an accident looking for somewhere to happen. The result put us 13th on the road.

Starting race 2 in 13th meant nothing to lose and the car was now back to running order. Barry made a reasonable start but the fast starting Findlay Adams got the run on Barry round the outside of Duffus on the opening lap. Barry and Findlay then chased down Steven Cumming and Tony Leese. After two laps Findlay got past Steven and on to Tony's tail. A forceful move from Findlay got him through at Clark but Tony ran wide letting Steven through too. This left Barry inches from Tony's back bumper on the run to the hairpin, where Barry pulled out at the last minute and slotted down the inside to take the place. Within a lap Barry was on Steven's tail and had a great three lap scrap for the position, coming close to passing on a number of occassions. Finally Barry pulled off a carbon copy of his move on Tony, getting the better run out of Clark, closing down and outbraking Steven into the hairpin. With only three laps remaining Barry pulled a gap to Steven and closed a little on Findlay Adams but that was all there was time for, so finishing 11th

Post race scrutineering saw Wayne McCauley disqualified for technical infringements, moving Barry up to 12th and 10th. Not the points haul we'd been hoping for but the car is still straight and we have a fair idea of where to look now to solve the running issues.